Israel takes battle with Hamas to YouTube

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JERUSALEM – Israel's bruising war on the Islamic militants who control Gaza has moved online, where sites like YouTube and Facebook are the new battlegrounds.
                        Israelposted video of its attacks on militants firing rockets over the pastfive days on a new YouTube channel to try to show the world the threatagainst it.
                        YouTube temporarily yankedthe clips on Tuesday after viewers, apparently supporters of Hamas,flagged it as objectionable and asked that it be taken down. Thevideo-sharing Web site restored the video a few hours later, labelingit inappropriate for minors.
                        Supporters of Gaza's Hamasrulers, meanwhile, have posted images of the devastating Israelioffensive on both YouTube and Facebook and on blogs, uploading imagesof the carnage and suffering in the tiny seaside territory.
                        Themilitants themselves regularly update their Web sites in Arabic andEnglish. In addition, they broadcast images of masked, uniformedfighters on Hamas TV, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes butcontinues to broadcast from a mobile unit.
                        "Theblogosphere and the new media are basically a war zone" in a battle forworld opinion, an Israeli military spokesman, Maj. Avital Leibovich,said Wednesday.
                        Gideon Doron, formerchairman of the Israeli agency that oversaw the privatization of thecountry's television and radio services, said today's warfare includesfighting through the media.
                        "Many of the victories of modern warfareare mediated by the media," Doron said. "We have Internet and all kindsof modern communication, and the Israeli military apparently decidedthat it has to broadcast its message through these tools."
                        Leibovichsaid the new YouTube channel and a new blog the military is launchingare an important part of Israel's attempt to explain its actions abroad.
                        One of the aerial surveillance videos Israelposted shows about a dozen figures that the military says are militantsloading rockets onto a truck. They are eventually targeted by anair-launched missile and disappear in a white cloud as the truckexplodes.
                        "We were saddened on Dec. 30,2008 when YouTube took down some of our exclusive footage," themilitary wrote on its YouTube channel page. "Fortunately, due toblogger and viewer support, YouTube has returned the footage theyremoved."
                        In the past, YouTube has beenpressed to take down videos depicting violence. The site has noautomatic review, however, so anything posted runs until a viewer flagsit and asks that it be taken down.
                        YouTube,which is owned by Google Inc., said it counts on community members toflag content that violates the community's guidelines.
                        "Wereview all flagged content quickly, and if we find that a video doesviolate the guidelines, we remove it, on average in under an hour,"Victoria Grand, Head of Policy at YouTube, said in a statement.
                        "Occasionally,a video flagged by users is mistakenly taken down. When this is broughtto our attention, we review the content and take appropriate action,which may include restoring videos that had been removed."
                        YouTube said it would not comment on individual videos or answer questions on the Israeli postings.
                        In May, Sen. Joseph Lieberman complained that the process was flawed because al-Qaida recruitment videos could still be seen on the site.
                        The Israeli military says its clips have attracted more than 230,000 views since going online Monday.
Israel launched the air assault on Saturday in response to rocket barrages launched from Gaza at Israeli towns. Hundreds of airstrikes across the Palestinian territory have caused huge damage and Gaza officials say some 390 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas says some 200 were members of its security forces, and the U.N. says at least 60 were civilians.
Militant rockets have reached farther into Israel than ever before, killing three Israeli civilians and a soldier.
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On the Web:
[url=http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_mi_ea/storytext/ml_israel_palestinians_youtube/30411652/SIG=112dj9h87/*http://www.youtube.com/idfnadesk]http://www.youtube.com/idfnadesk[/url]
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Associated Press Business Writer Andrew Vanacore contributed to this report from New York.