On July 20, the Israeli military launched “4Youth,” a video magazine aimed at young Palestinians and intended to enable Israel to engage in a direct discourse with them. Its producer, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), considers this target audience vulnerable to official and independent incitement by Palestinian media and social networks seeking to undermine any possible normalization of ties with Israel.

The three-minute video magazine, edited like a fast-paced news broadcast, is posted to COGAT’s Al-Munaseq website, Facebook page and YouTube. The COGAT unit prefers not to call the content news, stating that the clips are presented are to expose young Palestinians to a view of Israeli society with which they may not be familiar. In other words, the idea is to show Palestinians that Israelis are not the monsters they are made out to be in Palestinian media and that the reality is more complex.

The first edition consists of a report about the new hours of the Israeli-run Allenby Bridge crossing with Jordan, allowing Palestinians to leave and enter the West Bank 24 hours a day. It also includes a survey of favorite Palestinian tourist destinations and a piece about an Israeli DJ, Ran Salman, who enjoys popularity in the Arab world. Future editions will deal with a range of social, economic and cultural issues — everything but politics — that the editors think will interest the young generation of Palestinians.

The new magazine is part of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s game plan to bypass the Palestinian leadership and directly address Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The first such channels were the Al-Munaseq website, Facebook page and Twitter account. The second stage, the magazine, targets a more specific audience, the one believed to be the key to the trends sweeping Palestinian society.