Brand Israel is losing the Western PR war it should be winning. The problem is not the messengers. The problem is that Israel has no unified communications doctrine — five ministries, no plan, no budget alignment, no shared message. The State of Israel is getting outmaneuvered by BDS in the Western press while its own communications apparatus fights over turf inside the Prime Minister's Office.
Five Ministries, No Plan
Israeli hasbara is fragmented across the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, and the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. Each runs its own operation. None coordinates budget. None owns the brief.
Yair Lapid has called Israeli hasbara "spread out over five ministries, and none knows what the others are doing." The State Comptroller has said the same. The dysfunction is not new. It is entrenched.
The Budget Problem
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spends roughly eight percent of its budget on actual diplomatic activity. The rest goes to overhead, salaries, and property. Meanwhile the Ministry of Strategic Affairs — created to counter BDS — fights the Foreign Ministry for jurisdiction over the same file. Neither has enough to run a real global campaign. Neither will share what it has.
BDS Is Organized. Israel Is Not.
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement operates as a coordinated global network. Israel operates as five competing bureaucracies. On the op-ed page of The Guardian, in the UN committee room, on university campuses across the U.S. and U.K., BDS shows up with a message, a spokesperson, and a plan. Israel shows up with an inter-ministerial memo.
The Fix
The fix is not another ministry. The fix is a single national communications strategy with one owner, one budget, one message architecture, and clear operational authority. Every developed country that runs a serious national brand does this — the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia. Israel is the outlier, and it is paying for it every day the current structure holds.
Israel has the talent to win this fight. It has the diplomats, the operators, the diaspora network, and the moral argument. What it does not have is a unified doctrine.
Until that changes, politics in Israel will continue to hinder Brand Israel PR — and the country will continue to lose ground it should not be losing.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
