Hasbara Doesn’t Work: Israel Needs A New Form Of Messaging
Instead of hasbara, Israel would do well to embrace a new approach to strategic communications built around speed, engagement, and influence.
Instead of hasbara, Israel would do well to embrace a new approach to strategic communications built around speed, engagement, and influence.
While Moscow claims that it wants to replace the “rules-based international order” with a fairer system for all, Russia’s day-to-day behavior seems more appropriate for a rules-free system—one where right is determined simply by muscle and the nerve to use it.
If the Biden administration is intent on keeping the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in place, it would do well to make its existence contingent on a meaningful crackdown against Hezbollah.
Israel and the United States cannot afford to dismiss Iran’s escalatory strike on Saturday as a mere demonstration.
In tandem with its military offensive against Hamas, however, Israel has experienced a deeper strategic shift. A sea change is now taking place in Israel’s approach to security affairs, informed by the errors and miscalculations that made the atrocities of October 7th possible.
Iran is making a serious play for Sudan, and it merits attention from Washington.
Holding back support of aid to Ukraine for fear of worse to come from Russia is a surefire way to ensure that Moscow presses its advantage and engages in still more rogue behavior.
The growing demonization of Israel is not unstoppable.
Cumulatively, these factors will help determine what lies ahead for the Palestinians. But if Team Biden ignores them in favor of quick fixes, or worse still, empty pandering to its constituents, it will only end up perpetuating their misery.
It stands to reason that the sooner the House of Saud launches a serious campaign to convince its own subjects rapprochement with Israel is in their long term interest, the better off the Kingdom will be.
The March 22 attack in Moscow may be a potential portent of things to come. Russia’s Mideast policy has given foreign Islamist militants several excuses for conducting murderous attacks, and Russia’s Muslim minority groups are feeling alienated from, and sometimes hostile to, the prevailing political order.
Rather than part company with reality, U.S. officials and opinion leaders should embrace it. Long-term Israeli-Palestinian peace requires, among other things, a destroyed Hamas, an overhauled Palestinian Authority, and a spirit of co-existence that’s nurtured among the Palestinian people.
The Kremlin, in other words, isn't interested in a negotiated settlement that establishes a new modus vivendi between Moscow and Kyiv. Instead, more than two years into the current conflict, it's never been clearer that the fight between Russia and Ukraine is a life-or-death struggle over identity, independence and indeed Ukraine's very existence.
The app gives the Chinese Communist Party its greatest asymmetric advantage over the U.S.
The conflict once called the “War on Terror” has well and truly returned.
Beijing is already planning to send its first manned mission to the Moon in 2030, followed by the construction of a permanent base there by 2036.
The United States should have a vested interest in directly engaging with this constituency—both to discredit official regime propaganda, which still depicts America as an enemy of the Iranian people, and to lay out its vision for a different, more prosperous Iranian future.
There is no question that many European countries badly — very badly — need to restore their force structures and defense industries. However, they now need to do so within a time frame shorter than it would take to establish an EU-wide procurement system and czar, let alone to alter the bloc’s funding priorities.
Houthis have a lot to gain and little to lose from their maritime operations, which they have depicted as a response to the ongoing Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Whether Washington and the West stand by Israel or raise the pressure on it to back off in Gaza may go a long way toward shaping Hezbollah’s next move.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and its efforts to erase Ukrainian identity, have found a willing accomplice: the government of Putin’s close ally, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
The agency’s latest report provides no clear options for the administration to assume leadership on an issue that will help shape the future of space.
Iran is destabilizing the region and upending the global order. Washington and its allies must focus on developing a comprehensive plan of action.
US policymakers are actively discussing a Black Sea strategy, reflecting its importance to American interests in the wider region.
Administration officials, including President Biden himself, have been adamant that they do not want war with Iran. Nevertheless, truly resetting American deterrence might require taking steps that could risk a direct confrontation between the United States and the Islamic Republic.
Contrary to what the Biden administration might hope, it's not really in Beijing's interest to rein in Tehran or its proxies. To the contrary, the Islamic Republic's increasingly aggressive regional profile is deeply beneficial to the PRC.
Regardless of what one thinks of the Israeli premier, a Palestinian state would not wish to live “side-by-side in peace” with the Jewish state.
Biden's deputies and political advisers consider TikTok a crucial tool for messaging and get-out-the-vote efforts in the general election. But it’s a cost the president should be willing to pay.
Years of corruption and misrule have profoundly discredited Abbas and his cronies among the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, international support (including from the U.S.) has perpetuated a malignant status quo and laid the groundwork for the profound polarization, and radicalization, of Palestinian politics.
Storm clouds are gathering on Israel's northern border.
This week’s spectacle in The Hague is part of a larger international picture, marked by an obsession with the Jewish state.
In the last week, a series of moves between Israel and Lebanese-based terrorist group Hezbollah have raised the question of whether escalation toward general war has begun.
To sustain continued Western support, Kyiv needs to showcase its anti-corruption efforts, reject Chinese investment, and broaden the policy conversation.
Since 2020, Western officials have largely shifted their focus to tackling other Chinese tech threats — TikTok, semiconductors and artificial intelligence among them. Meanwhile, Huawei has quietly enjoyed a resurgence across several product lines.
Nearly two years into its war against Ukraine, the Kremlin gives no signs it is prepared to give up on its campaign of conquest.
Wars have a way of clarifying a great many things, and of reshuffling existing partnerships in profound ways. This is what's happening with Israel's views of China and Russia, which are now undergoing a redefinition because of its current conflict with terrorist organization Hamas.
With Israel and Hamas still vowing to destroy one another, and with full combat resuming after a tenuous truce, Washington says it doesn’t want to do anything to provoke Iran into a wider regional conflict.
Kenya has a longstanding reputation as a stable democracy, but recent violent protests have drawn concern from other African states, and from the international community.
Behind the lofty rhetoric lies a sobering question: Does the White House truly want Ukraine to win? The answer is less clear-cut than it appears.
Israel is facing all-too-predictable global pressure to scale back its military operation in Gaza to spare innocent lives and prevent a regional conflict that could draw in Iran, the United States, and other nations.
Israel shouldn't wait to invade Gaza City.
Ever since the Hamas terrorist group carried out its savage campaign against Israel nearly two weeks ago, countless observers have nervously watched the start of what, as of this writing, stands as a real risk of spiraling into a regional war.
With its roots in Russian imperialism, the concept of Eurasianism isn't as benign as many believe.
Major recent shifts, starting with the Taliban victory in Afghanistan and Russia’s war in Ukraine have led to a resurgence of the Trans-Caspian transportation corridor. This corridor, envisioned in the 1990s, has been slow to come to fruition, but has now suddenly found much-needed support. The obstacles to a rapid expansion of the corridor’s capacity are nevertheless considerable, given the underinvestment in its capacity over many years.
Unlike its previous encounters with Israel, Hamas may have unleashed an unlimited war that would culminate in the group’s utter destruction.
A massive foreign policy scandal recently shook official Washington when two news outlets, Semafor and Iran International, revealed the sordid details of a long-running—and extensive—Iranian influence operation.
At this inflection point, with Congress having excluded aid to Ukraine from the funding bill keeping the government running, the time seems right for President Biden to make a high-profile speech that outlines America’s stakes in Ukraine and addresses the “America First” arguments against them.
A bevy of headlines in just the last few weeks concerning Chinese spying should force the West to bolster its China-focused counterintelligence efforts.