Take this tweet, sent on Thursday morning:

Good morning to our friends in #America. While you were sleeping, 3 Israelis were killed when a rocket hit their house. — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 15, 2012

Or this one, which calls to mind some of the most over-the-top propaganda poster of the Second World War.

This is how Hamas sees Israel. twitter.com/IDFSpokesperso… — IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 15, 2012

There's even a "social gaming" feature on the IDF blog that allows followers to earn points and badges for sharing and commenting on the news on other platforms, which takes the whole idea of war games to an absurd level.

Obviously, no one looks to an IDF spokesperson for dispassionate, unbiased news. But in an era when every dispute from a political campaign to a broken dishwasher gets aired on Twitter, the idea of hashtagging a bombing campaign and posting video clips of your assassinations, strikes even the most cynical internet user as a world too far. (And possibly against its rules.)

Yet, even while the bombs continue to fall, elsewhere people are arguing over who is winning the information war. The @AlqassaamBrigade has the better hashtag, but @IDFSpokesperson has gained more followers. Even Anonymous is getting in on the act, though it can't seems to decide which side to go after. The @IDFSpokesperson didn't start this online war, of course, but just like the fight for the Middle East, they are determined to win it at all costs.

UPDATE; They now have a Tumblr.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.