Israeli government office apologizes for mock flotilla video

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/05/gaza.flotilla.mock.video/

Jerusalem (CNN) -- The Israeli government's press division is apologizing for circulating a link to a video that mocks the activists on aboard the a ship headed to Gaza that was blocked by an Israeli raid.

"Due to a misunderstanding on our part, earlier (Friday) we inadvertently issued a video link that had been sent for our perusal," according to a statement Israel's Government Press Office, which distributed the link to media outlets.

"It was not intended for general release," the statement said. "The contents of the video in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel."

The video, titled "We Con the World" -- set to the tune of the 1985 hit, "We are the World"-- was put together by Caroline Glick, a former member of the Israel Defense Forces and columnist for the Jerusalem Post.

In the video, up to a dozen members of the so-called "Flotilla Choir" -- some wearing variation of traditional Arab dress -- sing satirical verses, such as: "There's no people dying, so the best that we can do is create the biggest bluff of all."

(end snip)


See also discussion here:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/6/5/873135/-Israel-Accidentally-Distributes-Video-Mocking-Flotilla-Dead-

They meant to do this.

Israel has absolutely no credibility whatsoever.

as was the back-tracking. Israelis can't stop digging their own graves. Norman Finkelstein once hilariously defended Israel against the charge that it was becoming an " insane " state by saying it already was one. No restraint... unwilling to take criticism , paranoid, fixated, immutable and heedless to reason....with 200 bombs...it is indeed ... at present....amongst the most dangerous states in the world.

PTSD that bad gets handed down from generation to generation and takes a long, long time to go away.

The people who are suffering from it aren't to blame -- but real problems arise when you put all the survivors in the same place and call it a nation. It's as though you'd tried to create a society of nothing but Iraq War vets. It's just not going to be balanced.

The first generation of Israeli leaders who had been there since 1919 or so weren't functionally crazy in the same way as the Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Even in the US, I have the impression that the Neocons are disproportionally the children and grandchildren of post-World War II refugees, rather than early 20th century immigrants.

They aren't all in the same place. They play a major role in governments and industry in every nation on this planet, particularly the US. Neoconnery might account for some of them, but certainly not all.

their suicide bombings due to post traumatic stress?

Video is racist and outrageous.

I doubt it will be. Thanks for posting.

Worlds apart.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev dismissed the the video link, saying, "The GPO sends out of lots of articles. It doesn't mean they like it."

Regev said he first noticed the video on the New York Times website.

"I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny," he said. "It is what Israelis feel.

Nothing shocks me anymore.

And, I'm sure as hell not holding my breath.

Israel couldn't be more offensive if it tried. There's a complete lack of conduct becoming a nation. They're like an insolent teen ager, smug in their self righteousness.

The U.S. or Israel? Hard to say.

<snip>
The press office of the Prime Minister of Israel sent this video around the world. Apparently inadvertently, according to spokesman Mark Regev. Regev notes nonetheless that ""I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny. It's what Israelis feel."

Clearly not all Israelis, since thousands and thousands of them massed in Tel Aviv today to protest the mess their extreme right-wing government is making of their nation's image abroad.

"It was not intended for general release," said a statement from the press office. "The contents of the video in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel."

On her blog, the deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick, claims credit for the video. I never take Glick-bylined pieces seriously because they're all the same, since she constantly talks about continuing the occupation of Palestine, trashes Obama (and she is from Chicago!) and is a favorite on the lowest-level of American right-wing tv, like the Laura Ingraham show.

But this is lower than I've ever seen someone go who carries a management title at a journalism organization. I'm ashamed to say that Glick and I are both Columbia alums. Even if she hates people of another race or religion and is allowed by her editors to poke fun at them in a tasteless and blatantly racist way, she should be fired for making fun of the dead.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eileen-read/the-jerusalem-post-should_b_601857.html