Well before cellulars.

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It must have been about 36 or 37 years ago, and I admit that I no longer remember all the details. And it wasn't a mob. But it was a successful use of technology to create an interesting sort of protest.

Then Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban was speaking in New York with a group Jewish students. At about the same time, in Los Angeles, a similar group was having a meeting with the Israeli counsel there. Those of us in Los Angeles were trying to get a commitment to something (I don't remember what) and we'd been told that what we wanted was against policy. In the New York meeting, however, a couple of friends had asked Abba Eban his opinion on the matter, and he responded positively. A quick telephone call was made from New York to Los Angeles, giving us this information, and we, in our meeting, were able to ask the counsel why he opposed something that the Foreign Minister favored. How did we know he favored this, we were asked, to which we responded that only a short while ago he'd expressed that opinion in New York. Some quick phone calls were made on the part of the consulate and, having successfully trumped them with the aid of the telephone, we got what we wanted.

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