After studying at the University of Chicago without a minute of journalism experience under his belt, Jacob Dallal left the windy city for the shores of the Red Sea. Years of recording and delivering tales from the frontlines of the Middle East have led Dallal back to the states to share the kind of knowledge only such immersion can bring.
Dallal, who is now spokesman for the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), spoke on the recent developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a lecture sponsored by Hoos for Israel last Thursday.
Dallal has vast working experience both in the Middle East and in the United States, having worked for big-name media sources such as CBS, the journalism sector of the Israeli Defense Force and the Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem's local English paper. Thus, he was able to approach the situation with both military and public service backgrounds, sharing a broad range of information with University students.
Israel, as many Americans are aware, is one of the world's most tense regions, loaded with deeply-rooted religious, ethnic and political disagreements. Focusing his lecture primarily on the IDF response to Palestinian terrorist attacks within the last four years, Dallal opened his speech by reiterating the untraditional nature of the conflict.
"It is a war, but it is not a war," he said repeatedly of the conflict which has led to many civilian deaths in city restaurants, sidewalks and buses.
Sporadic suicide bombings and car bombs have replaced conventional troops and tanks. Dallal clarified that no acts against soldiers constitute "terrorism" and concentrated upon the IDF and media responses to civilian casualties.
According to Dallal, this type of battle has extreme psychological, emotional and physical effects upon civilians. No one is on the sidelines -- death and destruction are liable to occur at anytime, anywhere and to anyone. The media, the civilians and the soldiers are all in the same struggle. Dallal stressed that in such a ubiquitous and dizzying conflict, there is a vital need to bring the press to the frontlines. They alone, Dallal held in his lecture, can report an accurate and concise story to the international and local public. He described the difficulties that arise and how they are bravely and shrewdly overcome by journalists and photographers.
One of the biggest challenges, Dallal said, has been to accurately document and publicize specific events before the Palestinian press has had the chance to do so. He said he believed that once the information was out, Israel had no need to exaggerate or skew information in order to promote the IDF's military action; the security measures taken have been in defense against what Dallal defined as "morally inexcusable acts of terror."
"There is nothing to hide in this war," Dallal said. "There is no need for propaganda or twist. Anyway you look at it, these acts kill civilians, they are immoral and they are wrong. They just cannot go on."
Offering interesting insight, Dallal pointed to the fact that both the United States and Israel are democracies that have witnessed direct and effective terrorist attacks in the last five years. He went on to describe the similarities and differences between Israeli and U.S. press. Emphasizing the incalculable power photographs and images add, Dallal said "visuals are huge."
Along the same lines, he added that familiar flash words such as "terror" and "democracy" also splatter local Israeli press.
Yet in America, many people view any developments concerning the "war on terror" with a certain degree of skepticism. Thus it is not surprising, Dallal said, that many doubt the accuracy of somewhat sensationalized coverage of "terrorism."
Dallal stressed that for Israel this skepticism is not so much of an issue. He suggested the difference could be attributed to many aspects of Israeli reality.
"They are more aware there of their history, and they are living that history day after day," he said. "It has become the reality, it is local and constant. It is hard to forget or escape something like that."
For Israelis, the stories in the press are the same they have witnessed consistently on their own streets for the past four years. The requirement that every citizen serve in the army has aligned many people with the IDF's cause on a personal level many U.S. civilian citizens do not feel.
Regardless of how much spin, twist or spice the media could possibly throw in, Dallal made it very clear that Israel's recent military history is a very straightforward and finely defined story: a story of success.
"It's not as if the Palestinians have stopped trying to attack
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