Israel is “failing miserably” in the communications war against Hamas and needs to take the deteriorating situation, fueled by a trillion-dollar campaign by Qatar, much more seriously, the president of the World Jewish Congress’s Israel Region said on Wednesday.
“On the physical war, we have done miracles with things that seem like science fiction, but on the communications war, we are failing miserably,” Sylvan Adams told JNS at his Tel Aviv home on the sidelines of a charitable event that he was hosting for Make-a-Wish Israel.
“It is getting worse and worse out there for us, and this is unveiled through terrible antisemitism worldwide,” he added.
He called the media war a “strategic existential threat” that is no less severe than the actual war on the ground.
“We need to take this much more seriously,” he said. “We have smart people and need to harness them to fight back against a trillion-dollar campaign against us by Qatar,” referencing the Gulf state that, alongside Egypt, has served as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas.
The Canadian-Israeli real estate billionaire, who made aliyah in 2015, has worked to change Israel’s image among non-Jews through high-profile sports and cultural activities.
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Also on Wednesday, the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, which Adams owns, was targeted during the Vuelta a España in northeastern Spain, when pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to block the Israeli riders from their path.
Several people can be seen in video footage holding a banner with the inscription “Neutrality is complicity. Boycott Israel” in Catalan, before being removed by race officials.
The Israeli cycling group was previously targeted during the Tour de France on July 16.
Adams said at the charitable event marking Make-a-Wish Israel’s 30th anniversary that despite the surge of Jew-hatred worldwide, Israel is safer today than it was on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched the surprise invasion and terrorist atrocities that triggered the nearly two-year-old war in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that Israel was losing the media war, noting that “we will win the propaganda war by winning the war and winning the peace.”
