Why the Israeli army is tweeting pictures of London being hit by missiles
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Version 0 of 1. As the Israeli military operation in Gaza continues and death tolls grow rapidly, there's also been a surge in an accompanying battle being fought online: A social media PR war that has slowly become inescapable in recent days. On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attempted to make their position more understandable to the British, by tweeting an image of Houses of Parliament under missile fire. Hamas terrorists just fired rockets at southern and central Israel. What if they were attacking your home? pic.twitter.com/rFlDV1ZXAL — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 21, 2014 Hamas terrorists just fired rockets at southern and central Israel. What if they were attacking your home? pic.twitter.com/rFlDV1ZXAL — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 21, 2014 The preceding tweet gave more context: Moments ago, the Iron Dome intercepted two rockets above the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 21, 2014 Moments ago, the Iron Dome intercepted two rockets above the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 21, 2014 While the tweet appeared to shock a fair number of people, its message had actually been around since at July 9: #Imagine if a major city in your country was targeted by #rockets pic.twitter.com/v6H26Fi7vp — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 9, 2014 #Imagine if a major city in your country was targeted by #rockets pic.twitter.com/v6H26Fi7vp — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 9, 2014 The British may be a worthy target for the message. In general, the British public has tended to show a more skeptical attitude to Israeli's actions in Gaza in recent years, and thousands of people attended a pro-Palestinian protest this weekend. However, the success of this social media campaign has been debatable at best. While the image has been re-tweeted dozens of times, nearly all the responses to it seem to be negative. One politician told the Telegraph that it "seems crass at best." "It is in very poor taste and I think that it will be entirely counterproductive," Andy Slaughter, a member of parliament for the left-wing Labour party and secretary of Britain-Palestine All-Party Parliamentary Group, said to the newspaper. The idea that Israel is held to a different standard than other countries has been around for years, with critics of critics wondering why they focus so much on Israel and ignore human rights abuses in Iran or China. The fresh angle of these tweets, however, is that Israel's actions don't need to be compared to cruel regimes: They can be compared to hypothetical situations in North America or Western Europe too. Earlier in July, the IDF's Twitter feed compared the reach of Hamas' missiles to major U.S. metropolitan areas, and the force also tweeted out an image of New York under attack from missiles. Sirens heard across the country. Gaza terrorists are firing barrages of rockets. Israel is under attack. pic.twitter.com/LCiMMmqpta — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 12, 2014 Sirens heard across the country. Gaza terrorists are firing barrages of rockets. Israel is under attack. pic.twitter.com/LCiMMmqpta — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 12, 2014 Does the argument hold? Perhaps. Historical analogies are always rocky ground when talking about Israel and the Palestinian territories, but a critic might suggest that Britain's response to the IRA's bombing campaign was heavy-handed, and the U.S. (with British help) started two long wars after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Others might go back even further, pointing towards the U.K.'s bombardment of Dresden during World War II, or the huge damage wrought on Hiroshima by the U.S. Even so, Israel does appear to be losing the media battle so far, despite aggressive tactics like "promoted tweets," and some of the most virulent critics of Israel will certainly not be swayed. Last week the IDF Twitter account tweeted the following image of Paris; just a few days later French cities were in flames in anti-Semitic riots. Since 9:00 AM today, 141 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel. That's one rocket every 6 minutes. pic.twitter.com/mRLFwikCSa — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 15, 2014 Since 9:00 AM today, 141 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel. That's one rocket every 6 minutes. pic.twitter.com/mRLFwikCSa — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 15, 2014 |