Fighting Hamas, Losing the World Online
It seems like just yesterday, Israel was riding a wave of unprecedented success on multiple fronts. We dismantled Hezbollah’s leadership, catalyzed the crumbling of Assad’s regime in Syria, and crippled Iran’s military chain of command. For a moment, it felt like Israel was winning a seven-front war.
And yet—despite these military achievements—we are losing. Not in Gaza militarily, but practically. Strategically. Publicly. And perhaps most painfully, in the hearts and minds of our friends and allies.
We’ve now been fighting in Gaza for nearly two years—longer than any war in Israel’s history. The IDF controls about 80% of the Strip. Most of it has been reduced to rubble. Hundreds of kilometers of tunnels have been destroyed. Hamas’ leadership is largely neutralized. Their rocket launchers, infrastructure, and organized battalions? Virtually gone.
And yet—our hostages remain in captivity. The population of Gaza remains hostile. And perhaps most damaging of all, Israel is losing the war of public opinion, both on social media and on the global diplomatic stage.
How did we get here?
The answer lies in a massive blind spot: Israel is not fighting the media war -at all. We are doing nothing to shape the narrative, to counter the constant, non-stop global flood of misinformation, or to win the hearts and minds that ultimately determine policy from Brussels to Washington.
As Nas Daily recently put it, “Israel needs a Mossad—but for media.” He’s right. Israel’s government has treated the PR war as an afterthought—if that. Instead of launching a coordinated, strategic global communications effort, we’ve allowed our Hasbara operations to wither. Offices are shut down. Resources are few and dwindling. And in that vacuum, the other side is writing the story.
This isn’t just a branding problem. It’s a national security issue. Because losing the media war means losing international legitimacy, losing the diaspora’s support, and yes—losing leverage in the fight to bring our hostages home.
Let’s be blunt. Netanyahu should have agreed to any deal Hamas offered to bring the hostages back. Any deal. You’re negotiating with terrorists—not peace partners. There is no honor code here. Bring the hostages home first—then restart the fight, if necessary, on your own terms.
Instead, we’ve tied ourselves in diplomatic knots, demanding impossible terms, prolonging the suffering of families, and allowing Hamas and the people of Gaza to paint themselves as the victims while our hostages wither away into what we said would “never again” happen, all the while we scramble to explain ourselves in 280 characters or less.
We keep saying we won’t tolerate Hamas—but we’ve offered no meaningful alternatives for governance. No plan to administer Gaza properly. No clarity on what comes after the war. Compare that to 1967: a less experienced military, facing multiple Arab nations, won in six days. Now? Two years of war against a strip of land bordering our own—and we’re still stuck there -our war goals unaccomplished?
And it’s not just about tactics. It’s about the soul of this fight. We say we’ll do everything it takes to “bring them home”. But then why are we letting them rot in tunnels?
As the prophet Jeremiah says:
“וְיֵשׁ תִּקְוָה לְאַחֲרִיתֵךְ, נְאֻם־ה׳; וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים לִגְבוּלָם.”
“There is hope for your future, says the G-d, and your children will return to their borders.”
We must start acting like we believe and breathe that.
Right now, Israel is losing on two crucial fronts: the media war and the war for our hostages in Gaza. And until we take both seriously—until we commit real resources, real strategy, and real moral commitment to bringing them home —we’ll continue burning the candle at both ends.
