It seems that yesterday the cyber group of hackers known as Anonymous target what it said was the Israeli government websites as a kind of show of solidarity with Palestinians. In a relatively rare harsh and thuggish mistake this group suddenly went all political and far, far away from any type of liberal activism that is so identifies with those who promote freedom, especially on the internet.
A few things stand out on this campaign against Israel which are so unlike Anonymous that one must ask himself if this is really the same group, or is it someone else posing as the Anonymous group, and if so – why don’t the real ones stand up to voice their concern over this cyber attack.
The first thing is the “why” factor, the cause for this action, at first it was claimed (weeks ago) the it is the disturbance of the cease-free agreement that triggered this action, however the Palestinian side has clearly violated this cease fire , even on the day it was signed, so no real cause here. Second is “solidarity” with the Palestinians, are we talking about the same group of people who persecute gay people, torture, execute and drag bodies around the streets without trial or any kind of legal process?
The other thing is the timing, seems that this attack, planned weeks ago, is set on the Israeli Holocaust memorial day, and to make things even worst some of the Anonymous activists claim that their action is meant to “wipe out Israeli presence off the internet”, not a very good choice of words.
So, is this really Anonymous doing? if it is this must be a sad moment, because it symbolizes the fall of one of the bravest and coolest internet protest groups into an ideological abyss, and onto a work-for-the-popular-vote kind of thuggish attitude. The result of this attack on Israeli sites resulted in many regular, privately owned sites failure and very little damage to government sites, it also showed the language and graphic skills of the hackers who went to work on this, and unsurprisingly it features the Arab language on most case, and on other very clear religious symbolism driving a clear line between this attack and its probable true nature, the hare of Jews and the Jewish state.
