October 21, 2011, 8:52 AM
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Gilad Schalit is home. And that is wonderful. The terrorists Israel released in exchange for the IDF soldier held hostage by Hamas for more than five years are running around Judea, Samaria and Gaza promising to return to terror. And that is a nightmare.
But so far, the Israeli public is happy with the outcome. Indeed, the polling data on the government's decision to swap 1,027 terrorists for Schalit are stunning.
According to the New Wave poll carried out for Makor Rishon, for instance, 75.7 percent of the public supported the deal and only 15.5 percent opposed it. In a society as rife with internal divisions as Israel, it is hard to think of any issue that enjoys the support of three quarters of the population. But even more amazing than the level of support is that the poll also shows the vast majority of Israelis believe that the deal harms Israel's national security.
Sixty-one-and-a-half percent of respondents believe the deal increases the Palestinians' motivation to commit acts of terror. Only 23.4 percent disagree.
The New Wave poll's results are in line with the polling data reported by other firms. Down the line, the numbers are consistent: Three quarters of the public supported the deal and two-thirds of the public said it endangers the country. What this means is that two-thirds of the public listened to their hearts instead of their heads in supporting the Schalit-for-murderers swap.
How can this triumph of emotion over reason be explained? Israelis are not a society of overgrown adolescents, enslaved by their urges. So what brought a large majority of Israelis to favor a deal they know endangers them?
Part of the answer was provided in an article in the Globes newspaper on Monday. Titled "Lucky the kidnapping happened in the technological era" and written by Anat Bein-Leibovitz, it analyzed the five-year advertising campaign that shaped public perceptions about Schalit and built public support for a deal that obviously harms the country.
The Shalmor Avnon Amichai firm ran the campaign to free Schalit. Shlomi Avnon, a partner in the agency, described the goals of the campaign as follows: "The first goal was to generate empathy for Gilad and his family. We did not know when the government needed to make a decision, but we wanted the Schalit family to enjoy wide public support when a decision came. It was clear that Gilad's return would be at a high price to Israel, and in order to make sure that Gilad would be returned, it was critical that there should be public support to put pressure on the government.
"The second goal was to keep Gilad in the public consciousness so that he would not be forgotten.... We attacked on all fronts: emotionally, by comparing Gilad with Ron Arad, and on a security level, by bringing in security personalities who supported his release.
"We made a decision that our target audience was the public and not decision makers, because we knew that with decision makers all could be lost...."
Avnon and his colleagues marketed Schalit like a commercial product. As advertising executive Sefi Shaked explained, "This was a battle between two brands. One was 'Bring Gilad back,' and the other 'Woe if we free murderers.' The challenge for the Gilad brand was to maintain awareness of it, to keep going forward....They did much better work than the rival brand, which is a strong brand, but it didn't do much. They gave it the knockout."
While the PR executives interviewed for the article are correct in their assessment that the Shalmor Avnon Amichai agency's campaign was well conceived and professionally executed, the fact is that over the past 20 years, hiring PR firms to conceive and implement public campaigns has become standard operating procedure in Israel. And yet, it is hard to think of any such campaign that succeeded as overwhelmingly as the terrorists-for-Gilad campaign did.
For instance, the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza paid a king's ransom for its public relations campaign against the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria. The council's leaders mobilized more than a million Israelis to take part in the campaign that lasted for more than a year. And yet, they failed to accomplish their mission.
Other campaigns were successful in forcing the government's hand. But they still didn't enjoy anywhere near the support levels that the Gilad-for-murderers deal did. The campaigns for the Oslo accords with the PLO, for the withdrawal from southern Lebanon, for the release of hostages or bodies in return for terrorists, and for the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria were all successful. But they were carried out in the face of a divided public.
As the polls show, the consensus formed around the cause of Schalit's release at all costs does not owe to public approval of terrorist-forhostage swaps. So what formed this consensus?
In Schalit's case, the reason that the PR campaign worked so well is because the media and the national security community - the two national institutions that are supposed to be the watchdogs of Israel's national interests against the advertising executives - opted to behave like lapdogs.
Speaking to Globes, the PR executives were unanimous in their judgment that the success of the campaign was due to the media's total mobilization on behalf of the cause. As Gil Samsonov put it, "The first target audience was the media, which were mobilized, and everyone did their jobs while minimizing the opposition."
Yair Geller added that Schalit is "lucky that the abduction happened at a time when the media are the strongest power.... The media left the government no option not to act."
The executives are correct that the media are the strongest force in Israeli society. Their power owes to the fact that the major media organs are ideologically uniform and therefore act consistently as a pack.
It was the media's overwhelming support for the Oslo process, for the withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza, and for previous hostages-for- terrorist swaps that forced the hand of the government time after time. It was similarly the media's opposition to the PR campaign against the withdrawal from Gaza that doomed it to failure.
By choosing sides, the media ensure there is no substantive public debate about the controversial campaigns they support. Rather than debate the substance of an issue, the media, together with PR firms, personalize disputes.
In the case of the Lebanon withdrawal, the media cast the debate as one between indifferent IDF commanders and concerned mothers of soldiers. The Gaza withdrawal was cast as a dispute between Ariel Sharon, a wise grandfather who loved the country and was democratically elected, and settler zealots who wanted IDF soldiers to die so they could keep their profitable farms and fancy villas. Hostages-for-murderers swaps are cast as battles between innocent soldiers and evil politicians who would let them die.
In all cases, the threat posed by surrendering to Israel's enemies is ignored or glossed over.
By barring a real debate on the most contentious issues of the day, for the past two decades the media have been able to dictate policy on the most contentious issues facing the country. Still, none of these media victories were won with the consensus support enjoyed by the Schalit campaign.
What distinguished the Schalit campaign from those that preceded it was not the media mobilization but the complicity of the IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad. In all the other campaigns, the security services either opposed the campaigns or stood on the sidelines.
In an interview with Haaretz this past Sunday, Col. Ronen Cohen, who recently retired from IDF Military Intelligence, said the IDF never tried to put together an operation to rescue Schalit. In his words, Schalit's prolonged captivity "was a resounding failure of the IDF.... The IDF never took responsibility for the soldier and did not even set up a team to deal with bringing him back."
As a consequence, the IDF gave the government no choice other than to pay a ransom for Schalit.
According to PR executive Geller, the IDF's abdication of its responsibility to rescue Schalit was influenced by the media's full mobilization on behalf of the PR campaign. "That [Schalit] was not hurt in a rescue operation is due, among other things, to the high value that the media placed on him." The IDF was too afraid of media criticism to risk a rescue raid.
Even in the face of the IDF's abdication of responsibility to save Schalit, the previous heads of the IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad all opposed the swap as dangerous, and so Israel rejected it.
But, in the end, the media won out. Defense Minister Ehud Barak replaced the security bosses with successors who agreed to subordinate their professional judgment to the media's demands. They all adopted the demonstrably false position that releasing 1,027 terrorists would not endanger Israel. This is what enabled the public consensus to form.
It is possible that now that Schalit and the terrorists are free the media will permit a debate on the wisdom of future deals. For instance, a debate has already begun on mandatory capital punishment for terrorist killers.
But there are more pressing issues that need to be resolved today if we want to prevent the public from being manipulated again into adopting positions wholly at odds with reason and the national interest. The first issue is that of the media.
Given the media's unchecked power to repeatedly manipulate public opinion to adhere to its radical ideological agenda, it is essential that the government and Knesset step in and reform the media market. Broadcast licensing procedures for television and radio must be deregulated. Television and radio must be open to competition. Broadcasters should be allowed to broadcast whatever they want whenever they want, and the market should dictate who rises and who falls. This is the only way to protect the public against manipulation, and the government from blackmail.
Then there is the IDF. To fix what has clearly become broken in the IDF we must have a serious public discussion about its irresponsible, unprofessional behavior throughout Schalit's period of captivity. The public must be made aware of the apparent leadership crisis at the top ranks of the IDF in order to force the government to enact necessary changes in personnel and compel serving commanders to change their behavior.
The internal contradiction at the heart of the consensus for ransoming Schalit for terrorists renders it likely that the unanimity now surrounding the deal will evaporate soon. But to prevent PR firms and the media from successfully manipulating the public and blackmailing politicians in the future, we must check the power of the media and hold the IDF accountable for its failures today. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before the public again is convinced to support policies that it knows endanger the country.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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When the journalist Walter Cronkite, called "the most trusted man in America," came back from Vietnam and said America was losing the war - which it was in fact winning, and at that particular point in time, quite definitively, President Johnson announced, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." He folded all military activities and duly lost the war. Several weeks after Cronkite's words he announced he would not seek reelection. America, having in panic, Dunkirk-style, evacuated its troops, can perhaps afford its ensuing decline, but for Israel losing a war can mean total annihilation.
Being a part of the media yourself, it is only natural to blame the other media for what you believe to be going wrong. This is only natural.
But it remains that in all the media there are some unanswered questions and a lack of sensitivity to context.
Why should we assume that Israeli soldiers are forever available for kidnapping? How was Shalit kidnapped and could it have been prevented? What is to prevent Israel from setting a policy regarding its plans for kidnapped soldiers? Why not better train soldiers to confront the potential for kidnapping?
How did they decide which terrorist were to be released? Who made those decisions? Were they good decisions? How did everyone decide which terrorists were to be exchanged?
There is also the setting for this release. The Palestinian declaration of independence in September was an utter flop. Nothing happened. It was a huge, global media event and everyone was sweating about September and what would happen. Nothing did.
And what has happened to the missiles? Is it a lull? Is there some kind of calculation going on among the terrorists? Of has Iron Dome rendered the Qassam brigades meaningless?
It could be that things are going so well and the hopes of the terrorists getting one thousand prisoners back is so shallow, that it was a deal that could hardly be missed.
But that remains to be seen.
I've noticed since my first trip to Israel in 77' that the Sabra (men) have become neutered and feminized wimps always apologizing as the Palestinians cut their throats.
The nation is tired of fighting and is now all about surrendering to their executioners demands of land for rockets,jihad and another holocaust.
I lay the blame on the godless,leftist perverted,evil Israeli media with the assistance of the lap dogs politicians and Israeli government whose only raison de etre' is to serve,obey and please the failed agenda of the Babel Globalist World Order.
This is why the dumbed down sheeple of Israel headed for slaughter went along with a deal sure to kill off so many of them.
There are moments in the ebb and flow of life on this planet which give one pause, which give one cause to stop and, looking skyward, wonder if there will ever be an end to the madness....this is one of those moments.
I have always supported the Jews. I have always condemned those who filled the ovens. I have always met the slightest emergence of, or sneering reference to, National Socialism with a refusal to allow those arguments to be made.
I have always condemned, without true understanding, the attempt to eradicate Jewry from the face of the earth. I have always condemned the slaughter even when mindful of the fact that many of the Jews cut their own throats by ignoring the dire warnings of their imminent destruction.
But now....now I understand...with greater depth....with greater clarity, why so many Jews walked meekly to their own destruction...
I will call it "The Disease of Shalit"
I now say this without hesitation:
The Jews are a stupid, stupid people who richly deserve that which they so diligently cultivate: their own destruction.
A stupid little soldier, Shalit, got himself caught. He spent 5 years idling away in a prison cell as little more than a "Get Out Of Jail Free Card". Hamas and Hezbollah smiled, knowing full well what Shalit could be used for....Hamas and Hezbollah knew full well the depth of stupidity and cowardice of the Jewish people.....and now so do I...and now so does the world.
Israel has now set loose amongst its own people the very mad dogs who ran amok in years past, they very murderers and terrorists who sought the destruction of the Jews at every turn...killers who slaughter the innocent, the children and the women.....how utterly inexplicable....how utterly nauseating....how bloody ridiculous!!!
Fine....if the Jews are that unconscionably stupid, that morally and intellectually bankrupt....that cowardly..then fine....I resign them to the fate they themselves have rushed to with open arms, deaf ears and blind eyes....let them suffer murder at the hands of those they have turned loose amongst their people...
Lets us hear not one single complaint...not one little peep...let us not hear a whining, whimpering plea for sympathy, understanding and assistance from the international community as those loosed commence the slaughter anew.....let me not hear the crocodile tears as the blood of Jewish men, women and children run rivers at the hands of their Arab handlers....just quietly bury your dead and trouble us not with your hypocritical eulogies....you deserve every death, every murder you will suffer in the coming weeks and months at the hands of those you have loosed...
The Jews are a stupid people, a weak people, a blind people, a cowardly people.....you consider yourselves "Gods Chosen People"....how wretchedly laughable....even God has a limit...and in the face of such horrendous, such outrageous complicity and cowardice, God himself would turn away in contempt, sickened at the sight of this self inflicted slaughter...
Regards Don Laird
Edson, Alberta, Canada
THE DISEASE OF SHALIT
There are moments in the ebb and flow of life on this planet which give one pause, which give one cause to stop and, looking skyward, wonder if there will ever be an end to the madness....this is one of those moments.
I have always supported the Jews. I have always condemned those who filled the ovens. I have always met the slightest emergence of, or sneering reference to, National Socialism with a refusal to allow those arguments to be made.
I have always condemned, without true understanding, the attempt to eradicate Jewry from the face of the earth. I have always condemned the slaughter even when mindful of the fact that many of the Jews cut their own throats by ignoring the dire warnings of their imminent destruction.
But now....now I understand...with greater depth....with greater clarity, why so many Jews walked meekly to their own destruction...
I will call it "The Disease of Shalit"
I now say this without hesitation:
The Jews are a stupid, stupid people who richly deserve that which they so diligently cultivate: their own destruction.
A stupid little soldier, Shalit, got himself caught. He spent 5 years idling away in a prison cell as little more than a "Get Out Of Jail Free Card". Hamas and Hezbollah smiled, knowing full well what Shalit could be used for....Hamas and Hezbollah knew full well the depth of stupidity and cowardice of the Jewish people.....and now so do I….and now so does the world.
Israel has now set loose amongst its own people the very mad dogs who ran amok in years past, they very murderers and terrorists who sought the destruction of the Jews at every turn...killers who slaughter the innocent, the children and the women.....how utterly inexplicable....how utterly nauseating....how bloody ridiculous!!!
Fine....if the Jews are that unconscionably stupid, that morally and intellectually bankrupt, that cowardly…..then fine....I too resign them to the fate they themselves have rushed to with open arms, deaf ears and blind eyes....let them suffer murder at the hands of those they have turned loose amongst their people...
Lets us hear not one single complaint...not one little peep...let us not hear a whining, whimpering plea for sympathy, understanding and assistance from the international community as those loosed commence the slaughter anew.....let us not hear the crocodile tears as the blood of Jewish men, women and children run rivers at the hands of their Arab handlers......let us not see quivering lips and tear stained cheeks as widows and orphans lay wreaths of remembrance….let us not hear flowery speeches gracing forums international….just quietly bury your dead and trouble us not with your hypocritical eulogies....you deserve every death, every murder, every atrocity… you will suffer in the coming weeks and months at the hands of those you have loosed...
The Jews are a stupid people, a weak people, a blind people, a cowardly people.....you consider yourselves "Gods Chosen People"....how wretchedly laughable....even God has a limit...and in the face of such horrendous, such outrageous complicity and cowardice, God himself would turn away in contempt, sickened at the sight of this self inflicted slaughter...
There are those who will dismiss my condemnation of this outrageous cowardice as vulgar intemperance, juvenile invective, or the ramblings of one who “really, really doesn’t understand what we Jews go through” Or perhaps, and predictably, ”the poisonous screed of a vile anti-Semite”.
To that I say this; You have locked and loaded a weapon, you have placed that weapon in the hands of those who seek your complete annihilation….and now you have asked them to place the barrel of that weapon against your collective heads and pull the trigger……is it anti-Semitic, vulgar or intemperate to observe that you richly deserve the gunshot that ends your lives?
Regards Don Laird
Edson, Alberta, Canada
It looks like the Arabs agree that one Jew is worth more than an Arab, to be exact one Israeli is worth more than 1,026 Arabs. It is interesting when one looks at it from this perspective. Even the Arabs agree Israelis are more valuable then they are.
In displaying the true strength of Israel and its people in this Schalit deal - one Israeli is worth over a thousand of its enemy - the national interest has been well served. Your enemies are on notice - the strength of Samson pulsates within the life of each Israeli.
Great observations, Caroline, as usual. The Media in the US is bent and corrupt, but how in the world did the Media in Israel come to be also? It's a situation that Israel can ill afford. Its survival is dependent on level-headed thinking.
Is it not the irony of the day? you say "we must check the power of the media". A journalist want to tame the media, under the claim that she is right and everyone else who disagree with her is wrong. So I would assume once you start your election campaign you would propose jamming TV satellite signals, block the internet from private homes and require a license to purchase a printer for computers.
Dear, I think you need to review your write ups more often before you send it to be published by the "media."
If you decide to block this comment as well, consider it only as a friendly advice from a dedicated reader.
This does not speak well of the Israeli public. Shalit was a hostage for a long time. The people knew the facts regardless of the gang-up by the media. Common sense says it was a bad deal and yet they overwhelmingly caved. This is a case of the people acting like the citizens of a third world country. Easily manipulated,gullible, uninformed. Unless the government plans to take fewer and kill greater numbers of terrorists in the future, the exchange was a loser for everyone but the Shalit family.
......minimizing the opposition."
Well there you go.
He who control information controls the nation.
@ Paul: The IDF has not created an official policy whereby soldiers are instructed to blow themselves up rather than be captured if they are in a situation where they think kidnapping is a possibility. No comment from me on that one, but wanted to let you know in response to one of your many questions.
@ Don: I'm not sure how you've determined that Galid Shalit was a stupid little soldier. It seems a needless comment in the face of your larger comments, though certainly in keeping with the tone.
What Galid Shalit endured was awful. And still is awful as he confronts an enormous mountain as he tries to build a new life for himself, dealing with physical and mental trauma, bearing the knowledge of what was done to save his life, and having to read, should he choose to, the endless litany of pieces on the subject of his release.
What Israel has set herself up for in making this deal with the devil is awful. Obviously Israelis are now at even greater risk because of it.
The God of Israel remains faced towards Israel. One day the madness will end and Israel will still be where she is. God has such plans for her. His limit, on the other hand, will be reached in terms of those who stand against her. On the day He unequivocally says 'Enough', on which side will He find us?
People compartmentalize. They could be in favor of Gilad's release because the risk comes later. So, they feel happy now and will be unhappy later. The swing to the left is a phenomenon which has happened all over, with negative consequences for all. I think the concentration camp-like appearance of Gilad was an image that Jews did not miss and will not forget. For some, Death may have to knock at the door again to get their attention, but their attention it will get. If there really is a purpose in everything, this may have been Gilad's purpose.
That we have allowed the Israeli media to dictate the rules of surrender borders on the outrageous. Yes, this was a surrender of sorts. Couch it in any terms you wish to from humanitarian to necessary it still boils down to putting the Israeli population in harms way. To know that at no time did the IDF or any other Israeli security force make an attempt to secure Gilad Schalit's release is even more demoralizing. As a mother and grandmother I am thrilled that we have our "son" home for Gilad belongs to all of us, but I fear G-d forbid, that the ultimate price we will pay will be very high.
Caroline, I would offer to you the following: you have access to information, some of which is sensitive and that probably comes from the government - a source that could deny you access if you offend them. Does this explain why in this article you blame the media but not Netanyahu for his decision to swap 1027 Palestinian prisoners for 1 Israeli prisoner?
Perhaps there is a different aspect of this, so called "exchange of prisoners" with respect to judging outcomes.
First of all, we have one kidnapped abused IDF soldier rescued and a huge sum of money to house and feed these 1,027 people for x years, saved. So, as of this moment it was a good deal for Israel.[also the entire world can see that the notion of "palestinians" wanting to live in peace with Israel is revealed to be phony;why would they want these murderers to be let loose on the streets of their future demilitarized state at peace with Israel;while at the same time calling for more kidnappings and terrorism. That is clear for all to see.I have not heard Abbas condemn the release of cold blooded murderers. And equating Schalit with the terrorists is repugnant.Generic "prisoner"]
Now having written that,what will happen now with those released "prisoners", will they return to terrorism or quit. If Israel has a mechanism to know the answer to this question in real time, perhaps there is something proactive that can be done. It is not necessary to wait until an attack. I am reasonably certain that all of these released "prisoners" activities will be monitored to some extent, if they step over the line, it will be known. Then their account becomes payable. In the end, it may be more cost effective than providing them with food, shelter and ammenities.That is if and ONLY if,they are stopped before the act consumates.
Now that the prisoner is freed. Israel is freed with respect to doing what it knows it must do in Gaza. The operation on standby could not get a green light until now. It seems to me the IDF is cleared for take-off, at least from the point of view of my control tower.
Finally, yes, the public discussion in Israel and the entire diaspora with regards to capital punishment for terrorism is a positive outcome if it results in a measurable change.
It is up to The Israeli People to decide.
If anyone should be wounded or killed by any of these released prisoners, whether they pulled the trigger or merely counseled, taught or aided and abetted, the exchange deal could be an absolute catastrophe. Israel must now follow through on concrete steps if it wishes to mitigate it's decision to release these convicted killers or else.
There are only two steps Netanyahu can take on behalf of Israel that can balance the deal, neither of which needs Arab cooperation or acceptance.
The first is to free all Jewish security prisoners. Period.
The second is to adopt a 'take no prisoners' policy, at least for non-Israeli terrorists. It is time to end the farce that these people are civilians for one thing and are entitled to Israeli civil rights for another. I.E. no arrests, no investigations, no trials, no sentencing, no maintenance and amenities in prisonb, no visitation.
The only way to prevent this from ever happening again is for the word to get out. Terrorists check in to Israel but don't check out. They disappear. They may be evil but they are not that stupid.
If Israel sees any of these creatures again, their families never see them again. No embedded journalists, no lawyers, no press releases, no statements, no news reports.
I stick to my earlier comment. War isso ugly that that this trade is a Japanese flower garden. On your request to coment on your video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd7WSeR-kXQ&feature=share
I wrote the following on my Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/theo.prinse
1. Former Dutch politician and European commisioner Frits Bolkestijn says that the weakness of loving your neighbor in Christianity is the real danger for western freedom .. not necessarily islam.
Mr. Bolkestijn means that religious faith and/or prayer is never an intellectual argument in a necessary debat for defining the legitimacy of exterminating islam for the reason that islam is a shrewdly as peaceful religion portrayed 270 million victims murderous politico-military doctrine.
2. Israel should present itself internationaly as defender of secular republican democracy where equality for the law is primal and laws prescribing equality extended to the entire society (communism like iin the Netherlands art 1 Grondwet) are abject ..
Don, the Jewish people certainly have faults. You can see them in today's world, and you can read about them in the bible. The thing is, that the ``education'' process of the Jews is one of the most fundamental processes happening in the world. Everyone, including you, will suffer if the Jews make the wrong choices. And everyone will benefit if the Jews make the right ones. True criticism is certainly in place, but gloating is not.
Dear To Don Laird,
Don is not gloating. Do is really frustrated with Jews and Israel for another dumb deal.
Caroline, I thought you might find what Melanie Phillips has to say on the freeing of Gilad Schalit interesting..
http://www.aish.com/jw/me/This_Was_No_Prisoner_Exchange.html