Hasbara

Hostile powers don’t invent a nation’s weaknesses; they find the ones it already has, fund them, give them prestige, and push them through the institutions that decide how a society sees itself. 

The problem may not be that the world lacks information about the Jews, but rather that the Jewish world has forgotten to inspire loyalty, admiration, participation, and belief.

We Israelis and our supporters have wrung our hands over alleged hasbara failings for decades. But we owe it to ourselves to recognize that part of the alleged failures aren’t failures at all.

Since October 7, Israel has been fighting not only a military war, but also a political and diplomatic one. A government minister who repeatedly sabotages that effort is a liability.

“We did our own flotilla,” said Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad. "We send a clear message to all the ‘terror flotilla’ activists. You are not welcome here."

Traditional public diplomacy is under strain as polarization reshapes how Israel is understood abroad.

A historic budget shift has been made, but without structural reform that includes domestic considerations and not just the international priorities, Israel’s narrative war will remain fragmented.

It took the international responses to the October 7 massacre and the vicious antisemitism, the horrors, and the deaths for Israel to mature.

A viral barista, a pro-Palestinian Oscar film defeated, and rising US polls: Israel's image is improving, but loose talk from Israeli ministers could undo it all.

Jews do not control the narrative. Like every other community, they participate in it.