Winning Hearts Then Minds

As I write, the western world is unusually supportive of Israel in its fight against Hamas – the outcome of horrifying scenes of over 1,000 innocents brutally raped, mutilated and murdered. But on social media, it is a steady regime of “Free Palestine” or far less innocuous slogans that we see. And many of us are worried, regardless of what world leaders may say and what friendly warships may signal. 

The ability of TikTok, YouTube and Instagram to glue us to our phones and to a constant slew of anti-Israel content can make even a diehard optimist feel unsafe. It is scary to see so much hatred, a mere three weeks after a massacre whose medieval goriness normal people cannot grasp. While there are many untenable comparisons to the Holocaust floating about in the wake of October 7th, social media content algorithms can make those comparisons feel apt. Because feelings will always trump fact, world support seems to recede into irrelevance. What people experience will always overpower what can be explained. And that is also why so many have gravitated to the Palestinian side. 

“People arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof … but on the basis of what they find attractive,” said Blaise Pascal, 300 years before the reemergence of Israel. We have yet to grasp it. As a result, abhorrent assertions about Israel have steadily morphed into common sense, especially among the young. It is high time that we move past our faulty assumptions – that we need to educate the world, and that where abstract argument and moralization fail, antisemitism must be the cause — and accept that public support can only be earned by understanding how the mind actually works.  

Public opinion is rooted firmly in a bedrock of emotion, of evolved irrationality, and only later decorated with fact. Marketers get this. The anti-Israel invective spouted on university campuses does not derive from false historical understanding, from ideology, or even, as we dismissively like to believe, from antisemitism. Those are largely outcomes of anti-Israel attitudes, not their cause. Anti-Israel sentiment is popular because it is made pleasant, in key psychological ways, to its target audience.  

Anti-Israel propaganda has for decades engineered mass emotional identification with Palestinians. It has done so by brazenly appropriating every culture’s sacred narratives and struggles: To black Americans, it presents itself as a fight against racism; to Mexican Americans, it frames Palestinians as barred from ancestral lands by a fence; to Natives, it reinvents Arab Palestinians as indigenous people uprooted from their peaceful shires by white colonialists. I could go on. The objective of this unrestrained theft of identity is to seduce, not to educate — it is to compel sympathy by providing counterfeit solidarity. Minorities fighting real struggles need friends and anti-Israel propaganda exploits that. 

Next, anti-Israel propaganda targets the powerful evolutionary reflex that is compassion: It systematically subjects audiences to pain by showing them suffering and dying children, far too often (but not, by any means, always) placed in danger by Hamas precisely for that purpose. None of us remains indifferent at the sight of Palestinian children suffering — nor should we. Outrage ought to eclipse reason when seeing children suffer. And anti-Israel propagandists exploit that innate compassion to skew our moral judgments.

Anti-Israel propaganda makes its messaging exceedingly easy to absorb, visual, short, rhythmical. It turns its weaponized content into junk food for our brains. 

Finally, and critically, anti-Israel propaganda makes its messaging exceedingly easy to absorb — visual, short, rhythmical. It turns its weaponized content into junk food for our brains. 

If we wish to garner justified sympathy among western publics, we must drop our failed approach and remember these rules:   

1 – Target the middle. Target those whose identity and passion are not tied up with the Palestinian struggle. Speak instead to people in neutral, nonpolitical discussions. 

2 – It’s not a debate. Proving we are smarter or more knowledgeable than others will not work. If we want to make friends, we must be friendly. 

3 – Don’t vent. Far too many advocates of Israel act as if saying what we want to hear from others or insulting our target audience is smart communication. Think Naftali Bennett. It most certainly is not. 

4 – It’s not about “what,” it’s about “who.” This is perhaps the most important rule and should form 80% of our strategy. Israelis have been dehumanized. They need to be humanized. Share and create posts that rebrand Israelis accurately: as similar in every way to the target audiences we seek to reach: Western, peace-loving children and families. Israelis hold the same values, experience the same struggles and have the same interests as young Americans. Stay away from soldiers and religious people – they are hard to relate to. If we can reclaim the “who” in people’s minds when they think of Israelis, the “what” (Israelis do and why) will flow automatically. 

5 – Similarly, we must expose and brand Hamas for who they are. Use their own words. Use the most gruesome videos they proudly shared. If people are made to feel due commonality with Israelis then experience the evil of Hamas, there will be a tipping point. Also, underline endlessly to the world that anti-Israel propaganda is fake news. 

6 – Don’t speak in abstracts, statistics and facts. Tell personal stories that convey the same information instead. Use your words to paint. Make it visualizable. Share a bit of the victims’ souls. 

7 – Keep it simple. Do NOT presume to teach history. Tell personal stories. Better yet, give your testimony. Tell people the emotions you are experiencing and why. 

8 – Be confident by being authentic. 

9 – Do not be forced into a corner. Ignore the attacks, do not be made to dance to the tune of accusations. Win others over instead. Make your own accusations. 

10 – Be repetitive. The brain learns from repetition. What is familiar is safe and easy to recall. So don’t indulge in the temptation to move to a new point after you’ve tired of the above. Stick to the plan. Remember the objective and how we, too, form opinions.

If we start to have this empathy for our audiences, understanding how we all actually adopt attitudes, we can transform the discourse on Israel.

If we start to have this empathy for our audiences, understanding how we all actually adopt attitudes, we can transform the discourse on Israel. In fact, we can even make peace a more realistic prospect. I have seen it in my work, all over the world.

Philippe Assouline is an opinion researcher and communication strategist who has led both political and election campaigns around the world. He is the CEO & Founder of PropellorIQ.