This past year has been eventful to say the least in our merry little Middle East and North Africa region. As a part of our end-of-year coverage we look back at some of the major events we covered during 2011. The following post highlights the role of the Global Voices Online community in spreading information on Twitter during the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.

The data that feeds this visualization is taken from “The Revolutions were Tweeted“, an International Journal of Communication article mapping out prominent information flows during the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. The study uses two datasets of tweets. The first includes 168,663 tweets posted between January 12 and 19, 2011, containing the keyword ‘#sidibouzid' or ‘tunisia'. The second includes 230,270 tweets posted between January 24 and 29, 2011, containing the keyword ‘egypt' or ‘#jan25′.

As a part of the study, the authors classified users into actor types, with the goal of tracing the prominent paths in which information spread, along with inherent preferences between user types. Unsurprisingly, the authors found homopholy playing a dominant role in retweet behavior (journalists tend to retweet other journalists, bloggers retweet bloggers, etc…).

If we zoom into the the network, we can see the intricate relationships and connections between users tweeting and retweeting content. For example, the image below is a screenshot taken when the graph focus is on @ircpresident (our very own Mohamed El Gohary). The other nodes that light up and display names represent El Gohary's immediate “neighborhood” - folks that either he retweeted or who had retweeted him.

The larger a node is, the more times it was retweeted. The thicker an edge, the more retweets that connection generated. The green nodes are Global Voices contributors. Light blue are journalists employed by Mainstream Media organizations, dark blue are bloggers and purple colored nodes are activists.

Nasser Weddady (@weddady) is central to this graph in terms of both number of times he was retweeted, but also the wide array of users who reposted his content (over 800 times within this dataset, which represents a tiny fraction of the actual content posted during the events).

The graph has 71,525 nodes representing the different Twitter users posting content about Egypt and Tunisia, with 190,814 edges - configurations of who retweeted whose content. Amongst the users, there are 140 Global Voices contributors, posting and retweeting content relevant to the events in both Egypt and Tunisia.

When we take all of the Global Voices author nodes and places them outside the main cluster, how they interconnect with the rest of the network becomes much clearer.

It has been an intense and inspiring year. Global Voices has been doing a phenomenal job tracking and covering perspectives highlighted in blogs and within social media across the globe and it is an absolute honor to be part of the team.

For our full coverage on the Tunisian Revolution, check out our Special Coverage page and for a snapshot of the ongoing revolution in Egypt, tune into our Egypt Revolution Special Coverage page.

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011 and Tunisia Revolution 2011.

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On December 4, 2008, Blau published a report based on these documents which stated that the IDF senior command planned and executed targeted killings of three people in violation of a 2006 ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court limiting the circumstances in which such a tactic could be used. I couldn't find a working link to the original article by Uri Blau, “License to Kill”, but here's a link to a blog post that reposted the original text.

Image by mish

Kamm is reported to have said during her interrogation: “There were some aspects of the IDF's operations procedures in the West Bank that I felt should be public knowledge… When I was burning the CDs I kept thinking that history tends to forgive people who expose war crimes.”

The Israeli police secured a gag order prohibiting Israeli media from reporting on Kamm's arrest. On February 6, 2010, Anat was convicted of espionage and providing confidential information without authorization and placed under house arrest. After almost two years under house arrest, on October 30, 2011, Kamm was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

While this story is not new, the court decision on Kamm's sentence this week drew a wide array of Israeli netizen reactions. Noam Lester reposts thoughts [he] he published when the story was first publicized in 2010, protesting the lack of media focus on the reported IDF crime that surfaced from this leak:

We witness again the ritual of concealment, censorship, foreign publishing, leaks to blogs and finally a tiring day of non-stop blabbering media. Once again we sacrifice a victim in order to teach us all not to deal with the security forces, especially not to embarrass and show their wretchedness (and crimes). Everyone is focusing on the emissary (Anat) and not the news she surfaced: the IDF has committed crimes directly violating a court order from the Israeli Supreme Court. For this no one will be tried and certainly no one will sit in prison. But the one who exposed the atrocity - she can be presented as a traitor and sent for life imprisonment.

Anat Balint sarcastically writes:

The severe verdict of four and a half years in prison, given by the Tel-Aviv district court to Anat Kamm is a harsh blow to the 24-year-old whistleblower, and a calming pill to many of the public who followed the evolution of this story since April 2010. The process of turning Kamm to a modern-day witch who is threatening the existing social order has been completed successfully. She was caught, removed away from us, thank god, and now all can be sure that we've returned to believe in the holy values: there's nothing more important than the security of our country and its protection from enemies, there's no holier entity than the military, and there's nothing more severe than trying to hurt either of these.

She continues:

Every person whose part of the complex relationship between government entities, security forces and journalists in Israel understands the sheer irony wrapped in the Kamm affair. Leaks of the same sort are the bread and butter of these relationships, a daily affair. Messages that don't come out through the formal channels, or through an authorized interview, are in effect a type of “leak”, which is, according to the law, a crime. These leaks many times include confidential or top secret documents that somehow find their way to journalists and serve as a basis to their articles.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are many who believe that Kamm's sentence should be more severe. Moshe Goldbladt writes:

I hope that the State Attorney will not accept this absurd punishment that Anat Kamm received. In opposition to the judge ruling in the given verdict, the punishment reflects disrespect towards the state security.

Anat Kamm received the support of the left due to exposing “war crimes” - the claim is total babble - and glorified her for her motivation and ideology. When Kamm's lawyers saw that this heartens left wingers but doesn't help her, she started presenting herself as a young, confused girl who doesn't really understand the judges.

It is now time to stop playing hide-and-seek with Uri Blau and with Haaretz. The journalist, editor and everyone involved in receiving this classified material from Anat Kamm must stand before trial and pay a heavy price for their action. Also in this case we need to be talking about an active prison term for many years. Their claim for regularly having access to classified materials (as Raviv Druker suggests as a witness Kamm's trial) is exactly why they need to learn the consequences of breaking military field security laws in this country.

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While the Israeli economy is strong, unemployment is low, the shekel is powerful, foreign investment high and economic growth steady, Israelis from across the board have come together in protest against a higher ideal - not political and not necessarily demanding for a change in government.

This is a protest against what Israel has become, in the name of what it once was. It is an effort by the young Israelis to recapture an older, more egalitarian, more idealistic country that their parents lost. - Michael Walzer

Social justice protest, Tel Aviv, Israel. Image by tamirsher, copyright Demotix (06/08/11).

The J14 movement was initiated by a young Israeli woman named Daphni Leef who pitched a tent in the center of Tel Aviv three weeks ago (July 14th) in protest of the unaffordable cost of housing. It is one of the first prominent movements in recent times, that manages to bridge across political gaps within Israeli society. Ran cohen explains in a Tweet:

#j14 is a collective process of examining, discussing and challenging power structures within Israeli society.

In the following video Dafni is seen preaching to an enthusiastic crowd, at the early days of the protest. (translation from Hebrew below)

You (directed at Bibi/Israeli gov't) made this Facebook generation who sits on its ass all day, come out to the sizzling streets. We will make sure that this summer you will also feel the heat like in Spain, in Madrid. And if you won't be careful, we promise to protest like in Cairo. You can still fix. If you will not fix and continue to ruin, as far as I am concerned, you are fired. Friends, let's be strong, united and full of hope. We came to take our country back!

Israelis from all walks of life took to the streets too. Main narratives focus on restraining capitalism, and shifting the country back to a welfare state. Many claim that they give so much to the country without seeing returns.

Israelis chant: "Bring back the welfare state."

Elizabeth Tsurkov:

“Bring back the welfare state”. Many of the chants tonight called for a return to Israel's socialist days http://yfrog.com/z/h83w8kaj #j14

Although started by a group of politically left-leaning youth, its leaders are making an effort that the protests maintain a non-political character. Michael Waltzer offers a different perspective:

The uprising is a collective effort to escape the constraints and divisions of the Israeli debate about security, the nonexistent “peace process,” and the occupation. When the emerging leaders of the uprising insist that their protest is “non-political,” they mean that it's not about war and peace. They know, of course, that everything is connected, and that the difficulties they are experiencing are partly caused by massive state investment in the occupied territories. But they have their own dream of Zionist normality: they want to focus on their own lives and on the quality of domestic society…

The movement prides itself in its peaceful nature. We've seen little to no violence, which in the leader's opinion, highlights the power of the public involved. @ASoldiersMother posts:

I glory in the protests in Israel because they prove our democracy. Hundreds of thousands - no violence; police there to protect

There's been growing criticism against the movement for not having concrete demands. Social justice represents a multitude of issues, and one of their biggest struggles has been to come out with a clear, united voice. The following snippet is taken from a video interview where Dafni describes the movement's initial motivation:

We are left without homes. The goal is to bring prices back to the right proportions so that people can afford to rent or buy. This is not only an issue in Tel Aviv.
This is an optimistic protest. We want to be here. Don't want to leave the country. But its become impossible. At this rate, only the wealthy can stay here.

With the exponential growth in support across Israeli public, the J14 movement has utilized the social web as a means to host a public discussions. The main J14 website has updates and media from protests across the country, while its sister site, ohel.org.il is an interactive platform that encourages people to submit and vote up proposals and solutions. A variety of Facebook event pages send updates on current events, as well as a number of Twitter handles: @TLV_Revolution in Hebrew, @j14ar in Arabic, and @J14eng in English.

As a dual US-Israeli citizen, Idan Gazit shares his perspective:

Next time a Republican tells you about how the free market sorts everything out, next time they try to sell you on the evils of governmental “interference” in ensuring that no part of society ends up impoverished, tell them to look at Israel: it is their crystal ball.

There is nothing unpatriotic about thinking that our government should make sure that the lowest standard of living in our country is a standard that people can live with. There is nothing that says we must choose between what we have now and the 50+ percent tax rate of true socialist countries like Sweden.

Israel was born a socialist country, and to this day, we still enjoy vestiges of socialism in the form of universal healthcare which costs less every month than what I pay for my internet. The past decade has seen Israel's leaders discarding that legacy and importing the worst of America: materialism, unchecked capitalism, power as a function of money. I remember when cable TV first brought the outside world to Israel. I am old enough to have seen the changes wrought by Israeli's thirst for “America.”

This is the result. A government which is peopled with the worst criminals and liars our society has to offer, one of the fastest-growing, largest gaps between the wealthy and poor in history, and a population burnt out on the adrenaline jitters of a steady parade of security crises.

Sound familiar, right-wing America? Your crystal ball. We are it.

The following video montage includes scenes of the tent cities and protests sweeping throughout Israel, overlayed with the crowd chanting: “the people demand social justice”:

Finally, two Tweets worth highlighting:

David Harris-Gershon:

The question everyone on Twitter seems to be asking: how long can the #j14 protests go without explicitly addressing settlements/occupation?

Elizabeth Tsurkov:

Signs from Jaffa. Other chants: “Arabs & Jews refuse to be enemies” & “Arabs & Jews oppose house demolitions” http://yfrog.com/z/h8k2zwdj #j14

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@Strange_Sanum: Here we go again… lets blame Muslims for everything that goes wrong in the world.

She continued on to post a number of tweets using the #blamethemuslims hashtag:

@Strange_Sanum: I don't have a job. #blamethemuslims

The hashtag was adopted amongst her friends and followers, reaching high levels of participation which eventually caused the term to trend locally in the UK, and later globally. As we tend to see with topics that reach such a wide array of audiences, it was wholly taken out of context, leading to a plethora of frustrated users.

Some users sent Sanum hate messages and even death threats, while others took the hashtag seriously, and posted accusations towards Muslims. Conversation spun out of control, keeping the topic trending, as more users posted their thoughts and frustrations.

On her blog, Clare Neruda describes the irony of how people misinterpreted Sanum's original motivation:

Unfortunately it seems as though rather a lot of people just aren’t getting the joke. There have been many calls for twitter to ban the TT (and a strange amount of people who consider twitter’s allowing of the trend to be particularly unfair in relation to the recent banning of #justinbieber) and a number of people have voiced fears concerning possible repercussions. However the majority of the people who have utilised the hashtag seem to have done so purely to vent their anger about the perceived racism of the trend, without researching its origins before forming an opinion. Irony upon irony; the very thing Sanum seems to have been satirising has been replayed by millions in their misguided attempts to rid the (twitter)world of an ‘evil’ that is no more than a product of misinterpretation.

And here's a quote from Nabeela Zahir's interview of Sanum:

Sanum articulated that the popularity of the trend highlighted an underlying need to discuss the way in which Muslims are portrayed, as well as the rising popularity of right wing extremism throughout Europe. The reporting around the Oslo attacks, were part of a wider trend of portraying Muslims as aggressors and religious fundamentalists
“After 9/11 there was a shift in the way Muslims were referred to in the media, and how they were reported on. It became an issue about Islam, rather than deranged individuals who justify violence with religion. It’s continued ever since.”
Sanum hopes through comedy and satire she is able to show that there is more to Muslims than terrorism, by showing that Muslims can be funny too she believes people can begin to overcome misunderstandings about Islam.

Twitter has become an indispensable tool for information dissemination. But as we talk about the need for information verification, we must remember that context, or lack thereof, is another critical attribute that can easily get lost. #blamethemuslims is an example of an information cascade that starts with good intentions, and ends up being counterproductive. That said, it did a great job at maintaining people's attention on the topic.

@Strange_Sanum: this trending topic is bigger than me. its highlighting a growing prejudice against the muslim community.

Keep posting hashtags. But whatever you do, think twice before you #blamethemuslims.

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While Israeli media and politicians have jumped on the bandwagon, inviting Goldstone to Israel and amplifying certain aspects of the op-ed, there have been a plethora of interpretations disagreeing with the interpretation of Goldstone's intentions, and overall, the op-ed's implications on the validity of the UNHRC report.

Idan Landau questions the hypocricy in Israeli society, and the media “spin” the story has been receiving across Israeli mainstream media:

Whatever Goldstone writes, Israelis do not understand him. When he discussed witnesses of Israeli war crimes in his report, he was called an antisemite. Now, when he takes specific claims back, he is embraced as if a long lost son coming back to the motherland.

Idan urges his audience to read the actual op-ed and not second hand media “spins”. He continues:

Goldstone regrets one thing and favors another. He regrets blaming Israel for intentionally attacking civilians in Gaza, and supports the internal investigations conducted by the IDF…
The joyous calls this report aroused within Israels critics, will turn into victory cries by its supporters. All this media noise is missing the key point: the crimes themselves. The television studios will continue to discuss if there were intentions to harm citizens, or not. At the same time, Israel will continue to kill civilians in Gaza, without intent of course, kill fishermen in front of the Gaza shore, without intent of course, kill farmers in their fields, without intent of course, kill sick by delaying them, without intent of course, kill elderly in their bed while under arrest, without intent of course, and continue the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, with no one making any effort to come against it.

The common Israeli and American Jewish reaction was extremely supportive of judge Goldstone's retraction, though many claim that the “damage is already done”. Rick Moran writes:

If the Judge wants to do some good, he can start an international tour to make the points he does in his new article in venues around the world where the hatred of Israel only intensified as a result of his initial one sided report. That report created a moral equivalence between a civilized nation state defending its civilian population, and a murderous death cult fueled by Islamic extremism and anti-Semitism, whose rocket firing supported a long time goal of indiscriminate killing of Jews.

On a similar note, David Merhave writes:

Goldstone crossed the line. He gave international legitimacy to the fascist regime in Gaza. Although in Jewish spirit, giving respect for those with an answer not necessarily those who are righteous, we can forgive him. Question is if he takes one more step forward and declares his regret for “grazing in the enemy's fields”. Whats clear, is that this evil initiative - the Goldstone Report - has collapsed and disappeared.

David's post spawned a series of reactions.
Dan responds:

Maybe we should begin with the endless, repetitive stupidity of the Israeli government. Lack of strategic thought; reactionist instead of being pro-active. Lack of cooperation yields a heavy price in international relations. And then self-righteousness. One cannot run a country this way!

Meriap adds:

Goldstone is only one of the committee members. After it was published, Goldstone's opinion is a personal one. After you hear witnesses from Shovrim Shtika, you have no need for an int'l report. The operation's policy was to kill many Palestinians so that the rest will be deterred from shooting missiles… Its enough that a soldier thinks that a child in front of him can kill him, that he can shoot, justifying his fear at a later investigation. In the beginning of the operation, Israeli forces waited for Palestinian police to gather in order to kill as many as possible with one explosion.

Jerry Haber composes an insightful post on the +972 blog describing the Goldstone op-ed as misrepresented and misleading:

It is the unfortunate fate of Judge Richard Goldstone to be condemned and praised for what he doesn’t write. The responses to his op-ed in Washington Post from the Israel advocates are laughable. Even a superficial reading of the op-ed shows that he has not retracted a single comma in the Goldstone Report, nor does he express any regret for having written the report the way it was written. He simply says that had he known then what he knows now, the report would have been different.

A highly retweeted post by @NaomiAKlein engaged over 100 Twitter users to repost the same text:

About #Goldstone backtrack: the reason bullies bully is because it often works. Entire operation was collective punishment. #Gaza

The organization Im Tirtzu published a post titled “throwing the Goldstone Report into History's trash” - a call to action, for people to gather in front of Naomi Chazan's home (President of the New Israel Fund) in Jerusalem and demand Naomi Chazan and the Keren to publically apologize for taking part in Goldstone's fraudulent tales.

Dahlia Scheindlin asks if Israelis are missing the point? That even the best of “hasbara” (a.k.a “PR”) won't end their international woes. It's the policy:

The fetishization of the Goldstone episode won’t help a single soldier who saw combat in Gaza erase what he did or saw.
Nor will Israel’s Goldstone obsession make the world any more sympathetic to its failed policies. Just as the report did not cause Hamas to become suddenly circumspect about its terrible civilian attacks, the reservations about the report will not suddenly whitewash Israel’s behavior.
But maybe this latest development will finally prove something Israelis keep missing: even the most vindicating “hasbara” in the world won’t end Israel’s international trouble. It’s the policy, stupid.

Perhaps Goldstone will offer his explanation, and help the world understand his intent in publishing this op-ed. But until then, we'll be trying to makes sense of the discussions happening on blogs and in social media spaces.

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A man thanks Facebook and the Egyptian youth

In a post from early August, Hani writes a thoughtful critique of Rami Khouri's NYT op-ed in which Rami claims that, while we see a substantial rise in young bloggers from Morocco, Iran and Egypt, they have not triggered any significant signal or lasting change in Arab or Iranian political culture. He continues, blaming technology for “shifting the individual from the realm of participant to the real of spectator, from what would otherwise be an act of political activism, to an act of passive, harmless personal entertainment.”

Hani argues against this claim, providing the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt and the Iranian Green Revolution as prime examples of political activism movements that heavily relied on social media to mobilize, publicize and organize almost all aspects of their activities. He continues to talk about the incremental form of change brought on by social media:

Did “tangible change” come about as a result of these social media-fueled movements? Depends on how you define “tangible change”, but my answer would be yes. Khouri’s definition of change seems to be about the immediate form of it,  that of traditional coups and revolutions, and in assuming this to be his definition, it is not difficult to see why he is disappointed.

Technology-driven activism is not necessarily about short-term, abrupt change (which, histrionically, has been seen to do more harm than good), but rather about the incremental form of change. It is about the dissemination of ideas and the stirring active and inclusive societal dialogue about the requisite form of change and the means by which it should be brought about.

In a post from February 15th, Hani brings up Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker post “Does Egypt need Twitter?” in which Gladwell makes an argument that social media is not necessary for revolutions. Hani asks if Gladwell is answering the wrong question (Is social media necessary for popular uprising?) while missing the more important question: Is digital activism a true catalyst for social change?

He continues:

Indeed, the revolt of the oppressed is inevitable, notwithstanding the availability of social media tools, but it is not a question of necessity, but one of effect.

In other words, perhaps it could be argued that the current wave of uprisings and protests  in the Middle East would have eventually happened given the aging, coercive non-democratic patriarchal regimes that dominate the region. Nonetheless, to use a Gladwellian term, the “tipping point” of this dominos effect (Tunisia, Egypt, now Algeria, Bahrain  and Jordan in progress) would have been much further down the road. These uprisings would have been disconnected and far between if social media tools were to be taken out of the equation. Strangely, Gladwell posits that social activism requires “strong ties“, then dismisses the role of social media in fostering and enriching such ties not only within nations, but across borders as is the case with the Middle East right now.

In a follow up post, Hani describes a coercive regime's fear of open dialogue:

One of any coercive regime’s worst fears is a rich, open public dialogue on change and reform. When people start candidly discussing and debating their concerns, hopes and dreams, they begin to be aware of their true priorities and rights, and what must be done to reclaim those rights. Walls of fear begin to crumble. The regime’s cautionary myth of trading security and stability for freedom shatters.

Hani continues to talk about the role social media played in reviving a dormant public consciousness into a dynamic social discourse in Egypt. He describes the long-term influence of social media, since the faux presidential elections of 2005:

The assumption that social media’s largest influence was during or shortly before the 18 days in which Mubarak’s regime was brought down is very naive. This has been simmering under the surface of the Egyptian political scene for a while, particularly since the Presidential “elections” of 2005. The boiling point was reached on January 25th 2011. What I refer to here as the virtualization of dissent is what happened when the popular desire for change was shifted from real space, where it was in long somnolence, and cultivated it in a space that the Patriarchs do not understand: virtual space. Faced with something they could not yet comprehend neither the workings nor the effects of, the best the regime could do was detain and intimidate, and ultimately completely shut down the medium when the revolution broke out (a move which only betrayed how weak they have become and added fuel to the fire). They never really attempted to understand this medium and instigate their own countermeasures in “virtual space”, much to their own peril.

This virtualization of dissent from real space to virtual space is key to understanding impact of Social Media in Egypt. According to Hani, the old patriarchs did not attempt to understand this new digital medium, and thus did not instigate countermeasures as they do in “physical space.”

Finally, Hani notes that the instigators of the Egyptian riots are not particularly representative of the vast majority of Egyptians. These are young, educated, tech-savvy, upper-middle class individuals. They are not the truly oppressed masses, but rather speak for all of Egypt. They do this by taking the war for reform to their virtual turf, away from the regime's clamp down on political action, and then funneling it back to the physical world in the form of a mighty wave of revolt.

To understand what this means, take a quick look at the demographics of a random sample of Egyptian “net activists”: young, educated, tech-savvy middle/upper-middle class (as compared to a country with a 42% illiteracy rate, for instance). In other words, those are not the truly oppressed masses, especially from an economic sense. This minority, however, spoke for all of Egypt…
They have  reclaimed Egypt!

Photo made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Generic license (CC by 2.0) by Monasosh

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This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

Image by Antonio Ordóñez Forero CC By

Twitter has played an instrumental role in keeping the world abreast of the latest developments in Egypt, where demonstrations against the 30-year rule of president Hosni Mubarak have entered their fourth day.

The following widget shows Twitter content mentioning the hashtag #jan25 over the last three days, and are all related to terms mentioned in people's Twitter messages:

One of the most commonly shared terms ‘Tear Gas' spiked earlier today when the armed forces utilized tear gas bombs, along with rubber bullets, against the crowds in the streets:

Al Jazeera has been playing a key role in covering the events as they unfolded, broadcasting live from Cairo:

The United Arab Emirate's @sultanalqassemi is one of the key Twitter users spreading realtime updates from across Egypt:

As the effects of the demonstrations spread across the region, we see a huge spike in Twitter data because of an unconfirmed claim that Internet has been blocked in Syria:

Stay tuned for more stories, reactions and analysis from Egypt.

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

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The blackout on the Internet in Egypt was supposed to thwart efforts to let the world know what was happening on the ground, as massive demonstrations against president Hosni Mubarak enter their fourth day. This attempt has failed as the tweets covering the unfolding events in Egypt continued to dominate our Twitterfeed.

As the situation across Egypt intensifies, here's a round up of updates streaming in from Twitter.

A roundup of Twitter posts coming in from sources in Cairo

@alaa: this is the biggest test for the revolution now, will people be able to ignore the curfew? #Jan25

@alaa: police withdrawing and army deploying I'm worried no one knows what this really means #Jan25

@SultanAlQassemi: BREAKING: AL Jazeera Curfew now in Greater Cairo, Alexandria & Suez. #Jan25

@Jan25voices: Live Phonecall: Nile Bridge Closed, El Gamaa bridge closed, Abbas Bridge closed. Trying to divide apart city. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt

@jonjensen: Things have changed in Cairo. Tens of thousands, maybe 20, have taken midan Galaa in Dokki across from Sheraton. #Jan25 #Egypt

@jonjensen: Cairo smells like tear gas today. My colleagues are reporting severe police beatings, rubber bullets fired. I have not seen this. #Jan25

@Jan25voices: Live Phonecall: reports that powerful, painful water canons are in wide use at Syeda Zainab (poorer neighborhood)#jan25 #jan28 #Egypt

@Jan25voices: Live Phonecall: Balconies filled with people watching. People are going down into the street left and right. #jan25 #jan28 #Egypt

A roundup of Twitter posts coming in from Suez:

@BreakingNews: Egyptians carry the dead body of a protester through Suez after clashes with police, shouting ‘They have killed my brother' - Reuters

@Dima_Khatib: protesters in Suez have taken control of downtown Army Street. They carry arms that they got from police who pulled out #egypt #jan25

@SultanAlQassemi: Al Jazeera breaking: Protesters take control of parts of Suez & Egyptian security forces are retreating. #Jan25

Updates from Alexandria:

@SultanAlQassemi: Amazing development: Al Jazeera reports that a police officer unit refused orders to fire tear gas bombs at protesters in Alexandria. #Jan25

@AngryArabNews: Alexandria has been liberated: Aljazeera is reporting that police and army withdrew from streets of Alexandria a… http://bit.ly/gu7idh

Protests Spreading Around the Region:

@SultanAlQassemi: Breaking Al Arabiya: Syria suspends internet services

@Esperanza82: Protest in Jeddah #Saudi start by a Woman chanting: “Al-Saud is the Greatest Demon” Riot police surrounding area #Jan25 #Arab #Solidarity

@nmoawad: Protest tomorrow in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut at 3pm #Lebanon - send to all groups

@zainalabidean: Started from Tunisia, Yemen and now Egypt…like virus .. who next ???

@rolandsiebelink: Protests in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt… It sounds exactly like Eastern Europe in 1989. Is the Arab world on its own wave of democratization?

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

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This is a summary of Israeli perspectives, blog posts, and media shared online over the last two days, in reaction to the unrest in Egypt. Referenced by Israeli sources as the ‘Egypt Intifada', bloggers are looking closely at the spread of the violence into Sinai and the possibility of igniting violence in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank.

The recent JCPA post by Zvi Mazael describes Tunisia's domino effect and its spread in the region:

Egypt has a strong and stable government. Every political analyst starts with those words. This is true until the circumstances change, and they have. We are seeing a wholly new condition in Egypt and the Arab world. Tunisia's domino effect is alive and kicking. Tunisia's people's revolution is spreading like fire in a thorn field through the region.

Tzvi continues, describing the hesitant Egyptian opposition:

The large opposition parties have not called out to join the demonstrations and have not backed them. The Muslim Brotherhood announced that “a few of their leaders” will participate in riots in a symbolic way. It is known that the Egyptian security forces have warned the Brotherhood's leaders around the country from calling their supporters to join the riots. However it seems like the Muslim Brotherhood leadership is motivated by a different set of considerations, and estimate that it is not yet time to confront the leadership.

How does all this affect Israel and the US? Tzvi writes:

What does this mean for Israel and the USA, who have been worriedly following the turn of events, and are fearing for the stability of Egypt? It is still difficult to predict.
With that, it is important to state that up until now, neither Israel nor the USA have been mentioned in the demonstrations. Egyptians took the streets for democracy, human rights and to improve their living conditions. A new gov't will need to make economic and social reforms. American support will be more necessary than ever.
Additionally, there's no reason for Egypt to harm the existing peace agreement with Israel. I may be wrong, but it is without a doubt that the Tunisian revolution changed the Arab world. We will see the outcomes in the upcoming months.

The popular forum site, rotter.net, has been hosting a number of discussions about the events in Egypt.
As the fighting in the Sinai Peninsula spreads, an unconfirmed post claims protesters have taken over gov't facilities in Northern Sinai:

The link mentioned in the Tweet above, hosts a conversation describing the possibility that riots may fuel an uprising in Gaza:

Spread of the riots into sinai can bring the fire of demonstrations into the Gaza strip. Hamas might be tempted to think that it can help the people in their resistance towards the central gov't. It is also possible that terrorists operating under Al-Quaeda will try to send armed forces to operate in Sinai to add to the chaos in Egypt. I have no doubt that in this case, the Egyptians will react mercilessly. It it clear to them and to Hamas.
Hamas will allow itself to operate only if it is sure that the Egyptian wheel has turned, and that the gov't is dying.

In that same forum thread, a number of users portray their thoughts:

If he'd use even a little bit of the force that his army is capable of, the demonstrations would have stopped. I'm not trying to discount the riots, but only when the army switches to the opposition, will it be the beginning of the end of Egypt's current regime.
We're not there yet.

Another post describes recent actions the Egyptian religion ministry has taken in preparation for tomorrow's planned demonstrations:

- the religion ministry will postpone the Friday prayers to Sunday
- the Egyptian gov't is planning to disconnect internet connectivity in the whole of Egypt if the situation deteriorates tomorrow
- unverified information states Mubarak has taken command over the Egyptian security forces. In preparation for tomorrow he commanded that the army is ready to replace police forces across cities in Egypt.
- Egyptian gov't ordered media blackout tomorrow. Communications, water and electricity will be shut off.

Video footage posted on the Israeli video sharing site flix:

Two Israelis on holiday in Egypt who were caught in the heat of events reported by +972 Magazine:

When we suggested to an Egyptian friend affected by teargas that he buy onions and use it to diminish the affect of the gas, as we do in Israel and the Occupied Territories, he laughed. He then explained his salary is about 300 Egyptian pounds, and one kilo of onions is three pounds.
We got back to our hotel after being at the demonstrations all through the day. During the night, we could hear the protest continuing – people screaming and police vehicles driving through the streets.
This morning we woke up to find  the streets were quiet and full of policemen, but the Facebook page of the anti-government movement was very much alive.

We would be lying if we said we did not envy the Egyptian people: Seeing masses of people out on the streets to protest for what they believe in is something we, as Israelis, can only dream of now. And it is truly frightening to think that similar masses of Israelis will act only when have experienced the levels of oppression and rage that people are experiencing here.

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

Written by Gilad Lotan · comments (3)
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Attempts to enforce recognition of Israel as uniquely Jewish have been deeply controversial, particularly among Israel's Arab citizens, who make up a fifth of the country's population. Some claim Bibi Netanyahu is playing straight into the hands of Avigdor Lieberman's nationalist party doctrine. Other logic seems to be “we must demand from ourselves what Israel is asking others to recognize”, referencing Israel's request from the Palestinians to recognize it as a Jewish nation-state. Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni condemned the cabinet's approval, describing it as “politics at its worst” and “political horse-trading”.

In a blog post about the topic, Orit Kamir reminds us that such laws were previously banned:

There are Democratic countries that request a loyalty oath from new citizens; immigrants asking to receive citizenship. There are countries that request new citizens to study their culture, history and language. These are fair and desired requests. The State of Israel does not do this, because it provides automatic citizenship to Jews, not asking them for anything except their religion.

Historic reminder: In the 80's, Meir Kahana called against the declaration of the state, requesting to cancel the section boasting equality ('a State for all its citizens'), to leave only a zionist, religious and non-democratic declaration. His party was outlawed, and he was publically condemned. What happened that 20 years later we don't see the latent danger in precisely this move?

The following Facebook group has been gathering Israelis to rally against the law. Following is an excerpt of a conversation between Israeli group members and Israeli opponents:

Dean Michaely writes:

You guys don't accept Israel as a Jewish and democratic state? You don't accept the Israeli declaration of independence? So leave this place.
Because all we're doing, like every country in the world, especially a country in such critical state as ours, is requesting a loyalty oath from our citizens. The reason is simple - people receive citizenship here and then blow themselves up or shoot in public, and claim that they don't accept this country's right to exist. We we can do here is initial filtering, for the benefit of accepting our country and its nature - Jewish and democratic.

Barak Granot adds a sarcastic response:

When was the last time that you saw someone blow up or shoot here? Baruch Goldstein was a long time ago. Also the Rabbi Uzi Meshulam. Maybe you mean the underground crime organizations that blow up cars? Or maybe you're talking about Eden Natan Zadeh who started shooting in an Arab-Israeli town? But wait… these are all wholly Israeli citizens. So what exactly are you claiming?

Daniel Oz adds:

Its Bibi & Lieberman who don't accept Israel as Jewish and Democratic, otherwise they wouldn't propose this fascist law, that conveys a lack of confidence in Israel's Jewish nature and is, in effect, an attempt to cancel the democracy in order to support a national-racial Jewish population.

Ziv Gur-arye writes:

We have a country with many people (not only Arabs) who do not recognize it and are loyal to those who are currently enemies of the State (although we'd be thrilled if in the future they will change their ways, even though the chances are tiny given the complete control of Hamas in Gaza).
Only those who see themselves as Israeli should live here. The State of Palestine will rise in the future, and there all those who see themselves as Palestinians will live. In the USA and other countries people must declare their loyalty to the state. Why are there extremists that are against this proposal?
If you are really devoted to preserving the democracy, you need to respect the oath and request to apply it to every Israeli citizen, regardless of sex or race.

Dean posts an additional response:

Barak you are wrong about many things. Israel was given to the Jews and Palestine to the Palestinians. The reason that Arabs stay here is the fact that government stipends are excellent, much more than they'd receive in any other Arab state.

Daniel Oz - this is not a fascist law proposal. It exists in many other countries that are not fascist. This is a democratic, Jewish country - not democratic muslim. This is the nature of the country if we like it or not.

And by the way, the proposal passed a democratic vote, just like the cancellation of the Turkish constitution… Please welcome Bibi for the democratic nature of this proposal.

Following are two posts from Twitter:

assiazar writes:

Without loyalty, there's no citizenship. We will pay for this sentence.

Irwunsch retweets a post by sethacohen33:

Bradley Burston compiles a list of things you can do to help prevent the law:

The law must have the support of the Likud [27 seats] and Labor [13] in order to pass. Write to Prime Minister and Likud Chair Benjamin Netanyahu and to Defense Minister and Labor Chair Ehud Barak to urge them to bar the bill from passage. The individual e-mail addresses of all Likud MKs may be found by clicking their names on the Knesset website. Senior Likud MKs Benny Begin, Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan, as well as Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin have already spoken out strongly against the Loyalty Oath. Others are believed to have serious reservations, and may be persuaded to abstain or work to keep the bill from reaching the Knesset floor.

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First, some context:
According to media reports, Saber Kushour introduced himself to a Jewish woman as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The couple then went to a nearby building and had consensual sexual intercourse, after which Kushour left the building. When the woman realised Kushour was an Arab, she filed a complaint against him.
Saber Kushour was sentenced to 18 months in prison under charges of rape by deception.

Below is a comment written in response to an article posted on the popular news portal, walla.co.il:

Saber Kushour wanted to be a human being, just a person, like us all. But he wasn't so lucky and was born Palestinian. Happens. His chances to be accepted as a human being in Israel are zero. Married and a father of two, he wanted to work in Jerusalem, his city, and maybe even have a little affair or quicky on the side. This also happens. And then he decided to rape a Jewish girl… happens!

The court took a hard line with his punishment, not because he raped a Jewish girl, but because he is Arab and raped a Jewish girl.

The majority of comments seen on the popular news site nrg were strongly opposing the court's decision:
1.

I support the right wing, but I think that in this case, they should've sentenced her for racism.
What if he would've told her that he was rich? He'd also get a year and a half because she had sex with him when she thought he was wealthy?

The ruling in this case really lost proportion - he did not use force, and she was not subject to his authority in any way. There needs to be a clear separation between lies and rape!

2.

And if he had pretended to be Mormon or Buddhist or an atheist? Would he still sit in jail for a year and a half? This verdict comes straight from the Jewish theory of master race. A ruling for the purity of a race by the judges. How many Jews bring in women to their beds by presenting false facts and sweet lips? Thousands! I am ashamed and shocked. This is the beginning of the end of the racial country… what have we reached?

3.

Before she sleeps with someone in a building's stairwell… she should check who he is. This is not the judge's job. And to the Arab issue, this is really racist!

4. Avi wrote:

Tomorrow I'll lie to someone that I'm Ashkenazi and not Yemenite… and this will be rape by deceit??
This is racism! There's nothing else here. This is a shame for the State of Israel, that hosts racist legislation! Scary to live in this country… Cancel the charges!

5. Raffi added a snarky comment:

She dyed her hair, and I thought it was real… Oh, and she also wore a black piece of clothing which made her look skinnier than she really is. She totally tricked me! Had I know, I wouldn't have slept with her - she totally neutralized my ability to resist… RAPE!!!!

On the other hand, an anonymous post supported the case:

She wanted a romantic connection only with Jews, and had intercourse with a non Jew by deception.
She has all the rights to choose with whom she can have a connection and a relationship, just like a Muslim woman can choose to have a relationship only with another Muslim. He lied about his ethnic origin in order to sleep with her.
This is certainly rape - because she knew exactly what she wanted, and also knew exactly what she didn't want.
To lie callously in order to take advantage of a woman and receive personal pleasure is an incredibly despicable act.

In a blog post referencing a news article from ynet, a blogger added the following image,

Translation: Arab! Don't even dare to think about a Jewish woman!

and sparked an extremely active and hateful discussion in the comments section. The following post came against the hateful messages proceeding it:

Its not right what he did, but why do you all think you're better than the Arabs? All this racism is ruining the country. He is just a man with a bad heart, his origin is not relevant. If he'd been Jewish he would've been ok? NO!
There's no right to curse Arabs, because this is precisely what leads them to curse us! If we act this way, how are we different?
We're all human beings.

Orit Kamir writes about Saber Kushour, Rape by Deception:“the Arab who Pretended to be a Man”:

A man and a woman met up in the street. After a few minutes chat, they were on their way to have sex. The woman agreed that the man take off her clothing in an elevator in a building in the middle of the city - agreeing to have sex on the rooftop. This is a wholly legal development, legitimate and legal. However, is this indicating that the woman truly asked for a romantic connection that will lead, perhaps, to marriage?
This represents a women who asked for a sexual encounter with a stranger whom she met in the street.
He did not hit her nor did he steal her money.

Under the circumstances of this case, it is unreasonable to charge this man for rape under criminal law, nor to convict him of rape, or give him 18 months in jail.

Would he have been accused had he been a married Jewish man who wasn't interesting in a long lasting relationship? We don't know. Possibly. But Kushour reached an agreement, and the court simply approved it. We should certainly point the blame at the legislative body. The Israeli law does not allow a Jewish woman to marry a Muslim man. This is why it is “natural” and “logical” for Israelis that a Jewish Israeli woman will not want to have an “affair” with an Israeli Arab - because such a connection cannot lead to marriage. This is why his deception on this point is fundamental to the argument. Here, the fix needs to come by means of legislation. In Israel, like other civilized country, we need to support civil marriage. We need to allow any person to marry another person. Then there will be no logic supporting the claim that since a person is from another nationality, he is “off limits” for any connection that might lead to marriage.

Written by Gilad Lotan · comments (1)
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In her post, Ilya asks who is guilty?

The fighters are not guilty, I would also shoot to defend my life. But who sent them to capture a Turkish boat in the midst of international waters, when resistance was an obvious fact?? That person has to pay the price. This person is called our Defense Minister and the other Government ministers. How could they send our fighters to this operation?

Ilya was certainly not the only one blaming Ehud Barak for the outcome of the operation. Amitai posted the following photo of protesters around Israel have been calling for his resignation:

Vika, a 19-year-old Israeli currently serving in the IDF asks what other countries would have done under the circumstances:

Before other countries around the world open their mouth, they need to think what they would do in our situation. Would they let unchecked boats dock, unload aid, and in the aid receive bombs day and night? Or would these countries have also stopped the boats, checked them and attacked if it were necessary?

ygurvitz writes an angry critique against the IDF generals:

Coordinate your lies, you are pathetic! All day yesterday the Navy commanding officer, major general Eli Marom, the defense minister, IDF communication corps and others wined about how they were really surprised, that they didn't think this will turn out this way, that the foragers expected to get a cup of refreshing tea once on board the boat, and all of a sudden - boom! clubs, knives, an iron rod that looked like a gun, and - Blast! Nine killed and many wounded.

And that was done strenuously to sound convincing, except the fact that last week the same group of commanders warned that on board the Marmara there are people who belong to terrorist organizations, supporters of Al-Qaeda, clingons, Hamas and other bad spirits - this was published last Thursday!!! - “there is big threat that a terrorist activity will be triggered from the boats” and that “we want to avoid using force but if there's a life threatening situation for our forces we will need to use live fire, as a means of last resort.”

Another blogger is highly critical of what Israeli society is becoming:

…The real worrying issue, is the fact that such a pathetic failure (for IDF) can raise such strong empathetic feelings for Israelis. There are people who falsely define operation “cast lead” as a war, because they think that a military operation in which we crush citizen infrastructure and are hurt from our own fire is an event we must feel proud of. I'm not against “cast lead”, but talking about our national pride, about the love and hugs we send to soldiers who are dragged into these events. These are not real wars, and not battles. They are a demonstration of power by the strongest thug in the neighborhood. Sometimes this is necessary and justified, and sometimes it is wild behavior, like an attacking dog that has no owner.

Israeli society is becoming fascist, and everyone knows this. If you haven't noticed that you live under a semi-militaristic regime, It is probably because you like it, or that you are not interested in what's going on outside your bubble. Everyone knows that violence has been chewing at the basis of Israeli democracy for many years. Like a neglected gum infection, the day when teeth begin to drop out is coming closer. Everyone knows that for many to be suspected of supporting the left is almost enough to be placed on trial, and soon supporting the left will be outlawed. And I'm even not a supporter of the left! I'm merely a worried citizen. Worried for the future of freedom in our country, the future of sanity. And in days like these I ask myself what future does Israel hold for normal people? People with simple ambitions: freedom, knowledge and quality of life. And then I think about what future they have outside of Israel, and understand there is none. Because this country made sure that all the world's most violent hooligans will hate us to their bones.

Once, in order to keep people in a country, you would set them up with a mortgage.
Now they are set up with a pool of alligators.

Uri Heitner points a blaming finger at Egypt, who has also been supporting the blockade on Gaza:

Today, like every day, there's no blockade over Gaza. Tens of trucks from Israel provide supplies, food and medicine. There is a marine seige, meant to prevent the transfer of weapons and artillery to Hamas. One can argue about the effectiveness of the blockade. I've recently thought about its effectiveness. There's no doubt that morally, the siege is justified. There's no doubt that it should not be called a “blockade”.

If there is truly a blockade on Gaza, we must blame Egypt. The Egyptians are Arabs - brothers of Gaza residents. There's no kidnapped Egyptian soldier held by Hamas. Hamas does not launch missiles towards Egyptian cities. If Egypt closes its borders with Gaza (unreasonably supported by Israel), why do they come to Israel with complaints? As if Israel's duty is to support the enemy that's harming it?

The one that launched the flotilla knew very well that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. However they did know that a “humanitarian” flotilla by “peace activists” aimed at “breaking the siege” is a provocation that will harm Israel's international legitimacy. In a wholly wrong decision, Israel played to the hands of its proponents and was dragged to a provocation, and so damaged itself. There's a place for a public conversation about that decision.

Lior, a 15-year-old high school student describes her frustration with the Israeli lack of ability to acknowledge just how wrong the operation was:

No, I'm not leftist. I don't want to argue about all the racist right-wing opinions that are happening here now. I also watched TV and saw a protester shout and threaten that someone needs to destroy Israel. I was also shocked and stressed. But again, I think no one here came our just. Especially not us. And we need to cope with this bitter truth. Our reaction was out of line. They were also violent. But this whole event could've been avoided.

So difficult to acknowledge that we were simply wrong? That we “fell to our low”? We proved to other countries just how baldy we handle this. Every person here thinks they know more than the other, but nobody will tell me exactly what happened that day.

LittleD thinks otherwise:

I'm immersed all day reading articles about what happened on the Marmara. If until today I thought myself to be center to right wing supporter, then today I say without hesitation that extreme right suits me much better.
The storm that came after the events on the Marmara simply opened my eyes.
What we did there, on that boat, was totally justified. Every democratic country would have done the exact same thing. The difference is that the Soldier's intentions were not to use violence, but just stop the boat from reaching its target. But they were confronted with violence, and protecting their lives, had to react.

According to 17-year-old ‘Melodrama' the thing that Israelis really seek is peace and quiet:

People around the world don't understand that all we want is to live in peace and quiet, just like them.
But we can't. Because we have, unlike them, terrorist actions, wars and missiles aimed at us.
People here don't know what quiet is.
And they (outsiders) don't know what the army is like. When at 18, they go to college parties to hookup with girls, they will never ever grasp what we do here at that age.
Never.
Because they didn't grow up with it.
Didn't grow up within it.
And they need to be quiet and say thank you for having what we will never have - quiet!!

And last but not least, a poetic post by a blogger named Bakster:

I've experience peace within my skin.
And I want everyone to feel it.
I experienced it with music, but it was peace.
I felt it.

I talked with a Palestinian girl, who was listening to Orphaned Land (Israeli metal band),
Their situation was much worse than ours.
But we talked.
And she explained her situation, and I told her about my land.
And we talked about music.

Not once and not twice in the midst of our conversation we said “to think that I'm supposed to hate you!”

I don't know what's going on with her, haven't heard from her for a while,
But I've understood that the situation there is dire.

We need peace.
I'm not asking left/right if they want,
I'm setting a fact.
And it has been engraved on the rocks for many years now.
We need peace.
Need it here.
Right here.

Keep sending links our way.
And thanks for your support!

Written by Gilad Lotan · comments (6)
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The flotilla orgnizers, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and the world at large is witnessing the sheer power of the flow of information. Most importantly, they are realizing that in this day and age, its flow is impossible to block. Social media tools like Twitter and Facebook create immediate channels that give any user the ability post a message, friction free, and at little to no cost. Once online, messages can easily be passed on, through networks of friends and followers, mostly seen by a few, but sometimes reaching millions.

The term ‘Flotilla‘ has been trending on Twitter for 20 hours over the past day and a half. This in itself, is a huge victory for its organizers, and the Free Gaza movement. The implications of a topic trending globally are immense: massive visibility and attention. Tens of thousands of messages posted within hours, over half of them include links to websites.

When planning the operation, IDF placed an emphasis on making sure no updates would leak from the activists during the operation by means of electronic warfare. Israel was to be the first to deliver news on the turnout of events. Their intent was to block all forms of communication coming from the activist boats and let a group of journalists onboard the Israeli boats be the first to report to the world. To their chagrin, their plan did not succeed.

Avraham Pechter argues that Israel should have opened its communication channels ahead of time:

IDF should have started the operation with a continuous and open communication wave on TV and radio, accompanied by journalists that joined the forces. Describing the events in realtime to the whole world would prove IDF's claims - faced with a violent, organized trap that reached a life threatening situation necessitated opening fire - justified given the circumstances. Adding international journalists would have neutralized the worldwide hostility…

Yoni Ben-Menachem adds:

Its time to reorganize Israel's communications strategy, otherwise Israel will fight the de-legitimization happening against it with “empty hands”. Its time to crumble existing systems, waiting will cause further harm to Israel.

Roni writes:

Playing the provocateur's game - that's the biggest weakness. Israeli failed miserably with regards to PR. The foreign ministry, headed by one of the biggest militants our country ever saw, should be in charge of this subject. From reading newspapers around the world, all us Israelis seem like we support the operation. We have no right to act surprised that the world hates us - since there was no effort made at trying to explain our stance, or to compromise. When you look at the cold facts, Israel seems aggressive, illogical and fundamentalist. The problem with this government and country, and the extremists leading us to total loss, don't understand that we also need to get along with the world, not only fortify our opinions and say that we are right no matter what everyone else thinks.

Twitter is not popularly used by the mainstream in Israel, but has been adopted by Government offices and officials (@IsraelMFA, @IsraelConsulate, @Tzipi_Livni) and media outlets (@Haaretz, @liquid_rotter, @galey_zahal). Out of those posting on Twitter in Hebrew, many rephrase the media headlines like ephic:

RT @nrgcoil the cabinet: intercepting the flotilla - self defence against Hamas: at the end of a discussion on the IDF operation against the activist boats heading towards Gaza http://bit.ly/aPQmOL

Some chose snarky cynicism:
romanrap:

Who is supporting to send a humanitarian flotilla to help the kurds or armenians in Turkey? And of course, not stop when asked to. And if possible, place some clubs and knives on board.

And some provided critique:
dkapuchino:

Israeli shouldn't have been on that boat, and in any case, the Gaza siege is ridiculous. We should respond to violence with *full* force, but the flotilla was not violent.

Facebook is substantially more popular within Israel. Over the past couple days Facebook has been used to host discussions within profile pages and group pages. One Facebook group called to show support for the IDF and a smaller one gathered people who were calling for Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak to resign. One of the largest groups (40,000 members) is pledging Israelis to support a boycott of Turkish goods, and includes the slogan: “I am not selling my national pride for a $500 all inclusive deal”.

Amir Mizroch writes about the power of the ‘#' sign versus the ‘$' sign, emphasizing Israel's lack of ability to prepare suitable communications:

Israeli commandos may not have known that members of the Free Gaza flotilla were carrying knives, guns, and metal bars. But they should have known that many in the incoming flotilla were armed with cameras, cell phones, blogs and Twitter accounts. For a country so technologically advanced, and with such acute public diplomacy challenges, to fail so miserably at preparing a communications offensive over new media is a failure of strategic proportions…

Social media is cheap and is antithetical to centralized bodies and subverts their authority. It is, so far, proving to be one of the asymmetrical weapons of choice for grassroots activists…

While Israel is justifiably known as the world’s “Start-up Nation” for its technological dynamism and entrepreneurship, we are being beaten hands down on the PR uses of this new technology. We may be a start up nation, but we are bricks and mortar communicators. Our adversaries have cntrl-alt-deleted us.

Kiwi tech blogger Luke Appleby describes the important role technology played:

the role of technology in this episode can't be overlooked - in fact, it was crucial.
It further demonstrates the impact social media and portable devices can have in aiding the free flow of information, especially in alerting the world to governmental actions, policies and decisions.
People are becoming selective in what they believe, taking information from a vast array of sources and making up their own minds, and that has to be a good thing.
The world is entering a new age - an age of accountability, rapid circulation and global connectivity. There is always someone watching, tweeting, blogging or uploading.

An interesting and relevant comment thread followed his post.
comment 1:

in regards to the technology, I agree with above comments - information is still bias and without an understanding of the wider context of the situation opinions are cheap.

comment 2:

These networks definitely work to the advantage of people trying to get a message out, but they are not necessarily high quality reports. They're likely to be biassed in favour of the reporter. I am not backing the Isrealis or anything, but the picture is still far too confusing to draw any conclusions.
However the vast amount of “information”, mostly trite, tends to bury the important stuff. After a few hours it has been wiped from the social consciousness.
Perhaps this is one reason why the Isrealis boarded so far off shore. Close inshore means more phones etc working making it easier to send voice/pictures/video. Far offshore limits the communications to specialised gear like sat phones etc.

Perhaps that is why Israel chose to intercept the boats in international waters. But the actual reason is still unknown.
As the activists reach their home countries, I am sure we will start receiving more information about what happened. Help us unveil all the pieces of information from the many sides of the story and keep sending us links to perspectives that have not been heard or highlighted.

Written by Gilad Lotan · comments (1)
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Many posts paint the following image: “IDF soldiers descend on activist aid boat killing 9 and wounding many.” While these words are nominally true, the statement is overly simplified and lacking context. In the following post I hope to provide context and highlight a diverse set of perspectives from Israeli local media and the Hebrew blogosphere. I hope that you will learn that the outcomes are certainly not black and white; that a day like this actually tears Israeli society apart.

The dire outcomes of today's operation will leave a dark stain on Israel's future. It might be remembered as the day that Israel witnessed its biggest PR disaster yet. It will also be remembered as the day in which Israel-Turkey relationship took yet another hit, where Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel, called for an emergency UN session and even flights between Tel-Aviv and Istanbul effectively halted.

So what exactly happened?

The Operation

The Flotilla expedition left for Gaza a couple of days ago. Israel continuously offered to transfer the goods via land through the Israeli port of Ashdod. After repeated declines, Israel forces decided to intercept the flotilla before it comes any closer to the Gaza shore. As IDF soldiers descend onto the ship, they are ‘attacked with clubs and long knives‘ and come close to a lynch by the mob of passengers. Watch this hair-raising documentation of the soldiers being beaten as they descend onto the boat's rooftop:

As the fighting intensified, IDF officials claim there was little choice but to use live ammunition. Here's a translation of the complete series of events described by Ron Ben Yishai, and Israeli journalist who was present on one of the IDF boats during the operation:

The original plan was to disembark on the top deck, and from there rush to the vessel’s bridge and order the Marmara’s captain to stop.

Officials estimated that passengers will show slight resistance, and possibly minor violence; for that reason, the operation’s commander decided to bring the helicopter directly above the top deck. The first rope that soldiers used in order to descend down to the ship was wrested away by activists, most of them Turks, and tied to an antenna with the hopes of bringing the chopper down.

Navy commandos slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.
 
However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.

One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandos were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other “don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” even though they sustained numerous blows.

The planned rush towards the vessel’s bridge became impossible, even when a second chopper was brought in with another crew of soldiers. The forces hurled stun grenades, yet the rioters on the top deck, whose number swelled up to 30 by that time, kept on beating up about 30 commandos who kept gliding their way one by one from the helicopter. At one point, the attackers nabbed one commando, wrested away his handgun, and threw him down from the top deck to the lower deck, 30 feet below. The soldier sustained a serious head wound and lost his consciousness.

Only after this injury did IDF troops ask for permission to use live fire. The commander approved it. The soldiers pulled out their handguns and started shooting at the rioters’ legs, a move that ultimately neutralized them. Meanwhile, the rioters started to fire back at the commandos.

During the commotion, another commando was stabbed with a knife. In a later search aboard the Marmara, soldiers found caches of bats, clubs, knives, and slingshots used by the rioters ahead of the IDF takeover. It appeared the activists were well prepared for a fight. Only after a 30-minute shootout and brutal assaults using clubs and knifes did commandoes manage to reach the bridge and take over the Marmara.

It appears that the error in planning the operation was the estimate that passengers were indeed political activists and members of humanitarian groups who seek a political provocation, but would not resort to brutal violence. The soldiers thought they will encounter Bilin-style violence; instead, they got Bangkok. The forces that disembarked from the helicopters were few; just dozens of troops – not enough to contend with the large group awaiting them.

The second error was that commanders did not address seriously enough the fact that a group of men were expecting the soldiers on the top deck. Had they addressed this more seriously, they may have hurled tear-gas grenades and smoke grenades from the helicopter to create a screen that would have enabled them to carry out their mission, without the fighters falling right into the hands of the rioters.

The outcome

Nine of the flotilla passengers were killed and several wounded on both sides. Intense international criticism towards Israel around the world as well as internally. Israel secures control over all boats and directs them to the port of Ashdod, where they undergo inspection and the passengers are interrogated before being banished back to their country of origin.

Provocation not Humanitarian

Many in Israel believe that the flotilla succeeded in luring Israel into yet another disastrous PR trap. A well planned provocative move, aimed at rallying worldwide support against Israel. In an interview with the Turkish television channel, Tzipi Livni says:

There was a need to stop these ships from reaching Gaza, because it was not a humanitarian mission. I'd like to remind everybody that Israel offered to transfer all the goods through land.
A few ships decided to stop and to transfer the humanitarian goods, and only one ship decided to continue. It brings me to an understanding that it was all about provocation and the need to have this as propaganda and not as a humanitarian aid mission.

Danny Carmon, from the Israel envoy to the United Nations, defends IDF's actions by questioning the motives at play:

“What kind of peace activist would insist to bypass the UN, Red Cross and other well known international organizations? What kind of peace activists carry knives, bats and other weapons to attack soldiers? The answer is clear. There are NOT peace activists!”

On her Facebook page Mihal Ratner posts images of weapons found on board the Marmara:

She adds:

On board of the vessels are so called Peaceful political activists. The Mavi Marmara had the most peaceful activists on it: They brought, on top of humanitarian aid of course, and cement (that was used before to build bunkers and therefore banned), weapons such as knives, metal rods, firebombs, sling shots, water hoses, stun grenades, saws, and more, to attack soldiers who are there to legally enforce the blockade in international waters, and after repeated requests in the naval radio - that were all denied.

Ze'ev Goldstein describes the ways in which the Flotilla was meant to provoke, not provide humanitarian aid:

He who comes to provide humanitarian aid does not come armed for battle, but rather armed with bags of rice and wheat. It is clear that the flotilla was meant to provoke, since they were promised to deliver the goods by land.
Why? Their goal was to deliver the aid, not the delivery route.

Every other person would avoid delays and do anything possible to deliver the aid as fast as possible into Gaza. However these messengers of justice came armed for battle, trained and organized. They had no other intention other than creating a confrontation.

PR Disaster for Israel

While some support and others vehemently oppose the operation, the mass majority agrees that this has been a complete and utter PR failure for Israel at large. Failure to be the first to report what was going on and failure to react as the events were being covered around the world.

Youval Gazith discusses the many failed aspects of the operation:

Even the extreme right wing agrees that the operation was a terrible failure; read on rotter. The operation's primary focus was on PR. It was possible to prevent the boats from coming close to shore, stop them then haul them, without requiring contact with soldiers.

Intelligence failure - where was the mossad? You do not embark on such an operation without precise intelligence.
Operational failure - the IDF soldiers came out beaten and hurt, 10 killed, c'mon!
PR failure - in a world that lives and breathes realtime, releasing press material with a 12 hour delay is eternal! A Hebrew press conference for foreign press is a joke!
Leadership failure - our prime minister doesn't even bother broadcasting a message. The blame is passed between the political and military echelons…

Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff elaborate on the massive PR failure attributed with this operation:

Israel knew it was heading towards this confrontation from a comparatively inferior stance - photos of armed soldiers against protesters will never be well received. The decided answer was - attempt to disrupt broadcast from the boats, and simultaneously let invited journalists (local + international) on board one of the IDF ships provide reports, but only once they reach shore after the operation. Even their mobile phones were closed.

The plan failed miserably. The protesters and broadcast teams succeeded in uploading images and updates to the web. The journalists who came with the Israeli forces only later in the afternoon. The formal Israeli response came some five hours after the events. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was exposed in its full weakness.

In an interview on Israeli TV, Dr. Guy Bechor talks about Turkey's role in supporting the flotilla:

This is not an International operation, but a Turkish one. Erdogan (Turkey's Prime Minister whose had a falling out with Israel since the Gaza bombings in January of ‘09) is taking Gaza as a tool to harm Israel and increase and support his own interests.
This is not a pro-Palestinian flotilla, but primarily an anti-Israeli one.
One of the boats was provided by the Turkish government. This is a country standing behind the flotilla, not an international flotilla.

He continues to describe a poster his group created which displayed ‘Erdogan' equals ‘Ahmadinejad'. A similar poster was also used during a protest just outside the Turkish embassy in Tel-Aviv.

Criticism from within Israel

Heavy criticism about the operation came from within Israel. Multiple protest on university grounds, and outside the Tel Aviv military headquarters drew massive crowds. Shouting “Danger, danger, Government of war” and other slogans, people gathered to show their disgust with the current government's actions.

Lisa Goldman called out piracy, over Israel attacking in international waters:

And Roy Rotman, criticizing the IDF tactics :

It drives me crazy to think that after the decision for a military operation was made, they couldn't find a more intelligent way to operate. Good god, the IDF special unit was surprised to find resistance on a boat it was taking over on international water? Surprised that there were people who would try to hit its soldiers with bats? How idiotic do you have to be? What did the operation planners expect? That the soldiers be welcome with flowers and rice?
BTW, there's a certain paradox: if you were surprised by the resistance, this means you didn't expect it, hence you didn't really think that these would be boats carrying dangerous, armed terrorists; If you really thought that the situation was truly dangerous, how did you let them surprise you this way?

Next steps

We've covered the turn of events through the perspectives of local voices from the ground in Israel - The Freedom Flotilla: PR stunt or Humanitarian Act? - and Arab countries in the Middle East - Rage after Israel Attacks Gaza Bound Flotilla

Please continue to be active within our comments spaces, and keep providing additional perspectives.

Written by Gilad Lotan · comments (28)
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