The world is against us, but what does that have to do with us?
Large segments of the public, the media, and certainly Israeli politics have turned the doctrine of “hasbara” into an art form, built on a victim mentality: the idea that as Israel’s standing in the world deteriorates, its share of responsibility for that deterioration diminishes — and that there are countless other culprits to blame.
This perception is self-reinforcing and essentially unchallengeable, because it is built on the premise that everything happening “justifies” it. When more countries distance themselves from Israel, when students protest around the world, when young and old Jews alike distance themselves from Israel and what it represents, and when public opinion turns against us — the conclusion is always the same: the world has gone mad.
The immediate suspect is always antisemitism. It does indeed exist, it is raising its head, and it demands a determined struggle. But in Israeli discourse, antisemitism has become more than a dangerous phenomenon — it has become a public relations laundering machine. Every criticism is fed into the washing machine, washed and wrung out thoroughly, and emerges as proof of antisemitism. Anyone who criticizes Israel is automatically labeled an antisemite. This allows us to avoid the uncomfortable question of whether Israeli government policies have any connection to how the State of Israel is perceived in the world — and to avoid any self-reflection whatsoever.
When antisemitism is not sufficient as an explanation, Qatari money is invoked. Qatar, it turns out, funds almost everything: campus protests, editorials, human rights organizations, congressional criticism — and perhaps even the waiter in Paris who didn’t smile at Israeli tourists. All of this, of course, occurs alongside the country’s proven connection to individuals closest to the Prime Minister of Israel, who were employed in his own office. There is no doubt that Qatar has money and influence. But it is easy to forget that no amount of money can produce the daily images, statements, and decisions that outrage the entire world — content that the Israeli government provides, free of charge.
And then, of course, there are the progressives — particularly to blame, we are told, because they insist on holding Israel to the standards of a liberal and humane state, rather than judging it as they judge dictatorships like Russia and China, from which no one expects anything. There are, of course, extreme progressives — including those radicals who deny Israel’s right to exist — but the tendency in Israeli discourse is to lump the entire left into the same box. No one can lecture us on what it means to be liberals, the argument goes — but what do we do when the world demands that we not only say we are liberal, but that we prove it through our actions, which are increasingly drifting from the liberal values that define democratic nations?
There is also the easy explanation for European criticism: that Muslim immigrants have taken over politics there. In fact, the influence of Muslims in Europe has produced precisely the opposite effect — it has strengthened the racist right, which genuinely admires Israel’s right-wing governments. The deeper reason for Europe’s growing distance from Israel is that Israel is growing more distant from the democratic and liberal values that the vast majority of European nations hold dear.
And if none of that works, one can always play the “self-hating Jew” card. It is an extraordinarily useful category: any Jew who loves Israel but disagrees with its government’s policies is immediately declared someone who hates themselves — an “auto-antisemite.” This conveniently eliminates the need to confront the possibility that one can be a Zionist Jew who loves Israel and still opposes its government’s policies. I write this from personal experience.
The common denominator of all these explanations is simple: they all spare us the need to look in the mirror. Because in the mirror, one might see a country whose government disregards international law, refuses to pursue a political solution, relies on extreme and racist parties as central coalition partners, and embraces extremists and racists around the world — and is simultaneously convinced that hasbara, or propaganda, is a substitute for policy.
Troublingly, even within the camp that calls itself liberal, many believe the problem lies only in a failure of messaging. If only we could produce more voices like Youssef Haddad, Noa Tishby, or Einat Wilf, the thinking goes, we could convince the nations of the world that the problem is not with us. This approach, of course, only strengthens those elements that have no interest in examining Israel’s actual policies. Moreover, these “explainers” convince no one who is not already convinced of Israel’s righteousness — and they provoke antagonism and even ridicule among the audiences they are meant to persuade.
These mechanisms are designed to insulate Israel from genuine examination of its policies and to avoid confronting the deep-rooted issue at the core of its moral and reputational deterioration: years of control over another people. They also damage the Israeli public’s ability to understand that Israel’s deepest security interest lies in its belonging to the community of liberal democratic nations.
I acknowledge that there are problems in the world’s attitude toward Israel. There are. But there are also serious problems in our conduct — problems over which we have far more influence — that we must address rather than ignore.
Israel’s problem is not only that the world misunderstands us, or harbors prejudice against us. The problem is also that the world sees the very things we insist on ignoring. Is the world’s perspective sometimes partial? Yes. Is it sometimes distorted or even hostile? Without question. But it is also, often, more realistic than the story we insist on telling ourselves — that of being the absolute, blameless victims.
The victims of October 7 were indeed victims of absolute evil. But the world sees the broader story — one that many in Israel insist on ignoring — and that willful ignorance leads only to a continuous decline in Israel’s standing and an ever-deeper entrenchment in the sand, from which it becomes harder to escape with each passing day.
A healthy state makes mistakes but learns from them. It is capable of recognizing its mistakes and correcting them. The correction that Israel needs will never be complete as long as we continue to blame everyone but ourselves.