In this, Israel is not unique; any American (even the ones that voted for Barack Obama) will tell you that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector. But Israel’s government inefficiency hasn’t just been a drag on economy; over the past several weeks, the government’s difficulties in explaining its case on the Gaza flotilla has cost us big-time.

Note that I said “difficulty,” not “failure,” as many others have claimed. There are those who just hate Israel (and Jews; Helen Thomas proves they go together), and nothing we can say will make them unhate us. But there are many people who are willing to give us a fair hearing – and unfortunately, these are the people we failed in the first days after the incident. It took at least 24 hours for word to get out about the violent attack on Israeli soldiers by the “terror activists,” and only three days later did Israel’s story get mainstream publicity.

Of course, hasbara has to take a back seat to real security, and sometimes you have few options; like with the Gaza flotilla’s Mavi Marmara – where IDF soldiers had no choice but to use real bullets to save the lives of their comrades, who were savagely attacked by knife and club wielding “peace activists” – you’re damned if you do or don’t. But if we know our story is right, and we’re convinced of it, why do we seem to have such trouble selling it properly – and convincingly?

Maybe what we need is a little private-sector ingenuity for our hasbara efforts. Look at the saga of the “We Con the World” video; as you’ve probably heard by now, the video, produced by Latma, which is edited by our own Caroline Glick, was pulled from Youtube, most likely because of complaints by anti-Israel viewers who were appalled that their story – of how big bad Israel attacked the innocent “activists” – was hijacked, with the world seeing the truth of the intentions of the passengers on the Marmara, because of a parody, of all things!

Of course, Youtube claimed that the reason for the video’s ban was that it was in violation of “a copyright claim by Warner/ Chappell Music, Inc.” the owners of the rights to the original USA for Africa “We Are the World” song and video, produced in the 1980s to raise money for hunger in Africa. But that can’t be right, because U.S. copyright law provides for “fair use,” meaning that existing works of art can be freely used for parody or education purposes. Just ask Lenny Solomon and “Weird Al” Yankovic, who for decades have been rewriting top pop songs for education (Solomon) and parody (Al) purposes!

The point of the story, though, is why Youtube was moved to remove the video – because it was making an impact, thanks to the 3 million plus hits it generated in barely a week. Now the genie is out of the bottle; “We Con the World” has spread too far and too wide, and is now available on all sorts of sites. In fact, doing a search for “We Con the World” at Youtube yields dozens of copies, now dubbed in all sorts of languages!

As many have said, “We Con the World” was one of the best pro-Israel hasbara pieces to emerge in a long time – and the government had nothing to do with it! The truth is, though, the marketing people at many  Israeli companies – startups and veterans – are just as talented as the people at Latma. Why not come out with a parody a week – or some other effective video, audio, or web campaign, that can tell Israel’s side of the story in a surprising, interesting – and successful – manner?

That’s exactly the question that came up when I recently interviewed an Israeli “captain of industry” (he remains anonymous for this story, in order not to mix politics and business). We met just a day after the flotilla story took over the media. By that time, the headlines worldwide castigated the IDF for boarding the Marmara and five other ships, with the resulting nine deaths. Meanwhile, nearly no one was paying attention to Israel’s side of the story.

Commenting on the seeming lack of ability of Israel to get its point across, I told this executive that it appeared that the tepid efforts by hasbara officials to explain Israel’s position was possibly the result of the game of “musical chairs” played by politicians in this country. You have the same people running different ministries and departments in various governments, while the actual day to day work is done by the bureaucrats who remain on the job, no matter who the boss is. “The minister spends years just learning the issues, while the bureaucrats have no incentive to change their ways. While that system may be acceptable for deciding on where to build a sewage treatment plant, it just doesn’t work in day to day hasbara,” we both agreed.

Then we brainstormed an idea; why not “outsource” hasbara? I don’t mean officially; no bureaucrats will be hurt in the execution of this plan. But if every successful hi-tech company, if every successful PR firm, non-profit marketing department, university information bureau, were to donate, say, an hour a week to a specific hasbara project, imagine how well Israel’s story would be told! The executive agreed; working on such projects, utilizing the amazing talent we have in this country, could be the solution we have long sought to the problem of getting the world’s attention. If “We Con the World” proves anything, it’s that good people around the world are indeed willing to give us a fair hearing. We just need to come up with something good for them to hear! The executive’s on board; how about you?

Related articles by Zemanta

• ‘We Con the World’ video kerfuffle: When Middle East politics meets the parody/satire divide (copyrightsandcampaigns.blogspot.com)
• Inevitable: YouTube pulls “We Con the World” video (hotair.com)
• The Flotilla Choir Presents: We Con the World (newsbusters.org)

In an exclusive Yom Ha’atzmaut interview with the Jerusalem Post, Oron says he is decidedly optimistic about Israel’s hi-tech future. In fact, he says, “the consensus seems to be that by the beginning of 2010, companies will begin to see significant growth in revenues, that will be translated into financial performance several quarters later.” And that growth, says Oron, will be strong enough to “raise the boats,” fueling development in all facets of Israeli hi-tech – and not just in the hot areas of cell communication or Web 2.0 applications, but in “traditional” areas of IT development – bringing back in its wake the hi-tech jobs that were lost during the current downturn, and then some.

Oron has been working with Israeli hi-tech companies for decades. He was, among other things, President and CEO of Aryt Industries; Co-Founder, President and CEO of Reshef Technologies; Co-Founder and Chairman of Telegate Ltd; and former chairman of the Israel Venture Association (http://www.iva.co.il/). Among his fund’s recent successes was the acquisition of anti-fraud solutions provider Actimize (http://www.actimize.com/), since acquired by Nice; semiconductor maker Siliquent, acquired in 2005 by Broadcom (http://bit.ly/195gPF); and optical measurement solution provider Cognitens (http://www.cognitens.com/), acquired in 2007 by Hexagon. Plus, he’s brought many companies to market with successful IPOs. He’s seen companies come and go, and helped businesses thrive through good times and bad. And, Oron says, while there is what to worry about, the overall picture is better than most people realize.

“One needs to differentiate between the market for tech products and services, and the funding sources available to hi-tech developers,” Oron says. Echoing the sentiments of many economists and experts, Oron says the problem is more one of Wall Street than Main Street. “The large U.S. tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and the cellphone producers and service providers are doing OK, with sales down at most 5% or 6% overall. Lower sales in the U.S. and Europe are being compensated for by steady demand in Asia. We have a similar situation in Israel; it’s not that demand for products has evaporated, it’s the financing for fledgling companies that is hard to come by.” While most of us are familiar with the credit crisis at the banks, VC and angel funding is extremely weak as well, Oron says – and the investment markets is basically treading water. “The financing food chain for startups is on the verge of collapse. One hopeful sign is that we have seen some activity in the mergers and acquisitions area recently, but overall, tech companies that have only their ideas and patents as assets are suffering,” Oron says.

With that, Oron says he has become much more hopeful in recent weeks – after speaking to high officials in the Finance Ministry regarding the government’s business bailout plan, announced last week. “The message is very clear that the people currently running the Treasury ‘get it,’ and their plan should help ease access to money for many startups. In addition, the government plans to significantly increase – perhaps double – the Chief Scientist’s development budget, meaning that many more companies will have access to development funds.” It’s the first comprehensive government response to the crisis, and it’s a good one, he says. “It’s a serious plan that should accomplish what it is setting out to do.”

And what projects, in his opinion, should the Chief Scientist be funding? Where are the strong growth areas going to be when things do bounce back? “Everything,” says Oron. “There is going to be huge demand for everything Israel specializes in, from broadband backbone to audio technology to last mile wired to wireless. Those who say that there is no need for many of the traditional technologies Israel has specialized in are just not aware of what is going on out there. Already there is a huge demand for technologies that can handle the heavy bandwidth necessary for the heavy internet traffic generated by online video. This market, along with many others, will continue to show strong growth, and it is in these traditional IT areas that Israel has a strong presence.”

Israel’s medical technology providers will also see strong growth, Oron says, while cleantech/greentech is likely to have less of an impact on local growth than many expect. “Much of the IT work being done by private companies trickles down from research and work being done for the IDF,” Oron says, “so we have a built-in market to produce for – something that doesn’t necessarily exist for cleantech applications.” That’s not to say there won’t be growth in that area as well, says Oron – but the areas that Israel has excelled in for years will continue to be just as important, if not more so, for local companies.

And despite rumors to the contrary, Israel’s technology base and innovative drive is as strong as ever. Commenting on the latest doom and gloom rumor – that China is somehow supplanting Israel as a world center of innovation – Oron says that nothing could be further from the truth. “I have been in this business for many years, and every little while someone comes up with a similar idea, that Israel is losing its edge. Everyone we speak to – world class investors, people from Silicon Valley, the elite of IT – who looks at the business plans, technologies, and business models of Israeli companies comes away highly impressed. I won’t say we don’t have some weaknesses when compared to China or India, but losing our innovative edge is definitely not one of them.”

And with all that expected growth, says Oron, those who were laid off this year have a good chance of getting a job – perhaps even their old job – next year. “The layoffs have not been uniform – we’ve been seeing two kinds of layoffs in recent months,” Oron says. “While everyone is cutting back, those working for local branches of multinationals are being more badly affected, since the multinational tends to protect workers in their home country, preferring to sacrifice their foreign satellites. But that’s this year; soon, hopefully by next year, the tech sector will be perhaps the world’s fastest growing sector. Based on the amount of data being generated and the services currently available to fulfill those needs, it’s quite clear that the market demand will be strong. And when the financial markets come back and funding is available, growth will be as strong – and probably stronger – than it has been in recent years.” It’s an optimistic forecast – but as someone in a position to know, Oron’s optimism can give all of us hope that next Yom Ha’atzmaut will be a lot happier for many more Israelis!

Not that the other side is “winning” – when it comes to internet dominance, Israel’s got the competition beat hands down. But the hackers and crackers who are out in force right now, seeking out Israeli and Jewish content web sites to deface, are like swarms of annoying insects. If you spray – i.e. install protective measures on web sites – you can keep them at bay. But if they sniff weakness – security holes that web site administrators are supposed to be on top of – they’ll swoop in, invading web servers and replacing the content with anti-Israel propaganda.

Over the past week, hundreds of Israeli and Jewish sites have been compromised, with anti-Israel propaganda, consisting of messages, graphics and video, installed on sites they take over (you can see a whole gallery of such sites at http://www.arabic-m.com). And propaganda it is; the photos the hackers display of injured Gazans are heartbreaking, but after all, photos aren’t always what they seem, as we learned during the Second Lebanon War, documented at http://tinyurl.com/axlt5f, http://tinyurl.com/8sgvfu, and http://tinyurl.com/g2p9n, among others.

The attacks are sophisticated; you have to give them that, to the extent of being able to hijack a whole domain name server (http://tinyurl.com/7bsauq). According to experts I’ve spoken with, we’re dealing with a professional crew of hackers who are probably working for the “axis of evil” governments in the countries they live in (including Syria and Iran). With the right protection, though, sites can be made safe.

But just “being safe” somehow just doesn’t satisfy in a situation like this; you feel like you want to do more. How is it that they can get away with hacking our sites without feeling some pain on their side? Don’t we have hackers – or any other offensive weapons – to fight back with? What can an ordinary, non-programming person do to defend his or her country?

The answer is yes, there is something you can do – and you don’t have to be a hacker to take some offensive action. Legal, even! As we all know, hacking is generally looked upon askance by the law, and while I don’t think anyone who hacks an anti-Semitic web site has to worry about being arrested, they may find themselves with a lawsuit on their hands.

However, there is a perfectly legal way to get back at bad sites – sites that skew the facts or tell outright lies about Jews and Israel. How? Just by being a nudnik – the more obnoxious, the better. The sites that describe in detail how Israel controls the world and is planning to drag all the goyim into World War III have to be hosted somewhere. All you have to do is run a traceroute on the domain name of the site and find out the actual numerical IP address the site uses. That address is registered to a web site provider, somewhere in the world. Using an online tool, you can track ownership of that address – and when you do, it’s time to open up your e-mail program and write a scathing letter, complaining at the poor quality of sites hosted on the company’s servers (and the fact that it is promoting racism, anti-Semitism, and libelous accusations). Mention the fact that your uncle is a lawyer, and chances are you’ll get satisfaction – doing as good a job of booting a site off the internet as a hacker would, or even better!

It’s actually far less complicated than it sounds. You may already have a traceroute program installed in your computer, but you can also use an online traceroute took; at http://www.geektools.com/traceroute.php, just choose one of the many links (grouped by country; for our purposes, it doesn’t matter which one you select. The Israel links are pretty reliable). Type in the name of the host (www.hostname.com, without the http:// at the beginning). The system will begin seeking out the true home of the host, and after about 13 or so “hops,” it will present you with an IP address.

Copy that address and surf on over to http://www.ip2location.com/free.asp, which will look for the physical location of the server that IP address is associated with – and usually, the name of the hosting company that provides the address. And that’s all you need; you can surf to the hosting site and get the appropriate e-mail, to write your complaint to the system administrator, director, or other bigwig who takes complaints. Chances are the site administrators or owners do not realize what screed they are hosting, by the way; there’s no law that says they have to check up on the work done by their clients. And while they have no legal obligation to respond positively to your complaints, they probably will, in order not to get a bad reputation, as well as to get you off their back.

If you’d rather let someone else do the hacking for you, by the way, check out http://www.help-israel-win.org/, where they have an application you can download and install that uses group computer technology (sort of like SETI, Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, http://www.seti.org) – except their application attacks anti-Israel web sites. I don’t know if it’s legal, but it is easy.

But why take chances? With my way, you know you’re safe – and you get the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of your work. I know the anti-Israel crowd is going to flip if people use this tactic, which is easy and requires very little, if any, technical skill; “the Jews own all the web hosting sites,” etc., which could be, but is unlikely. Fortunately, there are plenty of people – of all types – who have self-respect, and who don’t want to be known as the type of people who spread lies and hate. If anyone wants to take this job on (it’s really not hard, and it does get results) and doesn’t know how to proceed (after reading the instructions carefully, of course), please write and I’ll do what I can to help.

This logic can extend to other areas of life – but the slippery slope may have a deeper decline than most of us realize. Is there such a thing as too much security? For example – is it okay for the authorities to read our mail? After all, someone could be communicating plans for a terror attack. How about e-mail? We’ve all heard stories of how terrorists communicate with each other electronically. Cell phones conversations? Maybe they need to be monitored too.

Granting such wide-ranging authority to the authorities seems like an act that would make for an iffy socio-political experiment – to determine whether or not government can have near complete, on-demand access to personal communications, while still ensuring personal liberties. And it’s an experiment in which we Israelis are the guinea pigs, thanks to Israel’s version of the Patriot Act, the Communications Data Law (also known as the “Big Brother” law). The law passed in June, but hasn’t really been enforced yet – because specific procedures for collection of some of the data have not yet been authorized.

To those who grew up in western societies where the right to privacy was considered unassailable, the law’s tenets can seem disturbing, to say the least. Under the new law, police have the right to demand from service providers any information they deem necessary on your electronic communications habits and history. This includes a complete history of your Internet surfing, all the e-mail messages you send or get, the address of all your e-mail correspondents (and copies of their messages, too, if necessary), a list of all the phone calls into or out of your cell phone, and the names and phone numbers of all of your cell phone contacts, whether or not they have blocked their numbers from people they call.

Police can request any of this information on the basis of an investigation they are conducting, based on their own criteria – in other words, they do not have to get a court order, or consult with a judge or anyone else. All they have to do is show up with an order signed by an “authorized” police officer – and, according to the law, the ISP or phone company in question is required to comply. If the law has not been widely used yet, says Nirit Moskowitz, a spokesperson for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), it’s most likely because police have not yet built the databases and information management units to handle the flood of data.

It’s a heavy load of responsibility for anyone to be carrying, ACRI says. And, says Moskowitz, police were already been taken to task by Knesset members for abuse of power on using the law – with the ink barely dry! At a Knesset committee discussion last August to approve some of the procedural issues surrounding the law, Knesset members were astounded to learn that police had used the law to demand information from one of the cell phone companies that was not covered by the law; the cell phone company, thinking that police now had the right to ask for the data, willingly surrendered it. The Mks were so taken aback by the development that they cancelled the session – and last month cancelled a second session that had been scheduled to approve the procedures. Meaning, that major parts of the law are still in limbo.

ACRI, meanwhile, has been petitioning the High Court, seeking to insert adjustments to the law that would prevent some of the potential abuses Moskowitz says have already shown themselves. “Besides the issue with the cell phone company, the number of officers authorized to demand information has grown considerably in the year or so since the law was passed.” The original idea, said Moskowitz, was that police would appoint a coterie of high ranking officers to decide on a case by case basis whether use of the law’s mandate was necessary. But that list has grown, Moskowitz said, meaning that it’s more likely that police will make use of the law. A High Court session that was set to consider ACRI’s petition this week has been postponed until next February, when seven judges will hear the case, instead of the three who had dealt with it until now.

Regardless of whatever adjustments are made, however, law enforcement – that includes police, military police, border police, the tax authorities, Treasury enforcement, the Justice Ministry, and others – will still be carrying a huge stick. And for many of us who grew in Western cultures, that stick seems far too big for anyone to be carrying in what we hope can be considered a free society.

At first glance, that is. But in this age of super-databases, easy to access listening equipment, or hackers and crackers getting at our credit card records, is there really anything such as “privacy” anymore? Without knowing too much about us personally, for example, Google and Amazon knows exactly what ads to flash at us or what specials to tout in their e-mail offers. If once there was six degrees of separation between any two random people in the world, today there is one – your firewall, and when a hacker breaks it (as s/he can relatively easily), your data joins the rest of the world. Is it unreasonable for law enforcement to have access to the same information any dedicated 16 year old can get at? And if a 16 year old can operate under the radar, what about sophisticated terrorists?

Even ACRI, says Moskowitz, sees a need for the law. “We can understand the need for police to make their own decisions, to act quickly even without the authority of a judge, even without a specific threat or ’smoking gun.’” But, she says, “there needs to be a balance. We are giving police a lot of power and we are hoping they will do the right thing. We want to be sure this isn’t too much power for them to handle. But on the other hand, we don’t want the mafia to think we’re going to work to give them a free pass – in such circumstances, police should be free to act,” she says.

Security vs. freedom is a debate that has been ongoing around the world since 9/11 – but Israel’s Big Brother law is definitely one of the most “advanced” – meaning severe – anywhere in the free world. Can we handle it? Can our police handle it?

Maybe – hopefully – our past experience with heavy security will be a guide for us here, too. Visitors are often struck at how many guns – big ones – are displayed out in the open by IDF soldiers traveling on buses, hitching rides, or sitting in cafes. In other countries, most of us would get very nervous seeing a machine gun resting on the lap of a 20 year old napping while on a long-haul bus ride – but somehow, in Israel, we “know” that everything is going to turn out okay. Everyone’s a soldier, or at least everyone’s father, brother, sister, uncle, cousin, etc. is, or was. We know them; they certainly wouldn’t hurt the ones they love, and are in the army strictly to protect themselves, their family, and community. They can be trusted to walk around with an Uzi. Not everyone has a relative in the police department – but somehow, we consider them “mishpacha,” family, as well. And your relatives would never do anything to really hurt you, would they? Well, here’s hoping!

Readers will have certainly read this story (http://tinyurl.com/6mcjbq), a Jerusalem Post scoop, describing serious security breaches on Facebook. IDF soldiers have posted details of their bases, weapons they have worked with, and personal information about who they are and what they do in the IDF. A special IDF unit, the article says, has been searching Facebook for months trying to identify and, hopefully, eliminate the information, which could potentially be used against Israel in a future war.

It’s the same on Google Earth; terrorists have, by their own admission, used information on GE to target Israeli sites (http://tinyurl.com/3agqb7):

“Members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a group aligned with the Fatah political party, say they use the popular Internet mapping tool to help determine their targets for rocket strikes. ‘We obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city center and sensitive areas,’ Khaled Jaabari, the group’s commander in Gaza who is known as Abu Walid, told the Guardian. Abu Walid showed the Guardian an aerial image of the Israeli town of Sderot on his computer to demonstrate how his group searches for targets.”

All this, in addition to the insult and injury both Google Earth (http://tinyurl.com/5vazkc) and Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/5pzttm) cause us as a nation and a people.

But what’s good for the Israeli goose is good for the Iranian and Syrian gander. They, too, have military secrets that are “out there,” and a discerning Web surfer could find out a thing or two about how Israel’s enemies are preparing for war. Much information of use to terrorists anywhere in the world is publicly available on the Web. Many shopping malls, for example, have detailed information about the way the building was constructed, the plumbing or air filtration system, or similar details that an ambitious terrorist could take advantage of.

And there are also sites that have useful tidbits and nuggets about security procedures, weapons and other interesting information for almost every country in the world (it helps to be multilingual, though). Even local map sites have interesting and useful information that maybe shouldn’t be there. I found a couple of what I thought were “questionable” items on a well-known Israeli map site (I won’t mention what or where, for obvious reasons, but I did e-mail the site).

What’s good about services like Google Earth and Facebook is that they’re “concentrated” – everything you need is on one site, if you know what you’re looking for. And no country is safe; finding out “secrets” is often more about human error (as in the case of the IDF soldiers and Facebook), or intelligent people putting two and two together.

Intelligence experts in Europe last week noticed something different on a satellite photo taken in Iran recently, and determined that Iran was developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe (now they know how it feels).

Of course, anybody with access to a multimillion-dollar satellite that can take high-resolution photos from space of objects two feet off the ground (http://tinyurl.com/5s8j4w) can pull off the same trick. But you don’t need to spend a lot of money on satellite photos to figure out what the Iranians are doing. All you need is a quick eye on Google Earth, like the person at http://tinyurl.com/5bmg55. While the hi-res photo didn’t reveal the specific site in Iran where the missile development is taking place, comparing the hi-res photo with older images of Iran on GE, the poster of this information figured out where the new facility was – right down to the building:

“Entering the coordinates N 35 13 19, E 53 53 41 reveals a Digital Globe satellite image of the facility taken earlier than” the one cited by Jane’s (the site was referred to in the article as “a previously unknown missile location, the site, about 230 kilometers. southeast of Teheran”).

Another intelligent guess on intelligence regarding Iran can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/59xvh2, where the author extrapolates what Iran would do with the the S-300PT SAM system it purchased from Belarus (it got two from Belarus and two from an “undisclosed source”). The author of this blog cites his source as Jane’s, and discusses several other weapons and defensive systems Iran has acquired recently.

Being apparently less innovative than Israel in how its weapons are deployed, the author makes a case for a scenario in how the systems would be used to defend strategic Iranian interests, including Teheran and the country’s nuclear facilities. Attached to the analysis are images of Google Earth, marked up with diagrams showing how the missile systems (to be used for defensive purposes, the author said) would be deployed, as well as the most logical locations for the systems, given their known capabilities.

GE has also helped reveal to the wider world the “secret” of Syria’s nuclear weapons deployment in the North of the country. The Ogle Earth site (http://tinyurl.com/5vwjva), which is where GE geeks go to share ideas, analyzes the satellite photos of the September 6 raid (officially, we still don’t know who was behind it), and based on information quoted in the name of a “senior US official,” pinpoints what the site believes to be the “single spot” where the facility could have been. The building where the facility was being built for the last six years, according to intelligence reports (http://tinyurl.com/63dgbf), should have shown up in GE – and indeed it does, following the coordinates based on the analysis listed.

Of course, Israel’s security is a lot more important to us then Iran’s or Syria’s – and Israelis, as citizens of the nation with the highest per capita amount of computer ownership in the world, have more opportunities to make mistakes. (It’s hard to imagine Syrian troops forming a club on Facebook.) With greater opportunity comes greater responsibility, of course – but it’s nice to see that the system can work in our favor sometimes, too!