The Foreign Ministry launched its official Youtube channel on Wednesday at the web address youtube.com/Israel, with the channel featuring nearly 130 videos about life in Israel. Until Wednesday, all of the Foreign Ministry’s videos were presented on the Israel MFA page.

He blames the media for creating a "witch's brew" by shaping "political, socio-economic, religious, perceptions" in the Middle East. But perhaps most surprisingly, Imam Feisal goes so far as proposing that the media not report on suicide attacks, an argument that naïvely underestimates the power of new digital media outlets, like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.

The queen of Syria's morning drive-time radio plays Western rock and Arabic favorites. Honey al-Sayed opens her show — a mix of Arabic and English — with the words, "Good morning, Syria" and offers horoscopes, daily currency exchange rates and banter with truck drivers who call in to pass on the latest jokes.

Thousands of politicians all over the world are now on Twitter, and not all are using the social networking tool wisely. Take Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, a businessman who owns the Daily Times newspaper and is said to have been close to Benazir Bhutto, the late prime minister.

The populace is becoming an extra variable to a country's diplomacy. Decades ago, diplomacy was largely a mysterious game played by politicians within certain inner circles. However, with the rise of mass media, especially the Internet, diplomacy is not just the jurisdiction of diplomats anymore.

Up until last year, according to a report in the New York Times, the US State Department was still doing things the traditional way: through diplomatic cables, official communiqués and government to government transactions involving diplomats travelling to other countries to negotiate agreements.