Was the final match of the World Cup, which ended with a 1-0 victory for Spain over Argentina, a proxy for the Israel-Palestine conflict? This is the contention of some Palestine advocates, who supported the Spanish national team, and of several members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, who posted their support for Argentina on their social media channels.
For ordinary Israelis, however, the political posturing of their government officials was irrelevant. They were simply caught up in the joy of watching the match and the drama of Lionel Messi, the 39-year-old Argentinian superstar, playing perhaps his last World Cup game against Spain’s superstar, 19-year-old Lamine Yamal.
Israel’s Hebrew-language legacy media outlets were all but indifferent to the pro-Palestine sentiments expressed by fans and some players. They reported the match straightforwardly as a sporting event, mentioning only in passing that Palestine supporters were backing Spain while Netanyahu, Minister of Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and one or two lesser-known right-wing politicians supported Argentina. Reporters adopted a tone of mild disdain toward the performatively populist antics of the prime minister and his far-right ministers in claiming they were suddenly big Argentina fans, making them sound a bit clownish, or at least irrelevant.
Since most Israelis obtain their information exclusively from Hebrew media outlets, which effectively act as information gatekeepers, it’s quite possible that the media intentionally framed their reporting about the World Cup from a “feel good” perspective. Israelis, they seemed to be saying implicitly, should feel just like the rest of the world, simply watching “the beautiful game” and enjoying it for the same reasons as everyone else.
Spain and, by extension, its national soccer team are widely perceived internationally as supporters of Palestinian rights for several reasons. Star player Yamal, who scored the winning goal, waved a Palestinian flag during Barcelona’s 2026 La Liga celebration, while Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is a strong critic of Israel’s military assault on Gaza. Javier Bardem, the internationally famous Spanish actor, is a vocal supporter of Palestine, a strong critic of the Israeli government and a big fan of his country’s national team. Spain is also one of only two European countries to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (the other is Ireland).
The vast majority of Israelis, even liberals who might be critical of the extent of the army’s assault on Gaza, vociferously reject the genocide accusation.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, meanwhile, has a tight, bromance-style relationship with Netanyahu, based on their shared right-wing, populist ideology. Some media reports interpreted Milei’s purportedly pro-Israel position as broadly representative of Argentinian sentiment. But a Pew Research Center survey published in May found that 55% of Argentinians hold unfavorable views of Israel, with only 21% expressing a favorable opinion.
In the days leading up to Sunday’s final match, Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, uploaded a video to his social media that showed him receiving an Argentina shirt and a soccer ball from Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, a Hebrew-speaking Orthodox rabbi named Shimon Axel Wahnish. Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, posted a similar video, as did Netanyahu himself.
Yet the Hebrew media’s coverage of the match celebrated Spain’s victory, not because it offered any symbolic commentary on Israel or Palestine, but because it was an exciting match. The headlines, if translated, could have been from any non-Israeli media outlet. “For the Second Time in History, Spain Is the World Champion in Soccer” was the headline chosen by Kan 11, Israel’s public broadcaster. Mako 12, the most-watched commercial broadcaster, used an almost identical headline, adding that Spain had been victorious despite Messi.
Benny Gantz, a retired general and former minister of defense who heads the Blue and White Party, one of the opposition parties affiliated with the liberal, anti-Netanyahu camp, posted a prematch Instagram reel, clearly meant as a campaign clip ahead of the national election scheduled for Oct. 27, in which an out-of-frame interviewer asks him what team he would bet on to win the final match of the World Cup. Gantz answers that his heart says Argentina while his head says Spain, but he was going with his heart.
The interviewer asks Gantz: “Did you think Argentina would get to the final?” Honestly, says Gantz, I didn’t think so, especially after the opening game. But they understand the value of working together, with the backing of a strong country, to achieve victory. “Ah,” says the interviewer, “I see what you did there. You’re saying that they’re like the Blue and White party, which, if it works hard, can surprise everyone [by helping to lead the opposition to victory and oust Netanyahu in the upcoming national elections].” Gantz responds: “Come on, how’d you get there? We’re just talking about soccer.” Then he looks into the camera and winks. For Gantz — a sort of Israeli centrist everyman, a familiar type of plain-talking, secular man who’s hawkish on security but liberal on civil society issues — the World Cup final game could function as a metaphor for the Oct. 27 election and the opposition’s desire to stop Netanyahu’s authoritarianism, but it is not a commentary on Israel versus Palestine.
Mako 12, the popular centrist commercial network, reported that Basem Naim, the Hamas minister of health in Gaza, posted his congratulations to the Spanish team on X, while Israel Today, a right-wing newspaper with a pro-Netanyahu editorial position, reported that Al Jazeera had published a report from Gaza about the admiration of Palestinian children for Yamal, whom they described as a supporter of Palestine. But the reports were brief and without commentary.
The fact that most Israelis were indifferent to, or unaware of, the symbolism of Spain’s victory for Palestinians and Palestine advocates speaks to the limits of their own information bubble and worldview. But perhaps it also illustrates the gap between government rhetoric and the sentiments of ordinary people everywhere.