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| An Israeli App Tracking the Gaza Conflict Has Followers Near and Far | An Israeli App Tracking the Gaza Conflict Has Followers Near and Far |
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| JERUSALEM — Many Israelis and, especially, their supporters abroad, experienced the intensity of this summer’s long battle against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip primarily the way they do so much of modern life: on their smartphones. Every day of the fighting — sometimes every hour or multiple times a minute — their phones flashed, or sounded a siren, signaling each of the more than 4,200 rockets flying toward Israel from Gaza. | JERUSALEM — Many Israelis and, especially, their supporters abroad, experienced the intensity of this summer’s long battle against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip primarily the way they do so much of modern life: on their smartphones. Every day of the fighting — sometimes every hour or multiple times a minute — their phones flashed, or sounded a siren, signaling each of the more than 4,200 rockets flying toward Israel from Gaza. |
| More than one million people have downloaded the free Red Alert app, most after the beginning of Israel’s military operation on July 8. Many kept wailing phones by their bedside; the app disrupted business meetings and dinner parties, synagogue services and, in one famous case that spurred more downloads, a live television interview with Israel’s ambassador to Washington. | More than one million people have downloaded the free Red Alert app, most after the beginning of Israel’s military operation on July 8. Many kept wailing phones by their bedside; the app disrupted business meetings and dinner parties, synagogue services and, in one famous case that spurred more downloads, a live television interview with Israel’s ambassador to Washington. |
| “I just never turned it off,” said Penelope Hogan, 47, a massage therapist who lives in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. “I’d get one alert and then another and then another, I noticed my heart was beating faster. It really gave me, not an understanding, but an empathy, somewhat of a small understanding, what people were living with.” | “I just never turned it off,” said Penelope Hogan, 47, a massage therapist who lives in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. “I’d get one alert and then another and then another, I noticed my heart was beating faster. It really gave me, not an understanding, but an empathy, somewhat of a small understanding, what people were living with.” |
| The app was developed during Israel’s last conflict with Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza, in November 2012, as a tool for residents of communities in southern Israel where most of the rockets were aimed. Ari Sprung, a software engineer and one of its creators, said the idea was to make sure people who might not hear the actual siren — perhaps because they were driving or had music turned up loud — would know to get to a shelter. | The app was developed during Israel’s last conflict with Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza, in November 2012, as a tool for residents of communities in southern Israel where most of the rockets were aimed. Ari Sprung, a software engineer and one of its creators, said the idea was to make sure people who might not hear the actual siren — perhaps because they were driving or had music turned up loud — would know to get to a shelter. |
| During the recent battle, the app became a way for those far from the action to monitor it in real time — and a weapon in the raging propaganda war. Hooked into the military home front’s command system, Red Alert tells users when and where a siren sounds. The English version offers a choice of eight ringtones, including one that mimics the Hebrew call of “tzeva adom,” or color red, actually heard in the south, two air-raid-type sirens, and what Mr. Sprung described as calmer sounds, like an alarm clock, added after user complaints. | During the recent battle, the app became a way for those far from the action to monitor it in real time — and a weapon in the raging propaganda war. Hooked into the military home front’s command system, Red Alert tells users when and where a siren sounds. The English version offers a choice of eight ringtones, including one that mimics the Hebrew call of “tzeva adom,” or color red, actually heard in the south, two air-raid-type sirens, and what Mr. Sprung described as calmer sounds, like an alarm clock, added after user complaints. |
| Danny Gewirtz, who lives outside Jerusalem, said that when the app went off while he was taking a shower one morning, his wife thought it was an actual siren and rushed into the safe room, waking their daughter and her fiancé. “It almost ended my marriage right then and there,” said Mr. Gewirtz, 53, who runs an advertising company. (Afterward, his daughter changed the sound to a series of beeps called “News Flash.”) | Danny Gewirtz, who lives outside Jerusalem, said that when the app went off while he was taking a shower one morning, his wife thought it was an actual siren and rushed into the safe room, waking their daughter and her fiancé. “It almost ended my marriage right then and there,” said Mr. Gewirtz, 53, who runs an advertising company. (Afterward, his daughter changed the sound to a series of beeps called “News Flash.”) |
| Red Alert is the best known of several such smartphone apps, and there are also a number of social-media feeds and web tools counting rockets fired or intercepts by Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. Google Chrome users can add a toolbar to their web browser that flashes red with each incoming rocket. | Red Alert is the best known of several such smartphone apps, and there are also a number of social-media feeds and web tools counting rockets fired or intercepts by Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. Google Chrome users can add a toolbar to their web browser that flashes red with each incoming rocket. |
| LifeUnderFire.com counts down 15 seconds, the last five flashing red and accompanied by a siren, then says, “For over 14 years, one million Israelis have had 15 seconds to find shelter from Hamas’ rocket attacks. What are you able to do in 15 seconds?” IsraelHasBeenRocketFreeFor.com is a countdown clock of how many days, hours, minutes and seconds Israel has been rocket free for (1:20:46:13 as of Thursday at 5 p.m. local time). | LifeUnderFire.com counts down 15 seconds, the last five flashing red and accompanied by a siren, then says, “For over 14 years, one million Israelis have had 15 seconds to find shelter from Hamas’ rocket attacks. What are you able to do in 15 seconds?” IsraelHasBeenRocketFreeFor.com is a countdown clock of how many days, hours, minutes and seconds Israel has been rocket free for (1:20:46:13 as of Thursday at 5 p.m. local time). |
| Aaron Friedman, the American-Israeli designer of the countdown clock, said his website’s name is long, “but tells you exactly what to expect.” It has drawn more than 300,000 unique visitors, he said, since its launch July 18. | Aaron Friedman, the American-Israeli designer of the countdown clock, said his website’s name is long, “but tells you exactly what to expect.” It has drawn more than 300,000 unique visitors, he said, since its launch July 18. |
| “I wanted to find a way to help others realize the frequency of these attacks,” explained Mr. Friedman, 29, who works with Mr. Sprung at Curiyo, a Jerusalem company that curates web content. “The idea of a simple one-off website, a timer that counted up and reset back to zero after each rocket fired, that might be eye-opening.” | “I wanted to find a way to help others realize the frequency of these attacks,” explained Mr. Friedman, 29, who works with Mr. Sprung at Curiyo, a Jerusalem company that curates web content. “The idea of a simple one-off website, a timer that counted up and reset back to zero after each rocket fired, that might be eye-opening.” |
| Red Alert was originally available only in Hebrew. Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, was one of about 80,000 subscribers, and it went off on his phone during a congressional subcommittee hearing in March. Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina, asked afterward if he could get the app in English, so Mr. Dermer contacted Kobi Snir, Mr. Sprung’s co-developer. Now, there are 240,000 users in the United States. | Red Alert was originally available only in Hebrew. Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, was one of about 80,000 subscribers, and it went off on his phone during a congressional subcommittee hearing in March. Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from North Carolina, asked afterward if he could get the app in English, so Mr. Dermer contacted Kobi Snir, Mr. Sprung’s co-developer. Now, there are 240,000 users in the United States. |
| An African-American church in Stockton, Calif., connected the app to its sound system one Sunday in July and did a mock evacuation in solidarity with Israel. The Schusterman Family Foundation in Washington included downloading Red Alert in a blog post suggesting actions supporters could take to “Stand With Israel.” Haaretz, an Israeli daily newspaper, reported Thursday that a family of French Jews used the app to prepare for the real sirens before moving this summer to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod. | An African-American church in Stockton, Calif., connected the app to its sound system one Sunday in July and did a mock evacuation in solidarity with Israel. The Schusterman Family Foundation in Washington included downloading Red Alert in a blog post suggesting actions supporters could take to “Stand With Israel.” Haaretz, an Israeli daily newspaper, reported Thursday that a family of French Jews used the app to prepare for the real sirens before moving this summer to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod. |
| Jon Stewart had a field day with the app, noting that in Gaza, there are neither sirens nor smartphone facsimiles, but what Israel calls a “knock on the roof” in the form of a drone-fired missile. “So the Israeli military warns Gaza residents of imminent bombing with a smaller warning bombing,” Mr. Stewart said on The Daily Show. “An ‘amuse boom,’ if you will.” | Jon Stewart had a field day with the app, noting that in Gaza, there are neither sirens nor smartphone facsimiles, but what Israel calls a “knock on the roof” in the form of a drone-fired missile. “So the Israeli military warns Gaza residents of imminent bombing with a smaller warning bombing,” Mr. Stewart said on The Daily Show. “An ‘amuse boom,’ if you will.” |
| Mr. Dermer, who has shown off the app on Capitol Hill and in meetings at the White House, said news producers generally asked him to turn the app off or ditch his phone during scores of television interviews this summer. But Bob Schieffer, host of Face the Nation on CBS News, heard the app’s siren during a pre-interview phone conversation in the green room, and told him to leave it on. | Mr. Dermer, who has shown off the app on Capitol Hill and in meetings at the White House, said news producers generally asked him to turn the app off or ditch his phone during scores of television interviews this summer. But Bob Schieffer, host of Face the Nation on CBS News, heard the app’s siren during a pre-interview phone conversation in the green room, and told him to leave it on. |
| Sure enough, an alert sounded during the interview, and the app showed the rocket heading toward Gedera, which just happens to be where Mr. Dermer’s mother was born. | Sure enough, an alert sounded during the interview, and the app showed the rocket heading toward Gedera, which just happens to be where Mr. Dermer’s mother was born. |
| “I said, ‘Bob, the chances of that happening are one in a million, that it would go to Gedera, the one place in Israel that would have the most meaning to me personally,’ and he said, well, it really brought the point home,” Mr. Dermer recalled. “It’s not the same as reading in a newspaper that 100 rockets were fired yesterday. Each one of them you’re getting interrupted. All of a sudden a siren is going off in your home. Hour after hour, day after day. There’s a different human response to it.” | “I said, ‘Bob, the chances of that happening are one in a million, that it would go to Gedera, the one place in Israel that would have the most meaning to me personally,’ and he said, well, it really brought the point home,” Mr. Dermer recalled. “It’s not the same as reading in a newspaper that 100 rockets were fired yesterday. Each one of them you’re getting interrupted. All of a sudden a siren is going off in your home. Hour after hour, day after day. There’s a different human response to it.” |
| Mr. Sprung, 34, who moved to Israel from Miami at age 10, said he has not made any money from Red Alert, and that its Google-generated ads pay for server space. During the conflict, he hooked it into Yo, an Israeli messaging app, broadening access. As rockets reached all over Israel, he increased the number of locations to 2,000 from 55. | Mr. Sprung, 34, who moved to Israel from Miami at age 10, said he has not made any money from Red Alert, and that its Google-generated ads pay for server space. During the conflict, he hooked it into Yo, an Israeli messaging app, broadening access. As rockets reached all over Israel, he increased the number of locations to 2,000 from 55. |
| He was interviewed about the app on Good Morning America, CNN, BBC and by a journalist from Japan who said his country should have something similar tracking missiles between North and South Korea. | He was interviewed about the app on Good Morning America, CNN, BBC and by a journalist from Japan who said his country should have something similar tracking missiles between North and South Korea. |
| Heading to bed Wednesday, a day after an open-ended cease-fire was secured between Israel and Gaza, Mr. Sprung said he turned his phone off for the first time in nearly two months. | Heading to bed Wednesday, a day after an open-ended cease-fire was secured between Israel and Gaza, Mr. Sprung said he turned his phone off for the first time in nearly two months. |
| “I slept much better,” he said. | “I slept much better,” he said. |