Unlike the peace treaties that Israel signed with Egypt and Jordan, its conflict with the Palestinians is not about changes to territorial borders, and therefore cannot be resolved in this manner.

While exchanging territory for peace worked with Jordan and Egypt, with the Palestinians, this would not lead to the same result. The Palestinian aspiration remains to replace all of Israel with an Arab-Muslim state. This is illustrated in textbooks in Palestinian Authority (PA) schools that make no differentiation between Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Jaffa, or Haifa. Hamas relays this same ideology day and night.

As a result, the conflict spans military, terrorist, and economic arenas. It includes actions such as the organization of boycott movements — a potent weapon that the Palestinians have sought to employ against Israel.

The political-legal arena is a vital dimension in this conflict. The Palestinians would, if they could, eject Israel from all international institutions, and place it under sanctions.

This political-legal war is being waged at the Hague, the United Nations, UNICEF, and UNESCO. All of these efforts are part of the political war to combat Israel, isolate it politically, and create opportunities for a future economic or military assault against it when conditions are ripe.

On this front, unfortunately, there is no daylight between the PA and Hamas, even though IDF protects the PA from being toppled by Hamas in the territories, as it was in Gaza in 2007.

Without Israel’s security presence in areas B and C of the territories, the PA would have vanished long ago, and PA President Mahmoud Abbas would have been thrown out of power in Ramallah by Hamas.

When talking about international institutions, it is vital to understand that the Palestinians enjoy a relative advantage over Israel, as opposed to in the economic, military, and technological arenas, where Israel has the upper hand.

This is because the Palestinians have an automatic majority in international organizations. Two-thirds of the UN’s 193 member states are non-democratic states. Dozens are members of the Organization of Islamic States or are dependent on Arab oil.

Before even placing a condemnation resolution on the table, the Palestinian Authority already has a majority to utilize. It receives on-demand anti-Israel resolutions whenever it so wants them.

When UNESCO condemned Israel and denied the link between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount, this was an example of the exploitation of that majority.

The US veto at the UN is the primary reason that more dangerous Palestinian initiatives against Israel do not succeed.

But the wider diplomatic campaign against Israel has been very successful. Despite lacking any operative significance, this campaign has public significance. When students in a school in, say Germany, learn about the UN and its importance, and then see that most of its decisions are against Israel, they will reach the assumption that those decisions must be justified.

Hence Israel’s image absorbs massive damage in many countries.

In Europe, as a result, Israel’s image is severely tarnished.

A poll taken among respondents in European countries by the BBC in 2013 found that Israel came fourth from the bottom in country popularity. Only Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea fared worse. This is the direct result of the political warfare that Israel is subject to.

The same model of delegitimizing Israel is now being exported from Europe to the United States, with great effect.

So, what can Israel do in response? The first thing to do is to expose how anti-Israel decisions are taken in international institutions. This is an uphill, Sisyphean task.

To secure assistance in this task, Israel must build a supporting network of organizations, made up of NGOs, which can be Jewish or Christian, and hi-tech companies who have an interest in acting as a counter-weight in this political struggle.

With all due respect to Israeli diplomacy, when university students in Brussels hear from an Israeli ambassador, they’re naturally skeptical and often can dismiss claims with the explanation that it is the ambassador’s job to defend his country. So non-Israeli ambassadors are key in this effort.

Recruiting ambassadors in trade unions, engineering committees, and businesses, is an extremely effective approach.

Additionally, it is important to campaign in the United States for the defunding of organizations that adopt virulent anti-Israel positions. This effort becomes far more effective when it receives support from the White House.

When it comes to the struggle in the Hague, Israel has multiple allies, since a conviction could have a significant negative impact on the US, UK, and NATO countries too.

The US and British militaries fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, meaning that any prosecutions of Israeli soldiers or officers could pave a path for the prosecution of US and British armed forces too. When the ICC was created at the end of the 1990s, Israel and the US remained as non-members precisely for this reason.

Despite what many believe, the tide of global public opinion is not moving dramatically against Israel, but neither is it moving in Israel’s favor. The tide, however, could turn rapidly to Israel’s detriment. The most important thing is to keep fighting the good fight and to use the right tools in arenas where Israel suffers from a disadvantage.

Danny Ayalon is a publishing expert with The MirYam Institute. He served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States from July 2002 to November 2006, during which time, relations between the two countries reached an all-time high.

The MirYam Institute is the leading international forum for Israel focused discussion, dialogue, and debate, focused on campus presentations, engagement with international legislators, and gold-standard trips to the State of Israel. Follow their work at www.MirYamInstitute.org.

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