While most people now have Facebook, Twitter is a venue of social media that is not as widely used. While many don’t know how to use it, some of us in the Modern Orthodox world have tapped into Twitter. I started using Twitter to keep up with celebrities and famous people I admired. Recently, however, my Twitter usage took a different turn.
For those of you familiar with Twitter, the trending tweets the past few days have been “Gaza”. For those that didn’t catch the lingo, Gaza has been a hot topic. Gaza. Not The Middle East, not Israel—Gaza. And when I clicked on Gaza, it took a turn for the worse. Thousands upon thousands of people were pitying the Palestinians.
Where is Israel in all of this you might ask? Israel is the aggressor. I decided to put a tweet out, “if the Arabs put down their weapons this war would be over #istandwithisrael #notwithgaza.” Two minutes later, someone retweeted that. Ok, success, someone agrees… twenty minutes later, however, I received this in response, “people are blind, sit back down fool.” Ok. Not what I was expecting. And who was she calling a fool? I wasn’t going to let this go. For about an hour we went back and forth. I tried to remain as politically correct as I could. I would say a fact, she would refute the fact. Interesting battle. With help from my cousin in Israel, I tried to argue with this person, this person who I didn’t know. In her bio she stated, “free Palestine, future lawyer/teacher”. My bio was pretty empty, with no personal information about myself. She was arguing with an anonymous person who supported Israel, and she hated me, called me a fool and used profanity.
Her arguments didn’t have a religious backing, just a “free Palestine” and hatred to Israel and the Jews. So while my friends were posting pro- Israel videos on their Facebook pages and getting 8 likes from their friends, I was having a near presidential debate with miss freepalestine25.
During all of this, another random and anonymous person latched onto my side. It was reassuring. I had no idea who this third person was, if he or she was even Jewish, but we became allies. Then, a few minutes later another response to my tweet. This time I was on my own. What transpired was another hour-long conversation. Once again I argued, “Israel is a democracy;” she claimed Israel is a terrorist. I still don’t understand that one. And, while she told me I was uneducated and biased, I believed those attributes of her, and not me.
Yet, it got me thinking. While everyone was sitting on Facebook typing away in the comfort of their friends, in their safe haven, I was on my own, in the Twitter sphere at 4 am debating the anonymous. And, when I decided to block her, since the conversation was going nowhere, I felt exhausted, and not just because it was 4 in the morning.
On twitter, the pro-Zionists are lacking. While some call Twitter a waste of time, it is a critical platform for representation, and our presence in lacking. Gaza became this trending topic because so many were talking about it. The pro-Gaza side picked up on that and it fueled their argument. They assumed we didn’t exist because we knew we were wrong. But I, and everyone sitting in Stern, knows otherwise. Yet that is not enough.
Aside from the fundamental issue of Israel, I am surprisingly similar to this anonymous Twitter user. I too want to be a lawyer. Reading some of her other tweets, I discovered she is a college student, just like me, and that she also loved the new Twilight movie. Perhaps if what is going on in the Middle East settles down, I can show her that we are not so different. Maybe she can see the truth in my side of the story. Maybe I can see the reasons behind her views. But what was certain, and alarming, was that the twisted view of Israel does not only exist in the media. It trickles down to pro-Gaza, Twilight loving, college girls.
There was a rally this past Thursday night at the Israeli consulate in NYC. I didn’t go and I’m not sure how many of my friends went either. But here’s the truth: the place to rally is right here, on the web, using social media, on Twitter. Don’t bring your Israeli flags, bring your keyboard. Log on to Twitter, delve into the thousands of anti-Semitic, anti- Israel tweets. And behind each tweet, realize there is a person, a teenager, an adult, a parent. They have their own views, and they are stuck in their own ways. But maybe, if enough of us get out there and speak up, we can change their thoughts and feelings towards our homeland, our nation, and the peace for which we stand.