Israel must ditch its ineffective public diplomacy for new messaging methods - opinion

• Published date: 24 April 2024
• Author: ILAN BERMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Even so, the six months since the horrible events of October 7 have been a wake-up call. It would be an understatement to say that Israel has been caught off guard by the explosion of global anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment that followed Hamas's campaign of terror and the subsequent Gaza offensive

It has found itself unprepared for a global media environment where Hamas claims and statistics are treated uncritically, where Israeli communiques are scoffed at, and where foreign actors such as Russia and China help amplify disinformation that is intended to erode the Israeli position.

Simply put, Israel now finds itself not only in a physical fight against Hamas (and, increasingly, Iran itself), but in an informational one as well. Against this backdrop, a qualitatively new approach to winning global "hearts and minds" is required.

How can Israel salvage its public diplomacy?

Such a rethink starts with definitions. After all, Israeli hasbara isn't public diplomacy, per se. Rather, it derives from the Israeli word for "explaining." Implicit in this notion is the belief that, if only audiences could hear Israel's side of the story, they would invariably both understand it and embrace it.

But it's abundantly clear that isn't the case. In the contemporary global narrative, Israel has become defined as the aggressor, and no amount of "explaining" about the extent of Hamas atrocities or Israel's legitimate war aims is likely to change that perception – especially amid a protracted military campaign in which the enemy has managed to become a core source of information for a news-hungry global audience.

INSTEAD OF "explaining," therefore, Israel would do well to embrace a new approach to strategic communications built around speed, engagement, and influence.

Here, manpower matters. To be sure, Israel is a small country with real-world resource constraints. It simply doesn't have the finances or the workforce to field a robust public diplomacy apparatus. Even by that standard, however, Israel's investments in strategic communications to date leave much to be desired. Quite simply, in recent years Israel's government has prioritized other issues far above messaging, leaving it up to the Diaspora, entities like the Jewish Agency, and even private influencers to tell Israel's story.

To their credit, Israel's existing public diplomacy professionals have done what they can within these constraints. For instance, the Foreign Ministry's digital bureau has made...