Communicating Jewdiciously About the War
"This is about humanity vs. inhumanity. Reclaim the narrative. No one with a heart can feel unmoved by it. Reach the hearts, and the minds will follow."
In the midst of the indescribable brutality and mass murder being committed by Hamas terrorists, many folks are asking a logical question: “What’s the hell is their end game? What do these killers think they’re going to achieve with this?”
Israel’s former Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, explained it very clearly on the Honestly podcast Sunday night. Oren said that he was totally confident that Israel will defeat the Hamas terrorists on the battlefield. What he’s worried about is the larger picture:
“They do not have a military strategy — they have a military tactic that serves a media, diplomatic and legal strategy. What does that mean? They attack us the way they do, they get us to kill a lot of their civilians, inadvertently. That gets picked up by the media, and emphasized by the media. That immediately creates a diplomatic situation, as pressure is put on governments to condemn Israel. And then that takes a legal reality, where we are condemned in international courts and delegitimized.”
Jews are well familiar with this cycle — and the maddeningly perpetual need we feel to re-explain Israel’s right to defend itself. But it is crucially important to keep Oren’s point front of mind: It’s a trap.
So what do we actually DO?
JEWDICIOUS columnist Joanna Landau knows the answer to this question — because she’s lived it. The founder of Vibe Israel, based in Tel Aviv, Joanna is one of the foremost authorities on country branding in the world (unembellished).
Today, we share some of Joanna’s wisdom in a brief letter she has addressed to all friends and supporters of Israel abroad…
Dear friends,
These are new times. Therefore, we need new thinking about how to handle the battle of perception — taking place every second on social and traditional media.
Please try not to get drawn into bringing the conversation back to Israel vs. Palestine/Hamas. This is about humanity vs. inhumanity. It’s about people, names, pictures of regular people — people everyone around the world can relate to because they’re not all soldiers — being massacred, mutilated, burnt alive, raped. Noone with a heart can feel unmoved by it. Reach the hearts, and the minds will follow.
So it’s not about explaining policies. It’s not about how many rockets were fired. It’s not even about Jews or the Jewish homeland. It’s just about people loving life and wanting to live. Anyone can relate to that. Anyone can feel empathy for that. Make it a universal plea, and you will gain universal support and understanding.
Save your social media real estate to post stories and images about what’s happening on the ground here. You don’t need someone else’s video or text: you know how you feel, you know what to say. Share photos of the beautiful young people who only wanted to party and celebrate life. Document the unbelievable resilience, love and tenacity of the Israeli civilian outpouring of support for our soldiers, families and loved ones. You’re seeing it on your feeds. Make it your own by adding some text to it about how you feel. It’s contagious. Facts and figures and arguments aren’t.
Share stories of our sons and daughters, parents and families who are fighting against savages. For us, our soldiers are our children, for the world, they’re just machines of war. Now’s the time to change that understanding.
Tell OUR story. Reclaim the narrative — don’t get drawn, once again, into defending against someone else’s narrative. Create your own.
For a change, world leaders are expressing unwavering support for Israel. The smartest and most effective thing to do right now is to leverage this state of affairs — which may well be shortlived — for the long run and extend it to public opinion. YOU can be real change makers — on your smartphones and computers.
Time to think differently about the whole issue, and we will see the dawn of a new era.
Joanna Landau is coauthor of the book Ethical Tribing: Connecting the Next Generation to Israel in the Digital Era. Her guide on becoming an “Israel Storyteller” can be accessed here.
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