Year In Review: Who said it in 2010?

"I woke up a murderer..." and 45 other year-defining quotes.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
From the inspiring, funny, absurd and disturbing, 2010 saw a number of statements, quips, accusations and faux pas make headlines worldwide. Over the past year we witnessed earthquakes, floods, wildfires, an unprecedented oil spill, extramarital affairs made public, “Zionist” sharks deployed by the Mossad, spiritual leaders warning of impending natural disasters brought on by cleavage, world leaders gone wild, anti-Semitic slurs caught on camera and the mass publication of confidential diplomatic cables with a “there’s-more-where-that-came-from” warning – and that doesn’t cover even half of what occurred. Test your memory – and news savvy – in a special Jerusalem Post end-of-year “who said what” challenge. Match the 46 quotes with the sources below. Beware, some of them are responsible for more than one comment... The answers are at the bottom of the page.
1. “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled.”
2. “F*ck my victims. I carried them for 20 years, and now I’m doing 150.”
3. “And evil upon evil, that he who sells or lets them rent an apartment in an area in which Jews are living, causes great damage to his neighbors.”
4. “I try not to spread international Zionist conspiracies, but Israel working with sharks just makes too much sense.”
5. “We’ll be worth more in five years than The Wall Street Journal.”
6. “I am not hiding. I am not ashamed. I didn’t do anything wrong. I came here this evening to say, ‘Enough.’”
7. “Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history, and it’s been used cheaply.”
8. “I went to bed with pneumonia and woke up a ‘murderer.’”
9. “I would like my life back.”
10. “We are fed up with people calling us terrorists, telling us that we are sick and brought diseases with us.”
11. “After I forced him out of office, I didn’t expect him to embrace me. But he is in distress, so I don’t want to judge him”
12. Peace with the Palestinians “could take a few decades,” and any final-status agreement would entail “not land for peace, but rather, [an] exchange of populated territory.”
13. “I... don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system. There are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I am shocked by that as well.”
14. “The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and invites you to enter the Ashdod Port.”
15. “We haven’t seen each other for so long, I have so much to tell you.”
16. “Even bullies, pirates and criminals have a code of honor. But for those who have none, it would be a compliment to call them such names.”
17. “Hello everyone, I’m on Twitter and this is my first tweet.”
18. “To share this with him is an absolute honor. He is an absolute warrior.”
19. “You were sent to the USA for a long-term service trip. Your education, your bank accounts, car, house, etc. – all these serve one goal: to fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search out and develop ties in policymaking circles in the US and send intels to C [Center].”
20. “If the Supreme Court ordered you to educate your children in a way you could not tolerate, would you agree? This is a religious war.”
21. “The tendency had been to say, ‘Let’s adopt the multicultural concept and live happily side by side, and be happy to be living with each other.’ But this concept has failed, and failed utterly.”
22. “We will not be gagged, either by judicial action or corporate censorship.”
23. “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.”
24. “We knew we were going to make history.”
25. “We thought we could put it to better use.”
26. “Fires only happen in a place where Shabbat is desecrated.”
27. “Look at them as part of our culture. As our guests, please embrace our culture, please embrace the way we celebrate”
28. “I just knew it was out there and I could do it. All you can do in life is prepare and work hard. Then, sometimes you simply get a boost from above.”
29. “Doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, please refudiate.”
30. “The loyalty oath delegitimizes Israel. The occupation delegitimizes Israel.”
31. “It’s better to like beautiful girls than to be gay.”
32. “They were kind of dirty-looking pebbles. I didn’t know. I’m used to seeing diamonds shiny and in a box. These are the kind of diamonds I’m used to seeing.”
33. “I’m not a witch, I’m you.”
34. “We... insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved.”
35. “Ha, ha, ha, ha. It hit ‘em... Look at those dead bastards.”
36. “Many women who do not dress modestly... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes.”
37. “I was with God and I was with the devil. They fought over me but God won. I think I had extraordinary luck.”
38. The Western Wall is a “Muslim wall and an integral part of al-Aksa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif.”
39. “You’ve probably never heard of Anat Kamm. Few people have.”
40. “We won’t remain silent in response to any Israeli attack on Lebanon.”
41. “This is a big f*cking deal.”
42. “Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.”
43. “Be a man.”
44. “Across the country right now we are witnessing a repudiation of Washington, a repudiation of big government and a repudiation of politicians who refuse to listen to the American people.”
45. “I wonder if he’s got Facebook. I have to tag him in the photo.”
46. “You are my partner in peace. It is up to us to overcome the agonizing conflict between our peoples and to forge a new beginning.”
A. Bernard Madoff, jailed Ponzi king, to another inmate, as reported by New York Magazine in June.
B. Dr. Orly Innes, also known as ‘Aleph’ for several weeks in November after she lodged sexual harassment complaints against former police chief candidate Cmdr. Uri Bar-Lev and former Public Security Ministry director-general Hagai Pele. She made the statements to supporters gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum to protest violence against women.
C. Excerpts from a radio transmission between the Israel Navy and the Mavi Marmara on the night of the interception that resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish citizens and earned Israel international condemnation.
D. US comedian Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report following claims in the Egyptian media that the government was not dismissing “Zionist involvement” in a shark attack in Sharm e-Sheikh in which a German tourist was killed at the beginning of this month
E. The US’s John Isner of France’s Nicolas Mahut after Isner’s win in June in the longest match in tennis history – three days, 183 games and five sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68
F. Mubarak, a Darfurian refugee, at a rally this month to demand that the government give Darfurians in the country refugee status and to decry plans to build a detention center in the South for illegal immigrants which reportedly will be able to hold some 10,000 people.
G. German Chancellor Angela Merkel to a youth wing of her Christian Democratic Union party in October. The statement marked a change from her previous liberal stance on immigration, mainly from Turkey and Arab countries.
H. Chaim Krimilovsky, an Emmanuel councilman and one of the parents who fought a court ruling in May which ordered a girls’ school there to end the separation between Sephardi and Ashkenazi girls. Mass protests ensued and some of the parents were jailed for up to a week.
I. Following years of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, and the cover-ups conducted by the Church, Pope Benedict XVI made this public apology in June at a mass in St. Peter’s Square held to mark the end of the Roman Catholic Church’s “Year of the Priest” celebrations.
J. Controversial British supermodel Naomi Campbell, when asked during a court proceeding in August about alleged blood diamonds she is believed to have received as a gift from former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.
K. Al-Mutawakil Taha, the PA’s deputy information minister, in a study he conducted, which was published on the PA’s official website in November. Following condemnation from Israel and the US, it was taken down. It then appeared on another PA-linked website.
L. Mario Sepulveda, one of 33 Chilean miners rescued in October after being trapped 2,000 feet underground for 69 days.
M. BP CEO Tony Hayward to residents of Venice, Louisiana after apologizing for the disruption to their lives caused by the biggest oil spill in history, which lasted three months and saw nearly five million barrels of crude oil pumped into the Gulf of Mexico, caused by a drilling rig explosion in April which claimed the lives of 11 men.
N. Tiger Woods in a 14-minute confession aired worldwide in February after it was discovered that he had had a string of affairs with various women, shattering his squeaky-clean image as a family man and tarnishing his carefully crafted public persona.
O. Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim to (now former) Mossad chief Meir Dagan, urging him to admit that the Mossad was behind the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in an interview with the United Arab Emirates paper Al Khaleej .
P. Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau during an interview in November with the Business Insider editor-in-chief on the changing media landscape. When asked who would be more valuable – the WJS or HuffPo – Hippeau said, “I think probably us.”
Q. Director Oliver Stone, speaking of his film on Hitler and Stalin to The Sunday Times in January. He also said, “There’s a major lobby in the United States,” adding that “they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment – the most powerful lobby in Washington.” The comment came in second on the ADL’s top 10 anti-Semitic slurs of 2010.
R. A statement from the original rabbis’ letter signed by dozens of rabbis around the country earlier this month urging Jews not to rent or sell apartments to non-Jews. A “softened” version has since been released.
S. Melvyn Adam Mildiner to The Jerusalem Post’s Yaakov Lappin after his name appeared on a list of some two dozen people suspected of using forged British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports to travel to Dubai in January as part of the hit squad allegedly sent to assassinate Hamas’s Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
T. Myanmar’s opposition politician and former secretarygeneral of the National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi to supporters on the night of her release in November after seven years of house arrest at the hands the military junta.
U. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech upon his return to Turkey from a trip to the US, referring to the Mavi Marmara incident.
V. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, after which the White House replied: Welcome to @twitter President Medvedev.
W. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a speech in Washington at the beginning of September, when direct talks began.
X. Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a Channel 2 interview in September, responding to excerpts from former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s new book published in Yediot Aharonot in which he calls Barak “a disappointing defense minister,” “an obsessive talker,” “insulting, blunt and rude” and “lacking decision-making capability.”
Y. US President Barack Obama on bankers’ bonuses in February.
Z. An intercepted message by the Russian intelligence service, according to a US indictment published in June, to two people the FBI says belonged to a Russian spy ring comprised of eight others who were in the US for “long-term deep cover.”
aa. Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas to Rabbi David F. Nesenoff in an impromptu interview in May on the outskirts of the Jewish American Heritage Month reception held at the White House. The statement led the 2010 list of top 10 anti-Semitic slurs published by the ADL.
bb. Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef at a weekly sermon following the Carmel fires earlier this month which raged on for four days, claiming the lives of 44 people, displacing thousands and destroying millions of trees.
cc. John Boehner (R-Ohio), after Republicans won a majority in Congress in the midterm elections, dealing a heavy blow to the Democratic Party
dd. Former vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the Ground Zero Mosque fiasco got under way. “Refudiate” became the word of the year according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
ee. Hecklers from Jewish Voice for Peace during a speech by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in November.
ff. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman at the UN General Assembly in late September. The Prime Minister’s Office distanced itself almost immediately from Lieberman’s remarks, informing the media that the speech had not been coordinated with the prime minister.
gg. US Sgt. Donald Wims of the 4th Stryker Brigade, Second Infantry Division, the last US combat unit to leave Iraq in August after a seven-year presence.
hh. Rich Mkhondo, a spokesman for the local World Cup organizing committee during the World Cup this year held in South Africa. Mkhondo made the comments at a press conference in June after complaints about vuvuzelas – “it sounds like a herd of charging elephants,” “it’s like watching football in a beehive” – led to a BBC report that chief organizer Danny Jordan had not ruled out banning the plastic trumpet. The vuvuzelas prevailed.
ii. WikiLeaks website statement vowing to continue releasing US documents after founder Julian Assange was arrested in London on rape charges earlier this month.
jj. Delaware Republican senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell, in a 30-second campaign video released in October. The video was meant to quell rumors following comedian Bill Maher’s release of a 1999 video from his since-cancelled show Politically Incorrect in which O’Donnell discussed dabbling with witchcraft in high school.
kk. Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, after a severe earthquake warning was given in Teheran. News of the cleric’s statement led to a string of viral videos and a series of public, cleavage-baring gatherings across the US on April 26 called “Boobquake”
ll. Italian Prime Minister and dogged billionaire lothario Silvio Berlusconi during comments made to Italian journalists about a teenage girl’s accusations that she witnessed orgies taking place at his home.
mm. Hadassah operating room chief nurse Reuven Gelfond to The Jerusalem Post’s Barbara Sofer, detailing his work in Haiti as part of the medical team sent there in January to run a field hospital following a devastating earthquake in which more than 200,000 people died and millions more were displaced. Gelfond found just the right equipment to be used with surgical nails as the medical team was running out of surgical screws.
nn. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor on the purchase of the Twitter account @israel from Israel Melendez, a Miami-based porn-site owner .
oo. A US Army soldier speaking on a closed-circuit conversation with fellow soldiers while carrying out an air attack on people believed to be armed militants in Baghdad on July 12, 2007. The attack left at least 16 people dead, including Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22. The transcript and footage of the attack was released by WikiLeaks on April 5, 2010, quickly establishing the site as a force to be reckoned with.
pp. Former IDF soldier Eden Abergil in a comment thread on photos she published on Facebook of herself posing with bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees during her army service. The photos gained international attention, and were even wrongly likened to the infamous Abu Ghraib footage.
qq. Mike Huckabee, one-time US Republican presidential hopeful and Fox News host, in comments made regarding Pvt. Bradley Manning, who leaked hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks. November, 2010.
rr. US Vice President Joe Biden to President Barack Obama in March in a comment picked up by the president’s microphone at the signing into law of the US health care program, the first in the history of the country.
ss. Daily Beast writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Judith Miller in an article in April that was one of the first in English or Hebrew to report on the arrest of the former IDF soldier on espionage charges for leaking documents to Haaretz reporter Uri Blau. She currently faces two counts of aggravated espionage, including passing classified information with the intent to harm state security, which is punishable by a life sentence, and collecting and holding classified material with the intent to harm state security, for which she could receive up to 15 years in prison. Blau came back to to Israel in October after his lawyers negotiated a way for him to return without facing charges.
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Answers
Answers: 1.N, 2.A, 3. R , 4.D, 5.P, 6.B, 7.Q, 8.S, 9.M, 10.F, 11.X, 12.ff, 13.Y, 14.C, 15.T, 16.U, 17.V 18. E, 19.Z, 20.H, 21.F, 22.ii, 23.aa, 24.gg, 25.nn, 26.bb, 27.hh, 28.mm, 29.dd, 30.ee, 31.ll, 32.J, 33.jj, 34.I, 35.oo, 36.kk, 37.L, 38.K, 39.ss, 40.U, 41.rr, 42.qq, 43.O, 44.cc, 45.pp 46.W