Since the outbreak of the Iron Swords War, the State of Israel has invested enormous efforts in the global battle for public opinion. Yet, at least for now, those efforts are suffering a crushing defeat in the face of an unprecedented and toxic wave of anti-Israel hostility and antisemitism sweeping streets around the world.
One painful indication of this dramatic shift is the way extremist slogans have become part of the legitimate mainstream. In the past, chants such as "From the River to the Sea" were considered completely taboo in Western public discourse. Today, by contrast, they are heard openly at mass demonstrations and receive support from some of the most senior politicians and mainstream opinion leaders.
The practical meaning of such calls is not political compromise or an effort to advance a two-state solution between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is an explicit demand for the disappearance of the State of Israel and the erasure of the eight million Israelis who live there.
These verbal attacks do not remain confined to rhetoric. They translate into serious and direct harm to Jewish communities in the West. Since Oct. 7, 2023, Diaspora Jews have experienced a dramatic and alarming rise in antisemitic incidents, both physical and verbal. The increase amounts to hundreds of percentage points and, in its scale and severity, has not been seen since the 1930s, the decade in which the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany.
This harsh reality has forced many Jews, as well as Israeli travelers, to carefully conceal their identities in public and avoid carrying or wearing anything that might identify them. At the same time, an overt wave of institutional boycotts against Israel is expanding. Academic institutions, sports organizations, cultural bodies and sister-city projects around the world are unilaterally severing official ties with their Israeli counterparts.
This bleak situation persists despite the vast resources Israel and its supporters devote to public diplomacy, and despite the fact that the reality on the ground is completely different from the way it is portrayed in the West. Time and again, the Israel Defense Forces and official Israeli public diplomacy bodies present what they say is conclusive evidence refuting false accusations of the deliberate killing of children, women and elderly people, while stressing that in 99% of cases, full responsibility for civilian deaths and environmental damage lies with the Hamas terrorist organization.
Yet these factual explanations run into an impenetrable wall of indifference. Many of the world's leading media outlets blindly adopt, without scrutiny or skepticism, the narrative promoted by Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel's other enemies. In many cases, there is serious reason to fear that this is not merely journalistic negligence, but deliberate and malicious disregard intended to further inflame hatred against Israel.
The public diplomacy weapon Israel has neglected: The Bible
Faced with this impermeable wall of hatred, it is easy to succumb to despair and conclude that no Israeli argument will make any difference. But that would be a strategic mistake.
The Jewish people possess an immensely powerful public diplomacy tool that, for some inexplicable reason, we are reluctant even to mention: the Bible, the Book of Books, which forms part of the moral and historical foundation of Western civilization and of the Christianity that has profoundly shaped it.
Israel's founding fathers did, in the Declaration of Independence, define the inseparable connection between the people of Israel and their land, placing the Book of Books at the moral and historical foundation of the return to Zion. In practice, however, Israeli public diplomacy today relies almost exclusively on security and tactical arguments.
Omitting the deepest foundation for our existence in this land dramatically weakens our case. With our own hands, we are surrendering the strongest argument available to explain to the world why we are here, allowing our enemies to portray our return as a colonialist project or Israel as an apartheid state.
The reluctance to invoke biblical arguments probably stems from a deep internal fear of engaging with the spiritual and historical dimensions of our national identity. Incorporating the Bible into Israel's public diplomacy requires us first, as a people and as a state, to clarify our own relationship with Jewish faith and with the spiritual values that have sustained us.
History shows that the faith of our forefathers, which preserved the Jewish people through nearly 2,000 years of exile, was among the central elements that the founders of Zionism sought to distance themselves from. At the time, the prevailing view was that only a total rebellion against, and rupture with, the history of exile would make it possible to rebuild a national home in the land of Israel.
Although the pioneers themselves still drew inspiration from the Bible and felt deeply connected to it, over the years the revolt against Jewish history not only erased much of the memory of exile, but also substantially eroded the very ideological foundation on which we rely as a nation. Yet it is precisely the Book of Books that constitutes the most fundamental and formative basis of our existence. Used intelligently in Israel's public diplomacy efforts, it could help stem a significant portion of the waves of hatred directed against us.
Of course, hatred of Israel is an ancient and chronic affliction that will always find a foothold somewhere in the world. Nevertheless, the reliance of the Western world, and of the Muslim world as well, on the Bible creates a basic obligation that is difficult to ignore. When we present our historical and spiritual right to this land through the Book of Books, which is sacred to them as well, we will place a serious obstacle in the path of our enemies and make it more difficult for them to ignite and fan the flames of hatred against us.
