Executive Summary

Israel’s Image: Situation Assessment

Two years after a terrorist attack of unprecedented scope on its citizens, Israel finds itself isolated in a manner which threatens its international standing, national security, fundamental legitimacy and the security of Jewish communities around the world. Despite major strategic achievements in Israel’s multi-front conflict in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and Syria, the failure of Israel’s strategic communications threatens these gains. Israel is perceived in many quarters of Western opinion as an aggressive country acting contrary to international law, and by some even as a pariah state.

Israel’s isolation is reflected in a profound decline in US and European public opinion and erosion of its standing within the American political system. Israel faces overt and covert boycott processes in academia, the cultural sphere and the economy and confronts an aggressive legal attack culminating in the charge of genocide before the International Court of Justice and the issuance of arrest warrants against its senior officials. All these are marked by a sharp rise in antisemitism, physical attacks against Jewish communities worldwide and the undermining of their security.

The purpose of this policy paper is to analyze the policy failures and systemic shortcomings during the Gaza war (Swords of Iron) which contributed to this deterioration and continue even at present to harm Israel’s image.

The primary policy failure stemmed from the prolongation of the war without a clearly stated political objective. In the absence of clarity regarding the goals of the fighting and explanation of the destruction and loss of life in the Gaza Strip resultant from IDF operations, the international community interpreted the government’s intentions through the extreme statements of some ministers—as a campaign of revenge against all Palestinians.

The main operational and organizational failure stemmed from the lack of unified management of Israel’s public diplomacy effort, primarily due to non-appointment of a head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate and the deep politicization of wartime messaging, which was often subordinated to Israel’s internal politics. This politicization prevented a proactive narrative that could have helped Israel in the international arena. These collective failures led to the severe neglect of the international media, poor handling and defeat on social media, and flawed management and communication of the humanitarian aid effort.

Immediate Required Steps

The Israeli government must take immediate steps to stop the hemorrhaging of international support and confront Israel’s image crisis:

• Appoint Head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate—to rebuild the national public diplomacy system as an authoritative body capable of managing the effort to restore Israel’s image. An apolitical senior professional with strong media presence in English and Hebrew needs to take up the budgetary and leadership reigns of Israel’s public diplomacy apparatus, to design and implement a national recovery plan which will guide all government bodies and ministries.
• Initiate public diplomacy campaign to combat the genocide charge — The decision of the International Court of Justice will impact Israel’s image for the coming decade and hence Israel’s defense must be seen as a national project. A ruling against Israel will negatively impact Jewish communities worldwide and damage Israel’s ability to function internationally. Alongside the work of an expert and charismatic legal team, Israel’s defense effort must include a strong public relations campaign and robust research staff using all available resources to prove Israel’s innocence before the ICJ and in the court of world opinion. The genocide charge is weak and specious, but Israel may lose its case if the hostile political agenda attempting to influence the court is not adequately countered.
• Gather the leadership of the Jewish People and Israel’s allies to meet the legitimacy crisis —Israel and its allies need each other in the current threat environment. The President of Israel should convene an emergency summit at the President’s Residence, inviting senior Jewish and Christian, cultural, intellectual and business leadership and talents to establish a joint framework and formulate a comprehensive plan to repel the attack on Israel’s fundamental legitimacy.

Comprehensive Work Plan to Reinvigorate Israel’s Public Diplomacy

The Israeli government needs to adopt and fund a comprehensive, integrative work plan to repair its strategic communications and address the legitimacy crisis in all critical areas. The concluding section of this policy paper presents a detailed roadmap and in-depth recommendations for:

• Essential Israel public diplomacy structural reform
• Renewed proactive engagement with international media
• Enhanced civil society cooperation and use of innovative technology to create an effective social media strategy
• Steps to overcome Israel’s isolation at elite universities and in the academy
• Establishment of a dedicated broadcast authority for Arabic and Persian language outreach
• Program to deepen solidarity with the American Jewish community and Jewish communities worldwide
• Joint initiative of the Jewish people and pro-Israel Christians to defend Israel’s international standing and the legitimacy of the Zionist idea.

Note: This document was written prior to the outbreak of Operation Roaring Lion. The image challenges facing Israel in the context of the current conflict with Iran differ in type from those manifested during the Gaza war. While Israel was accused of deliberately starving Gaza’s population and committing genocide during the war against Hamas, it is now accused of dragging the United States into a costly and dangerous war that does not align with American national interests and of exerting excessive influence on the US administration.

The difficulties Israel confronts in addressing these new image challenges – despite extraordinary military achievement and the close battlefield alliance with the United States -underscore the deficiencies in Israel’s public diplomacy and reinforce the analysis presented in this paper and the urgent need to realize the policy recommendations herein.