Thrown Out Onto the Street, the Soldier Who Fled Abroad Became a Public Diplomacy Activist
Photo: Private
"They called from the Foreign Ministry and said I had to flee, they are looking for me," reservist fighter Adi Karni recalls the antisemitic pursuit that changed his life. After being thrown out onto the street in New York, he decided to fight back on the public diplomacy front with a bold initiative on campuses in the United States. "I’m doing this for the friends who did not survive Gaza," he explains in an interview with C14.
The Iron Swords War, and some would call it the "War of Revival," proved that in addition to the fighting against Israel’s enemies here on its territory, another war, no less important, is taking place around the world, the public diplomacy war. Where the State of Israel failed, many citizens took it upon themselves to launch private initiatives to clean up Israel’s good name against antisemitic media that does not stop blackening the soldiers of the IDF. One of them is reservist fighter Adi Karni, only 23 years old.
In an interview with C14, he describes the complicated path he has gone through since the outbreak of the October 7 massacre. Karni, who was an active-duty soldier at the time, fought in Gaza and Lebanon and lost close friends on the battlefield. After being discharged from reserve service, he went on a post-army trip to South America, but there he discovered that the war was chasing him even beyond Israel’s borders. "I understood that traveling outside the country right now, as an Israeli soldier, is extremely difficult," he shares. "There were arrest warrants against me in four countries, the Foreign Ministry called and said I had to run because they were looking for me."
The pursuit of Karni stemmed from the activities of antisemitic organizations such as "Hind Rajab," which tracked his movements. After being forced to leave South America, he arrived in New York and began working at a summer camp. But even there, the antisemitic atmosphere soon emerged from instructors from Europe and the United States. "For them, I finished genocide in Gaza and came to work with children," he describes the cold treatment he received, which ultimately led to his dismissal and being thrown out onto the street without family or support in northern New York, where he had to walk kilometers on foot until he found a synagogue that helped him.
The turning point came when Karni went to visit the mother of his comrade in arms, Jonathan Dean Chaim z"l, a lone soldier who converted and fell in combat. The visit led to an invitation to speak at an FIDF event, and from there the doors to public diplomacy opened. Karni began going from university to university with a simple but bold initiative, a table and a sign that read, "I am an Israeli soldier, ask me anything."
"A lot of times it led to violence and curses," he admits, "but I don’t sink to their level. To me, they are ignorant people who watch videos online, and I show them photos I took myself from Gaza."
One of the most extreme incidents he experienced took place at Towson University in Maryland. While standing with his public diplomacy table, a particularly hostile crowd began to gather around him, including the institution’s administration, which asked to remove him even though he had not broken any campus rules. The climax came when a Gazan from Khan Younis studying in the United States jumped over police barriers and began destroying the table and tearing down the Israeli flag. "It was an extreme event that reached six million views around the world, even on the news in Tehran," Karni says. "That only proved to me how critical this work is."
In his conversations with students abroad, Karni has had to contend with serious accusations of "genocide," "starvation," and "occupation." He notes that most of the protesters do not know the basic history of the State of Israel. "When I tell them facts about '48 or '67, they don’t know how to answer," he explains.
To refute the lies, he uses documentation from the field. "They talk about starvation, and I show them videos I filmed myself of aid trucks entering the Strip. If they come with an open mind, I’ve managed to convince quite a few people who changed their minds."
Despite his success on social media, where he quickly gained tens of thousands of followers, Karni believes the State of Israel is not investing enough in the official public diplomacy effort. He financed his flights and activities out of his own pocket, while sleeping on couches in Jewish communities in order to continue his mission. "The state hardly does any public diplomacy, unfortunately," he says. "The government needs to establish a real public diplomacy system with salaries and proper training. I’m doing this for my friends who did not survive Gaza, so they won’t have fallen for nothing and so we can continue to live and smile."
Today, Adi Karni is already planning his next public diplomacy round in the United States, this time with a personal bodyguard. He aims to reach the level of well-known public diplomacy activists such as Yoseph Haddad and represent the state on every possible stage, using the fluent English he has acquired. "I feel it has the same meaning as reserve duty, just fighting on another front," he concludes. "We are fighting for our identity against an enemy that uses violence. I am not afraid, because I know I am on the right side and I am committed to continue representing us with dignity."
