Sharon aide Eyal Arad to oversee PR for disengagement

Media consultant Eyal Arad, a member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s „farm forum,” will coordinate public relations for the disengagement plan in the coming months. The campaign will focus on preventing an internal rift over the pullout from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria. Arad is the man who coined the term „disengagement,” before the plan was presented in Sharon’s Herzliya Conference speech in 2003. He also writes many of Sharon’s speeches. In his new appointment, Arad will work alongside the Director of the Strategic Coordination Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, Brigadier General (Res.) Eival Giladi, who will oversee the government and military spokesmen. Sharon’s bureau tried Sunday to play down Arad’s appointment. A source in the bureau said that Arad had won a professional tender issued by the Government Press Office for managing an advertising campaign, and he will not be supervising state employees. „The government has been criticized for abandoning the street to the disengagement opponents and not initiating any public relations for the plan. A decision was made and I was glad to take this upon myself,” Arad said Sunday night. BPI-info