Terror victims group gears up for hasbara campaign
Ruth Eglash , THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 20, 2009
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An Israeli terror victims association is preparing to launch a new
information campaign based on the fear that new US President Barack Obama
will usher in a period "where there is no serious global war on terror."

The tour will take victims of Hamas terror on a speaking tour to the US and
Europe, where they will tell their personal stories to the international
community and justify Israel's three-week operation against the terror group
in the Gaza Strip.

"We are hearing how many civilians were killed in Gaza all the time, but we
feel that the focus needs to be widened in order to highlight how many
Israeli civilians have also been killed by Hamas terrorists," said Meir
Indor, head of the right-of-center terror victims association, Almagor.

Almagor has protested the release of Palestinian prisoners in prisoner
exchanges, and strongly supported the IDF's offensive in Gaza.

Indor was in Sderot Monday to recruit Israel's most recent victims of terror
for the tour, which is set to take place in the coming weeks.

"We are planning on meeting with members of the US Congress and their aides,
as well as members of the Jewish community. We want to wake them up to how
Israel suffers regularly from terrorism," said Indor.

He added that with Obama now in power, the trip is more important than in
the past because, "we are about to enter a period where there is no serious
global war on terror."

For Yossi Zur, whose 17-year-old son Assaf was killed by a Hamas suicide
bomber on a Haifa bus in 2003, the decision to join Almagor's forthcoming
speaking tour was an easy one.

"Seventeen people were killed in that attack; nine of them were under 17,"
recalled Zur of that fateful day in March when his son died on his way home
from school. "He took that bus every day at the same time."

According to Zur, information about the suicide bomber, who was sent by
Hamas, was later found showing that he chose that specific bus "because he
knew it would be packed with school children.

"I think that the international media is very one-sided and believe that the
main reason for this is something that I call the 'pain competition,'" he
continued. "In 30 seconds, the TV media is not able to present the reality
here. It is so much easier for them to play the pain game."

Zur said that since 2000, more than 1,200 Israeli have been killed by
suicide bombers. He pointed to a recent Channel 4 documentary on suicide
bombers, in which one declared that "every person in Israel can justifiably
be killed because either they were once in a soldier or will become a
soldier one day."

Alongside their frustration that the voice of Hamas terror victims is seldom
heard in the international media, Zur and Indor feel that the government
achieved very little during the recent conflict.

"Hamas is still in power, Gilad Schalit has still not been returned and, I
read in the newspaper today that, within a year Hamas will have rockets
capable of reaching Tel Aviv," said Zur, referring to assertions made in an
interview by Israel Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman.

Indor, who said he interviewed terror victims from the communities around
Gaza Monday, added: "People in the South had very high expectations for this
war and most of those whom I spoke to were disappointed that it had ended
without any real results."