HONIG: Israel must establish an international PR team to tackle global misinformation

(JNS) — The United Nations was established with the aim of sustaining global peace and security, and fostering cooperation between nations on economic, social and humanitarian issues.

It’s time for Israel to demand that the U.N. finally live up to those founding principles.

Unfortunately, Israel’s current strategy of playing defense at the U.N. and on the global stage in general is not effective. It makes Jews look weak and accomplishes nothing, given that the U.N. continues to dehumanize Jews and devalue Jewish lives through an endless series of anti-Israel resolutions.

Israel must recognize that it is facing a highly effective public relations campaign by Hamas and other terrorist groups. These groups expertly manipulate the narrative, portraying themselves as victims rather than aggressors, and their numerous supporters at the U.N. and elsewhere are happy to amplify these lies.

To achieve this, Israel must put internal politics aside and create a strong global PR team. Thus far, Israel has failed to establish such a team to counteract the spread of disinformation on the international level. It is time for Israel to reassess its approach and take charge of the narrative.

This team should adopt the principle that Israel does not have to prove itself to anyone anymore. The evidence of barbarism and terror inflicted upon its citizens is abundantly clear to anyone. Moreover, trying to convince the U.N. to change will not have the desired effect. The body is tainted by the racism of member-states with thousands of years of Jewish blood on their hands—all sitting under one roof in the name of peace. Attempts at persuasion may, in fact, make Israel and the Jewish people appear weak. We must recognize that we are trying to gain sympathy from countries that have almost all, at some point, murdered innocent Jews.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’s recent statement justifying Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities and war crimes should be more than enough to convince us that attempts at persuasion, rather than aggressive shaming, will be ineffective.

This is why Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan’s decision to expose a horrifying video of the Oct. 7 attacks, hoping it would serve as a wake-up call to the international community, was a mistake. What did it accomplish?

One would expect that such savagery would shock the world and result in a resounding denunciation from the U.N. Needless to say, it didn’t. It was painful to witness Israel’s ambassador desperately pleading with the U.N. to recognize the barbarism of Hamas and the real threats that Israel faces on multiple fronts. The U.N. knows all of this already. It just doesn’t care.

Israel should stop trying to prove what everybody knows: That it is a victim of terror. The U.N. is well aware of this as well, and it still doesn’t care. Instead, Israel should aggressively accuse the U.N. of failing to live up to its own alleged principles. By holding the U.N. accountable and berating it for its corruption and hypocrisy, Israel can highlight the biased treatment it receives and shame the U.N. into changing its deplorable behavior.

Duvi Honig is founder and chief executive officer of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF VIN NEWS.