Forget tanks; can Twitter win today’s Mideast war?

To hear some Israeli officials and well-plugged in consultants tell it, Twitter could be the the new T-72 tank of the Middle East conflict. With violence in abeyance, Israel’s government and much of the wider society believes its enemies, notably Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, are promoting efforts to undermine its legitimacy in the eyes of Western voters, with a view to bringing about the destruction of the Jewish state that Arab adversaries have failed to achieve on the battlefield over the past 60-odd years. That has prompted intense debate about ‘hasbara’ – literally ‘explaining’ in Hebrew, but mostly used in the sense of propaganda or public diplomacy – in Israeli society and the media. One ad-man turned diplomat, David Admon, called for a “Ministry of Hasbara” in Haaretz this week. It would better coordinate efforts to improve Israel’s image, he argued. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the UN’s Goldstone Report, or at least the “Goldstone effect” (whereby threat of war crimes suits might hobble Israel’s military superiority), one of the biggest threat’s to Israel’s survival, alongside Iran’s nuclear programme and Hamas and Hezbollah rockets. To counter that, the government is looking to improve its public diplomacy. However, some innovative speakers at Israel’s keynote annual national security seminar, the Herzliya Conference, have argued that Israelis’ best propaganda may be themselves, and the many thousands if not millions who have joined a worldwide web citizenry and can promote their views on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Oh, and you can follow the Herzliya Conference, from where I filed this story from the frontline of the propaganda war today, on Facebook and Twitter. Not to mention YouTube… Here is one of conference hosts, Noam Lemelstrich Latar of the School of Communications at IDC Herzliya, explaining a vision of the power of social networking to carry Israel’s message abroad: “We have to identify all the social networks that can help us, and we have to learn how to use them.”

PICTURE: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

from Global News Journal:

Berlusconi charms Israel with EU talk

Berlusconi and Netanyahu shake hands during a meeting in Italy last year

Silvio Berlusconi is seldom shy about making headlines, and he's also known to turn on the charm when he meets foreign leaders.

So it was hardly surprising the Italian prime minister kicked off a three-day visit to Israel on Monday by declaring his hope that Israel might one day become a member of the European Union.

"My greatest dream, a

from FaithWorld:

Out of the spotlight, Israel and Vatican negotiate holy sites

Vatican flags raised outside Jerusalem's Old City before Pope Benedict's visit, 6 May 2009/Baz Rattner

There have been a series of significant and highly publicised events recently in Vatican-Jewish relations.

Pope Benedict put his predecessor Pius XII along the road to Roman Catholic sainthood last month, angering many Jews who accused the wartime pope of turning a blind eye to the Nazi Holocaust.  Benedict defended the move this week during his first visit to Rome's synagogue, which prompted Israel to ask the pope to open up the Vatican archives covering Pius' reign between 1939-1958.

But behind the scenes, out of the spotlight, the Catholic church and Jewish state have restarted efforts to put to rest a property dispute in the Holy Land that goes back much further than World War Two or Israel's founding in 1948. Churches acquired large amounts of land around Jerusalem as the Ottoman empire went into decline from the early 19th century. Today, many official Israeli buildings sit on leased church land. But agreement on the legal status of these properties has evaded governments and popes for decades.

“Big Brother” bumbles into West Bank

It’s a reality television show whose contestants are isolated from the outside world, but “Big Brother” in Israel has managed to set off yet another controversy over Palestine policies.

Cameras at the studio-cum-commune outside Jerusalem caught Edna Canetti, a 54-year-old liberal activist, telling fellow residents over the weekend she wanted to see a peaceful popular campaign against Israel’s West Bank occupation.

“It bothers me that you’re silent. What’s needed is a revolt,” she declared after refusing to play along with a challenge in which contestants were divided into two groups — “rich” versus “poor” — with a plexiglass barrier between them.

Shifting to Middle East politics, Canetti said Palestinians should similarly tell Israel: “Shove your laws … We’re not going through that checkpoint and we’re not showing you IDs … This is our land.”

Photo highlights from the Holy Land

This image shot by Gaza-based Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem of a martial arts class is among the latest “Photo highlights from the Holy land”

Click below to view a multimedia presentation by Jerusalem-based Senior Photo Editor Sharon Perry showcasing some of the best Reuters images from Israel and the Palestinian Territories in November 2009.

Frayed cloak, rusty dagger?

Seems someone on the Mossad’s hit-list just won a reprieve.

A botched assassination exercise by Israel’s overseas intelligence service on Monday has thrown a rare spotlight on its secret tactics, as well as raising questions about professionalism.

According to witnesses, a black-clad man in his 20’s attached a magnetic replica bomb to the door of a car parked in Tel Aviv’s tony port district, and tried to slip away. He was spotted by two diners at a nearby restaurant who, thinking him a terrorist or mob contract-killer, alerted police.

Confronted by the cops, the suspect revealed that he was on a Mossad drill. The story surfaced on Tuesday evening, after government censors dropped a gag order.

Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Jews take on Intel

In recent months, ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem have taken to the streets in protest over businesses operating on Saturday – the Jewish Sabbath when ritual law bans Jews from working.  At times, the demonstrations have even turned violent, like a conflagration in July over a parking lot near the Old City. Most of the ultra-Orthodox ire has been directed at the Jerusalem municipality.

Until now.

Last week, the Shabbat Strife took a surprising turn with some ultra-Orthodox taking aim at the world’s biggest electronic chip maker for keeping their new Jerusalem plant open on the Jewish day of rest. Though the building is located in an industrial park on the outskirts of the city, it is nearby a religious neighborhood that strictly observes the Sabbath laws.

Recycling garbage into art, Gaza style

A group of Gazan women are beating high unemployment, achieving self-empowerment, and raising environmental awareness, all with a rather unconventional resource: garbage.

With funding from USAID, the Organisation for Supporters of Palestinian Environment launched a project that trains and assists 24 women in creating craft items for sale out of household garbage.

The artists display their flower vases made of plastic soda bottles, or wall-hangings made of tree bark, and scrap metal at two or three-day exhibitions, where potential buyers can make their purchase.

O Hamas where art thou?

Hamas has kept a pretty low profile in the West Bank recently–when will that change?

According to recent polls in both Israel and the West Bank, both Israeli and Palestinian populations are looking to see Hamas step up to the plate in negotiations. But that might not be enough to make Hamas willing to resurface in the West Bank just yet.

Two days ago, the Israel Dialogue Institute released a poll saying that over half of the Israeli public wants to see Hamas brought into negotiations if it recognized Israel (See Reuters’ story here).

A Ha’aretz article said, “it turns out that the majority of the public – 57% – supports the view of (Knesset member) Shaul Mofaz of (Israeli centrist party) Kadima, who published a plan earlier this week, in which he called for dialogue with Hamas under certain conditions. Inside Kadima the idea has tremendous support by some 72 percent of the party’s voters.”

ZAKA’s Other Work

Dozens of body bags layed out neatly on the pavement in central Jerusalem is a sight the city has been pleased to be rid of in recent years after a period of regular bombing and shooting attacks that killed scores of city residents in the early part of the decade.

On Tuesday, such scenes were again visible just outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. Thankfully it was just a protest organised by an emergency rescue service to highlight Israel’s traffic accident death rate. The body bags were empty.

The unusual spectacle was organised by ZAKA, known worldwide for it’s expertise in the gathering and identifying human remains after bombing attacks and natural disasters.