Reporting on the conflict is a crucial arena of the battle itself, say analysts.

The success or failure of the media effort can affect the window of opportunity which the IDF has to fulfill its operational objectives: weakening Hamas and imposing a calm that could not be reached through negotiations.

“I don’t know how long it will last, but at this moment Israel has no small measure of understanding and support, and even approval, from many countries,” says former UN ambassador Dan Gillerman, who was brought into the media effort by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni shortly before the aerial attack against Hamas began on Saturday, Dec. 27.

“We haven’t seen dramatic condemnations [from world leaders], only the expected and generic calls for calm and cease-fire,” said Gillerman.

“Even in the UN I didn’t see anyone happy to condemn us,” he added. “Unless something very dramatic happens, such as a blundered hit that kills large numbers of civilians, then we will have enough time to do what we need to do.”

JERUSALEM — For most of the year, Jerusalem’s dead letter office is a run-of-the-mill place, the depot for mail that cannot be sent anywhere else.

The office’s only distinction, manager Avi Yaniv said last week, is that it has permission to open letters that could not otherwise be returned to their senders.

But every year, as Chanukah and Christmas approach, Yaniv’s small warehouse in the Givat Shaul neighborhood is transformed into the address for wishes and prayers from around the world.

Letters to G-d, or Jesus, or Heaven, come pouring into the holy city — and Yaniv and his crew are tasked with sorting the special letters and delivering them to the Western Wall.

In December, a ceremony was held, widely covered in the international press, in which rabbis scooped up handfuls of letters from boxes marked “Letters to G-d,” and stuffed them into crack in the Wall. The photographs from the event are sure to warm hearts around the world.