Thoughts on Israel's Image Problems

Israeli ambassador Michael Oren recently wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal that attributes Israel's now-tattered reputation to efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state.  This piece in Foreign Policy disagrees and instead offers these other possible factors:

But I just don't buy the argument that Israel's image has eroded principally because of a dedicated campaign to delegitimize it. 

Three other factors drive Israel's very bad PR: the realities of nation-building, the image of the asymmetry of power, and Israel's own actions, which, like those of so many other countries, value short-term tactics over long-term strategy.

What do you think?  Oh, and the FP bit also gives us our quotation of the day:

Israeli founding father David Ben Gurion reflected the mood and mindset perfectly: It doesn't matter what the goyim say; what matters is what the Jews do. 

It's as true now as then as ever.