The Q&A section was where things got both interesting and frustrating. Meron used the commonly heard Israeli political narrative. I’ll try to map out his main arguments, and then include my point of view.

Uneven Representation
“They have much more representation than Israel in the UN. There’s only one Israel and many Arab states.” This makes it extremely difficult to “be heard”, especially when your enemies repeat the same arguments over and over again. Meron mentioned that he can only speak so much, while the Arab nations have, in aggregate, substantially more time on the stage.

Antisemites are Out to Get Us
Meron uses the same techniques that politicians and the Israeli media know so well. He depicts Israel as the scapegoat, being harrassed and bullied. Constantly pointed at and given an unjustified amount of attention. He called this a “new form of anti-semitism”, something that he claims, is quite common in the UN.

Lies! Unlike us, They Don’t Fact Check
Meron claims that it has become hip to point a finger against Israel. “It is the trendy thing to do, especially if you’re part of the political left”, he claims. It is apealing for people to amplify messages that are anti-Israeli, even if they are not true, or fact-checked. When asked about how we can affect people’s perception about Israel, his response was that there’s not much we can do. That Israel is cautious and investigates claims, but by the time results and proof come back, nobody really cares anymore.

My take:

I am extremely weary of the language that Meron uses, which is reflective of the general way that Israeli politicians have been framing political reality in the Middle East. Creating an “us vs. them” narrative and never admitting any mistakes, but rather constantly justifying. Calling out anti-semitism whenever there is critique against the State of Israel is absurd and counter productive. You can only get away with that so many time before that term loses its value. Perhaps this is what one must do strategically when playing political power games, but it is certainly not convicing me to keep supporting the country that I would like to support.
Truth is, it’s driving me away.

Perception vs. Reality
Israeli politicians and diplomats are so focused on the hard facts that they are absent from the public discourse, and thus lose support worldwide. They need to be actively addressing events as they occur, engaging in conversation, and in effect “fighting” to affect people’s perception in real time. Because once an event occurs, and an opinion is engraved in someone’s mind, it is extremely difficult to change.

I’ve watched this happen too many times. Israel makes a military move that incites worldwide critique. In the first couple days, Israeli gov’t heavily controls all communications around the hot zone – always failing to completely stop the flow of information. Like in the flotilla incident, and during operation Cast Lead, only a number of formal military channels release information. People are left to asses the military sources, versus numerous leaks coming from Palestinians or activists under attack. Why would anyone be rooting for Israel in these cases? Instead of utilizing diplomats and representatives to engage in discussions with the public, Israel blocks all channels, and while it supposedly investigates all claims, the major source of real time information is coming from the other side.

You lose the battle over people’s perception.
And you lose the battle.

Within a fortnight, Eden Abergil becomes an Israeli public figure, stamped on news articles slashing one of Israeli IDF core principles, its moral values, and Israeli society as a whole. All because a single, insignificant girl’s actions; a girl who has no connection whatsoever to the army anymore. Domestic and international news agencies turn against her. The IDF condemns her actions and releases her from reserve service. Yet Eden still does not really grasp why here photos are perceived as problematic. In a recent interview, when asked if she understands the world’s anger about the photos, Eden answers: “of course I understand! The whole world is against us. Its not a secret that the world hates us (Israelis)”. It was her army service, the photos were her souvenir which she posted on her supposedly private Facebook page, and had “private” conversations with her friends. She did not physically harm the prisoners. On the contrary, she claims that she fed and gave them water. “I don’t understand what all the fuss is about!” – she exclaims.

But the powerful fact still holds. With a tiny click of the mouse, by uploading these photos, Eden provided the world with ammunition against one of the most powerful armies in the world: a way to attack the IDF’s *prized* moral values. Compulsory service means that every Israeli is connected to the army – siblings, parents and friends. It is an integral part of Israeli society, making it difficult for one to criticize its actions. When you criticize the IDF, you’re criticizing your brother who might be serving, your father who is in reserves, and your friend’s family, whose son was killed in one of the many dangerous oprations in Gaza. The story of Eden Abergil hit one of Israel’s most sensitive spots – the IDF’s moral values. During the Lebanon and Gaza wars, as well as the Flotilla attacks, Israeli “hasbara” consistently uses the IDF values as its main defense reasoning. IDF soldier’s intent is to target militants and terrorists NOT civilians. IDF soldiers act to protect Israeli civilians, they react when attacked. Their values are aligned with what the western world would expect a truly valiant army.

The repercussions of Eden Abergil’s actions are a country’s worst nightmare, and a byproduct of the difficulties Facebook users have grasping issues of privacy on Facebook. When looking at Eden’s photos it is hard not to jump to conclusions and judge the IDF as a whole. “Finally the true face of the IDF has been revealed” – “see how they ruthlessly treat Palestinian prisoners”. But as we all know, the truth tends to be much more complex and multi-faceted. Yes, there are countless cases of detainee mistreatment by IDF soldiers. Hundreds of Palestinians are held without any legal justification. However in Eden’s case, there was none of that.

From blogs to mainstream media, Israelis disgusted by the sheer stupidity of this girl’s actions, horrified by the fact that within a day, Eden Abergil turned from being a nobody retired soldier chatting about shopping, parties and boys with her friends, to a world-wide symbol of “vicious Israeli occupation”; the face of the IDF, affecting people’s perception of Israel around the world.

The harm that Eden’s photos did to the image of the IDF will take a long time to heal, if ever. However, the damage done to her personal image will never be erased. Eden is mocked and publically slandered by media outlets as well as Isarelis across the country. The following youtube skit marks her as an “Arsit” (a.k.a. ‘white trash’) while numerous Internet memes have unfolded with her photo and name plastered all across. Eden will always be rememberd as that stupid girl who posted abnoxious photos on her Facebook account. She will have a hard time finding a job, and will always be the poster case for “people doing stupid things online”. Her micro-celebrity status will most likely drive her insane or to the extreme edge of society. When the waters settle, she will be forgotten.

But never forgiven.

im in ur army, corruptin ur valuez

This recently posted video of Israeli soldiers dancing to the beat of Ke$ha’s “tick tock” in the middle of their patrol in the West Bank is a great example of the clash of context. The video went viral extremely fast, as many Israelis re-posted and proudly emailed the link, naively thinking that “the world will finally see that our soldiers are humans who also like to have a little fun”. They could not have imagined just how offended people across the world would be from watching the video. Slogans like “It’s easy to laugh at the occupation when you’re the oppressor” were posted in response, causing lots of frustration and confusion all around.

Intentions were good, but were lost in translation.

Ethan Zuckerman has been writing about xenophilia and culture bridging for a while. He points at people’s tendency towards homophily (’birds of a feather flock together’) and sees this as a fundamental challenge, since with the web, we’re more able than ever to find people that are like us. He stresses the importance for us to seek out and understand people different from us, especially as cultures clash on global web services become more common. Ethan defines xenophilia as people in the world who are genuinely fascinated by the breadth, complexity and difference of the world; “third culture kids”, people who were raised in one country, but are “from” another. Bridge bloggers are xenophiles who have the capacity to connect both sides of a story, because they themselves are associated with both sides.

In his recent blog post, Ethan looks at data released by peace.facebook.com, boasting how many daily connections are made between pairs of battling entities. According to the site, 15,747 connections between Israelis and Palestinians have been made over the last 24 hours on Facebook. I find this piece of data incredibly hard to believe (especially since the number doesn’t seem to change over the course of the week). Even if a reciprocal relationship equals 2 connections, I can’t imagine such a high number of connections forming on a daily basis. That said, 20% of Israeli population is Arab, many with roots and family in Gaza or the West Bank. This fact could certainly explain the data.

Their notion of “connections” makes me wonder if they account for Facebook fan pages. Successful fan pages tend to be politically charged, and polarize the users according to their political agenda rather than bring those with different views together. However, if Facebook’s data is counting Israeli Arabs as Israelis (as they should!), I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d accounted for multiple connections forming via these fan pages.

I am extremely doubtful that much bridging happens through direct Facebook “friending”, nor that it is represented by direct Facebook “friendships” between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. So where does it happen if at all?

In order to answer this question, we must discuss the notion of a “safe space”, which I consider crucial for bridging to happen. A safe space makes us feel comfortable, almost at home. Its an environment where we are supported and validated; a place where we are willing to lower our defenses.

I am a huge fan of Global Voices, but wouldn’t consider it as a safe space for Israelis. The majority of readership on the Middle East section tilts heavily towards Arab articles, comments and opinions. One might say that is totally fair since it is representative of actual world distribution of population. But the outcome is an imbalanced environment, which for an Israeli, feels unsafe; a place where they won’t be supported, nor will they be identified with. Why hang out where everyone’s picking on you when you can easily go play with fun friends elsewhere? For the most part,like the Guardian or Al-Jazeera, Global Voices is not perceived as a safe space.

However I believe that Facebook creates new opportunities for safe spaces to form, especially as they are based on people’s familiarity with each other.

Facebook received massive adoption in Israel, easily taking over any other Social network or service. Israel is a tiny place, and people are inherently social – making Facebook a perfect place to interact with the “hevre” (Hebrew for ‘gang’ – also the name of one of the earliest Social Networks that saw light in Israel). Facebook is a place where my friends from Israel feel extremely comfortable. Even when someone lands on my profile page, there are always other friends a mere click away, in the periphery. One is never alone, in any given context.

The Flotilla incident triggered something I hadn’t seen before. Friends from different contexts don’t tend to communicate with each other, even when reacting to the same post. The flotilla events changed this.

When dealing with such a complex topic that has no clear “right” or “wrong”, I witnessed multiple “cross boundary” conversations happening on my own Facebook page, and also amongst my Israeli friends who are also living abroad. Our pages served as bridges, or safe havens, where contacts from “opposing sides” could have a conversation.

It would go something like this – (1) Facebook page owner posts link to article (2) Israeli friend/relative responds with a pro-Israeli message (3) European friend responds to that with a counter opinion (4) Another Israeli friend responds (5) another foreign friend supports #3 (6) profile owner mediates…

…you get the drift.

The interesting part here is that even if there are no direct links between those in Israel, and those with opposing perspectives wherever they were, a conversation could take place because of the personalized nature of Facebook. Because it felt safer to do it there, on a shared friend’s page. Much safer than on Global Voices, or other international news websites.

The more Facebook grows, the more I see these kinds of exchanges happening. In his post, Ethan claims that “we overestimate how many of our online contacts cross borders and underestimate how often these tools are used to reinforce local friendships”. While I agree, I’d add that we shouldn’t only look at direct cross-border connections, but rather try to understand and estimate the value that Facebook serves as a safe space for bridging to occur. I’m not sure how we quantify the amount of cultural bridging that is not represented by FB connections. We could only do this by analyzing public discussions happening on profile pages, between profiles who are not friends on Facebook.

To conclude, Obama argues that we suffer from an “empathy deficit”, as quoted from a speech to college students:

“There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit – the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us – the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room. As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier.”

Placing yourself in someone else’s shoes is much easier when the store attendant is your close friend. Facebook as a platform has the potential to host these conversations; be the store. Safe space.

But we the users, have to make the conversations happen.

A day where we sing songs teary eyed and add more soldiers names to the long list of fallen soldiers since the start of our young state. A day when we reflect on the continuing bloodshed and wonder if it will ever cease. A day when we stand silent and sing our national anthem proudly. And even with all the typical Israeli cynicism, today we come together, as a consolidated people still struggling to justify our right for a home.

On memorial day, a siren is heard throughout the country, and everything stops; all cars, people, everyone stops, and stands in silence. Such powerful, strong silence is overwhelming. Even kids know, that when the siren sounds, you stop, stand, and reflect.

One of my favorite Yom Hazikaron songs, translated from Hebrew.

PERACH (flower):

There, in the dust and the sky’s blue
a piece of peace exists
Sleep flower, sleep
Sleep little girl.

They took life from you
Oh, holy wars
Angels wept for you
With dry eyes.

Your smile, baby girl,
They buried in the ground
how does silence grow
from within the chaos?

Whoever pressed the trigger
Blood will stain his heart
In wars for justice
Children also die.

Yehuda Poliker

[tags] yom hazikaron, memorial, day, israel[/tags]

The soldiers’ testimonies described cold-blooded murder of Gaza civilians and unreasonable commands passed during the operation. This lead to a promise by the military to form an investigation which was recently concluded, resulting in no file charges against any of the soldiers as their descriptions were based on hearsay. Their names have not been released in order to protect their identity, and the military investigative police did not publish any more information about the case.

Zamir’s efforts haven’t sat well with a certain patriotic constituency within Israeli society. The IDF is seen as a sacred national institution that is beyond reproach. I’m sure Zamir didn’t expect to be lionized for his efforts, he probably didn’t expect to be vilified either. Not only have Israelis accused him of smearing the IDF, they’ve accused him of aiding and abetting the nation’s enemies who are only waiting to pounce upon such stories to justify their hatred of Israel. The IDF itself initiated this campaign by revealing that Zamir had been imprisoned briefly in the 1990s when he refused to guard a settler group holding a provocative religious ceremony at Joseph’s Tomb. They attempted to shoot the messenger. (link)

While doing research for my Global Voices Online post, I scoured through Israblog, Tapuz and other Hebrew portals, trying to find posts from soldier first-hand witnesses who wrote about their experiences in Gaza. To my dismay, I could not find any. It is such a taboo topic; an Israeli must not help those haters validate their claims against our country. We were all soldiers. We all realize that these situations are not black and white. And even if these stories are somewhat true on a micro level, it is certainly not an IDF-wide phenomenon. But when they are taken out of context and amplified to the masses, it is easy to forget the source, while letting our emotions play out. Especially when messages are rapidly amplified through Twitter, the effects can be devastating ( a.k.a. what we saw last week re: #amazonFail)

Ever more often, we are witnessing the implications of living in a society with fast-paced, worldwide media coverage that can easily spin stories out from their original context. This is precisely how a closed door session between school colleagues turns into a worldwide news sensation against the reputation of one of the most powerful armies in the world. We must remember that the truth usually lies somewhere in-between, and make an effort to fact-check before letting our emotions passionately take over our logic.

Here’s a link to my GVO article:

[tags]Israel,global voices oline,testimonials,context,idf,soldiers,war,palestine,gaza[/tags]

Yasser Arafat led Fatah at a time when its subgroups were purposefully killing civilians as acts of resistance against the state of Israel. They highjacked planes, kidnapped and killed athletes at the olympics and detonated bombs in public locations. My definition of terrorism encompasses directed action against civilian population. I categorize some of Fatah’s operations in the 70’s as terrorism. Move the clock 35 years forward, and we have Yitzhak Rabin severely scrutinized for negotiating with this “terrorist” and signing the Oslo accords. The right wing tore him to shreds using catchy-aggressive slogans. I remember the pictures depicting blood dripping from Rabin wearing an Arafat-style “keffiya”. He was portrayed as a Jewish traitor and extremist right wing rabbis legitimized “Pulsa denura” ceremonies calling for Rabin’s death. It was not wholly surprising that once Rabin was considered persona non grata by his extreme right wing opponents, a fanatic assassin in that right wing camp would arise and murder him.

Calling Ayers a terrorist is problematic. Yes, he was a radical figure in his youth, but the weathermen group were a troupe of troublemakers, acting against US powers and authority. Their bombs were not placed with an intention to kill civilians, but to harm state-recognized icons. No, I do not support such actions, but I take issue with how US media frames the organization as “domestic terrorist”. Moreover, Obama was only eight-year-old when Ayers and the Weathermen were active. He collaborated with Ayers on a professional-political level, within a commission many years later. If this means his friends are terrorists why not call a spade a spade – Bill Clinton worked intensely with “terrorists”. He was one of the main negotiators between Rabin and Arafat. Arafat, who has a substantial history of terrorist activities.

McCain’s campaign deliberately uses the terrorist ‘tag’ to create fear and hatred towards Obama, taking this whole story out of context. In her speeches, Palin points to the Times who framed Obama’s friend as terrorists as a way to legitimize this point. The fact that it is a pivotal topic in the campaign’s arguments against Obama shows just how desperate they are. Its dirty politics, and I am glad to see that it is not working in McCain’s favor. Still, I am disgusted. I see the slippery slope I witnessed before Rabin’s assasination. I see the ease at which words such as “terrorist” will affect people’s emotions… especially those with relatives in Iraq. I am disgusted because most Americans have *NO* idea what living with “terror” is like, yet they use the word so easily. The majority have never experienced the smell of death after a bomb explodes in a public space. Most never felt the need to calculate their odds of survival every time when using public transport.
I do hope you Americans never have to live through that. Just please don’t use the word “terrorist” to seed baseless fear.

[tags]elections,US,Ayers,Obama,McCain,Palin,Rabin,assasination,Arafat [/tags]