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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