Israeli Gaddafi Spoof a Sensation in Arab World

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Israeli Gaddafi Spoof a Sensation in Arab World

The following video is turning into a success in the Arab world.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cBY-0n4esNY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here's just one article talking about it, but there are many more out there:

Gaddafi YouTube spoof by Israeli gets Arab fans

by Isabel Kershner

The New York Times

Ndtv

February 28, 2011

From the article:

A YouTube clip mocking Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi's megalomania is fast becoming a popular token of the Libya uprising across the Middle East. And in an added affront to Colonel Qaddafi, it was created by an Israeli living in Tel Aviv.

. . .

Mr Alooshe, who at first did not identify himself on the clip as an Israeli, started receiving enthusiastic messages from all around the Arab world. Web surfers soon discovered that he was a Jewish Israeli from his Facebook profile -- Mr Alooshe plays in a band called Hovevey Zion, or the Lovers of Zion -- and some of the accolades turned to curses. A few also found the video distasteful.

But the reactions have largely been positive, including a message Mr Alooshe said he received from someone he assumed to be from the Libyan opposition saying that if and when the Qaddafi regime fell, "We will dance to 'Zenga-Zenga' in the square."

Can you imagine all those Islamic folks being a fan of a Jew mocking a Muslim?

I thought Islam was supposed to turn you into a rabid anti-Semite because it turns your brain into world-conquering intellectual mush.

Hmmmm... Then how can it be that so many Muslims like a Jew mocking a Muslim? Could it be that people are just people?

Haters beware. (All haters.) Your days of massive influence are coming to an end.

Michael

[Mike11]

This is more common than you would think Michael.

I can't think of any examples right at the top of my head but when civil unrest breaks out over there Israel and its media actually becomes fairly popular.

It is pretty big in Palestine (obviously) but gets a lot of exposure when the Arabs get fed up with their corrupt and incompetent leaders.

On a side note the Iranian equivalent of Rolling Stone is taking a lot of heat this month. The band on its cover is Israeli.

[Richard Wiig]

Everytime something happens to whip up a frenzy against Israel, such as the Gaza war, the protests around the world grow larger, especially notable within the Western world itself - a large segment of haters (future soldiers of the intifada within the Western world itself) that the Western world was free from but one decade ago. The haters are growing in influence, not decreasing. It will be nice if you are right, and those haters days are numbered, but I think you are talking about the army of "bigots" who post here.

[Brant Gaede]

Is it hate if the "haters" love to hate?

--Brant

[Richard Wiig]

Haters beware. (All haters.) Your days of massive influence are coming to an end.

This comment reminds me of the 70's when everyone was talking about the coming Age of Aquarius.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Infidel

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

... It will be nice if you are right, and those haters days are numbered, but I think you are talking about the army of "bigots" who post here.

Richard,

You think wrong. Did you read it wrong? My exact phrase was "all haters." Not "those haters" or even "you hater."

When I was very little I learned that all means everything or everyone under consideration. That is how I was educated. Later I never saw any reason to change that meaning, so I still use the word to mean inclusive to every unit. I often wonder how this kind of simple clarity is not understood, but I see it often enough to know it exists.

In your case (which seems to be your only cognitive concern), if the shoe fits and you are a hater in the sense I mean (i.e., a scapegoater), "all" does include you. If the shoe doesn't fit, it doesn't.

Rather than engage in a pissing match, I prefer to let the readers decide--through observing your own words and acts--if this shoe fits or not.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This comment reminds me of the 70's when everyone was talking about the coming Age of Aquarius.

Heh.

The implications of that Israeli spoof didn't go down very well, did it?

Michael

[Richard Wiig]

The implications of this...

...hasn't sunk in with you very well.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Infidel

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Richard,

Sure it has. Read my posts and it is clear that I don't approve of things like that.

But I see the same old problem arising. Do you have anything idea-wise you wish to discuss or do you want to continue sniping? I'm getting bored with your pushing the envelope on the posting guidelines with lack of intellectual content.

Michael

[william.scherk]

The implications of this...

. . . are what?

The 'this' Infidel refers to is a video of destruction of fences put up around a Coptic monastery.

This was reported in Egypt's independent al-Masry al-Youm:

Around 2000 Copts gathered on Wednesday in Tahrir Square to protest reports that an Egyptian army unit had attacked the Monastery of Saint Pishoy in the Nitrian Desert earlier on Wednesday.

Protesters said that a military unit using armored vehicles had demolished newly-built fences surrounding the old Coptic monastery. They claimed that the soldiers fired live bullets at monks. They added that two had been injured and transferred to the Anglo-American hospital in Cairo.

Al-Masry Al-Youm failed to independently verify the reports about the injured monks.

"The army told the monasteries to protect themselves, so the monks tried to build a fence after the release of prisoners from Wadi Natrun. Then the army starting attacking the monastery," said Yasser Farag, 37, a Coptic engineer who went to the monastery after the attack.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has governed the country since the 11 February ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, said on its official page on Facebook that soldiers had removed "some walls that had been illegally built on the road and on land owned by the state."

The SCAF denied claims that the armed forces had been involved in attacks on the monastery or that it had any intention to demolish the building due to its “belief in freedom and the sanctity of places of worship."

The SCAF had previously issued a strongly-worded warning to groups involved in illegal practices, stressing that these groups would be dealt with firmly to "fully eliminate this phenomenon."

Egypt's Coptic Christians have long complained about a law that requires them to obtain state approval for any construction or additions to churches or monasteries.

The demonstration began at around 6PM in St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, a residence of the Coptic papacy. Protesters marched to Tahrir Square half an hour before the start of midnight's military curfew.

"I object to the army destroying monasteries" and "What a shame; they are shooting Christians," read two banners in the demonstration. Protesters chanted, "Oh Tantawi, why does the army attack the monastery."

Ministry of Defense Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi currently presides over the SCAF.

The incident comes less than 24 hours after the murder of a Coptic Christian priest in the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut.

According to the slain priest's neighbors, four people killed the Coptic cleric in his home while "chanting Islamic slogans."

The priest's funeral on Wednesday witnessed clashes between angry Copts and a number of local Muslim shopkeepers as they marched in the funeral procession.

"Egyptians went to the streets to ask for freedoms and we are still being targeted. We want freedom for us as well. We are Egyptian and we will remain in this land forever," said Wagdy Waheed, a Coptic student.

Security force presence in Egypt remains weakened as the majority of police forces in major cities have failed to resume operations since their withdrawal from Egyptian cities on 28 January.

After massive waves of demonstrations, protests, marches, and strikes that lasted for 18 consecutive days, Mubarak was finally forced to step down earlier this month after 30 years in office.

[Mike11]

MSK

I'm sorry I could not find links but I distinctly recall that during the Olmert corruption trial riots broke out across the middle east. The Arab and Muslim world saw that in the Evil Zionazi State corruption gets dealt with and rioted against their own leaders.

[Richard Wiig]

Richard,

You think wrong. Did you read it wrong? My exact phrase was "all haters."

Implicit in my post was acknowledgement that you had said 'all'.

As for the implications of that spoof not going down well with me - in other words, you suggesting that I like the conflict, therefore want to sustain the conflict - you are wrong. If the implications are what you suggest they are, then I would/will be amply pleased. However, my post, rather than signifying me wanting a sustained conflict in order to satisfy my own sick twisted psyche, is simply a case of me not agreeing with your implied implications. Like the piece of grafitti on the wall, this instance only raises further questions for me rather than leading me to conclusions. I know that Islam in the long run is doomed but, in the shorter term, I really don't share your optimism.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Infidel

[Richard Wiig]

This instance, William, is just one of many many instances of persecution of the Copts, the worst being the recent bombings of Coptic churches, which not just a threat in Egypt, but right around the world, including Sydney Australia. The most salient thing about it is that the authorities turn a blind eye to, and actually actively participate in, this persecution. That fact speaks more to me than the popularity of a youtube spoof of Gaddafi. That people who oppose Gaddafi like it, is a given. That it means they will choose liberal values of freedom over Islamic, is not.

[Mike11]

redacted, no desire to get into it with a Pam Geller clone.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Joel Mac Donald