Popular pro-Israel activist and social media personality Debra Lea delivered a speech to the Israel Justice Organization event in New York, calling for a shift in Israel's public diplomacy approach.
“For decades, Israel has relied on this strategy: If we simply explain ourselves enough, if we’re calm enough, patient enough, polite enough, then the world will understand us and anti-Semitism will fade. That strategy has failed. It is time for a change.”
"The Maccabees did not sit around asking, ‘What PR strategy can we craft so the Greeks will love us?’ They said: We will not compromise to make an empire comfortable.”
“God does not tell us to ask for permission. He does not tell us to run PR strategies. He says: Possess it, dwell in it, build in it, and protect it.”
Debra urged Jews worldwide to stop acting like victims: “We are not fragile. We are not alone. When the world tries to extinguish the Jewish light, we shine brighter. When our enemies rise up, we rise even higher.”
Lea also praised the U.S.-Israel alliance as rooted in “shared principles of freedom, sovereignty, security, faith, and above all the moral clarity that good must be defended and evil must be eradicated,” insisting that “peace comes from strength - never from weakness.”