Losing the Narrative: How Israel Is Falling Behind in the Global Propaganda War

In the battlefield of public opinion, Israel is losing—and losing badly. While it has demonstrated unmatched resilience and military prowess, its failure to confront the flood of propaganda from anti-Israel voices has eroded global support and fueled rising antisemitism worldwide. The tragedy is that much of this sentiment is built not on historical truth, but on carefully crafted myths—many of which originate in academic, literary, and now award-winning circles, cloaked in the language of justice and resistance. From influential books like Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine to the recent Pulitzer Prize awarded to Mosab Abu Toha, anti-Israel narratives are gaining prestige and legitimacy, while voices like that of former hostage Emily Damari are silenced or ignored.

Khalidi’s Influence: Academic Lies, Political Consequences

Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine has become a cornerstone of the anti-Israel narrative in universities, media outlets, and political institutions. Praised as a scholarly account of Palestinian suffering, it is, as demonstrated in Holy War, Unholy Peace: The Illusion of the Two-State Solution, a blend of selective memory, ideological spin, and outright falsehoods. Khalidi positions himself as a historian, but his narrative reads more like political theater. He portrays Palestinians as eternal victims of Zionist aggression, omitting key facts that undermine his thesis.

For example, Khalidi falsely claims Zionism was an entirely colonialist movement imported by European powers. Yet, as shown in Holy War, Unholy Peace, Zionism emerged as a grassroots nationalist movement among Jews fleeing centuries of persecution, with a continuous historic connection to the land of Israel. Early Zionists legally purchased land, often at high prices, and transformed arid territories into productive communities. Khalidi also misrepresents the 1948 Nakba as a one-sided ethnic cleansing campaign, disregarding the Arab invasion of the newborn Jewish state and the encouragement by Arab leaders for residents to flee, promising a swift return after defeating the Jews. Archival records and testimonies cited in Holy War, Unholy Peace reveal this complexity, countering the oversimplified victim narrative.

Khalidi further portrays Palestinian identity as ancient and immutable. But as argued in Holy War, Unholy Peace, a unified Palestinian national identity emerged only in the mid-20th century, largely in response to Zionism. Prior to the 1920s, the region’s Arab inhabitants identified by village, tribe, or broader Ottoman and Arab affiliations, with no recognized Palestinian state in history. These distortions are not academic errors; they are part of a systematic campaign to rewrite history, weaponizing Palestinian victimhood to demonize Israel and rationalize violence.

The Pulitzer Prize Controversy: Mosab Abu Toha vs. Emily Damari

The recent awarding of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary to Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha exemplifies how anti-Israel narratives are not only spreading but being celebrated by prestigious institutions. Abu Toha’s essays in The New Yorker, lauded for their “intimacy of memoir” and depiction of Gaza’s suffering, were recognized on May 5, 2025. Yet, his social media posts—uncovered by HonestReporting and reported by Fox News Digital—reveal a troubling pattern of denying Israeli suffering and spreading misinformation. Abu Toha questioned the hostage status of Emily Damari, a British-Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and held for 471 days. In a January 24, 2025, post, he called Damari, a civilian, a “soldier” and dismissed her captivity, writing, “How on earth is this girl called a hostage?” He similarly labeled released hostage Agam Berger a “killer” for attending her sister’s Israeli Air Force graduation and repeated debunked claims, like the 2023 Al-Ahli Hospital bombing being an Israeli strike, despite evidence pointing to a Palestinian rocket.

Emily Damari, released in January 2025, responded with a powerful open letter on May 8, 2025, accusing Abu Toha of erasing her trauma and likening his rhetoric to Holocaust denial. Having endured starvation, abuse, and inhumane conditions in Hamas captivity, Damari’s plea highlighted the human cost of such narratives. Yet, her voice—amplified briefly on platforms like X—has been overshadowed by the Pulitzer’s endorsement of Abu Toha. The award, administered by Columbia University, has drawn criticism from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, pro-Israel groups, and commentators like The Washington Free Beacon, who argue it legitimizes antisemitic tropes and rewards selective storytelling that ignores Hamas’s atrocities. The Pulitzer committee’s silence on Abu Toha’s posts raises questions about their vetting process, further eroding trust in institutions meant to uphold truth.

This controversy underscores Israel’s struggle in the propaganda war. While Abu Toha’s narrative of Palestinian suffering is elevated to global acclaim, Damari’s firsthand account of Hamas’s brutality is marginalized. The disparity illustrates how anti-Israel voices dominate cultural and academic spaces, framing Palestinians as sole victims while dismissing Israeli suffering as collateral or deserved.

The Global Impact: From Campus to Capitol Hill

The lies propagated by figures like Khalidi and amplified by awards like Abu Toha’s Pulitzer don’t remain confined to books or ceremonies. They shape the perceptions of students, journalists, and policymakers. Anti-Israel protests erupt across Western campuses, antisemitic tropes circulate on social media disguised as critiques of Zionism, and elected officials echo Palestinian talking points, often unaware of the historical context. The celebration of Abu Toha’s work, despite his denial of documented atrocities like Damari’s captivity, emboldens this trend, lending intellectual credibility to one-sided narratives.

As documented in Holy War, Unholy Peace, this narrative has consequences. It fuels anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations, public pressure campaigns against Israeli companies, and boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. It also drives the antisemitism that Jews worldwide increasingly face, from campus harassment to physical attacks. When prestigious awards honor voices that erase Israeli victims like Damari, they signal to the world that only one side’s pain matters.

Why Truth Matters More Than Ever

Israel cannot afford to ignore this war of narratives. Military strength alone will not safeguard its future. The Jewish state needs the moral and political backing of democratic nations—nations where public opinion increasingly views Israel not as a beacon of democracy, but as an oppressor, thanks to narratives like Khalidi’s and Abu Toha’s. The Pulitzer controversy is a stark reminder: when institutions elevate voices that deny Israeli suffering, they erode Israel’s legitimacy and embolden its adversaries.

Exposing the lies of Khalidi, Abu Toha, and others is not an academic exercise; it is a national imperative. Israel and its allies must invest in counter-narratives, elevate factual history, and support scholars, writers, and survivors like Damari who are committed to telling the truth. Books like Holy War, Unholy Peace serve as vital correctives, deconstructing propaganda and restoring historical clarity. They remind readers that Israel is not a colonial aggressor, but a nation born out of persecution, legally re-established on ancestral land. They illuminate how Palestinians have not been denied statehood by Israel, but by their own leaders’ refusal to accept coexistence.

Truth as a Weapon for Peace

If Israel is to turn the tide of global opinion, it must treat the propaganda war with the same urgency it gives to its military campaigns. The Abu Toha-Damari controversy is a microcosm of this struggle: one voice is awarded, the other ignored. Truth must become Israel’s weapon—deployed with precision, clarity, and relentless determination to amplify stories like Damari’s and challenge distortions like Abu Toha’s.

Winning the war of narratives won’t happen overnight, but it must begin now. Only by dispelling the lies can Israel reclaim its moral standing and ensure that future generations understand the conflict not through the lens of hatred and distortion, but through the lens of truth and justice.

If you want to write to the Pulitzer Committee, here is their X (twitter) handle https://x.com/PulitzerPrizes
You can also retweet my letter to them. https://x.com/AliSinaOrg/status/1920747216714821892