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The Failure of Israeli Hasbara and Strategic PR
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
The horrors of October 7 initially earned Israel a tremendous wave of empathy and support from the international community. But after two years of bloody war, that support has evaporated. The West has reverted to its old comfort zone: recognizing a Palestinian state, applying mounting political and economic pressure on Israel, and even entertaining threats by international bodies and cultural organizations to boycott or expel Israel altogether.
The victim of October 2023 has once again become the outcast.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu built his career as a master of rhetoric and a brilliant marketer. Even his harshest critics used to admit his talent for shaping messages. Precisely for that reason, Israel’s failure in public diplomacy is even more striking. Netanyahu, who began his career as a salesman for a furniture company, should have internalized the first rule of marketing: the message must be tailored to the audience.
In practice, however, Netanyahu has chosen, when speaking to the West, to cry “antisemitism” and to compare recent diplomatic moves to medieval blood libels or the poisoning of the wells slander.
Such rhetoric may strengthen the spirit of the Jewish people and stir Jewish hearts worldwide, but it does little to convince European leaders to take decisions even marginally less hostile toward Israel. In the Middle East, meanwhile, the Prime Minister has tried to project messages of reconciliation, but it is often unclear whether his words are directed at Arab audiences, the Likud Central Committee, or potential voters.
The simple truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be stated from every podium in the world: it is the Palestinians who have consistently rejected every offer for peace that would lead to a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish one.
From the British commissions of the 1930s, through the 1947 UN Partition Plan, to Camp David, Taba, and Annapolis, the pattern has been the same: a relentless refusal to accept Israel in any borders or to declare the conflict over. That is what must be hammered home to Western audiences — not medieval blood libels, but the modern history of Palestinian rejectionism.
From the UN podium, Prime Minister Netanyahu recently declared that recognizing a Palestinian state would be “a reward” to the “worst antisemites on earth” and “madness.” These soundbites may grab headlines in Israel and resonate with Jewish historical memory, but they do not translate into the practical language of European diplomacy or public opinion.
Instead of slogans, he could have pointed to Mahmoud Abbas himself, who continues to wear a key-shaped pin — a symbol of the so called “right of return,” which in reality represents the Palestinian goal of flooding Israel with millions of descendants of refugees, effectively ending the Jewish state. This alone should shatter the world’s illusions about Palestinian intentions, and expose their ideological commitment to refusal.
And when Netanyahu told the UN that “Europe is doing something wrong,” he squandered the chance to demand concrete conditions: if Europe insists on recognition, it must at least require Palestinians to renounce the so-called “right of return” and recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. That would make such initiatives less one sided and less destructive.
The failure is just as evident in the Arab world. Instead of delivering a clear message in Arabic — that Israel is not someone they want to fight, but whom they want to make peace with — Israeli hasbara has neglected this front almost entirely. Yet history shows that when Israel speaks the language of strength and partnership, Arab states respond. Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have already proven as much.
In today’s world, a narrative often matters more than reality. Israel cannot afford a hasbara strategy that speaks only inward. To the West, it must present the undeniable fact that Palestinians have rejected every compromise since the 1930s, not rely solely on cries of “antisemitism.” To the Middle East, it must speak in Arabic with a language of power and strategic partnership.
Ultimately, Israel’s central struggle is not only about borders and security, but also about shaping international perception. Those who understand this can swiftly transform the story of Jewish victimhood into a narrative of strength and justice. Those who ignore it will leave Israel, once again, as the “outcast child in the classroom.”
Itamar Tzur is the author of The Invention of the Palestinian Narrative, and an Israeli scholar specializing in Middle Eastern history. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Jewish History and a Master’s degree with honors in Middle Eastern studies. As a senior member of the “Forum Kedem for Middle Eastern Studies and Public Diplomacy,” he leverages his academic expertise to deepen understanding of regional dynamics and historical contexts.
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Italy’s Navy to Quit Gaza Flotilla as Risk of Israeli Attack Looms
Sailing boats, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel’s naval blockade, sail off Koufonisi islet, Greece, Sept. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis
Italy’s navy will stop following the international flotilla heading to Gaza once it gets within 150 nautical miles (278 km) of the shore, the Italian defense ministry said on Tuesday.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, consisting of more than 40 civilian boats carrying parliamentarians, lawyers, and activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, aims to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has been ruled by the terrorist group Hamas for nearly two decades, and deliver some aid to the Palestinian enclave.
Once the convoy reaches the 150 nautical miles limit, the Italian frigate accompanying it will stop, “as communicated several times in recent days,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ship will issue two warnings to activists, with the second and final one foreseen at around 00:00 GMT, when the flotilla is expected to get within the stated distance, the statement added.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Italian spokeswoman for the flotilla, Maria Elena Delia, said that activists had been informed about the government’s plans to have the navy ship stop and turn back to avoid “a diplomatic incident” with Israel.
She said the flotilla had no intention of heeding Italy’s warnings not to get closer to the shore.
Italy and Spain deployed navy vessels last week to assist the flotilla, after activists said it was hit by drones armed with stun grenades and irritants in international waters off Greece, but without any intention to engage militarily.
Delia said activists were bracing for another strike in the coming hours. “Israel will probably attack us tonight, because all the signals point to this happening,” she said in a video on Instagram.
Israel did not respond to flotilla accusations that it was behind last week’s attacks, but it has vowed to use any means to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza, arguing that its blockade is legal as part of its war against Hamas terrorists who openly seek Israel’s destruction.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said he expects flotilla boats to be intercepted in the open sea and activists to face arrest.
On Tuesday, Crosetto made a “last appeal” to flotilla members to accept a compromise proposal to drop aid in Cyprus and avoid a confrontation with Israeli forces. Flotilla representatives have repeatedly refused the offer.
Israel began its Gaza offensive after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages.
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US Begins Deporting Hundreds of Iranians After Rare Deal With Tehran
USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, Sept. 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
The first group of about 400 Iranians expected to be deported from the US under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown were due to land in Qatar on Tuesday before flying to Tehran, a US and an Iranian official said.
The group included both convicted criminals and people who had entered the country illegally, said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The transfer marks an unusual moment of coordination between two nations at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is purely civilian but Washington asserts is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.
The Iranian official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, played down the idea of any political deal with the US, which joined Israeli air strikes on Iran and its nuclear facilities in June. The matter was consular, not political, the official said.
CALL TO RESPECT IRANIANS‘ RIGHTS
The Iranian foreign ministry’s director general for parliament affairs, Hossein Noushabadi, said the US was “planning to deport around 400 Iranians, most of whom entered the country illegally, in line with the new anti-immigrant approach of the US government.”
“In the first step, they decided to deport 120 Iranians who entered the US illegally, most of whom through Mexico,” he told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Noushabadi called on Washington to respect the rights of Iranian migrants in the United States.
The first group of 120 would reach Iran in the next one or two days, he said.
A US-chartered flight took off from Louisiana on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Qatar late on Tuesday so the deportees could be transferred to a Tehran-bound flight, the US official said.
The White House and the US State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said it had not been consulted by the authorities and could not comment on the specifics of any case.
“In general terms, states must ensure access to asylum, due process, and respect for the principle of non-refoulement, meaning that people in need of international protection must not be returned to a place where they face risk of harm,” UNHCR said.
TRUMP’S DEPORTATION PLANS
Some of the Iranians had volunteered to leave after being in detention centers for months, and some had not, according to The New York Times, which first reported the deportations.
Noushabadi was quoted as saying: “Some [returnees] had residence permits but due to reasons stated by the US immigration office they were included in the list. Of course, their own consent was obtained for their return.”
Trump plans to deport a record number of people living in the US without legal status, after high illegal border crossings under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
However, his administration has struggled to increase deportation levels, even as it has created new avenues to send migrants to countries other than their own.
Among those avenues was an agreement with Panama in February that saw dozens of people from different countries, including Iran, deported there.
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Italy Poll Finds 15% See Attacks on Jewish People as ‘Justifiable’
A protester uses a pole to break a window at Milano Centrale railway station, during a demonstration that is part of a nationwide “Let’s Block Everything” protest in solidarity with Gaza, with activists also calling for a halt to arms shipments to Israel, in Milan, Italy, Sept. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Around 15 percent of Italians consider physical attacks on Jewish people “entirely or fairly justifiable,” according to a survey published on Tuesday, as protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza continue across the country.
Some 18 percent of those interviewed also believe antisemitic graffiti on walls and other public spaces is legitimate, according to the survey, conducted on Sept. 24-26 by the pollster SWG among a national sample of 800 adults.
Roughly a fifth of respondents said it was reasonable to attack professors who expressed pro-Israeli positions or for businesses to reject Israeli customers, after some episodes were reported by Italian media.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long complained of growing antisemitism in European cities, in the Western press and social media, and in elite US universities.
Italy, scarred by 1938 antisemitic statutes under fascism, has laws punishing racial discrimination and hate crimes. The SWG poll showed that 85 percent of respondents believe attacking Jews is “not very or not at all justifiable.”
Last week, protesters in Milan and other Italian cities clashed with police, while dockworkers blocked some ports in solidarity with Palestinians, saying they wanted to stop Italy being used as a staging post for weapons bound for Israel.
The SWG poll, however, said a majority of Italians disapproved of the clashes with police and also the attempt to shut the ports.
PM MELONI IS STRONG SUPPORTER OF ISRAEL
The demonstrators want the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza. Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during a surprise invasion of southern Israel.
Meloni’s government has been a steadfast supporter of Israel and refused this month to follow other G7 nations such as Britain, Canada, and France in recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Rome says recognition should come only after all Israeli hostages are freed and Hamas is excluded from any future government role.
Last week, addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu accused those countries that have recognized Palestinian statehood of sending a message that “murdering Jews pays off,” a reference to Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.
The SWG poll also found that a majority of those interviewed backed an international aid flotilla mission seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and deliver supplies. It includes Italian activists and lawmakers.