Anglos offer the perfect hasbara for media battlefield - opinion

• Published date: 29 March 2024
• Author: GIL HOFFMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made news when speaking about a different draft. When he briefed a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Channel 12 reported that he was asked whether public diplomacy efforts in the United States were hindered by a lack of funding

"It is not only a matter of money," he told the MKs, according to the report. "It is because there simply are no people. You are surrounded by people who do not know how to string one word to another [in English]. We need to find people who can."

The Prime Minister's Office released a statement afterward clarifying that he told MKs that he "appreciates the work of his staff and the National Public Diplomacy Directorate that operates under his direction."

But Netanyahu did not deny his call for more English speakers to enter the fray and join the fight for Israel on the media battlefield. Regardless of what you think of Netanyahu and his handling of the current war, that call should be magnified.

There are actually tens of thousands of native English speakers in Israel, including most of the readers of this newspaper. Allocating significant funding to recruit them could provide a huge boost to Israeli public diplomacy at a crucial time.

There are also plenty who would be willing to volunteer and do it for free, such as students, retirees, and other patriots. American Jews who want to help from home could also be officially integrated into the effort.

A formidable army of English speakers who can string together plenty of words could be drafted. Among them could be future stars in Israeli public diplomacy.

Government spokesman Eylon Levy was relatively unknown before he volunteered himself for the public diplomacy effort immediately after the Oct. 7 massacre. He has been suspended for questionable reasons, but the next hasbara hero could soon be raising eyebrows.

SPECIAL EFFORT could be made to recruit diverse spokespeople, including more women, Sephardim, Ethiopian immigrants, Arabs, Druze, and members of the LGBTQ community.

There is considerable risk involved. Novices are more prone to make mistakes than veteran spokespeople. But practice makes perfect.

Levy began daily media briefings with questions, which at their peak were broadcast live by top international news networks. Without him, the quality of both the media outlets that attend the briefings and the questions asked have gone down, perhaps because his replacements lack his gravitas.

But it...