Submit YOUR questions to Mark Regev, Foreign Media Adviser to Israel's Prime Minister

I am happy to announce that Mark Regev, Israel's foreign media adviser to the prime minister, has agreed to answer readers' questions regarding Israel and the conflict.

Please send me your questions for consideration. Please include your name and location for reference. The interview will be on video so if you'd like to submit your questions on video as well please send us a YouTube link.

Questions can be submitted by Tuesday July 15th. Keep in mind, we won't be able to pass all questions so try to make your question specific and related to current events.

Questions can be submitted in the following manner:

• As a comment to this blog item
• Via email to israeligirl67@gmail.com

Comments

[Lucy]

I am just writing to wish you well. I hope the conflict can be resolved. I think it must be very hard to deal with the Palestinians, hezbollah and others.
Wish Israel all the best.

[Dmitri]

Hello Mark, i have a question about the recent Hezbollah-Israel prisoner swap that will take next wednesday. I am wondering why Israel went ahead with the swap when two of the captured soldiers are probably dead and why has Israel allowed the release of a murder who's release will just boost the popularity of Hezbollah?

[Martin Blecher]

There are aproximately 75 000 living outside the fence. Israel has not taken care of its citizens after the disengagement. Many people are still suffering from depression, post tramautic stress and are living in temporary housing and poor conditions. What are your and the government's thoughts about the 75 000 people living on the wrong side of the fence?

Even if an agreement will be signed between Israel and the Palestinians, will they be forced out as they in Gaza?

[Robert]

Shalom Mr Regev.
There is vast ignorance and misinformation about Israel and "The Middle East Problem". Few, if any people know, for example:
1/ There were 600K plus Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
2/ There is a link between Arab Nationalism and Nazism/Neonazism (Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Nazis given sanctuary in Egypt and Syria and training their Secret Police, dissemination of Protocols by Saudi Arabia, Arab funding up to the present day of Neonazi organisations).
3/ The appalling nature of the regimes in the Arab World, and the suffering inflicted not only on Jews but on Christians and upon their own Arab People.
4/ The long history of persecution of Jews and other minorities throughout the history of The Empire of Islam and the violent Imperialistic history of "The Religion of Peace".

There are many more questions, but I thought I'd just ask four.

Later this year "Islam Expo" will be running in London and tens of thousands will visit and be peddled the familiar Arab version of the truth.

What is being done to counteract Arab and Muslim propaganda? Have our politicians and media been bought by Arab money? There is enough of it.

Thank you for your reply Mr Regev.

[Vyas, Australia]

Dear Mr. Regev,

I have two questions for you:

1.Who are the emerging leaders within the Israeli political arena (besides Netanyahu) who you believe would be able to replace Olmert and provide Israel with an effective leadership, preparing for and leading a potential conflict with Iran and any other Arab powers who may be drawn into it?

2. What measures have you put in place to improve the presentation of Israel's position and rationale for any potential military actions in the foreign media?

[Samuel Paradisgarten]

Hello Mark:
Living in the Diaspora, I have never felt the right to question Israeli policy. However, these prisoner swaps absolutely defy all logic.
1. How did we get into the situation where HUNDREDS of Palestinian prisoners -even those with blood on their hands-go free for ONE Israeli? Why is it not a one to one swap?
2. Why are we swapping live prisoners for dead soldiers?
3. Do all these swaps not encourage Hamas and Hizbullah to kidnap soldiers?

[Abraham Haya, Las Vegs; USA]

Mr. Regev

Two questions: Why swap a vicious murderer for two dead bodies? How come the Lebanese murderer was not hung when found guilty? Thank you Abraham

[Meryl Yourish]

The Arabs have been winning the propaganda war for decades. When one of Israel's ambassadors visited our synagogue, another congregant and I got into a discussion about Israel's failures in the propaganda war. He kept repeating that Americans love Israel, and that Israel always comes out highly in popularity pollls here.

When are Israelis going to wake up and start treating the propganda victories of the Arabs as a war and start fighting back? The Lebanon war is a perfect example of how Israel does not manage information well.

Israeli victims of terror are almost never named in wire service releases. Israeli spokespeople are generally referred to as "the Israeli army said," or "an Israeli spokesman said," when you and I both know the AP and Reuters know your names. Meantime, every Palestinian spokesperson is named, and all Palestinian victims are named, aged, and often followed with a quote by a relative.

I have read that Israel's press offices don't treat reporters well. If this is true, you are shooting yourselves in the foot.

When is Israel going to match the efforts that the Arabs put into getting their side of the story across?

[FooPirata]

Mark: Why doesn't Israel invest in a proper effort of "education", countering the powerful actions of the Palestinians who are forcefully creating a whole new narrative which often costs lives and without doubt creates anti-Israeli feelings? For example, the Al-Dura affair. Why doesn't our government have people responsible for addressing this kind of "phenomenon" in a responsible, direct and effective way?
Thanks and much success - hopefully with a new PM, soon.

[John Landau]

Why has Prime Minister Olmert not resigned, despite the ongoing police investigation of him and the critical findings of the commission investigating his leadership during the 2006 Lebanon War?

[Robert]

Another question;
When the child-killer Samir Kuntar is released in exchange for the bodies of two Israelis who had no blood on their hands, will Israel's spokesmen make an enormous effort to publicise this monster's hideous crimes and the fact that the Arabs are welcoming him back as a hero.
Please stop playing "Mr Nice" and stop pulling punches. Our enemies do not care about the truth, we should stop behaving as though there is some sort of moral equivalence between deeply-flawed but democratic Israel and the disgraceful regimes against which it defends itself.
No doubt the BBC will censor the scenes of Arabs ululating and firing into the air and handing out candy and any mention of Kuntar's vile crimes.

Please, please stop the "explaining" and go on the propoganda offensive.

Thank you

[TimeTraveler]

Why are Olmert and Livni so intent on trying to appease the HAMAS gangs that run Gaza, and the Hezbollah? What is the advantage? Is there an endgame?

And why the renewed interest in giving up additional territory - Golan - to the Iranian proxy in your neighborhood?

These moves are very disturbing, and frustrating, to us in Chutz L'Aretz, because we saw that similar capitulations in the past achieved no cessation of Arab terrorism. It IS possible to win against terrorists. US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown this; former IDF Generals working with Colombian security have shown this. Where is the Jewish willingness to achieve victory?

[Saul Wollman]

Israel is surrounded by countries all dedicated to its destruction. Most treaties are mneaningless to them. Why is Israel committing itself to its own destruction?

[Kate in London]

Dear Mark,

Would Israel not be in a better bargaining position by joining the International Atomic Energy Agency? As Iran, which is a member, continues to develop nuclear weapons isn't it better to counter this threat as an insider?

[Chris]

Q: Why does Israel insist on being a Jewish state when modern Western democracies increasing value a clear separation of Church and State? Privileging Jews over other religious groups in Israel is discriminatory, especially when many Jews view Arabs are viewed in terms of a democratic threat to the Jewish nature of Israel.

Why not follow the outline of the "Hebrew Republic" as described by Bernard Avishai in his recent book?

[Naphtali]

There have to be realistic approach to the peace initiative between the Israelis-Palestinians.

1. When will the proposition of voided armistice lines of a former occupier long gone, that of Jordan and their artificial '1967 borders', be presented as the de facto borders of a Palestinian state? Every UN resolution points to the 'defensible borders' clause. Your thoughts?

2. When will their Arab counterparts in neighboring countries take responsibility for their overwhelming contribution to the present refugee statuses of both Jews and Arabs (the prior which has been taken care of, the latter not), provide plans for absorption of displaced Arabs residing in their countries with the option for attaining citizenship, employment status, and ownership of land/businesses in these countries?

The brunt of Arab countries had actual 'Plan Dalets' (the Arab version of events, not the ACTUAL course of events relating to this plan).

3. When will Israel start fighting wars as they are meant to be fought: Organized to the maneuver, without political meddling, and decisively? Without tip-toeing on the edges of the water as seen in Lebanon 2006.

[Zionist4U]

Thanks for answering our questions in this forum. And thanks to Roni for organizing this and for all of her efforts to advocate for Israel. I have two questions:

1) Social news, media and networking sites, such as Digg, YouTube, Google Maps and FaceBook, are being used on an ever greater scale to spread anti-Semitic and anti-Israel lies and hate speech. At the same time we see advocates coming to the fore on these sites to counter the lies and the hate. As Foreign Media Adviser, what is your view of these social networking sites?

2) There has been repeated publication of false, anti-Israel, stories in some major media outlets. Does the Foreign Ministry or any other official voice of the Israeli government ever register complaints, request corrections or retractions?

Thanks again for your time.

[winston]

Hi

I wonder if Israeli government is helping the legitimate Iranian opposition groups in fighting the evil regime of Iran. Don't you think it is a better, less expensive way to remove the threat to Israel posed by the Mullahs of Iran?

Thnx

[yochanan]

Hamas says Israel has no right to exist why don't the Israeli political leadership believe them? The last time a political party said Jews had no right to exist they murdered my wife's family.

[Cecrops Tangaroa]

I have many questions and do not expect them all to be answered at once.

1) It seems to be a common belief in the Israeli press and in parts of the American press that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but no evidence has been presented. There are no photographs of a suspect site, no descriptions of the production process, no testimony from Iranian expatriates. What publishable evidence does Israel have that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, or that whatever nuclear program they have is dual-use and not dedicated solely to energy production?

2) How difficult would it be for Iran to turn whatever nuclear energy production system they are known to have today into a weapons production system? What barriers are in their way?

3) Has Israel attempted independent diplomatic overtures with Iran, without going through the US? If so, what has been the result? If not, why not?

4) In the United States, the lead-up to the Iraq war included a intelligence working group commonly known as "the stovepipe" whose job it was to search raw intelligence reports for material most damaging to Iraq and to direct this information to the Cabinet without being analyzed for reliability and accuracy. After the war, this process which promotes inaccuracy was deemed successful and its leaders were rewarded while those in the traditional intelligence services who opposed it were pushed out of their jobs. James Risen's book "State of War" says that the US accidentally exposed its entire network of Iranian agents in 2004, and it stands to reason that the United States has had no intelligence capability of note in Iran since then. Leading Pentagon officials since Donald Rumsfeld have publicly stated a policy of promoting questionable intelligence by planting unverified stories with the foreign media or the intelligence agencies of friendly countries like Britain or Germany so that US intelligence agencies would accept the story as being from a friendly and reputable source and would not think to verify it. With these three items in mind, how much of Israel's intelligence on Iran's nuclear program is originally sourced to the United States?

5) In the recent Lebanon war, there were widespread reports of air strikes on civilian buildings and vehicles having no relation to Hezbollah. How great a factor was the intelligence provided by Hezbollah double agents in this? What action was taken during and after the war to review the accuracy of Israel's intelligence gathering and targeting of air strikes in Lebanon?

6) What was the consensus of Israeli intelligence regarding the state of Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs prior to 2003?

7) Russia is known to supply with arms those nations that supply Hezbollah with arms. Are these transfers sales or are some known to be gifts? Are any transfers known to be intended for Hezbollah? In general, what is Israel's foreign policy with regards to Russia and how has this policy been affected by the rift between Russia and the western powers, chiefly the US and Britain, since the 1990s?

8) How have Israel's relations with Turkey been affected by the rise to power of an Islamist party?

9) There have been several reports of negotiations between Israel and the PLO since the start of the 2000 Intifadah, but the details of any negotiations or agreements have not been reported. Have any of the negotiations produced changes in the agreed-upon borders of Israel and the PLO from the status of 1998, not counting the withdrawal from Gaza?

10) How many of Israel's checkpoints are inside the Area A of the 1998 borders?

11) Has any new Israeli construction been inside Area A of the 1998 borders?

12) How many of the restricted Israeli roads are inside Area A of the 1998 borders?

13) Have the stateless Arabs who lost land in the construction of the barrier wall, or through other construction activities, been financially compensated for their loss of land?

14) What proportion of the residents of new Israeli settlements created since the 1990s are not Jewish?

15) Of the land that these settlements have been built on, what proportion of the land was respectively owned by the state, by Israeli individuals or corporations, and by stateless Arabs?

16) Are there settlements of stateless Arabs in the West Bank whose leaders have expressed a desire to align with Israel rather than the PLO? If so, what has been the Israeli response to these communities?

17) What has been the extent of illegal settlement in the West Bank by the PLO?

18) Torture was banned by the Israeli Supreme Court several years ago, but there are continuous reports of the use of torture by IDF personnel. What steps are being taken to restore discipline in the armed forces and put a complete stop to the use of torture?

19) The past decade has seen the rise to prominence of Israeli supporters of the intifadah who wave the Arab Supremacist banner of the PLO, and false "peace" groups like B'tselem whose goal seems to be to place a stamp of Israeli approval on the latest Hamas press release. Is Israel investigating their sources of funding, their associations in terrorist-controlled regions, and their propaganda activities overseas?

20) What proportion of mosques in Lebanon are controlled by groups like Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood, which pledge eternal war against Israel, and what alternatives are available to the public? What of the mosques of the West Bank?

21) Given that Israel has gained no concessions and only additional demands from the PLO since the start of the Intifadah, and that the PLO has not withdrawn from its state of war or support of terrorism, has Israel considered requesting that the PLO be again banned as a terrorist organization by the US and other nations, as it had been before the 1993 peace talks?

22) The widely used Google Earth service has been publishing baseless PLO propaganda for the past two years, as reported by Andre Oboler in "Google Earth: A New Platform for Anti-Israel Propaganda and Replacement Geography". What attempts has the State of Israel made to contact Google about this situation, and what has Google's response been?

23) While the Arab-Israeli conflict was begun by the simple hatred of Jews, the continuation of the conflict over generations is caused by the false history taught by Arab supremacists which associates the ideals of the Palestine Liberation Organization with the historic British Mandate of Palestine, which was established by the League of Nations as the future Jewish homeland that is now known as Israel. Israel's peace policy to date has centered on surrendering land to the PLO, but this does not address the root cause of the conflict, the teaching of falsehoods to promote war. How does Israel plan to ensure accurate history is taught in Arab-controlled regions after a future peace agreement in which Israel surrenders all authority over the territory?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

[Avishai Weinberger]

With all the tension with Iran's missiles and missiles from Gaza, what precautions are being made to prevent an attack or at least cause it to fail? How will Israel keep itself safe when the missiles start to fall?

[I. Schore]

What is the earliest general elections can be held so that Netanyahu can be elected before Olmert gives the country away?

[Let's face it.]

Apart from Palestinians, are there any other racial groups who are likely to be excluded from equal rights within the framework of the law? Surely it must be apparent to many ethnic groups that they are inferior and incapable of ever meeting the demanding racial standard set by Israel's race laws.

[Yehuda]

Mark,

I think Israel should not swap live prisoners for dead soldiers. Also, if the prisoners were convited of crimes and were serving life sentences, and they are committed to do crime if released, I don't think they should ever be released. What about a death penalty for convicted terrorists. Make it public, that will stop a lot of this violence. Public executions. Get rid of the terrorist and eliminate the risk of them ever doing another crime. Also, send a message to the other bad guys, don't mess with Israel.

Thanks,
Yehuda

[Yael]

I have no question per se for Mr. Regev. I would simply like for him to know I am appalled beyond measure by (1) the obvious, deep and abiding corruption of the Israeli government, (2) its continuing abuse of the Jews of Gush Katif, as evidenced most recently by SELA's abandonment of these Israeli citizens to the frivolous lawsuits of Gaza Arabs, and (3) the proposed release of the savage terrorist Kuntar. I can't tell you how absolutely sickening it is to watch the State of Israel destroy itself, and with it all the integrity, hopes and dreams of generations of Jews.

Yael bat Avraham
in Exile
West Virginia, USA