January 5

“Israel … is doing the United States a favor by taking on Hamas now.”

--William Kristol, writing in The New York Times

“The Israelis have done Mr. Obama a favor by striking back at Hamas.”

--Review & Outlook, The Wall Street Journal

"chutz·pah also hutz·pah: Utter nerve; effrontery: 'has the chutzpah to claim a lock on God and morality' New York Times"

--The Free Dictionary

BIBLIOGRAPHY

News Articles/Videos/Etc: News articles about the Israel-Gaza conflict and the use of social media by Darren Krape; scroll down link for items (courtesy Mr. Krape)

VIDEO (HUMOR)

British Weather Forecast

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

US assistant secretary of state to speak on diplomacy – Daily Bruin: “U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Goli Ameri will speak [at UCLA] at a public forum today about the challenges that the U.S. government faces in public diplomacy. As the highest-ranking Iranian American public official in the U.S. government and the head of the state department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Ameri deals with cultural and public diplomacy issues. Assistant News Editor Theresa Avila spoke with Ameri about her work on the government’s first social networking site and the importance of bringing people together from different cultures.” PHOTO: Assistant Secretary of State Goli Ameri with Vice President Dick Cheney.

Public diplomacy begins with you: To revive America's image in the world, we all must be citizen diplomats - Sherry L. Mueller, Christian Science Monitor: “Public diplomacy architects need to recognize the credibility private-sector partners bring to diplomacy efforts such as the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. … While public diplomacy depends on active engagement by citizens, not just government agencies, it is a necessary government expenditure. By increasing funding for these programs and supporting the public-private partnerships that have engaged so many Americans as volunteer citizen diplomats, we will reap tremendous benefits for generations to come.”

Juan Cole on Israel’s Wars – Clio and Me: “Juan Cole offers some interesting historical perspective on Israel’s wars in a piece called “Gaza 2008: Micro-Wars and Macro-Wars.” … And ‘macro-war’? Does Cole mean the old conventional wars that Israel used to fight with its neighbors? Or is he talking about global public opinion, which is the focus of Israel’s and its enemies’ propaganda wars and public diplomacy?”

IsraeliGirl violates Digg TOS: Frank Hope, Future News Today: A Place to Read Tomorrow's Headlines Today: “One particular Zionist user stands out recently because of the number of articles this user has placed on the front page recently. And that user is IsraeliGirl.

Here's her user profile page. On that page, in the about section, it says: I've been a marketing consultant to high tech companies for the last 10 years. I am also one of the founders of giyus.org, a pro-Israeli public diplomacy group. So I went to GIYUS.org to see what kind of a group it is. There homepage is as you might expect. http://giyus.org/ GIYUS it turns out is an acronym for Give Israel Your United Support.”

Recommended Reading - zenpundit.com: “First of the New Year! Top B[i]lling! Smith-Mundt Symposium on January 13 organized by blogfriend Matt at Mountainrunner. As most of you know, Matt has become the ‘go to’ guy in and out of the blogosphere on fixing America’s broken public diplomacy. This conference has attracted a high level of attention already and I look forward to reading reports of the discussions.”

Soar With Your Strengths - Tales of a (Recovering) Disordered Eater: “So I followed my passion for the written word a little further and got my master’s degree in public communication. (For any comm majors out there, public diplomacy, in particular, was the realm I was most interested in, but aside from my job at Peace Corps, I never got to do much with it because we moved to Michigan, far from the policially-connected, politics-obsessed city of Washington). Today, I do public relations for an awesome interactive advertising agency, where I essentially write/strategize for a living. And, as you well know, I blog on the side.”

RELATED ITEMS

U.S. military recruiters use video arcades in urban areas – John Leland, International Herald Tribune:

In recent years, the army has tried a number of ways to increase enlistment, including home video games, direct marketing promotions, a stronger online presence and recruitment-themed music videos.

US Inaugurates New $700 Million Embassy In Baghdad - Patrick Quinn, Huffington Post:

"It is from the embassy that you see before you that we will continue the tradition of friendship, cooperation and support begun by the many dedicated Americans who have worked in Iraq since 2003," said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who served as the first American ambassador to Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, at the ceremony, held in the complex's courtyard.

Gaza media update for 4 January 2009 - Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy

Have Bush and the Neocons Ruined it for the Israelis? - Juan Cole, Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion: The Israeli propaganda blitz around their attack on Gaza has been greeted with uncharacteristic skepticism by the American public and even by some of the mainstream US press. Even the Jewish American community is uneasy about this one, in a way perhaps unparalelled since the 1982 Israeli attack on Lebanon and siege of Beirut. Jews for Peace in Los Angeles are actively protesting the Gaza atrocities, and newspaper articles from around the US on local protests held this weekend often mention mixed Arab-American and Jewish-American rallies. Let's take some of the basic techniques of propaganda practiced by Bush and compare them to those deployed by the Israeli leadership in the past 8 days. 1. Deny it all. 2. Pretend that your main concern is for your own victims. 3. Demonizing the opponent, ad hominem arguments. [4] Repetition of simple slogans until they become accepted as true. [5] Use of half-truths.

Why Aren't More Americans Dancing To Israel's Tune? - Max Blumenthal, Huffington Post: While Israel's PR machine cranked its Mighty Wurlitzer to full blast, drowning out all opposing voices with its droning sound, a surprisingly substantial portion of the American public decided to dance to its own tune. The same pundits who are cheerleading Israel's assault on Gaza once sold the occupation of Iraq to America, and with a nearly identical set of arguments. In their voices and those of the grim Israeli PR agents carted out for cable news, many Americans hear echoes of the Bush administration's most fantastical lies.

Propaganda passing as an article on Propaganda - As'ad, The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب: Is Noam Cohen trying to be cute here? He is ostensibly writing an article about presentation of propaganda but wound up passing uncritically Israeli propaganda and citing Israeli terrorist propaganda snippets. Who is he kidding? This is like when US TV shows want to do a show on sleaze but they cover it up but saying that they want to do a show on sleaze shows.

A Galaxy of Partisan Propagandists: Israel is Immune From Criticism - Brian Cloughley, CounterPunch:

The kiss of political death in the United States of America is to censure Israel. It can't be done. And that is why apartheid is permitted in Israel; it's why the mass-punishment blockade was enforced months before the attack went in; and it's why the near-genocide in Gaza is allowed to continue.

Coming Soon? Hamas' Media Massacre: When will Hamas and the media create a new libel? - Honestreporting.com, NY: The media is a potent weapon in the hands of terrorists and Israel has been on the receiving end many times. As HonestReporting has documented in its interactive Big Lies resource, Palestinians have scored PR victories.

Caveat Emptor: the deliberate propaganda value of Gaza carnage video that fooled the people – The Truth Will Set You Free: “I regret that I was deceived by the video I grabbed and uploaded for propagation in the original post "Israel bombs a civilian market (GRAPHIC Video)". Please allow me to explain. The video in question made its initial appearance on LiveLeak with the upload date January 1st. It claims to be connected to IDF strike in the recent conflict with the header ‘RAW (Graphic): Scene After IDF Attack In Gaza 1/1/09’. This turned out to be a very inaccurate and misleading claim.”

Bush's Last War Crime? - Robert Dreyfuss, Nation: The Israeli invasion of Gaza, launched Saturday, might very well be George W. Bush's last and final war crime. For eight years, Bush has coupled unparalled ignorance of the Middle East with supreme arrogance. It is precisely that deadly combination of ignorance and arrogance that is on display now, as a politically motivated Israeli invasion of Gaza unfolds with the full support of the Bush administration.

Calling Out Bush's War in Gaza - Robert Naiman, Common Dreams: The U.S. provided bombs that it had every reason to believe would be used for an attack on Gaza. And now there is an Israeli attack on Gaza, using those very bombs.

Rationalizing Gaza: How they do it – Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com: The two most destructive and objectively anti-American forces in the Middle East -- al-Qaeda affiliates and the Israelis -- benefit the most from this fresh outbreak of a festering conflict, and the losers are the Palestinians and the American people, with the former enduring the slaughter and the latter paying for it.

Israel's Looming Catastrophe - Robert Parry, Consortium News/Common Dreams: It is this combination of realities -- Bush's failed adventurism in the Middle East and the decline of the neoncons at home -- that could become the impetus for a new and serious peace initiative in the Middle East, as the best hope for Israel's success and survival.

Bringing the Arab-Israeli War Home - Michael Scheuer, Antiwar.com: If stubborn noninterventionism were our creed -- as the Founders intended -- the Gaza war could continue for two more days or two more months and we could simply shrug and mutter "Who cares?" America could simply go on its way, rebuilding its economy and marveling over the madness of two religions fighting to the death over a barren sandpit at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. AIPAC-owned American leaders will consign this country to an unending war against Islam, the same catastrophe that is Israel's lot.

Gaza Crisis: Israelis Echoing Bush on Regime Change? – David Corn, Mother Jones:

Regime destruction is not the same as regime change. Can the Israelis even literally destroy Hamas? That's debatable. And it may be harder to replace Hamas than to eradicate it.

Why Israelis support the Gaza offensive: Israel's post-traumatic war is not just about stopping Hamas rockets, but about repairing reputations -- and erasing the stain of failure - Aluf Ben, Salon: Alas, the war in Gaza has also shown that there is no credible way to stop rockets, as Hamas has launched them deeper into Israeli territory than ever before. Israelis will be even more reluctant to expose Tel Aviv and the Ben Gurion airport to the possibility of rocket fire from the West Bank. The new American president will have to work hard to overcome this fear.

Israel's Gaza Surge: Obama's Iran diplomacy needs a Hamas defeat – Review & Outlook, Wall Street Journal: The Israelis have done Mr. Obama a favor by striking back at Hamas before he takes office so President Bush can endure the usual global denunciations for U.S. support for Israel. But Mr. Obama will soon need to return the favor by showing Israel -- and Iran -- that the new President understands the U.S. stake in the success of Israel's Gaza surge.

The Empire Shrugs – Alan Bock, Antiwar.com:

The most significant aspect of the U.S. response to the Gaza situation, implicitly acknowledged in most news reports and commentary, is precisely that nobody really expects the U.S. to respond in anything other than a ritualistic fashion. The world and, at some level, most American leaders recognize that the U.S. can do little or nothing to affect the situation on the ground.

Israel's 'Fait Accompli' in Gaza - Eric Margolis, LewRockwell.com: By blitzing Hamas-run Gaza, Ehud Barak, the defense minister and leader of the Labour party, presented the incoming US administration with a fait accompli, and neatly checkmated the newest player in the Middle East Great Game -- Barack Obama, the US president-elect -- before he could even take a seat at the table.

Why Tehran stokes violence in Gaza: Iran wants to negotiate from strength with Obama - Walid Phares, Washington Times: The current conflict is not really about the classic Arab-Israeli process, which can resume between Israel and the Palestinian Authority anytime it is not obstructed. The Gaza fight is about Iran's confrontation with Israel, and perhaps with the United States.

The New New Deal Goes Global - Nina Hachigian, New Republic: The U.S. should not lose sight of the fact that the American people have little sense of the alphabet soup of international regimes that help keep them safe and prosperous. With his rhetorical skills and international outlook, President-elect Obama is the right leader to advocate for them, invest in them, create them and in doing so, create his own legacy.

What Will ‘Brother Barack’ Do for Africa? - Gbemisola Olujobi, Truthdig: While the less informed continue to daydream about the loads of benefits that might flow to them from Obama’s presidency, the elite are aware that Obama faces momentous global challenges, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Palestine and North Korea.

China cracks down on ‘vulgar’ internet content –Kathrin Hille, Financial Times: China’s government has accused the country’s leading internet search engines and web portals, including Google, of threatening public morals by carrying pornographic and vulgar content.

The End of the Line: Lunch with President George W. Bush - Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard:

After two terms, the president has developed strong views on how administrations ought to work. One thing that matters enormously, he says, is for the president and the secretary of state to keep in close touch, as President Truman did with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and as he has with Condoleezza Rice his secretary of state in his second term.

Just Go, Mr. Bush. Please, Just Go - Joseph A. Palermo, Huffington Post: Bush's handlers have embarked on their most audacious propaganda effort to date: The "Legacy Project."

Kennan, Huntington and the power of intellectuals: America's leaders are often guided by 'pointy-headed intellectuals' – Editorial, Los Angeles Times: Even public officials who aren't intellectuals rely in their decision-making -- sometimes too much -- on the life of the mind.

AMERICANA

Obama Secret Service


FROM Slate

GEORGE W. BUSH REMEMBERED (APOLOGIES TO SUPERIOR PRIMATES)

“His swagger. His tough talk. His torture and imprisoning people. His warmongering and machismo. His smirk and pursed lips. His murdering the English language. His lies and his lies about lies. His ignorance. His ‘ranch.’ His cowboy boots. His blue jeans. His ‘Mission Accomplished.’ His provincialism. His lack of compassion. His posturing. His rigidity. His twang. His mother. His hatred. His immaturity. His father. His authoritarianism. His vice president. His selfishness. His ideology. His elitism. His bible thumping. His cowardice. His incuriousness. His petulance. His lack of grace.”

--Associate Professor Joseph A. Palermo, regarding President George W. Bush

“Eight years of bodies, dead, broken, mutilated, abused; eight years of ruined lives down countless drains; eight years of massive destruction to places from Baghdad to New Orleans where nothing of significance was ever rebuilt: all this was brought to us by a President, now leaving office without apology, who said the following in his first inaugural address: ‘I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions with civility… to call for responsibility and try to live it as well.’"

--Cultural critic and commentator Tom Engelhardt

"I don't watch TV."

--President George W. Bush