That US State Department Twitter-Diplomacy in Action

Last month Colleen Graffy, the State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy, made a very big deal about how US diplomats are using new cyber-media such as Twitter to connect with people around the world:

One clear lesson that emerged from the Cold War was that winning hearts and minds required communicating in a way that "connected" with people on their terms, whether through film or jazz or jeans. To keep our public diplomacy relevant today, we have to reach out and connect with people on their terms, whether we use blogs or texts -- or tweets.

So, as the Israel invasion of Gaza and the subsequent humanitarian crisis escalates, let's check out Graffy's latest "reach out and connect" tweets on Twitter:

Apple Store 1 to 1 lessons v cool. thx all 4 encouraging me to get a Mac. Love it. Who is yr best blog model in case i learn how to do that?

With postings of such relevance to current events, I wonder how anyone could ever again be sceptical about the US approach to the Middle East.