Sani Sanilevich, who is managing Netanyahu's Internet campaign, said the Web was one of the biggest focuses of the campaign. "The main advantage of the Internet is the ability to communicate with citizens and people directly," he said. "You can actually hear them and get them involved in this campaign. The whole idea is, together we can succeed."That last phrase, "Together we can succeed," is the campaign slogan on the Netanyahu site, and it does echo, to some extent, Obama's "Yes, we can."
Sanilevich said the Netanyahu campaign plans to make use of Twitter, a mass text-messaging service that sends out short "tweets.""There are a couple thousand in Israel on Twitter," he said. "We have lots of people using the Web sites registered as volunteers, and I am sure we will be able to use Twitter, which is an amazing tool," Sanilevich said. "I have it on my phone, and I go around with Bibi, and everywhere we go he gives me things to say on Twitter."Netanyahu aides say direct communication with voters is important for many reasons. One of them is their belief that Israel's mainstream media are not sympathetic to the candidate, and he needs to go around them.The campaign said that, like the Obama operation, it would bombard its supporters with messages about volunteering and donating opportunities and set up a site where supporters could communicate with one another without the campaign's direct involvement.Netanyahu is positioning himself as the candidate of new ideas both for Israel and for peace with the Palestinians.The ideas center on economic opportunities, aides say, cutting red tape to improve the Palestinian economy, building peace from the ground up instead of the top down, and improving life in Israel.
