March 2002 was probably one of the bloodiest months in Israel's history. These were the days of the second Intifada and Palestinian terrorist attacks were so common that they took place on a nearly daily basis.
Some of those attacks were exceptionally deadly and are still engraved in the minds of many. One of them that occurred in Jerusalem's Beit Yisrael neighbourhood, where scores of women and children had gathered in front of a synagogue, claimed the lives of ten people. Another one took place in a buzzing cafe in the disputed city, killing 11 and injuring 54 others. The bloodiest one happened at the end of the month at the Park Hotel in Netanya, central Israel, where a
Palestinian extremist detonated himself, murdering 30 people, 11 of whom were Holocaust survivors.
In total, during the month known as
"Black March" more than a
hundred civilians were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, roughly a quarter of the overall number of victims registered in 2002.
At the time, Miri Eisin, a retired IDF colonel, was serving in the country's military intelligence corps and she was asked to act as a spokesperson for the international media. She would be the one explaining Israel's position to the world.
Two days after the deadly attack, on 29 March, Israel launched "Operation Defensive Shield", the largest military campaign in the West Bank since 1967.
The aim of the operation was straightforward. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to "catch and arrest terrorists", their dispatchers, supporters, and donors. He also intended to confiscate their weapons, destroy their facilities, laboratories, training grounds, and production factories but urged the IDF to avoid civilian casualties or any harm to the local population.
While the military was following orders, Eisin's job was to communicate Israel's actions to the world.
Those explanatory efforts bore fruit. Following the operation, the US - which gave the PA some $36 million in 1994, when it was first established - significantly cut its aid,
transferring only $20 million. The Americans, traumatised by the events of 9/11, realised that their economic aid might be used for funding extremists, and this was something they wanted to avoid.
Other international donors also started to scrutinise their assistance to the PA and began paying extra attention to where the money was going and what goals it was serving.
But while Israel's advocacy efforts were effective when it came to politicians and decision-makers, the general European public was not that impressed, especially given that the international media was packed with reports about Israeli soldiers purportedly persecuting Palestinians, hampering their daily lives, and depriving them of their basic rights.
Eisin acknowledges that during Operation Defensive Shield Israel did make mistakes in the way it presented the operation.
Twenty years after that full-scale operation, Israel, says Eisin, still hasn't learned how to bridge the widening gap, and decision-makers in Jerusalem are still at a loss over how to win the support of the general public.