For decades, Israel’s public advocacy has largely operated in reactive mode. A war begins, a terrorist attack takes place or an accusation is leveled, and Israel scrambles to respond. Officials appear on television to explain military operations, rebut allegations and provide context that should have been established long before the crisis erupted.

By then, much of the damage has already been done.

The encouraging development is that Israeli public advocacy is beginning to recognize this fundamental weakness. The discussion is gradually moving beyond defending the latest action towards addressing the deeper questions that determine how Israel is perceived: Who are the Jewish people? Why are they in this land? What rights do they possess? What does Israel represent, not only for Jews, but for the wider world?

This is a necessary strategic shift. Israel cannot successfully explain each individual battle if it has already lost the argument over why it has the right to exist and defend itself.

For too long, Israel’s advocates have relied on a narrow set of messages. Israel is a democracy. Israel contributes technology to the world. Israel seeks peace. All are true and important, but none adequately answers the ideological campaign that presents Jews as foreign colonizers who arrived in someone else’s country.

The answer must begin with Jewish history and indigeneity.

The Jewish people did not select the Land of Israel as a convenient refuge in the twentieth century. Jewish identity, language, faith, calendar, collective........

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