Over the past decade, the State of Israel has invested tens of millions of dollars in global campaigns against antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel. According to the person currently responsible for this area of activity, however, the national effort has ended in a resounding failure. In a conversation with Shomrim, Avi Cohen-Scali, who has serves as director general of the Ministry of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism since February 2023, admits that “this activity has failed by every conceivable parameter.” The conversation comes against the backdrop of the acrimonious end to the connection between the government of Israel and “Voices of Israel” – an organization previously also known as Kela Shlomo (Solomon’s Sling) and Concert – through which the state invested in overseas public diplomacy (known in Hebrew as “hasbara”), including various controversial campaigns aimed at shaping public opinion. One such campaign targeted lawmakers in the United States and included slurs against American supporters of the Palestinian cause. “The ministry funded some problematic projects,” admits Cohen-Scali, who is currently working on a new agreement – the details of which are being revealed here for the first time – with the Maccabi World Union. In the framework of this agreement, the State of Israel will invest around 15 million shekels a year in the fight against antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel.

A source well-acquainted with Voices of Israel’s operations told Shomrim that “on a strategic level, this has not been a success by any measure.” According to this source, “you cannot move the dial in one fell swoop” and that the problem is that when what he described as the “tsunami” of October 7, “Israel was absent in certain places and wasn’t addressing certain audiences," and paid the price for its inactivity over recent years”.

The source primarily blames the constellation within which the organization operated. He explains that Concert (later known as Voices of Israel, as mentioned) became a battered organization with a negative image, shuttling from one government office to another—from the Ministry of Strategic Affairs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then to the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. "An entity whose budget was never secure, which prevented stable operations." According to him, the government needs to understand that in this context, while it does provide funding, it must also offer professional guidance, which was not received in the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, as it lacks any relevant expertise.

“You cannot move the dial in one fell swoop” and that the problem is that when what he described as the “tsunami” of October 7, “Israel was absent in certain places and wasn’t addressing certain audiences," and paid the price for its inactivity over recent years”.

A short and controversial history

Several years ago, Israel decided that the fight against delegitimization of Israel worldwide, the BDS movement, and anti-Semitism would be managed by non-governmental organizations receiving government support, based on the notion (which does not seem to have proven effective) that covert influence is more impactful. Kela Shlomo, which was established in 2016 as a public benefit corporation, was the pipeline through which funds were sent to various organizations, platforms and other initiatives dealing with these issues. In 2018, the government decided to invest 128 million shekels of government funding in the project – and Kela Shlomo was supposed to raise the same amount from other donors. In the end, it raised just one-fifth of this sum and was not as active as planned.

In 2022, when the Bennett-Lapid government was voted into office, it was decided to revive the project. Kela Shlomo morphed into a body called Concert, was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was allocated an annual budget of 25 million shekels for the next four years. When the Bennett-Lapid government fell, however, so too did this project – until it was once again revived under the Netanyahu government, where it was transferred to the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Likud lawmaker Amichai Chikli. At that time, it was also renamed for a third time and is now known as Voices of Israel.

In recent months, there have been various reports revealing some of the more problematic projects financed via the ministry. For example, Gur Megiddo, in The Marker revealed that the ministry allocated 1.5 million shekels for a pro-Israel advocacy project by the organization Reservists on Duty, led by Amit Deri, a close associate of the minister. Itamar B.Z reported on The Seventh Eye website, that funds were also allocated to an organization called National Vision, which was set up by Likud MK Ariel Kallner – and is currently being run by other Likud activists. The funding was designed to highlight the Israeli government’s narrative on the English Wikipedia and to distribute advocacy videos in Russian. Meanwhile, Omer Ben Jacob reported in Haaretz,  that the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs was responsible for a large-scale influence campaign primarily aimed at Black American legislators and young progressives in the United States and Canada. The campaign made use of anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim content.

In early 2024, some three months into the Gaza war and after an investment of millions of shekels in various projects, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Voices of Israel began negotiations on continued collaboration, but they failed to reach an agreement and the ministry terminated the contract. “The organization failed in every parameter set by the government,” Cohen-Scali says. “From what we can see, it has not produced anything of significant value.”

He adds that the organization operated a costly headquarters with high overhead and did not deliver results. He also agrees that some of the projects that the ministry funded were unsuccessful. “There were many things that were not done well and with the necessary caution by Concert,” he says, adding that, from now on, they will exercise greater caution. But even aside from the question of which organization funds advocacy, influence, or propaganda activities, Cohen-Skali admits that he himself is unsure how success will be measured. Thus far, he explains, success has been measured in terms of the number of people exposed to the content that the various projects have created. Now, however, the ministry is investing around 500,000 shekels in a company that addresses exactly this question, with great expectations that future investments in such campaigns will be more successful.

Amir Gissin, Maccabi World Union CEO: “The number of people that we bring to Israel on our programs and who we reach between each edition of the Maccabiah Games is far greater than the number of athletes who come here for the Games.”

Maccabi to the rescue?

Now, all eyes are on the partnership with the Maccabi World Union – an organization that is more familiar as the sporting association that organizes the Maccabiah Games but now believes that it can provide an answer in much broader areas. “We operate many educational programs across the world,” says Maccabi World Union CEO Amir Gissin, who previously served as Israel’s consul-general in Toronto and was director of the hasbara unit at the Foreign Ministry. “The number of people that we bring to Israel on our programs and who we reach between each edition of the Maccabiah Games is far greater than the number of athletes who come here for the Games.”

He adds: “I come from that world, the world of hasbara projects and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; that’s part of the reason that the Maccabi World Union is getting into this area. We are a funnel, but we are a funnel that can also provide expertise, in terms of guidance as well as good management.” Asked about the possible damage to Maccabi’s apolitical status, Gissin says that “it’s obvious to me that we are taking a risk here, but I believe that we have created for ourselves enough of a comfort zone – and our dependence on this issue is a lot more limited than Concert’s.” Although the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs Has also earmarked funds for the project, Gissin says that Maccabi is demanding that both sides have the right to veto any given initiative. “We won’t sign the contract if that clause is not included,” he insists.

Cohen-Scali, for his part, says that the ministry was in contact with a number of different organizations and, in the end, decided to work with Maccabi – in part because it is known to be a financially stable body and it has agreed not to impose any additional overheads on the initiative. In addition, he believes that the fact that Maccabi has branches across the world will provide more suitable infrastructure.

After publication of this article in Hebrew, Voices of Israel asked to add the following response: “Voices of Israel is proud of its cooperation with dozens of hasbara organizations, initiatives and citizens who work day and night to defend the reputation of the State of Israel in the face of fallacious antisemitic onslaughts which are unprecedented in their scope. All the projects in which Voices of Israel has been involved, without exception, were approved down to the finest details by the steering committee headed by the director general of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and were approved after thorough discussions. Some of them were even proposed as urgent by the ministry, while others were guided by representatives of the ministry during the activity itself.

“Voices of Israel never participated in, supported, or assisted any project that was designed to target legislators in the United States. It should be noted that, according to the agreement that Voices of Israel signed with the state, it is strictly forbidden to launch projects without the official approval of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs Steering committee – and it strictly adhered to this.”