Just thought you’ll like to know:
Blogs, YouTube: the new battleground of Gaza conflict
The recent battle in Gaza between Israel and Hamas wasn’t only fought with bullets, bombs, and missiles, but also with keystrokes. Observers say that through Facebook, YouTube, and other Web-based applications, the online community participated in shaping the news, and was enlisted in the effort to influence public opinion in an unprecedented – and sometimes worrisome – way.
“The blogosphere and new media are another war zone. We have to be relevant there,” the head of the IDF’s Foreign Press branch, Maj. Avital Leibovich, recently told The Jerusalem Post.
Just reminding people the IDF does not exactly play fair.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0123/p04s03-wome.html
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has been working hard to utilize new media tools to press its case. At the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, the Israeli consulate in New York held what was described as the first “governmental” press conference using Twitter. The online event was open to anyone with a Twitter account.
The country’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, working together with the Foreign Ministry’s public relations department, has also announced that it is looking for a multilingual “army of bloggers” to help in the aftermath of the Gaza operation.
But some see the enlistment of the Internet in the Gaza battle as part of a troubling trend.
“We’ve been seeing the rise of what I refer to as citizen propaganda,” says Ethan Zuckerman, a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, who observed a similar online information battle during last summer’s conflict between Russia and Georgia.
“Rather than becoming the cafe of the world, where we interact on common ground, the Net has become a very effective place to rally people to your own cause and try to coordinate their actions.”
Adds Mr. Zuckerman: “I think what has become really interesting is that in an era when you have armed conflict between states, you now have people online looking to see how [they] can become part of that conflict without leaving their computers.”
…notice the use of “common ground”.
Since when has Israel wanted a dialogue on common ground, or any indication of evenhandedness.
John Kerry and Hillary Clinton are still repeating the falsehood that Hamas broke the ceasefire.
Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen:
* Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 November 2008
A four-month ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was in jeopardy today after Israeli troops killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid into the territory.
Hamas responded by firing a wave of rockets into southern Israel, although no one was injured. The violence represented the most serious break in a ceasefire agreed in mid-June, yet both sides suggested they wanted to return to atmosphere of calm.
snip
One Hamas gunman was killed and Palestinians launched a volley of mortars at the Israeli military. An Israeli air strike then killed five more Hamas fighters. In response, Hamas launched 35 rockets into southern Israel, one reaching the city of Ashkelon.
snip
In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, said the group had fired rockets out of Gaza as a “response to Israel’s massive breach of the truce”.
The attack comes shortly before a key meeting this Sunday in Cairo when Hamas and its political rival Fatah will hold talks on reconciling their differences and creating a single, unified government. It will be the first time the two sides have met at this level since fighting a near civil war more than a year ago.
snip
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, had personally approved the Gaza raid, the Associated Press said. The Israeli military concluded that Hamas was likely to want to continue the ceasefire despite the raid, it said. The ceasefire was due to run for six months and it is still unclear whether it will stretch beyond that limit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians
I believe the Israel raid was intended to detail the Fatah/Hamas talks. As Israel knows a Unity government is the first step to a Palestinian state.
And notice the Israeli military was clear on the fact that Hamas wanted to extend the ceasefire. BUT this did not follow the plan to invade Gaza that had been planned for over a year. So Israel had to provoke Hamas into firing rockets since the Hamas commander Said had successfully stopped all rocket fire. And what better time for their raid than just before a Fatah/Hamas meeting.
And now the only Hamas commander able to successfully stop all rockets from splinter groups has been killed.
More derailing of the peace process.