Israel’s 'hasbara' overhaul raises questions over who is in charge - opinion

OCTOBER 26, 2026 19:00On Sunday, July 12, a debate took place in the Knesset on a subject that the parliament rarely discusses: the work of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate; in other words, Israel’s hasbara.The Knesset’s own account of the debate conceded that it was occurring “after years of instability.” That was the least of the fundamental, indeed institutional, problems revealed.Eden Bar Tal, director-general of the Foreign Ministry, openly admitted to the committee that, until the end of 2024, public diplomacy had scarcely featured in the ministry’s mission. Its concerns had historically been “almost solely diplomatic.”Only from the end of 2025, in accordance with a permanent government resolution, did communications and public diplomacy acquire priority. “Public diplomacy,” Bar Tal declared, “is now the main role of the Foreign Ministry.”The change in government policy was backed by a dramatic budget increase. “In previous years, public diplomacy activity amounted to NIS 25 million-NIS 27 million per year for the Foreign Ministry throughout the world,” Bar Tal revealed. “In effect, it was zero resources. Today, the budget that was set amounts to about NIS 1.2 billion.”This extraordinary turnaround is almost certainly due to the appointment in April, shortly after completing her five-year term as Israel’s ambassador to the UK, of Tzipi Hotovely as head of Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate. In the few months she has held office, she has been heavily involved in rebuilding the organization she inherited, as well as actively mounting two vitally important promotional campaigns.Tzipi Hotovely poses for a picture at her office in Jerusalem on February 19, 2020. (credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)She told the Knesset committee that on taking up her post she had discovered substantial organizational problems. “I want to say directly and candidly that I discovered great difficulties,” she said, “but we are rebuilding the directorate.”However, merely reconstructing the directorate that Hotovely now heads, essential as that is, may not create the well-functioning and effective national hasbara operation the nation urgently requires. It is the overall organizational set-up that seems problematic.For example, two distinct bodies within the Israeli administration are rendered in English as “Public Diplomacy Directorate.” The National Public Diplomacy Directorate, headed by Hotovely, sits in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Its name in Hebrew includes hasbara.The Foreign Ministry’s Public Diplomacy Department is a separate unit within that ministry. The word “National” is attached only to Hotovely’s unit.Her organization is charged with setting and coordinating public diplomacy policy right across government, including the Foreign Ministry, the IDF, the intelligence agencies, the police, and the Government Press Office.The Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, which operates its own Public Diplomacy Department, conducts Israel’s diplomacy abroad, supports Israeli embassies, manages media relations and digital outreach, promotes cultural and scientific cooperation, and relations with Jewish communities.Moreover, as Bar Tal informed the Knesset committee, it is the Foreign Ministry that administers the principal public diplomacy budget.Since the two bodies operate in the same broad policy field, questions must arise about the boundaries between their respective responsibilities.How is this arrangement, which looks like a recipe for operational confusion and inter-departmental rivalry, meant to operate?The current relationship is best described as coordination rather than command. Hotovely’s National Directorate is a senior-level coordinating body operating from within the PMO, while the Foreign Ministry is both a participant in that coordination and an implementing ministry with its own overseas public diplomacy apparatus.In practice, the National Directorate convenes a national public diplomacy forum bringing together representatives from across government. The Foreign Ministry’s Public Diplomacy Department then translates policy into work carried out through embassies and consulates, such as press engagement, digital diplomacy, branding, briefings, cultural and scientific diplomacy, and responses to hostile narratives such as Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns.The arrangement is not necessarily dysfunctional, since national coordination and diplomatic implementation can be complementary functions. But the arrangement strikes an outside observer as fragmented and lacking a clear management structure.Is this division of labor supported by sufficiently clear lines of authority? If not, there is the risk of duplication, competing priorities and uncertainty over accountability.In “rebuilding” her directorate, Hotovely will certainly have in mind the potential problems posed by the current set-up.Meanwhile, she has not allowed the grass to grow under her feet. In September, she mounted a major publicity campaign in New York ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the UN General Assembly. Around 500 billboards and dozens of trucks with digital screens were deployed, alongside online promotion. The messaging focused on Iran’s security threat, the US-Israel partnership, and the argument that Israel and the US were defending the free world.In October, Hotovely was heavily engaged in promoting a film that countered the anti-Israel messages in the film NAZA, which claimed that the collateral death toll in the Israel-Hamas war was deliberate and institutionalized Israeli military policy. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.Hotovely presented certificates of appreciation to the creators of NAZA – The Real Story, a film featuring Israeli military personnel’s testimony, and intended to rebut accusations concerning the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza.The film was available free online, and on October 14 the Algemeiner reported “it has already been viewed more than 43 million times, according to the site.”Eylon Levy, a former spokesperson in the National Public Diplomacy Directorate, spoke to the Knesset committee in July.'Waging a delegitimization campaign against us'“Regrettably, in the past few years, our enemies have been playing on an empty field,” he said. “The most prestigious organizations around the world are waging a delegitimization campaign against us, aimed at persuading normative people that we deserve to be destroyed, but we aren’t returning fire.”Hotovely is supremely well-qualified for the job she has taken on. Her career has combined domestic Israeli politics, diplomacy, and public advocacy abroad, and the Israeli cabinet unanimously approved her appointment. If anyone can construct the effective hasbara operation that Israel so desperately needs, it is Hotovely.Whatever the political hue of the government that emerges as a result of this week’s election, the nation would be well served if she remains in post.The writer, a former senior civil servant, is the Middle East correspondent for Eurasia Review. Follow him at: www.a-mid-east-journal.blogspot.comFollow us on Google