Reflection

After doing the structured response this week, I was looking for an article to reflect on and found one about Twitter and what is being said about the battle between Hamas and Israel. On both sides, military operations are being tweeted in almost real time. The Israeli military began ‘live-tweeting’ and blogging about its military operations and Hamas has responded with its own tweets. On Wednesday, Israeli’s posted video footage of the air strike that killed Ahmed al-Jabari. Rather than hosting a press conference following this event, Israel formally announced the launch of Gaza operation on Twitter. Instead of distributing leaflets warning Palestinian civilians to stay away from areas where militants are firing, the military issued its warning via twitter, stating “We recommend no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead." Just as our readings for this week discussed, the world of social media is changing operations in the Middle East. The presence of social media is not only effecting revolutions, it is also working its way into how the military operates.