YouTube ok's Bush snuff film, censures political spoof (Video)

I usually stay away from US internal politics, unless the mood (or cash up front) moves me, but this was too good:

David Zucker, producer of a slew of funny Hollywood movies (Airplane, Naked Gun) has come out with a clip slamming the Democrats, and doing a drop kick in the butt (and what a butt) to former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, just in time for upcoming elections on Capitol Hill:



Amazingly, YouTube has flagged the video as having "offensive," content, although it's about as "offensive" as, say actor Leslie Neilsen's gags in any of Zuker's films. But, as Little Green Footballs notes, "...the fictional assassination of George W. Bush? No problem: YouTube - Death of a President":



On the right side of the political spectrum (and others) there's a growing Internet brush fire over YouTube's presumed Left-tilting, hyper politically-correct policies.

So why am I posting this imbroglio? Well, consider Defense Minister Amir Peretz's "can't we all just get along?," overtures to Syria - and Chief chinless wonder boy Bashar Assad's near-instantaneous reply, and the distinct possibility that A) Iraqi weapons of mass-destruction are hidden in Syria, according to IDF and foreign reports, and B) Syria's military cooperation with Iran before, during and since Lebanon War II: The Debacle!

The Middle East: 5000 years in 90 seconds (Flash Video)

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Duly noted: a little something to tell God

For those here and abroad who couldn't bear the drive and crowding at the Western Wall plaza for the mass priestly blessings during the holiday, Ynet News offers a solution:

A recent innovation at Mini Israel allows visitors to leave notes in the cracks of its miniature Western Wall. The notes will be transferred to the real Western Wall in Jerusalem once a week.

Mini Israel CEO Haim Rogatka said that since the opening of the park, hundreds of thousands of visitors had stood in awe before the miniature Western Wall each year.

“It was as if they were standing before the true Western Wall in Jerusalem, the capital city,” Rogatka said.

For my close-up look at Mini Israel, go here.

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

JerusalemOnline news update: 00:00, Oct. 8th. (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• PM Olmert, Lieberman near coalition deal
• Police push for indictment in Katsav sex scandal
• Israelis flock to dozens of Succot festivals

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Watch This Space: Israel and the future of video (Podcast)

Seven of Israel's most prestigious companies in the video infrastructure and applications delivery field have joined forces to create a new paradigm for viewing video content. Their goal? To enable individuals to view video content of their preference, any time, anywhere, on their device of choice, without any kind of hitch.

The three-year NeGeV project, which is expected to cost $20 million, aims to tackle and solve a range of thorny technical, architectural, sociological and even psychological issues that surround the adoption of this new TV and video technology.

Ziv Ringer, NeGeV's general manager talks about what they've got in store in a podcast excerpt of the article, cross-posted at Israel21c)

One of these things is not like the other... (Photo)

Except maybe the ovoid shape of both objects, both found at the Mahane Yehuda market for Succot...

(Photos: Dave Bender)

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

Succot food porn: Shakin' it like you just don't care (video)

Halva at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market
(Photo: Dave Bender)

Halva. About four trillion tooth-melting calories per serving as a Succot festival dessert. That's why we are commanded to do the following acts daily for the week-long holiday:

For more about Succot, click here.


I'll try to post more pics before the holiday comes in this evening, so please check back later.

HT: Yo Yenta

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

How do you say 'Coming out of the closet' in Arabic?

Brian Whitaker at the UK’s Guardian, has a lenghty article about the experiences of an Israeli Arab lesbian (who prefers considering herself Palestinian) who went public in 2003, after giving an interview to Yediot Ahronot:

“All of a sudden, the Arab population of her home town [in northern Israel], which she generally assumed to have no interest in the literary supplements of Hebrew newspapers, seemed to have read the article and had something to say about her. Local corner shop owners made photocopies and distributed it, because, after all, everyone knew it was about the daughter of so-and-so from their own town.

“The consequences of that article were far more serious than Ms Morcos had imagined: her car windows were smashed and tyres were punctured several times, she received innumerable threatening letters and phone calls, and, to top it all, ‘coincidentally’ lost her job as a school teacher, since parents of pupils complained that they did not want her as a teacher.”

Since this is the Guardian, Israel must, of course, come in for a body slam, but Whitaker does first point out Israel’s (relative) openess to homosexuality:

Israel legalised same-sex relations between men in 1988. Four years later, it went a step further and became the only country in the Middle East that outlaws discrimination based on sexuality. A series of court cases then put the theory into practice - for example, when El Al was forced to provide a free ticket for the partner of a gay flight attendant, as the airline already did for the partners of its straight employees.

These are undisputed achievements but they have also become a propaganda tool, reinforcing Israel’s claim to be the only liberal, democratic society in the Middle East. At the same time, highlighting Israel’s association with gay rights has made life more difficult for gay Arabs, adding grist to the popular notion that homosexuality is a “disease” spread by foreigners.

Interesting reading.

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

Sderot: Palestinians aiding Israel caught between a Kassam and a hard place (Video, Podcast)

The government is relocating hundreds of Palestinians who have aided Israel in - wait for it - Sderot, the bullseye of thousands of Kassam rockets from nearby Gaza.

According to Ynew News,

The falling property values allowed many families of Palestinian cooperating with the Israeli government and defense forces to buy homes, even mansions, in the more targeted areas of the city.

In the past six months, some ten Palestinian families arrived in Sderot, joining the 250-300 Palestinians already living there. Attorney Nathan Shreiber, who represents the Palestinians in the region, told Ynet that lowered housing costs are not the only incentive for the families to move to Sderot.

"As the situation in Gaza escalates, so the flow of people will increase," he says.

Eli Moyal, the town's beleagured mayor must feel sandbagged about this development. Here's what he told Americans when I spoke with him (audio podcast) about coping with Kassams. And here is the video of his comments at a press conference.




Sderot resident and youth counselor, Avital Morer, 19.
Click here if video does not appear. (Video: Dave Bender)


Morer told me her feelings about the situation (audio podcast) in an interview at the height of the bombardment.

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

JerusalemOnline news update: 00:00, Oct. 5th (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• Rice assures Abbas of US support
• Al-Qaida threatens PA officials
• Russian FM: kidnapped Israelis in good health
  
  
  
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