Analysis-Ceasefire offers Israel opportunity to end its international isolation

By Lili Bayer

(Reuters) -A ceasefire in Gaza is raising hopes among many in Israel that the country can begin to repair its image abroad, after months of deepening isolation due to the toll of the two-year conflict.

    Public opinion in the West has shifted significantly since the war erupted following Islamist group Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Outcry has steadily grown over the humanitarian cost of Israel's offensive and several Western nations have publicly recognized a Palestinian state in recent months – despite staunch opposition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and Washington.

Foreign polls have shown weakening support for Israel's military campaign, even in its most important ally, the United States. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the enclave's health officials.

    Reuters spoke to 13 current and former Israeli officials and experts who acknowledged that the humanitarian toll of the conflict has had a major reputational cost for Israel. Several expressed hope that the release this week of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of a first phase of the Gaza accord could start the process of reviving Israel’s reputation.

"This could help Israel regain some of the empathy and legitimacy it lost during the war," one Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this week.

Peter Lerner, a former Israeli military international spokesperson, said that would require policy action on the part of Netanyahu’s government, rather than just words.

He called for "a clear, credible commitment to peace, protection of innocent lives, respect for international law, and a serious investment in regional and humanitarian partnerships."

Netanyahu's office did not respond to a request for comment. The prime minister did not attend a summit in Egypt on Monday, meant to discuss steps towards a permanent end to the Gaza war, citing "the timing's proximity to the beginning of (a Jewish) holiday".

A study published on October 3 by the Pew Research Center – a Washington-based think tank - found that 39% of Americans said Israel was going too far in its military operation against Hamas, up from 31% a year ago and 27% in late 2023.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has sounded the alarm for months in closed-door meetings with Netanyahu and other ministers on the diplomatic repercussions of the war, according to two officials present at the meetings and one official briefed on the matter.

The foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Netanyahu startled many Israelis last month when he said the country would need to become more self-reliant in coming years because of the international backlash against the war. The prime minister, who has repeatedly ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state, has in the past vowed to prosecute the war until Hamas was completely destroyed.

"Improving reputation takes a long time of rebuilding trust," said one Western European diplomat, adding that while the ceasefire was a "good first step … many more will have to follow".

MANY ISRAELIS WORRIED ABOUT ISOLATION

More than 66% of Israelis were worried about the prospect of Israel's possible international isolation, according to an August poll by the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv-based think tank, compared to 55% in July 2024.

In August, a global hunger monitor said Gaza City and surrounding areas are suffering from famine, a conclusion Israel contested. Then a United Nations Commission of Inquiry said last month that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a charge the Israeli government has repeatedly rejected, saying its war is on Hamas and not the Palestinian people.

    Some of the people familiar with Israel's communication efforts said failures by Netanyahu's government to engage diplomatically with concerns in the West about the humanitarian impact of the war in Gaza had worsened Israel’s isolation.

Some former officials also described a lack of cohesive messaging and resources. Wartime communication efforts remained split among different departments, they said, while the country’s national public diplomacy directorate lacked resources, and some far-right ministers publicly contradict other officials.

    Richard Hecht, a former international spokesperson for Israel's military, said he believes Israel, whose military has emerged as the main source of information about the Gaza operation, needed to establish an effective civilian government organisation for managing international communication.

The Gaza ceasefire agreement was mediated by the United States along with Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. Its second phase calls for the creation of an international body to oversee the implementation of its next steps - a "Board of Peace" led by U.S. President Donald Trump.

While Trump told Israel's parliament on Monday that a "long nightmare" for both Israelis and Palestinians was over, significant obstacles remain to a resolution of the conflict, including the creation of a Palestinian technocrat administration to run Gaza and the demilitarization of the Strip.

The ceasefire deal remains fragile: Israel’s military, which still occupies around half of Gaza, opened fire on Tuesday on Palestinians it said were approaching its forces.

Pnina Sharvit Baruch, who directs a research program on Israel and global powers at the Institute for National Security Studies, called for Israel to build on Trump’s 20-point plan to promote regional partnerships, stability in Gaza, and renewed engagement with moderate Arab states.

“Such a course would not only strengthen regional security but also help Israel rebuild its international standing and credibility,” she said.

    Israel’s relations with the few Arab states it has formal ties with have been strained by the war in Gaza - including the United Arab Emirates, which established diplomatic relations with Israel five years ago under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords during Trump’s first term.

Some experts questioned whether Israel’s current right wing government – which relies on the support of religious ultranationalist parties – would be able to build bridges with neighboring countries and the Palestinian leadership.

Emmanuel Nahshon, a former ambassador who served as the Israeli foreign ministry’s deputy director general for public diplomacy in the first months of the war, said he believes Netanyahu did not travel to the summit in Egypt to avoid discussing a two-state solution to the conflict.  

"I think the first step to improve Israel's reputation in the world would be elections and the selection of a new government that will embark on a new path, which would include learning lessons from the war," he added.

(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Daniel Flynn)