Selling Israel on YouTube

author : WIP topic : YouTube

by WIP

Israel is always coming up with ingenious ways to make us love it. It believes that the bad reputation it has earned in the world is a pr issue and not a moral one. Of course, the best way to improve Israel’s image would be to end the occupation of Palestine, but that would be too practical. Instead, Israel has done everything else, from sponsor-ing a “Women of the Israel Defense Forces” bikini spread in Maxim magazine to hosting a popular reality TV show in which contestants compete to see who can be the ultimate spokesperson/apologist for Israel.

Perhaps figuring that “Operation Cast Lead” couldn’t sell by its actions alone, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni “instructed the Foreign Ministry to take emergency measures to adapt Israel’s international public relations to the ongoing escalation in the Gaza Strip.” (Ha’aretz, Dec. 12). The latest innovation is harnessing the power of YouTube. Israel has created its own YouTube channel in which it has uploaded grainy black-and-white videos of Palestinians getting obliterated. But the squeamish shouldn’t be concerned, explains the IDF’s army’s foreign press branch head, Maj. Avital Leibovich: “The intelligent audience watching the footage will know that people killed [in the YouTube videos] did not have peaceful intentions toward Israel....I don’t believe they’ll be disturbed.”

Who would have thought that uploading snuff films could improve Israel’s image? But then again, during Israel’s invasion of the West Bank in 2002, soldiers took over the Ramallah TV station and broadcast pornographic videos. Israel’s got a right to defend itself, y’know?

One popular video that Maj. Leibovich has uploaded shows several people putting some heavy tubes onto the back of a pickup truck. The video caption explains that you’re watching “Grad missiles being loaded onto the Hamas vehicle.” Then, at 2:09 into the video, the entire screen goes boom! Just like a video game. Wow, I think I like Israel that much better!

Unfortunately, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has shown us the other side of the story. B’Tselem has interviewed the “Hamas” truck’s owner, Ahmad Sanur. Sanur says that the truck was being loaded with oxygen canisters used for welding. “According to Sanur’s testimony, he and members of his family were trying to salvage material from a metal workshop he owns, which was next door to a bombed house, in order to prevent looting.” B’Tselem visited the site and took photos.

When asked about this by Al-Jazeera, Maj. Leivovich confidently explained: “We gathered intelligence for many, many months for this operation. [Wait, you mean this isn’t a response to Hamas ‘violating the ceasefire’ in late December?]....We believe this was a legitimate target.”

However, some things don’t look right. The 122 mm Grad rockets that Hamas uses are about 9 feet long. The tubes shown in the video appear shorter and fatter. Also, none of the “Hamas terrorists” are armed. They’re walking around transporting missiles during a military operation, and they’re not concerned for their lives while loading missiles onto the back of an open pickup truck? Also, wouldn’t the Grad missiles have detonated during Israel’s strike and obliterated the truck that they were lying in? The truck’s still there. And then there’s the IDF’s explanation of what the “terrorists” were doing: “According to IDF assessments, the missiles were being transferred by Hamas to a hiding location...or were on route to missile launching sites.” Well, which is it? I thought you had months of intelligence. If I thought those were Grad missiles, I could have guessed as much!

Then again, the IDF hasn’t always been so good at interpreting reconnaissance footage. In 2004, the IDF released video from an unmanned aerial vehicle showing a Palestinian placing a Qassam rocket into a UN ambulance for transport. Strangely, the terrorist was holding the heavy rocket in one hand and nonchalantly tossing it into the ambulance. When pushed to explain the several inconsistencies, Israel reluctantly admitted that the rocket was actually a stretcher.

The head of the UN Relief Works Agency (unrwa), Peter Hansen, demanded an apology. Instead, the Israeli ambassador to the UN at the time, Dan Gillerman, called Hansen an “Israel hater” and demanded his resignation. Three months later, the Bush administration blocked Hansen’s reappointment, and he was let go.

Fortunately the ambulance worker carrying the stretcher wasn’t assassinated. The same can’t be said for the family that was loading the oxygen canisters. Now, thanks to the IDF’s YouTube channel, you can see the final seconds in the lives of Wisam Akram ‘Eid, age 14; Ahmad Ibrahim Khila, age 15; and six other innocent Palestinians before they were torn to pieces by US-supplied weapons and your tax dollars.