Israelis when hurt return to a normal life quickly, whereas Palestinians exploit their tragedies as weapons in a media battle. The effect is to impress world opinion with the idea that Palestinians suffer more than do Israelis. The Israeli media also have problems, with, he calculates, 90% of media reflecting what is only 5% of Israeli public opinion. He is critical of the vocal exposure of the multiplicity of voices in Israel in lieu of a "centralization across all sectors" that would permit Israel to deploy a formidable "unified force of opinion". In Operation Cast Lead, Israel blocked foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip to report on the war. This raised an outcry of protest, with UNWRA claiming that failure of access by journalists hindered a truthful representation of what was occurring. The reason given by the Israeli government for its ban was that international correspondents would be endangered there, and that to protect them, Israel would have to divert resources towards their protection better spent on fighting Hamas. Seaman was quoted on CNN as saying that Israel had learnt a lesson from its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon earlier in 2006:'There was too much exposure, it had an effect on our ability to achieve strategic goals', a declaration taken to indicate the real rationale behind the government's ban. Seaman was also quoted by The New York Times Ethan Bronner as arguing: 'Any journalist who enters Gaza becomes a fig leaf and front for the Hamas terror organization, and I see no reason we should help that.' The Goldstone Report on the war added that Seaman also expressed the view that foreign correspondents lacked professionalism and took "questionable reports at face value without checking". In May 2018, during an interview to the Israeli news channel i24 News Seaman stated that "I am an Islamophobe. Because we have lived here long enough to know what they are capable of doing". Controversies Conflicts with journalists As the director of the GPO, Seaman came under criticism for not issuing journalists with Israeli press cards. Additionally, he was accused by one journalist of becoming aggressive, abusive and using foul language against journalists he considered hostile and unfair towards Israel. Such journalists included Israeli mainstream media employees such as Atta Awisat, a veteran staff photographer at Yedioth Ahronoth, then the largest newspaper in Israel, allegedly due to clearance issues with the security agencies. Seaman