Israel did learn its lesson from the Lebanon war, and especially in regard to the Hezbullah propaganda machine.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Saturday instructed the Foreign Ministry to take emergency measures to adapt Israel’s international public relations to the ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip.
Livni instructed senior ministry officials to open an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations campaign, in order to gain greater international support for Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip.
Livni instructed ministry officials currently on vacation in Israel to return immediately to their posts abroad, and to immediately mount public relations campaigns in their station countries, focusing on local media and public officials.
But wait, there’s more!
Livni will hold a series of talks with foreign officials in the coming days, in which she will attempt to explain the rationale for the expanded IDF operations in the Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Ministry is also looking to recruit speakers of foreign languages, in particular Arabic, Italian, Spanish, and German, in order to expand Israel’s public relations campaign with the representatives of foreign media outlets currently in Israel.
An international media broadcast outlet will be opened in Sderot on Sunday, and the Foreign Ministry will organize a series of tours of Sderot and the Gaza envelope communities for foreign media and diplomatic figures.
That’s pretty interesting, because if the world media comes to Sderot and Hamas doesn’t know the schedule, it’s likely they’ll get to experience the rockets first-hand. Which may be exactly the point of holding tours of Sderot.
We shall see if this PR effort works. So far, the world seems oblivious to the reasons why Israel bombed every single police station in Gaza. Especially this moron.
That threshold was lowered considerably by yesterday’s operation when, for the first time, Israel targeted groups of Hamas soldiers and policemen not involved in active operations.
Membership alone of the security structures of Hamas was yesterday turned by Israel into grounds for attack. To put on a Hamas police baseball cap is to make oneself a target.
This means that any Hamas traffic cop on a street corner in Gaza – or manning a makeshift ‘border’ checkpoint – can expect to be attacked.
No matter if they are not directly involved in attacks on Israel, they can regard themselves as at risk.
Right. Because Hamas policemen are just innocent bystanders. It’s not like they’re, gee, I dunno, members of a terrorist group or something. And it’s not like Palestinian policemen have never been involved in terror attacks. Oh. Wait.
Meantime, here’s a video that I think is rife with fauxtography. You folks take a look at it and see what you think. I think that except possibly for the last guy with the hole in his pants, they’re all faking it. Check 00:40, 1:09, 1:26 (seems to be the same guy as at 00:40) and 1:35. Or just watch the whole thing. Palestinian propaganda? I’m thinking yes.
Here’s hoping the folks from AP and Reuters get to experience things first hand.
On a related note, perhaps the gov’t could move the Israeli Supreme Court to Sderot, so that they too can learn why the IDF needs to use artillery instead of air power.
And what of the Hamas rockets that lack guidance systems and are aimed at civilians
The Tim Butcher article was one I read early this afternoon and nearly lost my lunch.
Moron is the best adjective to describe him or maybe he is simply a Jew hater.
My guess is both.