Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will gather, for the first time, a forum of all government spokespersons to brief them on how to improve Israel’s public diplomacy efforts during the war.
Government spokespersons which were invited included Government Secretary Israel Maimon, IDF Spokesperson Miri Regev, the Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director General for Media and Public Diplomacy Gideon Meir, the PM’s media adviser Assi Sariv, the Defense Minister’s media advisor Ilan Ostfeld, manager of the government’s press office Daniel Seaman, the PM’s foreign media advisor Miri Eisen, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
Olmert instructed Maimon to renew the operation of the intelligence-pubic diplomacy forum, designed to “clean” sensitive intelligence material which could help Israel’s public diplomacy efforts in Israel and abroad.
The forum, which includes representatives from the Defense Ministry, IDF’s Intelligence Division, the Foreign Ministry, and others, met this Thursday for their first meeting. The forum had been used in the past during operation “Defense Shield.”
Since the beginning of the war in Lebanon Government Secretary Israel Maimon has held a daily conference call with all government spokespersons to agree on the day’s message.