Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Funeral of Bernard Leyden
Funeral of
Bernard Leyden
The funeral of Bernard Leyden, father of Joel and Brian, husband of Alice, will be taking place:
Sunday, January 25th in New York.
If you are a relative or friend and wish to attend the funeral please contact Joel Leyden at joel.leyden@gmail.com
Shiva will be held at relatives in New York and Israel.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Israel Gaza Hamas Children Cyber Facebook Memorial
Israel Gaza Hamas Children Cyber Facebook Memorial
By Monique Lester
Israel News Agency
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/gazahamasisraelchildrenmemorialfacebookwebcyberinternetgroupsprotestterrorismattacksunwarcrimespalestineislamicjihadleyden48011709.html
Jerusalem --- January 17, 2009...... An online, Internet Web 2.0 memorial for all Jewish and Arab children who have been killed in the Israel Hamas Gaza conflict is now being organized on Facebook.
The Israel Gaza Children's Cyber Memorial, in memory of the Israel and Palestinian children killed in the Gaza conflict will be held online next Saturday, January 24, with an Internet ceasefire taking place for one day.
"Jews and Arabs have succeeded in using new Web 2.0 cyber technology and social working to get messages out from both sides of the Gaza conflict," said Joel Leyden, an Internet marketing pioneer who is based in Israel, London and New York.
"Israel has used a variety of social networking tools to explain her defensive actions for going into Gaza. These include Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Both supporters of Israel and Hamas have gone to great lengths to inform their communities of their actions on the Internet. They have reached millions of people on the Internet. But what has been overlooked are the hundreds of children in both Israel and Gaza who have been killed and injured by Hamas Qassam rockets and IDF defensive action."
Leyden states that regardless if one is a Zionist who wishes to live in peace in Israel or a member of Hamas who declares the total destruction of the State of Israel, both Israel and Hamas have children.
"Hamas has stated that they would sacrifice their women and children in a war with Israel,"says Leyden, a native of New York who has three young children of his own. "But we know, even as some members of Hamas use their children and other women, children, the UN and the press as human shields in Gaza, the majority of Palestinians value life, not death. That most Arabs who seek a state called Palestine, seek peace and have been intimated by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. You can see the tears in their eyes when their children have been hurt. They are not callous. Most civilians in Gaza do not want their children becoming shahids or martyrs. They don't want this war. They want peace, democracy and security for their children."
The use of children as soldiers is a war crime.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that all parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life. Even those Hamas is not one of the parties obligated to the United Nations, many Arab nations are and as such have every responsibility to make certain that children in Gaza are not being used as human shields.
The UN clearly states: "One of the most alarming trends relating to children and armed conflicts is their participation as active soldiers. Children as young as 8 years of age are being forcibly recruited, coerced and induced to become combatants. Manipulated by adults, children have been drawn into violence that they are too young to resist and with consequences they cannot imagine."
"It is a war crime to use children in a war," says Leyden.
"Whether Hamas is illegally using the lives of their children to wage an Islamic Jihad, attacking Israel children with cross-border attacks using Kassams, Grads and Katusha rockets and Israel is defending herself - the world community must protest the use of children in war and remember those who have died in it. We ask every room on Facebook to close to their discussion walls for one day. Replace your Facebook picture with a lit memorial candle. And rather than taking the role of a keyboard warrior, take the role of a cyber peace maker. To light one candle and reflect on why Israel has been forced to defend herself in Gaza, a place she left three years ago and why Hamas cherishes death over life. We need to step back. Take a deep breath and stop the cyclical accusations. We need to place children first. If Hamas in Gaza cannot do it, then it is the responsibility of the world community to protect the lives of innocent children - both in Gaza and Israel."
Facebook has over 160 millions users worldwide and is ranked as the fifth largest Website on the Internet. Through Facebook, one can chat with people thousands of miles away, post pictures and videos, and stay connected to issues from health, entertainment, business to human rights, sports and family.
Leyden, who has been noted for his Internet marketing and PR efforts by TIME Magazine, CNN and FOX News, recently created a Facebook room entitled: I Support the Israel Defense Forces In Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza.
"If we can gather close to 100,000 people to stop terror attacks on Israel, then how many people can we secure to stop the use of children as human shields, how many people can we secure to protest the deaths of children in both Israel and Gaza?"
The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Internet Marketing SEO Group - Israel, London, New York.
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Friday, January 16, 2009
It’s time to boycott Ms. Naomi Klein
It’s time to boycott Ms. Naomi Klein
An open letter to Naomi Klein, who called in "The Guardian" for a boycott of Israel.
Lilac Sigan15 Jan 09 14:11
Dear Ms. Klein, I’m sorry to be the one to break the news, but the “occupation” of Gaza that you urged the world to boycott Israel for in your column in “The Guardian”, no longer exists! Yes, Ms. Klein, three years ago, when you may have been too busy to catch up with current events, the Israeli government decided it was tired of hopelessly trying to reach a peace treaty with the fragmented and polarized Palestinian people, and therefore unilaterally pulled out of Gaza and evacuated the settlements in the area. Just like that. It was called “the disengagement”. Perhaps you should google it before you write your next defamatory column.
You may be asking yourself, then, why haven’t Palestinians organized funding and tried to build their own country? Well, that’s because their leaders preferred to spend their time and money shooting at Israel. Not at the Israeli army or settlers, which are no longer there, but at civilians. Astounding, isn’t it?
Actually, while we’re on the subject, this might be a good opportunity to inform you that this was not the first Israeli attempt to leave the Palestinian Authority and reach some kind of peaceful solution, or at least a ceasefire. This has actually been going on for, oh, at least 15 years. In 2000, the Palestinians, then headed by the late Yasser Arafat, were offered 97% of all the territories they claimed were theirs, including parts of East Jerusalem, in exchange for peace. Mr. Arafat’s response to this offer was the outbreak of the second intifada (uprising).
The Palestinian people have suffered greatly. No-one will argue with you about that. But the occupation, which mind you was the result of attacks on the Jewish state of Israel and declarations about wanting to wipe it off the face of the earth, is a very small part of the reason for their suffering.
The Palestinians have been unfortunate enough to be headed time and time again by bloodthirsty leaders of a terrorist bent, ending up with the most extreme group leading them for the past few years: Hamas. This group of people slaughters and lynches Palestinians (yes, Palestinians, this is not a mistake) who dare to even think of opposing them. They ruthlessly execute Palestinians with milder views, who belong to Fatah. Their crimes against Israel, such as sending suicide bombers to restaurants and shopping malls and shooting at a civilian population, are nothing compared with what they do to their own.
Hamas, by the way, are totally unashamed of their nature and openly declare they want to wipe Israel off the map, hopefully with every last Jew in it dead. Perhaps you should google that, too.
The fighting in Gaza is not against the Palestinian civilians, but against their leaders: Hamas. It is not a simple problem to solve, seeing that Hamas has built hideouts and military camps inside hospitals and schools, using Palestinian children as their human shields. But since Hamas has been shooting hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities for years, terrorizing, injuring, and killing innocent men, women and children, the Israeli government understood that it had to make a terrible but inevitable choice: Hamas must be fought and stopped, even though it hides among civilians.
Israel, by the way, has been trying to reach a ceasefire for about a week now, but Hamas keeps refusing. I wonder what would you do in this situation? Just stand there and let them kill you? Is that the solution you urge?
You must be asking yourself: Why does no-one know about all this? How come no other journalist writes about these things?
Well, to this I have a sad but true answer. As sophisticated as Israel is in science and hi-tech, despite our remarkable record in developing advanced products (the Microsoft XP operating system and Intel Pentium 4 chip just to name two), and despite the fact our economists have won the Nobel prize, we are hopeless at PR. I would even go as far as saying we are total failures at explaining our situation to the rest of the world.
You, on the other hand Ms. Klein, seem to be a PR wizard. So cynically devoted to selling your new book, that you would overlook facts, and rush to exhibit extreme ignorance in your defamation-happy column. Would you do anything to identify your new book with popular beliefs, even if they are twisted, anti-Semitic and wrong? That’s really too bad, Ms. Klein, because your words have an impact. Being a Jew yourself, the damage is ten times worse. I don’t recall hearing you call for a boycott of Russia for its actions in Georgia, or of the US for invading Iraq. But why not blame Israel if it can help you sell a few more copies, right?
In your column you bragged about boycotting Israel yourself with your new book. I must admit, Ms. Klein, that I, for one, am an Israeli who is completely uninterested in what a book written by someone of your superficial nature has to say.
So yes, let’s throw away the political correctness, and call things by their name. I say, boycott Naomi Klein’s books, because if you don’t, you will be supporting a writer who supports terrorism.
It is as simple and true as that.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 15, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Hamas Uses Children, UN, Press As Human Shields In Gaza
Hamas Uses Children, UN, Press As Human Shields In Gaza
UN "peacekeeping" troops salute Islamic terrorists.
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/ununitednationshamasgazaisraelidfterrorismhumanshieldsislamicjihadschoolschildrenqassamskassamsrockets48011509.htm
Jerusalem --- January 15, 2009...... Hamas has again used children, the UN and the press as human shields in Gaza.
Hamas fired several rounds of mortar rockets at Israel Defense Forces from within and around the United Nations headquarters building in Gaza. The IDF responded with artillery fire killing several Hamas terrorists and wounding several civilians who they were hiding behind.
The UN compound and a nearby warehouse were set on fire.
Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the IDF had fired in self defense at the U.N. compound after Hamas terrorists opened fire from the location.
"It is absolutely true that the IDF was attacked from that place, but the consequences are very sad and we apologize for it," he said. "I don't think it should have happened and I'm very sorry."
A senior Israel IDF officer had also said that Israel hit the compound after coming under fire from Palestinian terrorists.
In fierce fighting taking place today, Hamas officials confirmed that an Israel airstrike killed the Hamas interior minister, who oversaw thousands of security agents in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF confirmed the airstrike. Hamas television said that Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam was killed in a strike that flattened a home in Gaza City. A top aide, Siam's brother and his brother's family were also killed.
Siam is considered to be among Hamas' top five leaders in Gaza.
One IDF officer told Sky News: "Hamas will most likely claim victory after this operation is over, but then know that we know that they have a problem."
Iran has threatened to stop all aid and weapons to Hamas if they stop fighting. Hamas has responded by speaking with Egypt hoping that they could arrange a cease-fire before more Hamas leadership dies in fighting.
| "If Hamas terrorists in Mexico and Canada started to fire rockets and missiles at US cities, how would the US respond, how would any nation respond in defending their citizens?" |
In Israel's fight to defend itself against Hamas terror attacks against civilian populations, Israel is faced with moral challenges unprecedented in their complexity. Hamas, as a basic element of its strategy, exploits the Palestinian populations, the UN and the press as shields for its terrorist operations and infrastructure. This cynical strategy include the following tactics: the deliberate launching of rocket from populated areas, the deliberate use of civilian homes and UN bases to shield Hamas arms and explosives manufacturing facilities and the deliberate use of civilians as human shields against anticipated airstrikes.
In order to avoid civilian casualties, Israel sends warning messages before attacking terrorist targets advising civilians to leave. Israel prefers to attack empty buildings used to manufacture rockets, even taking into consideration that the terrorists too will be warned and their lives spared.
Hamas, on the other hand, calls on civilians to come and to protect with their bodies the precise locations they expect Israel to attack. Since they know that Israel will usually strike from the air, they send the children to the roofs to prevent the air force from targeting that building.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is in Israel seeking a cease fire, asked for a "full explanation" and said the Israel defense minister told him there had been a "grave mistake."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the military fired artillery shells at the U.N. compound after Hamas terrorists opened fire from the location. Three people were wounded.
The IDF also fired into a building housing The Associated Press offices, entering a room where two staffers were working but wounding no one.
Though the IDF had obtained the locations of media organizations in Gaza at the beginning of fighting to avoid such attacks, in the heat of a war, mistakes are made. And it is the strategy of Hamas to invite these mistakes.
To enlighten those who may have harbored any doubts, Fathi Ahmad Hammad, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said it with pride: Palestinians deliberately use women and children as human shields.
"The enemies of Allah do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its methods of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: "We desire death like you desire life."
Hammad is a leader of the Izzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and in 2006 was elected to the Palestinian Parliament as a Hamas representative. He is also director of Al-Aqsa TV, which aired his comments on February 29.
Hammad disclosed Hamas strategy, which some have suspected but few have actually believed: use people, especially women and children, UN facilities and the press as human shields.
This strategy has been immensely successful. Fire at Israel cities from school yards, and make Israel choose between allowing its own children to be targets or risking harm to others. Now we know beyond a doubt that Hamas knows what it is doing, and is doing it intentionally.
But people still will not believe. The prevailing attitude is typified in the words of Javier Solana, head of foreign policy for the European Union:
"I cannot imagine that the religious imperative, the real religious imperative, can make anybody destroy another country. Therefore that is an abuse of religion. I don't think the essence of Hamas is the destruction of Israel. The essence of Hamas is the liberation of the Palestinians, the liberation of their people, not the destruction of Israel."
This is the mistake Westerners, profoundly ignorant of history, make over and over again: to assume that all cultures everywhere hold the same values they do. This is a dangerous form of ethnocentrism.
Perhaps if Solana had been listening, he would have heard how Hamas repeatedly proclaims its intention to destroy Israel. He might have seen the following on the Hamas web site: "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it. Our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave. The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims."
The UN has not exactly been a neutral force, both in Lebanon and in Gaza.
Israel has called for the removal of several United Nations soldiers from Lebanon after photographs surfaced of the soldiers saluting the coffins of Hezbollah terrorists during a prisoner exchange.
The blue-helmet UN troops, who operate under the auspices of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), are meant disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and be an impartial buffer along the country’s border with Israel.
Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said he was “shocked and horrified” by the photograph and that it was time for the saluting soldiers to go.
“I think they should be recalled and be sent back to whichever country they came from,” said Gillerman. “I think they’ve definitely compromised their impartiality and have in a very big way, in a very serious way, compromised the integrity of the United Nations.”
Palestinian Arab terrorists have used UN ambulances to steal and transport parts of the bodies of IDF soldiers killed in and along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The ambulances belonged to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East – better known as UNWRA.
During a visits to the Gaza Strip, the IDF has called on UN Secretary General to deal with the cynical use of UNWRA by the “Palestinians” in acts of terrorism against Israelis.
It was not the first time UN and other ambulances had been used in such ways.
Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin told the Israel Security Cabinet that although Hamas has been dealt an extremely heavy blow by Israel aerial bombings of terrorist targets, it is exploiting the deterioration in Gaza to attack Israel.
"A number of Hamas operatives hide in hospitals, several of them walking around in doctors' and nurses' uniforms," he revealed.
Hamas also has turned dozens of Muslim mosques into command posts as its terrorists widen their attacks to reach the heavily populations of Be'er Sheva, as well as come closer to Tel Aviv.
Israel Air Force officers reported that flight crews saw terrorist cells launching rockets from within heavily populated cities, including Khan Yunis, Rafiah and Gaza City as well.
Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, Permanent Representative of Israel recently told the UN: "For eight years the citizens of southern Israel have suffered the trauma of almost daily missile attacks from Gaza. For eight years more than 8,000 rockets and mortar shells have targeted Israeli towns and villages. For eight years the residents of these towns have had a bare 15 seconds to hurry, with their children and their elderly, to find cover before rockets and missiles land on their houses and schools.
15 seconds would not give the members of this UN Council time to leave this room. No State would permit such attacks on its citizens. Nor should it."
"Hamas has no interest in making peace with the enemy; for Hamas peace is the enemy. Its only interest is in establishing a regime of tyranny for Gazans and of terror for Israelis.
Hamas likes to tell the Palestinians that it was terrorism that brought Israel to withdraw from Gaza in 2005. But the truth is plain to see: It was the hope for peace that led us to withdraw from Gaza and the terrorism of Hamas that compelled us to re-enter.
In our efforts to avoid confrontation, we also agreed six months ago to an Egyptian-brokered tahadia - a situation of calm. Hamas violated this arrangement on a daily basis. Over 365 rockets and mortar shells were fired during this period. And all the while it used the so-called ‘calm’ to build up its supplies of weapons and rockets, smuggled through tunnels into the Gaza Strip. Yet still we restrained ourselves.
But when Hamas unilaterally announced the end of the tahadia and began to wage a new campaign of rocket attacks against Israel's citizens with the weapons it had smuggled in to Gaza during the ‘calm’, we could restrain ourselves no longer.
With its new Iran made missiles, Hamas is now able to reach as far as the cities of Ashdod and Beer Sheva, placing over one million Israelis in the shadow of its terror.
Many in this hall have condemned Hamas' terrorist attacks, and we welcome this statement of basic principle. But the families at home in the city of Sderot, and children at school in Kibbutz Netiv Ha'asara will not be protected by these condemnations. In the face of such terrorism we have no choice. We have to defend ourselves - not from the Palestinian people, but from the terrorists who have taken them hostage. Not to gain territory or power, but to demonstrate that our restraint was not weakness and to give our citizens the basic right of a normal life.
In this campaign Israel has dealt the Hamas infrastructure a major blow. Dozens of its terrorist factories and training bases have been destroyed, its stockpiles of rockets have been significantly depleted, and many of the tunnels used to smuggle weapons have been put out of action.
But we have not only sought to change the reality for our citizens, we have also sought to uphold the values that set us apart from the terrorists.
Hamas rejects every core humanitarian principle. Instead of waging its battle openly between combatants, it directs its attacks against civilians. Some have called these attacks “indiscriminate” but this is not the case; Hamas’ attacks are very discriminate – directed deliberately at innocent men, women and children. In the past week alone, Hamas rockets have landed on a school and on a kindergarten.
Hamas shows a similar disdain for the lives of Palestinians. It has adopted the terrorists' tactic – the coward's tactic – of using civilians as shields while its leaders themselves flee from combat with Israel's soldiers and make pathetic demonstrations of bravado from their bunkers. It hides its missiles and terrorist bases in homes and hospitals and mosques, and, as we saw earlier today, deliberately launches attacks from in and around schools and United Nations’ facilities – with tragic results.
For Israel, every civilian death – Israeli or Palestinian – is a tragedy. In responding to terrorist attacks that show no respect for human life – either Israeli or Palestinian – Israel takes steps to protect both. It takes every possible measure to limit civilian casualties – even where these measures endanger the lives of our soldiers or the effectiveness of their operations.
The IDF has dropped tens of thousands of leaflets and made thousands of phone calls to Palestinian civilians, beseeching them to leave the areas of terrorist operation to avoid harm.
Failing to respond to terrorists simply because they are using civilians as cover is not and cannot be an option. To do so would simply broadcast an invitation to every terrorist group in the world to set up shop inside a hospital or a kindergarten.
There is no equivalence between a State which equips civilian homes with bomb shelters and a terrorist regime that fills them with missiles. There is no equivalence between military commanders who struggle daily to ensure that their operations are conducted in accordance with the requirements of international humanitarian law, and the terrorists who flout this law by keeping Corporal Gilad Shalit captive, without even allowing the International Red Cross access to see him for 930 days. There is no equivalence between a State using force in exercise of its right of self-defense and a terrorist organization for which the very resort to violence is unlawful."
Israel Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev concludes: "We, the people of Israel, listened to the international community when you told us to withdraw from Gaza and promised that this would give us the credibility to respond forcefully should Gaza turn into a launching pad for terrorism. We listened when you promised us that acting with restraint during the period of calm would give us the credibility to fight back should the rocket attacks resume. Now is your time to make good on those promises."
An Israel attack near a UN school in northern Gaza earlier this month killed nearly 40 people. Israel, without delay showed clear video footage of the terrorists firing on IDF positions from the UN building.
Israel launched its defensive war on Dec. 27 in an effort to stop terror rocket fire from Gaza that has terrorized hundreds of thousands of Israelis.
Thirteen Israelis also have been killed since the defensive war began. Israel, which repeatedly reaches out for peace in the region, says it will press ahead until Hamas halts all rocket fire and stops smuggling weapons into Gaza from neighboring Egypt.
"Israel has taken every measure under the sun to find peaceful solutions," said an Israel security analyst. "Israel withdrew from Gaza three years ago, yet their PR campaign states that Israel still occupies Gaza. An excuse for Hamas to fire rockets and murder dozens of Israel civilians."
"I believe that the IDF has a job to do. They will continue their defensive operations in Gaza until every weapon and rocket is found. Until every smuggling tunnel is closed. And yes, the IDF is killing more of the enemy than Hamas is killing us and that illustrates the Powell Doctrine. The "Powell doctrine" holds that a democratic nation should go to war only as a last resort and then only with overwhelming force. We have nothing to apologize about. Hamas is murdering Palestinians that they use as human shields. Hamas places both the UN and the Press in danger, using their offices. It's how they use PR, it how they use newspapers and TV. For every civilian death, Hamas blames Israel while the world forgets that we left Gaza and have been the victims of daily terror rocket attacks. If Hamas terrorists in Mexico and Canada started to fire rockets and missiles at US cities, how would the US respond, how would any nation respond in defending their citizens?"
The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Internet Marketing SEO Group - Israel, London, New York.
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קבוצת התמיכה הגדולה ביותר בישראל באינטרנט פועלת בפייסבוק ומפיצה את העמדה הישראלית בעולם
המלחמה ברשת:
קבוצת התמיכה הגדולה ביותר בישראל באינטרנט
פועלת בפייסבוק ומפיצה את העמדה הישראלית בעולם
עם תחילת תקיפות חיל האוויר בעזה, החלה המלחמה בטרור החמאס מעזה גם באינטרנט ונמשכת מאז גם במהלך התקיפה הקרקעית.
השקת קבוצת התמיכה הפרו-ישראלית הגדולה ביותר באינטרנט התבצעה שעתיים בלבד לאחר תחילת האש.
יותר מ- 80,000 משתתפים פעילים מכל העולם, ביניהם גם ערבים ואירנים. מותר ויכוחים, אסור קללות ואיומים
עם תחילת תקיפות חיל האוויר בעזה, החלה המלחמה בטרור החמאס מעזה גם באינטרנט ונמשכת מאז גם במהלך התקיפה הקרקעית.
השקת קבוצת התמיכה הפרו-ישראלית הגדולה ביותר באינטרנט התבצעה שעתיים בלבד לאחר תחילת האש.
הקבוצה הנקראת I Support The Israel Defense Forces in Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza ("אני תומך בצה"ל במניעת תקיפות טרור מעזה"), הוקמה בפייסבוק (Facebook), והיא מונה כיום יותר מ- 80,000 חברים פעילים מרחבי העולם, כולל ערבים ואירנים.
ראשי הפורום בפייסבוק עובדים עם משרד החוץ וצה"ל באופן שוטף על הפצת המסרים שלהם בזמן אמת.
ג'ואל ליידן הישראלי יליד ארה"ב, חלוץ ומומחה לשיווק אינטרנט, SEO (אופטימיזציית מנועי חיפוש) ויחסי ציבור באינטרנט, ואיש דובר צה"ל בעבר, שהקים את הקבוצה הפעילה שעתיים בלבד אחרי תחילת תקיפות חיל האוויר בעזה, אומר: "האינטרנט הפך למדיום החשוב והחזק ביותר כדי להגיע להמונים ברחבי העולם. לכל אחד יש אינטרנט בבית ובמשרד, וכל אחד יכול לגשת לחדשות בזמן אמת, 24 שעות ביממה 7 ימים בשבוע".
ליידן, נשיא Leyden Communications Group ו- London SEO Marketing Ltd., עם משרדי שיווק אינטרנט ויחסי ציבור בינלאומיים בתל-אביב, לונדון וניו יורק, מוסיף: "פייסבוק הנו כלי התקשורת מס' 1 בין אנשים באינטרנט כיום. זהו יישום ידידותי שקל לתקשר איתו ובאמצעותו".
ליידן, שהיה שותף ב- 1995 להקמת נטקינג – אתר האינטרנט המסחרי הראשון בישראל, והקים את Israel Agency News – שירות החדשות המקוון הראשון מישראל, מאמין כי הסיבות לפעילות המסיבית בקבוצת פייסבוק הישראלית והויכוחים המתמשכים המתנהלים בה בין תומכי ישראל ומתנגדיה, נובעות מכך שמנהלי הדיונים הישראלים, יהודים ונוצרים בקבוצה, מאפשרים קיום תחומים פתוחים ודמוקרטיים תוך שמירה על חופש הדיבור, בעוד אינם מאפשרים הערות גזעניות, תקיפות אישיות ואיומים.
קבוצת הפייסבוק, הנהני ת ממיקום גבוה במנועי חיפוש, הפכה לקול עבור יהודים וישראלים ברחבי העולם. יהודי התפוצות, שקודם לכן נתקלו בקשיים כשרצו להשמיע את קולם במדיה.
משתמשים עתה בקבוצה כדי להישמע ולהשמיע. ישראלים מנהלים עתה בדיונים עם ערבים מתונים. יהודים, ערבים ונוצרים גורמים לכך שתכני הפורומים הנם גם מגוונים וגם חינוכיים.
פעילותו של ליידן והקמת הקבוצה המצליחה בפייסבוק, משכו את תשומת לב כלי התקשורת העולמיים, כמו Time Magazine ו- FOX News, להם אמר ליידן כי לא ציפה למספר הגדול של ערבים שהצטרפו. "תחילה הם הגיעו לקבוצה כדי לתקוף אותנו עם קללות, אך מאחר שציינו בערבית באתר כי מלחמה זו הנה נגד החמאס ולא נגד כל הפלשתינאים, איומי המוות והתקיפות האישיות ירדו ב- 80 אחוז", אמר ליידן.
Online MediaPost ציטט את ליידן: "חציית גבולות בינלאומיים בעולם בו האינטרנט הפך לכלי כדי להגיע לאנשים, דורשת ממשווקים מקצועיים ומומחי יחסי ציבור להישאר רגישים לתרבויות אחרות ולדרך בה אנשים מגיבים לקמפיינים פוליטיים שונים".
לעיתון הברזילאי Correio Braziliense אמר ליידן: "אני מאמין כי המדיה המערבית רואה בסופו של דבר את האמת כאן. ישראל רוצה שלום. עזבנו את עזה לפני 3 שנים, אך החמאס ממשיך לתקוף אותנו, כאשר הם הכריזו מלחמת קודש לא רק נגד ישראל אלא גם כל יהודי ונוצרי, מאחר שהם רואים בנו כופרים.
טרוריסטים מוסלמים לא אוהבים את המדיה המערבית, אך משתמשים בה כנשק להרס דמוקרטיה וחירות. ברגע שהם משתמשים במדיה המערבית עבור מטרותיהם, הם מזלזלים בה ואפילו רוצחים עיתונאים כמו דניאל פרל, כתב הוול סטריט ז'ורנל".
הפעילות כולה בהתנדבות
למשרד החוץ ולצה"ל אין כוח אדם או כסף כדי לעשות עבודה זאת לבדם. הקבוצה הישראלית בפייסבוק מאוישת במלואה ע"י מתנדבים, תוך היענות לדרישה למאמץ של 24/7.
אף אחד ממנהלי הקבוצה אינו מקבל תשלום, בעוד הם משקיעם את השעות הדרושות כדי להבטיח שהקבוצה תישאר פתוחה ופעילה.
"פייסבוק מדורג כאתר האינטרנט החמישי בגודלו בעולם", אומר ליידן. "החשיפה שלו גדולה יותר מאשר של כל מדיום תקשורת אחר בעולם כיום". הוא מציין כי זו המלחמה הראשונה בה אנשים יכולים לשלוח חדשות בזמן אמת אחד לאחר, בלי צורך במדיה מודפסת או משודרת.
ליידן מאמין כי האתר לא רק ייצור יותר תמיכה בחיילי צה"ל, אלא בנוסף יספק סביבה עבור יהודים, נוצרים ומוסלמים לתקשורת באווירה בריאה ופרודוקטיבית.
קבוצת התמיכה הגדולה ביותר בישראל באינטרנט
פועלת בפייסבוק ומפיצה את העמדה הישראלית בעולם
עם תחילת תקיפות חיל האוויר בעזה, החלה המלחמה בטרור החמאס מעזה גם באינטרנט ונמשכת מאז גם במהלך התקיפה הקרקעית.
השקת קבוצת התמיכה הפרו-ישראלית הגדולה ביותר באינטרנט התבצעה שעתיים בלבד לאחר תחילת האש.
יותר מ- 80,000 משתתפים פעילים מכל העולם, ביניהם גם ערבים ואירנים. מותר ויכוחים, אסור קללות ואיומים
עם תחילת תקיפות חיל האוויר בעזה, החלה המלחמה בטרור החמאס מעזה גם באינטרנט ונמשכת מאז גם במהלך התקיפה הקרקעית.
השקת קבוצת התמיכה הפרו-ישראלית הגדולה ביותר באינטרנט התבצעה שעתיים בלבד לאחר תחילת האש.
הקבוצה הנקראת I Support The Israel Defense Forces in Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza ("אני תומך בצה"ל במניעת תקיפות טרור מעזה"), הוקמה בפייסבוק (Facebook), והיא מונה כיום יותר מ- 80,000 חברים פעילים מרחבי העולם, כולל ערבים ואירנים.
ראשי הפורום בפייסבוק עובדים עם משרד החוץ וצה"ל באופן שוטף על הפצת המסרים שלהם בזמן אמת.
ג'ואל ליידן הישראלי יליד ארה"ב, חלוץ ומומחה לשיווק אינטרנט, SEO (אופטימיזציית מנועי חיפוש) ויחסי ציבור באינטרנט, ואיש דובר צה"ל בעבר, שהקים את הקבוצה הפעילה שעתיים בלבד אחרי תחילת תקיפות חיל האוויר בעזה, אומר: "האינטרנט הפך למדיום החשוב והחזק ביותר כדי להגיע להמונים ברחבי העולם. לכל אחד יש אינטרנט בבית ובמשרד, וכל אחד יכול לגשת לחדשות בזמן אמת, 24 שעות ביממה 7 ימים בשבוע".
ליידן, נשיא Leyden Communications Group ו- London SEO Marketing Ltd., עם משרדי שיווק אינטרנט ויחסי ציבור בינלאומיים בתל-אביב, לונדון וניו יורק, מוסיף: "פייסבוק הנו כלי התקשורת מס' 1 בין אנשים באינטרנט כיום. זהו יישום ידידותי שקל לתקשר איתו ובאמצעותו".
ליידן, שהיה שותף ב- 1995 להקמת נטקינג – אתר האינטרנט המסחרי הראשון בישראל, והקים את Israel Agency News – שירות החדשות המקוון הראשון מישראל, מאמין כי הסיבות לפעילות המסיבית בקבוצת פייסבוק הישראלית והויכוחים המתמשכים המתנהלים בה בין תומכי ישראל ומתנגדיה, נובעות מכך שמנהלי הדיונים הישראלים, יהודים ונוצרים בקבוצה, מאפשרים קיום תחומים פתוחים ודמוקרטיים תוך שמירה על חופש הדיבור, בעוד אינם מאפשרים הערות גזעניות, תקיפות אישיות ואיומים.
קבוצת הפייסבוק, הנהני ת ממיקום גבוה במנועי חיפוש, הפכה לקול עבור יהודים וישראלים ברחבי העולם. יהודי התפוצות, שקודם לכן נתקלו בקשיים כשרצו להשמיע את קולם במדיה.
משתמשים עתה בקבוצה כדי להישמע ולהשמיע. ישראלים מנהלים עתה בדיונים עם ערבים מתונים. יהודים, ערבים ונוצרים גורמים לכך שתכני הפורומים הנם גם מגוונים וגם חינוכיים.
פעילותו של ליידן והקמת הקבוצה המצליחה בפייסבוק, משכו את תשומת לב כלי התקשורת העולמיים, כמו Time Magazine ו- FOX News, להם אמר ליידן כי לא ציפה למספר הגדול של ערבים שהצטרפו. "תחילה הם הגיעו לקבוצה כדי לתקוף אותנו עם קללות, אך מאחר שציינו בערבית באתר כי מלחמה זו הנה נגד החמאס ולא נגד כל הפלשתינאים, איומי המוות והתקיפות האישיות ירדו ב- 80 אחוז", אמר ליידן.
Online MediaPost ציטט את ליידן: "חציית גבולות בינלאומיים בעולם בו האינטרנט הפך לכלי כדי להגיע לאנשים, דורשת ממשווקים מקצועיים ומומחי יחסי ציבור להישאר רגישים לתרבויות אחרות ולדרך בה אנשים מגיבים לקמפיינים פוליטיים שונים".
לעיתון הברזילאי Correio Braziliense אמר ליידן: "אני מאמין כי המדיה המערבית רואה בסופו של דבר את האמת כאן. ישראל רוצה שלום. עזבנו את עזה לפני 3 שנים, אך החמאס ממשיך לתקוף אותנו, כאשר הם הכריזו מלחמת קודש לא רק נגד ישראל אלא גם כל יהודי ונוצרי, מאחר שהם רואים בנו כופרים.
טרוריסטים מוסלמים לא אוהבים את המדיה המערבית, אך משתמשים בה כנשק להרס דמוקרטיה וחירות. ברגע שהם משתמשים במדיה המערבית עבור מטרותיהם, הם מזלזלים בה ואפילו רוצחים עיתונאים כמו דניאל פרל, כתב הוול סטריט ז'ורנל".
הפעילות כולה בהתנדבות
למשרד החוץ ולצה"ל אין כוח אדם או כסף כדי לעשות עבודה זאת לבדם. הקבוצה הישראלית בפייסבוק מאוישת במלואה ע"י מתנדבים, תוך היענות לדרישה למאמץ של 24/7.
אף אחד ממנהלי הקבוצה אינו מקבל תשלום, בעוד הם משקיעם את השעות הדרושות כדי להבטיח שהקבוצה תישאר פתוחה ופעילה.
"פייסבוק מדורג כאתר האינטרנט החמישי בגודלו בעולם", אומר ליידן. "החשיפה שלו גדולה יותר מאשר של כל מדיום תקשורת אחר בעולם כיום". הוא מציין כי זו המלחמה הראשונה בה אנשים יכולים לשלוח חדשות בזמן אמת אחד לאחר, בלי צורך במדיה מודפסת או משודרת.
ליידן מאמין כי האתר לא רק ייצור יותר תמיכה בחיילי צה"ל, אלא בנוסף יספק סביבה עבור יהודים, נוצרים ומוסלמים לתקשורת באווירה בריאה ופרודוקטיבית.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Facebook Users Go to War Over Israel And Gaza
Turkish demonstrators chant Islamic slogans as they set fire to an Israeli flag outside of the Beyazit mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009
Murad Sezer / AP
Social-networking websites may have started out as online cliques where friends could swap opinions on music, pop culture and other bits of innocuous personal trivia. But as the conflict in Gaza has unfolded, it's becoming evident that sites such as Facebook are increasingly being used to express political views, adding an acrimonious, even menacing, undertone to what were once lighthearted online forums.
While Hamas rockets pummel southern Israel and Israeli bombs decimate Gaza, a parallel war is being fought in virtual communities. On Dec. 27, two hours after Israel began its military operation, Joel Leyden created a Facebook group called "I Support the Israel Defense Forces in Preventing Terror Attacks from Gaza."
Leyden, an American who served with the Israel military, says he has since received dozens of death threats via his Facebook inbox. "People were not just saying 'I hope you die!' but also asking 'How do you want to die?' " says Leyden, who uses Facebook to alert people about potential attacks on synagogues.
Meanwhile, Hamzeh Abu-Abed, who created a Facebook group titled "Let's collect 500,000 signatures to support the Palestinians in Gaza," says he has received similar hate mail. "They said I am a terrorist who should die," says Abu-Abed, an accountant from Jordan. "We have been harassed by Zionists who hacked our group and called themselves the Jewish Internet Defense Force." (See pictures of chaos in the Middle East.)
Of course, Internet users have complained for years that the anonymity of electronic communication breeds incivility. But some say the Gaza conflict is a lightning rod for particularly vitriolic exchanges. An example from one group forum on Facebook: "Israel = killers" wrote one contributor. That drew a response from another user: "Maybe I'll wrap a towel around my head and beat my wife for peace in the name of Allah." Rahel Aima, an undergraduate student at Columbia University who frequents several social-networking sites, says she has been "shocked by some of the hyper-distilled hatred and racism that I've seen in the past few days. I've only really seen such a flurry of polarizing sentiments with this current Gaza situation."
The online debate merely reflects real-world hostility and passion. The Gaza conflict has sparked heated and sometimes violent demonstrations around the world. But for site operators, the war of words is raising fresh questions about free speech and censorship online. Facebook, which has 150 million active users, does not remove members or groups that speak out against countries, political entities, or ideas.
"Our goal is to strike a very delicate balance between giving Facebook users the freedom to express their opinions and beliefs, while also ensuring that individuals and groups of people do not feel threatened or endangered," says Facebook spokeswoman Elizabeth Linder. "We've taken action on groups promoting both sides of the current conflict, but do not typically provide details on such instances."
Rita King, who studies online communities as a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, says the heightened level of hostility since Israel began its military operation is troubling. "Learning how to navigate this potentially dangerous new twist in human interaction is complicated, particularly with regard to issues of security," King says. According to Lea Bishop Shaver, a lecturer at Yale Law School, threatening to kill someone through an online forum "can land you in jail for assault, even if you never touch the person." But she added that making empty threats over the Internet rarely results in prosecution. "To trigger criminal prosecution, the threat has to be a serious one," Shaver says.
In fact, because online forum participants rarely know each other and often live on different continents, threats are rarely serious. Partly for that reason, King maintains online exchanges — even ugly ones — facilitate communication and understanding. "The Internet removes the threat of physical harm and thus offers an unprecedented opportunity for the development of new ideas for conflict mediation," says King.
Certainly governments see value in talking directly to the public through online communities. On Dec. 30, The Israeli consulate in New York hosted a press conference on Twitter, a social-messaging service, to respond to questions from the public about Gaza. For Facebook and other social networks, "the struggle ... is to find ways to create an environment that encourages truly meaningful dialogue," says Amy Bruckman, an Associate Professor at the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. Until that happens, there will likely be no ceasefire in the virtual world.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Britain's England Muslims should condemn Hamas, not Israel
Britain's England Muslims Should Condemn Hamas, Not Israel
The Arab-Israeli conflict is a matter to which many great minds have frequently turned their attention, though such scrutiny is not always a good thing.
As increasing numbers of commentators, politicians, activists and journalists speculate on the way forward, simple and indisputable facts are often surrendered to the worst kinds of moral relativism. The last few weeks alone have been testament to this. Just consider how Israel has been likened to Nazism, and the Gazans to refugees living in the Warsaw ghetto.
This should not however invert what is indisputable – that Israel is responding to a barrage of Hamas rockets which threaten its citizens who live in the south. Indeed, around 10 per cent of the Israeli population now lives within striking distance of katyusha rockets.
All this follows the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements in Gaza in 2005, after which Hamas swept to power and turned "the Strip" into its own paramilitary playground, using it as a springboard to launch a campaign of sustained and indiscriminate attacks into southern Israel.
I am a Muslim and spent a large part of my childhood in Saudi Arabia – something which, in the eyes of many Muslims, means I should automatically defend the "Palestinian struggle". This is absurd and such support invariably means overlooking the vicious crimes being perpetrated by Hamas – against the Jews and, increasingly, its own population too.
Since the start of the conflict Hamas has carried out extra-judicial killings of – or, put bluntly, murdered – more than 30 of its citizens who it suspects of "colluding" with Israel.
And how has it responded to the death of Palestinian children? In a televised broadcast the Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, declared that Israel has "legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine. They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."
British Islamists have proved themselves only too willing to oblige. Reports this week suggest that some participants on Islamist chat forums have been drawing up "hit lists" of prominent British Jews.
One contributor writing on the discussion board of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) said, "lets hope that an unfortunate event happens and they end up being killed someway [sic]". The group later removed those comments, but such views are indicative of the hatred that is out there.
Hamas will now pay a heavy price for its bloodlust and innocent civilians will tragically die as a result. Of course, it is in their name that those who have staged loud and noisy demonstrations in recent weeks claim to be acting. But what message are they sending exactly?
Demonstrators outside the Israeli embassy in London have fought with police and tried to storm the building on at least three separate occasions. Meanwhile banners have been waved in Trafalgar Square which boast, "We are Hamas".
Such vociferous support from the streets of London will have come as great relief to Hamas leaders at a time when even Arab governments such as Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have blamed them for this latest outbreak of violence.
These self-righteous "friends of Palestine" obsess about Israel and the Jews, but turn a Nelsonian blind eye to everything Hamas does.
They undermine those who want to see an enduring peace in the region and, worse still, they bolster and galvanise Hamas by creating the moral imperatives for its terrorism.
Muslim leaders in Britain have so far – but cannot any longer – allow this to continue unabated. Those who claim to support and empathise with the Palestinians must recognise that it is the terrorists of Hamas who have so disastrously betrayed their own people.
At its core, this is the straightforward decision that British Muslims will have to make: between Hamas, a terrorist group committed to destroying a sovereign state and its people – and Israel, the region's only democracy which is responding to that threat.
It really is that simple.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Israel Gaza Conflict Moves to Virtual World
Israel Gaza Conflict Moves to Virtual World
Friday, January 09, 2009
A shadow war between pro-Israel and pro-Hamas forces is taking place on the Internet — and it is getting fierce.
If you're one of millions of Americans who use social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter or participate in virtual worlds like "Second Life," don't be surprised if you get sucked into a war thousands of miles away in Gaza.
Support groups have sprouted up on Facebook, drawing in thousands of members on both sides of the conflict. Protests erupted in "Second Life"'s virtual Israel, where demonstrators showed up to voice support for Hamas and the Palestinians.
People are using Twitter updates to tell the world what they're witnessing on the ground or how they feel about the news. And videos of the carnage in Gaza have been posted on YouTube, including some from the Israeli government.
On Facebook, the pro-Hamas group "Stop Genocide in Palestine" has more than 117,500 members. On the other side, "I Support the Israel Defense Forces in Preventing Terror Attacks from Gaza" has more than 65,000 members.
Some Facebook users have changed their profile pictures to Israeli or Palestinian flags, bloody images of war or other partisan graphics to get their messages across.
Facebook users can use applications to set messages in their status bars expressing affiliation with one side or the other. An application called "Qassam Count" enables users to voice their support for Israel by automatically updating their status bar when rockets are fired from Gaza into the Jewish state.
Joel Leyden, an American working in Israel, said he founded the "Support the Israel Defense Forces in Preventing Terror Attacks from Gaza" group to give members a place to voice their opinions and grievances about the conflict.
"Facebook, as we all know, was created by a university student for university students, and it's turned into the number one watering hole for the international community," Leyden said. "That can't be better illustrated than how it's being used today with the war here that we have with Hamas."
Thousands of messages have been posted to the group. Moderators watch over the conversation in Israel, Europe and North America.
Leyden said he's received dozens of death threats since he started the group.
"I've served in [the Israeli army] in combat and in the spokesperson's office and with the border police," he said. "I've never felt more in a dangerous environment than I do here. Everyone is trying to make as much noise as they can to break through."
Messages like "death to the Jews" and "we can't wait to murder you" have been posted to the group, he said, but since positing pro-peace messages to the site in Arabic, Leyden said things have toned down considerably.
None of the pro-Palestinian groups on Facebook responded to a request for comment.
The operators of Facebook, meanwhile, are taking pains to ensure that the online war doesn't get out of hand.
Facebook takes its "Terms of Use" policy seriously and removes groups that violate that policy from the Web site, spokeswoman Elizabeth Linder told FOXNews.com in an e-mail.
"We are sensitive to and subsequently take down Groups that threaten violence towards people. We also remove groups that express hatred towards individuals and groups that are sponsored by recognized terrorist organizations," Linder wrote.
Facebook on Thursday removed a Web site called "Hitler Took the Right Decision With Jewish People," saying the group violated its policies.
"We want Facebook to be a place where people can openly discuss issues and express their views," Linder wrote. "As such, we do not aim to control the discourse on Facebook.
"Rather, we take swift action to remove content that violates our policies. Our goal is to strike a very delicate balance between giving Facebook users the freedom to express their opinions and beliefs, while also ensuring that individuals and groups of people do not feel threatened or endangered."
In the virtual world "Second Life," SL Israel saw protests from virtual pro-Palestinian activists when the violence in Gaza flared up.
"Lots of people yelling," the founder of SL Israel, who goes by Beth Odets in the game, told Second Life blogger Wagner James Au. "They were going on and on with slurring obscenities about murderous Israeli forces, etc."
Odets began ejecting the most offensive protesters from the area, she told Au.
"I had to be careful not to boot people who didn't actually do anything wrong," she said.
She temporarily had to close SL Israel to outsiders to quell the protests, but protesters kept coming. Eventually, however, people came who wanted to talk.
Twitter user Ahuvah Berger, who lives in Israel, said she has been using the network to update her contacts about terrorism for years.
"I believe it is very important to help get our side of the story using a medium in which I already have a large audience who 'know' me," she wrote in an e-mail to FOXNews.com.
"As we know Israel is not good at PR, and as the perceived aggressor it needs to show the world why it does and continues to do what it feels necessary to protect its citizens," she wrote.
"I have encountered a lot of nasty Twitter users who believe in their own propaganda and when confronted with facts, not only facts emerging from Israel, they resort to calling me a Nazi and a perpetrator of a Palestinian holocaust."
Ron Kutas of Stand With Us, a pro-Israel group, said taking the war onto the Internet has its problems.
"It's opening up the door to anybody who wants to say anything," Kutas said. "It's very hard for people to distinguish between emotional commentary about the conflict and factual journalism about the conflict ... you have an open forum and people who are not educated about the conflict are being told misinformation all the time."
Kutas said he uses Qassam Count to spark discussion with friends who oppose Israel's actions in Gaza.
"People who I'm friends with who have opinions that are not the same as mine, we have dialogues about real issues and real facts. When that happens it's a great thing," he said.
Asked if any of his friends had chosen not to associate with him on Facebook because of his pro-Israel activism, Kutas replied, "I don't know of anything of that sort, but I should look into that."
Israel PR Reaches Gaza Arabs Through Facebook, YouTube
Israel PR Reaches Gaza Arabs Through Facebook, YouTube
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem --- January 9, 2009...... As in every war, the battle for hearts and minds is a critical one. Public opinion has a direct effect with lives on the ground. In the current defensive war in which Israel has been forced to defend herself from Hamas terrorists, rather than focusing on conventional print and broadcast media, both official and non official Israel spokespeople are using Web 2.0 social networking applications such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Hamas has been attacking Israel almost on a daily basis with a barrage of Qassam and Grad missiles which have struck civilian targets, murdering civilians in Sderot, Beer Sheva, Ashdod and Ashkelon, Israel. Unprovoked terror attacks as Israel left Gaza in a unilateral peace move three years ago.
Hamas states that they want their land back. But the issue is and was never land with Hamas. Hamas is an extremist religious Islamic organization which believes that if you are an "Infidel" a Jew or Christian, you are to be murdered or "slayed." Hamas, which is funded and backed by Iran and defined as a terror organization by the US, has declared that they are not interested in a peace agreement with Israel, but rather total destruction of the Jewish, democratic state.
The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the first ever citizens news conference on the Internet this week using Twitter, a real time application which notifies people where you are and what you are doing. David Saranga of the Israel Consulate in New York coordinated the creative effort with Amir Gissin in Toronto and Noam Katz in Jerusalem. The Israel Defense Forces have created their own channel on YouTube, where they have been able to provide video content illustrating the realities of what the IDF is facing.
Both the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the IDF suffer from a lack of professional manpower and budget. But by using the Internet, they have been able to reach people from London, New York and Tokyo to Toronto, Cairo and Tokyo in offices and their homes.
The third area of social networking to be addressed is Facebook. Facebook provides an interactive experience whereby surfers can view videos, photos and various Internet links. But of greatest importance, Facebook enables the world community to chat with one another in thousands of community and issue based forums. This is called "stickiness" or "glue" by Internet marketing experts - the rest of the world knows it as social networking on the new media.
The Israel News Agency in cooperation with IsraelPr.com was quick to get into action in getting Israel's PR message out. Within two hours of the first defensive air strikes in Gaza against the terror organization Hamas, these Israel PR and Internet marketing, SEO professionals created the Facebook group: I Support the Israel Defense Forces In Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza.
What started out as a simple support group for Israel has now grown to become the largest pro Israel forum on the Net with over 66,000 members.
The Facebook groups states as its goal: "Responding to unprovoked terror rocket attacks from Hamas terrorists in Gaza against Israel civilian populations, the Israel Defense Forces has launched a massive counter attack. This Facebook forum supports the brave men and women in the Israel Defense Forces who by air, water and ground protect Israel's democracy and sovereign borders."
The missions of the Facebook group are to to act as a support group for Jews, Christians and Israelis, to disseminate honest and objective information and to create dialogue, tolerance and peaceful bridges between Israelis and moderate Arabs.
Israel Pr professionals see Facebook as the most powerful weapon in their arsenal. Facebook is ranked as the fifth largest Website with over 160 million users. It is the watering hole of the Internet. Once perceived as a forum for college and university students, Facebook is now used by multi national companies and governments. The I Support the Israel Defense Forces In Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza forum practices free speech and illustrates democracy in Israel by doing such. But the Facebook group does have red lines. Anyone making racist remarks, personal attacks or death threats gets banned and reported to both Facebook and their local authorities.
Problem is that there are more Arabs than there are Jews on the Internet, on YouTube and on Facebook. As such they can make more noise than the Jews and create bias in both the media and various governments who cater to them for oil. So journalists need to be more objective and see through that Islamic noise. They need to check out facts and take quality over quantity. Most are doing this today. And Facebook gives them an edge.
Proportionality raises a challenge. Six hundred Palestinians dead versus nine Israelis. There's just no way to make that proportion look pretty. It appears like a David and Goliath - but this time Israel appears to be the Goliath. And Israel has no choice. To win a war one must adhere to the Powell Doctrine. The "Powell doctrine" holds that the no nation should only go to war as a last resort and then only with overwhelming force.
Lastly, Hamas, whose members hide behind the skirts of women and the children they use as human shields, know full well it is impossible for Israel to strike the terror chiefs without inflicting civilian casualties. Civilian casualties which, it has to be said, have provoked a heart-searching in Israel not reciprocated in Arab nations when it comes to Israeli children.
So, given that the IDF has declared Gaza a military zone and is preventing the media from taking war death photos that sensationalize their newspapers and increase sales at the expense of who is right and wrong, Israel must explain the situation in Gaza as clearly and as loudly as it can.
The question the foreign media really wants answered is invariably not "who's in the right?" but "how will this round of fighting improve the overall situation?"
And on that point, Israel never has had a convincing argument. Given the country's long history of engaging in wars that kill many more of its enemies than its own citizens but only buy a few months or years of calm, it's a tough call to explain how this latest escapade will change the strategic balance, bring peace and prevent the need for another such bloodbath further down the line. That Israel repeats in mantra form - Israel wants peace - is not enough.
The mistake that many have made on Facebook is arrogantly communicating in one language and expecting everyone to follow it. Those who act as administrators on I Support the Israel Defense Forces In Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza have had to fend off a barrage of personal death threats and spam coming from a variety of Arabs states including in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Iran.
The pro Israel and pro IDF group states that it attributes much of its success to one feature of Facebook. The Wall, an interactive discussion group. But that Facebook Wall has basically contained only one language - English. So when many Arabs come into this Facebook group, they see characters that they cannot read. Because of limited English language skills, all they are able to do is swear a few words in English and then find themselves banned. What the administrators in I Support the Israel Defense Forces In Preventing Terror Attacks From Gaza have done is introduced a few lines of Arabic for them saying that Israel wants peace for both Israel and the Palestinians and that our war is with Hamas - not them.
Since these few lines of Arabic have been injected into this Facebook group, personal attacks and spam is down by 80 percent. Most Arabs despise Hamas more than they hate Israel. Hamas brainwashes Palestinian children to believe that Israel and the Jews hate all Arabs. Many Palestinians and Arabs have never heard anything directly from Israelis. Perhaps one of the few places where Palestinians meet Israelis are at Israel security checkpoints, not one of the warmest places to sit down and have a chat.
So from practical experience, we here at the Israel News Agency are strongly suggesting that if you want to get across effective messaging - use a native Arab speaker or Google Translate.
Yes, Israel wants peace. But to say that in Arabic is to reach your target market. And that Arab market will then do the PR and messaging for Israel and other democratic nations in a more effective and powerful manner.
Everyone wants peace.
It's just a matter of communicating those words in languages that people understand.
Joel Leyden, a native of New York who has lived in Israel for over 20 years, has served in the IDF, has practiced international public relations, public affairs, crisis communications, journalism and Internet marketing for 30 years.
Leyden who co-created Israel's first commercial Website, Israel's first on-line news organization and provides Internet marketing SEO services with offices in Tel Aviv, London and New York, is the publisher of the Israel News Agency.
The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Internet Marketing SEO Group - Israel, London, New York.
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