31/12/2008 / ISREAL - PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
This is a
legitimate way for the IDF to make its claims public and show the world what
they are doing. I really don't see any controversial aspects in it. The IDF is
not doing anything misleading as long as people treat the source with caution -
they have to look at these videos like they look at the citizen journalist photos
that come out of Gaza.
It's yet another source of information and therefore a good decision on the
part of the IDF. They probably realised that using YouTube is a good way to
reach many people; especially those who don't tend to have access to newspapers or
cable television. I personally would assume that the videos are not staged or
fake, because the IDF Spokesperson's Unit know that if they publish inaccurate
material they would be discredited. In most incidents people who trust the IDF
and Israel
will trust the videos, and people who don't will be suspicious. But there may also
be some who are convinced by these videos."
I'm sure
the planes are very successful in targeting what they want to - police
stations, universities etc, but in the process it would be very difficult to
avoid all the people in the surrounding areas. If you're two streets away...
Well, people and children are killed.
The Israelis' line of propaganda is to go into detail, to distract people from
the big picture. Of course Israel
has a very successful propaganda campaign. We're fighting a superpower. We're
not able to compete with this."
The IDF understands
that in today's voyeuristic and interconnected world there is no such thing as a private war. The
truth of the matter is that pictures and videos coming in from Gaza do more damage to Israel than a thousand Qassam
rockets. So the IDF has chosen to counter the ruinous images from
Gaza, with a
show of their own. They want us to see that they target terrorist and their
infra-structure, not civilians. Be that as it may, it seems to me that
these clips will not have the intended effect. The clean distance, loud
silence, black and white picture, the unassuming targets, the ghost-like
characters - everything is dehumanized. It
is like an old video game."
The Israeli Army shows off its target skills on YouTube
Israel's war against Hamas is being drawn out on the internet as well as on the ground. The Israeli Army has just launched a YouTube channel to house videos of its aerial attacks - which happen to be perfectly targeted.
The "IDF Spokesperson's Unit" channel is the Israeli Army's official YouTube page, planned to "help bring our message to the world". Launched on Monday, each video has already received tens of thousands of hits in just two days. A day after its launch, some of the videos posted were removed - due to YouTube's flagging system - nonetheless provoking outrage from supporters of the site. While some bloggers are describing the concept as "a propaganda campaign, pure and simple", others have called it a "a brilliant strategy (...) to counter the typically anti-Israeli sentiment prevalent throughout the international media". And then there are those who feel the PR idea will "fall flat" because you can't see anything on the videos. What is sure is that the channel has provoked an immense reaction from the blogosphere and new media audiences - something that the IDF Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich recently called "another war zone" itself...
The air force strikes what the IDF claims are rockets being transported by Hamas. Posted 29 Dec. 08.
Israeli Navy attack. Posted 29 Dec. 08.
"The IDF is not doing anything misleading"
Shmuel Rosner is an Israeli journalist based in Tel Aviv. He writes "Rosner's Domain", a blog.
This is a
legitimate way for the IDF to make its claims public and show the world what
they are doing. I really don't see any controversial aspects in it. The IDF is
not doing anything misleading as long as people treat the source with caution -
they have to look at these videos like they look at the citizen journalist photos
that come out of Gaza.
It's yet another source of information and therefore a good decision on the
part of the IDF. They probably realised that using YouTube is a good way to
reach many people; especially those who don't tend to have access to newspapers or
cable television. I personally would assume that the videos are not staged or
fake, because the IDF Spokesperson's Unit know that if they publish inaccurate
material they would be discredited. In most incidents people who trust the IDF
and Israel
will trust the videos, and people who don't will be suspicious. But there may also
be some who are convinced by these videos."
"Their line of propaganda is to go into detail, to distract people from the big picture"
Eyad El Sarraj is a psychiatrist and peace activist from Gaza City.
I'm sure
the planes are very successful in targeting what they want to - police
stations, universities etc, but in the process it would be very difficult to
avoid all the people in the surrounding areas. If you're two streets away...
Well, people and children are killed.
The Israelis' line of propaganda is to go into detail, to distract people from
the big picture. Of course Israel
has a very successful propaganda campaign. We're fighting a superpower. We're
not able to compete with this."
"Pictures and videos coming in from Gaza do more damage to Israel than a thousand qassam rockets"
Roi Ben-Yehuda is an Israeli writer based in New York.
The IDF understands
that in today's voyeuristic and interconnected world there is no such thing as a private war. The
truth of the matter is that pictures and videos coming in from Gaza do more damage to Israel than a thousand Qassam
rockets. So the IDF has chosen to counter the ruinous images from
Gaza, with a
show of their own. They want us to see that they target terrorist and their
infra-structure, not civilians. Be that as it may, it seems to me that
these clips will not have the intended effect. The clean distance, loud
silence, black and white picture, the unassuming targets, the ghost-like
characters - everything is dehumanized. It
is like an old video game."
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Comments
"The IDF is not doing anything misleading"
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 06/01/2009 - 05:15.Well, in one video supposedly showing rockets being loaded onto a 'Hamas' truck as the IDF would like you to believe were infact a Gaza resident loading oxygen cyclinders from his workshop.
"I was very surprised that the Israeli army claimed that it had bombed a truck loaded with rockets. I invite any weapons expert in the world to prove this. That is a lie. My son and I had no connection to that issue. I engage in ironworks, and nothing else, in my metal workshop. I never had any ties with a political organization and I worked my whole life as a metalworker inside Israel. Since the closures began, I have worked as a metalworker in Gaza."
Read full testimony here:
http://www.btselem.org/English/Testimonies/20081229_Army_bombs_metal_wor...
B'Tselem questions Israeli account of attack:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xBYkrGIFnvI&eur
With Israel continuing to ban journalists from entering Gaza, their claims cannot be verified.
Unregistered user
war crimes in Gaza
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 13/01/2009 - 22:40.how this war crimes in Gaza can happened
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_OGhj43GAE
Unregistered user