The dual challenge behind Israel's public diplomacy campaign - opinion

• Published date: 14 March 2024
• Author: TOVA HERZL
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Having said that, hasbara faces a dual challenge: a shortage of means and lack of explicable policy. Israel's policy is not always clear and not everything can be explained. And what can, requires resources, meaning personnel and money

Along with antisemitism rearing its ugly global head since October 7, there are also many Arab and Muslim people and countries using their money and influence against Israel.

Let me start with who does hasbara. For years, Foreign Ministry budgets have been regularly slashed. Take what is considered the periphery of diplomatic activity. In the past, experts on development (water, agriculture, etc.) were an integral part of Israel's diplomatic staff in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. No more. Israel often sent cultural attaches abroad, to introduce Israel's culture and science to their host country. Shai Agnon's Nobel Prize in literature was promoted by Yehuda Ya'ari, a prize-winning Israeli author who was posted to Sweden as a cultural attache. Now the task is usually just one of the many responsibilities of a junior diplomat or falls to an available spouse of an emissary.

That pales in comparison with the closure of diplomatic missions and ongoing cuts to staff and to operating budgets, forcing many missions to deal with several countries on a shoestring. Thus, Israel has diplomatic relations with 42 of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a quarter of UN member states. These relations are conducted out of 11 embassies, less than a third of the number Israel maintained at the peak of relations in the continent, and more importantly – about half the number of offices that the Palestinian Authority (PA) currently has in the region.

Many missions, including consulates-general in the United States, which are responsible for an average of five states (with tens of millions of people, media, academia, and Jewish communities) are staffed by two diplomats, one of them also in charge of consular and administrative activities.

But if unofficial players such as Jewish organizations or social media influencers can fill some of the aforementioned gaps, they are not trained for "what needs explaining."

I will avoid the ongoing situation, which is still playing out among high emotions, and resort to the topic which for decades has been at the center of international attention regarding Israel, the future of the territories it has controlled since the Six Day War in 1967.

For argument's sake, let us assume that some have been convinced...