We Con the World

Creation

Latma TV director Shlomo Blass told a reporter for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that he had decided to respond on the day of the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. "I immediately called the site editor, Caroline Glick, and said to her: 'We have to do something'."

Glick described the video as a parody, featuring the "Turkish-Hamas 'love boat' captain crew and passengers in a musical explanation of how they con the world," and told the press that "We think this is an important Israeli contribution to the discussion of recent events and we hope you distribute it far and wide."

Description

The video satirizes the purportedly peaceful intentions of the political activists aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, the Turkish-owned flagship that led the "blockade busting" Free Gaza Gaza flotilla. Actors portraying the ship's captain and passengers wave fake weapons as they sing, with affected Arab accents, "We'll make the world abandon reason / We'll make them all believe that the Hamas is Momma Theresa", "As Allah has shown us / For facts there's no demand". The captain of the parody crew sings "Ithbah al-Yahud" (اذبح اليهود, i.e. "Slaughter the Jews" in Arabic).

The video uses the tune and style of the 1985 video "We Are the World" by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

Response

Robert Mackey of the New York Times characterizes the video as "suggest[ing] that the activists on board the flotilla were, in fact, violent provocateurs." Jeff Stein of the Washington Post quotes a CIA officer who calls it "pretty clever agitprop." Writing in the Huffington Post, journalist Eileen Read called on the Jerusalem Post to fire Glick for making fun of the dead in the "blatantly racist" video.

The Israeli foreign ministry press office sent it to a list of journalists, and three hours later sent an apology describing the emailed video as having been "inadvertently released."Video: "farsa di Israele sui pacifisti Si intitola 'Flotilla-We con the world' (Flottiglia, noi inganniamo il mondo)".

The spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel, Mark Regev, told The Guardian that "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."

In June 2010 David Lev wrote in an Arutz Sheva news article that the video received over three million views in less than a week. As of September 2015, the original video page showed that it had received over 2.78 million hits.

YouTube has versions with subtitles in Hebrew, Spanish, English, French, Russian, Portuguese, and Hungarian.

Copyright controversy

A week after the parody appeared, it was pulled by YouTube "due to a copyright claim by Warner/ Chappell Music, Inc." Glick argued that it was legal and permissible to use copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine for purposes of parody.

Lawrence Solomon opined in the National Post that "parodies are not subject to a copyright claim" and that "YouTube carries numerous other parodies of 'We are the world' – a search on the YouTube site of 'We are the world spoof' turns up 5,100 results":

"YouTube's real problem with this viral hit is the virus of anti-Semitism. 'We con the world,' which portrays terrorists on the Gaza flotilla's ship, the MV Mavi Marmara, explaining how they'll con the world, hits too close to home for many Hamas sympathizers, who mounted a successful campaign to cow YouTube".

Several weeks after its removal the original video was restored on its channel.

Participants

Caroline Glick, Noam Jacobson, Tal Gilad, Shlomo Blass, Elchanan Even-Chen, Karni Eldad, Ronit Avrahamof, Nachum Shteiner, and Yoram Schwartz participated in the video.

References

References

1. [http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/June/Israelis-Counter-Flotilla-Propaganda Flotilla Choir: 'We Con the World'], Tzippe Barrow, June 4, 2010, [[Christian Broadcasting Network]].
2. link. (2010-06-10 , June 4, 2010.)
3. [http://wireupdate.com/local/pr-blunder-israeli-governments-press-office-sends-flotilla-incident-parody-video-to-journalists PR blunder] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-07-23 : Israeli government’s press office sends Flotilla incident parody video to journalists Friday, June 4, 2010, [[BNO News]].)
4. [https://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100609/wl_ynews/ynews_wl2491 Israel apologizes for sending link to flotilla parody], Liz Goodwin, [[Yahoo! News]].
5. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10253357 "Israel apologises for spoof video mocking Gaza flotilla"] [[BBC]], 7 June 2010.
6. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israeli-newscast-satirizes-raid-critics/ Israeli "Newscast" Satirizes Raid Critics], June 4, 2010, [[Dan Raviv]].
7. Stöcker, Christian. (June 5, 2010). "Gaza-Hilfsflotte: Propaganda-Satire blamiert Israels Regierung (Gaza Aid Flotilla: Propaganda Satire embarrasses Israeli Government)". [[Der Spiegel]].
8. Mackey, Robert. (June 4, 2010). "Israelis Explain, and Mock, Flotilla Clash". [[New York Times]].
9. [http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/05/gaza.flotilla.mock.video/index.html?hpt=T2 Israeli government office links to video mocking flotilla], [[CNN]].
10. [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/06/israel-youtube-gaza-flotilla "Israel forced to apologise for YouTube spoof of Gaza flotilla; Israeli government press office distributed video link featuring Arabs and activists singing"], Rachel Shabl, ''[[The Guardian]],'' June 6, 2010.
11. [https://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/06/08/2739511/israeli-grass-roots-effort-fights-flotilla-fallout "Israeli grass-roots effort fights flotilla fallout"] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-06-11 , Dina Kraft, June 8, 2010, [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]].)
12. [http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/05/gaza.flotilla.mock.video Israeli government office links to video mocking flotilla], CNN Wire Staff, June 5, 2010.
13. [http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/israelis-explain-and-mock-flotilla-clash Israelis Explain, and Mock, Flotilla Clash], June 4, 2010, Robert Mackey, ''New York Times''.
14. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100830234050/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/06/right-wing_dc_think_tank_spawn.html "Right-wing D.C. think tank spawns Israeli PR blunder"], June 6, 2010.
15. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eileen-read/the-jerusalem-post-should_b_601857.html Eileen Read, ''Huffington Post'': "The Jerusalem Post Should Fire Caroline Glick for Making a Racist Video"], June 5, 2010.
16. [http://www.nu.nl/algemeen/2262684/israelische-excuses-pr-blunder.html Israëlische excuses na pr-blunder].
17. link. (2012-04-04 , ''[[La Stampa]]'' (4/6/2010).)
18. [http://www.agoramagazine.it/agora/spip.php?article10027 Video choc. ’Flotilla, Noi inganniamo il mondo’ un insulto ai 19 morti pacifisti. La satira israeliana indigna la Rete], June 5, 2010, di Francesco Bonazzi, ''Agora Magazine''.
19. [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/138015 YouTube Pulls "We Con the World" Parody], [[Israel National News]], June 12, 2010, David Lev.
20. (3 June 2010). "Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World". [[YouTube]].
21. (June 7, 2010). "Израильское правительство извинилось за пародийную песню "We con the world"". News RU.
22. link. (2010-06-15 , June 13, 2010, Jewish Telegraphic Agency.)
23. [https://nationalpost.com/full-comment/lawrence-solomon-youtube-cons-the-world Lawrence Solomon: YouTube Cons The World] , by Lawrence Solomon, ''[[National Post]]'', June 13, 2010.