Blog/Article #2 Rima Barakat: Unfit to Serve in our State Government

Link to Article

Don’t remember how I found this one, but it stays in tune with my last posting about politicians on Facebook. Reading the first paragraph, I have no idea who Joshua Sharf or Rima Barakat/Rima Sinclair are…but I’m going to find out. [quick note: i can't figure out who the author is, background, basic idealogy, etc]

So Joshua is an Orthodox Jew and Rima is a Palestinian-American. Just your regular political bout in the US, no? AND, they’re both competing for the Republican primary. Usually you can count on Republican’s keeping their anti-semitism subversive, as in “we support israel because once all the jews go back to jerusalem, jesus will come”.  So, you know, the support for Rima is interesting, to say the least.

Apparently Rima is anti-Semitic and anti-Israel, the latter being very important for Colorado State Government (sorry, i’m being sarcastic). But apparently, Rima was the initial GOP nominee in the most Jewish district in Colorado…gasp, blasphemy, so how does this relate to my research?

Well, apparently Rima goes with the last name Sinclair in her campaign and the last name Barakat on Facebook. Why the two identities? Does someone think that Facebook isn’t real? That you can be anonymous?

Moving on. Rima’s attracted some high profile supporters from the anti-Israel, anti-semitism camp. She’s also done some public diatribes as well, which can be seen on YouTube (go to the article for the link). On the video, she goes by Rima Barakat Sinclair, so maybe we can assume that Sinclair is her husband’s name. Interestingly enough, the youtube poster is jsharf – do we sense some subversive smearing?

Facebook Group #1: MK Effi Eitam for Prime Minister of Israel

Link to Group

I found this group after reading an article which prompted me to research Gilad Shalit, one of 3 abducted Israeli soldiers. In retrospect, it was quite tacky to post a link to this political group on a “Save These Guys”-type of group. But, nonetheless, I’m also interested in the way Facebook can be used for creating dialogue between politicians and their (most likely) younger constituents.

So lets take stats:

Related Groups include:

1. 24.06 my facebook status “is waiting for Gilad Shalit for 2 years!!!”
2. In Memory of those killed in the Attack on the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva
3. Facebook delete the group “Israel is a terrorist country we all hate Israel”
4. It’s not “Palestine” – It’s “Israel”
5. Free Jonathan Pollard

So in these 5 groups we see a contrast between the “poor us” and the “f**k them” type of groups. I’m not trying to say anything one way or the other, just pointing out the difference

The Admin is Jonathan Pacifici; a quick google search leads me to JP & Partners. It looks like he has a really nice background, especially since he spent time in my hometown, Philadelphia. I’m just trying to figure out why he created this group, what’s his incentive? I’m not sure I can draw any conclusions from his bio, except that he also has a really impressive background, so if this fulbright thing doesn’t work out, I might need to get in touch with him : )

The group total has 39 members. Surprisingly, not all of these members are part of the Israel network, some are from France and some are from varying networks in the US.

As I’m exploring I notice that Effi Eitam has a Politician page on Facebook. It lists his personal and government websites, his age, hometown, religious and political views. And, in activities it says “Zionism, Defense of Israel, Expel Arabs from Israeli Land, and Judaism”. I was a little jolted until I read a wall post expelling each of these issues. It seems the write claims that Effi did not create this page himself. So how can you create a politician page?

Back to the group. As I read the rest of the wall posts in the group, I think its important to note one comment:

Effi Eitam was my dad’s division commander in Golani for the first Lebanon War ,of course he has my support

Does the size of Israel allow for these relationships to be made among politicians and their constituents? Is this a common dialogue? And, do social networking applications make it easier for people to make these connections?

* On a side note, I definitely need to pick up my hebrew reading comprehension because I feel I am missing a huge part of these groups since I can only read the english comments.

Reading 1: 760 Gilad Shalits: A Double Standard

Link to Article

So before reading this, I know that Gilad Shilat is one of the soldiers abducted by Hezbollah in 2006; this event kicked off the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. I believe that Israel has negotiated with Hezbollah/Lebanon for his return in exchange for this “guy” (much more about him can be found elsewhere) named Kuntar.

On to the article:

• The Consulate General of Israel in New York posted a YouTube video of 5th graders reading a book that Shalit had written when he was their age.
• The Israeli consulate also joined initiatives on Facebook, where members are being encouraged to post Gilad’s photo as their own profile picture.

A quick search of Gilad Shalit on facebook comes up with 79 results, 61 of which are groups, 11 are events, and 1 as a Page / Public Figure (with 292 Fans). When I look at the groups, I find the most interesting connection between Israel and the diaspora. For instance, the group with the largest number of members (12,500) was started by 3 people from the Manchester network and 1 from Israel. It seems though that most of the members are from Israel. Another group was started by a person from the Texas network, there are posts on the wall from Israelis, French and Americans. The French poster left a link to an event with text in French and Hebrew, which shows that there are interactions between Israelis and those abroad.  What is the meaningfulness from the Israelis’ perspective?

And, I’m getting sidetracked by a poster’s comments about the ineffectiveness of groups like these, the ones that show solidarity and the want to return hostages. Amit Regev (Israel) says that these groups are counterproductive because they raise “the price our enemy can put on their heads”. It makes me wonder if any Hezbollah agents are scanning facebook groups…

And, I’m still sidetracked. One thing I have noticed from many Israeli groups is that they post links for other groups, events and external sites. One that caught my attention is from Jonathan Pacifici (Israel); He has posted “MK (member of knesset) Effi Eitam for Prime Minister of Israel”. This catches my eye because it references my other interest: Since Israel is a small country, it can use these application to more effectively promote/support communication between politicians and their constituents. I’m going to write another post when I read through that group.

Back to the article! So the website is called “Israel-Palestine Dialogue Group: Conflict, Coexistence, and Comprehension” I note this because the first sentence of the next paragraphs exclaims “Where are the international calls for the release of more than 760 Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons?”. The author is making a claim I’ve heard before, that Israel has unlawfully imprisoned Palestinians to “instill fear in and terrorize Palestinians”. This article is not turning out to what I wanted it to be (a thoughtful dissection of Gilad Shalit support through Facebook).

This article served one purpose: To lead me to the next one.

Fulbright Research (Background)

I’m in the midst of developing my idea for a Fulbright Research Grant in Israel.  I know that I want to focus on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and how that is portrayed through global social networking platforms (i.e., Facebook, MySpace primarily, Twitter, FriendFeed, Bebo, etc. secondary).  But, that is such a wide topic, I need to narrow it down to something manageable in a year.  One way is to focus on the post-IDF / university student population (20 – 25), and how these platforms have given them a different voice, whether it be to the government as audience or to the diaspora.  I’m also interested in the rules and regulations that the IDF and Knisset are creating for these sites, and how they might constrain the dialog.  Again, there’s just so much, and I need to narrow it down.

So, I’ve bookmarked many articles on deli.cio.us (you can find them at http://del.icio.us/lindsayt930/fulbright) , and I will be reviewing them here as a way to get my thoughts on paper.