Israeli government office apologizes for sickening mock flotilla music video

Run_to_da_hills

The Israeli government's press division is apologizing for circulating a link to a video that mocks activists aboard a ship headed to Gaza earlier this week 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 from 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."

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

Rather sickening to say the least to those that lost their lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg

blubloblu

Definitely not accidentally released.

Iwasfrozen

The thread title is very deceptive.

A Dub in Glasgo

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

The thread title is very deceptive.

Yes it is, there is no 'z' in apologises!

RATM

Pretty sickening video tbh, they are hardly even buried yet they are deemed sufficient for a 'comedy' sketch. Even to this day 9/11 is a general no-go area for comedians yet these Israelis see fit to make this into a joke in less than one week?
It's seems like Freud is right yet again- the Israelis are reflecting the direct opposite of what has actually happened.

Is it just me or does anyone find it amazing that all the ships in that flotilla had their own cameras and footage of what happened yet there only seems to be the IDF version of it available online?

Perhaps they were scared of the truth coming out? WHat have they got to hide by destroying the footage the activists took? Thats the bigger question IMO.

gandalf

RATM wrote: »

Pretty sickening video tbh, they are hardly even buried yet they are deemed sufficient for a 'comedy' sketch. Even to this day 9/11 is a general no-go area for comedians yet these Israelis see fit to make this into a joke in less than one week?
It's seems like Freud is right yet again- the Israelis are reflecting the direct opposite of what has actually happened.

I think it is a policy of de-humanising the people who were on that flotilla, especially if you couple this sickening video with the language being used to describe them on articles and quotes coming from official sources in Israel.

Is it just me or does anyone find it amazing that all the ships in that flotilla had their own cameras and footage of what happened yet there only seems to be the IDF version of it available online?

The IDF have that footage and some of what is online is selected edits from the on board cctv camera. Shots of the lower decks and one of the stair wells for example.

Perhaps they were scared of the truth coming out? WHat have they got to hide by destroying the footage the activists took? Thats the bigger question IMO.

One can only speculate on that but maybe the fact they did shoot first or they did execute some of the protesters. Or physically abuse others and this is on tape.

They have "presented" their version to the world and anything that disagrees with that has to be suppressed.

This video is disturbing and it shows the complete lack of respect some elements in Israel had for the victims on that boat.

My name is URL

That's a shocking video in light of the facts surrounding it. I actually saw it yesterday on YouTube in the Related Videos section of another video and thought it was just a spoof done by some randomers, never even looked at the description

edit: catchy though :pac:

youcrazyjesus!

That video is an atrocity by itself. Painfully unfunny.

me_right_one

How can youtube allow that? Lesser offensive videos would be banned. To think that the Isreali govt is dishing out the same treatment as Jewish people suffered at the hands of hitler, and they look for sympathy?. I have zero sympathy for Jews / Isreali's, or anyone who condones this

My name is URL

Even worse is the song they based it on, and after all the PR that Israel done about helping out in Haiti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI

http://twitter.com/IDFinHaiti
http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/01/25/idf-field-hospital-transferring-patients-to-other-hospitals-in-haiti-25-january-2010/
http://www.israellycool.com/2010/01/17/the-idf-in-haiti-saving-lives-and-bringing-life-into-the-world/

Scumbags

Remy13

how crass.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Hard to get my head around that one, total scumbags IMO.

How can adults, in whats suppose to be a progressive and civilized country be so dehumanized and lacking in compassion as to think of putting something like that together.

In a week when most countries would have buried its head in the sand & went into damage limitation the Israeli's do this!.

wes

Is the Israeli government trying to piss people off now or something? Seriously, the current admin there need to take a long hard look in the mirror, and stop it with this kind of nonsense. It does not help there case to do this sort of thing.

Scofflaw

Once again, the cock-up gets cockier.

cordially,
Scofflaw

BlaasForRafa

This is a fairly thin excuse to start up an Israel bashing thread.

Macha

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

This is a fairly thin excuse to start up an Israel bashing thread.

That's your only reaction to the video?

I have a lot of sympathy for Israel but it is rapidly evaporating in the face of their sheer arrogance. Posts like this are not helping.

dermothickey

bunch of w****ers

A Dub in Glasgo

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

This is a fairly thin excuse to start up an Israel bashing thread.

Why? Is this normal behaviour of a 'democratic' Government?

ch750536

Scumbags.

Fuhrer

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

This is a fairly thin excuse to start up an Israel bashing thread.

You dont feel that government officials making and releasing a video that mocks people they have just killed days ago is fairly disgusting behaviour?

halkar

From the article on CNN Mark Regev's (Comical Ali of Israel) comments:

"..I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny," he said.

I wonder if he did show the funeral of the 9 activists killed to his kids after the video or the pictures of over 20 orphaned children after the raid?

gandalf

Did you see the comment towards the end of that article on CNN.

Prior to the storming of the Turkish ship, the GPO sent an e-mail to journalists sarcastically recommending that while covering "alleged humanitarian difficulties," journalists should dine at one of Gaza's few restaurants.

"We have been told the beef stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended," the e-mail said.

The message included an internet link to an old promotional video for the restaurant. The e-mail drew criticism from the foreign press and pro-Palestinian activists.

If that is how a Government Press Office works then I am extremely worried for both the Israeli and Palestinian Civilians. To make fun of people suffering because of an illegal blockade that you are running is immoral and indefensible. It only give fuel to the extremists who do want to harm Israel and innocent Israelis and it only allows more people to migrate towards the extremists in Gaza, in the West Bank and in Lebanon.

They should rename it from Government Press Office to the "Shoot ourselves in both feet" Office.

thebman

I saw this last night on youtube, its pretty disgraceful and I can't believe it got linked to from a government website. I immediately thought they were crazy people that created such a video.

RMD

Disgraceful conduct by the Israeli government, the comments left on the video as well demonstrate how racist some Israelis are as well.

BlaasForRafa

The level of outrage on this thread is in inverse proportion to the alleged seriousness of the incident.

Scofflaw

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

The level of outrage on this thread is in inverse proportion to the alleged seriousness of the incident.

The level of outrage is in direct proportion to the repulsiveness of the episode. Israel assaults the ships, murders some of the passengers, and then jeers at them when they're dead. What's to like?

And we are supposed to believe that the Israeli government will carry out an "impartial investigation" into the incident. It's like putting Ray Burke and Bertie in charge of a tribunal.

regards,
Scofflaw

Poly

It reminds me of the sickening "Gotcha" headline in the Sun during the Malvinas war.

Run_to_da_hills

thebman wrote: »

I saw this last night on youtube, its pretty disgraceful and I can't believe it got linked to from a government website. I immediately thought they were crazy people that created such a video.

Apparently the group responsible for this are very well known in Israel for taking the pi*s on current affairs etc.

Poly

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Apparently the group responsible for this are very well known in Israel for taking the pi*s on current affairs etc.

They must have a great sense of humour, I wonder if they ever done a sketch on the holocaust?

arybvtcw0eolkf

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

This is a fairly thin excuse to start up an Israel bashing thread.

In fairness to the OP, whose threads I'd normally never open, the thread title seem's pretty fair and accurate to me..

Israeli government office apologizes for sickening mock flotilla music video

Often times this week I've heard the mantra 'You can not defend the indefensible', sometimes against my better judgement I've crossed swords with friends over the whole affair.

But tbh, I'm glad I found this thread and the clip and for me its the straw that broke the camels back.

andrewhpf

A friend of mine spent some time living in Israel with his family (his father was a diplomat) in his late teens, and his main observation of the locals was that hatred for anybody against the nation of Israel was bred in to them at a very young age, and extremist views were very common amongst low and middle class citizens. The arrogance of many shocked him.

Having said that, with the balls up by the Israeli Government aside, this video did come from non government affiliated group, so really you can't use it to bash the whole nation of Israel as a whole. Idiots like these exist in every country around the world, but it's important not to use them as a barometer for the people they claim to represent.

The other thing to consider is that it's quite likely that an equal level of hatred and insensitivity exists "over the fence" and beyond. If the situation involved Jews dying at the hands of Hamas or similar, you can bet your bottom dollar there'd be instances of laughter and mocking from various extreme groups throughout the Arab world. Two wrongs don't make a right though of course, and there are probably two distinct differences between the two parties;

1. Would it fair to assume Israel is a more "internet affluent" nation than it's immediate enemies, thus meaning there is less resistance to the circulation of such rubbish?
2. The sheer arrogance of many Israelis by far outweigh that of their enemies. Combine that arrogance with point 1, and you have yourself the video in question.

LostinKildare

Very offensive. The video was made by Caroline Glick, who appears in it and is identified at the end as its editor in chief.

Glick is not a comedian. She was assistant foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu in 1997-1998. She is presently Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post, and also Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy, a controversial Neocon Washington DC think tank funded by far-right individuals and US defense contractors. The CSP made news a couple of years ago when it published a piece advocating that George Bush be made president for life and calling for Iraq to be emptied of Arabs and repopulated with Americans (and no, it wasn't satire).

On the CSP connection to this video, from the horse's mouth (Glick's website):

This week at Latma - the Hebrew-language media satire website I edit, we decided to do something new. We produced a clip in English. There we feature the Turkish-Hamas "love boat" captain, crew and passengers in a musical explanation of how they con the world.


We think this is an important Israeli contribution to the discussion of recent events and we hope you distribute it far and wide. . . .

Latma is the initiative of the Center for Security Policy's Middle East media project that I run in my capacity as the CSP's senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs.
http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2010/06/we-con-the-world---the-gaza-fl.php

Macha

andrewhpf wrote: »

Having said that, with the balls up by the Israeli Government aside, this video did come from non government affiliated group, so really you can't use it to bash the whole nation of Israel as a whole. Idiots like these exist in every country around the world, but it's important not to use them as a barometer for the people they claim to represent.

Mark Regev, government spokesperson, has said that he called his children over to watch it because he thought it was funny.

If Israel is a democracy, as they claim to be, then these are the people they choose as their representatives. Of course many in Israel oppose the blockade, etc but this is the attitude of their elected representatives.

Moreover, it was the Israeli GPO, or Press Office, that distributed the link.

Against The Flotilla

Humorous, and not offensive. I personally love it !
3rd most viewed video on the YouTube site in the last 2 days according to YouTube.
Over 1,000,000 views in less than 4 days.
And largely acclaimed around the world: 11,900 likes for 3,800 dislikes at this time. Not to mention the general kudos in the comments.

My thanks and congratulations to their authors.

A Dub in Glasgo

That's the Israeli Goebbels machine in action though

hideous ape

Against The Flotilla wrote: »

Humorous, and not offensive. I personally love it !
3rd most viewed video on the YouTube site in the last 2 days according to YouTube.
Over 1,000,000 views in less than 4 days.
And largely acclaimed around the world: 11,900 likes for 3,800 dislikes at this time. Not to mention the general kudos in the comments.

My thanks and congratulations to their authors.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article693911.ece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaphone_desktop_tool

BlaasForRafa

Against The Flotilla wrote: »

Humorous, and not offensive. I personally love it !
3rd most viewed video on the YouTube site in the last 2 days according to YouTube.
Over 1,000,000 views in less than 4 days.
And largely acclaimed around the world: 11,900 likes for 3,800 dislikes at this time. Not to mention the general kudos in the comments.

My thanks and congratulations to their authors.

Hmmm while I have no feelings about the video one way or the other and think its a fairly minor story to base a whole thread on, I don't think your comments add much to things.

irishconvert

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Hmmm while I have no feelings about the video one way or the other and think its a fairly minor story to base a whole thread on, I don't think your comments add much to things.

If people want to discuss it, they want to discuss it. Do you want to limit threads to topics you think are important?

Macha

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Hmmm while I have no feelings about the video one way or the other.

So you don't think there is anything offensive about the video.

Seriously. Lift your head out of the sand. I am a balanced, normal individual with a good grasp on international relations, particularly of the middle-east. I fully support Israel's right to exist and yet your attitude makes me want the Turkish PM to start assisting the passage of aid ships into Gaza.

You really need to realize what your arrogant, callous attitude is doing to your cause and what a turn off it is to people who are genuinely sympathetic to the situation Israel finds itself in.

BlaasForRafa

taconnol wrote: »

So you don't think there is anything offensive about the video.

Seriously. Lift your head out of the sand. I am a balanced, normal individual with a good grasp on international relations, particularly of the middle-east. I fully support Israel's right to exist and yet your attitude makes me want the Turkish PM to start assisting the passage of aid ships into Gaza.

You really need to realize what your arrogant, callous attitude is doing to your cause and what a turn off it is to people who are genuinely sympathetic to the situation Israel finds itself in.

Arrogant and callous?, seriously, get over yourself. Its a video thats not in the best taste but it is only a video and I'm not getting going to worked up over it.

Macha

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Arrogant and callous?, seriously, get over yourself. Its a video thats not in the best taste but it is only a video and I'm not getting going to worked up over it.

Your posts display utter dismissal of people's objections and yes, arrogance. And you tell me to get over myself? Keep going with this attitude and soon no one will sympathize with your cause one bit. So very, very myopic.

thebman

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Arrogant and callous?, seriously, get over yourself. Its a video thats not in the best taste but it is only a video and I'm not getting going to worked up over it.

Its not only a video, its a video the Israeli government posted on their PR website.

That is a big difference, any fool can make a video. They choose to put it on their website.

Byron85

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Arrogant and callous?, seriously, get over yourself. Its a video thats not in the best taste but it is only a video and I'm not getting going to worked up over it.

The Berlin Olympics in 36 was just another Olympics. It may not have been in the best taste but it really was nothing to get worked up over.

See, I can apply the same logic to things that are obviously wrong too.

alastair

Against The Flotilla wrote: »

Humorous, and not offensive. I personally love it !
3rd most viewed video on the YouTube site in the last 2 days according to YouTube.
Over 1,000,000 views in less than 4 days.
And largely acclaimed around the world: 11,900 likes for 3,800 dislikes at this time. Not to mention the general kudos in the comments.

My thanks and congratulations to their authors.

tbh - aside from any issues of taste and whether it's the sort of thing the Israeli press office should be disseminating - it was just teeth grindingly unfunny. A complete fail on the satire front.

And Youtube comments being lauded as something positive? Talk about setting the bar low.

Scofflaw

Off-topic posts deleted. Also, less of the "scumbags" stuff. It doesn't add anything.

moderately,
Scofflaw

yoshytoshy

I wonder if there is any chance we will see the real footage of the flotilla's ,in the same way this video was linked to:rolleyes:

Amazing how a government can be so thorough about releasing the aid workers video ,but not their own.

Hypocrites.

Moomoo1

Against The Flotilla wrote: »

Humorous, and not offensive. I personally love it !
3rd most viewed video on the YouTube site in the last 2 days according to YouTube.
Over 1,000,000 views in less than 4 days.
And largely acclaimed around the world: 11,900 likes for 3,800 dislikes at this time. Not to mention the general kudos in the comments.

My thanks and congratulations to their authors.

how about you post the _actual_ video of what happened - you know, not the cut edited version that we've seen so far?

Run_to_da_hills

Moomoo1 wrote: »

how about you post the _actual_ video of what happened - you know, not the cut edited version that we've seen so far?

Not a hope, you can be sure any truthful footage taken by press photographers, camera crew and unarmed civilians were promptly destroyed along with having their expensive camera equipment stolen.

me_right_one

Against The Flotilla wrote: »

Humorous, and not offensive. I personally love it !
3rd most viewed video on the YouTube site in the last 2 days according to YouTube.
Over 1,000,000 views in less than 4 days.
And largely acclaimed around the world: 11,900 likes for 3,800 dislikes at this time. Not to mention the general kudos in the comments.

My thanks and congratulations to their authors.

Your username and joindate make me think you're trolling. You are one twisted individual.

Iwasfrozen

me_right_one wrote: »

Your username and joindate make me think you're trolling. You are one twisted individual.

It's not twisted to say it was funny. Because it was.

Run_to_da_hills

me_right_one wrote: »

Your username and joindate make me think you're trolling. You are one twisted individual.

It wouldn't take much for Boards admin to to an IP address check to see whether this indidual is trolling under different profiles.