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TIP Emergency Media Center in Haifa
TIP Senior Advisor for Media Jennifer Packer, Israel Office Director Calev Ben-David, Project Manager Rachel Fishman on the front lines of the media war for Israel.

The Israel Project (TIP) team has been working around the clock to fight the media war for Israel.

As Israel fought to defend itself from Iran- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah and Hamas, TIP was literally on the front lines dealing with hundreds of journalists in Israel and thousands more around the world who were covering the conflict.

Hundreds of millions of people across the globe are making their decisions about Israel based on what they see in the media. From the terrorist who struck Seattle to heads of state around the world - what people see about Israel matters! TIP understands that it is critical for the world to understand that Israel has a right to defend itself from enemies who want to "wipe Israel off the map."

From TIP's emergency media center in the port city of Haifa, which was under almost constant attack by Hezbollah-fired rockets, and our offices in Jerusalem, Washington and New York, journalists received facts, sources, footage and other information that they needed to get their stories right.

TIP conducted ongoing polling on the conflict, distributed talking points that were used by top pro-Israel spokespeople on shows ranging from Larry King Live to the BBC and beyond, and distributed fact sheets to thousands of journalists on a daily basis. To support our critical work click here.

Israeli Minister Yitzhak Herzog Meets the Press at TIP Event in Haifa

Israeli Minister Yitzhak Herzog answers questions at TIP event in Haifa.

Israeli Minister Yitzhak Herzog gave a press briefing to a group of top journalists in Haifa as rockets fired into Israel caused more than a million people to live for weeks in bomb shelters or find temporary housing in other parts of Israel.

The media event, organized by TIP in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Communications Center, was attended by media outlets including AP, Reuters, CNN and ABC and was broadcast across the globe. Although the briefing was held underground to safeguard against missile attacks, the venue itself provided a panoramic view of the greater Haifa area, where hundreds of Hezbollah missiles have caused severe damage to city infrastructure and killed residents.

Minister Herzog toured the north to express solidarity with residents and local governments in the region. At the press briefing he answered tough questions from the media and stressed Israel’s desire for security in the north and true peace with its neighbors.

The event was seen both on TV and in print media. Our thanks to our partners in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for this successful event, especially Yossi Amrani and Zehavit Ben-Hillel, and to TIP Projects Manager Rachel Fishman, who set this up in record time - and between the wails of air-raid sirens!

TIP Takes Journalists to Haifa Police HQ for Briefing on Hezbollah
Presentation by members of Haifa's Police force inside Headquarters in downtown Haifa.

In order to focus attention on the Israeli home front, TIP's front-line media team in Haifa collaborated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Communications Center to arrange an exclusive visit for over 30 international journalists to Haifa's Police Headquarters.

There they received a comprehensive briefing on the situation from Northern District Police Commander Dan Ronen. Ronen stressed the human cost of the more than 1,000 Hezbollah-launched missiles that had landed in Israel during the two weeks preceding the briefing.

Haifa Police Chief Nir Meriesh focused on the plight of his city, which suffered the highest number of civilian fatalities and saw an exodus of nearly half of its residents. Bomb Squad Deputy Commander Michael Cardash gave a technical briefing on weaponry used by Hezbollah, including Katyusha rockets, Syrian-made 220 mm. rocket and Iranian-made long-range Fajr-3 missiles. Police officials also provided a display table filled with the actual remains of these missiles collected by police in previous weeks.

Journalists also received a demonstration of a robot bomb-defusing device used by police to handle unexploded ordnance. The presentation focused on the devastating effects of these weapons.

The journalists attending the tour also received exclusive TIP briefing packets on the war with Hezbollah, as well as a complimentary lunch, for which they were exceedingly grateful.

Our thanks again to the MFA Communications Center for partnering with TIP on this important event, and a very special thanks to the new National Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld, who prepared comprehensive materials for the briefing and expressed enthusiasm about working with TIP on future projects.

Press Briefing with Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon
Ambassador Daniel Ayalon listens to questions from top reporters at a TIP press conference, which was covered live by CNN, C-SPAN and FOXNews .

Just as the violence in northern Israel broke out, The Israel Project hosted a packed press briefing with Israel's ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon. The briefing attracted numerous journalists and media outlets from around the country, including AP, CNN, NBC, CBS and FOXNews.

Speaking before a room crowded with news cameras and high-level reporters, Ambassador Ayalon gave a brief summary of the current conflict in the Middle East and then answered a wide range of questions from the press. The briefing focused on the escalating violence and hostilities in northern Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Ambassador Ayalon was on TIP's platform when he announced the news that the first Hezbollah-fired rockets had hit Haifa. More than 700 press mentions of the news conference enabled viewers around the world to view the event on broadcast outlets such as the BBC and CNN International .

Clips from the event and Ambassador Ayalon’s quotes were used in scores of stories about the hostilities. Ambassador Ayalon has participated in past TIP events, including a town hall meeting on Capitol Hill. He is always an excellent spokesperson for Israel!

TIP in Sderot with Journalists
TIP Israel Director Calev Ben-David inside a school hit by a Qassam rocket. Though Israel gave up all of Gaza a year ago, Palestinian terrorists have not stopped their attacks on Israel.

After barrages of Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip fell on Sderot and other nearby communities in June, The Israel Project’s Israel Office Director Calev Ben-David guided a group of 35 journalists on a media tour of the town and the Gaza border area, arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Public Affairs Department.

In Sderot, the group held a press conference with Mayor Eli Moyal, who spoke movingly about the ordeal Sderot residents have lived through. Just behind him were photos of the eight Israelis killed in Israel by Qassam rockets fired from Gaza. The journalists then paid a visit to the Sderot high school building hit by a Qassam rocket in July, in which tragedy was narrowly averted only because students were still in morning prayers at the time of the attack.

The media tour then stopped by the site of a hunger strike being conducted by several town residents, some of whom lost family members in Qassam attacks. The residents demanded the government take stronger action against the Gaza terror groups firing the rockets and expressed their pain and frustration in interviews with the journalists.

The group continued on to the Karni Checkpoint Crossing on the Gaza border, where the journalists received a briefing Israel Defense Forces and security officials about how Israel enables humanitarian aid to continue to flow into Gaza despite the terror attacks.

During the tour, Ben-David spoke with the journalists and assisted various official spokespeople, including MFA Spokesman Mark Regev, Government Press Office Director Danny Seaman and Israel Defense Forces spokespeople Capts. Jacob Dallal and Noa Meir. Our thanks to all of them for allowing TIP to take part in this vital hasbara effort.

TIP Reaches Out to the Arab World

Al-Jazeera’s New Israel Bureau Gets the Facts On High From TIP 'Intellicopter' Tour
Al-Jazeera Senior Producer Ghousoon Bisharat on the 'Intellicopter.'

Beginning in May 2007, Al-Jazeera will broadcast a new worldwide English-language news network completely separate from its Arabic operation that will compete with CNN and BBC-TV .

TIP-Israel made contact with the network's Jerusalem bureau while it was still in its formative stages and established good working relations with its senior personnel.

Al-Jazeera English staffers attended some of TIP’s pre-election events in March, and on April 26 the bureau’s senior members went up in TIP “Defensible Borders” Intellicopter tour, a two-hour guided helicopter tour that provided a bird's-eye view of Jerusalem, the security fence and the Gaza border. Joining the tour were Al-Jazeera-English Jerusalem Bureau Chief Tony Hedley (a veteran of AP and ABC-TV ), Senior Producer Ghousoon Bisharat and cameraman Adam Cohen.

The Al-Jazeera team responded positively to the flight briefing from TIP-IO Director Calev Ben-David and afterwards asked him to serve on occasion as a commentator representing the Israeli point of view when the network begins broadcasting.

TIP Brings Its Message to Jordanian Journalists
TIP-IO Director Calev Ben-David at Beit Berl with some of the Jordanian journalists participating in the mission.

In the first week of May, TIP’s Israel Office was engaged in educating and holding a dialogue with a group of Jordanian journalists visiting Israel for the first time. The encounter was part of TIP-IO’s ongoing collaboration with the Levinson International Institute at Beit Berl, which brought over the journalists for a two-week seminar in Israel.

As with its prior missions with Latin American and Russian journalists, the International Institute turned to The Israel Project to assist in its programming. This included lectures by TIP Israel Office Director Calev Ben-David about Israel and the media; Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh about the challenges of truthful reporting on the Palestinian situation; Dr. Mordechai Kedar about the myths and realities in the Arab world; and blogging expert Lisa Goldman about using the Internet in societies with press restrictions.

For most of the Jordanian journalists, it was their first exposure to such messages and the sessions were filled with lively debate and discussion. We salute these brave journalists who came to Israel in the face of serious pressure by Jordanian press associations that advocated a complete boycott of Israel which led some of their colleagues to cancel their planned participation in the mission.

TIP Takes Off With Leading Arab-Italian Journalist
From left: Aaron Schachter, Valentina Allam, Magdi Allam and Dina Kraft on the Gaza border.

Magdi Allam, born in Egypt and raised in Italy, is one of the leading journalists in Italy today. He is deputy editor of Corriere della Sera, one of Italy's leading newspapers, and an Arab and Islamic Affairs commentator. Allam is an author as well as a prolific journalist and editor, consistently speaking out against Islamic extremism and in favor of tolerance, and in support of Israel.

Magdi Allam visited Israel in August to receive the 2006 Dan David Prize for his ceaseless work in fostering understanding and tolerance between cultures. During his visit, he was also hosted by The Israel Project at a dinner in Jerusalem and took a flight on the TIP Intellicopter.

Joining Allam on the Intellicopter flight were Dina Kraft, Israel correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and contributing reporter for The New York Times, and Aaron Schachter of the BBC/PBS web radio program “The World.” Both Kraft and Schachter conducted interviews with Allam during the trip.

Allam, who lives under full-time police protection in Italy, is one of Europe’s leading spokesmen against Islamic extremism. In March he appeared on a panel in Rome together with international peace activist and regular TIP speaker Nonie Darwish. Together they spoke out against the “culture of hate” fueling Arab terrorism. Allam has pledged to continue working with TIP as we expand our crucial efforts in the European arena.

Pakistani Journalist Gets the TIP View
From right-Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Gul; Calev Ben-David; Giora Bechor, MFA Asia Desk; Photographer Don Maclain; Israel Correspondent for The Independent ; Photographer Enrique Kirszenbaum; Pilot Ami Mamur.

Although Israel still has no diplomatic relations with Pakistan, it held its first talks last September to lay the groundwork for what may be an important strategic relationship for both countries.

There are no Pakistani media in Israel, but as a sign of a slow warming between the two nations, Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Gul of the Islamabad Friday News visited Israel in early August in a brief visit arranged by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As part of his program, Gul went up in The Israel Project’s Intellicopter for an aerial briefing of the security fence, Jerusalem and the northern border. The tour included discussion of the Iranian missile threat.

Along the way, Gul, who also works for the Voice of Germany radio station, interviewed TIP Israel Office Director Calev Ben-David on issues relating to Israeli security.

It’s safe to say that TIP’s first professional relationship with the Pakistani media has gotten off to a flying start!

Nonie Darwish Highlights TIP Jerusalem Event
Panel members (from left) Nonie Darwish, Nidra Poller and Isabel Kershner at TIP panel discussion in Jerusalem.

Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-born daughter of a “shahid” (martyr) for the Palestinian cause who now speaks out against Arab terrorism and Islamic extremism and for Israel and the West, was the featured participant on a panel discussion on June 18, organized by The Israel Project’s Jerusalem office.

Darwish, who was visiting Israel from the United States, where she now lives, did several media interviews while visiting Israel. Darwish, founder of “Arabs for Israel,” also took the stage at a panel discussion organized by TIP-IO at Jerusalem’s Beit Shmuel Hall. The event was titled “Lethal Narratives: The Culture of Terror and Martyrdom” and also featured speakers such as Jerusalem Report Middle East Editor Isabel Kershner, author/lecturer Nidra Poller and TIP-IO Director Calev Ben-David. It attracted about 100 Jerusalemites for an evening of lively debate and discussion.

The event's implementation was helped greatly by the participation of The Israel Project's 10 Israel-based Media Fellows who worked with TIP-IO through August. Our thanks to them, to all the speakers and especially to the remarkable Nonie Darwish!