politics

This video is a bit old, since I took it on 11 Feb 2009, right after the national elections here. Still, I thought it might be interesting to some to see this busy intersection and highway entrance with its edge to edge political ads.

The white squares that look like pieces of paper with one, two or three letters on them are examples of what that party's ballot looks like. When you vote here, you walk behind a blinder (like a cardboard school diorama stand) where there is a box with square holes. Each hole holds a set of these white pieces of paper with one, two or three letters, representing a particular party. You pick the paper for your party and put it into the envelope that you were given at the sign in desk. You seal the envelope, and then put the envelope in the box back at the sign in desk.

There's a bit of a trend going on in Israeli advertising these days in which advertisers imagine what our neighbors and other folks who don't like "us" or something about their product would have to say. There are two of these commercials from Satellite TV company YES. One is of ultra orthodox men in black coats and hats singing and dancing about how terrible YES HDTV is because it allows you to sin with clearer pictures. (You know, 'cuz you shouldn't see all that stuff they have on TV...) There's another commercial in which the Iranians get all excited about destroying Israel until they realize that their war timetable is going to interfere with watching their favorite Israeli TV program.

There's another commercial for a fuel efficient Nissan that depicts Arabs cursing the car because it saves so much fuel. I've heard that this one has gotten a reaction. Someone (or ones) has launched a website .. duh-duh-duh! ... cursing Nissan because of the ad.

Ummmm... duh... "We don't do stupid stuff like cursing cars because they are fuel efficient, and I CURSE YOU for even suggesting that we would!!"

Can people just stop being caricatures of the worst of themselves for a minute? PLEASE?

Miriam Schwab at IsraelPlug suggests that someone should start an initiative called "Sense of Humor for Middle East Peace"

Now, there's one piece that all falls into place with that FOX news piece. MBC ran a story about the ad and then started a conversation about how Israelis are fueling profits with "hatred and racism". Shall we compare this to the sorts of things in Arabic TV that fuel hatred against Jews and against Israel? This commercial is a JOKE. That lovely mouse that taught Palestinian children to hate Jews and was "killed by Israelis" after getting too much international attention was NOT A JOKE. Can you see the difference?

I think Miriam is right. We need a "Regional Get a Sense Of Humor Day" here.