The satirical video "Internet killed Israeli PR" that YouTube has blocked from viewers in Israel was noticed almost as soon as it was posted on YouTube yesterday by a YouTube user called "rlandes7. He did not like it at all, as the screengrab with his comment shows:
It turns out that "rlandes7" is almost certainly Richard Landes, a professor at Boston University who is notorious for his extreme anti-Palestinian views. He is also the father of Aliza Landes head of the North America desk of the "IDF [Israeli army] New Media Unit." Ms. Landes appears three times in the "Internet killed Israeli PR" video. We know that Richard Landes watched the video, because the pro-Israel blog blog Israel Matzav reported that Landes himself sent the video to them.
Was the IDF behind YouTube's decision to block the video from viewers in Israel? From this we cannot say. But we do now have circumstantial evidence that the "high echelons" of "IDF" Internet hasbara were aware of the video very quickly. As of earlier today, the video was also blocked in France, Germany and Italy -- according to reports I received from people in those countries via Twitter. But it remained viewable in the US and UK. The mystery remains to be solved.WATCH THE VIDEO (SEVERAL SOURCES):
Gaza flotilla video mashup: Internet Killed Israeli PR
Uploaded by flotilla2010. - News videos from around the world.
Gaza flotilla video mashup Internet Killed Israeli PR from Matthew Doye on Vimeo.
And here is the original on YouTube: