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Covert online students hasbara units directed out of Israeli PM Netanyau’s office

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Ben-Gurion University students. They, too, may be covert social media ‘diplomats’                   (Photo: Eliyahu Hershkovitz)

Israel’s Public Diplomacy Ministry is closing. Instead, staff at the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) will be directing covert “diplomacy units” from Israel’s top universities to counter the growing threat of isolation, the effects of the global  Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).  A recent article in Haaretz explained the recruitment was “to combat the boycott of Israel” on the social networks. The “public face” of these units is intended to be “one of an independent student entity.”

Reportedly, investment in the recruitment, training and funding of these covert student units, structured in a “semi-military fashion”, is NIS 3 million.

Haaretz reports Prime Minister’s Office recruiting students to wage online hasbara battles:

The Prime Minister’s Office is planning to form, in collaboration with the National Union of Israeli Students, “covert units” within Israel’s seven universities that will engage in online public diplomacy (hasbara).

………..Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said the main subjects that the campus-based units will deal with are diplomatic- and security-related issues, efforts to combat the boycott of Israel and anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of Israel………

Seaman informed the public tender committee that the Prime Minister’s Office was interested in having the student union recruit up to 550 students with knowledge of foreign languages from Israel’s seven universities. The student union is to publicize the project among tens of thousands of students and be responsible for the screening process, which will include submission of resumes, submitting answers to questionnaires, providing translation samples and participating in individual interviews. It is also the student union that is to provide computers and work space for a project headquarters on each campus…….. “The idea requires that the state’s role not be highlighted…….”

It is apparent from Seaman’s document that a diplomacy group will be set up at each university and structured in a semi-military fashion. The head of the unit will be a student “senior coordinator,” who will receive a full scholarship from the Prime Minister’s Office. Working under the senior coordinator will be three other student coordinators, each of whom will head one of three desks, responsible for languages, graphics and research. These coordinators will get smaller scholarships. A group of student activists, who will receive nominal student stipends, will work under each coordinator. The Prime Minister’s Office will fund a total of NIS 2.78 million in scholarships for the program in the upcoming academic year.

As an aside, last year staff at Mondoweiss became informed/aware one of the posters participating on our forums at that time was using an ip address out of the Israeli PM’s office. One wonders what prompted the open announcement of these “covert” units at this time.

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More hasbara drones– yeah, that will “help”/not.

“drone

drone(n): A drone is someone who follows an ideology or some other form of idealization blindlessly and uncritically.”

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=drone

I take it as a sign that BDS is working. The Israelis are becoming increasingly desperate as their truth/agenda is exposed.

Thanks MW.

On the bright side,some of these “covert diplomats” just might be exposed to the other side of the coin.

Wouldn,t it be a howl if significant numbers decided to switch sides.

In any case this is David and Goliath at it again.

Keep up the good work Ziosville.Your contributions have been invaluable to the Palestinian cause.

“Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said the main subjects that the campus-based units will deal with are diplomatic- and security-related issues, efforts to combat the boycott of Israel and anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of Israel………”sources in the PMO,S office.

I would suggest that the way to end Israel,s delegitimization is to end your crimes against your Neighbors.That should also significantly reduce that antisemitism (“legit criticism of Israel” and close down the BDS project.

It is all in your own hands but as usual , you are going the wrong way about it and are simply increasing hatred for your actions.

So now the Israeli government is hiring university students so the usual hasbara doesn’t come directly from the horse’s mouth, that is, the Israeli government, in the hopes it won’t be so easily deduced as simple propaganda a la Goebbels. Reminds me of how the former Zionist lobby organization in USA dropped direct pay by Israeli government, and renamed itself AIPAC, to avoid registering as agent of a foreign government.

Is there any US organization that bills itself something like, “AmericaFirst-Palestine Now”? AFPN? Maybe there should be. The Zionists put “America” or “American” in a vast slew of NGOs dedicated to supporting Israel at all costs, including America’s. How about, too, USUDL? United States Universal Defamation League? As an opponent of the ADL’s bias in the name of America?