‘Pretty infantile’: Public diplomacy mavens pan FM for insulting world leaders on X
Top ‘hasbara’ activists say Israel Katz’s habit of lampooning heads of state on social media is ineffective, perceived as unserious and ‘just adds fuel to the flame’
Israel Katz’s troll statecraft has raised many public diplomats’ eyebrows, including those of famed eyebrow-raiser Eylon Levy.
“The foreign minister’s tweets are pretty infantile,” Levy told Channel 12 on Wednesday. “I don’t know who told Minister Katz that AI is the next frontier in public diplomacy and needs to be used, but the tweets that insult foreign leaders harm us.”
The foreign minister’s feed on X is a collage of one-liners and AI-generated images lampooning world leaders critical of Israel.
Levy took particular issue with Katz’s July 28 tweet in response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s apparent threat to invade Israel over the war in Gaza.
“Erdogan is going the way of Saddam Hussein and threatening to attack Israel,” wrote Katz. “He should just recall what happened there and how that ended.”
The United States deposed Hussein in 2003 and Iraq hanged the former strongman three years later.
ארדואן הולך בדרכו של סדאם חוסיין ומאיים לתקוף את ישראל. רק שיזכור מה קרה שם ואיך זה הסתיים.@RTErdogan pic.twitter.com/6GykLtLoh4
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) July 28, 2024
“I don’t understand the foreign minister’s mindset,” said Levy. “Is he threatening Turkey with an American invasion? What is the point of this tweet? This doesn’t seem like the way to engage the US in a really burning issue.”
Levy is the head of the Israeli Citizen Spokesperson’s Office, a private grouping of activists in hasbara — Hebrew for “explaining.”
Until March, he led the government’s English-language outreach efforts. In that capacity, he went viral for his visible shock at an odd line of criticism of Israel in a November interview with Sky News.
Other veteran public diplomats shared Levy’s assessment of Katz. Yoseph Haddad, a leading Arabic-language hasbara activist, told Channel 12 that Katz’s conduct “is mainly a joke on Arabic [social] media.”
“A hasbara activist can allow themselves to talk that way on social media,” said Haddad. “A foreign minister is expected to do it much more statesmanlike.”
Some of Katz’s most controversial posts — which were reportedly “met with a mixture of bafflement and eye-rolling” in the Foreign Ministry — came in late May, in response to a decision by Spain, Ireland and Norway to recognize Palestinian statehood.
The foreign minister drew angry reactions from Dublin and Madrid for posting AI-generated videos of flamenco and Irish dancers, with captions claiming Hamas thanked the two countries for their pro-Palestinian gesture.
Shai Atias, a political science researcher at Bar Ilan University, favored the use of AI, but had some caveats.
“Israel needs to develop AI tools to strengthen Israeli diplomacy,” said Atias. “In the current situation, there is a yes and a no.”
A definite no, for example, is “ridiculing Irish culture.”
Ireland, if your goal was to reward terrorism by declaring support for a Palestinian state, you’ve achieved it.@SimonHarrisTD, Hamas thanks you for your service. pic.twitter.com/mgz7ZGtnCi
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) May 23, 2024
“The moment things look like children’s schoolyard insults, it doesn’t work for us,” said Atias.
Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the US, said Israeli diplomacy needed to prioritize substance.
In the case of Katz’s tweet against NATO-member Turkey, there were more effective ways for Israel, a NATO partner, to object to Erdogan’s threats, Oren said.
“It’s just adding fuel to the fire, and that’s not what is needed right now,” said Oren.
“A response is no substitute for action, and there is room for action. I trust Ambassador Mike Herzog to know what to do,” added Oren, referring to Israel’s current envoy in Washington.
