Utilizing Digital Diplomacy in the Israeli Discourse to Influence Arab Public Opinion during the Israeli Aggression on Gaza 2021

Abstract

In conjunction with the start of the Arab Spring revolutions, the Israeli occupation state has strengthened its digital diplomatic presence. The Israeli occupation state considered what was happening as an opportunity to penetrate Arab public opinion, to achieve what it had been unable to achieve for decades by communicating with Arab peoples and influencing its attitudes towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. Accordingly, this research mainly discussed utilizing digital diplomacy in the Israeli discourse to influence Arab public opinion during the Israeli aggression on Gaza in 2021. Digital diplomacy is a new form of diplomacy based on soft powers in order to influence Arab public opinion by addressing their emotions. The study uses content analysis approach to examine the content of the publications broadcasted on the “Israel Speaks Arabic” page on the “Facebook” website to reveal the frames of reference for the Israeli digital diplomatic discourse, and the active forces within the content published on social media. The study relied on an intentional 12-day sample (starting from May 10 to May 21 of the year 2021), which amounted to (120) publications. The study concluded that the “Israel speaks Arabic” page used a professional digital diplomatic discourse. As well as it relied on profiling and framing methods in its publications aiming to influence Arab public opinion and control their awareness in order to pass the Israeli narrative and deepen the gap between the Palestinian resistance and Arab public opinion by framing the Palestinian resistance with terrorism.