Despite all our best efforts, we are failing at the narrative war. So it’s time to switch tactics. Israelis and their supporters must learn to speak to the people they can win back, instead of attempting to convince those who are a lost cause. For years, pro-Israel advocacy has relied on defensive scripts:
“We are the indigenous people,” “Islamist extremism threatens the West,” or “We need a national home to prevent a second Holocaust.”While historically and morally grounded, these arguments increasingly fall on deaf ears. The simplest, most potent argument for Israel isn’t about ancient history—it is about contemporary alignment:
The people who hate Israel are generally wrong about everything else.
2+Politics is ultimately an exercise in coalition-building, and falsehoods rarely travel in isolation. Ideological extremism comes in packages. In Western politics, those who consistently oppose the State of Israel overwhelmingly champion far-left policies or Islamist governance that undermine societal stability, economic freedom, and democratic norms. Conversely, the core conservative pillars that correlate with pro-Israel alignment—support for free markets, individual liberty, institutional stability, traditional values, and national pride—are the very foundations that allow Western societies to flourish.
Consider the geopolitical alignment. The primary nation-states leading the anti-Israel vanguard—Iran, Syria, China, North Korea, and their proxies—are among the most repressive, economically stagnant, and illiberal places on Earth. Their hostility to Israel is not an isolated policy stance; it is the natural extension of Islamic governance or socialist tyranny. Conversely, when nations realign toward conservative leadership, it often coincides with broader economic and institutional renewal. A prominent modern example is Argentina under Javier Milei, where a sharp pivot toward free-market reform went hand-in-hand with a firm alignment alongside Israel and the West.
2+When zooming in on the anti-Israel voices in America, the picture is even clearer: the political radicals are all pro-’Palestine.’ The catastrophic wave of far-left Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) politicians are the most outspoken critics of the Jewish state, joined by allied influencers like Maoist streamer Hasan Piker. The most radical politicians in America—like NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, along with Representatives Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib—have hurled the most absurd accusations against the Jewish state while calling for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extradition to the ICC.
On the far right, the most outspoken anti-Israel voices are being actively pushed out of the conservative movement, ostracized precisely because their hostility toward Israel comes bundled with broader conspiratorial thinking that mainstream voters reject. Figures like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Marjorie Taylor Greene have seen their standing falter among mainstream Republicans as they repeat false claims of genocide in the Gaza Strip. The conspiratorial fringe is not conservative—and mainstream conservatives know it. Meanwhile, support for Israel remains an anchor for rock-ribbed conservatives like Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis, as well as stalwart center-left Democrats like John Fetterman.
2+In a time when Israel needs to win back support from average Westerners, the best strategy may simply be to amplify our critics. The worst ideas always cluster together. A single ‘Palestinian’ flag flown at an anti-ICE protest speaks volumes more than a lackluster television appearance, a dense policy paper, or even a viral “Ben Shapiro destroys” exchange.
The radicals who don’t know what a woman is also believe that IDF dogs rape prisoners. The communists who wish to seize the means of production also wish to see Israel destroyed. The activists who make absurd “land acknowledgments” against “settler colonialism” are the same voices calling to “free ‘Palestine’.” The murder of Charlie Kirk and the October 7 massacre were cheered on by the same extremists.
Most tellingly of all, when radical mobs take to the streets of Western capitals, American and Israeli flags are burned in the same fire.