Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest: conquered by Israel

A view of a Facebook page taken in Gaza City, on March 31, 2011. Attempts by Facebook to shut down a 'Third Intifada' page backfired, with over 7,000 Palestinians immediately signing up for three new copycat pages. (Getty Images)

Amid all the coverage of the recent outbreak of violence in Gaza, The New Yorker has zeroed in on the aspect of the conflict which though seemingly insignificant, may have far reaching consequences: Israel's announcement via Twitter of the start of their military campaign and the subsequent spat between the Israel Defense Force's @IDFSpokesperson and @AlqassamBrigade, the official account of Hamas's military arm.

"The words being tweeted are more than back-alley threats by big boys with bravado," writes Emily Greenhouse. "This is a whole new mechanism and a whole new monster, one pulling out every propaganda stop in what Israel calls Operation Pillar of Defense."

In addition to an active Twitter account, the IDF has a Flickr account, a presence on Tumblr, Pinterest and of course, Facebook. "On Saturday, the I.D.F. Facebook page posted, “400 Rockets from Gaza hit Israel in the last 3 days.” By the following day, over ten thousand people had shared this, over nine thousand had liked it, and over six thousand had commented."