“Can’t this WAR be stopped?”
“Is stopping a WAR an easy matter?”
This quote from a Satyajit Ray cult film was reverberating every time I see a post on Israel – Palestine terrifying Gaza act. The rising death toll – the 
bloody attacks – the collective murders are pushed onto the Android mobiles as news updates or Facebook posts or tweets now and then. Sensationalization is too weak a word – the overtly-aware civil society across the world plays a Rupert Murdoch by updating death numbers. Even some people share score-cards of Palestine and Israel in Gaza war since 2000. The parameters include – Children Murdered, Children Under 10 year olds in Prison, etc. The format catches the mass eyes on a WC Final eve for sure.
There is a very interesting point to note in this case. All the photos shared or quotes / trolls shared on social networking sites are very specific – side oriented. None of them – almost any craved for peace. Either it was in favor of Israel or Arabs. So, it is very evident that the utilization of social network is being done to create pressure deliberately.
A blogger writes on his blog that on 10th of July out of mere curiosity, he typed Aravim on Twitter which in English means Arabs. The result was stunning. There came a long list of tweets each from young Israelis calling 
to cleanse the country ethnically. Mostly in Hebrew, the tweets from young Isaelis proclaim their desire to kill Arabs or torture them to death. What was more stunning in this case is that – majority of these tweets came from young women. The girls even tweeted for genocide or torturous death to Arabs. It won’t be very surprising if these platforms are being used for manufacturing opinions worldwide. Cheap. Effective. Immense Reach.
Ayelet Shaked – An active politician of Israel, who has a noted presence in social networking site, last week, posted a very provoking write-up. It called for a war on the whole. Practically, she called for genocide. And, people all over the world – Liked her post. It is disturbing. Distracting. Does the world today endorse US planes that destroyed the cities of Poland and wrecked half of Budapest – or NATO forces who bombed Milosevic’s Belgrade, a city with a million civilians, elderly, babies, women, and children? Do we accept the morality of war that it is not possible to refrain from killing enemy civilians?
Perhaps we do. So, when Shaked, in her statement , justifies Israel’s “Collective Punishment” or mass murder by stating that in morality of war enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure – we endorse that. 
Be it her photogenic look or her “morality bytes” – her statement gripped well.
A recent article states that as pre-army propaganda – the students of Israel are being utilized for a civilian mission. They have to sell the Gaza war online in favor of Israel. The brand-building overseas is very important. And, what we see and hear is a manufactured “truth” that in turn creates our opinion. The single-sided repeated news manufactures “single-sided” opinion. And, so, our opinion or belief in first place is getting affected by a strategically poised method.
Yesterday, Time Photo selected an Israeli Missile exploding photo as “Picture Of the Week.” The death toll then was 160. Thousands of endorsements of the caliber of the photographer flourished on internet. Achievement. Such a moment! So real. The people (mostly Indians) who a few minutes back on a single post expressed concern on Palestine civilians – rained “kudos” to the photographer.
Everything sells. But, war sells best.
Tags: Gaza Gaza conflict Israel Israel-Palestine tension Middle East crisis
