A few months ago, I had the opportunity to ask Ben Shapiro a question. I had rehearsed it dozens of times. Out of thousands of submitted questions, mine was selected.

“My name is Shmuel. I’m 15 years old. I just started a pro-Israel Instagram page. What is the single most important thing young people like me can do to become better advocates for Israel?”

His answer lasted more than 10 minutes, but one lesson stayed with me long after the conversation ended. 

Stop letting your opponents decide what the conversation is about.

I didn’t fully appreciate what he meant until this weekֵ, when MK Zvi Sukkot walked into the Palestinian village of Madama carrying a sledgehammer and destroyed a monument commemorating Palestinian terrorist attacks.

Within minutes, the headlines were everywhere. Politicians condemned him, commentators denounced him and social media exploded. Most people immediately concluded that this was an unmitigated disaster for the Israeli Hasbara. I came to the exact opposite conclusion.

Not because of the hammer. Because of the monument.

For years, Israel has fought the information war from a position of permanent defense. They accuse Israel of genocide, and then we rush to explain why it isn’t genocide. Someone calls Israel an apartheid state then we spend weeks explaining why it isn’t. Someone say Israel is targeting civilians then we publish statistics, investigations and legal analyses.

The pattern is always the same: Our opponents........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)