PM acknowledges public diplomacy shortcomings over Gaza war, says efforts must be adapted to digital age

Asked during tonight’s press conference with local media about Israel’s performance in the battle for global public opinion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledges shortcomings in the Public Diplomacy Directorate of the Prime Minister’s Office, which has not had a director for over a year.

“There is a public diplomacy directorate — it simply doesn’t operate according to the absurd bureaucratic dictates of our system, which is stuck in the 1980s — it’s literally still in the 1980s,” Netanyahu says.

“We have serious public diplomacy challenges,” he continues, “and the most serious of them is, first of all, the continuation of the war.”

“This war has dragged on, but it has in fact achieved results that are truly game-changing… across the Middle East. So you pay a price. The best way not to pay the price is to shorten the war. That’s exactly what I want to do now, by eliminating Hamas’s last remaining strongholds” through the recently approved plan to occupy Gaza City, he says.

Netanyahu argues that public perception efforts, headed by the Foreign Ministry, were effective in supporting public relations during the June war against Iran, as it was a short and decisive conflict.

“The Foreign Ministry has a huge budget of hundreds of millions of shekels for propaganda tools — which I won’t detail here — and they’re important; they’re important in the digital age,” he continues, adding that the effort is headed by Foreign Ministry Director-General Eden Bar Tal, and includes a cross-agency team that works around the clock.

He adds that “it is completely clear that we will have to enter the digital era — to address the issue of algorithms, bots and other means,” which he claims also play a significant role in promoting anti-Israel narratives in the media.