If the Russians hired some PR people, that would mean that the PR firm would have to register as foreign agents. Plus, they wanted people who understood the entire culture from all perspectives,and PR people charge for focusing on one aspect, like marketing, at a time. Marketing skills could be useful, but there is a lot more they would need to know. I would imagine that the Israelis have infiltrated the US with greater success to sell their cause to Americans better than anyone else, and I am sure that they get a lot of free advice from PR experts.
The latest ad campaign shows various recognizable sites from the Bible and then says "There's a little Israel in all of us." Quite impressive. Israel shows really impressive ads on US TV. And I do not deny that it is a very interesting tourist destination. Jerusalem is peddled as a particularly important destination (which it undeniably is) but nary a word about how the Romans pretty much erased it in 135 AD, and other than the Western Wall, there is nothing really standing from Jesus' time. There are many older cities in Turkey, Syria, Jordan and even in Israel itself that are a lot older than Jerusalem. The Bible mentions the destruction of Jerusalem as something that is GOING to happen,and never mentions anywhere that it actually DID happen. So we have all the evangelicals running about telling us that it is STILL going to happen. I suppose it might, but again, most preachers never get deep enough into actual history to tell us that yep, the Jews actually had a military Messiah (or maybe several, but the most famous was Simon bar Kokhba "son of a star"--guess which star) who actually threw the Romans out, ruled for three years, and lamentably was conquered by them. That pretty much lost him the title of Messiah. But still, he DID accomplish more in his lifetime than Jesus. Jesus just had better PR in Paul.
You can walk where Jesus walked, but you can't enter any buildings that he entered. I suppose some of the pavement remains from Jesus' time.
Good advertising always omits all the negatives (such as the Romans razing Jerusalem entirely) and emphasizes the positives (amazing how the Israelis always make a commercial that appeals to both Christians (many of whom see the final apocalyptic destruction of Jerusalem and the conversion of the Jews) and the Jews (who see Jerusalem as a place of symbolic triumph) alike. As I said, no one is better at PR.
