Nitzan Chen, Director of the Government Press Office, speaks with Arutz Sheva - Israel National News about the government's efforts to influence foreign media coverage of the war.
''Nearly three thousand foreign journalists have come to Israel to cover this war. We are doing many things to ensure that they cover the kibbutzim, and not what is happening in Gaza. This is a big challenge, but we want to make sure they portray the Israeli side and not the Hamas side.''
Not all of his efforts have been successful. ''At the end of the day, though, the foreign media does not work for us. We simply have to hope that they will cover this conflict in an objective way. They may not be supporting us, but we can hope that they will be objective.''
The GPO's efforts come as part of an Israeli effort to counter a worldwide shift against Israel's counterattack into the Gaza Strip, with numerous governments calling for a halt or pause to the operation and several media sources raising the issue of proportionality of the response.