PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR MOVES TO YOUTUBE

YouTube: The Jihadis' Best Friend (LGF)

The BBC reports on the Palestinian terrorist videos that are all over YouTube: Gaza militants launch 'web-war'. But this is nothing new. YouTube has been the jihadis' best friend for quite a while now; it's easy to find radical Islamic propaganda there.

The power struggle between Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas has spilled over to the internet with a propaganda war using a popular video sharing website.

After both groups moved to disrupt each other's television and radio broadcasts, the internet - and YouTube in particular - has become an important medium for disseminating propaganda.

The execution of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander Samih al-Madhun appears to have been the catalyst for the release of a flurry of videos by both sides.

One video graphically shows the pro-Fatah militant being dragged along and shot by masked gunmen, apparently taken from Hamas's own television station, al-Aqsa TV.

The footage is available at the time of writing, although YouTube's guidelines on graphic portrayals of violence may mean it gets taken down.

Fatah supporters responded with a number of videos commemorating "the hero martyr" Mr Madhun, to stirring music showing him posing with various weapons.

What the BBC calls an "execution" was actually a savage lynching that left al-Madhun's body almost unrecognizable as human.