Sharing NIF’s vision of a better, more just future with mainstream Israeli audiences is a crucial part of the organization’s long-term strategy, NIF Director in Israel Shira Ben-Sasson recently made several appearances on prominent Israeli media channels, pushing the message of people-powered change to Israelis acrossthe political spectrum who might not otherwise know about NIF’s work. She spoke with Calcalist, a popular Israeli economics-focused magazine, about her work growing the peace camp in Israel, sharing her commitment to the long-term project of moving the needle in Israeli society. “People love to ask me what gives me hope, but I’m not really in the business of talking about hope,” she said. “What I have is determination, persistence, and strategy.”
Shira was clear: effective strategy not only involves promoting partnership but also addressing the public’s very real fears. “We cannot say as a camp that we believe in peace without also having something to say about the need for security,” she said. NIF’s grantees are developing frameworks for a better, more secure future for everyone.
Shira’s experience as an observant Jew in the progressive camp is not unique, but it was important for her to emphasize that religion need not be the exclusive domain of the right. A growing community of orthodox Jews—many of whom have been supported by the New Israel Fund—see their opposition to the occupation as neither incidental nor contradictory to their religious practice, but rather as an expression of it.
Finally, she highlighted the importance of peace-building work as ongoing, independent of Israel’s upcoming election. “There is a tendency in the camp to think that if Bibi wins again, everything will be black, and if a change government is formed, everything will be rosy,” she said. “Neither is true. We are not in the business of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ Netanyahu. We are in the business of building long-term democratic infrastructure.” (Hebrew speakers can find the full story here).
Shira was also recently interviewed on Channel 13 by Raviv Drucker, one of Israel’s most popular TV anchors. Many Israelis who talk about NIF’s most important values—civil rights and liberal democracy—on television face pushback in real time, and when Shira was confronted, she was unflinching. “There is no future in Israel without Jewish-Arab partnership,” she said.
By speaking about these ideas into mainstream media, Shira is helping to bring peace back into the Israeli lexicon. At a moment when many feel despair, her message is clear: real change requires patience, courage, and a willingness to keep going, even when the path forward is difficult. The global NIF community will not stop working to amplify those who believe that peace is the only path to true security.