Aaron Schachter

Aaron Schachter

Aaron Schachter is an Assignment Editor for The World, developing and editing stories with staff and freelance reporters around the world. He previously spent 8 years covering the Middle East from Jerusalem and Beirut.

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The Gaza Twitter War

November 22, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
Israeli soldiers stand at their base just outside the central Gaza Strip. (Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

Israeli soldiers stand at their base just outside the central Gaza Strip. (Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

It was inevitable as governments and the militants fighting governments became more adept at social media that they’d end up using Twitter and YouTube against each other. The problem is that in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the very real war can come across as farcical on Twitter, as the two sides go at each other.

This is an image posted on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Twitter feed, @IDFSpokesperson, soon after the assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari:

The IDF also posted this:

And so much more. All day today, the IDF has been posting messages and, as the Washington Post puts it, “more videos, graphics and calls for retweet than a social media best-practice class.”

Not to be outdone, @AlqassamBrigade, the military wing of Hamas, has posted taunts and videos of its own.

This might be comical if it weren’t so tragic. As a friend posted on twitter:

I once suggested to an Israeli government official during another time of deadly confrontations that Israelis and Palestinians were like six-year-old boys fighting in a sandbox — “you started it; no you did!” He didn’t deny it exactly. His response? “We’re more like eight year olds.”

Well, the boys are killing each other on the ground and fighting for hearts and minds in cyberspace. And some indications are that Hamas is winning that battle, at least if that Washington Post story is to be believed.

This isn’t some random attempt at public diplomacy, at least on Israel’s part. The country’s Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry announced today that it’s opening a Special Operations Center that will “turn to Diaspora communities and Jewish organizations around the world in order to both assist them and benefit from their assistance vis-à-vis public diplomacy activity in their languages and local environments” in dozens of countries.

Get thee to the internet and see for yourself.


Discussion

One comment for “The Gaza Twitter War”

  • http://twitter.com/asun2013 Angela Sun

    A professor of mine said to me that media is not International Relations. Media, and especially social media, is SO International Relations! Just watch!