ABSTRACT

The Israeli government left the marketplace totally open to the Palestinians, permitting the Palestinians to frame the issues and to set the media's agenda, almost without interference. In the media news marketplace, instead of soybeans, pork bellies, stocks, or money, information is the currency, and news reports are the product. The Israeli government, stalemated from within and oblivious to the implications of its behavior, therefore was unable to respond adequately. In competitive marketplaces where information is the primary means of exchange, no party can hope to survive or to promote its interests without access to the currency being used and without a well-conceived marketing strategy. There is an inherent conflict between the Military Intelligence ethos of secrecy and field security and the spokesman's need to operate imaginatively and flexibly in a marketplace of ideas, where competition is the name of the game.