Israel Government Reaches Out Through Twitter

The typical image of the White House Press Secretary standing in front of the Seal of the President of the United States, discussing the major issues of the day? That might be a thing of the past. Noticing that activity on Twitter, Israeli government officials have jumped in and joined the conversation taking place on the site. Moconews.net has a few excerpts of dialogue between Israeli officials and some of their detractors:

Q: From peoplesworld—40 years of military confrontation hasn’t brought security to Israel, why is this different?
A: From israelconsulate—We hav 2 prtct R ctzens 2, only way fwd through neogtiations, & left Gaza in 05. y Hamas launch missiles not peace?

Q: EhsanAhmad—you didn’t get my point that Hammas is an elected govt and if u keep attacking them they got right to attack you
A: israelconsulate—if hamas’s goal were 2 btr the lives of its cit. they wouldn’t target IL. they would invest in edu/hlth not in bombs

Q: shahidkamal—Your nation has been disgraced on Twitter. This inverted Nuremberg Trial will not rescue your image.
A: israelconsulate: the point of this was to hear what ppl say and to share our POV with fellow twitters.

The messages are coming from the Israeli consulate in the US. It’s interesting that the consulate has chosen to use SMS-style text, a very informal means of communication. Their approach is based on the idea that younger people are not interested in a long history or detailed argument, but warrant a response.

You can follow the Israeli Consulate on Twitter here.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.