Students offered grants if they tweet pro-Israeli propaganda -Is this scary or what?

[malaise]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/students-offered-grants-if-they-tweet-proisraeli-propaganda-8760142.html
<snip>

In a campaign to improve its image abroad, the Israeli government plans to provide scholarships to hundreds of students at its seven universities in exchange for their making pro-Israel Facebook posts and tweets to foreign audiences.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which will oversee the programme, confirmed its launch and wrote that its aim was to “strengthen Israeli public diplomacy and make it fit the changes in the means of information consumption”.

The government’s hand is to be invisible to the foreign audiences. Daniel Seaman, the official who has been planning the effort, wrote in a letter on 5 August to a body authorising government projects that “the idea requires not making the role of the state stand out and therefore it is necessary to adhere to great involvement of the students themselves, without political linkage or affiliation”.

But Alon Liel, the doveish former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, criticised the plan as “quite disgusting”. “University students should be educated to think freely. When you buy the mind of a student, he becomes a puppet of the Israeli government grant,” he said. “You can give a grant to do social work or teach but not to do propaganda on controversial issues for the government.”

[anti partisan]

1. I'm surprised the mainstream media doesn't report this

... seeing as what great unbiased truth-tellers they all are!

[malaise]

3. The Independent is mainstream

but don't look for it on US networks or on cable. Their hacks do the same for free.

[anti partisan]

6. That's what I mean - US TV news, from where most people get their state-filtered "information"

The Independent at least has a reputation of not towing the state line in everything, sort of like the Guardian but maybe not so much.

[2naSalit]

2. Not just scary...

It's pretty F'd up.

Goes to show how conditioned to the "money is everything" meme so many Murkins are.

[L0oniX]

4. Propaganda is good ...as long as it isn't coming from... hmmm ...can't say it here.

[bravenak]

5. It's irritating and obvious.

And it's not working at all, having the opposite effect.

[Sunlei]

7. kind of like what political parties do in the USA with people paid by the post.

Except they're in public with the $$ offer.

[aikoaiko]

8. Not scary.

[brentspeak]

9. Likely explains some pro-Israel propaganda on DU n/t

[HooptieWagon]

14. ^

yep.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Using students to push public opinion has been a tried and true technique.

Sadly.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

11. You could call the the ZioYouth.

Propaganda by the pound.

Right wing parties just love their propaganda.

[Divernan]

12. US funds Israeli military; so Israel has lots of $$$ for student grants.

Meanwhile, US students are drowning under student loan debt. What's wrong with this picture? Currently we're giving Israel about $3.5 million per year to cover their weapons costs. That would provide $10,000 grants PER YEAR to 350,000 US college students. As John Lennon wrote, just imagine a world without war or the billions per year pouring into the maw of the Military Industrial complex.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

13. Now it might just be me

But if they are getting scholarships from the Israeli government doesn't that more or less by default cause the said students to acquire political linkage(unless the statement was referring to statements by them having none, to tired to judge which one seems more accurate).

With the cat out of the bag though its likely to have the opposite effect of what they wanted considering how much information now becomes suspect in the eyes of many

[woo me with science]

15. Creepy and corrupt,

whether done by Israel or our own political systems.

We used to have laws against propaganda targeted at Americans in this country. This administration has participated in both the legalization and expansion of propaganda targeted at our nation's own people. Now we are deluged with lies and manipulation from the government that pretends to represent us.

Governments that turn authoritarian assault real journalism and develop propaganda machines to replace it. The incessant corporate voices spreading lies, disinformation, apologism, and smear are creepy signs of how corrupt, manipulative, and utterly divorced from its purpose of representing the people our government (and allied corporate governments) has become.

Obama taps "cognitive infiltrator" Cass Sunstein for Committee to create "trust" in NSA:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023512796

Salon: Obama confidant’s spine-chilling proposal: Cass Sunstein wants the government to "cognitively infiltrate" anti-government groups
http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/sunstein_2/

The US government's online campaigns of disinformation, manipulation, and smear.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024560097

Snowden: ‘Training Guide’ for GCHQ, NSA Agents Infiltrating and Disrupting Alternative Media Online
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/25/snowden-training-guide-for-gchq-nsa-agents-infiltrating-and-disrupting-alternative-media-online/

The influx of corporate propaganda-spouting posters is blatant and unnatural.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3189367

U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News To Americans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023262111

The goal of the propaganda assaults across the internet is not to convince anyone of anything.*
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023359801

The government figured out sockpuppet management but not "persona management."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023358242

The Gentleman's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4159454

Seventeen techniques for truth suppression.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4249741

Just do some Googling on astroturfing - big organizations have some sophisticated tools.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1208351

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. I've been posting that link regularly, each time I come across a low-post-count Zionist here.

[Divernan]

17. Yup! They're pretty obvious.

Reminds me of my kitten who was sure we couldn't see her if she ducked her head behind a pillow. Except of course, she was sweet and gentle.

[Rex]

18. Wow, to be so blatant about it...just wow! nt.

nt.