Palestinians to face 'Wikipedia War' - Ma'an News Agency Options

[Newsfeed]

Palestinians to face 'Wikipedia War'
Ma'an News Agency
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The next regional war will be a media war, head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate Abdul Nasser An-Najar said Thursday. ...

<a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&ncl=d5fZNkgRtsNMcWM" target="_blank"></a>

View the article

[The Joy]

Palestinians are wealthy? That's news to me. I thought the Palestinian economy relied primarily on Israelis utilizing Palestinian labor? With the Gaza War, the border wall, and the continuous attacks on both sides, one would think that Palestinians would have less access to technology and means of major propaganda campaigns.

Then again, it costs nothing to use Web 2.0 tools like wikis, pod/vodcasts, video sites (i.e. YouTube, Google Video, etc.), blogs, forums, and websites. But in that regard, that would mean that Israel and Palestine are on equal ground with no advantages or disadvantages to either side as long as both sides have the patience and time to keep up the fight. There's always going to be back and forth between both groups.

On Wikipedia, special-interest cabals and groups have to keep up the pressure on their opponents indefinitely to hold on to their pet articles. Sometimes one group will win for a time, but then the other group gains the upper hand. The only way to destabilize the equilibrium is for one side to attain the most power and fight indefinitely to maintain it. That means manipulating the system, demonizing reformers, and squashing dissent while maintaining a public face of fairness and equality to gain public support and approval. That isn't easy to do (as Jayjg and Slim Virgin have found out over time). Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. Eventually, it blows up. Someone messes up, a rebellion breaks out, external forces intervene, servers explode, etc. I can't conceive of either the Israelis or the Palestinians winning the propaganda war in the long time via Web 2.0. Both sides can point to the other's atrocities and each one's tragedies. It's a cruel stalemate in reality and in cyberspace. No winners, only losers.

(I apologize if I'm repeating things already mentioned. I've been in and out of this thread.)

[Wikifan]

Palestinians are wealthy? That's news to me. I thought the Palestinian economy relied primarily on Israelis utilizing Palestinian labor? With the Gaza War, the border wall, and the continuous attacks on both sides, one would think that Palestinians would have less access to technology and means of major propaganda campaigns.

Palestinian leaders are very wealthy. Yasser Arafat siphoned millions in humanitarian aid to pay for mansions in Paris and penthouses in London. Hamas in Gaza imposes obscene price-fixes on tunnels, reaping in more than 50 million a month. That's pure cash, since the UN and Palestinian Authority in the WB provide more than 1 billion annually to subsidize the lives of ordinary Gazans.

According to the IMF and UN, the Palestinians have one of the fattest growing economies in the World. The West Bank economy is expected to grow by 16% this year. Israel's relationship with the Palestinian Authority has fostered strong economic growth, but the reality is the Arab states want to have nothing to do with the Palestinians so they're left to deal with the Zionists or rot.

Saudi playboys spend more waxing their Bentleys and supporting Al-Qaeda/Taliban than their Palestinian brethren.

There are no "explicit facts" in your posts. They are just shitpots of racist and hyperbolic garbage, fed into a liquidizer and scrambled as to make it as confusing and provocative as possible, whilst the Israeli Defence Force continues to shoot children, and run tanks over grandmothers, as they ethnical cleanse the Middle East.

The problem with your world view is that it does not account for the "explicit fact" that most people in this world, and I suspect a large proportion of editors on the Wikipedia, are just plain disgusted by Israel's human rights record and it has nothing to do with race, religion or even national politics ... and then there was all that controversy of Israel using money to try and buy collusion on the Wikipedia. I am sorry but that is likely to get folks back up.

It is one thing edit-warring for free against another jerk off who is also doing it for free but having to edit-warring for free against state sponsored team of jerk offs is just not on.

It is a simple equation. If you don't want people to say you stink, don't stink. And if you do stink, don't point at someone else and say the stink is coming from them. Go and have a bath.

Can you point out what statements in my post meet the definition of racism? IDF shooting children, running grandmothers over tanks, and trying to "ethnically cleanse the Middle East" seems pretty hyperbolic to me. If Israel is engaging in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, it isn't doing a very good job, considering the Palestinians have one of the highest life expectancies in the ME and extremely high population growth rate.

I don't think the State of Israel cares much about Wikipedia. The Muslim states are obsessed with their public image and spend a large portion of their annual economy buying time in the Western media, mostly in the form of Israel/Palestinian news.

You see, the attention on Israel has less to do with some humanitarian concern for Palestinians and more to do with the Arab League's historic lightening rod policy. Israel acts as a huge distraction for their genocides, ethnic cleansing, apartheid governments, exportation of terrorism. The I/P conflict generates more press than all conflicts fought by Muslim countries combined. Egypt using US helicopters to support Al-Shabaab, Saudi Arabia's consistent support for Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and extremist Muslim pressure groups in the US and Europe, Arab League's collective support for the on-going campaign to exterminate the dinkas in Sudan, and institutionalized oppression of ethnic and religious minorities throughout the Arab world including progressive nations like Lebanon and Jordan ignored or subject to minimal scrutiny by the world.

Notice how there is no international boycott on Muslim countries for their human rights record and foreign policy. In fact, they are not only ignored, but victimized. If I was an Arab state I would never make peace with Israel. A resolution would force the media to look elsewhere for Middle East news...probably turn on the Muslim states and expose their awful contributions to human suffering and denying basic human rights.

This post has been edited by Wikifan: Mon 13th September 2010, 7:35am