It’s counterintuitive because the stereotype is at least partially true: There really are a lot of Jews in Hollywood. Plenty in the mainstream media, too.
So why does Israel get such uniquely horrible press?
To my knowledge, there haven’t been any recent studies that examine what percentage of media stories about Israel are negative or positive, but I’d bet a Picasso it’s ridiculously, outlandishly negative. And if you want to go double or nothing, I’ll also bet that, in raw numbers, Israel receives BY FAR more negative news stories than any foreign nation in the Western world.
Yet Al Jazeera and a whole lot of others keep insisting that the pro-Israel narrative is unfairly drowning them out — and therefore, it must be further counterbalanced.
(So much so, I actually found a 2025 media study that accused Western outlets of being biased against the Palestinians, because newspapers printed the word “Israel” more times than the word “Palestine.” For shame!)
Anti-Israel PR is everywhere. From every award show to every social media platform to every college campus, it’s an inescapable part of the cultural zeitgeist — and for the Democratic Party, it’s become a cornerstone belief. If you’re a Zionist, you’re ineligible for your party’s presidential nomination — as Josh Shapiro will likely find out.
Because the Democratic Party has dramatically changed. The Republicans, however, have not.
In 2013, 67% of Republicans sympathized more with the Israelis than the Palestinians. In 2026, after zillions of Tucker Carlson’s thought-provoking podcasts and all of Candace Owens’ clever arguments, 69% of Republicans sympathized more with the Israelis.
For the GOP, the polls reflected a remarkable degree of ideological consistency.
But the tale of the tape for the Dems told a radically different story: In 2013, 34% of Democrats sympathized with Israel; 18% with the Palestinians. That’s a +16 edge for Israel.
Today, 67% sympathize with the Palestinians. Just 17% with the Israelis.
Which means, over the last 13 years, the Dems went from being +16 for Israel to +50 for Palestine.
To understand how catastrophic that is, all you need to know is this: In terms of popularity, Israel now TRAILS Chuck Schumer by double digits. (Gasp!)
And Chuck Schumer, of course, is America’s most unpopular politician.
It’s a heightened level of vitriol that North Korea, Russia, Iran, China, and violent, repressive dictatorships never receive. If Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mojtaba Khamenei (cardboard or real), and Bibi Netanyahu all walked by a busy college campus, the first four would be greeted with shoulder shrugs — and Netanyahu pelted with eggs, epithets, and allegations of being a vile, evil war criminal.
But why?
Israel, after all, is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East that guarantees religious freedom to all its citizens, including Jews, Muslims, atheists, and Christians. (Especially Christians, whose numbers have grown fourfold in 75 years, and 84% say they are satisfied with Israeli life.)
In 27 countries, Islam is the official state religion. In 13 other countries, the official state religion is Christianity. For two, it’s Buddhism.
For only one, it’s Judaism — and for liberal activists, that’s one too many.
Furthermore, if you’re an LGBTQ+ activist, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that protects same-sex relationships. In Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Kuwait, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Gaza, the West Bank, Nigeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Somalia, and Sudan, homosexuality is punished with the death penalty.
So what’s triggered this tsunami of anti-Israel PR? Why does Israel receive such uniquely negative press?
There are multiple reasons.
One: Jewish representation in media/Hollywood doesn’t mean pro-Israel content.
Only 21% of American Jews say religion is “very important” in their lives, and a big majority — 71% — are Democratic or lean Democratic. They’re ethnically Jewish, but that’s the extent of it. For millions of American Jews, party affiliation matters more than ethnic identity, and as the Democratic Party pivoted away from Israel, so did they, because they’re first and foremost loyal, dependable, card-carrying Democrats.
And if your last name sounds Jewish, the best way to virtue-signal your hatred of racism, colonialism, Islamophobia, and “genocide” is to double down on your anti-Zionist rhetoric. (It proves to your colleagues that you’re “one of the good ones.”)
Because there’s an increasingly stark partisan divide among U.S. Jews: 85% of Jewish Republicans support Israel in Gaza, compared to just 31% of Jewish Democrats — a 54-point gap.
This divide grows generationally: 68% of American Jews over 65 are “emotionally connected” to Israel, but for those between 18 and 34, it was only 36%. As older Jews die off, replacing them is a younger generation where two out of three lack an emotional connection to the Jewish homeland.
They’re JINOs — Jews in name only — and in their minds, Israel isn’t a safeguard against a second Holocaust, but the primary driver of global antisemitism.
Most American Jews agree with the Democrats: 61% say Israel is guilty of “war crimes” in Gaza, and an astonishing 49% either believe Israel committed genocide, or are unsure if genocide happened. Which places them squarely within today’s Democratic Party, where 72% believe Israel is guilty of genocide, 65% favor anti-Israel sanctions, and 62% would ban Israeli politicians and/or soldiers from entering the U.S.
As the Democratic Party pulled away from Israel, so did American Jews.
I suspect self-preservation is a key catalyst, too. A generation ago, American Jews viewed Israel as a parachute — a cord they pull if/when there’s an emergency — and a safeguard against a second Holocaust. In their minds, the survival of a Jewish homeland kept their children safe.
Not anymore: Instead of keeping them safe, American Jews blame Israel for the spike in antisemitism. Were it not for that “war criminal” Netanyahu and the murderous IDF, pro-Palestinian activists wouldn’t be harassing Jewish kids on college campuses.
It’s their fault!
And they might be right. As the Associated Press reported, “Anti-Defamation League Says Anger at Israel in Now the Driving Force Behind Antisemitism in the US.”
So, not only did Jewish representation in media/Hollywood fail to lead to pro-Israel content, it probably made American Zionists complacent, because they assumed Hollywood’s Jews had Israel’s back.
Turns out, they didn’t.
Two: The medium makes the message, and today’s dominant medium — social media — is heavily biased against Israel.
Back in the 1990s, all the good, trendy leftists loved Tibet. Remember that? The Dalai Lama was on par with Nelson Mandela as the ultimate “good guy.”
But Zoomers don’t care about Tibet anymore. Not even a little bit!
And there are two main reasons why:
- American media no longer distributes pro-Tibet content, because doing so means your parent company/corporation will be barred from the (lucrative) Chinese marketplace.
- TikTok has become younger American’s go-to source for the news, and for very obvious reasons, Tik Tok has shadow-banned any mention of Tibet (or Taiwan, Tienanmen Square, the Uyghur Muslims, or criticism of the Chinese government). Instead, TikTok is flooded with pro-Palestinian content, and other social media platforms have been bombarded with bots from Iran and other anti-Israel nations. Qatar alone spends $1.2 billion annually on digital advertisements. Saudi Arabia spends $4.68 billion. It’s created a digital echo-chamber that reinforces anti-Zionism.
Meanwhile, Israel only spent $145 million annually to defend itself and counter this avalanche of negative PR, and that’s just not enough. It’s outspent and outgunned.
And it’s already cost Israel an entire generation of young people.
Three: Israel’s optics are blasphemous to liberal eyes.
And I’m not simply referring to anti-Israel propaganda from the Gaza War. Think deeper — and consider how Israel looks to an under-educated Zoomer who’s already consumed oodles of pro-Palestinian content on TikTok.
Lots of prominent Israelis, including Netanyahu, look an awful lot like white Europeans. They’re living better than the darker-skinned Arabs. And a border wall separates the Palestinians and Israelis.
Therefore, the Israelis must be racist colonizers that practice apartheid.
Doesn’t matter that there’s never been, in the entire history of history, a free and independent Palestinian state. Doesn’t matter that Jewish ties to the Holy Land have been genetically, historically, and archeologically proven to extend thousands of years. And it doesn’t matter that if the Palestinians stopped trying to murder Jews, the border wall wouldn’t be necessary.
Liberals see skin color first, second, and last, which makes Israel de facto guilty — period, end of story.
Along with all of the above, there’s also the Donald Trump factor. Liberals sincerely believe our current president is “literally Hitler,” and a fascist/dictator/monster, so Netanyahu’s cozy relationship with the Evil Orange Man makes him guilty by association.
Four: The Sunni Muslim world has been waging a multibillion-dollar PR war against Israel for many years.
Tiny Qatar, with only 360,000 to 400,000 citizens, has spent a mind-blowing $62.4 billion funding U.S. colleges and universities. In 2025, it was the largest foreign source of gifts, contracts, and funding for U.S. higher education.
Not so coincidentally, American colleges emerged as Ground Zero for pro-Palestinian protests.
Saudi Arabia spends even more on Western PR, although precise numbers are difficult to track. From WrestleMania to the World Cup to pro golf to prizefighting, the Saudis have likely launched the most aggressive, far-reaching PR campaign the Western world has ever seen, and its ultimate goal is to capture hearts and minds.
Saudi Arabia even hosted the 2025 Riyadh Comedy Festival, where American comics went from bashing U.S. billionaires to bootlicking Saudi princes, and Dave Chapelle felt perfectly free to trash-talk Israel (of course) — but any mockery of the Saudi royal family or Islam was contractually prohibited.
Comedian Tim Dillon was disinvited from Saudi Arabia after joking (on U.S. soil) about Saudi slavery. Poor guy tried to claim it was all a miscommunication: “I was defending them for having slaves! I literally said, ‘Slaves are hard workers and for the most part agreeable.’ But they didn’t like that.”
The Sunni royals are also spending lavishly on conservative media. According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Royal Family of Qatar spent $50 million on Newsmax. And since Trump returned to the White House in 2024, the influence of Sunni money on conservative media has increased fivefold, per the Washington Examiner’s reporting.
Does this explain Tucker Carlson’s love affair with Qatar, his campaign against Israel, or posts such as this from Candace Owens?
No matter how hard the GOP tries to make “radical Islam” happen, the base doesn’t care about it.
We are way more concerned about Israel.
You can deny reality and scream about Tucker, but the party can no longer be governed by those who refuse to acknowledge the Zionist…
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) December 27, 2025
(Maybe, maybe not: Like Tucker and Candace, I’m “just asking questions.” I’m sure it’s theoretically possible that the same Qataris and Saudis who spent hundreds of billions to influence U.S. opinion somehow overlooked U.S. influencers.)
Five: Israel is psychologically unprepared to defend its reputation, because the same qualities that made it a regional superpower blinds it to danger.
Born in the ashes of Auschwitz, Israel is a nation that’s defied the odds at every turn. From its War of Independence, where it defended itself from the five Arab nations that sought to strangle the Jewish state in its infancy, to the Six Day War, where it made mincemeat of its adversaries, Israel survives by making the impossible possible.
Idealism is in its soul.
Israel believes the truth will be enough — and that the good, decent people of the world will reject the blood libel of genocide.
After all, it’s a stupid, baseless allegation: As urban warfare expert John Spencer noted, the IDF “has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history,” and is the “gold standard” for preserving civilian lives. The idea that Israelis are bloodthirsty barbarians mowing down innocent Palestinian children is absurd.
If anything, trying to avoid civilian casualties has led to higher numbers of IDF deaths.
Furthermore, the Gaza “genocide” is the only one in memory where the birthrate was higher than the deathrate, which beckons a very obvious question: How can it be a “genocide” when the Palestinian population in Gaza was still growing?
Because of their history, faith, and covenant with God, the Israelis are convinced the truth will prevail. This isn’t the first time their enemies have lied about them — and it won’t be the last. If anything, it’s been a historic constant. Hitler, Haman, and the Roman Empire did it, too.
Yet today, Israel still stands — not because God is on its side, but because it’s on the side of God.
But as a PR pro, I fear the Israelis are wrong: Sometimes, the truth isn’t enough. Sometimes, the good guys don’t win. Sometimes, you need to change your tactics.
And if Israel doesn’t fight just as intelligently, passionately, and relentlessly in the PR war as it does on the battlefield, I fear it’ll cost the Jewish state dearly.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First: It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battlelines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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