War Propaganda Now Comes in Realtime: Israel Just Live-Blogged a Brutal Gaza Bombing

Following days of mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel today launched a brutal, tightly orchestrated assault on Hamas that killed nine people and wounded 40 others. Among the dead was Ahmed al-Jabari, the org’s military chief. It was the largest war effort the nation has led on Gaza in over four years, but it’s still perhaps most remarkable for this: The official Twitter feed of the Israeli Defense Force, which documented the entire operation in realtime.

Lifestyle journos live-blogging an awards ceremony, sure. Politicos pushing a social media campaign to during a debate, yeah. But a major military live-tweeting its war effort? Is that where we are now? Apparently:

“The verified social media accounts of the Israeli Defense Forces are providing live updates on a concerted military effort against Hamas. Using the hashtag #PillarOfDefense, the verified Twitter account @IDFSpokesperson is posting ominous messages, headline-style updates, and YouTube videos of strikes.”

ReadWrite calls it “brilliant, in its way.” Yes, it’s “brilliant” in the way that the most effective war propaganda tends to be—colorful, uber-patriotic, Manichean, assertive—just more powerful, since they’re controlling the wartime PR channels and shaping public perception with a series of live updates. Here’s an actual tweet from the IDF’s verified handle:

Reminder of Hamas’ strategy: Fire rockets & mortars from Palestinian schools & hope they land on Israeli schools. youtu.be/zmXXUOs27lI

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2012

Those bastards started it! It’s classic war agitprop. But then it gets nuts:

More than 12,000 rockets hit Israel in the past 12 years. RT if you think #Israel has the right to defend itself. twitter.com/IDFSpokesperso…

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2012

Shareable, crisply designed images, curated YouTube videos, jingoistic sloganeering, all in realtime—this simply has never been done so thoroughly before. RT for the war effort. Check out our Flickr feed.

Photos from #PillarOfDefense in Gaza will be uploaded here throughout the operation: flickr.com/photos/idfonli… #Israel

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2012

And no wonder Israel is turning to social media to limit the fallout from this campaign; it was pretty savage. According to the New York Times, it was “one of the most ferocious assaults on Gaza since its invasion four years ago, hitting at least 20 targets in aerial attacks that killed the top military commander of Hamas, drew strong condemnation from Egypt and escalated the risks of a new war in the Middle East.”

Haaretz reports that the commander, Ahmed al-Jabari, was, for the past five years, Israel’s sub-contractor for security in the Gaza Strip, responsible for observing the truce in the south and enforcing it on a multiplicity of terror organizations. An online meme-ish poster issued after his death describes Jabari as responsible for the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. But he was also Israel’s partner in the negotiations for the release of Shalit. “It was he who ensured the captive soldier’s welfare and safety,” reports Haaretz, “and it was he saw to Shalit’s return home last fall.”

But he had become wayward, Israeli officials were convinced, helping to provide those organizations with weapons. His termination warning came earlier this week, when Israel issued an assassination alert to Hamas leaders. And guess how they issued it? Yeah, by Twitter:

We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2012

That’s the secondary warning for all of those who weren’t in the immediate vicinity to get the first one. Here’s al-Jabari’s car after the IDF landed a missile on top of it:

And here’s the IDF’s YouTube video of the attack, which is well on its way to going viral:

Mission accomplished.

Ahmed Jabari: Eliminated. twitter.com/IDFSpokesperso…

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 14, 2012

You’ve just witnessed what is probably the first live-streamed propaganda campaign ever waged to support a war effort.

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