War on Twitter: Israel Defense Forces and the use of social media By Laust Kruse Supervisor: Martin Beck Master’s Thesis in Middle East Studies Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies University of Southern Denmark Submitted November 15 2013 Characters: Front page: Twitter dialogue between IDF and Hamas. The day Operation Pillar of Defense, an eight day bombing raid of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army in November 2012 was initiated, the IDF declared war via Twitter with a threat to Hamas. The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, responded in an equally hostile tone. The two enemies continued to employ social media throughout the conflict at a level the world had not yet seen. War on Twitter – Laust Kruse 2013 Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 1.1 What is social media? ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Relevant social media platforms ............................................................................................................ 5 1.3 Game changer ......................................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research area and scope ........................................................................................................................ 7 1.5 Methodological approaches ................................................................................................................. 10 1.5.1 IDF Spokesman interview .............................................................................................................. 11 1.5.2 Quotes, appendixes, bias .............................................................................................................. 11 1.5.3 Terminology ................................................................................................................................... 12 1.5.4 Chapter organization ..................................................................................................................... 13 2. Soft power and how institutions learn ...................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Institutions’ learning processes ............................................................................................................ 17 2.2 Nye on public diplomacy and military soft power ............................................................................... 19 3. Understanding public diplomacy and public relations in Israel ................................................................ 20 3.1 A history of conflicts ............................................................................................................................. 20 3.2 Peace or new enemies? ........................................................................................................................ 22 3.3 The People’s Army ................................................................................................................................ 24 3.4 Hasbara ................................................................................................................................................. 28 3.4.1 Hasbara and the challenges of new media ................................................................................... 31 3.4.2 Megaphone tool ............................................................................................................................ 35 3.4.3 “Why can they do it, but we need to sit quietly?” ....................................................................... 37 3.4.4 Fundamental public relation issues .............................................................................................. 40 4. A lesson learned .......................................................................................................................................... 41 4.1 2006 Lebanon War & Media as a multiplier effect .............................................................................. 42 4.2 Hezbollah’s media superiority .............................................................................................................. 44 4.3 Al Manar ................................................................................................................................................ 46 4.4 The IDF’s media inadequacies .............................................................................................................. 47 4.5 The Winograd Commission ................................................................................................................... 53 4.5.1 The creation of a “special spin body” ........................................................................................... 54 4.5.2 Social media makes its entrance in the IDF .................................................................................. 56 4.6 Cast Lead ............................................................................................................................................... 57 1 War on Twitter – Laust Kruse 2013 Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark 4.6.1 Online Warfare and Public Diplomacy .......................................................................................... 57 4.6.2 YouTube as an operational tool .................................................................................................... 58 4.6.3 Politics and social media................................................................................................................ 60 5. Case study: Mavi Marmara ......................................................................................................................... 64 6. Pillar of Defense .......................................................................................................................................... 71 6.1 Twitter war in pictures ......................................................................................................................... 73 6.2 A different approach ............................................................................................................................. 84 6.3 Gamification of war .............................................................................................................................. 87 6.4 Attempting to control social media ..................................................................................................... 89 6.5 Comparative views ............................................................................................................................... 92 7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 95 Historical-cultural angle .............................................................................................................................. 95 Technological-political angle ...................................................................................................................... 97 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................. 100 Appendixes .................................................................................................................................................... 103 2 War on Twitter – Laust Kruse 2013 Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark Abstract Social media have become an integral part of how many institutions interact with the public. However, armies employing social media as an operational tool, as well as a public diplomacy extension, is a relatively new phenomenon that deserves further research. The Israeli army has recently developed the perhaps most advanced and active social media policy the world has seen. This thesis deals with two components of the Israel Defense Force’s social media strategies: Firstly, it describes the nature of the social media policies through a historical and cultural lense from the creation of online public diplomacy in Israel until present times. Secondly, it seeks to answer the questions of why the IDF’s strategies have developed as they have, and how they compare to social media efforts by armies in other democratic countries. With the use of a wide selection of sources, interviews, online material and a theoretical framework mainly provided by Joseph Nye’s ‘soft power’ model as well as public diplomacy theories, I argue that the IDF’s position as a simultaneous hard and soft power institution is rather unique from a global political perspective. I then offer an explanation as to why that is. Keywords: Public diplomacy, nation branding, Israel Defense Forces, IDF, social media, Hasbara, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, 2006 Lebanon War, Mavi Marmara, Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense, Soft Power, strategic online communication. 3 War on Twitter – Laust Kruse 2013 Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark 1. Introduction Brief introduction to