View all NBN conference posts in order:
(1) Liveblogging Nefesh B'Nefesh JBlog Conference - First Panel (Part 1)
(2) Liveblogging Nefesh B'Nefesh JBlog Conference - Bibi
(3) Liveblogging Nefesh B'Nefesh JBlog Conference - First Panel (Part 2)
(4) Liveblogging Nefesh B'Nefesh JBlog Conference - Pro-Israel Branding (Plus: Funnyish Standup Comedy)
(5) Liveblogging Nefesh B'Nefesh JBlog Conference - Second Panel

19:15 - Bibi points out that Israel's Arab enemies have been trying to destroy Israel since before 1967 when Israel took over Gaza and the West Bank. Also before 1948 when Israel was declared and created a wave of Arab refugees of indeterminate size. Fair point. References a fallacy which he describes as the "reversal of causality." I believe that this is a phrase he himself made up. Bibi done.

19:09 - Bibi corrects an audience member who is a little too eager to emphasize the oppression and dispossession of Jewish Israelis. He first gets some easy applause for being an advocate for Jewish rights. Then he goes on to list about 2,000 years of "facts" - most of them about how the "2000 years of Jewish" exile talking point isn't, as such, "true." In a touching homage to my point about how truth isn't a very good pushback against ideology, the audience seems kind of unpersuaded.

19:00 - First anti-Olmert joke made by Carl in Jerusalem. It gets exactly the response you'd think it would. He asks a question about electoral politics that he already knows the answer to. I assume he did this because (a) it's educational and (b) because, given the last couple of questions, he thought it was necessary.

18:58 - Some girl is insisting that the government should hire her to blog "the truth" because that way anti-Semitic lunatics will then believe her. Bibi says "that's an excellent idea". Which is weird, because I think it's a retarded idea that would immediately get sucked into the "shadowy global neoconservative conspiracy" meme (and they'd even have a new sophisticated way to talk about Zionist infiltration of new media technologies!)

18:55 - I switch batteries and notice that they didn't provide plugs to the bloggers.

18:54 - Why is electoral reform such a hot-button topic with right-wing Israelis? (1) Don't they remember how it kept a concession-happy Prime Minister in office and insulated from public opinion? (2) Don't they notice that Bibi just bragged about his previous reform - which got rolled back?

18:51 - Bibi asserts that the Israeli government needs better public diplomacy - and that this can be done in part through a reasonably written daily blog. This is true. He also asserts that pro-Israel advocates can counter smears and fabrications with "just the truth" and that facts will defeat smears even if they remain "un-embellished." This is false.

18:50 - Second assertion that the blogosphere has a democratizing function. Just so nobody's misled: that's really not true.

18:47 - In response to question about using blogging for public diplomacy, Bibi provides an explanation of CERN. I've of course talked about CERN experiments. But I wrote about it mostly as a joke because no one in MR's demo really cares about physics and science experiments. Which makes me wonder why there was just an 8 minutes discussion of it at the request of the audience.

18:45 - Question and answer. This is going to be fascinating. The last time I was in a right-wing audience who got to ask Bibi questions someone demanded an explanation for why Bibi - having been his childhood hero - had dashed all his hopes and dreams as PM.

18:44 - Bibi emphasizes that security is important. The economy is also important. And apparently Israel's education system will not escape the guy who - if you judge by what's going on today, and also what the polls are saying - is going to be Israel's next PM.

18:40 - Bibi asks to be allowed to talk in Hebrew, fails. Bibi makes plug for aliya, succeeds marginally. Bibi makes plug for an undivided Jerusalem, succeeds spectacularly. Then asks for input from the room about something. That, it turns out, was an error.

18:39 - Carl in Jerusalem gets up to speak. Gets told to sit down so Bibi can talk. Seems OK with it.