Smile For the Camera, That’s an Order
April 23, 2012 11:10 by GuestPostThis article by Efrat Forsher is republished with the permission of Israel Hayom.
Realizing that it is on a new battlefield, the IDF has trained “tactical documenters,” soldiers carrying video recorders and cameras to document every military action • These days, commanders repeatedly instruct soldiers to assume that everything they do is being filmed • Amid this awareness, how did Lt. Col. Eisner fall into an ambush?
Efrat Forsher
Lt. Col Eisner hitting an ISM activist in the face with his M-16 rifle. Will soldiers soon be armed with cameras as well as guns? | Photo credit: ISM
A picture is worth 100,000 words.
Every IDF officer has known this for quite some time, because a single picture can outweigh more than 1,000 words of praise in one’s service record. We live in an age when everyone carries cameras and mobile phones; documenting every event; instantly uploading pictures to Facebook, videos to YouTube, and tweets to Twitter, all in real time. The IDF has decided not to lag behind, and is determined to provide its own documentation.
Claims that the military’s public relations machine has failed to function or was slow to respond have been uttered on more than one occasion. This was the case with the Mavi Marmara incident. Employing a one-sided approach, international media repeatedly screened pictures and testimonies of passengers on the ship who harshly attacked Israel, while the IDF took its time before it aired images of its beaten soldiers under attack. When the pictures – including shots of weapons concealed on the ship and used to attack the soldiers – were finally broadcast, it was too late. Colossal damage to Israel’s image had been done.
The affair involving Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, who was photographed hitting a Danish protestor blocking the Bekaa Highway with his rifle butt, recreated the atmosphere surrounding the Marmara incident, this time amid the IDF’s top brass. The IDF knew that it was vital that the army present its own parallel documentation of this event. But Eisner explained that the battery in his camera had run out.
“One does not expect pleas of ‘I was a victim’ from a lieutenant colonel,” said a senior IDF officer.
Rage grew when Eisner claimed that the protestor had attacked him and broken his fingers before the event was filmed. There was no trace of this claim in the civilian footage. What the media aired again and again were images portraying Eisner as an officer suffering a lapse in judgment while facing unarmed civilians.
In the early 2000s, the IDF realized that it was important to document events involving a conflict with civilians. That was in the days of the Second Intifada. The IDF had to contend with two fronts. The first front involved terror attacks within and beyond the Green Line (pre-1967 borders), as well as clashes with Palestinians. The second front was that of public relations.
“It was clear to us that public relations were a major front of ever-growing importance. And that in many respects, what was important was not the truth, but how an event is portrayed to media consumers as well as to the broad Palestinian and Israeli publics,” explains then-IDF spokesman, reserve Brig. Gen. Ron Kitri.
Comprehension of the importance of documentation began to permeate the military after the incident involving a young Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Dura, as well as after the lynching of Vadim Norzich and Yossi Avrahami, two IDF reserve soldiers who took a wrong turn into Ramallah.
In the Al-Dura affair, scenes were repeatedly broadcast around the world showing the isolated and prolonged agony of a young boy dying in his father’s arms after allegedly being shot by the IDF. Pictures of Al-Dura became an international symbol. Streets were named after him in Arab countries. This was followed by the 2000 October Riots in which 13 Arab-Israeli citizens were killed. Retroactive proof that the IDF was not responsible for Al-Dura’s death and that he had apparently been shot by Palestinians made no difference to anyone. The images had been etched into public consciousness.
Chilling footage of the lynching in Ramallah had similar repercussions. The images were briefly aired by international media, but the IDF’s response soon took center stage. A few hours after the lynching, combat helicopters were dispatched to bomb the police station where the grim event had taken place. From that moment, international media repeatedly broadcast scenes from Ramallah showing Israeli combat helicopters firing missiles and demolishing a civilian building.
John
3:49 pm
Apr 24, 2012
A lot of talking, but still no video from IDF.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Abu Nudnik
8:04 pm
Apr 24, 2012
Subscribe here: http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk?feature=watch
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George Kende Dr.
3:59 pm
Apr 24, 2012
I congratulate lt. colonel Eisner. It was the right move, but a little bit later than necessary.
The bastard deserved it an hour earlier, at the start of the verbal conflict.
.
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George Kende Dr.
4:02 pm
Apr 24, 2012
I warmly congratulate lt. colonel Eisner, it was the right move. The bastard deserved it an hour earlier, at the start of the verbal conflict.
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Thomas
5:20 pm
Apr 24, 2012
Too little, too late. But better than never. Does the IDF really “get it”, even today? They need not just “tactical documentors” but highly skilled PsyWar experts to take the footage and pictures and then go on the offensive!! Don’t just wait to post pictures in reaction. Use the same techniques against the enemy!! Look at what David Horowitz of Frontpagemag.com is doing with his “Voices of Palestine” posters. There is a vast mountain of videos from MEMRI and other sources documenting the bestial and demonic nature of the enemy. No one is using it to go on the offensive. The truth can’t just be let to sit on the ground. You have to pick it up and USE it. The IDF should have it’s own websites up, with close in, ugly footage of the protesters and how abusive they are and of the terrorists they work for. Don’t just respond, but Attack, Attack, Attack. Or it will be too late. Is it already??
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Michal
5:32 pm
Apr 24, 2012
Anarchists who come to Israel to confront the IDF should not expect amunity.
They should be thankful enough that they are not shot down when throwing stones, cutting the security fence and trying to impose their and the Palestinian’s demands on our soldiers.
Rachel Kory was stupid enough to confront heavy military machine trying to interfere in delicate situation. She paid the adequate price!
Those anti-Isreli foreigners who come here to inflame the Palestinians – should be considered mercenaries and treated accordingly!
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Dave
5:49 pm
Apr 24, 2012
IDF does not need to play constant catch up games with the media if it starts to take information-warfare much serious than it does now. Swallow your ignorance and arrogance and start training MORE soldiers on how to use cameras. Perhaps swarm the soldiers with GoPro cameras that can be attached to helmets. Then, instead of reaching every chain of IDF bureaucracy before a relevant piece of information is discovered, skip the chain of command directly to the troops on the ground that were involved in the incident, that way there is no time wasted on commanders who were not at the scene of said incidents. Expand the manpower of IDF spokesman (not with 19 year old conscripts but with professional editors) and cut the time of needless bureaucratic chain of clearing the material from the IDF sensor.
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Yair
5:50 pm
Apr 24, 2012
ISM members are all legitimate targets. Check what they stand for, and what they have done.
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Steve Eisenberg
6:58 pm
Apr 24, 2012
Any organization with the word “solidarity” in it is crap.
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rhoneyman
9:46 pm
Apr 24, 2012
i don’t understand this post. while it may be interesting, how does it fit into hr’s mission of exposing media lies about israel?
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isa
10:31 pm
Apr 24, 2012
A Dane gets a bloody nose and the IDF falls apart? Why? Because the media has a photo? These anarchists should not be allowed into Israel. Let them go to Syria, Sudan, Egypt, Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Somalia where they can demonstrate their good will. There they will not get a bloody nose but a noose around the neck.
IDF has nothing to apologize for.
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Nathan Zafran
1:41 am
Apr 25, 2012
I saw most of the activities of these phony activists in the Jordan Valley. Col. Eisner’s action was unbecoming from the IDF and its’ senior officer. But other parts of the demonstration showed these freaks laughing and taunting the Israeli IDF personnel, “begging” for something to show on prepositioned cameras (financed by Europeans of course). Unfortunately Eisner lossed his cool and provided the merchandise. When an Israeli reporter asked them why they only report the Arab agenda and never ask the other side their views, they replied that her question showed unethical journalism. Get it? Embarrassing questions are unethical. As stated, these freaks are as phony as a three pound note. When they chose to fly to Khartoum, Tunis, Benghazi, Bahrain, Yemen, Teheran, Cairo and Damascus to protest the denial of human rights and the horrific bloodshed which has claimed so much bloodshed, and taunt their military personnel, as they so easily do with the IDF, then I’ll believe in their honesty.
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Brent Pudsey
2:23 am
Apr 25, 2012
Thia is an excelent example of Media bias and particular media bais against Israel. All of these reports failed to look at the contex of the event.
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Amnon - former soldier
6:56 am
Apr 25, 2012
This commander has lost his cool and and acted as a bully. He lacks the basic leadership qualities required of a commander: Stay cool and use your head. Don’t be a hot head.
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John
7:44 pm
May 01, 2012
Watched a tv program about Krav Maga being taught in Israel. The use of the machine gun as a hand to hand weapon was demonstrated. Eisner’s use of his weapon was exactly as shown in the IDF training demonstration. This is an officially approved method of striking down the enemy. In this case I understand the effect lasted only 26 seconds! This a very big fuss about nothing. Eisner must be reinstated.
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andrew
12:51 pm
Jan 27, 2013
This article says these ‘demonstrators’ were blocking the road, does this mean foreigners have a right to enter Israel and form roadblocks. In any country, if you decide to protest, you attract the authorities, if you become ‘radical’ or refuse to move on, you are arrested, fined or jailed. In some areas you would simply be shot and thrown into a ditch. If people want to interfere with military personnel, they deserve everything that happens to them. If this was done to Palestinian authorities, would they have a blood nose or a funeral, wake up before you die worthless people. Get a job and do something worthwhile,…… or die
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