Boker tov, Eliyahu: Israel is finally waking up to its global image crisis - opinion

Gil Hoffman argues that Israelis are finally waking up to Israel's global image crisis, triggered by the film 'NAZA' winning a prize at the Venice Film Festival. He offers three reasons for the delayed realization: focus on military war, traditional Israeli optimism ('yihiye beseder'), and a 'kol ha'olam negdeinu' attitude. He calls for sustained public diplomacy efforts.

Gil Hoffman, former chief political correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and executive director of HonestReporting, argues that Israelis are finally waking up to Israel's global image crisis. The trigger, he writes, was the film 'NAZA' winning the special jury prize at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, which led prime-time newscasts and Hebrew newspapers. Hoffman offers three explanations for why it took so long: first, Israelis were busy with the military war on seven battlefields to deal with the media and narrative wars; second, traditional Israeli optimism ('yihiye beseder') led many to believe the anti-Israel wave was temporary; third, a self-defeating attitude ('kol ha'olam negdeinu') has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. He notes that the rise in funding for public diplomacy is a welcome step but calls for proactive, not just reactive, efforts. Hoffman recounts his own work with HonestReporting and the Creative Community for Peace to counter the film 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' during the Oscars. The piece is framed as a personal reflection on Israeli identity and a wake-up call to the nation.