The Daily Beast on Wednesday described how the Israeli military “launched a sophisticated PR campaign to tell the world why they shouldn’t trust Tehran” in the aftermath of Israeli commandos interdicting an Iranian arms ship carrying advanced missiles bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, noting that that apparent “coordinated public relations campaign” stood in contrast to the quiet approach that Jerusalem often takes to intelligence and special operations.

The very public interdiction of the Klos C could put pressure on the delicate negotiations with Iran at the moment. “This will be one more piece of evidence that will legitimately be played by the Israelis and the Congress to suggest that while the Iranians negotiate and portray themselves as peace seekers, they are at the same time continuing to provide weapons for anything by peaceful purposes,” said Aaron David Miller, who was a top State Department peace process negotiator for the George H. W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

The outlet specifically cited a stream of multimedia updates and content – some of which were available for initial coverage of the kind published by The Tower and some of which were published later – that were eventually rounded up and cataloged on the official blog of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF’s media blitz was widely covered in Israeli media. Outlets such as The Jerusalem Post did their own roundups of video content made available by the military, while the Times of Israel built entire stories out of the content of individual videos.

Though the IDF’s use of social media has at times proven controversial – observers worried in 2012 that Jerusalem was moving away from its traditional policy of “keep[ing]… silent about its military activities” – the Israelis have been largely unapologetic about trying to introduce facts and analysis into public discourse without mediation by international media outlets.

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