VOI’s mission of “recognizing that the State of Israel’s international legitimacy” is a national security issue of the highest order, an official document states.
Israel’s government re-branded, a government-philanthrophic joint venture that was supposed to combat the BDS movement as a semi-governmental arm outside of abroad.
The Jerusalem Post has learned that Concert (originally called Solomon’s Sling) has legally moved from the Strategic Affairs Ministry, which was shut down by the current government and is now operating under a new name, branding and management of the Foreign Ministry and its Deputy Minister, Idan Roll.
The company, now called Voices of Israel (VOI), is now re-launching itself quietly and will operate with a four-year budget of NIS 100 million (about $29 million), as opposed to the annual NIS 100 million the Strategic Affairs Ministry allocated for the few years it existed under the leadership of current Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and later on Orit Farkash-Hacohen and Michael Biton, before Foreign Minister Yair Lapid had the ministry shut down.
“Voices of Israel (VOI) is a non-partisan, apolitical organization that funds and partners with a wide range of Israeli and international NGOs, with the shared goal of strengthening positive perceptions of Israel and combating hate speech and incitement around the world,” a document explaining the old-new entity stated.
Sources in the Foreign Ministry have told the Post that this is a joint venture and the model of funding is to match private donations of NIS 100 million in public funds over the next four years. The budget can potentially grow to NIS 200 million with matching funds from philanthropists and organizations.
The new CEO of VOI is a former diplomat in India and Washington DC, pro-Israel opinion leader and strategic consultant, Lior Weintraub. Weintraub is a seasoned advisor to international corporations and campaigns. He served as Vice President of The Israel Project and is a lecturer on Diplomacy and Communications at Reichman University.
VOI is chaired by Micah Avni, founder of the Peninsula Group. Its leadership includes prominent Israelis from the fields of government, diplomacy, and business such as former ambassadors to the United States and the United Kingdom Michael Oren and Daniel Taub, Former major general and National Security Advisor of Israel Yaakov Amidror, investor and advisor in international financial markets Josiah Rotenberg, former advisor to Israeli prime minister and founder of “Passages”, Rivka Kidron and olympic medal athlete turned entrepreneur, Yael Arad.
VOI’s mission: Strengthening Israel’s legitimacy
According to an official document, VOI’s mission is “recognizing that the State of Israel’s international legitimacy” is a national security issue of the highest order. VOI’s long-term mission is to strengthen Israel’s legitimacy and to minimize the impact among key audiences of the delegitimization campaign against it.” Avni stated “We envision a world which is inspired by the diverse voices of Israel.”
“VOI will be the central Israeli address for meeting needs common to Israel’s friends, Jewish and non-Jewish, around the world,” the document stated. It is explained that VOI isn’t a player in the field of advocacy but actually a funder and an accelerator, “by using matching funding, VOI will ensure that pro-Israel non-profits, wherever they may be, have the resources they need for critical new and existing initiatives,” the document stated.
It is specified that VOI will support “Israel’s friends,” as they are considered, in responding to “global social, demographic and political change; new worldviews and narratives that impact how Israel and Jews are perceived; changing patterns in how information is disseminated and consumed.”
In addition, they hope to reach key audiences, “particularly young people and others who are susceptible to our enemies’ distortions, by connecting on issues that they care about.”
According to an internal document, during the next year, VOI will focus on data and polling, advancing the Abraham Accords, boosting influencer visits to Israel, social media and collaboration on media strategy.
“It is important to emphasize and understand that Prime Ministers Netanyahu, Bennet, Lapid, and their respective governments, all agreed that Israel’s legitimacy, in the eyes of the world, is an issue of national security and of strategic importance,” Avni told the Post in an interview. “The establishment of Voices of Israel and its mission is something that all three Prime Ministers supported fully and wholeheartedly.” He added that “Israel has enjoyed consensus in its legitimacy and existence over many years. But that legitimacy has come under continuously increasing attacks. We need to be investing heavily in fortifying our legitimacy by inspiring the world.”
According to Avni, the goal of VOI, “from the beginning of the project has been to establish a platform that can empower the pro-Israel world in strengthening its messaging, its voices, its ability to communicate Israel’s naratives to the world.”
According to Avni, the goal of VOI, “from the beginning of the project to date, has been to establish a platform that can empower the pro-Israel world in strengthening its messaging, its voices, its ability to communicate Israel’s legitimacy to the world and help the world understand that, in the face of multifaceted threats to our legitimacy.”
Avni explained that there are many players in the pro-Israel ecosystem, yet “each of them has been running independently on their own, trying to do the best they can. Many are doing amazing work getting these real stories across.” Avni shared that in his opinion, “this ecosystem is much less effective than if we had a little bit more organized and a little bit more coordinated effort between the government and the pro-Israel world.” He added that this understanding “is something that the government first recognized four or five years ago.”
Avni has been involved in this pro-Israel ecosystem since 2016 and he’s headed this initiative as a lay leader since 2016, throughout the different governments and also the re-branding of VOI under the auspices the FM. Asked if he thinks that this venture can now succeed, after a few years of difficulty to take off and break boundaries, Avni answered that “it’s not something that can happen in a year or two. I have a 10 and 20-year vision for VOI and we’re building those cornerstones. We’ve met over the past couple of years, in spite of various criticisms, and all sorts of different people who had political agendas along the way. We’ve also met with tremendous success in the infrastructure. We’ve set up the infrastructure, we’ve budgeted, we funded numerous projects, we’ve recruited some amazing people who are on board and we have tons and tons of work ahead of us. But so far, it’s been a tremendous success.”
“Over the years, I built a huge business; an entire industry of nonbank lending in Israel,” Avni said. “When you build something long term, large changes are going to affect massive change. It takes time. And it’s the issue of building platforms and building consensus around it,” he said about the difficulties of starting this social venture. He explained that in 2018, when established, VOI (or Concert in its prior name) was “an idea, then it was a [government] decision, then it was a contract, these things seem trivial, but they’re massive. When we started off, people said ‘we don’t want anything to do with the government.’ And now we’re at a point where people are working with us; organizations are sitting around the table, and communicating with people in the government who are doing great work.
Historically, the diplomats at Israel’s MFA were very negative towards anything connected to the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, including VOI. Yet Avni said that the transition of joint venture to the MFA has been a positive one. “When we transitioned from the Ministry of Strategic Affairs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which I think was a natural transition, we were embraced by the people of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he said. He recognized Prime Ministers Benyamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett and later Yair Lapid, in addition to Ministers Gilad Erdan, Michael Biton, Orit Frakash and Idan Roll as leaders who have supported and furthered the establishment of Voices of Israel. “I think that the prime ministers and the Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll did a wonderful job pushing this forward and giving it the support that it needed.”
This year, Avni revealed, VOI is looking to put out in the area of NIS 30 million to NIS 40 million in funding. He added that within five to ten years, “we need to be at a level of half a billion or a billion shekels a year to really be impacting things. But that’s not the kind of thing that happens overnight, right?”
“’Concert’ was a good idea with a problematic execution,” Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll told the Post about VOI. “After a year of hard work to correct deficiencies and strategic change, I am proud to relaunch this company under a new name: Voices of Israel (VOI). The ability for cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and civilian organizations is a force multiplier in strengthening Israel in the international arena,” Roll said.
“Voices of Israel is a unique and extraordinary platform,” said deputy director general for public diplomacy at the Foreign Ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon. “VOI opens new and exciting avenues of cooperation and a new way to look at pro Israel advocacy,” Nachshon said. Nachshon added that”at Israel’s MFA we are very keen to work extensively with VOI.”