Israel, in the midst of a fight for survival, shouldn’t also have to fight a PR battle

The world needs to get real and accept that war — besides being hell — is also incompatible with public relations. We’re told that Israel is losing the critically important communications battle in what many of its citizens see as a necessary war for their nation’s survival. “Survival” is not an overstatement, given that an unanswered attack would be likely to invite more attacks.

Hamas’ heinous Oct. 7 attack on Israel left 1,200 people dead and hundreds more injured. More than 200 people were taken hostage. Israeli police are investigating reports of sexual assault. Israel should be given a wide berth as it tries to bring to justice those who planned and carried out these atrocities. Instead, it’s had to endure the opposite — the strictest of scrutiny and presumptuous second-guessing from critics all over the world.

Take a look at a recent NBC News story about the conflict. It began: “Alongside its fight with Hamas, Israel is fighting another battle: to convince the world, and chiefly the United States, that this is a just war.”

So Israel — having been brutally attacked in ways that are sure to psychologically scar its people for generations — now has to persuade the world that acting in its own defense is justified?

What a humiliating turn of events. What Israel is being put through now by the international community goes well beyond the concept of blaming the victim. This is now a bizarre case of demanding the victims show evidence to prove they’re not being too aggressive in trying to avoid being victimized over and over again.

First, Israel was injured by Hamas. Then it had to endure the insult of being judged by the rest of the global community, including one of its greatest allies — the United States.

Imagine if — a few weeks after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 — famed CBS News radio reporter and war correspondent Edward R. Murrow began a broadcast: “Along with its battle against the empire of Japan, the United States finds itself trying to convince the world that its counterattack is fair and just.”

How exhausting to have to fight the equivalent of a two-front war. First, you have to defend yourself — on the battlefield — against further attacks, with weapons and ground forces. And, if that wasn’t difficult enough, you also have to show — as if in a court of law — evidence that proves you’re acting appropriately.

Meanwhile, who is judging Hamas? We don’t hear enough about the terrorist group and the war crimes it committed Oct. 7. It’s not playing by any set of rules, and it seems it couldn’t care less what the world thinks of the evil it does, the havoc it wreaks and the pain it inflicts.

In the NBC News report, H.A. Hellyer — a senior associate fellow at the D.C.based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — tries to explain why there seem to be two sets of rules for messaging: one for Israel, the other for Hamas. The public-relations war, he acknowledged, is not fought on an equal playing field.

“We don’t take seriously what a terror group says, but we do take seriously what an army says, especially one that’s an ally of ours,” Hellyer said. “So we naturally hold it to a higher standard.”

High standards are one thing. Impossibly high standards are another.

Finally, let’s not forget the realities of antisemitism. Anti-jewish hate has surged all over the globe in the past several weeks. With so much of the world showing such little regard for Jews, why should anyone trust in the oversight process?

When Israeli troops made their way through al-shifa Hospital in Gaza, they found automatic weapons, grenades, combat gear, even a motorcycle that may have been used in the Oct. 7 attack, all shown in an Israel Defense Forces video. Not good enough, the critics said.

Let’s be honest. On the issue of whether Hamas is using hospitals to store weapons or possibly even hostages, is there really any amount of evidence that would satisfy its critics? Or would they see any evidence as tainted, simply because they don’t trust the source?

For Israel, the PR war is a losing proposition. And it’s no wonder why. After all, the terms “public relations” and “war” should never even be in the same sentence.