(photo credit: REUTERS/Jack Taylor)
For Olga Deutsch, some of the most consequential battles of this era are waged far from any frontline. They unfold in newspaper columns, NGO briefings, aid networks, courtrooms, and the language of human rights - places where, she argues, falsehood can travel faster than evidence and accusation can outrun accountability. “The ultimate weapon that we have is facts and figures,” she says, and the phrase lands not as a slogan but as an operating principle.
Poised to take the helm of NGO Monitor in January 2027, Deutsch presents herself as both an archivist and an alarm bell. Founded by Gerald Steinberg, the Jerusalem-based research institute scrutinizes the funding, credibility, and claims of NGOs active in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. Steinberg will move to an emeritus role when Deutsch formally succeeds him. She brings a background that spans finance and international affairs, with studies at the University of Belgrade, the University of Munich, and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Deutsch argues that what is being waged against Israel and against Jews is not a marginal public-relations problem but “the political warfare against the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” a campaign designed to “complement the physical war,” reshape public opinion, and muddy the moral categories by which violence is judged. In that war,...
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