Gaza Aftermath: Israel and the "We Con the World" Video (Why I'm Not Laughing)

On Monday, the Israeli Government press office apologised after circulating a video, "We Con the World", mocking passengers aboard the Freedom Flotilla. Although the video was made by "private" pro-Israeli activists, the dissemination by Israeli officials gave it West Jerusalem's seal of approval.

Normally, I would not make comment on a video humiliating others. However, I am prompted to do so by the impudence and shamelessness of the spokesman for the Israeli Government, Mark Regev. Even as his colleagues were formally apologising, Regev told The Guardian of London, "I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny. It is what Israelis feel. But the government has nothing to do with it."

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Since Regev is now going to re-present the video as a bit of harmless comedy, let's re-visit the episode, starting with the video and lyrics:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

There comes a time
When we need to make a show
For the world
The Web and CNN

There is no people dying
So the best we can do
Is create
The greatest bluff of all

We must go on
Pretending day by day
That in Gaza
There is crisis, hunger and plague

Coz the billion bucks in aid
Won't buy their basic needs
Like some cheese
And missiles for the kids

We make the world
Abandon reason
We'll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa

We are peaceful travellers
With guns and our own knives
The truth will never find its way
To your TV

Ooooh, we'll stab them at heart
They are soldiers, no one cares
We are small
And we took some pictures with doves

As Allah has shown us
For facts there is no demand
So we will always
Gain the upper hand

We make the world
Abandon reason
We'll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa

We are peaceful travellers
We are waving our own knives
The truth will never find its way
To your TV

If Islam and terror
Brighten up your mood
But you worry that
It may not look so good

Well don't you realize
You just gotta call yourself
An activist
For peace and human aid

We make the world
Abandon reason
We'll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa

We con the world
We con the people
We'll make them all believe
The IDF is the Jack the Ripper

Call me a spoilsport, but I'm immediately bothered by this fun-loving ignorance of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Contrary to the assurance that Gazans can receive everything they need in their daily lives, the most recent report by an Israeli human rights group, the Gisha Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement, says that Israel permits just 97 different items to enter, compared to more than 4,000 that entered before June 2007.

Here is what can no longer enter Gaza. Construction materials, of course, since rebuilding the area --- which may have suffered a bit of damage in Israel's Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9 --- would be an imminent danger to Israeli security. But rubber, glue, and nylon also seem to pose a risk, since they're blocked (perhaps because they could be combined to make a new type of rocket?). And paper is out of the question for unrestricted access. Ginger is banned. And, presumably because Gazans might react to Israel's "We Con the World" with "Yes, Yes, You Do", musical instruments are not allowed across the border.

But let's have a look at the security equation of "We Con the World": Islam = terror. No need to issue a specific condemnation of the makers of the video. After all, this is the rhetoric of Israeli decision-makers and even opposition leaders. Moderates v. extremists means that the simple juxtaposition of West Bank v. Gaza can be put forth. One gets a measure of economic interchange with Israel and the prospect (always the prospect, never the reality) of two-state talks; the other gets nothing.

But let's get to the specific. How funny it is to ignore the deaths of at least nine activists on the Freedom Flotilla! Laugh hard enough and you can accept the punch-line of Israeli "self-defense", protecting soldiers from "terrorists", while rejecting the most un-funny notion of civilians trying to protect themselves from fully-equipped soldiers boarding a ship in international waters. You can turn hundreds of people --- some of whom might have refused initially to surrender to Israeli soldiers and might have offered resistance --- into the unqualified, unmitigated aggressed. You might even giggle at how self-defense turned into shooting  four people in the head and one in the chest at close range.

So I'm bothered. I'm not sure that Mr Regev's interest, or that of the Israeli Government, is to make sure I have a good laugh. I'm not even sure they're really that sorry.  

Because, after all, in the end --- with no conning of the world -- those passengers were all terrorists.

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2030 GMT: Turkey's minister of energy and natural resources, Taner Yildiz, has announced that there will be no new energy or water projects with Israel until relations between the two countries improve: "At a time when we are focused on the humanitarian aspects of what Israel did, we can't talk about commercial and economic matters. We won't start any project with Israel until relations with them have been normalized."

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Gaza Flotilla LiveBlog (5 June): Israel Forces Board the Rachel Corrie

1920 GMT: A group of senior Israel Navy officers have publicly called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to establish an independent and external commission of inquiry to investigate the Mavi Marmara raid: "We believe that the operation ended in a disaster on a military and diplomatic level," the reserve officers who served as commanders of Navy ships wrote in the letter.


1845 GMT: We have posted, in a separate entry, the dramatic press release from the Israeli military that five of the passengers of the Mavi Marmara are linked to Hamas, Al Qa'eda, and other "terrorist organisations".

1815 GMT: This Should Be Interesting. Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, not noted for diplomatic subtlety, is reportedly planning to meet "with envoys and representatives of Israel, and Jewish communities in the US and Canada, to explain the Israeli government's position on the flotilla affair".

There are no indications Lieberman will meet US Government or UN officials during the trip.

1650 GMT: It appears that, contrary to earlier reports (1105 GMT), Israel will reject the UN's proposal of an international enquiry into the attack on the Mavi Marmara. Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the US, has told Fox News, "We are rejecting an international commission. We are discussing with the Obama administration a way in which our inquiry will take place."

Mark Regev, the Israeli Government's primary spokesman, has just repeated the line on CNN.

1639 GMT: The Battle of the Photographs. We noted in our initial update (1045 GMT) that defenders of the Israeli military action have been circulating a photograph, taken from the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, that they claim shows passengers attacking an injured Israeli soldier.

Defenders of the Flotilla are now pointing out that the one picture is out of context: the full set of nine photographs from Hurriyet, Turkish newspapers, and other sources show the Flotilla's activists caring for Israeli troops (see inset photograph).

1635 GMT: The Free Gaza Movement reports that the five Irish passengers from the Rachel Corrie have been deported and will return to Ireland tomorrow.

1615 GMT: Israel has deported eight Flotilla activists to Jordan. Seven are from the Rachel Corrie; the eighth is an Indonesian who was injured in the attack on the Mavi Marmara.

No word on the other passengers of the Rachel Corrie.

1545 GMT: Blame Turkey, An illuminating clash in approach between two of America's largest newspapers: while The New York Times has an analysis noting the re-assessment amongst some US insiders of the relationship with Israel, The Washington Post's editorial team directs its fire at Ankara:

Western governments have been right to be concerned about Israel's poor judgment and botched execution in the raid against the Free Gaza flotilla. But they ought to be at least as worried about the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which since Monday has shown a sympathy toward Islamic militants and a penchant for grotesque demagoguery toward Israel that ought to be unacceptable for a member of NATO.

1230 GMT: Eyewitness Testimony. Journalist Abbas Al Lawati, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara, has posted the third part of his account, focusing on his interrogation by Israeli authorities.

1210 GMT: Israeli Foreign Ministry officials have said that West Jerusalem not apologize to Turkey for the deaths of eight Turkish and 1 Turkish-American activists on the Mavi Marmara.

A "top official"laimed that the Turkish demand for an official apology was mainly an excuse to allow Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cut diplomatic ties with Israel.

The Foreign Ministry officials said they were surprised by the request for an apology from Turkey's Ambassador to the US, Namik Tan, who "was known to be a supporter of Israel".

(Hmm.... If a "supporter of Israel" is calling for the apology, I would think that Israeli officials might consider how serious the diplomatic situation has become.)

1130 GMT: The New Israeli Line. Speaking at the opening of a Cabinet meeting,Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced, ""Evidence shows separate group of violent Islamists boarded flotilla....[They] boarded the ship at a separate port, did their own provisioning, and were not subject to the same security check of their luggage as all the other passengers.”

The Israeli Defense Forces are briefing the press that a group of about 50 men of the 700 on board the Mavi Marmara were trained fighters recruited from the northwestern Turkey city of Bursa. None had ID cards or passports; each carried an envelope with $10,000 in cash.

1105 GMT: Ha'aretz reports that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has given Israel a proposal for an international committee of inquiry into the raid on the Mavi Marmara. The newspaper says that senior Israeli officials are recommending a positive response because Turkey will probably oppose it.

The committee would be headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, an expert on maritime law, and include representatives from the US, Turkey, and Israel. Ban made the proposal in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

1045 GMT: The immediate tragedy and dramas of two Israeli boardings of Freedom Flotilla ships may be over, but there is still a lot of uncertainty and political tension about today.

Israel's official line is that most of the activists from the MV Rachel Corrie, the ship seized by the Israeli military yesterday and towed to Israel's port of Ashdod, will be deported.

The Free Gaza Movement, however, says, "Nothing from the kidnapped passengers. [Nobel Prize laureate] Mairead [Corrigan]'s husband said no contact with her. Israel refuses to allow lawyers to talk to them."

The battle of words and pictures also continues. There are claims that Israel altered the audio on supposed communications with the Mavi Marmara (see Friday's updates for the Israeli version of the exchange), the ship attacked on Monday, to create the impression of passengers shouting insults such as "Shut up, go back to Auschwitz".

And discussion is heating up over photographs in Hurriyet,  the Turkish newspaper, showing an injured Israeli commando surrounded by passengers of the Mavi Marmara.