Since When Is Israel Always Behind the Curve?

Since When Is Israel Always Behind the Curve?

I love Israel.

Anyone who has followed me for more than five minutes knows that. I have spent years defending Israel, writing about Israel, correcting lies about Israel and trying to explain Israel to people who often decided what they believed before they bothered checking a single fact.

But loving Israel does not mean applauding everything Israel does.

Sometimes loving a country means shouting at it.

And right now I feel like shouting:

Israel, wake up.

Since when did Israel become the country that is always behind the curve?

Israel built its reputation on being ahead of everyone else. Military intelligence. Security. Technology. Innovation. Counterterrorism. Cybersecurity. Intelligence gathering. Israel survived because it learned very early that waiting until a threat became enormous was not a strategy.

You identified the smoke before the building burned down.

At least, that was the Israel I admired.

So what happened?

Sometimes I watch Israel’s public diplomacy and social media response today and genuinely wonder whether anybody understands how modern information warfare actually works.

We celebrate when a celebrity, singer or pop icon says something supportive about Israel. Social media explodes. Everybody shares it. Everybody cheers because somebody famous has finally said something sensible.

Fine.

I appreciate every person willing to stand beside Israel when doing so can cost followers, friends and contracts.

But celebrity support is not a strategy.

Meanwhile, genuinely vicious anti Israel narratives are allowed to spread across websites, documentaries and social media platforms, gathering momentum and reaching enormous audiences before Israel seems to understand that something serious is happening.

And when people warn about it early?

Too often the response feels like:

Don’t worry.

It’s noise.

We’ve got this.

No. You haven’t.

That attitude is exactly the problem.

Now Israel is confronting the documentary NAZA. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has described the film as based on blood libels, deliberate distortions and grave false accusations against IDF soldiers and commanders. The IDF has categorically rejected the allegations it has seen and has challenged the reliability and context of claims based on anonymous testimony. Zamir has now ordered an examination of possible legal measures and an investigation into whether classified material was leaked.

Good.

Investigate it.

Challenge every falsehood that can be demonstrated to be false.

Protect IDF soldiers from defamatory accusations.

Investigate classified leaks if classified information was illegally provided.

But my question is much simpler.

Why are we always reacting after the damage has already begun?

The film has already premiered at Venice. It has already generated international headlines. It has already received an award. Its allegations are already circulating around the world.

And now Israel starts mobilizing.

Come on.

This is exactly what I have been warning about.

My foundation has warned about online material and platforms spreading enormous quantities of footage alleging Israeli misconduct. We have watched material circulate without ordinary viewers having any realistic way to determine what is authentic, what is manipulated, what lacks context, what comes from another event and what is simply propaganda.

We warned about the danger early.

And when you warn people while something is still small, you risk being treated as hysterical.

Then it becomes big.

Suddenly everyone wants an investigation.

Suddenly everyone wants a task force.

Suddenly public diplomacy becomes urgent.

That is not strategy.

That is firefighting.

And Israel cannot afford to conduct information warfare like a fire brigade.

Israel understands preemption when rockets, missiles and terrorists are involved. It understands intelligence gathering. It understands identifying developing threats.

So why does that instinct so often disappear when the battlefield is information?

A lie reaching millions of people can have consequences too. It can influence politicians, universities, journalists, courts, international institutions and eventually physical security. It can contribute to an atmosphere in which every Israeli soldier is automatically presumed guilty and every accusation against Israel is accepted before evidence is examined.

You cannot wait until a narrative has conquered half the internet and then publish a statement saying it is false.

By then you are explaining.

Your opponents are defining.

There is a difference.

And perhaps this will make some people angry, but I don’t care anymore.

It is probably a very good thing that I am not running Israel’s social media or public diplomacy departments, because I would make some people extremely uncomfortable.

I would completely overhaul the system.

I would ask who monitors emerging anti Israel narratives every hour of every day. Who identifies coordinated campaigns before they explode? Who contacts platforms? Who prepares factual rebuttals before misinformation becomes conventional wisdom? Who communicates with independent advocates who spend their lives watching these networks? Who decides which warnings deserve escalation?

And if the answer is another committee, another meeting and another bureaucratic chain lasting three weeks, I would change that too.

Some people would probably lose their jobs.

Even friends.

Because this is not a popularity contest.

Israel is fighting for its reputation, legitimacy and ultimately its ability to defend itself.

That requires humility as much as intelligence.

When people outside government warn you about something, listen.

You do not have to agree with them.

Investigate it.

Check it.

Verify it.

But do not automatically dismiss uncomfortable warnings as noise because they come from volunteers, activists or small organizations rather than somebody with an impressive government title.

Sometimes the person standing outside the system sees the smoke first.

I have defended Israel for years because I believe in Israel.

That is precisely why I refuse to sugarcoat this.

I am slowly losing some of the admiration I once had for Israel’s ability to stay ahead of its enemies, not because I believe Israel’s enemies are right, but because I increasingly watch Israel hand them opportunities through arrogance, complacency and painfully slow responses.

Israel, you are better than this.

You have some of the greatest intelligence capabilities, technological minds and security professionals in the world.

Start applying that mentality to the information battlefield.

Stop celebrating every supportive celebrity as though public diplomacy has suddenly been saved.

Stop dismissing early warnings.

Stop confusing reaction with strategy.

Stop chasing narratives after they have already gone around the world.

Because when you ignore the smoke long enough, eventually you are no longer discussing smoke.

You are standing inside the fire.

And then please don’t ask why nobody warned you.

Some of us did.