But, let’s be clear. They did not disrupt trading at the exchange nor flights on the airline. In other words, they simply crashed the cosmetic homepages of those entities.

This is somewhat akin to claiming credit for attacking a person’s home, only for it to be discovered later that you ripped the numbers off the mailbox.

Earlier this month, the group claimed they had gotten almost half a million Israeli credit card numbers. Israeli authorities said that it was more like 21,000 numbers. There is some debate as to whether those numbers were genuine.

Last week an Israeli retaliated by posting information about hundreds of Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, etc. This hacker claimed to be a “soldier in an Israeli intelligence unit”.

If most of this sounds all too adolescent, it could well be. The release of some credit card information may have caused inconvenience, but no cardholder would be held responsible for that kind of theft. These stunts sound a lot like teens or college students trolling around for low-security sites to scrape credit card info from, if they don’t make the numbers up entirely. Then, they make forum postings filled with racist and warmongering invective.

The former head of Internet security for the Israeli government said, “Right now, we’re not seeing anything that’s especially interesting or especially dangerous.”

AFP is reporting out of Jerusalem that an Israeli couple has named their third child “Like,” in honor of the Facebook trademark.

The couple, Lior and Vardit Adler, were simply befuddled when it came to what they were going to call their newborn daughter. Inspiration came from the social media giant.

“We named her Like because it’s modern and innovative,” said father Lior Adler to the Israeli daily paper Maariv. “I checked that the name does not exist elsewhere in the country, that was the main condition for me,” he said.

“In our opinion it’s the modern equivalent of the name Ahava (Love). It’s just my way of saying to my fantastic daughter, ‘love.’”

The couple reportedly already has two other daughters named Pie and Vash, the latter being Hebrew for “honey.”

Back in February, following the unseating of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a man named his firstborn child “Facebook” in honor of the huge part the social network played in the January revolution and protests in Tahrir Square. Protesters were able to mobilize and spread the message through social media services like Facebook and Twitter.

Now before you run off and tell your friends about the absolutely insanity of naming your kid “Like,” let’s get some perspective. What about celebrity kid names in the West?

David Duchovny named his kid “kyd.” Jermaine Jackson named his child “Jermajesty.” Sly Stallone came up with “Sage Moonblood” for his offspring. U2 guitarist The Edge decided to call his daughter “Blue Angel.” Magician Penn Jillette named his little girl “Moxie CrimeFighter.”

Ok, Moxie CrimeFighter is awesome – I’ll admit that.

But seriously, people name their kids all kinds of things – especially foreign language words for things like love, faith and hope. Like the father said, Isn’t this just the social media way to say love?

At least this family had the guts to named their child something and stick by it. Remember that Facebook page that advertised naming a baby MEGATRON for 1,000,000 likes? Yeah, it has over 1,600,000. And they didn’t name the baby MEGATRON. They named it Dylan. Pfft.

So what do you think about baby “Like?” Better or worse than little baby “Tweet?”

On March 23rd Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, wrote a letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg calling for the removal of the page.  The page called for a specific date for an uprising to begin against the State of Israel – May 15th, 2011.  The page was also full of comments and videos calling for the killing of Jews and the liberation of Jerusalem through violence, according to Edelstein.  From his letter:

I turn to you with the request that you order the immediate removal of this Facebook page. I write to you not only in my capacity as Israel’s Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs who is charged with monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, but as someone who believes in the values of free speech, and knows that there is a difference between freedom of expression and incitement.

Last Friday, the Anti-Defamation League added their two cents in a press release targeted at Facebook.  They said the page was promoting terrorism through technology.  Here’s more:

“This Facebook page constitutes an appalling abuse of technology to promote terrorist violence,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.  “Although the managers of this group claim to be calling for peaceful demonstrations, the Third Intifada pages include calls for followers to build on the previous two intifadas. We should not be so nave to believe that a campaign for a ‘Third Intifada’ does not portend renewed violence, especially in the current climate that has seen a dramatic increase in rocket attacks from Gaza, the brutal murder of the Fogel family in the West Bank, and a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem.”

The ADL also lamented the refusal of Facebook to take down the page, saying “We are especially disappointed in this case because in the past there has often been understanding and sensitivity from Facebook when we have brought violations of its own rules to its attention. We urge Facebook to reconsider its decision and remove this site, which by its very title incites violence.”

After growing in fans from 280,000 to over 340,000 since Edelstein’s letter, Facebook removed the page.  In explaining their decision to CNET, Facebook echoed Edelstein’s original distinction between free speech and incitement:

“[We] believe that people on Facebook should be able to express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content that speaks out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas. However, we monitor Pages that are reported to us and when they degrade to direct calls for violence or expressions of hate–as occurred in this case–we have and will continue to take them down.”

A simple search of Facebook finds another group with the exact same name has started up to take the place of the removed group.  It currently has 692 fans.

The interview is part of the YouTube World View series and is in partnership with Israel’s Channel 2 News. The interview will be based entirely on the top-voted questions that are submitted.

The YouTube Blog offers more details. “Whether you want to know about the popular upheavals in neighboring Middle East countries, the potential consequences of Iran getting nuclear weapons, peace talks with the Palestinians, or prospects for Israel’s hi-tech industry, ask your question at www.youtube.com/worldview, in either English or Hebrew (half of the interview will be conducted in each language).”

“You can also submit your question via Twitter – just make sure to use hashtag #askNetanyahu.”

On Wednesday, March 23, Prime Minister Netanyahu will do a live interview and answer a variety of the most popular questions submitted and voted on by the YouTube community. The interview will be the first event in Israel ever to be streamed live on YouTube. Questions must be submitted by Monday, March 21st at midnight GMT.

Ayala Tsoref and Zvi Zrahiya reported earlier today, "A ministerial task force has been appointed to decide whether to allow Google to photograph streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as part of its Street View service."

Then the pair continued, "The panel, which will start work next week, will decide where to permit the service in view of the security issues it raises.  The concern is that terrorist organizations could use Street View to help them plan attacks against Israeli leaders or public figures."

If Google’s given the green light, this will represent a huge victory for the company. Other countries should find it difficult to protest Street View if Israel, with all the problems it faces, is able to accommodate it.

Also, for the same reason, partial censorship or a complete refusal wouldn’t be a big deal.  A nation with more serious security concerns than Israel is probably a place where Street View drivers wouldn’t be safe, anyway.

It should be interesting to see how this matter plays out.

"Collective buying is in its infancy in India, Israel and South Africa and we see strong potential," said Rob Solomon, president and COO of Groupon. "Groupon is shaping the way local merchants market themselves in every corner of the world."

One corner of the world Groupon is having some issues with is Australia. The company recently launched in that country as Stardeals, because a Groupon clone called Scoopon got the rights to the Groupon name there. Currently Groupon is suing Scoopon to resolve that, but CEO Andrew Mason says it could take over a year to reach that resolution. 

SoSasta, which has only been around for 3 months has deals in 11 Indian cities. Grouper, which launched in March, is the largest deals site in Israel,and Twangoo serves more South African cities than any of its competitors, according to Groupon. Each of these sites will become Groupon in brand and site design over the coming months. They will serve deals in English in India and South Africa and in Hebrew in Israel. 

Financial terms of the acquisitions were not revealed. 

Groupon says it is now offering deals in 40 countries, has 50 million subscribers, and over 4,000 employees. Now the company is gearing up for some Super Bowl advertising (pre-game), which should spread its brand even further. 

The company also just closed a $950 million round of funding, which it intends to use to continue its rapid growth. Meanwhile, competition is this area will only continue to become more rampant. Google, Facebook, and Amazon all have horses in this race too.

Video clips containing questions for Ehud Barak, Tsipi Livni, and Benjamin Netanyahu will be collected and then voted upon.  The winning clips "will be aired in live public forums on Channel 2 news, Israel’s most popular news channel," according to a post on the YouTube Blog.  The people in the clips will get to attend the candidates’ interviews, too.

 

This development demonstrates how YouTube is becoming much more important in the world.  Unfortunately for most would-be onlookers, the Q&A is being conducted in Hebrew (and the official YouTube elections channel is in the same language), but if anything, the prominence of something other than English stresses the international aspect.  (We might get lucky and see YouTube’s captioning feature get used, too.)

Israel’s government has actually been on something of a Web 2.0 binge lately, with official info about the Gaza conflict getting posted on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.  At this rate, questions for the candidates may well center on social media itself in addition to more standard recession- and war-related stuff.

Anyway, it looks like a lot of people are interested in interviewing the potential prime ministers.  The YouTube Blog notes, "So far, over 250 video questions have been submitted."

The Consulate’s tweets focus on Israel’s “war on terrorism,” and various (non-Al-Jazeera) news reports and commentary. One tweet says Palestinians not in support of Hamas are handing over intelligence to Israeli officials.

Another Israeli Twitter account is manned by volunteers inside Israel and the crew there tweets about Israeli casualties and civilians hit by Hamas rockets. In much the same way Americans view their soldiers as patriotic humanitarians, the fromisrael Twitter group posts photographs of Israeli soldiers being kind to children, kittens, and elderly Palestinians.

In addition to an Israeli Defense Force channel on YouTube and a website called HelpUsWin.org detailing all the social network accounts that have been set up on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, and del.icio.us, Israeli supporters have also set up a group on Facebook and a corresponding Twitter account called Qassamcount. These keep a running tally of Hamas-fired rockets crossing over into Israel.
 

Hat tip to Robert Scoble.

These developments are slightly mind-boggling.  First, check out a day-old channel on YouTube featuring (among other things) videos of missile strikes.  The profile states, "The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit is the Israel Defense Forces’ professional body responsible for media and public relations in Israel and around the world.  This is our new site that will help us bring our message to the world."

 Israeli Army Using YouTube

Then there’s the Israeli Consulate’s new Twitter account to consider.  A two-hour question and answer session just finished, with Consul David Saranga taking questions from a large crowd.  He concluded, "the point of this was to hear what ppl say and to share our POV with fellow twitters."

Neither outreach effort is likely to hurt Israel’s reputation; openness is hard to criticize.  IDF Foreign Press Branch head Major Avital Leibovich also explained the moves to the Jerusalem Post by saying, "The blogosphere and new media are another war zone.  We have to be relevant there."

Still, whether a country’s intentions can be successfully communicated by short, grainy videos and 140-character messages remains to be seen.  And it’s possible that even these attempts will be limited; presumably due to their violent content, YouTube has already pulled at least two videos the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit posted.

The scrolls contain the oldest written copy of the Old Testament. They contain nearly all of the Old Testament books. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, primarily on parchment, with some written on papyrus.

The scrolls are extremely delicate and scientists in Israel are using powerful cameras and lights that do not contain damaging heat or ultraviolet beams. So far they have taken 4,000 pictures of the 9,000 fragments that make up the scrolls.

The project is expected to take up to five years to be completed and will cost millions of dollars. "The aim in the end is that you can go online and call up the scrolls with the best possible resolution and all the information that exists about them today," Pnina Shor, head of the Artefacts Treatment and Conservation Department at the antiquities authority told the Guardian. 

"We want to provide opportunities for future research on the scrolls. We feel it’s part of our duty to expose them to the world as a whole."

The project is being led by Greg Bearman, who retired from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Simon Tanner, a digital expert from King’s College London, is in charge of data collection.

It will likely be two years before some of the scrolls will be made avaialbe online. They will have transcriptions, translations, scholarly interpretations and bibliographies for academic study.