A Zionism On The Web special, March 5th 2007
In their hack on the Israeli astronomical club, Team Evil urged people to look up "Sharon's master plan" on google. With only 340 matches, (10% of the matches for a search on "purple bananas") this is a very exact search with a small pool of results. In fact, so small a pool that anyone could probably get to number 1... though with out telling people to search for it, the chance of this mattering is remotely small. We will discuss other details of the hack seperatly as the hack is a perfect example of Crisis 2007 where antisemitism from the left right and Islamist groups combine. In this case there is the added issue of the information not being spread on the web through private websites but by hacking and defacing those of existing organisations. This is all an extention of the main google problem we introduced in 2005, though this growth is particularly dangerous.
So why encourage people to google for Sharon's master plan? The answer is relativly simple. People trust google to give them neutral results. We've write about this problem and the rise in antisemitism as a result of Google searches before. People trust Google's results to be fair and balanced. They expect relevent results. People forget that anyone can write anything on the web, and unless their are millions of references... even the top results might nothing more than a mad man's blog. Even if there are millions of sites, the top site can still be a racist site - as we saw with JewWatch.
If people search for Sharon's master plan they expect details and an explanation of Sharon's master plan to come up. But what if Sharon had no master plan? What if Sharon DID have a master plan but it wasn't called that? What if Sharon's plan was to disengage and create a Palestinian State? Unless he write a press release that said "Sharon's master plan" in the title... let's face it, it's not going to show up.
What we do know about Sharon's plans before his health deteriorated, was that he planned a further disenagement and wanted to see a two state solution in his life time. He completly reformed the Israel political landscape creating a middle of the road party (Kadima) to help make this happen. Sharon's master plan was one of hope for both the Israeli and Palestinian people. His actions speak far louder than any slander on the web.
As a final thought, we all know that Blair has various plans for the UK, yet "Blairs master plan" only get's 10 hits. None of them from Downing street. "Bush's master plan" gets 960, I doubt the qulaity is any better. When you search for information, check your sources, just because it's on the web does not mean it is true.
Andre Oboler, for ZionismOnTheWeb.org
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