A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Zahal 2.0: The IDF and Social Networking

An interesting story in today's Ha'aretz: the Israel Defense Forces (Zahal) wants to increase its social networking presence after receiving millions of Facebook hits during the Gaza operation, and wants to combat "enemies" in the social networking world.

So they're going to set up a Web 2.0-savvy group of eight to ten computer whizzes in the IDF Spokesman's office. How do they plan to recruit these clever folks? The old way:
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman's Office is to begin drafting computer experts with an eye toward establishing an Internet and new media department unit, Army Spokesman Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu said Monday.
Yep. Draft 'em.

1 comment:

Jillian said...

Incidentally, Nigeria has a similar initiative to counter opposition.