Meet the New Pro-Israel PR Superstars

As a PR guy, I’ve been hearing that Israel is losing the PR War for over three decades. And I now say: Enough. There is another story to be told.

In the past two months, the longstanding efforts to delegitimize Zionism have been turbocharged by a perfect storm of Jihadism meeting Wokeness, propelled by social media and deep-pocketed “progressive” donors. 

But since October 7, it’s time to focus in on what our crowd is doing right. 

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office, in which I served, is doing an admirable job; government spokespeople do their best in trying circumstances, with the Foreign Ministry losing much budget and key talent. In America, most American Jewish organizations are MIA, and there is a good chance they will be restructured or replaced after the war (like Israel’s leadership). 

But we can see the contours of a new cadre of superstar spokespeople. They are Christians, Muslims and Jews; they are different nationalities, races and ages; they’re united by a go-getter mentality and they score points for our team.

These pro-Israel multimedia mavins know how to marry mainstream media with social and how to go viral on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. They do formal appearances and guerilla marketing. And they reveal head-on the hypocrisy and cruelty of the pro-Palestinian mob – whose adherents often care less for the lives of innocents than for eliminating Israel. For this, they’re subjected to hate and threats. With the help of my Israeli coworker Danya Muskal, we have created a list of those who have really shined some light during these hard times both from an American and Israeli perspective.

Here’s our starting lineup:

The Hostage Mother: Rachel Goldberg: Rachel is an American-Israeli whose California born son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was kidnapped by Hamas after a grenade blew off part of his arm at the deadly Nova music festival. Since Rachel got the horrible news, she and her husband Jon Polin have relentlessly fought for their “beautiful boy” and the safe return of all hostages in moving interviews on NBC, Good Morning America, and CNN. She is everywhere from the cover of Time Magazine to the podium at the UN to the Vatican for a meeting with the pope. They started an Instagram page called “bring.hersh.home.” A natural orator and future leader, who rousted a 300k crowd at the march on the mall, Rachel makes us all jump out of chairs and start making a difference.

The Black Hebrew Air Force: Lilaq Logen: A soldier in the Israel Air Force, Lilac is part of the “Black Hebrews” community that has taken advantage of her fluent English and passion to post Israeli advocacy videos for the world. Her tiktok account has become viral and her goal is to fight against anti-Israel and pro-Hamas messages that have flooded global social media.

The Ivy League Professor: Shai Davidai, a brilliant Israeli Columbia University business school professor with the courage to out the campus leadership that has lost control. He memorably warned Jewish parents that he and his colleagues on campus, “cannot protect your child from pro terror student organizations because the president of Columbia University will not speak out…”

The Son of Hamas: The “Green Prince” Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas co-founder who spent many years in Israeli prisons. He is a Palestinian who in 2010 published his autobiography, Son of Hamas. In recent weeks he filled the airwaves with sympathy for Israel’s position and with his insider’s look at the terrorist organization Israel, America and the free world is battling. Fiercely eloquent and genuinely charismatic, he told Piers Morgan this: “Palestinian society has been hijacked by these criminals and anybody who takes their side is participating in their crime.”

The Tech Bro: Ran Harnevo, a successful serial entrepreneur, has been involved for most of the past year in producing videos aimed at strengthening the opposition to the government’s effort to weaken the judiciary. Like most of that movement he turned on a dime on Oct. 7, launching himself into making Israel’s case. In one memorable video in English he personally skewers Paddy Cosgrove, the Irish supremo of the WebSummit gathering for his outrageous support of Hamas (“You see, Paddy, what happened on Oct. 7 was not another data point on your f—– chart”). The result was a mass walkout from this year’s event and the resignation of Cosgrove.

The Influencer from Down Under: Nathaniel Buzolic, known as Nate Buzz on social media, is an actor, influencer and producer. This Christian American-Australian arrived on Oct. 26 on a one-man solidarity visit bringing the stories of war victims (such as survivors of the music festival) to his 3.4 million Instagram followers, 1 million TikTok followers, and his 520.9 thousand Twitter (X) followers, reporting from safe rooms and bomb shelters for his Gen Z fans (and his fan base has further increased as a result).

The Brave Bedouin: Mohamad Kabiya: An Israeli Bedouin who served on a search-and-rescue team in the Israeli military, Mohammad comes from a long line of Bedouin people who have supported the State of Israel. As a pro-Israel activist, he’s been nailing interviews like here when he schools the BBC and the larger Arab world in Arabic. 

The Street Camera: The non-partisan “Stop Antisemitism” website fights and exposes Antisemitism on the streets, including a focus on the dehumanization of pulling down Israeli and foreign national hostage posters and the brave real Americans who stand up against Jew-hating thugs – like these construction workers in NYC with their wonderful thick accents. 

The Fact Checker: Facts for Peace focuses on spreading the facts on Hamas, Israel and peace in the region. The account has showcased multiple viral videos since the beginning of the war, where it reveals the degree of ignorance in America about the situation. They are amusing and shocking in roughly equal measure, such when focusing on students who struggle to explain the tenets of Hamas after being asked to sign a pro-Hamas petition.   

The Smart Brit: Douglas Murray, a British author and political commentator, has since the start of the war taken it upon himself to speak up for Israel and against Hamas in interviews, demonstrating with electrifying eloquence and conviction that laughable folly of liberals supporting a worldview as backward and intolerant as that of Hamas. 

The College Intern: Julia Steinberg, a 21-year-old Jewish intern at The Free Press who attends Stanford University, and published an article called “Why my generation hates Jews” where she discusses Gen Z’s “thought process.” It’s courageous, illuminating and horrifying. 

The Christian Arab Golani Vet: Yoseph Haddad, a Christian Arab Israeli born in Haifa, volunteered for the IDF in 2003 at the height of the Second Intifada, and served in the Golani infantry brigade. He is a social activist and advocate for Arabs in Israeli society. Since Oct. 7, he’s used his Instagram to show the Hamas horrors to the world and to emphasize the need for unity within Israel. He risks his life to stand up for this cause, as plenty of Arabs consider him a traitor.

The Comic Relief: Eretz Nehederet. The long-running Israeli comedy sketch show has outdone itself with satirical videos in English. In one sketch a mock BBC presenter fawns over the Hamas chieftain; another skewers the cluelessness of gender-non-binary students somehow supporting Hamas. The nefariously brilliant subtext is that Israel is a society that, like the best of the West, is not without humor, some of it even subtle.

All of this amounts to a break from the professional “Hasbara” suits, who in the past despite being well intentioned and capable, frequently tended to be defensive and almost always were handicapped by bureaucracy. Instead of Hasbara (explaining) these modern-day creators are building Ahava (love) and Havannah (understanding) with audiences. They’re creating a new, more inspiring and nimble foundation for Pro-Israel communications.  I’m grateful to them and to others not on the list. They help us get past the horrors of the moment and look forward with confidence. 

Tell us what you think! Create your own list. Submit  nominations.