An Israeli flag waves as Israeli Air Force planes fly in formation over the Mediterranean Sea during an aerial show on Israel’s 74th Independence Day on May 5, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen

Israel is a country that builds technologies used around the world, develops amazing intelligence capabilities, leads one of the most sophisticated cybersecurity industries on earth, and maintains a military that has repeatedly demonstrated an extraordinary ability to adapt under immense pressure.

That makes one question even more striking: why does Israeli public diplomacy so often operate according to completely different standards?

Across the world, grassroots advocates defend Israel every day against organized propaganda networks, hostile activists, political movements, and social media campaigns. Many of those advocates work independently, with limited resources and little institutional support, while organizations with vastly greater capabilities sometimes appear slow, fragmented, or remarkably silent.

Perhaps important work is taking place behind the scenes, beyond what people like me can see, and I genuinely hope that this is the case.

But even if this is happening, that doesn’t automatically prove that an effective strategy exists.

There is another possibility — and it should concern Israelis and every person who supports the Jewish State’s right to exist: Perhaps there is no hidden explanation at all, because bureaucracy, complacency, fragmented responsibility, institutional rivalry, and a failure to understand the speed of modern information warfare may be enough to explain what we are witnessing.

Israel can no longer afford to treat the information battlefield as secondary when its enemies clearly understand its strategic importance. Every photograph, video, headline, search result, social media post, accusation, and viral narrative contributes to the international perception of Israel.

And repetition can transform even demonstrably false claims into accepted assumptions among audiences that rarely investigate their origins.

Those perceptions do not remain confined to social media. They eventually influence diplomacy, elections, universities, international organizations, consumer boycotts, street protests, and views toward Israel and Jews.

The consequences are not merely reputational but strategic.

That is what makes the situation so difficult to understand.

I can’t help but wonder why a nation capable of extraordinary technological innovation, intelligence gathering, cybersecurity, and national defense still struggles to apply the same urgency, creativity, coordination, and strategic thinking to defending itself on the information battlefield.

Modern wars are no longer fought exclusively with aircraft, intelligence operations, missiles, and soldiers. They are also fought through smartphones, algorithms, universities, newsrooms, search engines, international institutions, and millions of screens around the world.

Israel urgently needs speed, strategy, coordination, accountability, and the willingness to recognize that public diplomacy is no longer simply about improving Israel’s image. It has become part of national security.

The information war is already being fought every hour of every day, and while Israel hesitates, its enemies keep publishing.