NEW YORK TIMES
by Robert Mackey
July 15, 2014

Confronted with an outpouring of sympathy on social networks for Palestinians killed or wounded in Gaza in an eight-day military confrontation, a group of young Israelis is pushing back, using the hashtag #IsraelUnderFire to rally support for what they say is an unavoidable, defensive war provoked by rocket fire from Islamist militants.

As The Jerusalem Post reports, the effort to make Israel’s case is being spearheaded by 400 college students posting comments, memes, video clips, images and explanatory graphics on Facebook and Twitter from dozens of computers in a “Hasbara war room” at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. Hasbara, a Hebrew euphemism for propaganda, literally means “explanation,” and the organizers of the campaign promise to equip like-minded volunteers who visit their website,Israel Under Fire, with “everything you need in order to properly inform about and advocate for Israel,” in 19 languages.

In addition to “informative texts, images, gifs” and blog posts written by a reservist in Israel’s army who is also a Hollywood screenwriter, the materials include YouTube videos in which young people argue for Israel’s right to self-defense and they equate rocket fire from Gaza with terrorist attacks in Boston, Madrid and New York.

“The goal is to deliver a very clear message to people abroad — Israel has the right to defend itself,” Lidor Bar David, one of the group’s organizers, told the Tel Aviv daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Before taking up a fellowship at the university in Herzliya, Mr. Bar David was a captain in the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the office of the military spokesman’s unit…..

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