Dealing with the Foreign Media: The IDF Perspective

This article will seek to examine the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) handling of the international media during the Palestinian-Israeli crisis that began in September 2000, with an eye to pointing out lessons and possibilities for improvement. In doing so, however, a basic distinction must be made between those problems that can be solved – notwithstanding whatever difficulties may be involved – and those that cannot. This distinction is extremely important: without it, one might be tempted to argue that, in light of the fact that Israel is the stronger side and the Palestinians are the weaker, the foreign media is always going to be unsympathetic to Israel. This article shall claim that attempts to improve the IDF’s handling of the media should focus on those areas in which there is a possibility of making a positive change. In that regard, it should be noted that some lessons have already been drawn from mistakes made since the beginning of the crisis with the Palestinians, and there has already been some improvement.