Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The world of publicity is never far from “Brand Israel” and this week pre-Shabbat a number of interesting stories in the mainstream media:

• The Mossad, Israel’s world renowned secret service is naturally known for secrecy.  Amazingly, this week Meir Dagan who was the head of the organization for 8 years until retiring in January 2011 has recently made worldwide headlines for saying “attacking Iran would be a mistake.”

• Meanwhile, an international consulting firm based in Zurich, Arcanum (Latin for “secret”) announced yesterday that Dagan is their newest consultant. One wonders in light of the statements from Dagan’s new employer if Dagan is simply interested in earning funds – for a company that has donated handsomely to politicians. “Economic interests also underlie the firm’s sudden openness” said Thomas Landgraf, spokesperson for Arcanum. Landgraf added: “Word of mouth publicity is important to the firm, but occasional media presence doesn’t hurt.” Could a public relations agency for Arcanum be driving media awareness ? (It’s most certainly not us…)

• Shameless self-promotion for Shimon Peres who is making a trip to Facebook headquarters to open his Facebook page – Mark Zuckerberg is personally helping Peres set up his page.  I suppose it’s a good thing to have such a high profile CEO with the President of Israel – Albeit a little odd that the President of start-up nation needs help with such a task.

• The Palestinian Authority is angry over Israeli leaks regarding the recent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Jordan, and Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said he filed a complaint with the Quartet members – about leaks by the Israeli government.  He says “The leaks are intended for public relations.” Naturally, PR campaigns are part and parcel of any government activities.

Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5WPR, a leading NY PR Firm. He is author of “For Immediate Release”, which is available here.