Israel Shakes Up the Information War
Bypassing the mainstream media, Israel gets its message out through Twitter and YouTube.
At the same time the Israeli Defense Forces launched its own channel on YouTube to display their view of events on the ground. Aping the Americans and British in Iraq and Afghanistan, we had missile and gun views of the targets they were going after. Several sites, when they discovered this, went off the handle and declared it too “disgusting,” amongst other things.
YouTube, to their shame, has limited the viewing of the site. You have to confirm your age to view the site and the videos thereon. This is most interesting, as I have never had to enter my age to watch a jihad video of coalition troops being killed or some imam spewing hate against Jews. But we expect this sort of double standard from many of the giants of the computer age.
I suspect Twitter got loads of complaints from the usual suspects about the Twittercast by the Israelis yesterday. Thankfully they stuck to their aim of free and open discourse. Whether this remains if the Israelis try to do it again is open to question.
On the basis of the success of the engagement with Twitter users, Israel has added all their various embassies and consulates in the U.S. to Twitter.
This is quite an interesting development for a country that does not get its fair shake in the media anywhere in the world. Now Israel can go directly to bloggers and other social media users to make their case without the biased filtering that takes place in all but a few outlets in the mainstream media.
It is clear that this will be the future for many organizations tired of being misrepresented in the press and of prejudiced members of the media always doing them down.
Not the final death blow of the mainstream media, for sure, but it would quite likely send a shiver down a few spines of journalists already worried for their future in this economic situation if they were smart enough to notice.
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Andrew Ian Dodge blogs at Dodgeblogium.
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28 Comments
1. jvon:Ironically, this development may have changed MY mind — about the usability and relevance of Twitter.
I will have to check it out more closely. Good for the Israelis.
Jan 1, 2009 - 1:52 am 2. Eric R.:Mr. Dodge,
I said this on another thread, and will say it here.
The European “media” (and we’re talking primarily the BBC and CNN International here) is not a news outlet; it is a modern day Der Stuermer, glorifying Nazis and vilfying Jews for having the nerve to stand up to these Nazis. If Goebbels was considered a war criminal for doing the very same thing, there is no reason not to consider these people Nazis and war criminals as well.
They are terrorists, not journalists – they just use camcorders instead of suicide vests. And Israel should deal with them as they do other terrorists.
If Gordon Brown and the rest of his anti-Semitic government have a problem with Israel taking on the BBC this way, tough sh*t. Britain, short of nuking Israel, is basically powerless to do anything about it.
As for CNN, so long as the Israelis stay away from Americans or Canadians, they should be OK. Some left-wing Democrats (mostly black ones) will rant and scream, but CNN is so loathed by most Americans that I venture that most would actually cheer it on.
For those who would call it “immoral”, the real evil lies with these Euro-terrorists. A “morality” that allows them to justify and lay the ground work for a second Holocaust is not a morality worth following.
Jan 1, 2009 - 2:46 am 3. David H:Eric R, as I said in another thread you cannot take the BBC as speaking for the majority of Brits, if you take time to look at comments on the war you will find an over-whelming level of support for Israel by the public in the UK. The BBC is loathed by a large majority of Brits. Did you know that the BBC has a very favourable loan from the EU, which means it acts as a mouthpiece for the EU. Why would they do that, well its because they know that the British people are the most anti-EU and that along with Common Purpose is their way of attacking the British people and under-mining their institutions, then the EU comes in to save the day.
The Associated PRess has a large Arab desk that pollutes the news from that organisation, the BBC is linked into that and also has its overseas funding deriving from the FO, the FO is perhaps the most dhimmi part of the UK government. However Gordon Brown and Co are irrelevent, keep it up attacking Gaza, don’t give up, many of us are pulling for Israel, which is at the leading edge of the fight against Islamic tyranny! I personally acknowledge that I owe the brave soldiers of the IDF, the US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and of course my own countries soldiers a great debt.
And I don’t care about your attack on Britain earlier and on Churchill, I am big enough to accept that we have acted wrongly in many areas, but its the fight going foeward that is more important that blaming allies.
Jan 1, 2009 - 6:09 am 4. Chris in Toronto:My thoughts exactly, jvon #1.
Jan 1, 2009 - 6:40 am 5. Gary Ogletree:Back around ‘82. the late great SF writer Frank Herbert celebrated the power that the personal computer gave to citizens, saying Big Brother had missed the chance to restrict its spread to the population. We can only wonder what he might have to say today.
Jan 1, 2009 - 7:09 am 6. Fred Beloit:Haaretz newspaper is beating the propaganda drum. Not the one that beats, “Israel defend yourself”, but the one American big media favors, “Can’t we all get along?”
I don’t know a heck of a lot about Israel, but I know a country that is under attack for decades by savages who deliberately try to kill civilians ought to be vigorously defending itself.
I simply do not understand articles like this nor people who are so emotion-driven as to write them. Incredible!
Jan 1, 2009 - 7:29 am 7. DoubleTapper:http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051317.html
Not only do we use twitter and youtube, but we are also prolific bloggers.
As far as the Gaza War is concerened, All we did was try to clean up the mess we made in 2005 when we left Hamas in charge of Gaza.
Jan 1, 2009 - 8:05 am 8. lynne:And yet some people have the ignorance to do this
How can we let this pass?
DoubleTapper
DoubleTapper@gmail.com
DoubleTapper, blogging on Guns Politics Defense from Israel
I do continue to get some news from one mainstream media source: Fox News, but supplement it (very heavily) with daily readings of the blogs, news from Stratfor (an independent think tank in Austin, Texas), and by corresponding with individual bloggers. I trust Little Green Footballs far more than the BBC (biased, totally biased). I turn to Pajamas Media daily now, and try to catch the latest from Michael J. Totten. The biased MSM has controlled the spin for so long now, it’s time to stop trusting them.
Jan 1, 2009 - 8:39 am 9. Eric R.:David H:
You are an honorable man. But unfortunately, unlike the USA, where the culture war is still going on, it is over in the UK — and the good guys lost.
Labour, in alliance with the Islamofascists, is destroying your democracy and your culture, and with their control of all institutions, and with their draconian hate speech/blasphemy laws, combined with your libel laws favoring the plaintiff, you have no means to speak out anymore without going to jail.
Thus, hundreds of thousands of Brits are using the means of protest of last resort — they are leaving. You should consider same.
Jan 1, 2009 - 9:23 am 10. bse5150:Israel has at last realized that the mainstream media is no friend of theirs and the reporters can’t help but try to spin every story to benefit the Leftwing propaganda machine.
Jan 1, 2009 - 9:32 am 11. Andrew Ian Dodge:DT: Great blog I have added you to my RSS feed reader.
Yes, alot of us are blogging the Israeli side of things. We are also using Facebook and Twitter (re-tweet is a great function).
Eric R: I don’t think is totally lost yet. Certainly parts of the continent are for sure. I think counting the UK out is never a good idea.
Jan 1, 2009 - 9:42 am 12. Jim:Both Palestinian entities continue to cause mayhem only because Iran, the UN, the EU, the US and others keep bailing them out when they are on the verge of defeat. Isn’t it obvious that most of the rest of the world wants this endless war to go on indefinitely? Why is that? It looks like thinly-disguised anti-semitism to me.
It appears that some other Arab countries are at last growing tired of this preposterous situation.
We all ought to get together and liberate the Iranian people .
Jan 1, 2009 - 9:51 am 13. Eric R.:Mr. Dodge,
Have you (or any other Brit) actually given thought to fighting the BBC by organizing a boycott of the licensing fee?
Yes, I know that whoever organizes it will go to jail, be vilified forever by the BBC as a racist reactionary Zionazi, and possibly even have goons set upon him/her.
But with all the millions of people among the Tories who must be fed up with the far left propaganda their money goes to, is there not ONE prominent person willing to go out on a limb and organize this?
Personally, I’d like this to start with someone with a sizeable public platform, and preferably someone who is Jewish, so the BBC can be made to look like the anti-Semites they really are when they come down on this person.
Melanie Phillips would seem to fit his bill, and maybe Steven Pollard, but for all their sniping at the BBC, neither seems willing to do this.
Having Tory MPs lead such a boycott would not be a bad idea either.
Jan 1, 2009 - 9:57 am 14. Dennis:Looks like the complete username for the site includes a ‘#’. So, #AskIsrael.
Without the ‘#’ nothing came up when I searched but now, it’s aaaaalllll there.
Jan 1, 2009 - 10:24 am 15. kabud:these days you have to be a complete idiot to watch or read or listen to any MSM
well FOXNEWS is a relative exception but from past dealings of some friends with FOX i would be very careful with them as well
i am 100% for total ignoring of MSM
I personally don’t have time for their bull*** even for research purposes
we know for a fact that MSM talking and writing boneheads were bought and sold by russian intelligence services and by arab oil money and very likely chinese also are on the market of MSM prostitution
you really have to have negative self respect to tune to or read any of the MSM
Jan 1, 2009 - 10:45 am 16. David H:Eric R, there is a growing movement of people refusing to pay the license fee, the most notable is an ex-soviet detainee who makes it clear why, they refuse to go after him or his group. There was a report that showed that only 17% of Tories believed that the BBC is balanced, the BBC is very worried about a Tory victory, they know that they are in for some serious cleaning and it cannot come soon enough. Do a search on a site called Biased BBC for one group and you might come across links of people who organised boycotts.
The BBC for overseas news is totally in the pay of the FO, its biased towards their world view and as it is full of left wing hoorays it is the most anti-Semite part of the UK government…
Actually sometimes I despair, but recently I have noted that people like me are making their voices heard at last, we are not dead yet and I really do feel that things are starting to turn our way, but it will get messy I am afraid.
As for me I have sort of left as I live in France, but thats more like out of the frying pan into the fire…
Jan 1, 2009 - 12:10 pm 17. Andrew Ian Dodge:I am actually not British but American. I have spent a great deal of my life in the UK but go back and forth.
I believe there is an organised boycott of the licence fee let by at least one journalist.
Jan 1, 2009 - 12:35 pm 18. kabud:To 16. David H:
i am familiar with BBC story: the way to go is to through out the idiot box called TV set
i believe you mentioned Bukovsky?
Our leader Sarah Palin actually promised to do everything it takes to stop funding PBS, NPR and alike in USA
BBC is controlled by moscow agents: if you can read russian or ukrainian: BBC pages in those languages say for themselves
It is shameless enemy propaganda done at taxpayers expence
Jan 1, 2009 - 1:46 pm 19. Rubicon:The Israeli government is to be commended for their efforts to get facts out, rather than depend on a media that has so disproportionately reported in favor of the Palestinian cause. While Israel may not be an angel, they surely rate that ranking when compared to the Palestinians who have been sending in rockets & mortars indiscriminately for years. Now we are asked to oppose the Israeli actions because they can aim & hit what they target, but the Palestinian’s cannot. I contend the Palestinians ARE hitting what they aim at when they hit something. The Palestinians are happy to hit anything including civilians & in fact celebrate hitting civilians. The majority of those killed were Palestinian’s activists or soldiers. Civilians killed were their families or those poor souls used as shields, even against their will!
Jan 1, 2009 - 4:20 pm 20. thezob:I do not know how to use these new venues on the internet, YET. I will be studying hard. I also think many venues will try to filter (read: restrict free access), to their sites or specific information or specific information suppliers. Just as Google has apparently filtered access to news in China, I suspect other organizations will do the same when trying to block certain organizations. Only if we know can we world to stop such restrictions on freedom of the press & more importantly, information. We have all discovered unfiltered information may be more important than freedom of the supposedly unbiased media. I have found many on the internent provide significantly less biased or partisan information than many worldwide media outlets. Israel is on solid ground & should continue until Hamas stops shooting their rockets & mortars.
Andrew Dodge –
Jan 1, 2009 - 6:01 pm 21. Concerned One:Good article. How do you (and your readers here) recommend that those of us who are “supporters” of Israel’s message connect with one another to help get the word out in a stronger way (in addition to twitter)
Bosch Fawstin on http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2009/01/stand-with-israel.html said:
“Stand with Israel, or get the hell out of the way.
Stand with Israel against those who stand with the scum who want it wiped out.
And to Israel: Stand up for yourself, because your “friends” always betray you and no one is coming to your rescue.”
Frankly, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
A long time ago in a land far away, Korea 1951, we had a saying:
“Kill them all but six, and keep them for pallbearers.” (Purely hyperbole, but it does have a ring to it.)
That’s my advice to Israel, If not, they’ll be right back, sooner or later, to wipe Israel off the map.
Jan 1, 2009 - 7:58 pm 22. Judith:Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/ (news, articles, webtv) is an important site to visit to balance the very left leaning media typical of Israel media. (Beware Ha’aretz & Ynet which are pro Labor & Kadima,leftist parties) Therefor, it’s imperative to supplement even the news you recieve from Israeli spokesmen w/ some right-leaning Israeli media(pro total victory & not just another phoney ceasefire that kicks the war on Hamasistan down the road.)
Jan 2, 2009 - 12:31 am 23. IDF blog:(Other good English sites for analysis on the conflict http://www.israelmatzav.blogspot.com/ & http://www.debka.com/index1.php)
New Israel Defense Force Blog http://idfspokesperson.com/
Jan 2, 2009 - 12:54 am 24. Andrew Ian Dodge:Well there is the JIDF on Facebook which help co-ordinate anti-Islamist sites on Facebook and elsewhere. They are co-ordinating counter-protests as well.
Make sure all sites you mention have RSS feeds in English for bloggers and others that tend to read their sites this way. (Because we read so damn many).
I would suggest you support bloggers who are “on side”, so of whom face an onslaught of anti hatred. Comment, link to them and make sure their efforts are appreciated.
Jan 2, 2009 - 7:46 am 25. David W. Lincoln:I seem to recall that Jesse Ventura, when he was elected Governor of Minnesota, relied heavily on the internet. Or is
my memory faulty?
Thank goodness for choice in getting the message out.
Jan 2, 2009 - 9:29 am 26. thezob:Thanks for the info. Has anybody, or is anyone interested in setting up a FriendFeed room where we can contribute and share feeds, posts, comments, etc?
Jan 2, 2009 - 12:37 pm 27. Linda Mae:I’ve been amazed at the opinions of some of my friends who think Gaza sends out harmless bombs because they are suffering with no food or medical supplies. I did ask one if they had heard that tunnels between Egypt (they never knew there were issues with Egypt) and Israel were used to smuggle bombs into Gaza. They flatly refused to accept it. I asked why the smugglers – who claim they are fighting for the food and medical supplies being denied to their children, didn’t add gallons of milk, other food stuff, and medical supplies in the boxes of the rockets? Rockets yes? Food no? They only believe what the media and George Soros funded organizations tell them. There is such a lot of ignorance around us and it is dangerous because it creating false beliefs.
Please try to keep us informed.
Jan 2, 2009 - 11:52 pm 28. Ann:I think this is the most helpful and encouraging thread I’ve seen re new and effective end runs around the MSM.
Thanks to all of you who are on the cutting edge.
Keep commenting whenever appropriate about sources and strategies, for the benefit of those who are definitely techno-amateurs and learners.
Jan 5, 2009 - 5:21 am