{"id":181135,"date":"2026-06-28T07:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/181135\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:29:11","slug":"former-idf-spokeswomans-new-book-explores-israels-information-war-jns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/181135\/","title":{"rendered":"Former IDF spokeswoman\u2019s new book explores Israel\u2019s information war | JNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

In her new book, Digital Warrior: Inside Israel\u2019s Battle for the Narrative After October 7<\/a>, former Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman Rachel Lester argues that Israel\u2019s fight for global public opinion has become as critical to its security as the war on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles native, who made aliyah in 2017 and served four years in the International Branch of the IDF Spokesperson\u2019s Unit, has spent much of the war since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, producing viral videos viewed by millions around the world. In her opinion, Israel still has much to learn about winning the digital war.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve believed that the information war is just as critical as the war on the ground since ‘Operation Protective Edge,’\u201d Lester told JNS in a recent interview, referring to Israel\u2019s 2014 military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. \u201cThe battlefield and the information war aren\u2019t separate fronts anymore\u2014they\u2019re the same war. That\u2019s the story I wanted to tell in Digital Warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lester, 31, traces her conviction to years of watching Israel lose ground online, beginning during her college years in the United States after leaving what she described as a strongly pro-Israel environment.<\/p>\n

She said the turning point came during ‘Operation Guardian of the Walls’ in 2021, when international criticism led to U.S. pressure on Israel to end its military campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw how a series of PR nightmares led [former] U.S. President Joe Biden to pressure Israel to stop fighting, and Israel had no choice but to comply,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was, I think, a turning point for the higher-ups in the IDF\u2014they saw that international perception shaped our freedom to operate militarily.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, and its aftermath that convinced her the information war had become inseparable from military operations.<\/p>\n

She pointed to the explosion at Gaza City\u2019s Al-Ahli Hospital on Oct. 17, 2023, initially blamed on Israel before evidence showed it had been caused by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor about four hours, the international news was reporting that an IDF strike had killed 500 people,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThe reaction of the world was immediate and extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t matter what the truth turned out to be,\u201d she said. \u201cWhoever shapes the first narrative shapes public opinion, diplomatic pressure and ultimately the strategic environment in which military decisions are made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollywood meets ‘hasbara’<\/p>\n

Lester credits her upbringing in Los Angeles and her education at the University of Southern California\u2019s School of Cinematic Arts with teaching her how to communicate Israel\u2019s story to audiences unfamiliar with the Middle East.<\/p>\n

While still a student, she created a viral YouTube video titled \u201cHarry Potter and the Threats to Israel,\u201d using scenes from the film series combined with real news reports to explain Israel\u2019s security challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that there was a vacuum in the world of hasbara [public diplomacy] in explaining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in ways that would actually resonate with young Americans\u2019 emotions, rather than rely on them to process facts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That lesson shaped the hundreds of videos she later produced for the IDF\u2019s official social media channels.<\/p>\n

One of her most successful videos after Oct. 7 began with the line, \u201cWe need to talk about civilians in Gaza.\u201d Rather than focusing on Israeli victims, Lester said she highlighted Hamas\u2019s cruel treatment of Gaza\u2019s own civilian population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe video performed so well because I was talking about a subject the world actually cared about,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to frame and reframe your narrative in ways that your audience will want to hear\u2014otherwise, you\u2019re just preaching to the choir.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advice for students<\/p>\n

Lester also addresses the challenges facing Jewish and pro-Israel students on North American campuses, many of whom feel overwhelmed by anti-Israel content online.<\/p>\n

She encourages them to research issues they do not fully understand rather than becoming discouraged.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I actually understand all the facts, I no longer feel overwhelmed,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel empowered to help change the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back some 1,000 days after Oct. 7, Lester believes Israel still misunderstands several key aspects of the information war. First, she argued, facts alone are not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cFacts don\u2019t win the digital war, emotions do,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to change our strategy on a national level to appeal to people\u2019s emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also called for a broader range of Israeli voices to represent the country internationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be more young, Black, Arab, Druze, Muslim people representing Israel in the media and on social media,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I could make one thing happen in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I would set up a program to teach English to cohorts of diverse Israelis so that people in the West can relate to Israelis on a more human level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Lester warned that Israelis must better understand how individual actions can affect the country\u2019s international standing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen enough politicians say despicable things and enough soldiers post videos of themselves doing horrible things on social media, Israel gets brought to the International Court of Justice on the charge of genocide,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IDF must punish soldiers who act inappropriately more severely (and publicly), and do a constant, widespread information campaign about social media etiquette,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Lester said the initial response to Digital Warrior has been overwhelmingly positive, with interview requests arriving from media outlets around the world. The book has already drawn praise from prominent pro-Israel voices, including Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Conricus, a former international spokesman for the IDF, and journalist Emily Schrader, both of whom endorsed it on the back cover.<\/p>\n

A graduate of the University of Southern California, she plans to spend the coming months speaking on college campuses across the United States to share her journey from a lone soldier to becoming a leading face of Israel’s digital defense and promote her book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to bringing my personal story to every community and audience eager to hear it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In her new book, Digital Warrior: Inside Israel\u2019s Battle for the Narrative After October 7, former Israel Defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[54856,1660,10802,11619,24315,1655,2254,5656,1665,1658,1411,10803,32990,21500,37,1663,184,1653,10796,10799,1659,21494,2421,1650,49,1652,10798,43975,498,13087,1654,9572,10801,1671,13146,1657,21502,10805,10804,782,36],"class_list":["post-181135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-1982-hama-massacre","tag-arab-israeli-conflict","tag-attacks-in-the-gaza-strip","tag-ethnicity-based-civil-wars","tag-feature","tag-foreign-relations-of-israel","tag-gaza-strip","tag-gaza-war","tag-gaza-israel-conflict","tag-government-of-israel","tag-hamas","tag-hamas-attacks","tag-hasbara","tag-impacts-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-israel","tag-israel-defense-forces","tag-israel-news","tag-israel-related-controversies","tag-israel-palestine-relations","tag-israeli-attacks-against-the-gaza-strip","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict-legal-issues","tag-israelis","tag-judaism-and-warfare","tag-middle-east","tag-military-of-israel","tag-military-operations-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-narrative","tag-palestine","tag-palestine-region","tag-politics-of-israel","tag-politics-of-palestine","tag-politics-of-palestine-region","tag-politics-of-the-arab-world","tag-politics-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-politics-of-the-middle-east","tag-reactions-to-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-religion-based-civil-wars","tag-society-of-palestine","tag-u-s-news","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}