New Media in Israel

The current bulletin deals with the period between 29.10.17 - 31.10.17, where the virtual world looked into a number of topics beginning with the bombing of a tunnel for "Al-Quds Brigades – Saraya Al-Quds", the military wing of the ‘’Islamic Jihad’’ movement, on the central borders of the Gaza Strip. Over seven martyrs were killed and eleven were injured.

This subject bore much attention by the Israeli virtual world, which scrutinised the matter and its repercussions in depth, bringing about an internecine dissension between supporters and opponents of the operation, and claimed it presented an augury foreshadowing the beginning a new war.

The virtual world, further, focused on the alleged claim of the military level that Israel was not behind the intention of assassinating leaders or affiliated elements pertaining to the Islamic Jihad, but rather solely aimed at destroying the tunnel.

Saudi Arabia's diplomacy was termed as behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's past few days’ announcement to back down on the ‘’Greater Jerusalem’’ proposal law, the Saudi daily ‘’Al-Watan’’ reported on Tuesday, quoting senior sources at the White House.

Saudi Arabia succeeded in aborting the proposal law, which did not appeal to the American side either, the paper said. According to a senior official at the White House, both parties, the US and the Saudi, discussed the peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis during the recent visit of US officials in Riyadh and stressed the need for a future follow-up.

The virtual world was well distracted by the issue, especially ensuing Al-Watan news-paper’s reporting that such a maneuver was subject to Western and Arab dictates.

Furthermore, Zuhair Bahloul, an Arab member of the Zionist party, mentioned earlier this week that he would not attend a ceremony at the Knesset next week marking the 100th anniversary corresponding to the Balfour Declaration.

Bahloul further indicated that he perceives no problem being a member of the Zionist camp, though does not approbate celebrating the identity of the Zionist state when the latter does not recognise his identity as a Palestinian hitherto.

Bahlul's remarks gave rise to multiple tumults within the Israeli virtual world, which was divided between justifiers and opponents. The virtual world’s reaction came in subsequence to the statements produced by Avi Gabbai, the party's president, who condemned Bahlul’s position as an outsider off the general consensus of the Zionist party.