Being Progressive and Zionist makes sense: So why has Israel lost the left?

As we mark a year since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, it is natural to focus on the pain, the loss, and the trauma of that horrific day. But while we rightly remember the human toll, we must also confront a cold, hard truth: PR efforts — ours as advocates for the Jewish people — are failing.

Not just because of antisemitism, but because our strategies are bad.

The American actress Carol Burnett once remarked that “the audience is never wrong”. What she didn’t add, though I suspect she would agree, is that it is useless to speak to the wrong audience. For far too long, the focus of Israel’s advocacy has been on just that: the wrong audience.

I don’t like to rely on clichés to make my point but sometimes they are fitting. In the case of those charged with advocating for Jews and Israel, preaching to the choir has been a public relations disaster. The people who already stand with Israel – virtually everyone who is reading this – enjoy hearing uplifting arguments. But this is not an audience that needs convincing.

The people who do need convincing, people who don’t support or take an interest in Jews, Israel, and antisemitism, reside mostly on the political left. They are the ones shaping cultural and political power in the West and if they aren’t hating us, they definitely aren’t hearing us. Worse, because of the decades-long absence of an effective communications strategy, they don’t even want to hear us.

Here is something worth reflecting on: while there are an enormous number of prominent left-wing figures in British media, one would be hard-pressed to name even one who has consistently defended Israel since the attacks of last year. Just one. If you can’t think of anyone, it’s not because you are forgetting, it’s because they don’t exist. The media figures championing Israel’s cause — at least visibly — are all on the right.

Douglas Murray, for example, has done an excellent job explaining the moral case for Israel but he is a conservative voice. His presence only reinforces the notion of those opposing his views that defending Israel is a “right-wing” issue. Even when Israeli government spokespeople were invited to speak in British media, their polished Oxford accents and the snarky stares and patronising attacks on journalists often come off as exactly what Israel is falsely accused of: arrogant, rightwing and out of touch with a wider, generally hostile public.

This isn’t to say those voices are wrong. But when Israel’s defenders are almost exclusively on the right, it frames Israel as a right-wing issue. That’s dangerous. It alienates the left, pushing those with opposing views further away and hardening their anti-Israel stance.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just a British problem. Throughout the West, Israel is increasingly seen as a conservative cause, championed by figures who simply aren’t convincing anyone outside their echo chamber.

Here’s where I need to be blunt. This isn’t a lost cause but it’s time to face reality: we’re going about this the wrong way and fixing it will take time, conviction and investment.

We must stop relying on the people who say what we want to hear simply because they are on “our side”. These are not the voices that will sway the audiences that matter most and need the most care.

There are millions of people out there who could be reached and who should be reached. The left is supposed to be the champion of minorities, the voice of the oppressed. Yet time and again, we see the left ignoring antisemitism or, worse, embracing those who propagate it. It is easy to feel abandoned.

But we cannot afford to give up on the left. The Labour Party is the ruling party in the UK and right now, like it or not, leftwing politics is shaping the future across the Western world. We must engage with, not dismiss, those with whom we have little connection.

We need to start thinking about Israel’s image in a radically different way. It begins with diversity, not just in terms of race or ethnicity but in ideology. We need to broaden the range of voices advocating for Israel. The same old faces, the same talking points and the same tone won’t cut it. We need progressives, liberals, environmentalists and feminists who can articulate why Israel matters, not just from a moral standpoint but from a leftwing perspective. We need spokespeople who don’t sound like they’re stepping out of a conservative think tank.

This isn’t just a gut feeling; the data backs me up. A survey conducted by Generation Lab in July 2024 for The Tel Aviv Institute found that young people, particularly progressives, are not only disengaged from the Israel-Palestine debate, but they are also more likely to view Israel through a lens shaped by conservative associations.

The result? They write Israel off as a rightwing issue. We need to break this narrative by presenting Israel in ways that align with their values, not push them further away.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. But we cannot afford to sit back and assume that moral arguments will win the day or that the left will come around on its own. It is time for a strategic shift in how we communicate, whom we put forward as spokespeople and what narratives we build.

Anyone who thinks current strategies are effective has had their heads in the sand. For others, this is not the time to retreat or lower our expectations. It is time to engage the left with clarity, with force, and with diversity of thought.

Israel’s survival as a nation — and our survival as a people — depends on it. This is a fight we can win, but only if we are willing to step outside our comfort zones, challenge our own assumptions and do the hard work of reaching beyond our echo chambers.

Anything less and we’re simply repeating the mistakes of the past. That begins with a clear commitment to addressing audiences that exist and thrive outside our traditional comfort zones.