The Communication War Runs Through Culture

Our enemies in the communication war on Israel and the Jewish people have just initiated three game-changers and we’re still not waking up: 

1. Coachella, where they have infiltrated the music world. 

2. Michael Moore’s new documentary, where they have infiltrated Hollywood. 

3. Jewish comedian Hannah Einbinder’s speech accepting the Human Rights Award, where they have infiltrated our own people. 

These game-changers have shoved us into new territory. And we don’t have anything close to Waze or Google Maps to map a destination. 

What is that territory? Culture. Culture creates and defines the values of a generation. Culture leaders are the generation’s heroes. Our enemies have figured out how to invade culture, speaking convincingly through cultural icons to millions of a new generation, tomorrow’s decision-makers. 

The Coachella Music Festival is held annually outside of Palm Springs, California. It draws thousands every year and features both established and up-and-coming artists. This year, a group from Ireland, Kneecap, drew among the largest crowds. 

On April 18, the group closed their set by projecting a huge electronic billboard proclaiming: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes. F–k Israel; free Palestine.” They then led the thousands in the crowd to chant, “Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine.” 

Then there’s Academy Award-winning Michael Moore, probably the most famous documentarian in the world, and his new film, “The Encampments,” released a month ago. It’s about last year’s pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses. As one viewer of the film enthused: 

“Went to see THE ENCAMPMENTS in NYC — it blew me away. One of the best docs I’ve seen in years. It’s about the campus encampment movement last spring that ignited right here at Columbia University and spread like wildfire in campuses throughout the U.S. — with thousands upon thousands of students participating in our Democracy, in acts of civil disobedience, to stand against the GENOCIDE of the Palestinian people being funded with our tax dollars.”

Then there’s Hannah Einbinder, the famous young comedian and co-star of Emmy Award-winning show “Hacks.” Accepting the Human Rights Campaign Award last week, Einbinder opined: “As a queer person, as a Jewish person, and as an American I am horrified by the Israeli government’s massacre of well over 65,000 Palestinians.”

All this in one month. These three examples are only the beginning volleys of our enemies’ next strategy. 

And what is our response? I’ve been significantly involved in the morass of how we Jews are communicating to the world since Oct. 7. It’s a mess. 

While our enemies keep moving forward, we’re bogged down in research, research and more research dedicated to how we should respond. There are now millions of dollars being spent by at least 40 different Jewish groups in research. They don’t even collaborate or share with one another. I’ve had to sign NDA’s, participating in different research presentations — not because I may share the findings with our enemies, but because no one wants their findings shared with their fellow Jews outside their circles. Each group believes that their research has uncovered the absolute truths of how we need to proceed and the others have not. 

Jews in high places keep urging me to stop harping on collaboration, that Jews will never collaborate with one another. I refuse. Because I know, from my 50 years as a practitioner and professor of communication … our enemies are collaborating. And that is how they are winning. 

Dan Senor, one of the authors of The New York Times best seller “Startup Nation,” just interviewed Ari Shavit, Israeli journalist and author of The New York Times best seller,
“My Promised Land.” Shavit is now saying that the path forward if we are to survive and thrive is for Jews in Israel and the diaspora to start over, put aside our differences and begin working together. There will be other voices in this chorus. Accepting noncollaboration may be an old model. 

Another communication challenge we face is that every Jewish group out there is talking about leading from their research with branding, messaging and social media. Our enemies are leading with extraordinary creativity, pouring it into ideas that engage millions … .and then the messaging follows. We’ve got it backwards while they keep moving forward, forward and more forward. 

And then there are the hundreds if not thousands of Jewish/Israeli organizations, initiatives and social media mavens already enacting their own plans, competing with one another for followers, programs, volunteers and funding — duplicating actions, with each believing they alone possess the breakthrough weapon to win this battle. I’ve spoken to members of the Israeli government. They won’t even share or collaborate between their ministries. 

And then there are all the hundreds of beginning organizations and initiatives demanding proposals, decks, budgets, spec work, and then revision after revision to the proposals, decks, budgets, spec work, and revisions to the revisions of the revisions. 

All of this: prescription for disaster. 

Does anyone seriously believe that this is how our enemies are conducting their winning campaign? Does anyone realize the urgency of moving forward, now — that we are losing ground every day? 

People keep asking me what the solution is. We cannot talk solution until we talk process. Some may consider this unrealistic, but this I believe is the process: 

1. Hello, President of Israel Isaac Herzog. You have the stature, credibility and position.  If you call a meeting, people will attend. Demand collaboration. Explain why collaboration. The stakes are too high for this chaos to continue. 

2. Stop all the new research. We have enough. Explain to the research people what we have to lose if they don’t put their existing research on the table and share. Divide all this research into two sections. Section A: How are our enemies conducting their campaign? Section B: How we should be conducting our campaign. Then, select a group to go through all the research and pick out the 10 most important and valuable directions of each section. No more. I know from my years of marketing that more than that will paralyze creative thinking. 

3. Assemble a group of the Jewish people’s most creative individuals from strategy, marketing, media, film, writing, design, dance, fashion, tech, culinary, photography, art and other disciplines. We’re ultimately going to win this war on creativity — something the Jewish people do very well. Find the best facilitator. Lay down hard and fast rules of creative collaboration. Tell the group to leave their fame and prima donna creative egos outside the door, that no one of them has the answer and only together can they create it. Again, there is too much to lose. Give the group two days to organize themselves, to create a machine.  Pay them to be in a room for two weeks together, based on the decided 10 points of research, to create the powerful, big ideas that have never been thought of before, with no limits or boundaries, and have them build the campaign around them. 

4. There should be no client — no funders, no Jews in high places. They don’t know what to do. If they did, they would already have done it. Let the creative people lead and make the decisions. (That would be our internal Jewish organizational game changer.) 

5. Based on what they create, define a budget and find the funders. 

6. Go. Implement. Evaluate. 

Hey, fellow Jews and Zionists. Call me crazy and unrealistic. Right now, to begin winning this communication war, we need crazy and unrealistic. If two years ago, you had told people Israel was planning to blow up pagers, they would have thought you were nuts.

Gary Wexler was recently honored by the National Library of Israel with the creation of The Gary Wexler Archive, a 20-year history of Jewish life told through the advertising campaigns he created for Jewish organizations in the US, Canada and Israel.