When your country has been invaded and over a thousand of your people have been murdered, do you:
A. Smash Those Responsible
B. Focus on Your Reputation
America initially went with A after 9/11, and then decided to spend the next 20 years in B mode.
Israel is now understandably in A mode after spending even longer in B mode after the Oslo Accords. This is understandable to anyone who is a normal human being and therefore unemployable at the State Dept.
Assistant Secretary of State Bill Russo, overseeing global public affairs in the State Department, told Israeli foreign ministry officials in a call on March 13 that both the United States and Israel face a “major credibility problem” as a result of the “unpopular” Israeli military offensive in Gaza, according to a memo cited by NPR.
“The Israelis seemed oblivious to the fact that they are facing major, possibly generational damage to their reputation not just in the region but elsewhere in the world. We are concerned that the Israelis are missing the forest for the trees and are making a major strategic error in writing off their reputation damage,” wrote Russo.
The Israelis are too busy trying to win a war to worry about “reputation damage,” especially given that everything Israel does, beginning with merely existing, inflicts “reputation damage,” since much of the left and Islam spend much of their time launching every possible smear at Israel.
Israel was being accused of genocide even before Oct. 7, for not letting Hamas invade Israel to kill Jews. Fighting back against Hamas is definitely genocide. Anything short of Jewish genocide is...genocide.
Israel is not going to win a “reputation” game. It can, however, rebuild its reputation of being too dangerous to attack. That’s worth a whole lot more in the Middle East than trying to win friends and influence enemies with territorial concessions and appeasement.
There are lessons here for America that the State Department is eager that we never ever learn.
Originally published by The Gatestone Institute.
