(Yediot).In a place where the official Israeli public relations failed, a popular wave has risen up and succeeded: a satiric video clip that mocks the way in which the participants in the Gaza flotilla were cast as heroes around the world, became a hit this weekend on the internet.
Many Israelis were infuriated by the way the IDF operation was depicted around the world. Shlomo Balas, the director of the Latma website, decided to fight back in the best way he knows how: with incisive satire. “The blood was boiling in my veins,” Balas said last night as he recounted watching the reports from aboard the Marmara. “I immediately called the site editor, Caroline Glick, sand said to her: ‘we have to do something.’” And that is how the Israeli video clip that has become a global hit was born. In the space of a single day the clip titled, “under the title Israel Derangement SyndromeWe con the world,” was viewed more than a million times.
The idea of taping a satiric take-off of the song “We are the world,” which was recorded in 1984 for the starving millions in Africa, was given by Tal Gilad, one of the writers on Latma. Gilad wrote the lyrics in English, and actors and singers were enlisted to take part in the clip. The group of performers was headed by Noam Yaakobson, who plays the role of Captain Stabbing.
Among the people who appear in the clip are Caroline Glick herself and the musician, Karni Eldad, who is the daughter of MK Aryeh Eldad. “We worked under very intense pressure. The writing was done on Monday morning, then we found the recording studio and we enlisted the singers, and on Thursday we recorded into the evening. I felt as if I was going to do reserve duty,” said Balas, a resident of Efrat. He said the overall cost of producing the clip came to USD 15,000, which is a pittance in comparison to the millions of shekels available to the state’s Hasbara Unit.
The clip shows the participants donning keffiyas and brandishing knives and clubs during the refrain. That gimmick almost got Aviv Kersozki, the director of Latma’s satiric newscast, into trouble. He was detained by the police on his way to the shoot after he was caught in possession of the knives and keffiyas in the Tel Aviv central bus station.
The song’s success was phenomenal. The official version of the clip, which was posted on Latma.co.il reached third place in the list of the most-viewed clips in the world on YouTube, with 672,555 views. The overall number, in that version and other unofficial versions that were posted on YouTube came to close to one million. “I received messages in support from Kurds and Armenians as well,” said Glick.
Yaakobson took part in the clip during a furlough from reserve duty on the northern border. On Thursday night, immediately after the shooting of the clip was over, he returned to the front line. “Ever since I returned to the base I’ve been flooded with text messages and phone calls,” he said. “The clip had an impact, big time. I shot it with a sense of mission. I felt as if the State of Israel were waiting for this.”
The clip also caused an embarrassing incident. Members of the Government Press Office who encountered it thought it was a state-sponsored clip and disseminated it overseas. After a Spanish journalist researched its sources, the GPO was forced to clarify that the parody was disseminated accidentally and that the contents of the clip did not reflect the official position of the State of Israel.
Many Israelis were infuriated by the way the IDF operation was depicted around the world. Shlomo Balas, the director of the Latma website, decided to fight back in the best way he knows how: with incisive satire. “The blood was boiling in my veins,” Balas said last night as he recounted watching the reports from aboard the Marmara. “I immediately called the site editor, Caroline Glick, sand said to her: ‘we have to do something.’” And that is how the Israeli video clip that has become a global hit was born. In the space of a single day the clip titled, “under the title Israel Derangement SyndromeWe con the world,” was viewed more than a million times.
The idea of taping a satiric take-off of the song “We are the world,” which was recorded in 1984 for the starving millions in Africa, was given by Tal Gilad, one of the writers on Latma. Gilad wrote the lyrics in English, and actors and singers were enlisted to take part in the clip. The group of performers was headed by Noam Yaakobson, who plays the role of Captain Stabbing.
Among the people who appear in the clip are Caroline Glick herself and the musician, Karni Eldad, who is the daughter of MK Aryeh Eldad. “We worked under very intense pressure. The writing was done on Monday morning, then we found the recording studio and we enlisted the singers, and on Thursday we recorded into the evening. I felt as if I was going to do reserve duty,” said Balas, a resident of Efrat. He said the overall cost of producing the clip came to USD 15,000, which is a pittance in comparison to the millions of shekels available to the state’s Hasbara Unit.
The clip shows the participants donning keffiyas and brandishing knives and clubs during the refrain. That gimmick almost got Aviv Kersozki, the director of Latma’s satiric newscast, into trouble. He was detained by the police on his way to the shoot after he was caught in possession of the knives and keffiyas in the Tel Aviv central bus station.
The song’s success was phenomenal. The official version of the clip, which was posted on Latma.co.il reached third place in the list of the most-viewed clips in the world on YouTube, with 672,555 views. The overall number, in that version and other unofficial versions that were posted on YouTube came to close to one million. “I received messages in support from Kurds and Armenians as well,” said Glick.
Yaakobson took part in the clip during a furlough from reserve duty on the northern border. On Thursday night, immediately after the shooting of the clip was over, he returned to the front line. “Ever since I returned to the base I’ve been flooded with text messages and phone calls,” he said. “The clip had an impact, big time. I shot it with a sense of mission. I felt as if the State of Israel were waiting for this.”
The clip also caused an embarrassing incident. Members of the Government Press Office who encountered it thought it was a state-sponsored clip and disseminated it overseas. After a Spanish journalist researched its sources, the GPO was forced to clarify that the parody was disseminated accidentally and that the contents of the clip did not reflect the official position of the State of Israel.
