July 25, 2009: Israel is using Information War, via the Internet, a lot more, and a lot more aggressively. There have long been many pro-Israel Internet users who have been very active on message boards where Israel is discussed, especially when Israel is being dissed with false or distorted information. The Israeli Foreign Ministry is even recruiting some of these net activists to work in coordination with foreign policy initiatives, to deliver focused and more compelling messages in support of Israel.
Israel is also making greater use of its large number of Arab speaking Jewish citizens (descendents of Jews driven out of Arab countries in the late 1940s). These net activists visit Arab language message boards, and provide some support for Israel, or at least deflate the more common lies and myths spread about Israel and Jews. Israeli intelligence has also done well by setting up Arab language web sites to take advantage of animosities within the Arab world. In Lebanon, that means anti-Hezbollah sites, or pro-Hezbollah sites that spread harmful (to Hezbollah) disinformation. The same tactic is used against Iran and Islamic radicals in general. Such sites are also used to recruit spies in Arab countries.
All of this must, of course, be done covertly. Not the sort of thing you can openly boast about. But it's been going on for some time, and is now going to be an even more common event on the Internet.
