Israel readies post-war battle for public opinion

Source: AFP

by Ron Bousso – Sat Jan 17, 5:18 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Having declared its Gaza war over, Israel is readying a new offensive -- the battle for public opinion once there is a full account of the destruction and civilian deaths in the battered enclave.

With Israel keeping Gaza closed to foreign media during the war and Hamas preventing access to combat areas to local journalists, coverage of the Jewish state's deadliest ever offensive on the Gaza Strip has been limited.

With the fighting over, foreign journalists and non-governmental organisations are expected to flood into the impoverished Palestinian territory to assess the damage from 22 days of massive bombing and shelling.

Even before the increased scrutiny, the picture from the war is grim -- more than 1,200 people killed, including 410 children and 108 women, with medics expecting to find more bodies in the mountains of rubble left by the fighting.

To counter the criticism, the government has begun assembling "incriminating" information on the many buildings hit during the offensive to prove they were legitimate targets used by Hamas militants.

Aerial photos and images filmed by foot soldiers equipped with video cameras during the fighting are being combed through in order to extract details on as many incidents as possible, Israeli Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog said.

== snip ==

In total, some 14 percent of all the buildings in the battered territory have been either damaged or destroyed, putting the total cost of the losses at nearly 500 million dollars, according to Palestinians.

Israel's battle over the perception of the war will be a global one, with at least six ministers fanning out to different countries to press home Israel's view of the conduct of the war, the government said.

Some of the ministers will be armed with residents of Israeli communities near the Gaza border who will tell audiences what it has been like living for years under the threat of rockets launched from the Palestinian enclave.

With these efforts, Israel is aiming to prevent an "over-dramatisation" of the facts," Herzog said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090117/wl_mideast_afp/mid...

Genaral view on January 16, 2009 shows destroyed houses
around the site where Said Siam, interior minister in Gaza's
Hamas government, was killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza City.
Hamas has taken a military drubbing in Israel's massive war on
Gaza, but it could rise from the rubble with substantial
political gains and a new role as a regional player, analysts say.

Palestinian men ride their motorcycles past Gaza City's al-Quds
hospital after it was hit by Israeli strikes. Israel's devastating
military assault in the Gaza Strip has caused damage to the
Palestinian infrastructure totalling some 476 million dollars,
the Palestinian central bureau of statistics said on Saturday.

Don't we already get Israel's point of view	ikojo	Jan-18-09 06:23 AM	#1
who gives a shit at this point in time?	madrchsod	Jan-18-09 07:47 AM	#2
just like the repuke mindset: all that matters is PR	ima_sinnic	Jan-18-09 07:59 AM	#3
locking	maddezmom	Jan-18-09 08:14 AM	#4