Which is more powerful the bullet or the Tweet? I’m not likely to keep my ass down if someone is firing off a Tweet at me, but one can safely say the Arab Spring and its Gandhi-esque approach to changing the world is way more a function of Tweets than bullets. That’s power.
As we get nearer to UN Resolution 194 on a Palestinian State I’m very nervous about bullets. Very. The Arab Spring uprisings have, for the most part, been internecine struggles. But the Palestinians and the Israelis are anything but. Leading up to the U.N. vote on the Sept 23rd, the world will be watching. And this is no platitude or verisimilitude, the world will be watching. Thanks to Twitter and Twitpics and YouTube.
If there is bloodshed over the resolution it will be front page news and winners and losers. And certainly lots of spin. If there is no bloodshed, just civil disobedience and true debate, there will only be winners. It will provide new steps toward real compromise.
Gandhi didn’t need Twitter…but had he a smarty and some agile thumbs, independence in India may have taken months. Peace!