Israel's war of words gets dirty

Joel is a reserve captain in the Israeli army. He has a warm handshake and a line in rapid-fire patter that betrays his New York upbringing.

He introduces himself as a "military source", but it swiftly emerges that he is a headline machine, churning out slurs.

Joel is in the front line of a multi-million dollar propaganda drive by the Israeli government to try to prevent an international backlash over its military invasion into Palestinian-run parts of the occupied West Bank.

They face their toughest challenge yet: limiting the damage to Israel over the atrocities committed in the Jenin refugee camp, where its army has killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians.

In a newly opened Israeli government media centre in Jerusalem, Joel was looking for journalists to make his pitch.

We cut straight to the question of Jenin. "Believe me, we would love to let you guys into Jenin, but unlike the Palestinian terrorists, we respect the dignity of the dead," he said. "They want to gather up the bodies and show them off to the international media as evidence of a massacre ­ that is typical of the sort of PR tricks they play."

The press was also not being allowed into Jenin because of the "abundance of terrorists" looking for "Western targets". The Israeli army has frequently shot at journalists, injuring more than 40 and killing one. Suddenly, it was concerned for our safety.