by Yehudis Litvak
When tourists stopped coming to Israel after Oct 7th, Oren Cahanovitc became a passionate advocate for Israel on YouTube.
Before the horrific Hamas attack on October 7th, Oren worked as a tour guide, leading groups of mostly non-Jewish tourists in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other popular Israeli destinations. To help visitors to Israel, Oren began a YouTube channel, where he uploaded videos with travel tips, hotel recommendations, public transportation information, and popular as well as little known destinations in Israel.
Oren’s favorite topic was the Israeli society. Even before October 7th, he produced some political videos, and after October 7th, his focus shifted completely to Israel advocacy. “First of all,” he says, “there are no tourists in Israel, but also when the war ends and tourists come back, I will keep making videos, because there are enough great tour guides in Israel, but there are not enough people who are combatting the Palestinian lies.”
Oren’s most popular videos have gotten millions of views. His audience is from all over the world and mostly not Jewish. In an interview with Aish.com Oren says, “One of my biggest problems is that most of my videos have 80-85% likes, which basically means that a lot of it stays in the echo chamber, and I do want to get to those on the other side.” Oren is trying different strategies to attract viewers who oppose his position on Israel, but even with his current statistics, he says, “Millions are watching the videos every month, so even if 20% of those people don’t agree with me, it is still a lot of eyeballs.”
The videos get 50,000 comments per month. “Of course, not all are positive, but that’s good,” says Oren. Some of his videos are made in response to anti-Israel comments he receives. “I never delete comments. I really believe in free speech.” In his videos, Oren focuses on facts and challenges the viewers to prove him wrong. For example, he says that Jews have never stolen land from Arabs and asks those who object to name at least one village that was stolen by Jews before the Arabs declared a war in 1948.
“I say there are zero,” he says. “By the way, I can give you many names of villages that Arabs stole from the Jews. Like, in Gaza – there was a Jewish community in Gaza until 1929, or in Hebron, or in Motza. After the Arabs started a war – yes, they lost land, because that’s what happens: when you start a war, you might lose.”
Or when people blame the Israeli settlements in the West Bank for lack of peace, Oren asks them to explain why there was no peace before 1967. Oren says that this approach of asking viewers to prove him wrong, challenging them and making them think, works very well.
How to Defend Israel
Even though Oren has a Master’s degree in Israeli history and extensive experience leading tours based on history and religion, he says that one does not need to be an expert in history in order to defend Israel. The facts are out there, accessible to anyone.
However, people tend to take the side of the Palestinians because, explains Oren, “they’re seen as the underdog. And there are more casualties on the other side. Israel is stronger. And in this world we’re living in, there is nothing better than being a victim. And they play the victim card very well.”
In addition, Oren points out “an obsession with the Jews.” Besides, he says, “it’s easy to be a reporter in Israel. You have internet, electricity, food. Your life is not in danger. And you can say how terrible Israel is and what the Israelis are doing in the West Bank. But the worst conflict today in the Middle East is the war in Yemen. Nobody wants to be a journalist in Yemen. And Arabs killing Arabs? Nobody cares. If you can’t blame the Jews, then it’s not too interesting.”
Nevertheless, Oren believes that all of us can play a part in counteracting the anti-Israel propaganda, even those of us whose social media contacts are already pro-Israel. “Understand that you have a lot of power. When you’re on social media, you’re not just consuming information. You’re also teaching the algorithm what interests you and what you like. If you watch a pro-Israel video and like it, comment on it, or share it, it is a very strong message to the algorithm that this is valid, this is true, let’s push it a little bit further. There is a reason why all the content creators are asking to you like, share, and comment. We can see it in the analytics on the other side. It helps tremendously!”
Oren’s Top 5 Points in Defense of Israel
For those who would like to participate in defending Israel, Oren suggests the following top 5 points:
- The Palestinians are very clear that they want to destroy Israel. They never wanted their own state. They want to deny Jews a state. They have said so from the very beginning of the conflict.
- It is better to be an Arab in Israel than in any other country in the Middle East. Arabs in Israel enjoy more rights and more freedom than in any other Arab Muslim country.
- For proponents of women’s rights and human rights, it does not make sense to be pro-Palestinian.
- If you’re not sure who to believe – Israeli Jews or Arab Muslims, go visit your nearby Jewish community. See where there is more violence: in the Israeli Jewish community or in the Arab Muslim community? Are Jews blowing up mosques? Or is it always the other way around? If in the Arab Muslim countries there is no democracy, no women’s rights, and a lot of political and religious violence, then maybe it’s not the fault of the Jews or Israel.
- If you really care about human lives in the Middle East, Syria and Yemen should be your biggest concerns. By far the deadliest conflicts in the Middle East in recent years have been in Syria and Yemen. But when it’s Muslims killing Muslims, nobody seems to care.
Unlikely Allies
The most surprising outcome of Oren’s advocacy has been the positive response and support from oppressed ethnic and religious minorities living in Muslim countries.
“You can see that people are writing from their hearts,” says Oren. “I do talk a little bit about it – Christians living in Muslim countries, the persecution there. And people from Iran, Syria, Iraq, Egypt write to me, ‘You’re describing our lives here under Muslim rule! You tell our story.’ This is something I didn’t expect, and these are the most emotional responses I get.”
The western world seems to close its eyes to the suffering of these minorities. Oren says, “There are about 50 Muslim countries, and you don’t see a single minority thriving there. They all live in fear, whether it is Christians in Nigeria, which are being slaughtered by the Muslims, or Christians in Egypt, or minorities in Iran. It’s not only that the Muslims hate the Jews because of what the ‘terrible’ Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. The Muslims act the same way towards Christians, and Yazidis, and Kurds. Bringing awareness to the atrocities in Muslim countries is extremely important.”
Oren wonders if his correspondents from Muslim countries are risking their lives when they respond to his videos and speak out against their countries’ regimes. He believes that the western world can do much more to help these oppressed minorities.
Maintaining a Positive Outlook
Though Oren at times receives death threats and other nasty messages, “I don’t take them too seriously,” he says. “Golda Meir used to say that pessimism is a luxury that a Jew cannot afford. This is what keeps me going, and I’m seeing the results. I get many supportive comments, but the comments I really love are, ‘you know, I don’t agree with you on everything, but you made me think.’” That, to Oren, is mission accomplished.
Oren is optimistic about Israel’s future. “We have something really good going on,” he says. “When you look at the history of the Jewish people, you see that we’ve overcome a lot worse. And we will overcome this challenge as well.”
Reprinted from the September 22, 2024 website of aish.com
