What Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu have in common

A meme comparing Israel’s "brand" with the disastrous trajectory of Twitter, now X, is no joke, writes ITTAY FLESCHER.

Recently, I shared on social media a meme satirising Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The joke was that the two could run a joint masterclass on the subject “How to destroy a global brand in less than one year.”

The meme was created by Jonathan Raven, a London-born Israeli who works in investment management on Facebook and I shared it on Twitter.

It went more viral than Covid-19 on a cruise ship. Within two days it had been liked close to 2000 times and seen by more than 69,000 people. It was also retweeted 273 times, including by Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador to Israel.

Many Israelis loved it, though I also received criticism from anti-Zionists who criticized the idea that Israel had a spotless brand record before Netanyahu’s justice reform and Twitter fans who noted the platform has gained users since Musk became CEO.

But it’s impossible to deny that both Twitter and Israel have seen enormous damage to reputation in the past year.

Twitter/X has also lost almost half of its advertising revenue since it was bought by Musk for $44 billion last October. It is struggling under a heavy debt load and cash flow remains negative. Musk sacked about half of Twitter's 7500 staff in an effort to cut costs. Rival app Threads now has an estimated 150 million users.

Israel has always had reputational challenges. Most people associate it with negative news stories, typically focused on Palestinian human rights, conflict and military action. A rare exception is its positive profile in high-tech innovation.

But “Brand Israel” has suffered a major blow from Israel’s internal civil crisis: the rise Jewish supremacism, the anti-democratic judicial overhaul and the rise of the democratic protest movement.

The crisis has damaged Israel’s reputation diplomatically and economically, among Jews and non-Jews, as the rise of the democratic peace movement achieved widespread international media coverage.

There is a new willingness to criticise Israel, even in the US and Germany, two countries traditionally loathe to go there. Economic forecasts and investment in the high-tech sector have declined.

Diaspora communal leaders who have never before criticised Israel, including major donors, have spoken out, emboldened by deep concern within their own communities. In Australia. The Jewish Independent’s Crossroads23 survey found only 14% of Jews supported the judicial overview.

The passage of the law abolishing the Reasonableness Doctrine on July 25 confirmed that the government is pushing ahead with its anti-democratic agenda without regard to either internal or international protest. Only 22% of Israelis support passing the judicial overhaul in its current form.

Michael Eisner, former chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, once said, “A brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.”

Every time people interact with the green, LGBT-friendly and progressive Tel Aviv-centric brand that Israel invests billions each year in promoting, they are having an experience of that builds Israel's social capital in the progressive international marketplace.

Equally, when people read about Israel’s continued military rule over millions of Palestinians or see hundreds of thousands of Israelis on the streets protesting the damage to their democracy, they form an impression of the country that paints it as hardline, oppressive and extremist.

There are many things Netanyahu would love to be remembered for, from his leading bold economic reforms that saved the shekel, his strong campaign against a nuclear Iran, to the Abraham Accords.

I’m sure the collapse of the country’s image across the world isn’t one of them.

Yet whether by force of his own or due to his inability to stand up to his more extreme coalition partners, he has had an enormous negative impact on Brand Israel.

Top photo: Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk in the Twitter meme.