Narrative Inteligence is the disciplined practice of understanding how communities form perceptions, values, identities and relationships, and using those insights to foster meaningful engagements based on shared interests rather than reactive messaging.
For Kerem Alliance, Narrative Inteligence begins with listening.
We Ask:
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Which communities should Israel better understand?
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What values and aspirations shape those communities?
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Where can authentic relationships emerge?
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How can shared value become the foundation for long-term trust?
The Challenge
Israel's greatest strategic challenge is not simply one of communications
It is one of relationship.
Around the world, communities are forming perceptions of Israel long before meanigful engagment ever begins. Public Diplomacy, advocacy, education and storytelling each play indrdpesiable roles, but they often begin after opinions have already started to form.
The Kerem Alliance was founded to explore a different question:
What if Israel invested as much effot in understanding communities as it has invested in explaining itself?
Our Mission
We believe that stronger relationships begin with deeper understanding.
Our mission is to help Israel build long-term relationships with communities around the world by combining rigorous research, behavioral insight, and authentic human connection.
Rather than replacing existing institutions, the Kerem Alliance seeks to strengthen the broader Israel engagment ecosystem by contributing a capability we believe has been underdeveloped, which we call: Narrative Intelligence.
Building Bridges
Strengthening Understanding Reimagining Israel’s Story
Before we try to make a change, we need to understand what does not work for Israel:
Advocacy, lobbying & soft public diplomacy may win policy arguments, but arguments do not change how communities feel
Rapid-response communications answers each crisis then fades with the next news cycle
Official public diplomacy is the government’s voice and the least trusted messenger for sceptical audiences
The Kerem Approach
Before we start a campaign we research how each community we intened to target understands Israel.
We Listen
Once we know our target audiience, we build a story that we know will resonate with them.
We Build The Story
We chose market segments that we know can be strengthened by positive messaging about Israel and utlizes this market's trusted voices
We chose our markets and partners carefully
We need to gauge perception and effectiveness over time; not news cycle
We Measure
Meet the Team
Founding Partner
Ethan Kushner
Ethan is a writer, strategist and marketing executive focused on Israel–Diaspora, US-Israel relations and civil-society–led nation branding. Through the Kerem Alliance, he hopes to counter polarization by advancing a more credible, values-based global conversation about Israel. He is also Chair of American Democrats in Israel, an organization of American-Israeli supporters of the US Democratic Party which reflects Israeli identity with a mission of supporting U.S. Democratic political candidates who ally with Israel. His work explores democracy, identity, and the limits of government-led public diplomacy in an increasingly fractured media landscape.
Founding Partner
Sagi Dagan
Sagi has served in several political advisory roles in the Knesset and as a freelance government relations and strategic communications consultant. These experiences have equipped him with a practical understanding of Israel’s public sector dynamics and the abiltiy to translate complex ideas into actionable policy.
