Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School for Public Affairs and

International Relations, Liechtenstein Institute for SelfDetermination

Cyberspace and Propaganda

Threats and opportunities of international mass media, embedded journalism,

and propaganda carried out by nonestate actors on the internet, social net

works and blogs in the current IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

Course:

WWS 555E, International CrisesDiplomacy, Fall Semester, Long Term 2009.

Advisors:

Author:

Jan Thomas Otte

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

3

II. Assessment

3

1.

Situation

. Main problems of the complex relationship between

Hamas

and Israeli

government and the misleading role of propaganda, stealth PR and embedded journalism

in crises diplomacy inside the Gaza strip 3

2.

Analysis

. The issues of mass media in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict with a focus on

the current conflict in the Gaza strip, uprising social networks and emancipation of indi

vidual peacemakers and warlords in the Cyberspace 5

3.

Suggestions

. Rectifying, dealing and negotiating between Gaza and Jerusalem facing

mass media communication as a potential toolset of crisis diplomacy and inter

disciplinary framework in IR 11

III. References

11

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2

Abstract

Already 90 years ago in history, Woodrow Wilson went to the Paris Peace Conference (18 Janu

ary 1919) to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles after WWI, he ordered his postmastergeneral to as

sume control over all transatlantic cable lines in order to censor the news from Europe.

The catalyst and vehicle in domestic warfare and guerilla combat (not the cause) has always been

technological revolution. Today, at least since the

Al Qaida

attacks at 9/11, technology is profoundly

affecting the sovereignty of governments, the world economy, and military strategy. Without doubt,

information has often made the difference between victory and defeat. As a consequence, any ef

forts of governments in crisis diplomacy to stop others from interfering in its affairs, is rapidly erod

ing.

Experiencing the current weakness of International Relations, United Nations and European Un

ion, the ethnic, political, and religious diversity in the Gaza has given a strong foundation to the mili

tant wings of

Hamas

inside the Gaza strip.

Hamas

not only conducts militant wings, but also runs

extensive social networks. Whether in New York, Washington D.C., Berlin or Jerusalem: politicians

are depended on what they read in their intelligence reports. Journalism correspondents find them

selves in a system of embedded journalism both by the Israeli government and Palestinian

Hamas

,

which restrict them to show no more than censored news.

Finally, behind the individual′s eyeglasses in Europe and the US, every citizen is touched from

what he intermediate sees online in his living room. Even the big problem of IR turns out in Gaza′s

living rooms: The viewers of propaganda are more likely to vote with their remote controls than by

further reasoning. Since its foundation the cyberspace enables extended personal and organizational

interactions through many political, religious and economical borders in the World.

Nonestate actors like militant splinter groups of

Hamas

might take over the negotiation power.

The internet may become known as the strongest force in IR. Through the upraise of the internet,

selfdetermined online communities and prominent social networks like Youtube, Facebook, and

Second Life, but also thousands of independent blogs and opensourceservers have emancipated

millions of web developers and bloggers.

Being a victim of victims, it cannot be easy to negotiate any peace solution for Gaza on a neutral

level with both Israelis and Palestinians. The growing use and manipulation of modern communica

tions by terrorist organizations on more than 5.000 militant websites, online forums, and chat rooms

serving terrorists and their supporters, urges IR. The militant organizations and groups come from all

corners of the globe.

The media′s influence on IR has grown during the wars in Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan, and

Iraq. Yet the 2006 clash in Lebanon between Israel and the

Hezbollah

represents a quantitative leap.

Two parties, Israel and the

Hamas

should bargain with each other on one case of peace and many

more issues raised by nonestate actors, embedded media and propaganda. The inefficient diploma

cy between Israelis and Palestinians is due to arguing on positions only instead of civilians interests.

Regarding those issues in IR bargaining, I would recommend international mediators and par

ties to be as most specific and precise as they can, providing concrete details and hard facts without

any doubt on terrorist propaganda and government modified information. Visàvis, the soft factors

of civilians, IDF, and

Hamas

fighters should result into a more credible and open minded foundation

hopefully once again coming back to negotiation very soon.

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3

I. Introduction

In 2004 and 2006 the author altogether travelled for more than 7 months in Israel and the Pales

tinian territories including the hotspots of the militant

Hamas

like Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah. As

a freelancing journalist and correspondent to German media I have witnessed mental accidents,

physical massacres by distance, and suicide bombs, and media misinformation on both the Israeli and

Palestinian side.

In my research, conducted both journalistically onside and academically with databases, I have

focused this paper on resources in the English language. Obviously, there is a great amount of ar

ticles, books and internet pages, being published in Hebrew, Arabic, and German as well. In this essay

I have mainly monitored the latest online news brought on recognized topmedia with a bold ap

proach like

Al Jazeera

and BBC News on television, TIMES, The Economist and The New York Times,

as well as

Ha′aretz

and The Jerusalem Post representing Israel′s biggest left and rightcentered

newspapers.

In a sum, nobody really can judge the complex war history in the Middle East since Israel′s inde

pendence 1948. As I have met lots of students and professors both at the JewishIsraeli side1 in Tel

Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, and IslamicPalestinian universities2 in Ramallah and Bethlehem on the

other side, I do have sympathy with the individual situations many Israeli and Palestinian families

have gone through so far. Clearly, the majority on both sides wishes for peace.3 But since the out

break of the second intifada 2000 and the upcoming internet propaganda, the diplomatic relation

ships between Gaza and Ramallah, Washington D.C. and Jerusalem have been deeply spoiled.

During my time in Israel 2004, the German KonradAdenauerFoundation organized a meeting of

Palestinian and Israeli news correspondents located at a neutral place in Atalya, Turkey. It turned

out, that both sides have to deal with propaganda by the radical party

Hamas

and the stealth PR

conducted by the Israeli government

Knesset

. The Palestinian journalists confessed that they are

sometimes physically forced to rewrite the truth. However, after the death of the PLO leading Jassir

Arrafat, their discontent in Gaza seemed to beat their loyalty with the Palestinian territories.4 This

little intermedia peace progress took place inbetween the Second Intifada, the Lebanon war 2006

and the military conflict in Gaza 2008/09.

II. Assessment

1. Situation

. Main problems of the relationship between

Hamas

and Israeli government.

In this case, the current Gaza conflict and Israeli security fence in general might show the weak

ness of International Relations (IR), United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU). Probably, Gaza

reminds international crises diplomacy of the fact that 60 years of civil war have totally estranged

people from another. This ethnic, political, and religious division has given a strong foundation to

militants inside Gaza (compared to moderate civilians in early 80′s) and their radical supporters

worldwide to attack their enemies most efficiently both in reality and the Cyberspace by propaganda.

1 OTTE, Jan Thomas,

Archäologen in Israels Wüste. ,,Das schweisst uns zusammen"

, in: Der Spiegel, 8 November

2006: Hamburg, http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/studium/0,1518,443805,00.html.

2 OTTE, Jan Thomas,

(K)Ein bisschen Frieden. Nahost: Koexistenz ohne Berührungspunkte

, in: Audimax, 31 Octo

ber 2008: Nürnberg, http://www.audimax.de/de/unileben/newsartikel/article/321/kein

bissch.html?no_cache=1&cHash=f816b7faa7.

3 OTTE, Jan Thomas,

Mauern im Land und in den Köpfen. Israelis und Palästinenser: Koexistenz ohne Berüh
rungspunkte

, in: ruprecht, Vol. 95, Heidelberg: 3 May 2005, http://texte.ruprecht.de/zeigartikel.php?id=1377.

4 SAHM, Ulrich,

Journalistentreffen in Antalya. Workshop mit palästinensischen und israelischen Journalisten,

in:

KonradAdenauerStiftung e.V., Veranstaltungsbeiträge, Israel, 15 September 2004.

http://www.kas.de/wf/de/33.5327.

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4

The

Hamas5

, a Palestinian Sunni Islamist paramilitary organization and major political party in

Gaza holds the majority of seats in the 2006 elected legislative council6 of the Palestinian National

Authority. Besides Hamas propaganda7, dishonorable known for the effect of its suicide attacks on

Israeli civilians mainly against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

But

Hamas

also runs extensive social networks. One might assume that Hamas hospitals, educa

tion stipends, libraries and other services throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip might be in

tended to recruit new members that commit themselves getting terrorists. Principally, their charter

on the internet8 calls for the recapturing of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian

Islamic state in terms of "throwing the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea"9.

Since Israel′s sevendayswar 1967, a great amount of mass media and propaganda has entered

IR: The Iran′s Shiite revolution in 1979, the Catholic Church′s role in the "third wave" of democratiza

tion, and finally the 9/11 attacks. They all are examples on how media journalists have empowered

themselves as a fourth power in the Western democratic system, while nonestate actors, terrorist

formations, and religious fundamentalists like

Al Qaida

and

Hamas

have become very popular by

spreading their videos on the internet. These include political and religious fundamentalist hate mes

sages and kidnapping innocent civilians, in order to threaten the state of Israel.

Recognized TV stations, mainly the breaking news on BBC and

Al Jazeera

, and newspaper like The

New York Times and many Arab and Israeli magazines multiply those messages. Clearly, there is a

much bigger threat for crises diplomacy from mass media than its opportunities to restore freedom

of speech and peace. Those phenomena "all illustrated just how important a global force religion has

become"10. The really new toolset and framework of international warfare and crises diplomacy is

found on the internet, which spreads images, audio files and videos worldwide. Especially in a society

in Gaza, where many people continue to be illiterate, the less educated are more likely to be easily

convinced by propaganda. Combined with a strong sanction policy of Israeli government and an ag

gressive regime of the Hamas, very few people are left, consuming international recognized media.

Whether in New York, Washington D.C., Berlin or Jerusalem: politicians are depended on what

they read in their intelligence reports. Journalism correspondents find themselves in a system of

embedded journalism both by the Israeli government and Palestinian

Hamas

, which restrict them to

show no more than censored news. And finally, behind the individual′s eyeglasses in Europe and the

US, every citizen is touched from what he intermediate sees online in his living room. Even the big

problem of IR turns out in Gaza′s living rooms: The viewers of propaganda are more likely to vote

with their remote controls than by further reasoning. At least since the period after 9/11, "terrorism

and war have dominated international politics, and questions about the nature of globalization have

been sidelined"11.

5

Hamas

in PalestinianJordanSyrian Arabic means "Islamic Resistance Movement".

6 BBC NEWS,

Hamas sweeps to election victory

, 26 January 2006, London.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4650788.stm.

7 GELVIN, James,

The IsraelPalestine Conflict. One Hundred Years of War

, Cambridge University Press, 2005, 221.

8 E.g. Hamas TV that send propaganda like promoting terrorism amongst children or the "Hamas Mouse",

teaching to blame the Jews: PMW Video Archives,

Hamas in its own words,

25 March, 2007.

http://www.pmw.org.il/tvhamas.htm.

9 In independent street poll, conducted between 2004 and 2006, it was found that more than 90 percent of the

whole IsraeliArab population in EastJerusalem, Israel and West Bank directly and indirectly support the Ha

mas in Gaza.

10 FARR, Thomas,

Diplomacy in an Age of Faith. Religious Freedom and National Security

, in: Foreign Affairs, Vol.

87, Iss. 2, New York: Mar/Apr 2008, 110.

11 GREEN, Duncan; GRIFFITH, Matthew,

Globalization and its discontents

, in: International Affairs, Volume 78,

Number 1, Oxford : January 2002, 64.

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5

Facing political Islam, David Hoffman says, that the Western world influences inevitably break

through traditional Muslim culture by film, satellite television, international radio broadcasts, and

the Cyberspace. Gaza citizens might start to notice the shortfalls of their state media′s stodgy, strictly

censored by stealth PR and propaganda. The communications revolution, beginning in the end of the

90′s, has given diplomacy a greater publicity, "exposing the oncesecret work of diplomats to the

global fishbowl of life" in the twentyfirst century.

Moreover, many nonestate actors have joined IR. Besides popular nongovernmental organiza

tions (NGOs) like Amnesty International, even independent bloggers have found the mass media as a

powerful tool to support their troops. Rebuilding the small Gaza strip in the Cyberspace, hightech

businesses, weapon industry lobbyists, investigative independent journalists, and Internet activists

communicate through online communities linked around the whole world. The era of mass commu

nications, embedded journalism, propaganda and electronic intifada, has given a strong foundation

to the fact that (only) the public matters: "The `street′ is a potent force and can undermine even the

bestcrafted peace agreement"12.

2. Analysis

. The issues of mass media in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

As the war on terrorism moves beyond Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, the upcoming Obama admin

istration could extend the US media assistance program from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. The

consumption of international broadcasting in the Gaza strip is critical important to the success of IR.

Therefore the United States might be able to support the market growth, legitimacy and education

for independent regional newspapers, domestic radio and television channels and local Internet ser

vice providers.13

Since its foundations in the late 60′s, the cyberspace enables extended personal and organiza

tional interactions through many political, religious and economical borders in the World. At least in

between member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),

the World Wide Web has become a

locus

for many traditional infrastructures. In

Beyond Public Dip
lomacy

, David Hoffmann not only identifies the banking and finance sector, but also emergency ser

vices, energy delivery, and many transportation and military systems: "these computer communica

tions networks are the underlying technological bases that will enable any and all visions of the in

formation society"14.

As quick sides note on the vulnerability of modern IT, more than ninety percent of military traf

fic15 is transacted via public computers. It has already happened many times, that the servers from

US pentagon or the Israeli defense department are the target to viruses and Trojans. Stephen Lukasik

categorizes

the vulnerable cyberspace into three different kinds of failure: "complexity, accident, and

hostile intent".

Consequently, assurance or securities had not been the primary consideration for a long time.

The USA and Israel should take more efforts in protecting themselves against virus attacks in the

online security systems of their national defense departments in Washington D.C. and Jerusalem. But

12 HOFFMAN, David,

"Beyond Public Diplomacy"

, in: Foreign Affairs, Vol. 81, No. 2, New York: March/April 2002,

83.

13 Ibid., 95.

14 LUKASIK, Stephen; GOODMAN, Seymour, etc.,

Protecting Critical Infrastructures Against CyberAttack

, in: Adel

phi Papers 359, London: 2003, 5.

15 WRISTON, Walter,

Bits, Bytes, and Diplomacy. The third technological revolution

, in: Foreign Affairs, Septem

ber/ October 1997, Palm Coast, 179.

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