Israel Apologizes For Circulating Spoof Video Mocking Gaza Flotilla (VIDEO)

The Israeli government has apologized after its press office sent out a satirical video mocking the activists involved in the Gaza flotilla following last week's deadly incident.

The YouTube clip, entitled "We Con the World" and set to the music of the 1980s charity single "We Are the World," shows people dressed up as flotilla activists, some in Arab dress, singing such lines as "we con the world, we con the people. We'll make them all believe the IDF is Jack the Ripper," and "there's no people dying, so the best that we can do, is create the greatest bluff of all." The video also includes footage from the actual raid last Monday of the Mavi Marmara by Israeli commandos in which nine activists were killed.

The video was made by a website, latma.co.il, run by Jerusalem Post editor Caroline Glick, who described the clip on her blog as featuring "the Turkish-Hamas "love boat" captain, crew and passengers in a musical explanation of how they con the world." The video has been viewed nearly 1.5 million times on YouTube.

"The contents of the video in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel," a statement from Israel's Government Press Office said, according to CNN.

However, according to the Guardian, a spokesman for the Israeli government said that the video did reflect most Israelis' view of the incident. "I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny," the spokesman said. "It is what Israelis feel. But the government has nothing to do with it."

Here's the video:

Comments

[Bill Wilt]

01:36 AM on 06/22/2010

Regarding the music for this so-called "spoof"?

You say" "set to the music of the 1980s charity single "We Are the World,"

Wikipedia has a nice article on the music, Funiculì, Funiculà. Italian, 1880. And libretto, and the English translation. "Some think the world is made for fun and frolic/and so do I, and so do I"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funiculì,_Funiculà

[Faust Eddie]

03:50 PM on 06/17/2010

Israeli chicks are smokin hot !!

[lokipuck]

10:02 PM on 06/10/2010

Yeah I bet they feel terribly about that video.
It's turning out that years of persecution will teach a people about racism.
Cuz they seem to have perfected it!

[RavenWest]

10:46 AM on 06/10/2010

Get out of Gaza Israel, you're not legally entitled to the land. It's not yours.

[jay NY]

04:42 PM on 06/10/2010

It already did get out of Gaza in 2005!!!... but all it got in return has been a daily dose of Hamas missiles directed towards Israeli town and hitting schools and hospitals...

[AnotherAndy]

09:53 AM on 06/11/2010

From 2000 to 2009 the 8000 Gaza rockets and mortar shells that landed in Israel killed 22 Israeli civilians, none of them children. How many Israeli missiles, bombs, artillery and tank shells landed in Gaza? If you know of Gaza rockets hitting Israeli schools or hospitals, please provide credible link.

[ConstitutionCrusader]

06:09 AM on 06/13/2010

Jay- who broke the ceasefire this time? Hamas or Israel? Hint: Israel formally acknowledges responsibility for ending the ceasefire. Check it out if you don't believe me.

Israel can remain alienated and paranoid, or it can come to understand its power and its ability to reach out to the other side in order to settle its conflicts. Remaining convinced that it has pursued peace unilaterally and done everything in its power to deal with its problems will only continue to perpetuate its own paranoia and delusion.

[one1byke]

07:08 AM on 06/10/2010

Marvin, "What's going on?"

[Gurg]

07:02 AM on 06/10/2010

The welfare faux state strikes again.

I love their new government. Palestine couldn't have hoped for a better peace partner ;-)

[SeaDickRun420]

03:45 AM on 06/10/2010

Helen Thomas apologized after her remarks. How about the same treatment for Israel as for Helen?

[NomadicView]

02:35 AM on 06/10/2010

Maybe this is why the Turkish AKP party has banned Youtube (along with all of Google services).

[procrustes13]

01:03 AM on 06/10/2010

Israel is now reduced to telling the world "We're not Jack the Ripper!" To what depths they have plunged.

[mechanical soft]

12:44 AM on 06/10/2010

Even if I was a hard-line right wing Israeli, I'm pretty sure this video is 100% unfunny. What is it about wrong people that makes them so unfunny?

[abdallac]

11:49 PM on 06/09/2010

You REALLY wanna see something that will open your eyes??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36r8eSmpGx4

regular occurance in the West Bank and Gaza.

[markdavid]

12:15 AM on 06/10/2010

I hate watching stuff like that but it is necessary to remind myself what is going on there. How disturbing this video is. Thanks for posting it though. People must "never forget" we are all human beings at the end of the day.

[markdavid]

12:24 AM on 06/10/2010

Why are my posts being reviewed? Big surprise here though at the HP. Wouldn't want to make Israel look bad now would we. You should be ashamed of yourselves here. Nothing I wrote is in any manner violating the spirit of this discussion. I advocate for peace in the world and treating your fellow human beings with compassion and care; something the Israeli's and the HP censors don't really care about, yet you don't display my posts. Why are you so afraid of the truth?

[ItsAD]

04:49 PM on 06/10/2010

It's not HP. There are a few mods who hate the idea that Israel can do any wrong, and they're the ones zapping your posts.

Personally, I think Israel and Hamas are equally bad. Both of them are working against what you were talking about --- universal compassion.

[ConstitutionCrusader]

10:40 PM on 06/09/2010

Video of the murder of Furkan Dogan.

THIS IS INEXCUSABLE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlElXOJV4CA&feature=player_embedded

[helen]

06:02 AM on 06/10/2010

If this is what it says it is, it was point blank murder by the soldiers... they should be tried and locked up.

[ConstitutionCrusader]

11:59 AM on 06/11/2010

there is some mod in here that wont publish any more of my comments, even though I have followed all the rules.

[mathew]

10:31 PM on 06/09/2010

American Jews serve in the Israeli Military to attack Gaza

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbzdvCg27iU

[Jimtoday]

10:06 PM on 06/09/2010

Class, nothing but class.

Not that there's a clear moral leader in this whole Arab/Israeli tale, but when Israel whines about losing the pr battle, they should at least admit they earned it.

[Chopin]

09:55 PM on 06/09/2010

I see that my word picture commemorating the attack on USS LIBERTY by Israeli forces on June 8, 1967 was too controversial and dangerous to post here . . .

So, I will just identify it in ordinary plain words to commemorate
.
.
* * * * * the attack on ...... USS_LIBERTY ...... on June 8, 1967 * * * * *
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=uss+liberty&rlz=1R2ADSA_enUS365&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=927f32381456711a
.
.
Let the Israeli humor mongers create a spoof to commemorate that tragic murderous event, I dare them. I guarantee it will get over 10,000,000 hits within one day.
.

[markdavid]

12:18 AM on 06/10/2010

Absolutely; try and post anything negative about Israel and it usually gets censored here at HP. They want to pretend they are real news, but are just as biased as Fox News. The truth will prevail, thanks for the reminder of the USS Liberty murders. Another swept under the carpet investigation by our Israel First government.

[Chopin]

01:32 AM on 06/10/2010

Well, maybe you have a different experience. My own experience at Huffpost is pretty good. Sometimes the moderators screening might appear to be censoring on editorial content. But I think on the whole, they try to be fair. When it comes to Israel, I think the best approach would be to stick very close to facts that are easily verifiable or referenceable. That way, it would be hard to debunk or censor factual information. Emotional over-reaction might be in a different category. Keep alert, and commenting.

[oldlib127]

01:02 AM on 06/10/2010

We learn in school that we are a free people, governing ourselves through a democratic process. I can not believe the the most powerful free democracy in the world is actually dominated by a small middle eastern country. So it must be my lying eyes.

we

[Chopin]

01:34 AM on 06/10/2010

Most people go through a "waking up" moment sometime.