Abstract
The image front is a significant fighting arena in contemporary conflicts. Alongside the military confrontations, political actors fight an image war, trying to garner international support and legitimacy. While previous studies have provided the foundations for the notion of the image war, the literature in the field lacks a wider understanding regarding strategies and messages that could assist countries in their attempt to influence public perceptions during conflicts. Using three public opinion surveys during the 2023–24 war between Hamas and Israel (from November 2023, April 2024, and August 2024), the current study seeks to fill this gap, focusing on the usage of Imagefare as part of countries’ fighting strategy and quantitively examining the effectiveness of various message strategies on countries’ ability to mobilize international support – examining Israeli strategies. The findings indicate that the Do Good strategy is the most effective in terms of countries’ ability to generate support to their actions (in line with the notion of Imagefare – emphasizing the need to take image considerations as part of states fighting strategy). In terms of messaging, a focus on victimization generated the greatest support, while other strategies (such as emphasizing the other sides’ bad-doing, or the good-doing of the country) were also found to be effective.
Published Version
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