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Posted on 05/13/2026 8:29:11 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Israel is betting nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars that it can talk its way out of a reputation crisis.
Lawmakers in Jerusalem approved a 2026 national budget at the end of March that includes roughly $730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — more than four times the $150 million they allocated the year before…
Most striking for a country long accustomed to bipartisan American support: 57% of Republicans under 50 hold negative views of Israel. Support has cratered among the religiously unaffiliated, Black Protestants and Catholics. Among American Jews, support has slipped below two-thirds...
Ask the people who study public diplomacy for a living whether any of this will work, and the answer is, overwhelmingly, skeptical.
Their central objection is that no amount of messaging can outrun entrenched rejection by its target audiences of Israel’s armed response to conflicts with its neighbors.
“My position is that history shows all the money in the world won’t help if the policy is wrong,” said Nicholas Cull, a professor of communication at the University of Southern California and one of the founders of the study of public diplomacy.
“The U.S. discovered that in Vietnam when its own Cold War public diplomacy budget peaked.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishtimes.com ...
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If not, their self-fulfilling prophecy cycle agenda fails. And the verses they cherry pick to warmonger with, even at the expense of the Gospel, and at the expense of Christ’s command to make disciples of ALL nations - can’t be useful anymore. Verses like:
”For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem.” - Zechariah 14:12
In their reading of such Scriptures: for Jesus to return, more pain, more war, is necessary. “Blessed are the peacemakers.” “Jews and Gentiles united.” are inconvenient, disruptive, and anathema to their cause.
Israel should stick to the old tried and true methods.
Have their supporters buy every media and Internet outlet in sight—and then ban people who oppose them.
Think of it as “democracy” and “free speech” in action.
Lol.
You find a lot of different approaches to going against Israel and President Trump, and favorable to the Muslims, it is strange the approaches you find.
“”Ask the people who study public diplomacy for a living””
That’s a hoot!
That’s small potatoes compared to the money spent by China, Qatar, Japan, Saudi, UAE, and even South Korea. And that’s not even counting the money Qatar dumps into colleges.
She purports to be a Catholic and posts open heresy directly contrary to the Catechism on an almost daily basis to support her Jew hate.
By your standards Jesus himself, a Jew, would be a Jew hater.
Forever wars and wishing for consistent enmity in the region. - Not to mention turning a blind eye to the deaths of countless young IDF solders is not of Christ. The prayer for Christians is for the Gospel to be preached to Israel AND her enemies…And that God doesn’t need US bombs to ‘help’ Him carry out His Word. The ultimate prophetic call on the Christian life is Love, not tribalism.
NATO and the Kingdom of God are two different things.
Huh? What in the world does that mean?
AIPAC and related pro-Israel organizations already do a lot to even that out. Their budgets are larger than the spending those other countries do. Israel has decided that all that isn’t enough.
“By your standards Jesus himself, a Jew, would be a Jew hater.”
No, no he would not.
Your never-ending selective outrage at every slight of an Israeli behaving badly (or doing something accidental) exposes you for what you are.
You have specifically rejected the teachings of the Catechism that squarely rejects Replacement Theology (based on the plain test of the Bible). You are not in Communion with the Catholic Church.
Specifically, you have rejected the following teachings of the Church:
121 “. . . The Old Covenant has never been revoked.”
839 “ . . .To the Jews belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, AND THE PROMISES, to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according the flesh, is the Christ. FOR THE GIFTS AND CALL OF GOD ARE IRREVOCABLE.”
And perhaps read the middle of Nostra Aetate for good measure:
“Nor can she [the Church] forget that she draws nourishment from that good olive tree onto which the wild olive branches of the Gentiles have been grafted (cf. Rom. 11:17-24). The Church believes that Christ who is our peace has through his cross reconciled Jews and Gentiles and made them one in himself (cf. Eph. 2:14-16).”
“. . .Even so, the apostle Paul maintains that the Jews remain very dear to God for the sake of the patriarchs since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made.2”
“neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion. It is true that the Church is the new people of God, yet the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture. Consequently, all must take care, lest in catechizing or in preaching the Word of God, they teach anything which is not in accord with the truth of the Gospel message or the spirit of Christ.”
” . . . she deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of antisemitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews. The Church always held and continues to hold that Christ out of infinite love freely underwent suffering and death because of the sins of all men, so that all might attain salvation.”
You also dance around the edge of Feenyism (aka the “Boston Heresy”), which resulted in a priest being excommunicated:
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/tragic-errors-of-leonard-feeney-12314
Do confess your sins prior to Communion.
Or stop pretending to be Catholic, because you are not acting like one.
“AIPAC and related pro-Israel organizations already do a lot to even that out. Their budgets are larger than the spending those other countries do.”
Nope. AIPAC’s expenditures were $100M, not even in the top 10. In fact, even if you add AIPAC to Israel (which is not exactly correct, as AIPAC is a 100% American organization and parts with Israel on a number of issues) is the expenditure close to China or even Saudi and Qatar.
Let’s start with the numbers you conveniently ignored. Per Grok, AIPAC’s actual lobbying expenditures (the formal filings under the Lobbying Disclosure Act) came in at just $3.3 million in 2024—ranking it a pathetic 191st among Washington lobbyists. The entire pro-Israel lobbying sector (AIPAC plus every related group) totaled under $5 million that year.  That’s peanuts next to the foreign governments you’re pretending AIPAC “evens out.” Under FARA, countries like Japan dropped $48.5 million in 2024 alone, China has burned through over $562 million since 2016, Saudi Arabia $421 million, and South Korea $362 million—with multiple nations routinely outspending Israel’s own foreign-agent activity by multiples.  AIPAC’s organizational budget (around $100–156 million in recent filings) and its PAC/super PAC election spending (~$127 million in the 2023–2024 cycle) come from American donors, not Israeli taxpayers. That’s domestic political participation, not some shadowy foreign slush fund “larger than the spending those other countries do.”
You’re mashing together apples, oranges, and conspiracy theories. No credible dataset—OpenSecrets, FARA filings, IRS Form 990s—backs your assertion. Zero. Zilch. It’s a fabrication. And that throwaway line—“Israel has decided that all that isn’t enough”? Cute. Care to cite a single official Israeli statement, Knesset debate, or policy document where “Israel” (as a government) declared AIPAC’s efforts insufficient and demanded… what, exactly? More? This is just vague, ominous innuendo dressed up as analysis.
So what’s the motive here? Are you genuinely this sloppy with facts, or is this the latest lazy attempt to paint pro-Israel advocacy as some insatiable, outsized force while ignoring the actual big-money foreign influence operations from Beijing, Riyadh, and Tokyo? Is it to launder resentment about U.S.-Israel ties into a numbers game you can’t even fake convincingly? Or just the usual drive-by smear hoping no one checks the receipts?
Next time you want to opine on “who spends what to even that out,” try leading with data instead of delusions. The public record is public for a reason.
Well said.
Of course, facts don’t matter to this crowd.
They’ll repeat the same lies, over and over.
AIPAC directly spent approximately $3.3 million on US federal lobbying in 2024,
ranking it as a notable...though not top-tier...Israeli lobbying force in Washington.
However, AIPAC’s affiliated Super PAC, the “United Democracy Project,” spent over $55 million
in the 2024 cycle........ bringing total political spending to over $100 million. (Open Sources)
Your problem is:
1) Assuming you know my doctrinal stance, which judging by your post, you clearly do not.
2) God’s covenants don’t justify your bloodlust and hatred - be it for Iran, or whatever your enemy of the day is. He never says “because of my covenant, I need you to nuke Tehran and Gaza.”
🙄
Typos:
problems are*
covenant with Israel* does not mean God gives you free reign to bomb every other nation all around it into oblivion. His covenant with Israel does not negate his heart to see Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, atheists, etc… come to Christ.
“Blessed are the peacemakers” should not stir your anger. Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
It may be a little hard to read, but add AIPAC and other related organizations in with Israel's expenditures and only Liberia is spending more money lobbying.
These are 2023 numbers and Israel increased its PR budget from $7-10 million to $730 million since then. Most of that is expected to be spent in the US.
If you like, you can add in whatever Saudi-American or Chinese-American or Japanese-American organizations' contributions. I don't think that will move the needle very much.
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