It is similarly the job of Israeli diplomats to demand an accounting by Palestinians. Israeli officials should be pointing their fingers at the Palestinians and their supporters and demanding to know why they deserve support after having transformed their own society into a jihadist entity dedicated to Israel’s eradication, to the destruction of the U.S. and of the West and to the subjugation of Christians, women, and homosexuals. Israel will build international sympathy for its cause among its potential supporters across the political spectrum when it reframes the public debate on the Arab-Israel conflict in a manner that places the spotlight on the Palestinians and their barbarism and hatred. This is about them. It is not about our beaches.
At the same time, as the experience of millions of Tibetans and Darfur Sudanese attests, international sympathy is not the goal of diplomacy. International support is the goal of diplomacy. It is not sufficient for Israel to simply explain why it has a right and a duty to defeat the forces of global jihad seeking to destroy it.
Israel’s public diplomacy challenge is to explain to the world how jihadist violence against Israel breeds jihadist violence in Paris, Brussels, London, Melbourne, Madrid and New York, and how Israeli victories over jihadists in Ramallah, Gaza, Beirut and Tehran enhance the security of the rest of the free world. That is, Israel will be successful diplomatically not because it tells people that it is a fun place, but because it explains to people why Israel’s success is related to their own success.
Israel doesn’t need to reinvent itself. All it needs to do is tell the truth.