Representatives of more than 190 countries will convene as an official body, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in Dubai. It is the first time the ITU has assembled to write critical new rules since 1988. Today, the internet has reached a crossroads, and decisions made this month could set it on a distinctly new path.

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi has deactivated its account on a popular Vietnamese website that's full of suspected pirated music and Hollywood movies, the State Department said Wednesday. The embassy had used its social media account with ZingMe to promote American values, including respect for intellectual property rights. But its presence had raised questions about digital piracy on the site and led to a review.

In September, StandWithUs (having raised funds for the project through Jewcer) brought to Israel 10 of the world’s top Instagram users to take inspiring, fun photos of daily life in the country. Here’s Part 2 of our “best of” series of selections.

Israel held a four-day conference aimed at giving young Russian-speaking Jewish communal leaders in Europe a training in social media that should enable them to promote the country’s image and to reverse anti-Israeli attitudes. The conference, held on November 21-25 in Maastricht, Holland, was organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the Ministry for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs.

Daniel Zajfman, the President of the Weizmann Institute for Science, sees science as a critical bulwark against Israel’s challenging circumstances. “We’re in a noisy neighborhood,” he says understatedly, “so using technology to help solve some of our problems is important.” Zajfman has become a leading voice in the attempt to connect science and society, and he made his case recently at the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin.

“The bottom line is that Hamas is more relevant,” said Yoram Meital of Ben-Gurion University’s Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy. “Israel’s image is as the side that refused to pay the price for peace, and most Palestinians see Hamas’s ‘resistance’ as more attractive and up to date, and the Palestinian authority as somewhat not relevant.”

The primary short-term goal set for Operation Pillar of Defense is to hit Gaza-based terrorism hard. In order to get the most out of this military operation, Israel needs to try to make sure the damage it causes will weaken the Hamas military wing for the long term.

Both sides have taken the fight to the virtual streets during Operation Pillar of Defense, battling for public sympathy through Facebook posts and fiery tweets. Meanwhile, Israelis flock to web-based news, and government sites become targets for cyber warfare.