The IDF’s PR Tactics for Arab Television Channels

This essay examines the tactics used by IDF representatives in their interviews with Arab television channels to maintain the legitimacy of the struggle against the Palestinians and justify the use of force in that struggle. The essay, based on research analyzing dozens of interviews held by the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya networks with IDF spokespeople, shows that the IDF uses three primary tactics to achieve that goal: denial, avoidance of responsibility, and attempts to downplay the perceived measure of aggression of the event in question. In order to transmit their contents persuasively, those interviewed used several methods of rhetoric, such as posing rhetorical questions to the interviewers and posing direct questions to the enemy. The essay presents and provides examples of the tactics used and discusses their implications.