HelpUsWin.org
HelpUsWin.org is an online pro-Israel campaign.
The campaign's website describes it as "a grassroots initiative led by top bloggers and volunteers, powered by StandWithUs and the IDC Herzliya."[1]
According to the Jerusalem Post, the campaign was founded by students concerned at the reaction to the Israeli offensive in the Gasa Strip in early 2009, operation Cast Lead.
- HelpUsWin.org is manned by social media experts and Israel activists around the clock, with the main "situation room" based at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and sponsored by the Stand With Us education organization. Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information.
- Students and volunteers have been monitoring and responding to social media Web sites worldwide in several languages, to mount a public diplomacy offensive for Israel on the Internet.[2]
The JTA gave this account of the project:
- StandWithUs, a Los Angeles-based pro-Israel group, has established a round-the-clock Internet task force -- in cooperation with the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel -- to monitor Web sites and provide instant responses to attacks on the Jewish state. Some 15 to 20 volunteers staff two situation rooms, in Herzliya and Jerusalem, that promote pro-Israel content on social networking Web sites, respond to online opinion polling and try to alter the tenor of discussions in Internet chat rooms.
- The group also has launched a Web site, HelpUsWin.org, that provides links to public opinion polls on the conflict, online articles in need of response and ideas to integrate pro-Israel symbols with profiles on sites such as Facebook. It also features pictures and videos that highlight Hamas' indoctrination of children and the humanity of Israeli soldiers.[3]
In his LinkedIn resumé, participant Niv Calderon described the project as follows:
- social media presence and crisis management for the Israeli Forign Ministry during operation Cast Lead in Dec' 08 and Jan' 09.[4]
According to PBS.org, Calderon was hired by StandWithUs in the opening days of the conflict:
- Niv Calderon, 29, commanded an Israeli social media war room. The day before the war broke out, he was worried about his high-tech start up and moving apartments. But once bombs began falling, he dropped his daily activities and connected himself with Stand With Us, a U.S.-based Israel advocacy group. They hired him to organize an ad-hoc social media "command center" to promote a pro-Israel viewpoint.
- "It wasn't about the money at all. I would have done it for free. It was all from the heart," Calderon told me in an interview. Calderon's first step was to organize a group of about 20 media-savvy internationals who spoke French, German, Dutch, Russian, English and Spanish and were willing to go AWOL from their day jobs for a few weeks.[5]
People
Notes
- ↑ Help Us Win, accessed 18 June 2009.
- ↑ Jessica Freiman, IDC students work to win media war, Jerusalem Post, 4 January 2009.
- ↑ Ben Harris and Joshua Spiro, Israel activists blending new, traditional tactics in PR battle, jta.org, 13 January 2009.
- ↑ Niv Calderon, linkedin.com, accessed 19 June 2009.
- ↑ Jaron Gilinsky, How Social Media War Was Waged in Gaza-Israel Conflict, Mediashift, PBS.org, 13 February 2009.
