Gaza vs Israel Fought on Facebook

In Turkey, demostrators are burning flags and shouting slogans outside a mosque in Istanbul. The same is happening in several other places as well. But, the most heated "war" is raging online on Facebook. One man, formerly of Israel but who now lives in the US, started an I-support-Israel group, and another man started an I'm-collecting-signatures-for-Gaza group. Both groups attracted attention from each other and Facebook, and include exchanges such as "Israel = killers," and "Maybe I'll wrap a towel around my head and beat my wife for peace in the name of Allah."

Issues such as security concerns surfaced while others say that because they are happening online, they aren't serious threats. Academics say that even ugly online exchanges facilitate communication and understanding. "The Internet removes the threat of physical harm and thus offers an unprecedented opportunity for the development of new ideas for conflict mediation."

Sure. In the meantime, we'll all keep our fingers crossed that Gaza and Israeli hackers don't go searching for that mystical computer system attached to the Big Red Button!

For additional thoughts on this, see "What Happens Now?"