This isn’t about deterrence anymore. It’s about ensuring that no group can fire rockets at Israeli civilians, butcher families, kidnap children and expect restraint in response.

By: Alex Traiman

As the war against Hamas stretches into its 22 nd month, Israel is not just engaged in a military operation–it’s embroiled in an asymmetric media battle in which terrorists cry foul after launching unprovoked attacks, and the international community rushes to scold the one democracy in the Middle East for daring to defend itself.

The time has come to flip the script. The same tired accusations are recycled in every conflict. And each time, Israel finds itself losing the public relations war, despite overwhelming moral clarity.

The new Israeli doctrine must be stated clearly: Any terror organization that attacks Israel will be annihilated, no matter how long it takes. This isn’t about deterrence anymore. It’s about ensuring that no group can fire rockets at Israeli civilians, butcher families, kidnap children and expect restraint in response.

Moreover, any civilian population that knowingly harbors and enables such terror groups must understand the consequences of complicity. If terror embeds itself in neighborhoods, schools and hospitals, the blame for the fallout lies first and foremost with those who let it happen.

Israel has offered an exit ramp. The war can end immediately if Hamas simply lays down its arms and releases all remaining Israeli hostages. At that moment, not only will the war cease, but humanitarian aid will flow freely and unimpeded into Gaza. As long as Hamas clings to power, the war will rage on, and Israel will not stop until its military objectives are achieved.

The same countries that lecture Israel about proportionality and humanitarian law have done absolutely nothing to ease Palestinian suffering–not one nation has offered to take in civilians from Gaza.

If even one country genuinely cared about Palestinian lives, it would open its borders to those it claims are suffering. None have. That silence reveals an ugly truth: These nations do not care about Palestinians. They care only about blaming Israel.

This selective outrage isn’t just hypocritical but dangerous. It sends a message to terror groups worldwide: You can start wars, lose them badly and then weaponize global sympathy by playing the victim.

No other country in the world is asked to absorb missile fire, kidnappings or mass murder and respond with diplomacy.

Terror groups are being encouraged by the very powers that should be condemning them. We used to say the world doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Now it justifies them. Why wouldn’t they attack and take hostages if all the international community winds up doing is turning the oppressors into the victims?

Hamas and its proxies know the playbook: Attack Israel, draw civilian casualties by booby-trapping entire cities, using their own brethren and children as human shields. The international community falls for it–again and again.

A new diplomacy strategy

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted a more than an hour-long podcast interview with the Nelk Boys, Canadian content producers. To say that the interviewers were not worthy of his time is an understatement. Worse yet, the comments reveal that Israel is badly losing the PR war.

Now, many of those comments may have been bots. That problem also needs to be addressed.

The solution isn’t more celebrity interviews or quirky podcast appearances, but strength, clarity and repetition.

Israel needs a full-scale PR offensive rooted in the following messages:

• The war ends the minute Hamas surrenders.
• Palestinians can have peace and food, but not while Hamas rules over them.
• Civilian suffering is a tragedy, but it is Hamas that brought war into Gaza’s streets and schools.
• Israel is not fighting the people of Gaza. It is fighting a genocidal terrorist regime that hides behind them.

And Israel must not shy away from telling the people of Gaza the truth: If you want food, peace and safety, then turn in the terrorists who are holding you hostage.

This messaging must be unrelenting. It must dominate not just international press conferences, but also the digital battlefield–You Tube, X, Tik Tok, Instagram and beyond. The comment sections of every trending video should be flooded with clarity, not cowardice.

And if our enemies are flooding the Internet with bot-generated messaging, then Israel must do the same on an even larger scale.

The battlefield has expanded. The war is no longer fought just with tanks and drones, but with pixels, narratives and hashtags. And Israel must fight–and win–on every front.

Those who seek Israel’s destruction are not just on the ground. They’re in editorial newsrooms, U.N. chambers and algorithmic echo chambers. We can no longer afford to cede those spaces to the enemies of truth.

The world must understand: Israel didn’t start this war. But Israel will finish it on its own terms. And the moral burden lies with those who enable terror, excuse it or remain silent in the face of it.

(JNS.org)

Alex Traiman is the CEO and Jerusalem bureau chief of the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) and host of “Jerusalem Minute.” A seasoned Israeli journalist, documentary filmmaker and startup consultant, he is an expert on Israeli politics and U.S.-Israel relations. He has interviewed top political figures, including Israeli leaders, U.S. senators and national security officials with insights featured on major networks like BBC, Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, Fox and Newsmax. A former NCAA champion fencer and Yeshiva University Sports Hall of Fame member, he made aliyah in 2004, and lives in Jerusalem with his wife and five children.