Facebooking with Bibi Netanyahu
Israeli politicos have discovered the 2.0 version of precinct walking.
I haven’t been solicited for any campaign donations by my new “friends,” of course. But I do receive more mail from them now than I do from those fellow Class of ‘93 members. Granted, a lot of it is in Hebrew, and much comes from the prolific official Facebook group for Netanyahu, administered by Bibi and a handful of other Facebookers in Israel and the United States. They post invitations to Likud events, videos, and other media links, stories and sound bites, photos, discussions, and contact information. And once we became “friends,” Erdan quickly sent out an e-mail linking to his Web site. Netanyahu’s profile uses his status-update feature to post links to stories and events such as the Likud convention.
And in case you wondered, Bibi is all over the Twitter as well. Again, this doesn’t make him unique among politicians, but it is a key cog in a comprehensive campaign strategy that reaches out to myriad voter groups.
One can cite multiple reasons why Benjamin Netanyahu is up in the polls, such as the fact that whenever Kadima initiates a military operation more than a few are left hoping that someone can do it better, that someone being the guy who resigned as finance minister in protest over the security implications of Ariel Sharon’s Gaza disengagement. Likud not only kept its lead over Kadima through the Gaza incursion, but increased it.
But social networking for candidates is more about letting us know that Netanyahu is an Abba fan, likes the movie Gladiator, and also likes Robert DeNiro (badasses stick together). It’s giving people whose doors will never be knocked on or whose baby may never be kissed a link to the candidate on a slightly more personal level. It gives politicians a chance to interact with voters and to get their messages out in a medium that’s a lot cheaper and has greater range than those annoying mailers.
Hands down, Barack Obama triumphed in the battle of employing the new media and social networking to one’s advantage. The day before the presidential election, Obama had 380% more Facebook fans than John McCain, and Obama also blew away McCain on the number of videos uploaded to YouTube and channel views.
Now other politicians, regardless of country, are learning the lessons of the value of good social networking. As concern for the peril faced by Israel as Hamas rearms (again) will drive many voters — including Kadima defectors — toward Netanyahu at the polls on Feb. 10, the former prime minister gives himself the edge to become the next prime minister by fully embracing the next generation of campaigning.
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Bridget Johnson is the online opinion editor, an opinion writer, and a blogger at the Rocky Mountain News.
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7 Comments
1. DoubleTapper:Now if Bibi could just stop telling us how centrist he is Likud might actually get the number of seats it deserves!
If Bibi needs help with security,
Jan 31, 2009 - 9:53 am 2. WR Jonas:I have just the girl for him.
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I wish Mr. Netanyahu well in the election but I am not holding my breath that Iraeli voters will exhibit any more intelligence in selecting a leader than the American public.
Jan 31, 2009 - 12:49 pm 3. Judy, NYC:Both groups are severely afflicted with the disease of extreme secularism. To most people the general election is a popularity contest.
wr jones: i, too, am hoping netanyahu carries the day. israel has the same weird leftists, with strange ideas about being ‘peaceful” even while they are so hated, just as we are, and in imminent danger. israeli society is diverse as well, and israeli arabs have the vote also. i pray that even with all this being the case, israelis turn out in droves and vote in bibi.
i think he is the only really strong leader who can be effective, and he is a wonderful communicator. if he is a centrist, their society is very much like ours, and that’s we wanted too. of course, we still don’t know if that’s what we have. in bibi’s case, being a centrist will not prevent him from the best defense of israel, whether or not that means being pro-active. that’s why he is a good choice.
Jan 31, 2009 - 8:31 pm 4. WR Jonas:To Judy NYC. With respect may I respond to your post.
Feb 1, 2009 - 12:40 pm 5. Sylvie:The future is not known to us so we agonize.I noticed that you used the words hope and pray in your first paragraph. I only need to look at last November to honestly say ,I don’t believe God is involved in the outcome of elections. They are the work of men and obviously far from Gods perfection.
That said, the welfare and fate of Israel rests with God and it would be difficult to see how God would ignore her plight.
That this story from Bridget Johnson did not generate more thought and comment is a mystery to me.
May God Bless the Likud Party and Mr. Netanyahu and the State of Israel
Sorry, but No General Election, No Bibi Natanyahu, not even the best brains in the Country will succeed in effacing the futility of a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians as things stand today. The Jewish State would have to accede to the demands called for by the Hamas Charter, that of being totally destroyed… and no-one with any stretch of imagination believes that the Jewish State with its almost 4000 year-old biblical history would accept ‘committing suicide’ just so that an Islamic State would be created in its place. It is a bleak prospect we see before us today when notwithstanding Gaza being reduced to rubble by Israeli forces, those Arabs still have the grit to fire rockets into Israeli towns. They are as determined to destroy Israel as Israelis are of surviving. Who is going to be Winner of it all? the Saudis of course for not relenting and helping to bring Peace into the Region by building another ‘Dubai’ for their ‘Palestinian’ Brethren as they built one for themselves. Only then will peace reign in the Middle East and the Saudis know it and by the same token enjoy witnessing Israel being punished in this way. Arabs………..
Feb 2, 2009 - 8:56 am 6. Rotwang:Damn. I don’t have ANY genocidal maniac Facebook friends yet! How do I get Bibi to send me an invitation? I’d love to have him IM me his thoughts on how he plans to use the Palestinians as a political prop to maintain the artificial ethnic integrity of a “Jewish” Israel — a physical and social impossibility in the absence of a permanent existential threat. Would he merely continue to confine them inside the world’s largest open-air prisons, turning their water and power on and off, burning their fields and demolishing their homes as needed to ensure that no stable economic or political order takes root? Or would he try to broaden his base by creating a “Hunt the Palestinians” Web site that enables non-Israelis to remotely order airstrikes on Gaza or interactively “drive” a drone Caterpillar bulldozer through a residential neighborhood?
Seriously, Bibi has always been an inventive, enterprising murderer. If he can find a way to let regular folks “own a piece of the Nekba,” Facebook would be the ideal place to promote it.
Feb 3, 2009 - 7:06 am 7. James:Go Bibi!
Feb 3, 2009 - 8:21 pm