As ‘Hasbara’ Efforts Fall Short, Israeli House NET Catches Foreign Ministry’s Attention
The independent Israel advocacy organization founded in the Caucasus country of Georgia in 2012 has opened branches in 18 countries since late 2022 and aims to reach 100 countries in the coming years
“Hasbara,” or Israel advocacy, has been the go-to word for bolstering Israel’s image for decades, with no shortage of nongovernmental agencies popping up to defend the Jewish state.
However, as anti-Semitism continues to spread, one man has been quietly working to build an effective public diplomacy network, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry has now taken note.
Itsik Moshe founded Israeli House NET, an independent Israel advocacy organization, in the Caucasus country of Georgia in 2012, and he continues to chair the organization today. After running successfully for a decade in Georgia, the organization began to expand rapidly last year, opening branches in 18 countries since November 2022 and aiming to reach 100 countries in the coming years, it was announced at an event the organization held in Jerusalem on Sunday.
The event, held in the courtyard of the Tower of David, brought the official support of the Israeli government to the project for the first time. Dancers clad in blue and white costumes danced to the classic Hebrew song “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” (“Jerusalem of Gold”), sung by a non-Jewish, non-Hebrew-speaking Georgian woman, setting the stage for an evening of Israeli pride.
Georgian-born Moshe moved to Israel with his family as a child, and in 1990 became the first representative of the Jewish Agency in the Soviet Union and later headed Jewish Agency centers in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Since 1996, he has also been the chairman of the Israel-Georgia Chamber of Business. In 2012, he founded Israeli House as an independent non-profit organization focused on implementing a new methodology for public diplomacy by building bilateral bridges between Israel and other countries.
The Iranian regime has tried to stop the organization from growing. However, even assassination attempts have not deterred Moshe from spreading his vision of strengthening Israel’s ties globally.
In an interview with The Media Line, Moshe said that immediately after he announced his intentions to expand beyond Georgia’s borders in 2022, he experienced three assassination attempts in his hometown, Tbilisi. He said that the investigating authorities found that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind the attacks.
I stood in front of the mirror and said, I have two options. Either I don’t do anything, and I fear and die of fear within myself, or the opposite, I say I work for the State of Israel, and I don’t care what happens.
After learning the source of the attacks, Moshe had to make a decision.
“I stood in front of the mirror and said, I have two options. Either I don’t do anything, and I fear and die of fear within myself, or the opposite, I say I work for the State of Israel, and I don’t care what happens. Of course, I would now have to guard myself and continue with my activities,” Moshe told The Media Line.
Over the six months following the attempted killings, Israeli House opened its doors in 18 countries around the world.
Moshe said his initial impetus for founding Israeli House was the United Nations’ anti-Israel vote on Resolution 67/19 in 2012, in which 138 countries voted against Israel to upgrade Palestine to non-member observer state status. Moshe decided to open the first Israeli House in Georgia in order to improve the ties between Israel and his native country, which he had seen as a friend of the Jewish state but had been amazed by its vote against Israel at the UN.
“I realized that the time had come to start to act for the homeland, to start to act for the State of Israel, and we founded an organization called the Israeli House,” he said.
Israeli House worked on a multiple-project model, including participants from Israel’s business and cultural sectors, which helped establish better relations with Georgia and internationally.
We have a world history subject in secondary schools that includes issues related to the Holocaust, and by the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, this subject will be widened and the new generation of students in Georgia will have more information about the Holocaust
Georgian parliamentarian Givi Mikanadze, who heads the Georgia-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group, told The Media Line that because of the newly strengthened partnership, significant achievements had been reached in the economic, tourism, and education sectors.
“We have a world history subject in secondary schools that includes issues related to the Holocaust, and by the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, this subject will be widened and the new generation of students in Georgia will have more information about the Holocaust,” Mikanadze said.
The pilot program proved successful in Georgia, allowing the goal to be set of 100 chambers of “hasbara” and educating over 1 million Israelis in the Diaspora to become ambassadors for their country.
To date, Israeli House, Moshe says, has funded all its activities with no governmental assistance, not costing Israel’s Foreign Ministry a cent.
However, this year’s event in Jerusalem took an unexpected turn.
What happened is a miracle. The foreign minister of the State of Israel, in the name of the government of Israel, said that we will work together and will support you in funding 100 representative offices around the world.
“The truth is that in the beginning, the government of Israel did not really like my activity, because I think they saw it as competition. But I did not get upset. Every new idea always has opponents. This was a new idea and a new method, and there were some who did not understand,” Moshe said.
“What happened is a miracle. The foreign minister of the State of Israel, in the name of the government of Israel, said that we will work together and will support you in funding 100 representative offices around the world.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who was attending an Israeli House event for the first time, publicly expressed support for its activities.
“We are happy to promote any initiative that helps strengthen Israel’s image in the world and in the fight against the growing phenomenon of anti-Semitism,” he said in a speech at the event.
“I’m certain that with your cooperation as a significant advocacy power, we will continue to strengthen Israel’s status in the world and together, we will ensure our future,” he told the Israeli House representatives and supporters at the event.
Former Israeli parliamentarian Hilik Bar, who has accompanied Moshe from the very beginning, said that his activities were a very effective alternative to the gap created by the Foreign Ministry’s lack of a budget for advocacy.
“We have many enemies, many advocates against us, BDS [boycott, divestment, sanctions] and whatever, we have a Foreign Ministry where the lack of budget is real, an information office that is not very rich, if I may say so. And then he [Moshe] came with this idea of duplicating chambers of hasbara in many, many countries, not only in Georgia, and right now we have just witnessed 18 countries that are starting, as we speak, to have these chambers of hasbara in each country,” Bar told The Media Line.
The fact that they see that we are normal people, with two arms and two legs, that we love other nations, and that we are ready to cooperate, is the greatest hasbara
Moshe said the traditional tactics of advocating for the improvement of Israel’s image around the world were not the best.
“I do not think that hasbara is about speaking about what is happening in Gaza or in other countries. The fact that they see that we are normal people, with two arms and two legs, that we love other nations, and that we are ready to cooperate, is the greatest hasbara,” he said.
Saying that “cooperation is the name of the game,” Moshe added that some interesting projects have arisen in numerous countries.
In Turkey, Israeli House is working on a project to fund a Jewish-Ottoman Museum.
“In this initiative, we bring Israel to Turkey and Turkey to Israel, and this way, we will be much nicer to the Turks and the Turks will be much nicer to us,” Moshe said.
The secret “is to hear what the other side wants and build a model of cooperation and not to speak from one side but to cooperate,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka will officially commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 next year. Sri Lanka’s government hopes that this will improve the friendship between both countries and more Israelis will opt for Sri Lanka as a tourist destination.
Israeli House has also managed to establish successful representations in Arab and Muslim countries.
“Some Muslim countries with Muslim communities, like Albania and Kosovo, are countries where I witnessed the activity we did, and now Dubai, the UAE, and Turkey,” Bar said.
Israeli lawmakers have joined projects led by Israeli House. Parliamentarian Tsega Melaku, from the governing Likud party, is the head of the friendship group with Sri Lanka in the Israeli Knesset.
“I decided to be the chairperson of the relationship between Sri Lanka and the Israeli parliament,” Melaku told The Media Line, noting that she learned about advocacy from Moshe.
But despite the various joint efforts to advocate for Israel, internal issues take a heavy toll on Israel’s perception worldwide.
“This reform or revolution [the controversial judicial reform being promoted by the ruling coalition] is damaging Israeli advocacy around the world, definitely in the Arab world. I totally believe that this incitement, this polarization inside Israeli society, is even more dangerous than the Iranian bomb,” Bar warned.
Moshe has high hopes for the future, saying that in 10 years, “We will have 100 representative chambers and I would like for the foreign minister to ‘kidnap it’ and take it over because I don’t want to go into politics, I don’t want jobs, and I don’t want to make money from it; the opposite, I’m putting my money into this project.”
