Gabriel Rosenberg
Israel is losing the information war not because it lacks truth or facts, but because it has failed to build the systems, leadership and long-term strategy required to turn them into influence.
For decades, Israel approached public diplomacy as a reaction function, not a strategy. Explain during crises. Rebut after attacks. Amplify voices when criticism peaks. The underlying belief was that clarity and volume would eventually produce understanding.
It did not.
The consequences have been devastating. Antisemitism has entered the mainstream, reshaping politics, culture and campuses across the West. Jews and Israelis are harassed, persecuted and attacked worldwide as hatred is normalized and excused.
Against this backdrop, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar deserves immense credit for securing 2.35 billion shekels for public diplomacy as part of the 2026 budget. It is an unprecedented increase and a rare opportunity to correct decades of strategic neglect.
However, early indications suggest that Israel may repeat a familiar mistake: spending vast sums to rent short-term attention instead of building long-term influence. Influencers and delegations have their place, but they are not a strategy. Paying influencers buys visibility for a moment and then disappears once the check clears. Delegations can create genuine allies, but they are expensive, limited in scale and incapable of shaping the mass public sentiment that ultimately drives elections, media ecosystems and political culture.
This is advertising, not power.
Influence does not come from explanation or rebuttal; it comes from identity. People do not decide how they feel about Israel by weighing facts. They decide whether Israel feels like “us” or “them.” Once that line is drawn, facts are filtered to fit it.
This is why decades of hasbara have failed — talking about genocide, even to deny it, anchors the association in people’s minds. As a communications expert once put it: “If I come to you and say I am not a pedophile, would you let me babysit your kids?”
Arguing inside a frame chosen by Israel’s enemies keeps Israel trapped there. Effective public diplomacy does not begin with argument. It begins with belonging.
That requires telling Israel’s story in ways that allow audiences to see themselves in it — meaning, not only through war or conflict, but through values, dilemmas, creativity and aspirations that feel familiar. Messaging must be emotionally resonant, locally tailored and guided by data rather than instinct, which requires trained leaders on the ground who understand their own societies far better than any central office ever could.
Messaging alone, however, is not enough.
Identity becomes influence only when people carry it forward. This is Israel’s central strategic failure. Instead of systematically cultivating future leaders, Israel has focused on persuading audiences after their political and moral frameworks are already formed.
Youth is not just another audience; it is when identities and leadership trajectories are formed. By adulthood, changing them is costly and rarely effective. Israel has largely lost Generation Z. Pouring resources into persuading an audience already saturated with hostile narratives delivers diminishing returns.
The strategic priority, then, must be the generations that follow. This is where Israel should invest its public diplomacy budget — not in borrowed voices but in building a structured, long-term global leadership network, spanning high school, university and early professional life within Israel and abroad, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. Participation at any stage must combine three elements at once: a grounded relationship to Israel’s story and moral clarity; practical leadership capability; and real responsibility.
Leaders are not formed by absorbing content or completing training programs, but by being trusted with real responsibility and given the chance to make a difference. That means giving participants meaningful mandates early, scaled to their age, experience and context, and then supporting them through mentorship, peer networks and professional guidance.
Even very young leaders can carry real responsibility when expectations are clear and support is present. Give people challenges that matter, and many will rise to them quickly, delivering real impact.
Over time, this creates what Israel currently lacks: a durable, self-renewing ecosystem of leaders embedded across sectors and societies. Not activists waiting for instructions, but independent actors who carry Israel’s story naturally and credibly.
This is how influence scales — not through viral moments but through individuals moving into business, education, politics, culture, technology and civil society over decades, already confident in their relationship to Israel and capable of building institutions, setting agendas and driving long-term change within their societies.
When this leadership network is paired with a professional public-diplomacy infrastructure producing coordinated, real-time content, briefing materials and digital platforms — and then distributed through the network, Jewish communities, NGOs and allies around the world — it can replace today’s fragmented efforts with a more coherent system. Only then does public diplomacy move from renting attention to building influence.
Israel now faces a clear choice. It can spend billions chasing visibility in a hostile information environment, or it can invest in the slow work of building influence by shaping identity early and empowering leaders to carry Israel’s story as their own.
One approach buys moments. The other builds power.
This budget will determine whether Israel remains trapped in reaction or begins shaping the future on its own terms.
Gabriel Rosenberg is the former director of the Jewish Diplomatic Corps of the World Jewish Congress, a global network of 400 Jewish leaders across 60 countries advocating for and supporting Jewish communities worldwide.
