Richard Silverstein in The Guardian:
A reader of my blog has received the following email which documents both the efforts and the agency that originated them. The solicitation to become a pro-Israel “media volunteer” also includes a list of media links which the ministry would like addressed by pro-Israel comments:
Dear friends,
We hold the [sic] military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it's a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote – the more likely we gain positive sentiment.
I was asked by the ministry of foreign affairs to arrange a network of volunteers, who are willing to contribute to this effort. If you're up to it you will receive a daily messages & media package as well as targets.
If you wish to participate, please respond to this email.
My friend did so and received this official communique from the ministry with talking points about Operation Cast Lead which s/he was to use in her/his propaganda efforts. Among the links was was a Peter Beaumont Cif piece. The following were identified as “target sites”: the Times, the Guardian, Sky News, BBC, Yahoo!News, Huffington Post, and the Dutch Telegraaf. Also targeted were other media sites in Dutch, Spanish, German and French considered critical of the invasion.
More here. Meanwhile, Donald Macintyre and Kim Sengupta report in The Independent:
Israel is under suspicion of committing war crimes and should halt the “clear and present danger to the lives and well-being of tens of thousands of civilians” in Gaza, nine of the country's main human rights organisations have declared.
The Israeli organisations have written to the government, armed forces chiefs and the attorney general, condemning the “unprecedented” harm to a civilian population now in “extreme humanitarian distress”, the “wanton use of lethal force” and a series of what it says are “blatant violations of the laws of warfare”.
These include the fact that, apart from the death toll, with border crossings closed residents are unable to escape the war zone and are living in “fear and terror”. The organisations also cited the dire capacity problems of Gaza's hospital system and the failure to evacuate about 600 wounded and chronically ill patients; what they say is prevention by the army of rescue teams reaching isolated areas which have come under intensive attack; and the fact that, with sewage now flowing in many streets, more than half a million people are without clean water and 250,000 residents have been without electricity for 18 days. Another million residents are without power at any one time, the organisations said.
More here.