{"id":207761,"date":"2026-07-15T10:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/207761\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T10:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:55:08","slug":"government-announces-new-masa-program-for-public-diplomacy-pro-israel-advocacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/207761\/","title":{"rendered":"Government announces new Masa program for public diplomacy, pro-Israel advocacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government approved on Tuesday the establishment of a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/jerusalem-report\/article-901694\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Masa<\/a> program called Masa Diplomacy, which will provide Jewish youth in the Diaspora with the knowledge, tools, and skills for Israel advocacy and public diplomacy in an international sphere, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/article-902490\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Foreign Affairs Ministry<\/a> announced in a joint press release.<\/p>\n<p>The program, proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Affairs Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/gideon-saar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gideon Sa\u2019ar<\/a>, stemmed from the rising antisemitism and disinformation surrounding Israel, the government said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The government also approved a joint allocation of NIS 1 million to sponsor scholarships for roughly 70 participants in the 2026-2027 academic year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Masa Diplomacy will provide its participants with content days on online advocacy, workshops to develop their public speaking skills, educational tours, seminars led by active diplomats and other experts, and a capstone project evaluated by MFA officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Beyond its educational opportunities, \u2018Masa Diplomacy\u2019 will further strengthen its participants\u2019 connection to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The program will be approximately six weeks long.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cWe will continue to invest in strengthening the bond with Diaspora Jewry and in solidifying Israel&#8217;s status and strength in the world,\u201d Netanyahu said. He added that young Diaspora Jews play a central role in pushing back against antisemitism and incitement against the State of Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;We ascribe utmost importance to deepening the connection and dialogue with the young leadership of Diaspora Jewry,\u201d Sa\u2019ar said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Masa Diplomacy stemmed from a successful pilot project led by Masa and the Foreign Affairs Ministry during the 2025-2026 academic year. Its high demand encouraged \u2018Masa\u2019 to turn the initiative into a permanent program, \u2018Masa Diplomacy.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;We welcome the Government&#8217;s decision, which reflects the understanding that diplomacy begins with young people from around the world who choose to come to Israel,\u201d CEO of Masa Meir Holtz said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/masa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Masa<\/a> was launched 22 years ago as a joint project of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Prime Minister\u2019s Office to connect young Jews ages 16 to 40 with life in Israel through gap year, internship, and volunteer programs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Sa\u2019ar also commented, \u201cThe &#8216;Masa Diplomacy&#8217; program is a unique educational platform that allows leading young people to learn about the country&#8217;s challenges firsthand, and to build solid bridges and discourse between Israel and the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government approved on Tuesday the establishment of a new Masa program called Masa Diplomacy, which will provide&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[41,817,5740,32990,37,60390,26747,15893],"class_list":["post-207761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-gideon-saar","tag-hasbara","tag-israel","tag-masa","tag-masa-israel","tag-public-diplomacy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116923631046550580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207761","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=207761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}