[iwar] In Israel, Press Kits Roll Out With Tanks

From: televr (yangyun@metacrawler.com)
Date: 2002-03-30 06:06:54
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Subject: [iwar] In Israel, Press Kits Roll Out With Tanks
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March 30, 2002
In Israel, Press Kits Roll Out With Tanks
By JOHN KIFNER

JERUSALEM, March 29 — Israel's army and its government — and its vast
public relations apparatus — appeared to be mobilizing today for a
long, drawn-out battle against the Palestinians.

As Israeli tanks today broke through the walls of Yasir Arafat's
compound in Ramallah, in the West Bank, and fighting was reported to
be raging from room to room through the complex, the commander
directing the attack, Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, said such battles could
go on indefinitely.

"The operation will last as long as necessary, without a time limit,
according to an ongoing situation assessment and according to the
directives of the political echelon," General Eitan said at military
briefing. "The forces are operating to hit the terrorist
infrastructures, to catch wanted people, to hit terrorists and to
defeat terrorism."

His chief of operations, Col. Gal Hirsh, indicated that similar
operations could spread throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
and that they could also continue for a long time.

"Since we are fighting against the terror infrastructure, it may take
time," he said. "Since we witnessed this large Palestinian terror
offensive against us, it may take time."

Even as the tanks rumbled into Ramallah this morning, Gideon Meir,
Israel's deputy foreign minister for public affairs, was setting up a
huge government information office in Jerusalem's Convention Center to
provide daily briefings for the international press corps pouring in
here. It was, he said, part of an emergency plan that had been
developed over the last two months.

"We have had the experience of September 2000," Mr. Meir said,
referring to the start of this period of conflict and the images of
Israeli soldiers shooting at young people throwing rocks. "And we have
learned from some of our mistakes."

This is a country obsessed with its image abroad, and public relations
is regarded as a vital — and sometimes losing — part of the battle.
The Hebrew word is hasbara, which literally means "explanation," but
carries the connotation here of something like "information offensive."

All of the Israeli embassies and other offices abroad, normally closed
for the weeklong Passover holiday, have been ordered reopened, Mr.
Meir said today, and all Foreign Ministry personnel have been recalled
to duty, many of them reassigned from their usual jobs to the public
relations effort.

"We will fight the Palestinian incitement and propaganda campaign,"
Mr. Meir said. "It will take some time, it will take a lot of patience."

Workers bustled about today, setting up tables, computers and
telephone lines. On a long row of tables, there were handouts ranging
from maps and pamphlets with basic facts on population to piles of
CD-ROM's.

The discs included "Surviving Terrorists," ("The gripping stories of
six Israelis whose lives were turned upside down by terrorist attacks.
Their will to live represents the courage and hope for peace that
every Israeli represents.") and "Seeds of Hatred" ("Today, the
Palestinian Authority is methodically and systematically
indoctrinating a new generation of children with dangerous and
irrevocable messages . . .").

Looking about the briefing room taking shape, Eric Silver of the
British newspaper The Independent, a correspondent here for decades,
said the mobilization reminded him of the conflict in 1973.

Colonel Hirsh, the army chief of operations, said he anticipated that
the army's offensive would be substantial, without a commitment to
"finish in any geographical point."

He explained his thinking by saying, "We just heard today during our
defensive measure in Ramallah that, still, the call for a million
martyrs to march to Jerusalem is still relevant — and the results
you've seen this afternoon in Jerusalem," referring to a young woman
who carried out a suicide bombing in a supermarket, killing two
Israelis, along with herself.

The army says that 20,000 reservists have been called up for this
campaign. That is the total number of troops used for the army's
incursion into Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank earlier this
month, at the time the largest military action since the 1982 war in
Lebanon.

Today's assault was led by Special Forces soldiers known as Sayeret,
or Reconnaissance, Colonel Hirsh said. The army used tanks, armored
personnel carriers and armored bulldozers to break into the compound,
backed by regular infantry.

"That compound is the base for terrorism and President Arafat's
security is part of it, Force 17 and the Presidential Guards," Colonel
Hirsh said. "Nothing in the Palestinian Authority is spontaneous or
innocent."



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