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THE GAZA CRISIS: SOCIAL MEDIA, INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING, AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
MAR 1, 2009 - 1:59PM PST
by Uri Zigelboim
Summary: The Gaza crisis has once again highlighted the growing significance of public diplomacy and information campaigns during global conflicts. In 2006, Israel suffered a significant public diplomacy setback during its summer war with Hezbollah. In spite of a renewed focus and some notable improvements to its communication strategy, Israel has once again sustained a blow to its image, while Hamas’ popularity, among Palestinians in particular, has increased in the aftermath of the war. Like the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, reporting about the Gaza conflict varied widely among different international broadcasters, with Arab and Western observers often witnessing vastly different accounts of the war. The Gaza conflict also saw the unprecedented use of social media by both Israel and Hamas, a development likely to be repeated and expanded in future conflicts. __________________________________________________________________ Having suffered a significant defeat in the battle of public perceptions during the Hezbollah war in 2006, Israel made a concerted attempt to improve its communications effort going into the Gaza campaign. Even before the first bombs of the war were dropped in late December, 2008, the Israeli Foreign Ministry opened a new media center in Sderot, and prepared its media affairs personnel with press releases and talking points to try to help convey its message. Following a reasonably successful public diplomacy effort in the earliest stages of the war, however, Israel began to lose traction as the images of carnage and destruction began to circulate out of Gaza, transmitted with particular intensity around the Arab world. Israel sustained further damage to its credibility following a decision to prohibit foreign journalists from entering Gaza. The policy came in response to reporting during the Hezbollah war which Israel believed had compromised or complicated some of its military operations. Still, the restriction heightened suspicions among some about Israel’s attempts to try to control the flow of information during the conflict. For its part, Hamas sought to portray itself as a victim of Israeli aggression, maintaining a steady flow of images, delivered nearly instantaneously following Israeli attacks through its Al Qassam website and Al-Aksa television network, and subsequently picked up by other broadcasters. Reporting within the Arab world in particular evoked a surge of sympathy for Hamas, particularly on the Arab street. A poll conducted in early February by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center confirms the consolidation of Hamas’ popularity among Palestinians. Strikingly, a majority of Palestinians believe Hamas won the war, and the poll indicates that if new elections were held today, Hamas would narrowly defeat Fatah, with support rising from 19% before the war to over 28% afterwards. If anything, Hamas’ effort may have been tempered somewhat in the Arab world as a result of tepid support or even opposition from a number of Arab governments, including Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. While demonstrations of public support for Hamas materialized even in these nations, unlike past conflicts, certain Arab regimes avoided provoking further outrage among their populations. Following a troubling trend witnessed during the Russian-Georgian war, reporting about the…... FULL TEXT
Gaza Crisis Coverage - International
Special spin body gets media on message, says Israel
(The Guardian, 2 Jan 2009)
Israel believes its has won broad international support in the media for its actions in Gaza thanks to its PR strategy, which through a new body has for months been concerned with formulating plans and role-playing to ensure that government officials deliver a clear, unified message to the world's press.
Learning From Lebanon, Israel Sets Up Press Operation
(Forward, 31 Dec 2008)
Even as their surprise military campaign remained secret, Foreign Ministry officials scurried to put in place another dimension of modern warfare that they considered crucial to their success. This time, the shaping of the world’s perceptions of the attack would not be left to chance.
Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza
(The New York Times, 6 Jan 2009)
Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel’s history, in this one the government is seeking to entirely control the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy...Daniel Seaman, director of Israel’s Government Press Office, said, “Any journalist who enters Gaza becomes a fig leaf and front for the Hamas terror organization, and I see no reason why we should help that.”
For Israeli Blogger, Conflict Spurs Mixed Emotions
(NPR, 6 Jan 2009)
David Saranga, Israel's consul for media and public affairs in New York, says his government started using the Internet and social media well before the conflict in Gaza. "Public diplomacy means you have to reach the public — and if the public is changing its pattern of gathering news, we have to change the way we deliver our message," he says. Saranga says Twitter is well-suited to convey the Israeli government's message on Gaza to a new audience.
Alhurra Locates the "Arab Street"
(CPD Blog, 7 Jan 2009)
The much maligned Alhurra, the U.S. government's Arabic TV service, is now a "go-to" news channel in Iraq, one of the largest TV markets in the Middle East of more than 28 million population. Because of its growing number of viewers in Iraq, Alhurra can now lay claim to its legitimate connection with the mythical "Arab Street,' a term which writer Amir Hamzaway says elites use "in the absence of independent public opinion surveys, in representing their own quite ideological views as those of the Iraqi majority and as those of Arabs generally."
Despite Gaza Attacks, Hamas Thinks It Has the Upper Hand
(Time, 6 Jan 2009)
The militant group is operating on a belief that Israel's assault cannot be sustained in the face of growing international pressure for a cease-fire. In fact, Hamas believes it is winning the political battle, as images of the horrors being suffered by the Palestinian civilian population flash around the world. And it wants to ensure the survival of as much of its military and organizational capabilities as possible so as to best profit from an eventual truce.
Being Invisible 2.0
(Foreign Policy, 9 Jan 2009)
In a major speech at the beginning of December outlining his vision for "Public Diplomacy 2.0", Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy James Glassman argued that "in the war of ideas, our core task... is to create an environment hostile to violent extremism." Israel's war on Gaza has done quite the opposite. It has unleashed a tsunami of outrage in the Arab world, with every Arab and Islamist trend jockeying for position in the rapidly reshaping landscape.
Anger Over Gaza Grows in Arab Street
(The New York Times, 10 Jan 2009)
As the war in Gaza burned through its 14th day, Arab governments have felt their legitimacy challenged with an uncommon virulence. With each passing day, and each Palestinian death, the popularity of Hamas and other radical movements has ratcheted higher on the Arab street, while the standing of Arab leaders has suffered.
Gaza Hit by New Israeli Strikes
(BBC News, 11 Jan 2009)
Saturday's leaflet drop prompted speculation Israel is poised to adopt new tactics in its battle with Palestinian militants. Phone messages in Arabic urged residents to keep away from sites linked to Hamas, saying that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were not targeting Gazans but "Hamas and the terrorists only". One phone message said "the third stage" of the operation would start soon...Correspondents say "phase three" could see Israeli forces moving deeper into cities and refugee camps - involving new risks for Israeli soldiers and civilians in the Gaza Strip.
War 2.0 or Public Diplomacy 2.0: The Role of Internet in Israel’s Gaza Strip Bombing
(solstudio, 12 Jan 2009)
The Israel Defense Force has a blog and a YouTube channel, the Israel consulate in New York held a press conference on Twitter and summarized the discussion on their Israel Politik blog, and the Likud prime ministerial candidate Benjamin Netanyahu is active on both Twitter and YouTube... According to Gwen Ackerman at Bloomberg, this effort is also part of a larger cross-media initiative to manage international perceptions of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Few in U.S. See Jazeera’s Coverage of Gaza War
(The New York Times, 12 Jan 2009)
Recognizing that its material from Gaza will have influence in the United States only if it is highly accessible online, Al Jazeera has aggressively experimented with using the Internet to distribute the information it has gathered...Al Jazeera said that since the war started the number of people watching its broadcasts via the Livestream service has increased by over 500 percent, and the views of videos on its YouTube channel have increased by more than 150 percent.
Gaza Conflict Prompts Global Demonstrations
(Deutsche Welle, 12 Jan 2009)
Cities around the world were braced Sunday for fresh rallies both in support of and in opposition to Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip as the bombing campaign entered its third week.
Gaza needs a peace stimulus
(The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Jan 2009)
People-to-people diplomacy works on the assumption that if Israelis and Palestinians connect at a human level, they will build compassion and trust. They will change public opinion. Painfully, slowly, they will create cross-border movements to transform the cultural and political reality on the ground. Many question the impact of people-to-people diplomacy. But it has hardly been tried.
Israel Gains In Media Blitz, But For How Long?
(Reuters, 13 Jan 2009)
The advertisements in the international press couldn't be clearer: a map of London with an outline of the Gaza Strip alongside, missiles raining down onto Britain's capital. "Imagine if Hamas terrorists were targeting you and your family," reads the text under the map, overlayed with concentric rings showing the range of the rockets Hamas militants fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Israelis United on Gaza War as Censure Rises Abroad
(The New York Times, 12 Jan 2009)
To Israel’s critics abroad, the picture could not be clearer: Israel’s war in Gaza is a wildly disproportionate response to the rockets of Hamas, causing untold human suffering and bombing an already isolated and impoverished population into the Stone Age, and it must be stopped. Yet here in Israel very few, at least among the Jewish population, see it that way.
Gaza War Also Being Waged In Cyberspace
(McClatchy Newspapers, 13 Jan 2009)
An enormous number of people around the world are using blogs, YouTube and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to register their support or opposition to the war. Thousands of images — from Palestinians under siege in Gaza to Israeli neighborhoods that have been hit by Hamas rocket attacks — have filled photo-sharing sites such as Flickr and Picasa.
A Battle Over What Happened In Gaza
(The Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan 2009)
More than previous Middle East military campaigns, and the round-the-clock public relations efforts, this battle was accentuated by technology. Palestinians with cellphone cameras documented bomb blasts and surrender flags; Israel Defense Forces soldiers were ordered to film firefights as evidence to later rebut any war crimes charges.
Blogs, YouTube: the New Battleground of Gaza Conflict
(The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Jan 2009)
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.
In Pummeled Gaza, Hamas Recoups
(The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Jan 2009)
Western and many Arab powers have tried to marginalize Hamas for its militancy, its fundamentalism, and its denial of Israel's right to exist. But Hamas's 22-day pummeling by Israel leaves it limping yet still standing – and therefore an organization to be reckoned with.
The UN's Orwellian Language on Israel
(American Thinker, 25 Jan 2009)
In the chorus of denunciation from much of the world community of Israel's defensive incursion into Gaza, nowhere was the feverish bleating more evident than from the UN's Human Rights Council, the perennially biased 47-member group of panjandrums that replaced the Israel-loathing UN Commission on Human Rights in 2005.
In Shattered Gaza Town, Roots of Seething Split
(The New York Times, 4 Feb 2009)
The war in El Atatra tells the story of Israel’s three-week offensive in Gaza, with each side giving a very different version...The gaps reflect not only a desire to shape public opinion, but also something more significant: a growing distance between two peoples who used to have daily interactions, but who are being forced apart by violence, mutual demonization and a policy of separation.
Conductor Barenboim Calls for Gaza "Marshall Plan"
(Deutsche Welle, 4 Feb 2009)
Daniel Barenboim, the Argentinean-born conductor, has called for a new "Marshall Plan," under German leadership, to rebuild the damaged infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.Barenboim made the appeal Tuesday, Feb. 3, while receiving a peace award at a ceremony in Berlin. The internationally renowned conductor said Germany should learn to "cope with its feelings of guilt" about the Holocaust in a new way and offer "to help the Jewish people to come to terms with the Palestinians."
Egypt: New Gaza Truce Possible Soon
(Voice of America, 9 Feb 2009)
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says a longer-term truce between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza may be reached next week. Mr. Mubarak's country has been mediating a more durable cease-fire. He spoke in Paris Monday after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
How Social Media War Was Waged in Gaza-Israel Conflict
(Media Shift, 13 Feb 2009)
Both sides deployed dangerous new media weapons during this latest round of fighting in Gaza. Armed with Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, and Lavazza espresso, warriors fearlessly and tirelessly scoured the cyber battlefield searching for enemy (blog) outposts. Outfitted with high-tech ammunition like HD videocameras, firewire 800s, and white phosphorescent keyboards, they attacked one-sided videos, slanted essays, and enemy propaganda with propaganda of their own.
U.S. Mutes Criticism of Israeli Raid
(The Wall Street Journal, 3 Jun 2010)
The Obama administration resisted its allies' calls to condemn Israel's raid on an aid flotilla headed to the Gaza Strip, with senior officials saying they were awaiting an investigation to determine who was responsible for the violence that killed nine civilians aboard one of the ships.
The Limits of Public Opinion: Arabs, Israelis and the Strategic Balance
(Frontier India, 8 Jun 2010)
Last week’s events off the coast of Israel continue to resonate. Turkish-Israeli relations have not quite collapsed since then but are at their lowest level since Israel’s founding. U.S.-Israeli tensions have emerged, and European hostility toward Israel continues to intensify.
Business counts cost of Turkey-Israel spat
(Financial Times, 10 Jun 2010)
In Turkey, diplomacy and commerce go hand in hand: when ministers travel abroad, they take a train of businessmen...A new pipeline running from Russia to Turkey might carry gas onwards to Syria or Lebanon – but not Israel.
Israel eases Gaza embargo to allow snack food in
(Reuters, 10 Jun 2010)
Israel is easing its Gaza embargo to allow snack food and drinks into the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian officials said Wednesday, following an international outcry over Israel's raid on an aid flotilla.
Hamas rejects Israel-approved snack foods for Gaza
(The Associated Press, 10 Jun 2010)
The Hamas government said Thursday it will not let newly approved food items into the Gaza Strip as long as Israel maintains its blockade of the territory...The order was symbolic at best, leaving a ban in place on desperately needed construction and industrial materials.
The Tragic Logic of Israel
(World Politics Review, 16 Jun 2010)
It's easy to exagerrate the extent of Israel's diplomatic isolation, and you can count on that to happen every time an incident like the Gaza flotilla occurs. But what is indisputable is that since at least the Lebanon War of 2006, the Israeli strategic braintrust has prioritized maintaining absolute liberty of action over massaging international opinion.
J Street trying to block flotilla letter
(Politico, 16 Jun 2010)
In the most open conflict in months between the left-leaning Israel group J Street and the traditional pro-Israel powerhouse AIPAC, the liberal group is asking members of Congress not to sign a letter backed by AIPAC that supports the Israeli side of the Gaza flotilla incident.
Israel Losing Its PR Battle
(TurkishPress.com (Opinion), 16 Jun 2010)
When it comes to the mechanics of the Israeli PR campaign, it seems that they will win a positive outcome. With this strategy the Israeli government could win some support from leaders as well. Yet when it comes to the language of the PR campaign, Israel isn`t on the side of the winners. There are a few problems in the Israeli PR language.
Israel announces easing of Gaza Strip blockade
(The Washington Post, 17 Jun 2010)
Israel announced Thursday that it will loosen its blockade of the Gaza Strip and allow more goods to enter the territory. The decision came in response to international pressure on Israel to end its siege of the strip following an Israeli raid on a Turkish aid ship that left nine activists dead.
Two Approaches to Israel's Public Diplomacy
(newsblaze.com, 18 Jun 2010)
As the news of the Flotilla started its advance through the world, very little information was coming from Israel. It was in the late evening hours of Sunday, May 30th, and Monday was Memorial Day Holiday in the United States. The Flotilla left on its break-the-blockade-or-die mission a week earlier, on or about the 24th of May. It was a surreal feeling - would there be any response as America was in a long holiday weekend?
Turkey and Israel hold talks on mending fences
(Reuters, 1 Jul 2010)
Turkey told Israel at face-to-face talks in Brussels this week what it should do to mend ties damaged when Israeli commandos stormed a Gaza aid ship more than a month ago, Turkish officials said on Thursday.
Gaza Crisis Coverage - Local
Can Israel Win The 'Soft Power' War In Gaza?
(The Jerusalem Post, 28 Dec 2008)
The government's decision to launch a political and media offensive before beginning the major military operation in Gaza was an important and necessary step...But based on past experience, to make this moral case and to counteract the images from Gaza, carefully considered and professionally implemented strategies are required. For years, Israel has been totally defeated on the "soft power" battlefields.
Israel launches well-coordinated PR blitz to garner support for Gaza action
(The Jerusalem Post, 28 Dec 2008)
Diplomatic officials said the purpose of the public diplomacy campaign was to give Israel as much diplomatic legitimacy for the operation as possible. The Foreign Ministry has been preparing for the offensive for a number of days, sending to its representatives background material on Hamas, talking points, and instructions to its representatives to return from holiday vacations even though their counterparts in many of the world's capitals were away for Christmas and New Year's.
Fixing Uncle Sam's Image Problem
(The Daily Star, 5 Jan 2009)
Underlying all these events has been a central source: Washington's failure to think strategically. The solution, therefore, would be for the next president to revive old-fashioned strategic policymaking. This isn't a call for cynical realpolitik; the United States need not abandon its ideals. But it will have a better chance of realising them if it takes a more prudent and strategic approach to world affairs.
IDC Students Work to Win Media War
(The Jerusalem Post, 4 Jan 2009)
Many supporters of Israel have grown frustrated with hostile feedback posted to Web articles and on blogs since the start of Operation Cast Lead nine days ago. A group of Israeli students has decided to fight back. HelpUsWin.org is manned by social media experts and Israel activists around the clock, with the main "situation room" based at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and sponsored by the Stand With Us education organization.
Israel licks its wounds in the Gaza propaganda war
(Daily Times (Pakistan), 8 Jan 2009)
Israel has taken a battering in the global propaganda battle over its war with Hamas, despite deploying all the latest weaponry from Youtube videos to Twitter blogs and an overworked spokeswoman, experts said...Military spokeswoman Major Avital Liebovich has become an international media celebrity as she parries tough questions about the Israeli attacks and the hundreds of Palestinians killed. Israeli ambassadors have also been forced to join the television battle. The defence ministry in Tel Aviv has posted videos of Israeli air strikes on Hamas targets on Youtube, and the government has also tried to spur debates on Facebook.
'Hasbara' lessons I learned from Al Jazeera
(The Jerusalem Post, 10 Jan 2009)
The country's latest public relations efforts are much improved from past wars, but a lot more can be done. Today, with the global reach of electronic and mass media, the court of world public opinion is no longer in the hands of decision-makers and opinion elites. Citizens in every country with a television set or Internet access are the ones deciding our future. Thomas Paine, the leading author and intellectual of the American Revolution, once said, "An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot."
Israel activists blending new, traditional tactics in PR battle
(JTA, 15 Jan 2009)
Much of the online activity related to the Israel-Hamas battle in Gaza centers around Facebook, the hugely popular networking site that has seen a noticeable upsurge in political content related to the conflict. More than 5,000 users are attending a virtual rally on the site organized by the World Zionist Organization. Pro-Israel users are being encouraged to change their profile pictures to “I Love Israel” and donate their “status update” to keep track of the terrorist rockets landing in southern Israel. Some 1,200 users are listed as "fans" of the rocket application, which automatically updates whenever a rocket lands in southern Israel.
Latest Hasbara Weapon: 'Army of Bloggers'
(The Jerusalem Post, 19 Jan 2009)
Israel's newest weapon on the public relations front is "an army of bloggers," according to a statement issued by the Absorption Ministry Sunday afternoon. In cooperation with the Foreign Ministry's Public Relations Department, the Absorption Ministry has initiated a statewide effort to locate volunteers who speak other languages, to take part in the country's PR efforts over the Internet.
Analysis: Where to Talk Tough
(The Jerusalem Post, 14 Jan 2009)
Israel's public diplomacy strategists, therefore, are emphasizing anything but threats of more violence. What needs to be stressed, they say, is Hamas's indifference to Palestinian loss of life, as exemplified by its operating from mosques, schools and homes, and Israel's efforts to defang Hamas while minimizing that loss of civilian life.
Social media and the Gaza conflict
(Arab Media & Society, 21 Jan 2009)
As its air campaign ramped up in late December, the Israeli military debuted its own YouTube channel to broadcast clips of surveillance and airstrikes, eager to portray its weapons as precise and show off its technological command of the battlespace. Hamas has also sought to use the media. In Gaza, a group of Hamas fighters allowed Algerian journalist Zouheir Alnajjar to videotape the inside of their homemade rocket factory...Government officials also got into the act. New immigrants were recruited by the Absorption Ministry to flood blogs in their native languages with “positive” talking points, while Israeli officials held an online press conference using Twitter, a “microblog” service where all messages must adhere to a strict 140 character limit. Gaza also intruded into a long-planned press conference held in the virtual world Second Life.
More than One Million Israelis Recruited to Monitor Blogs
(Al Arabiya News Channel, 21 Jan 2009)
As Israel withdraws its ground troops from Gaza it has deployed “an army of bloggers” fluent in several languages, recruiting an all-volunteer force to combat anti-Zionism in cyberspace and escalating its battle to control Israel’s image abroad. Israeli press reported Monday. More than one million Israelis who speak a second language have been recruited to monitor blogs in English, French, German, and Spanish and more are to be recruited for Portuguese and Russian blogs, Erez Halfon, director general of the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, told the Israeli daily Haaretz Monday.
Gaza: A New Middle East Indeed
(Al Jazeera Magazine, 21 Jan 2009)
The New Middle East defined in Lebanon in July-August 2006, was confirmed in Palestine in December-January 2008-2009. A new language with new terminology and a new culture is springing up from the ashes and the rubble of Gaza. Arabs are eager to define themselves and shed years of defeat and defeatism. A New Middle East, indeed.
Great and Immediate Challenges
(Bitterlemons.org, 19 Jan 2009)
The Obama administration will be faced with a new reality created by this war, and in more ways than one...In a sudden and dramatic American move that can be interpreted as an attempt by the current administration to create facts on the ground that Obama will tread on, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement with her Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni
The Meaning of the Gaza War
(Bitterlemons.org, 19 Jan 2009)
The Gaza war rendered an Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace agreement more difficult and more distant. And it probably changed the incoming American president's order of priorities in ways the government of Israel--both this one and the next one--will have to adjust to quickly and flexibly.
Terror Victims Group Gears Up For Hasbara Campaign
(The Jerusalem Post, 20 Jan 2009)
The tour will take victims of Hamas terror on a speaking tour to the US and Europe, where they will tell their personal stories to the international community and justify Israel's three-week operation against the terror group in the Gaza Strip.
Analysis: This time, Israel got the public diplomacy right
(The Jerusalem Post, 22 Jan 2009)
Evidence suggests that Israel's public diplomacy efforts during Operation Cast Lead were planned as professionally and precisely as the IDF's military operation. Clearly, both in terms of media relations and information security, lessons have been learned from past experience. Israel put in place what seems to be a well-oiled, focused, disciplined and well-navigated public diplomacy bureaucracy that disseminates messages and supporting materials in a timely and organized way. It appears that those charged with Israel's information security and public diplomacy in this conflict learned and internalized the lessons of the 2006 war.
How Did the Media Cover the War in Gaza?
(The Khaleej Times, 25 Jan 2009)
How did the media portray the Gaza crisis? With the limitations on foreign journalists’ work there and the targeting of the ones who were inside Gaza, the coverage was affected immeasurably.
Israel’s Propaganda War in Gaza: Once David Now Goliath
(The Khaleej Times, 24 Jan 2009)
Amongst other means, Israel has tried to achieve ‘information superiority’ by restricting the access of foreign correspondents into Gaza. However, sources within Gaza and the ubiquity of Internet access prevent Israel from controlling, much less dominating the information battle space.
Decoding Egypt: The Decline Of Egypt's Soft Power
(Daily News Egypt, 28 Jan 2009)
Amidst Israel’s war on Gaza, top Egyptian officials were busy with what they considered to be another more important war waged on their regime by a number of Arab satellite channels who were sharply critical of Egypt’s foreign policy. Hinting at the hollowness of their rhetoric compared to the real sacrifices the Egyptian army has made for the Palestinian cause, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit scornfully asked: “Do these satellite channels have infantry and armored battalions?”
Gaza: Of Media Wars and Borderless Journalism
(Arab Media & Society, 28 Jan 2009)
Yet again, the disconnect. Yet again, American and Arab viewers are seeing two vastly different conflicts play out on their television screens. Yet again, the media has become a weapon of war.
IAF Strikes Gaza As Cease-Fire Deal Takes Shape In Cairo
(The Jerusalem Post, 1 Feb 2009)
As Israeli leaders on Sunday threatened a harsh military response to continued rocket attacks, Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders were said to be close to reaching a Gaza cease-fire deal in talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo. Meanwhile, the IAF struck rocket-launching areas in northern Gaza on Sunday night, as well as a Hamas security building in central Gaza.
Al Jazeera English To Air Appeal For Gaza Relief
(The Peninsula, 1 Feb 2009)
Al Jazeera English has pledged to run public service announcements on UK prime time on Al Jazeera English in support of the appeal of Disasters Emergency Committee’s humanitarian aid initiative for the victims of Gaza hostilities. The channel will not charge any sum for the service. The announcements started running on January 26 and were aired to the citizens of United Kingdom and in many countries across the world. Al Jazeera English reaches an estimated audience of over 130 million households.
Analysis: The Effective Public Diplomacy Ended With Operation Cast Lead
(The Jerusalem Post, 5 Feb 2009)
An examination of Israel's public diplomacy for Operation Cast Lead reveals an ironic disparity between a carefully planned and implemented wartime media policy on the one hand, and the net result on the other hand, which has been extremely damaging for Israel's international image and standing. While this has not yet manifested itself in any major diplomatic crises, questions about Israel's disregard for human rights, excessive use of force, possible war crimes, and indiscriminate attacks on international facilities are high on the international agenda.
Beirut, 13 Other Cities Honor Gaza's Martyred Children
(The Daily Star, 9 Feb 2009)
Hundreds of candles flickered on the seafront at Ramlet al-Baida on Sunday evening in commemoration of Gaza's fallen children. The vigil was one of 13 organized by Mothers Across the World for Gaza in cities across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America to mark the passage of 40 days since the first child was killed during the Israeli military's December-January offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Listening Post - Gaza's Internet War
(Al Jazeera English (video), 14 Feb 2009)
With so much of the mainstream media marginalized in Gaza the two sides in the conflict focused on online video and social media turning them into the new informational frontline. Which side used this new media more effectively and will it be the new weapon in future conflicts.
Ayalon claims successes in PR battle
(The Jerusalem Post, 4 Jun 2010)
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has mounted a robust defense of official Israel’s performance on the public diplomacy “battlefield” over the fatal flotilla raid this week...“While some have criticized Israel’s public relations readiness for the ghastly events that took place on Monday morning, far more have expressed increasing satisfaction with the vast improvement in Israel’s official crisis management,” he added.
Wikileaks in Venezuela: Espionage, Propaganda, and Disinformation
(Venezuela Analysis, 4 Dec 2010)
The first batch of recently released secret and confidencial US State Department documents obtained by Wikileaks include over a dozen dispatches from the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, evidencing espionage against the Chavez administration, use of opposition media and politicians as informants and insulting remarks about the country.
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