Can There Be A Crisis Mismanagement Rapprochement In Gaza?

Let’s say Israel retains you as a crisis manager during this horrible retaliatory war in Gaza aimed to prevent another equally horrible Oct. 7.   How do you respond?

Resign effective immediately?

Jump out of the nearest window, hoping you’re on a high floor?

Or bite the bullet and accept the ultimate crisis management assignment?

I say let’s take a bite out of the bullet.  And here’s what I’d do.

First, I’d advise Israel to send into Gaza along with tanks and infantry, combat medics and doctors to care for civilians who their artillery has unavoidably wounded, particularly children.   

And I’d borrow some incubators from some of Israel’s greatest hospitals like Meir Medical Center and bring them to Gaza to help newborn babies survive.

I’d also send in helmeted lawyers, engineers and contractors to assess the cost of property destroyed and families displaced by weeks of heavy bombardment. 

This way, when war is over, those Gazans who can prove they had nothing to do with Hamas terrorists and deplore what they did on Oct. 7 can be compensated, at least partially. 

I would continue evacuations of civilians to safe havens. I would also advise my valiant client Israel that with each advancement toward the sensible goals of irradicating Hamas and rescuing hostages, to keep implementing and proportionately increasing the pauses Biden has been requesting, thereby rewarding cooperation as Israeli troops gain more control.

I would search for some Palestinians who’ve been helped by Israeli soldiers or medics and try to get them to express some appreciation for at least helping them or their children to recover.  

I doubt if an injured child would care on what side someone is on who’s helping them, do you?

I would show more stunning visual evidence of how carefully the cunning Hamas has imbedded itself within the civilian population in Gaza.

I would show how deviously effective it has been using civilians as human shields and their deaths in a propagandist way to spread hatred of Israel and antisemitism globally. 

Before I destroyed Hamas military outposts and headquarters burrowed beneath apartment buildings, libraries, and hospitals, I would bring press in to see and photograph how unrelentingly wicked they were to the civilian population in Gaza.

I would promise Gazans they can have their land and their lives back soon as the terrorists are irradicated, which would give the suffering population something to hope for.

Yes, the second front in any war is waged by crisis managers who know how to deploy what is so missing in action—public relations.

Tom Madden is a crisis manager whose PR firm TransMedia Group has helped some of the largest companies in America with effective crisis management which enabled them to handle and survive major crises.   He is also an author, whose latest book is WORDSHINE MAN about how to make writing inviting and his weekly blog is MaddenMischief.