Just saw a CNN reporter interviewing an Israeli soldier who was raised in America, and who is now a border guard in Metula. The reporter asked all the typical mainstream media questions, and Mika deflected them like a PR pro. Israel is getting smarter. (All quotes are paraphrased.)
When the reporter asked “Yesterday was a bad day for Israel, you lost eight soldiers. What do your commanders say to you after something like that happens?”, Mika replied,
“More important is what you say to the parents. It’s a terrible tragedy. Their lives have been changed, and they’ll never recover.”
When the reporter mentioned that Hezbullah is a tougher opponent than the IDF had realized, and that some Israeli media mentioned the words “bogged down” Mika said that Ehud Olmert’s lack of military experience may actually be prolonging this war, and there needs to be a full-scale invasion to take out Hezbullah. He said that the soldiers were ready for it.
When the reporter asked him why he came to serve in the IDF, Mika said, “You do what you gotta do. Israel is my country, and we can’t be afraid of Hezbullah.” He repeated his call for a full-scale invasion. He also said morale was quite high.
Every time the reporter tried to get the MSM message across, Mika turned it around into a great PR opportunity for Israel.
The IDF is getting more media-savvy. Way to go, IDF. And don’t think for a second that they didn’t know he was going to call on Ehud Olmert to order a full-scale invasion. The military does not allow its people to be interviewed without permission.
It’s nice to see the media used for Israel’s purposes for a change.
Saw “quagmire” mentioned on a chron.com piece. Go figure.
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In Shabtai Teveth’s book “The Tanks of Tammuz” about the IDF Armored Corps in 1967 he writes of a sergeant just before the war listening to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol speaking on the radio. Eshkol fumbled around in his speech, sounding indecisive and rattled. The sergeant said to his radio “Levi son of Deborah, let us do the talking.”
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