In the immediate aftermath of the IDF’s takeover of the Turkish ship
Mavi
Marmara during last year’s pro-Hamas flotilla to Gaza, Israel’s greatest public
diplomacy victory came in the form of a private initiative by Latma,
(
www.latma.co.il), a satirical media criticism website run by
Jerusalem Post
Senior Contributing Editor Caroline Glick.
Latma’s song, “We Con the
World,” a parody of the 1983 hit song “We are the world,” by Lionel Ritchie and
Michael Jackson, mocked the flotilla participants’ protestations of being “peace
activists” by juxtaposing footage of the
Mavi Marmara passengers stabbing and
beating IDF naval commandos as they boarded the ship with Latma’s “Flotilla
Choir” singing that “the truth will never make its way to your TV” while waving
knives and clubs.
“We Con the World” was launched on YouTube two days
after the
Mavi Marmara raid, and within 24 hours had received over a million
views and fundamentally changed the international discourse on the
Mavi Marmara
incident.
On Thursday night, Latma released a new video clip on the
latest attempted flotilla to Gaza. The song, a parody of the Beach Boys famous
1964 hit “Fun, Fun, Fun,” is sung by “The Audacity of Dopes” band and is titled,
“Guns, guns, guns.”
The clip portrays four groups of people – Hamas terrorists on
the Gaza beach awaiting the arrival of the flotilla, the pro-Palestinian
activists aboard a ship to Gaza, a UN envoy, and a group of journalists covering
the Gaza flotilla. Its main point is that there is a consensus that Gaza’s
affection for guns should be supported by one and all.
Speaking of the
rationale for the new song, Glick explained, “We at Latma felt it was important
to give our unique, satirical take on the latest attempt to break Israel’s
blockade of Gaza. We use humor to expose the absurdity of the entire
notion that Gaza is in need of additional humanitarian aid and that these
activists who openly side with a genocidal terrorist organization and join its
call for Israel’s destruction are in any way concerned about human rights. We
think the song came out really well and look forward to hearing the public’s
response.”
This spring, Latma produced a pilot television show for
Channel 1. The station’s management approved the show for prime time next
season, pending the passage of the station’s budget by the Knesset.