March 12, 2010: An Israeli soldier recently faced a court martial (and got ten days in jail) for reporting an upcoming raid on his Facebook page. The soldier had casually mentioned that his unit was going to conduct a raid in the West Bank, to arrest some Palestinians believed planning a terrorist attack on Israel. Another soldier who saw the Facebook posting, alerted the army, and the raid was called off.
The army has encountered this problem before, and constantly reminds soldiers to think twice before they post any military related items on the Internet. To that end, the military released information about the current incident, including the punishment. Just another reminder for the troops.
The Israelis can't ban troops from using social networking sites, mainly because most of them are reservists called up for a period of active duty. So, like safe driving campaigns, the army just keeps reminding everyone that only they can avoid accidents on the information highway.
