For decades, Jewish communities and the State of Israel have treated hasbara – public diplomacy and advocacy – as the primary response to antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and delegitimization campaigns. That framework, however, no longer matches the threat environment we are operating in.
What we face today is not merely bad messaging, reputational damage, or misunderstanding. It is something structurally different: a sustained cognitive warfare campaign that deliberately blurs the line between Jewish identity, Zionism, and the State of Israel – placing Jews globally into a defensive posture for actions and policies over which they have no control.
This distinction matters, because hasbara and cognitive warfare are not the same problem – and they cannot be handled by the same actors.
Peoplehood, statehood, and a broken division of responsibility
The Jewish world has long lived with a dual structure:
• Jews as a global people, connected by history, culture, religion, and identity
• Israel as a sovereign state, responsible for its own defense – physical, diplomatic, and strategic
This distinction has always been clear in military terms. No one suggests that Diaspora Jews are responsible for Israel’s air defense, border security, or intelligence operations: Israel defends itself.
But in the information and cognitive domain, the lines have quietly collapsed.
Diaspora Jews are increasingly expected – explicitly or implicitly – to defend Israel’s legitimacy, explain its wars, rebut its critics, and absorb backlash. At the same time, anti-Israel narratives are constructed to rebind Israel onto Jewish identity itself, regardless of citizenship, politics, or personal views.
This is not accidental: It is strategic.
When identity becomes the target
Consider a simple, unsettling scenario: a Jewish individual entering an airport in Paris, sitting in a restaurant in London, walking through Manhattan, or attending a conference in Sydney. No visible markers. No political discussion. Then a question:
“Are you Jewish?”
In an earlier era, that question might have reflected curiosity, culture, or faith. Today, many Jews experience it differently – as a prelude to categorization.
Are you a Zionist?
Are you pro-Israel?
Are you someone I should be wary of?
Jewish identity itself has been cognitively reframed as a proxy political position. The burden shifts instantly to the individual to clarify, disclaim, or defend – often publicly, often under pressure, sometimes under threat.
This is not a failure of hasbara: It is evidence of cognitive targeting.
Why ‘hasbara’ is the wrong tool for this threat
Traditional hasbara assumes:
• Facts can correct falsehoods
• Intent matters more than impact
• Reputational defense is primarily a communications challenge
Cognitive warfare operates on different rules.
Information warfare attacks what you know; cognitive warfare attacks who you are.
It is not about persuading the undecided. It is about conditioning environments – normalizing suspicion, laundering delegitimization through moral language, and eroding social trust. Repetition matters more than accuracy. Emotion outpaces evidence. Identity overrides argument.
Under these conditions, asking Diaspora Jews to “explain Israel better” is not only ineffective – it is irresponsible.
You do not ask civilians to intercept missiles. You do not ask volunteers to counter intelligence operations. And you should not ask global Jewish communities to defend themselves against an organized cognitive campaign targeting them as a class.
Stakeholders are not the same as defenders
This does not mean Diaspora Jews have no role. Jewish communities are stakeholders – deeply affected, morally invested, and socially exposed.
But stakeholders are not commanders.
Communities can and should:
• Strengthen resilience and internal cohesion
• Advocate for civil rights and personal safety
• Build alliances within democratic societies
What they cannot do – and should not be asked to do – is counter a coordinated, transnational cognitive warfare campaign whose design, scale, and adversaries operate at the state and quasi-state level.
That responsibility belongs to Israel.
Drawing the line in the sand
If anti-Zionism has become the dominant contemporary vehicle for antisemitism – and in many environments it has – then the response cannot remain fragmented across NGOs, student groups, rabbis, or social-media volunteers.
Cognitive warfare is a national-level threat. It requires:
• Intelligence analysis, not slogans
• Strategic coherence, not reactive talking points
• Pattern detection, not case-by-case outrage
Israel already understands this logic in every other domain of warfare. The information and cognitive domain should be no different.
This does not absolve Israel of criticism, nor does it require Diaspora Jews to agree with every Israeli policy. It simply restores a necessary principle: sovereign threats require sovereign responsibility.
Reframing the debate
The essential reframing is this:
Antisemitism today is not only hatred of Jews: It is a tool for destabilizing democratic societies, eroding confidence in information, and turning identity itself into suspicion. Antisemitism is the early warning system – but Jews and Israelis are not the only targets.
When antisemitism is treated solely as a Jewish problem, it becomes politicized and dismissed. When it is understood as a cognitive warfare vector, it is revealed for what it is: a threat to societal resilience and, potentially, an existential threat to Jews and Israel.
This challenge has been further complicated by the success of anti-Israel campaigns in obscuring responsibility among Western democratic leaders – seen in the political fallout following the Bondi Beach terror attack in Australia, or the exposure of troubling ideological alignments within the inner circles of major Western cities, even like New York City.
Conclusion
While hasbara still has a role, it is no longer sufficient – and it should no longer be the default response to a fundamentally different threat.
The global Jewish community should be engaged as stakeholders, protected as citizens, and empowered as participants in democratic life – not pressed into service as frontline defenders in a cognitive war they did not start.
Israel must draw the line clearly:
It defends itself militarily.
And it must defend itself – and the global Jewish community – cognitively.
And in doing so, Israel can finally expose those who invest in darkness and delegitimization. As an ancient people, when we say “Never Again,” we understand what is at stake. In the spirit of Dylan Thomas: we will not go gently into that good night; we will rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The author is an experienced global strategist for the public and private sectors. globalstrategist2020@gmail.com