PR battle is turning on Israel: NPR story on right-wing Israelis mobs plans to attack protestors

[yurbud]

I tuned into the story in the middle and it was talking about the role of social media in the current attack on Gaza, how right wingers try to pile on and change opinion online and use social media to organize attacks on anti-war protesters.

I thought I was listening to Pacifica, but it was NPR.

NPR and PBS are the closest we've got to a source with Cronkite levels of across the board public trust.

If they start talking about these kinds of stories, Israel no longer controls the narrative here, and the American public might drift toward the more natural narrative of an apartheid regime that needs to transition to a non-sectarian democracy where all citizens are treated equally regardless of religion or race--and those in the occupied territories, who have been under the control of the government for decades, should finally be made citizens or given real not bantustan autonomy.

[villager]

1. Rightwingers always pile on in social media. From the gun forums here to any "news" chat site

...on the interwebs. The piling on -- the relentless bullying -- is how they view "conversation."

And also how they view "democracy."

[Skidmore]

2. I posted this on another thread but this seems to be an appropriate place for it as well.

The bombing of the power plant will turn off the power supply to large portions of Gaza for at least a year. Currently, the internet and cellphones have been the way the Palestinians have gotten their stories out to the world. What better way to silence their voices than to take away their means of contacting the outside world?

[yurbud]

5. is it windy enough to set up windmills? can someone hook up a bicycle to an alternator?

it might be time to go Gilligan's Island on electricity generation.

[Spazito]

6. Even if the primary purpose for bombing the power plant wasn't to shut down access to the...

outside world it certainly was, to say the least, a fortunate by-product for Israel wasn't it.

[ann---]

3. Protest in Tel-Aviv

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.607311

Thousands assembled at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on Saturday evening for what became the largest protest against the Israeli military operation in Gaza thus far. According to official estimates some 7,000 protesters attended.

Meanwhile, a smaller group rallied in support of the operation in Gaza. The police served as a barrier between the groups to prevent clashes.

The former demonstration was organized by Hadash, the leftist political party, and the organizations Combatants for Peace and The Parents Circle Families Forum. Several hours before the protest was slated to begin the police announced that it was canceled for fear of rocket fire, but once news that the cease-fire would be extended surfaced, the demonstration was once again given the green light.

Protesters at the event called for an immediate end to hostilities and for the prompt resumption of peace talks. In one of the plaza's corners memorial candles were lit among pictures of fallen - both Israelis and Palestinians. Two Philippine women who attended the protest laid a bouquet of flowers in memory of the IDF casualties. "We aren't a part of the demonstration," one of them explained. "We came to show our gratitude to Israel for its help with the casualties of the typhoon in the Philippines last year."

Among the people to give speeches at the event were Capt. Assaf Ya'akobovich (Res.) and Salim Tabib of Ramallah. The two are active in an organization devoted to finding a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They called for both sides to immediately put down their arms.

[yurbud]

4. what's strange is all those polls saying 91% of Israelis support the Gaza assault

that doesn't square with the usual polls showing a fair number supporting some kind of two state solution.