On March 2, 2025, hours after the Israeli government announced the blockade of all food, medicine, fuel, and other humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza, lawmakers in Jerusalem demanded answers—not on the devastating human toll of such a decision, but on how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was preparing to handle the public relations fallout.
Publicly available government contracts show that Israel’s advertising bureau, which reports to the prime minister’s office, has since embarked on a mass advertising and public messaging effort to deal with the “hunger crisis.” The push includes the use of American influencers and also includes a high-dollar spending spree on paid advertising, yielding tens of millions for Google, YouTube, X, Meta, and other tech platforms.
“There is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie,” asserted a propaganda video published by Israel’s foreign ministry to Google’s YouTube video sharing platform in late August and viewed more than 6 million times.
This is one example of a public relations undertaking that is severely overdue. Israel has a lot of work to do in order to make future campaigns successful – and – impactful. Waiting for the enemies to spew their anti-Semitic hate-filled lies first is too late in today’s world of information wars where attacks against Israel have drawn so many in. It’s one thing for Israel to combat the propaganda with facts right after the demonization goes viral. However, the truth from Israel should come out FAST and FIRST in order for Israel to get ahead of the eight ball and win the information wars. Israel must significantly improve its public relations. Proactive, widespread campaigns are crucial to win the information war against rapidly spreading anti-Semitic falsehoods. While somewhat effective at refuting prominent false narratives, Israel needs to disseminate accurate information promptly to prevent misinformation from taking hold and achieving viral reach.