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Last update - 03:40 02/01/2009
Not just air strikes: Israel takes the fight to Arab media
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Al-Jazeera, Israel News, IDF 

In addition to the air raids on Hamas in Gaza, Israel has mounted a campaign to "conquer" Arab satellite television channels as part of Operation Cast Lead.

The initiative has been spearheaded by Arabic speakers in the Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry, joined in their efforts by senior government officials.

Captain Avichai Adarai, an officer in the Arabic department of the IDF spokesperson's office, was invited for an on-air interview on "Al-Jazeera", hours after the operation began last Saturday.
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The live interview, which Adarai gave wearing his IDF uniform, made him the first Israeli to address the Arab world's most popular satellite channel since the beginning of the operation on Saturday.

"Do you [Israel] want to turn the Gaza Strip into a crematorium for its residents," Adarai was aksed during the interview, to which he answered "First off, I reject all of the declarations and words that we heard here up to now. The operations are concentrated against Hamas, and all other terror organizations that target civilians, as well as sayings like "crematorium."

He then asked why the Qatari-based TV channel has not shown the suffering of civilians on the Israeli side of the border who have been subject to indiscriminate rocket fire over the last seven years.

Al-Jazeera, like usual, broadcast graphic images from the Gaza Strip, images that for the most part have not been shown in the Israeli media.

As Adarai spoke, the screen showed images of bodies piled in a refrigerator in a Gaza morgue. The interviewer asked "you are rejecting the argument that the operations are targeting civilians. Are all of these Hamas terrorists?"
Adarai insisted that the operation is targeting Hamas terrorists, and continued to ask why Al-Jazeera would not show the suffering of Israeli civilians.

The head of the Foreign Ministry's Arabic media department Ophir Gendelman, was interviewed on Russian Arabic channel "Russia Al-yom", where he was asked "do you agree that this operation is meant to return the luster lost by the IDF in the fight against Hezbollah?"

Gendelman, disagreed with the claim, saying that "we have a professional army. We are not built on momentum. Momentum is important but not crucial, and not the point of our operations against Hamas."

Gendelman explained the importance for Israel to be able to address the Arab world directly, so that the message "is made in the most direct and best way possible, without translation errors or arguments, directly to the living rooms of the Arab world."

"We live in the Middle East and fill a central role in the politics of the region. It is critical for us to be seen and heard, so that our stance will be understood. This could only help our standing in the region," Gendelman said after the interview.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, also spoke to the Arab media, with both addressing Al-Jazeera viewers in spoken, informal Arabic, the type usually not heard on Arabic media channels.

Other Israeli officials have spoken to the Arabic media in English, with a simultaneous translation into Arabic appearing on screen.

Ehud Olmert used the Arab media outlet "Al-Arabiya" days before the start of "Operation Cast Lead" to address Gaza civilians, speaking of the ramifications of continued rocket attacks in Israel. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also appeared on Al-Jazeera shortly after the beginning of the operation.

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