Road map for peace, Red Sea Summit in Aqaba, Jordan, June 4, 2003). Seaman received the Israel Outstanding Civil Service Award in 2000 for coordinating the international press coverage of Pope John Paul II's visit to the Holy Land in March 2000. Seaman was appointed as acting director of the Government Press Office (GPO) in December 2000 and worked with thousands of foreign journalists who covered news events in Israel and the Palestinian territories until 2010. He had worked for the GPO for several years and was the first civil servant promoted to directorship of the GPO after a period of 30 years. During his tenure as GPO director he implemented several measures that improved working conditions for foreign journalists in Israel. This notwithstanding, there were numerous complaints about his treatment of journalists unsympathetic to Israeli policies (see Controversies below). He took a leave of absence from his post in November 2008 and announced his candidacy in the Likud party primaries for the 18th Knesset, but withdrew his candidacy. Seaman lectures on Israeli and Middle-Eastern affairs and appeared on dozens of international news media outlets. Views and opinions Seaman is said to have observed the a dramatic intensification of public diplomacy in coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what interviewers have called "cognitive warfare" waged in a "battlefront of perceptions", in which Israel must handle a "global media battle". Israel is, he adds, suffering "strategic damage" from this area. In this, he sees the media as "agenda-driven" concerning the Palestinian narrative and Palestinian society highly mobilized, and these two elements cause Israel's image to suffer in international reportage. The problem is, he argues, that the Arab world fails to maintain journalistic standards accepted in the West, and in waging their media war insult the free press tradition which, he affirms, Israel upholds. Critics claim that his demand for stricter standards is damaging media relations. Regarding journalists involved in covering the conflict he has stated: I don't work with journalists directly anymore and it's a huge relief. They disregard the laws of the country, they don't respect boundaries in Israel in ways they wouldn't dare in other countries. . They're insulted when they have to go through regular security checks like everyone else .. and sometimes the journalists knowingly assist enemies of the state. Journalists must prove their credentials. Activists, he says, should not be described as something they are not, journalists.