Netanyahu webpage copies Obama's.

[jefferson_dem]

Israeli Candidate Borrows a (Web) Page From Obama
By ETHAN BRONNER and NOAM COHEN



JERUSALEM — Click on the Russian-language version of the campaign Web site of Benjamin Netanyahu, the conservative Likud leader running for prime minister of Israel, and up pops a picture of the candidate with Barack Obama. On the Hebrew version, Mr. Obama is not pictured. But he is, in fact, everywhere.

The colors, the fonts, the icons for donating and volunteering, the use of videos, and the social networking Facebook-type options — including Twitter, which hardly exists in Israel — all reflect a conscious effort by the Netanyahu campaign to learn from the Obama success.

“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” noted Ron Dermer, one of Mr. Netanyahu’s top campaign advisers. “We’re all in the same business, so we took a close look at a guy who has been the most successful and tried to learn from him. And while we will not use the word ‘change’ in the same way in our campaign, we believe Netanyahu is the real candidate of change for Israel.”

Those who created the Obama Web site, including Thomas Gensemer, managing partner of Blue State Digital, say the Netanyahu site is closer to Mr. Obama’s than any others they have seen.

“Nothing has been so direct as the Netanyahu Web site, though we have seen others with shades of it,” he said, adding that when a campaign is successful, “people are going to knock things off, both in terms of functionality and aesthetic.”

Web sites aside, for liberals in both countries, the idea of Mr. Netanyahu as the Obama candidate of Israel seems mystifying. Of the three main contenders for prime minister in February’s election, including Tzipi Livni of Kadima and Ehud Barak of Labor, Mr. Netanyahu is the most hawkish and the least interested in the focus on dialogue with adversaries that Mr. Obama made a centerpiece of his foreign policy platform. Mr. Netanyahu has said he would shut down the current negotiations with the Palestinian leadership.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/world/middleeast/15bibi.html?ref=world

[Bicoastal]

1. Except everything's going from right to left...

Hilarious! :rofl:

[VespertineIconoclast]

2. That's exactly what I noticed too!

:)

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Do they read from right to left over there?

[Bicoastal]

8. Yup.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Over here, too, if you're reading Hebrew

Over there, they read from left to right when they're reading English.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. So they don't read upside down in Australia? :^P (Good point, and thanks for the info. That explains

the layout of the website in question, doesn't it?)

[LeftishBrit]

20. Yes. Hebrew is written from right to left. So are Arabic and Farsi.

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. I certainly hope people don't fall for that shit.

The thought of that fucking nutcase taking over Israel again is frightening. World War III is all but guaranteed if that happens, and it most assuredly will begin in Iran within a week of that bastard taking office :scared: :nuke:

[catgirl]

4. I know- scary (nt)

[eshfemme]

5. Whoa... isn't this actually a copyright violation of the web design?

Believe it or not, a specific web design theme can be considered a copyright although there's a lot more gray area here-- if Obama's site was done by a professional team who wish to maintain their own professional reptuation, they might have grounds to sue...

[4lbs]

15. Only if he uses the same code (javascript/php/dhtml/css) or images.

Otherwise the look-and-feel is up for grabs.

The 1990s court case that Microsoft won over Apple cemented that. Apple sued Microsoft claiming that the Windows GUI and HP's UX GUI too closely looked like MacOS. The US Supreme Court said look-and-feel was ok as long as the same code wasn't being used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_v._Microsoft

[eshfemme]

19. Ah... makes sense-- ideas can't be copyrighted but the execution of them is.

Thanks for the specific explanation. :)

[Hawkeye-X]

6. Obama should begin lawsuit proceedings against Bibi.

Right-wing fruitcake that has led Israel to nowhere.

[Robeson]

9. A lot of politicians are going to be copying the Obama model...

...he's set the Gold Standard.

[dascientist]

10. woooooooooooooow

[AlCzervik]

13. He's so right my mac is beginning to tip.

[Cha]

14. OT..but I just

love your sig line, Jefferson..very informative:patriot::party::kick:

[IndianaGreen]

16. Bibi is bad for Israel and bad for America

I hope he loses to Livni.

[bridgit]

17. Pooh-pooh it if you'd care to, but these are the ways of image control & product placement...

Carville has worked with Netanyahu-Barak earlier, there's allot of cross over at that level. It's a no-brainer to sit someone down and point out clear cut effectiveness plus Obama-Biden has that Chosen One light streaming down, subliminal yes, but again very effective. Israel is naturally inclined toward shades of sapphire blue it's a win/win

[Hippo_Tron]

18. Well I gotta hand it to the Israeli Republicans (Likud)

They certainly picked up on the internet thing way before the Republicans in the US did.

[LeftishBrit]

21. Wish he'd imitate Obama in other ways! But he probably won't.

Netanyahu's a right-wing nut, and I hope he LOSES!