Overseas hostility fails to move Israeli voters ahead of Tuesday's ballot

Reports of Israeli travelers facing hostility abroad have piled up for months, but the topic is barely registering in the campaign ahead of Israel's Oct. 27 election. In July, tourists in Montenegro were asked by locals, "Taking a break from genocide?" A restaurant in Greece reportedly declined to serve an Israeli woman after she disclosed her nationality. In California, an Israeli couple checking into a hotel was asked if they were "baby killers."

Israel's standing overseas has fallen to levels not previously recorded. A Pew Research Center poll conducted between February and May this year found a median of 67% of adults across 36 countries held an unfavorable view of Israel. Governments have also turned colder: some countries, including some considered allies, have pulled back ties or imposed sanctions over military action in Gaza and violence by settlers in the West Bank.

Israeli voters are not ranking that shift high. Yaakov Katz, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that complaints exist about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government failing to explain Israeli policy abroad, but most Israelis treat it as a problem outside their control. "There is the argument that Netanyahu makes, which is that no matter what we do, the whole world's against us, and no matter what we say, it's antisemitism," said Katz, co-author of "While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East." "People accept that argument, and to a large extent, they don't push back on it."

Katz said many Israelis expect antisemitism to rise regardless of Israeli conduct. He added that the average Israeli does not grasp that declining support, particularly in the United States, could eventually carry existential consequences, and that supporters take comfort in President Donald Trump's endorsement of Netanyahu.

Ofir Dayan, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Israelis do track what happens abroad but weigh it against nearer concerns in a country that has been at war for more than three years. "Israeli voters are very much one-issue voters, and the issue in this election is security," Dayan said. "We're not remote enough from Oct. 7 for people to completely shift their vote and vote based on this idea."

Peter Lerner, former Israel Defense Forces spokesman for the international press, told JTA that "the issue of Israel's international standing is secondary to two things: Netanyahu or not Netanyahu, and the left vs. the right." He added, "you just don't see very many talking about it and when they do talk about it, it is secondary to everything else."

Among the roughly dozen parties expected to win Knesset seats, only a few address the image problem. The B'Yachad Party, led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, folds the issue into a plan for ties with world Jewry that would seat a non-voting observer in the Knesset. Amcha Yisrael, a new right-wing party led by former IDF Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, lists Yoseph Haddad and Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, both public diplomacy activists; Haddad has said repeatedly he wants to be Israel's next minister for public diplomacy.

Journalist Eylon Levy, a former Israeli government spokesman, told JTA's "Waiting for 61" podcast that public diplomacy, known in Israel as hasbara, "is not a goal in itself" for most candidates. He described the debate as one over "who can manage relations with the world so that we can achieve our national interests." Levy does not expect a new government to reverse perceptions, though he said a more moderate one would "buy Israel some goodwill, definitely among those who say, in theory, we support Israel."