"Israeli snipers are in Iraq killing USGIs." Google "Israeli Sniper" and that is one of the more often repeated items. A favorite variation is that of the Female Israeli Sniper Instructors deployed in Iraq to kill American Marines. You will not believe what you will find on the Web. Drivel, propaganda, nonsense, call it what you will.

The fact is that words, photographs and videos are among today's most fearsome, effective and devastating weapons of war. Truth has little relevance to the cadre of illegitimate, individuals-in-media's clothing, wielding their laptops, cameras and digital video recorders, especially when a single photo or depiction of an event can change the entire course of a conflict. One needs look no further for an example than the partially staged and grossly misreported July 30th 2006 Qana air-strike in southern Lebanon. It brought Israel’s offensive to a standstill. Today the Media and Quasi Media are all powerful. Chiefs-of-Staff are trumped by Editors-in-Chief.

I am both a laptop and camera-carrying member of the Media and a sniper rifle carrying member of the Israeli Police Civil Guard. I can assure you that the potential of the damage I can inflict upon an enemy with a click of a shutter is 10,000 times greater than with a squeeze of a trigger. I know of what I speak from personal experience in Bosnia and the West Bank.

Unfortunately this lesson is one the Israeli military and retinue of government spokespersons have yet to learn.  "Like a voice crying in the wilderness," I have been preaching my message. And all the while Israel continues to fail to not only capitalize on "media opportunities" that present themselves, but also to prepare in a serious manner for the next all-out battle in the Media War.

The battle could commence any moment. It is too critical to be left to the Communications Advisors, Spokespersons and Spin Doctors to wage, or to not wage, as was the case with the recent Lebanon War II. Here is what I would advise the Advisors who are too busy spinning to listen.

First, stop antagonizing the Foreign Press. Treat them as you would a valued resource, like one's "Clientele," rather than as the enemy. Invest in Dale Carnegie How to Make Friends and Influence People courses for the Prime Minister's Office spokespersons, the staffs of Government Press and IDF Spokeswoman's Offices and for the majority of government ministry spokespersons whose job it is to "handle" the Foreign Press. Re-educate these individuals to understand it is better to assist than "thwart."

Second, let the Press do their job and cover the story as they like. The example of how the newly declared Government of Croatia related to the Foreign Press provides a model to be emulated. In a war for the fledgling country's very existence, the Croatian leaders' belief was that allowing the Press maximum freedom to see, experience and investigate would overall result in the truth being reported. And the truth was on the side of the Croatians.

Under the patronage of the President and Minister of Defense, the Croatian Foreign Press Bureau (the "FPB") was established. The FPB was staffed with native born, foreign educated, multilingual, articulate, young, Croatian men and women who returned to their homeland to help in its struggle for independence "from the Communists." FPB Headquarters was in the basement, the most safe and secure area of the sandbagged from street-level to second story, Zagreb Intercontinental Hotel. Members of the Foreign Press would present their credentials to the Headquarters staff and immediately be issued a Press Card. Then they were asked, in their native language, where they wanted to go and what they wanted to see. They were provided with advice on how best to accomplish their goal. But that is not all.

Foreign Press were offered an FPB staffer who spoke their language to serve as a volunteer guide, translator, intermediary and relief driver. Such staffers were to take their charges everywhere they wanted to go. The staffers' duties ended when, in the staffers' opinion, it became to dangerous for them to continue with their charges, who having been warned their lives were now seriously at risk, nonetheless decided to continue. Foreign Press were unrestricted other than being advised not to interfere with or report active, on-going Croatian military movements. If a member of the Croatian military, or any one else for that matter, interfered with a reporter or the reporter's ability to "get the story," the staffer would immediately notify FPB Headquarters. The "Interferer" would receive immediate and convincing instructions from a significant superior to stop interfering and start assisting. History records that it was the Foreign Press that really delivered and secured Croatian (and Bosnian) independence.

Certainly today the Media's communications capabilities are light-years beyond those available in the early '90s to reporters covering the battlefields of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The means to report live from “the Front” exist. Deal with it as a challenge to be met with creative thinking rather than the cop-out of prohibiting the presence of reporters on the battlefield.

Third, Israel's military and police must assist in setting the truth free. Every Special Operations Unit, every Border Police and IDF Company, should have combat photographers/videographers. The images that these camerapersons record will be priceless. These must be extraordinary individuals, possessing the same skill set as snipers, ghosts of the battlefield, using a camera with the same patience, stealth and cunning eye that a sniper uses a rifle. The sniper’s motto “One Shot, One Kill,” must become the their credo. Paramount, they need the eye and intuition to know, “that is The Shot.”

Providing IDF Units with camcorders is a “been there, done that” abject failure. Recently the IDF Spokeswoman established a “Combat Film and Photography Unit” to train soldiers in infantry and armored platoons to document operations. At least the need for visual resources is partially acknowledged. Unfortunately the Spokeswoman’s game plan evinces defensive thinking when nothing less than a full-court press offensive is needed.

Acknowledge that knowing what to shoot is as important as being technically able to make the shot. The teenage Israeli conscripts sent from their units to the Spokeswoman’s Combat Photographer’s course will learn technical skills, but I doubt will have the background or instinct to know what image will win the hearts and minds of middle Americans or Europeans. Possessing that ability is quite a bit to expect from even the seasoned, 20 year-old photographers on the Spokeswoman’s staff.

Madam General, use mature, experienced photojournalists instead. Take my word for it, they are here and ready to take-on the assignment in the context of reserve duty.

Lastly, start identifying “Visual Opportunities” and exploit rather than waste them. One recent example is enough to make my point. The IDF Spokeswoman Announcement read, “Explosives laboratory uncovered in Nablus.” There followed a list of the items uncovered in the laboratory. The Jerusalem Post’s article by Yaakov Katz was captioned, “IDF uncovers deadly stuffed animals in a raid on Nablus bomb factory.” Stuffed animals used to camouflage bombs? Children’s playthings literally transformed into the means of causing mayhem, death and destruction? Why are there no “one picture is worth a thousand words” photos??? Why wasn’t there a Press tour of the factory before it was destroyed? Why was this opportunity, to show the terrorists as they really are, thrown-away? Forget about maximizing, the failure to simply utilize this opportunity goes well beyond demonstrating a lack of ability to conceptualize. It comes close enough that a courts-Martial should decide if it is dereliction of duty.