Planning Psywar, Defining its Goals

Abstract

For most of the first year of the Intifada the PLO had control over the activists. This enabled the organization to plan its media policy, hone its themes, and adapt its messages to political developments. In the first months of the riots all of the PLO factions (including the communists and Islamic groups) joined forces under the Unified National Leadership, creating an image of solidarity in the Western media. The key principle in successful psywar is to coordinate all the messages; thus, the tighter the centralized command, the more effective the message.