Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky turned in recent weeks to strategic advisors close to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Walla! has learned. Based on trustworthy sources, Zelensky recently received media and strategic advice from Srulik Einhorn, who was the Likud party's Head of Creative in the most recent elections, and Jonatan Urich, Netanyahu's spokesperson in recent years. Neither Einhorn, Urichor Zelensky responded to Walla! queries.
Urich, one of the closest people to Netanyahu and who serves as his spokesperson, recently joined Einhorn's private advocacy company "Perception," which supplies crisis management, campaigns and digital services to politicians abroad.
Another senior advisor of Netanyahu's, Ofer Golan, also recently joined the company, which describes itself as "a leader of significant and creative processes in the private and public sectors in Israel and abroad."
While Urich and Golan accompany Netanyahu on a regular basis, Einhorn was, in recent years, a strategic advisor and campaign manager for Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, including during Vucic's victorious campaign for his second term in office that culminated in elections in early April.
At the end of March, Einhorn published an article in The Jerusalem Post in which he argued that Zelensky's use of social media was one of the most brilliant ones he had seen in recent years.
"Ukraine has a weak army, but [its] social networks are strong," he wrote.
"The Ukrainians have taken a complex rather than one-sided political situation and managed to sweepingly mobilize public opinion in the West.
"Zelensky’s clever use of his social networks managed to defeat a propaganda system that tried to spread fake news pretending that he fled or surrendered and ran away from the battlefield.
"Russian propaganda would have won if not for Zelensky’s personal digital activity. Thanks to Zelensky’s digital activity, the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian citizens have sided with the President and with Western media."
A few weeks after the article was published in April, the Ukrainian President launched a new digital campaign under the hashtag #ArmUkraineNow in order to create public pressure on governments to arm Ukraine with heavy weaponry to be used in the war against Russia.