Spinning genocide: Why is Israel trying to reframe its war on Gaza?
This is the second article in a two-part series. You can find the first part, explaining how public relations firms have been aiding Israel, here.
The filings of the freshly minted Christian marketing agency Faith Through Works speak to Israel’s new public relations focus.
Registering as a foreign agent of Israel with the US Department of Justice, Faith Through Works – one of at least three PR agencies contracted by Israel to improve its image in the United States – says (PDF) it has been hired to “Combat low American Evangelical Christian approval of the Nation of Israel”.
It’s not only within the US’s evangelical base that polls show Israel to be losing ground. Widespread protests across US cities and college campuses, allied to surveys from the University of Maryland and others, indicate that Israel is also losing US support across Gen Z, the left and within its traditional allies in mainstream US politics and the evangelical right.
And, for Israel, that’s a real problem, analysts said.
As well as hiring Faith Through Works to target US Christians, Israel has enlisted the support of Bridges Partners to pay an undisclosed group of online influencers to improve perceptions of Israel in the US. It has also contracted another newly formed US company, Clock Tower, to try to improve its online reputation, not least by trying to reshape how artificial intelligence (AI) discussions on Israel’s war on Gaza are framed.
“For Israel, the war for American public opinion is existential,” Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland said. “This is a serious game for them and one in which the gloves are off.”
“The last two years have shown Israelis just how reliant they are on the US. That’s to say, nearly everyone knew they were reliant upon the US before the war, but not to what extent,” he said, outlining how Israelis have watched their country’s reliance on the US increase with every new front their government has opened against regional neighbours, including Lebanon and Iran.
“All of this is before you include the US’s sheer diplomatic power,” he said, “which has been vital in protecting Israel through the war, and the potential loss of that is terrifying to them.”
Losing support
The US public has largely borne the economic, military and reputational costs of supporting Israel. However, amid the scenes of unrelenting carnage that Israel continues to unleash on Gaza, cracks are emerging in US support for Israel: cracks that many in Israel fear could eventually become fractures.
Attempts to shore up Israel’s support in the US are not new. In addition to banning foreign journalists from entering Gaza to record the full extent of the carnage inflicted upon the enclave, there have been concerted efforts to tilt the online conversation in Israel’s favour.
A survey carried out by the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies in May found a concerted effort to influence how social media users were describing Israel’s war on Gaza had been launched shortly after the campaign itself.
Speaking to US social media influencers in September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored the importance of social media to Israel’s efforts to safeguard its support within the US.
Framing social media as the “weapon” of the modern age, Netanyahu told his audience, “The most important purchase going on right now is … TikTok. Number one. And I hope it goes through because it can be consequential.”
“And the other one? X. We have to talk to Elon [Musk, X’s owner]. He’s not an enemy, he’s a friend. We should talk to him. Now, if we can get those two things, we get a lot … We have to fight the fight, to give direction to the Jewish people and give direction to our non-Jewish friends.”
“Even before the war in Gaza, there was less support for Israel and greater sympathy for Palestinians among younger Americans, including young evangelical Christians,” Dov Waxman, professor of Israel studies at the University of California, said. “Israel’s behaviour during the war in Gaza has significantly accelerated the erosion of support for Israel among these key groups.”
Polling conducted by Telhami bears this out.
A University of Maryland survey (PDF) between July and August this year found that support for Palestinians had expanded from younger Democrats to all areas of the party, while a significant gap has opened between older and younger Republicans over their party’s support for Israel. Of potentially greater concern for Israeli policymakers – and helping explain the contracting of Faith Through Works – is a separate poll (PDF) conducted over the same period showing growing opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza among young evangelicals, traditionally one of Israel’s most reliable bases of support.
