Israel steps up social media fight with satire on Gaza under Hamas

[azurnoir]

Less than 24 hours after releasing its own preemptive report into IDF activity during last year's Gaza conflict, Israel is keeping up its public advocacy campaign on social media. The Prime Minister's Facebook and Twitter accounts have uploaded infographics highlighting the key findings in the report, and the Foreign Ministry has even decided to take things one step further, with a satirical piece of animation entitled "Open your eyes to what is happening in Gaza."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4668749,00.html

[oberliner]

1. This is part of a series dating back at least a year

These two characters are in about a half dozen or so of them.

[azurnoir]

2. this is a new one pertinate to the UN investigation of last summers conflict

[oberliner]

4. Yes indeed

Those two characters have appeared in a bunch though.

I'm not sure it's fair to say they are stepping things up (as the Ynet article claims).

[Jefferson23]

3. A new low for the Israeli government. n/t

[oberliner]

5. There are lower ones from last year

Check that whole Youtube page

[azurnoir]

6. well "new" is relative I guess

[Jefferson23]

7. True, my friend..true.

[Scootaloo]

8. You know, we give this country three billion a year.

You'd think the least they could do with it is make propaganda that doesn't look like terrible parody of propaganda.

Or maybe htye should just stick with keeping their Prime Minister well-stocked in ice cream. I'd have no problem with tree billion worth of ice cream.

[Little Tich]

9. There are two kinds of people - those who think the clip is funny, and those who don't.

I don't think the clip is funny.

[azurnoir]

10. and those that will promote as truth even if it isn't

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

11. What a hateful, racist piece of hasbara trash.

When will Israel load the cartoon showing the four Palestinian kids that they blew to pieces on a Gazan beach?

[azurnoir]

12. what can I say ? Hasbara at its finest

[grossproffit]

13. That's how I view BDS. Hateful, racist trash.

The hasbara accusations have become boorish but I blame Israel for being so honest in letting the world know about this program.

Israel is too honest for it's own good.

[azurnoir]

14. The world wouldn't know about BDS if Israel hadn't said anything?

interesting

[grossproffit]

16. About hasbara. I was more than clear in my post

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

17. Israel is its own worst enemy, and its supporters prove that daily.

I truly feel sorry for those that as so willing to let Israel brainwash them with their propagandist horseshit.

Yes, I blame Israel as well but not for being honest.

[grossproffit]

18. That's how I feel about the many brainwashed by Hamas and their propaganda.

The only difference is that I don't feel sorry for them. I feel anger towards them.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

19. I wonder who you are refering to.

I don't see anybody in I/P calling them honest.

[grossproffit]

20. Uh huh.

I was referring the the hasbara program. Is reading comprehension a thing of the past?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

21. Actually, no.

18. That's how I feel about the many brainwashed by Hamas and their propaganda.

The only difference is that I don't feel sorry for them. I feel anger towards them.

So please link to all the DUers that praise Hamas, or was your statement just a blanket one being unverifiable and vague?

[grossproffit]

23. Actually, yes. And my statement stands. They're not 'freedom fighters' to me

They're Islamic terrorists. Period.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

26. Once again, for the record...

18. That's how I feel about the many brainwashed by Hamas and their propaganda.

The only difference is that I don't feel sorry for them. I feel anger towards them.

Can you show me "brainwashed" supporters of hamas on DU, or are you again just being vague?

[shira]

24. The claim wasn't that people praised Hamas, just that they're brainwashed...

....by Hamas propaganda.

For example, what do you think about folks who agreed with Hamas rejecting each and every ceasefire proposal in last year's war?

That wasn't such a bright idea, was it? If Hamas had agreed earlier, many hundreds of lives could have been saved.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

28. Please show me where DUers praise hamas, unequivocally side with hamas or are brainwashed by hamas..

...and criticizing Israel for murdering Palestinians doesn't cut it.


Speaking of not-so-bright ideas...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas/

How Israel helped create Hamas
Israel's military-led administration in Gaza looked favorably on the paraplegic cleric, who set up a wide network of schools, clinics, a library and kindergartens. Sheikh Yassin formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel also endorsed the establishment of the Islamic University of Gaza, which it now regards as a hotbed of militancy. The university was one of the first targets hit by Israeli warplanes in the [2008-9 Operation Cast Lead].

[oberliner]

30. Hamas wasn't killing innocent people then, the PLO was

Makes sense that Israel would support a Palestinian group that was building schools, clinics, libraries, and kindergartens rather than the Palestinian group that hijacked a boat, murdered a Jewish man in a wheelchair, and threw him overboard.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

31. But it turned out to be a pretty fucking stupid move. Yes? No?

[oberliner]

32. I don't think so

They were 100 percent peaceful towards Israel back then so there was no reason not to be supportive. The PLO and Fatah were the main concern as they were engaging in terrorist activities vis-a-vis Israel. Hamas did not mutate into a terrorist organization until later.

[shira]

33. There were people here who justified Hamas' rejection of every ceasefire attempt...

It turns out they were either duped (brainwashed) by propaganda or deliberately supportive of Hamas' cynical war aims & war crimes that resulted in many 100's of unnecessary Palestinian deaths.

There's no sense denying it, as anyone here can google OP's coming from Mondoweiss (for example) that make a case for rejecting every ceasefire proposed by Egypt & Israel, opting to wait & keep fighting it out for better conditions.

As I remember it, every pro-Israel participant here supported the ceasefires. Their opponents wanted more war, more deaths.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

36. Please link to these poster so I can see what they wrote.

[shira]

22. It's hateful to criticize Hamas for being a terror org. ruling Gaza? n/t

[grossproffit]

25. Don't cha mean 'freedom fighters?'

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

27. Oh, you mean like Irgun?

[shira]

35. That's exactly how organizations like Mondoweiss & ElectronicIntifada see it. n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

29. Criticism is one thing. I welsome that, but racist propaganda is something else entirely.

Israel is its own worst enemy, and this base form of racism doesn't help it at all.

[shira]

34. So what's racist about calling out Hamas for being a terror org. that runs Gaza? n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

37. Try reviewing the annimation again if you need help understanding the racism, but I can wager

that moment of clarity will be a hard one for you to find...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=95965

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=95971

[FBaggins]

15. Never pick a fight...

...with people who buy ink by the barrel and paper by the ton

[shira]

38. After Israeli video mocks journalists, reporters prove its premise

At first I thought the latest video by Israel’s foreign ministry — the one that lampoons media coverage of last year’s Gaza war — was unfunny, amateurish, and useless. Needless to say, it wasn’t my cup of satire.

After seeing the overheated reaction by many journalists, though, I must admit to a slight change of heart. It may still be true that the animated clip, which cast foreign reporters as myopic and oblivious to the realities of the region, was ill-conceived. But it turns out that the video, whether by design or not, was actually useful in that it exposed some of the strange beliefs, blind-spots, and self-justifications relied on by prominent journalists, whose angry reactions in fact underscored the truth behind the video’s central premise: that media coverage of Israel deserves criticism.

Note, for example, the response by Robert Mackey, a news columnist at The New York Times. While dismissing the video’s message that coverage of Israel is flawed, Mackey oddly describes Israel’s now-defunct Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs as the “ministry of Hasbara — responsible for what Israel calls public diplomacy and its critics call propaganda.”

I looked back through the news pages and found example after example of New York Times journalists, Mackey included, introducing ministries in straightforward, neutral terms — even when writing about the most repressive governments. So why, when it comes to Israel, is it different? Why the use of the foreign word hasbara, which Israel’s opponents have attempted to usurp as a derisive word, instead of the English name of the ministry, which more than sufficiently describes its function? Why, only when it comes to Israel, are unnamed critics given the opportunity to introduce the country’s ministry responsible for communications and advocacy? (I try to answer those questions in more detail here.)

Is this hostility by Mackey, who sounds less like an objective journalist and more like the anti-Israel extremists he all too frequently turns to, really supposed to convince us that Israel has no legitimate gripe with foreign journalists?

Mackey also suggests that the country’s use of satire means there must be no “actual examples” of problematic media coverage. The clip, he insists, “would seem to raise the question of why, if wildly inaccurate, comically misinformed reports on the conflict from foreign correspondents are so common, Israeli officials cannot simply point to actual examples but instead find it necessary to resort to fiction again and again to illustrate this reality.”

The flaws in this logic should be clear. Satire is an established genre of expression. And the use of satire, however well-executed, hardly indicates a dearth of concrete examples.

And indeed, there is no shortage of examples of bungled coverage. There was Shati and Shifa, where the death and damage from misfired Palestinian rockets were blamed on Israel; the downplaying and ignoring of Hamas rocket attacks; the newspaper that described destruction in Israel as being from “purported” Palestinian rockets; the patently false assertions that Netanyahu failed to quickly condemn the murder of a Palestinian boy; a slew of headlines downplaying Palestinian violence; journalists siding with Hamas and against other journalists; reporters self-censoring incriminating statements; and a funnier-than-fiction claim that a bridge links the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These are just a few of the examples that could have been mentioned in Israel’s video.

Not that specificity really matters. When a former AP correspondent penned three detailed and devastating exposés about anti-Israel bias, the reporters who now grumble about lack of detail in Israel’s satire clip were largely silent. When even The New York Times public editor called on reporters to “strengthen the coverage of Palestinians” because “they are more than just victims,” there was little public soul searching.

In short, there is plenty of specific criticism about media coverage of Israel and of the recent war. By pretending otherwise, Mackey makes Israel’s case — that the media misinforms — better than any video could.

more...
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/after-israeli-video-mocks-journalists-reporters-prove-its-premise/

[oberliner]

39. Israel Foreign Ministry removes video ridiculing foreign press from website

An animated video clip mocking the foreign press coverage of last summer’s conflict in Gaza released by Israel’s Foreign Ministry was removed from the ministry's website following criticism and complaints from representatives of the foreign press corps in Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.662282

[grossproffit]

40. That's unfortunate. It was spot on. Israel is damned if they do and damned if they don't.