New Twitter username

For those of you who follow Enduring America on Twitter, please note a change of username- @enduring is now @EANewsFeed. We've found we're now using Twitter much more as a way to provide up to the minute updates, with links to relevant posts on our site, so we hope  this name change will reflect that.

(Twitter users- this won't really change anything, please just start your replies @EANewsFeed now.)

Israeli Newspaper Details Israel's Use of Illegal Weapons in Gaza

Latest Updates: The Israeli Invasion of Gaza (16 January)

Update: Make of this what you will --- Rafah Kid has posted on Twitter, "Seriously they always use banned stuff...the dum dum bullets are back too...small entry and MASSIVE exit hole..noone cares"

In today's Ha'aretz, Amira Haas not only dares to ask, "Is Israel using illegal weapons in Gaza?", but uses reports and the expertise of military analyst Mark Garlasco to give a definitive and detailed Yes.

Garlasco confirms the use of white phosphorous and suggests it arises from "conclusions drawn from the Second Lebanon War, in which the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] lost many tanks". He also notes the first use in warfare of the GPS-guided mortar, with an unexpected range of error that led to the bombing of the Jabaliya school/shelter, and he confirms the use of the US-supplied "bunker-busting bomb" GBU-39.



Garlasco speculates that Israel is using DIME (dense inert metal explosives) for the first time, and he adds a new piece of information: Tel Aviv's unveiling of the Spike, "a special missile that is made to make very high-speed turns, so if you have a target that is moving and running away from you, you can chase him with the weapon."

Almost as an obligatory disclaimer, Haas gives the final paragraph over to an IDF spokesman:

The IDF is fighting the terror elements while meticulously observing the rules of engagement under international law. For understandable operational reasons, the IDF will not relate to a detailing of the materiel that is in its possession and the parameters in which it used. It should be emphasized, however, that the IDF uses only methods and materiel that are permitted under international law.

That Israeli Information Machine in Action: Overlooking the "Bloody Conflict"

There has been an exceptional amount of media fluff about the wondrous Israel information/propaganda/hasbara effort in the Gaza conflict. Yet, for all the acknowledged prowess of Tel Aviv on televisions-talkboards-YouTube-Twitter, here's a rule-of-thumb: the dead, cold reality of civilian deaths, sooner or later, will overtake your use flashy, hot new media.

Here's an example:

David Saranga, the Israeli Consul for Media and Public Affairs in New York, was quick on the Twitter this morning about an article in The Guardian of London on Israel's efforts: "Winning the Media War". Rachel Shabi notes that the coordinated hasbara effort has "got world media repeating the Israeli government's core messages practically verbatim".

So what's the problem? Well, Saranga might have done well to check the secondary headline on The Guardian piece before hitting his "Send" button:

Twitter, YouTube, blogs – Israel has proved a master of networking. Shame it's being used to promote a bloody conflict

Ali Fisher on State Department Twitter-Diplomacy

Our colleague Ali Fisher has emerged as one of the top analysts of public diplomacy, including its pursuit through new technologies and media. Following our own engagement with the State Department's efforts to spread its message via Twitter, he has offered a critique, "To Tweet or Not to Tweet, What is the Question?" on his website Wandren PD:

If [Twitter] is just another means to deliver a message (even if it has more of a human voice than other methods), another way to ask for comment just to answer back with the same rebuttals that will also appear in other media, to take a centralised view and drive traffic to other sites or stories produced by the same organisation, it is a missed opportunity. But if that’s all you want if for, then it will do the job just fine.

Once More: That State Department Twitter-Diplomacy

Time to upset my good friends working on State Department Twitter-diplomacy: DipNote has just Twittered that I can "watch what the U.S. Department of State is saying about the Middle East today". So I click the link, and it's the Daily Press Briefing...<em>from three days ago</em>.

Tomorrow: DipNote brings you President Eisenhower's statement on the Suez Crisis.