{"id":241320,"date":"2026-08-08T21:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/241320\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:03:08","slug":"erdan-israeli-govt-abandoned-pr-war-needs-hasbara-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/241320\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdan: Israeli gov’t abandoned PR war, needs \u2018hasbara army\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

New right-wing party leader and former Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called for Israel to create an \u201carmy of hasbara<\/a>\u201d led by a public diplomacy \u201cchief of staff\u201d and said that the government had \u201cabandoned\u201d the battle over Israel\u2019s global image.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need an army of hasbara (public diplomacy) and PR that would be led by \u2018Ramatkal\u2019 (IDF chief of staff) of hasbara,\u201d Erdan told The Jerusalem Post following his Thursday announcement that he was launching a new right-wing party<\/a>. \u201cIt never happened. You don’t have it. You have only one agency here, one agency there. You have few people with little money. They can’t fight with their arms tied behind their backs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erdan attributed Israel\u2019s current public diplomacy problems, at least in part, to what he described as government neglect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israeli government abandoned maybe one of the most important battles that we were supposed to fight: the fight for the truth and the narrative,\u201d Erdan said.<\/p>\n

Erdan blamed the government\u2019s approach for having \u201cled up to the situation that right now\u201d where Israel is bleeding support from both American Democrats<\/a> and younger Republicans.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer UN ambassador Gilad Erdan at a press conference in Tel Aviv announcing the establishment of a new right-wing party under his and MK Yuli Edelstein’s leadership ahead of the upcoming general elections, August 6, 2026. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

He said he had been told directly by leaders of Turning Point USA<\/a>, the conservative advocacy nonprofit founded by late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, that Israel was \u201closing the young generation of the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018comprehensive plan\u2019 for fighting the narrative war<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I know exactly what should be done,\u201d Erdan continued. \u201cI have a comprehensive plan on how we should work there to portray Israel in the right way, how to be on the offensive, how to expose the true face of our enemies, Qatar and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot from what SJP and others have been doing against us to delegitimize Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked how Israel could turn around the narrative war, Erdan pointed in part to what he described as a major funding gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived at the UN as the ambassador, I was shocked at my public diplomacy budget,\u201d he said. \u201cIt started with $10,000 for public activities in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel’s diplomatic missions lack effective resources<\/p>\n

Despite Israel maintaining an embassy and eight consulates across the US, Erdan argued that its diplomatic missions lacked the resources needed for effective public diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Erdan contrasted Israel\u2019s public diplomacy spending with that of Qatar, which he said had successfully invested in \u201csoft diplomacy\u201d in the US despite having a much smaller economy.<\/p>\n

According to the World Bank Group, Israel\u2019s GDP stood at $610.78 billion last year, compared with Qatar\u2019s $215.56 billion.<\/p>\n

Given Israel\u2019s nominal GDP advantage, Erdan said, \u201cif they can spend on soft diplomacy and legitimize their crimes and whitewash, pinkwash, whatever you want to call it, their image,\u201d Israel should be capable of mounting a much better-funded and more effective public diplomacy effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New right-wing party leader and former Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called for Israel to create…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[1275,29767,32990,37,81,271,1288,33452,51],"class_list":["post-241320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-democrats","tag-gilad-erdan","tag-hasbara","tag-israel","tag-politics","tag-qatar","tag-republicans","tag-turning-point-usa","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117061917541769307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241320","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=241320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}