This is the Forward’s coverage of hasbara (which translates roughly to “explaining”), a key component of Israel’s public relations strategy.
Hasbara
The Latest
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Opinion Walking Out On Birthright Was The Right Thing To Do
Last week, five participants of Birthright walked out on the program and straight onto a tour of the segregated city of Hebron with IDF veterans from Breaking the Silence, where they saw what Birthright desperately tried to hide. They saw the checkpoints, the streets Palestinians aren’t allowed to walk on and the caged windows that…
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Fast Forward After Gaza Deaths, Israeli Leaders Are Asking Where Their PR Went Wrong
JERUSALEM (JTA) — When the smoke from the rifles of Israeli sharpshooters and the firebombs thrown by Gaza Palestinians cleared in the wake of the Palestinian March of Return, there were at least 15 Palestinians dead and hundreds of protesters injured. Israel, meanwhile, had a huge PR mess. Israeli troops “overreacted” Friday in confronting thousands…
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Opinion Michael Oren’s Conspiratorial Hasbara Is More Common Than You Think
We’re living in an age hospitable to conspiracy theories. Surely everyone knows someone with these tendencies. Maybe it’s your wacky uncle who believes the pyramids were really built by aliens, or the taxi driver who takes the opportunity to explain how the entire world is really controlled by a cabal of seven Jewish families. Or…
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Fast Forward Security Flaw In Israeli Propaganda App Exposed User Data
An app designed to help users spread pro-Israel messages on social media contained a security flaw that exposed the email addresses of its users, The Intercept reported Friday. Act.il was developed by three pro-Israel groups that receive funding from Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson. It has been a pet obsession of Israeli Minister of Strategic…
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News Making A Sexy Pitch For Israel
“Welcome to BDS News! Where we pretend to care about Palestinians, but really just want to see Israel disappear!” Thus opens one of the videos the Israeli government hopes will go viral in what is billed as a new large-scale “cyber second strike” campaign. Supported and spearheaded by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, the campaign…
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Fast Forward After Super Bowl Win, This New England Patriots Star Says: ‘I’m Going to Israel’
A New England Patriots tight end is heading to Israel after the team’s historic win on a hasbara, or Israeli public relations tour for American football players. Martellus Bennett will be joined by 11 other football players from teams including the Seattle Seahawks, the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders. His Jewish teammate Julian Edelman,…
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Opinion Campaign To Sell Israel With ‘Hotties’ Reaches New Low
I am not a fan of The Israel Project (TIP) for the simple reason that it suffers from the same delusion that plagues FOX News: the one where you claim to be a “,” but do all you can to misdirect any criticism that might challenge your prejudices and lead to real, lasting dialogue. In…
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Fast Forward How Israel Sells Itself With Sex
Some people visit Israel for the holy sites. Some visit Israel as a political statement. Some visit Israel because they think Israelis are “hot.” Disagree? Well, the Israeli Tourism Ministry and City of Tel Aviv do not. Recently, Israel’s economic capital held a Winter Gay Festival advertised using not just a sand-snowman, but also posters…
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Fast Forward Hegseth says ‘no more beardos’ in the military. What about religious exemptions?
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News Hundreds of Northwestern students can’t register for class because they won’t watch an antisemitism training video. Here’s what’s in it.
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Fast Forward The ADL doesn’t speak for New York Jews’ concerns, says Zohran Mamdani
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News Why was Netanyahu wearing a QR code at the UN, and where did it lead?
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Fast Forward Hamas says it’s ready to release all Israeli hostages but does not offer clear ‘yes’ to Trump’s plan
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Fast Forward In Saudi Arabia, Dave Chappelle jokes that ‘I stand with Israel’ would be his code for censorship
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Opinion Two years after Oct. 7, even Israelis are losing faith in Israel
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Fast Forward Israel to spend up to $4.1 million on Christian PR campaign in western U.S., filings show
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