Behind the Scenes: Operation Defense Pillar

16 November 2012

News Excerpts:

Blog Smithsonian

The Israelis began their raids of Gaza on Thursday. Gaza responded with strikes of their own, and today Israel called up 16,000 army reservists to fight. In Gaza, a man suspected of collaborating with Israel was executed:

The brazen nature of the execution suggested that Hamas, which governs Gaza, intended it as a blunt message to other possible collaborators with Israel, which is believed to have an extensive network of informants here as part of its underlying battle with the group. But the shooting evoked mixed feelings.

“There were kids and children on the street,” said the witness, Mr. Mohammed. “They should have executed him in a far place.”

Air raid sirens are going off in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – and the people on both sides are trying to keep from becoming casualties of the conflict.

Online, the IDF has been keeping the world appraised of their thoughts and tactics via social media in a way no one has ever done before. Motherboard writes:

Lifestyle journos live-blogging an awards ceremony, sure. Politicos pushing a social media campaign to during a debate, yeah. But a major military live-tweeting its war effort? Is that where we are now?Apparently:

“The verified social media accounts of the Israeli Defense Forces are providing live updates on a concerted military effort against Hamas. Using the hashtag #PillarOfDefense, the verified Twitter account @IDFSpokesperson is posting ominous messages, headline-style updates, and YouTube videos of strikes.”

ReadWrite calls it “brilliant, in its way.” Yes, it’s “brilliant” in the way that the most effective war propaganda tends to be—colorful, uber-patriotic, Manichean, assertive—just more powerful, since they’re controlling the wartime PR channels and shaping public perception with a series of live updates.

And it was working extraordinarily well. The ten second clip of the IDF taking out Ahmed Jabri has been viewed over 2 million times. Of course, Gaza retaliated online as well. Slate writes:

But then @IDFspokesperson and @AlqassamBrigade began trading insults over Twitter, while deploying missiles at each other. The chest-thumping reminded me of the competitive e-sports. This is real life, though, with real people dying. In fact, as the BBC noted, making threats of violence is actuallyagainst Twitter’s terms of service, meaning it is within Twitter’s right to shut down both accounts if it feels so inclined.

While @IDFspokesperson’s Twitter followers may have grown exponentially, it hasn’t had the same success in hashtags. Israel’s hashtag, #Pillarofdefense, received 808 mentions by Wednesday evening, while #GazaUnderAttack—used by Hamas, Palestinian supporters, and civilians—was tweeted 120,000 times, reported the Washington Post.

The Guardian

If you click here, you can listen to the Israeli attacks on Gaza. You can hear explosions, drones and ambulances. This is the soundtrack of the lives of Palestinians there now. They're recording it and transmitting it, and their friends all over the world – particularly the Arab world – are listening to it live.

We are also reading the tweets and blogs the young Gazans are putting out, and taking a good look at the images they're posting – like the one of Ranan Arafat, before and after. Before, she's a pretty little girl with green eyes, a green halter-neck top and green ribbons in her hair. After the Israeli bomb, she's a charred and shrunken figure. Her mouth is open. A medic lifts – for just a moment – her blue hospital shroud.

In that hospital, Shifa in Gaza City, we watched the Egyptian prime minister, Hisham Kandil, this morning. For the first time in 42 years an Egyptian prime minister was where we Egyptians wanted him to be. For the first time a government official was telling the truth when he said he spoke for the Egyptian people. And he was spot on when he referred to the Egyptian people first, before the Egyptian president.

Since he won the presidency, Mohamed Morsi has tried to be a pragmatic politician. He pressed on with "security co-ordination" with Israel in Sinai; he started sealing up the tunnels that provide a lifeline to the besieged Gazans; he rejected the proposal of a free trade area on the borders between Egypt and Gaza; and he sent an ambassador to Tel Aviv with a fulsome letter to Shimon Peres. And so he found himself uncomfortably cosied up with remnants of the Mubarak regime and aficionados of the military government.

From Gaza

Update of the Biblical war of Israel against occupied Gaza Strip Photo from the Web... London, (Pal Telegraph) – An Israeli full-scale war was launched yesterday against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The war was announced by Israel to be as a military operation that took a biblical name “Pillar of the Clouds”. So far, 15 Palestinians killed whom of which 8 civilians including 5 children, three women and an old man. Israeli army launched a number of 160 air raids from Air, Ground and Naval forces. Palestinian armed factions retaliated to heavy Israeli attacks which also left 100 Palestinians physically wounded. A status of fear and panic spread across Gaza where children are caught in Trauma. Dozens of Palestinian children were brought to hospitals in north and south Gaza. Palestine Telegraph reporter in Gaza confirmed that food supplies became scarce in Gaza. People are in fear that a ground invasion is due. Rania, 22, said "We are in fear of Israeli bombing. My cousin was killed as he tried to go out to buy bread. Gaza seems like ghost town."