In a period of rising media-fueled antisemitism, Israel is facing a public relations disaster

Several opinion articles in Hebrew news agencies over the past couple weeks have called attention to the growing public relations disaster that Israel faces worldwide. 

Part of the turn against Israel in public opinion can be traced to narratives regarding the Gaza war in the international media, as demonstrated in the recent series of stories about the Gaza food shortages in which pictures of children with congenital diseases were used to illustrate an alleged Israeli policy of imposed starvation. Not only did the international news media knowingly use photos of children with prior medical conditions, in some cases they deliberately left out information regarding the children's conditions, and in others deliberately cropped or blurred out healthy siblings in the background. 

After pressure from the Israel Foreign Ministry, along with online activism, The New York Times eventually released an editorial statement of correction. However, this statement neither admitted the deliberate misuse of the picture and withholding of critical information, the editorial statement was issued on a social media account with fewer than 100,000 followers, while the offending story was posted to an account with over 55 million followers. 

Now however, senior officials, and not just Israeli correspondents and analysts are admitting that Israel’s public relations is in trouble. In a recent article on Ynet News, a senior official from the ministry admitted, “Our situation in hasbara (the Hebrew word used for public relations messaging) in the world has never been so bad.” 

The officials who spoke with Ynet admitted that the Israeli government has not prioritized public relations. 

“We are simply not present, there is no Israeli hasbara. Everyone is against us - BBC, The Times, CNN - and there is no threat of lawsuits or contact with regulators from our side - we have not seen anything so terrible in Israeli propaganda," the officials said. 

They wondered how the Israeli government could take so long to respond to allegations of a famine in Gaza. 

“How did we get to a place where starvation plays such a role and we don't even respond to it?” they asked. 

The officials cited the lack of action on the part of ambassadors and embassy staff around the world. That opinion was echoed by Shlomo Shamir, correspondent for U.S. affairs at Maariv in an opinion piece on Monday morning, where he drew attention to the fact that the two most senior Israeli officials in New York are practically absent in terms of media and public diplomacy. 

Shamir noted that UN Ambassador Danny Danon has given fiery speeches at the UN, but noted that neither Danon’s office, nor the Consular General in New York have official, active spokespersons, despite those positions previously being filled. 

Former Prime Minster Naftali Bennett also spoke recently of the lack of public diplomacy in Israel’s international messaging. 

“There is no public diplomacy for the State of Israel today,” Bennett said in a video released two weeks ago. “Nothing. Israel today is defeated on the battlefield of international consciousness. Today it is already a fact, as it were, that Israel is committing genocide, genocide in Gaza. That's how they think in Europe, that's how they think in many parts of the United States.” 

Bennett called the situation “unbelievable,” and called for the re-establishment of public diplomacy as a matter of national interest. 

“We are in a critical war, but without an army,” Bennett explained. "In the war against Gaza we have the IDF, in the war against Iran we have the Mossad and the IDF, in the war for hearts and minds there is ostensibly a body called the National Information Headquarters, but today it is people with jobs, the rooms there are empty, there is no head of the information system, this is unbelievable.” 

Still other analysts and correspondents noted that Israeli government minsters are complicating matters by making inflammatory statements regarding the situation in Gaza. Israel Hayom correspondent Sal Amargi wrote recently, “When Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israel Katz take pride in the destruction in Gaza, they are destroying Israel's standing in the world.” 

Amargi said that Israel’s image in the world is a matter of national security as well. 

“Image is an important component of national security,” he wrote. “A country depends not only on its fighter jets, but also on its relations with the world, on their votes in international forums, on the possibility of buying or selling weapons and any other merchandise – as well as on educational, technological and tourism cooperation.” 

While Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has been an outspoken defender of Israel both online and within diplomatic circles, these Israeli writers argue that Israel needs a functioning office of public diplomacy to engage the media storm of negative press around Israel, taking a more proactive role in answering Israel’s critics in the media and online.

Additionally, while the Israeli government recalled several former staffers from the IDF Spokesperson’s Office and the Prime Minister’s Office – and hired additional personnel in the early days of the war – many were released after just a few months, leading to a noticeable drop in official voices representing and defending Israel in the eyes of the world.

Analyst Nevo Cohen, writing for Channel 13, expressed it thus, “During the 7 Front War, Israel proved its intelligence power (excluding the enormous fiasco of the morning of October 7), the power of its sophistication and creativity, the precision of its attack cells and the uniqueness of its air defense systems.” 

"If only we understood that there is another arena, no less important and dangerous than Iranian ballistic missiles or the Radwan force on the border, and that is the arena of global consciousness,” he wrote. “If only a fraction of the justified investments in building our militaristic capabilities had been invested in building a consciousness task force, then Israel would be in a completely different place in the face of the waves of fake news and incitement around the world.”