{"id":20783,"date":"2012-07-05T11:07:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T07:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=20783"},"modified":"2012-07-05T11:07:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T07:07:25","slug":"israel-enlisting-its-own-twitter-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/israel-enlisting-its-own-twitter-army\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Enlisting its Own Twitter Army"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Every once in a while (all too often I\u2019m afraid) articles come along like this one from today\u2019s Jerusalem Post<\/em>. While reading them you stare at the page in a cross between utter disbelief and hilarity that someone in a position of authority in the IDF actually believes that the idiocy they\u2019re peddling is a good idea. In this case, Ruth Eglash, the Post\u2019s intrepid \u201cdigital media editor\u201d (at least that\u2019s what her Twitter bio states), writes that the IDF is looking for a few thousand good men\u2013and perhaps even a few women. They should be pro-Israel Walter Mitty types who may\u2019ve dreamed of joining the Israeli army but couldn\u2019t either because they\u2019re long in the tooth or wide in the paunch. Now, the hasbara brigade is inviting them to do the next best thing: join the virtual army and play a game called “Israel Ranks”:<\/p>\n

It could be the solution that millions of Jews and supporters of Israel worldwide are looking for: A chance to sign up for the Israeli army and help in the fight to defend the Jewish state \u2013 virtually.<\/p>\n

A new initiative launched this week by the IDF Spokesman\u2019s Office on its blog provides an online option for those cannot or do not want to physically join the army, but nevertheless want to contribute to the well-being and future of the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever wanted to join the military and fight to defend Israel?\u201d reads the introduction to \u201cIDF Ranks,\u201d an online game that allows participants to sign up via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and earn points by disseminating as much positive information about the army and its activities as possible.<\/p>\n

As players earn points, they are rewarded and allowed to move up through the ranks of the IDF, starting with the first level of \u201cGreen Private\u201d just for signing up, and moving through to \u201cSkilled Private,\u201d \u201cVeteran Private,\u201d \u201cSpecialist Private,\u201d \u201cGreen Corporal\u201d and onward, until they pass through 48 different levels and accumulate 1 million points.<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>\u00a0\u201cAll rise for the new Chief of Staff! You\u2019re the commander of the Israel Defense Forces, sir. Salute!\u201d states the text below the game\u2019s final badge of honor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Listen up there, private! Polish those shoes, clean those fingernails! The sergeant over there will look you over and if you think he\u2019ll accept anything less than your hasbara best you\u2019ve got another thing coming!<\/p>\n

Eglash will have to excuse us for taking a different view of this nonsense than hers:<\/p>\n

The game, which clearly has super hasbara (public diplomacy) potential, is a brave attempt by the army to harness the power of social media in sending messages and defending the state online.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This we\u2019re led to believe, will make all the difference in convincing the world of the righteousness of Israel\u2019s cause. Play a game and the world will join you in singing Israel\u2019s praises. The cynicism and utter divorce from reality that this represents is mind-boggling. To join this IDF crusade you don\u2019t have to know anything about Israel, you don\u2019t have to have ever fired a shot or been fired upon. You just walk downstairs from the bedroom, fire up the PC and zap those anti-Israel maggots as if it were a Super Mario Brothers game.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always loved political satirists like Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory and Andy Berkowitz because at times like this the only reasonable response is laughter. Not a belly laugh, but the dark, knowing laugh of sarcasm and satire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: Those who are really addicted to social media or are especially dedicated to spreading the views of the IDF can even reach the rank of Lieutenant-General.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":468,"featured_media":20792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,171,63],"tags":[982,39,1572,18311,5466,2605,11349,13694,143,2033,2465,166],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}