A small web design company from Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel has launched an online campaign against the Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah after supporters of the Shiite organization threatened Israel that “the next war is approaching.”
Last week, Hezbollah supporters mounted on social media a campaign entitled ‘Time for the Victory’ in which Israelis are cynically advised about “equipment you should have for the next war.”
The pictures of the equipment include, inter alia, relaxation pills “in order to keep your composure”, sneakers “for a quick escape”, gas masks for when “ammonia plants are attacked with rockets” and a torch for when “electricity plants are attacked with rockets.”
The attempted intimidation campaign sparked many responses in Israel, including one from the company Web Yourself, which responded in kind with its own Hebrew and Arabic offensive entitled: “What awaits Hezbollah in the next war.”
“A ship of missiles is waiting for you. Join a swimming pool club, because you won’t be able to come near the sea,” one of the company’s post’s sardonically read.
Hezbollah itself then entered the online volley of threats, saying on its Facebook page in Hebrew: “Our rockets will destroy your ships. The sea will bear witness to that.”
Responding to the picture uploaded by the Israeli company of an F-35 fighter jet, accompanied by the caption, “You won’t be able to evade our F-35,” Hezbollah replied laconically: “We are waiting.”
Similarly, in response to the Israeli company’s picture of the Iron Dome missile defense system which was accompanied by the words, “every rocket aimed at us will meet the Iron Dome system!” Hezbollah warned: “Our rockets will teach you that no dome will rise above Palestine, only the Dome of the Rock.”
On the Twitter account of Hezbollah’s military arm, the group wrote in Hebrew: “Zionists, ask your military commanders and politicians who conducted the last failed war with us where they are now.”
The Israelis responsible for the online reaction campaign are all from northern Israel and are therefore among the residents who face the greatest danger from Hezbollah in any renewed round of fighting.
“We went through the difficult wars and we carry with us memories and open wounds from those years. We are loyal to the IDF, to the state and to the city in which we live,” one of the campaign’s activists said. “We don’t think it’s right that their futile threats go without a response.”