I am very excited to announce the commencement of the Pro-Israel Blog-Off for 2011, my new initative designed to showcase the blogosphere’s best pro-Israel material in a fun and exciting manner.

Bloggers are invited to submit one ”pro-Israel” entry, whether it be a blog post, podcast, or video no older than 1 month. Then each week, I will pit submissions against each other. The winner, decided by a combination of reader votes and panel-determined score, moves to the next round, where they will submit a new entry to compete against another first round winner. The process continues until we get to two finalists competing for an Apple iPad.

I will be taking submissions in the comments to this post until Tuesday 18th January, or until I receive 80 valid entries. An entry is valid if it meets the following criteria:

- It’s focus is on pro-Israel hasbara
- It was submitted by the blogger himself/herself and not by some other party
- It was posted for the first time no earlier than 1 month ago
- The submission is posted in the comments to this post in the following format:
Title of Blog
Title of Post
URL of Post
e.g. Israellycool
Pro-Israel Celebrities
http://www.israellycool.com/2010/09/06/pro-israel-celebrities/
- The blogger has inserted the following badge in their sidebar:

Make sure the image links to: http://www.israellycool.com/pro-israel-blog-off-2011/

You can read more about the contest, rules and judging panel at the Blog-off page here.

Please spread the word and good luck!

"Jew talkin' to me?"

There’s only 14 weeks to go before the release of Mel Gibson’s “The Beaver,” and the film’s publicity problems keep mounting.

In the new issue of GQ magazine, “Black Swan” co-star Winona Ryder recounts a moment sure to make Gibson’s publicity team (and plenty of others) cringe.

“I remember, like, 15 years ago, I was at one of those big Hollywood parties,” Ryder tells the magazine. “And he was really drunk. I was with my friend, who’s gay. He made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I was Jewish. He said something about ‘oven dodgers,’ but I didn’t get it. I’d never heard that before. It was just this weird, weird moment. I was like, ‘He’s anti-Semitic and he’s homophobic.’ No one believed me!”

“Oven dogdgers” definitely sounds like something he learned from daddy.

Incidentally, Gibson plays a troubled husband who adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communicating in The Beaver. From the previews I have seen, he doesn’t launch into racial epithets against the beaver, which makes the character way more sane than the real Mel Gibson.

What a mensch.

Summary: Behind the facade of Wahabi conservatism in the streets, the underground nightlife for Jeddah’s elite youth is thriving and throbbing. The full range of worldly temptations and vices are available — alcohol, drugs, sex — but strictly behind closed doors. This freedom to indulge carnal pursuits is possible merely because the religious police keep their distance when parties include the presence or patronage of a Saudi royal and his circle of loyal attendants, such as a Halloween event attended by ConGenOffs on. [DETAIL REMOVED] Over the past few years, the increased conservatism of Saudi Arabia’s external society has pushed the nightlife and party scene in Jeddah even further underground. End summary.

Elite party like the rest of the world,
—————————————

just underground
—————–

¶2. (C) Along with over 150 young Saudis (men and women mostly in their 20’s and early 30’s), ConGenOffs accepted invitations to an underground Halloween party at PrinceXXXXXXXXXXXX residence in Jeddah on XXXXXXXXXXXX. Inside the gates, past the XXXXXXXXXXXX security guards and after the abaya coat-check, the scene resembled a nightclub anywhere outside the Kingdom: plentiful alcohol, young couples dancing, a DJ at the turntables, and everyone in costume. Funding for the party came from a corporate sponsor, XXXXXXa U.S.-based energy-drink company as well as from the princely host himself.

Royalty, attended by “khawi,” keep religious police at bay
——————————————— ————-

¶3. (C) Religious police/CPVPV (Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) were nowhere to be seen and while admission was controlled through a strictly-enforced guest list, the partygoers were otherwise not shy about publicizing the affair. According to a young Saudi from a prominent Jeddah merchant family, the Saudis try to throw parties at princes’ houses or with princes in attendance, which serves as sufficient deterrent to interference by the CPVPV. There are over 10,000 princes in the Kingdom, albeit at various levels and gradations — “Royal Highnesses” (“Saheb Al Sumou Al Maliki”) signified by direct descent from King Abdulaziz, and mere “Highnesses” (“Saheb Al Sumou”) from less direct branches of the Al Saud ruling family. Our host that evening,xxxxxx (protect), traces his roots to Thunayan, a brother of Mohammad, Amir of Diriyyah and Nejd (1725-65), King Abdullah’s direct ancestor, six generations back. Although PrinceXXXXXXXXXXXX is XXXXXXXXXXXX not in line for the throne, he still enjoys the perks of a mansion, luxury car, lifetime stipend, and security entourage. (Note: Most of the prince XXXXXXXXXXXX’s security forces were young XXXXXXXXXXXX men. It is common practice for Saudi princes to grow up with hired bodyguards from Nigeria or other African nations who are of similar age and who remain with the prince well into adulthood. They are called “khawi,” derived from the Arabic word “akh,” meaning “brother.” The lifetime spent together creates an intense bond of loyalty. End note.)

Availability of black market alcohol, prostitutes, and drugs
——————————————— —————

¶4. (C) Alcohol, though strictly prohibited by Saudi law and custom, was plentiful at the party’s well-stocked bar, well-patronized by Halloween revellers. The hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using “sadiqi,” a locally-made “moonshine.” While top-shelf liquor bottles were on display throughout the bar area, the original contents were reportedly already consumed and replaced by sadiqi. On the black market, a bottle of Smirnoff can cost 1,500 riyals when available, compared to 100 riyals for the locally-made vodka. It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact “working girls,” not uncommon for such parties.
JEDDAH 00000443 002.2 OF 002
Additionally, though not witnessed directly at this event, cocaine and hashish use is common in these social circles and has been seen on other occasions.

¶5. (C) Comment: Saudi youth get to enjoy relative social freedom and indulge fleshly pursuits, but only behind closed doors — and only the rich. Parties of this nature and scale are believed to be a relatively recent phenomenon in Jeddah. One contact, a young Saudi male, explained that up to a few years ago, the only weekend activity was “dating” inside the homes of the affluent in small groups. It is not uncommon in Jeddah for the more lavish private residences to include elaborate basement bars, discos, entertainment centers and clubs. As one high society Saudi remarked, “The increased conservatism of our society over these past years has only moved social interaction to the inside of people’s homes.

Which brings me to…

The Top Five Pick-Up Lines at a Saudi Prince Sex Party

5. “The name’s Akbar Zeb”

4. “I’m feeling a bit peckish. Can I have some breast milk?”

3. “Want to take my car for a spin? Ooops, sorry, my bad.”

2. “I’m really not gay. Want to see for yourself?”

1. “Mind if we go from “hi”to “jab”?”"

#10: Cape Town Opera, Tel Aviv, November 2010

Israelis singing and dancing badly.

#9: Follow Me Flashmob, Netherlands, March 2010

Unimaginative flash mob with usual assortment of young hippies and old codgers, made worse by puke green shirts and weird mime-like poses. On the plus side, no attempt to sing or dance.

#8: Philly BDS Flashdance, October 2010

Beanpole nerd in sequin top, butch women, and a horrendous lack of singing or dancing talent.

#7: BBC Headquarters Wales, December 2008

Supergluing themselves seemed like good idea at the time.

#6: Tesco Wales, 2009

So did stealing goods.

#5: Ahava, Washington DC, March 2010

Ugly Code Pinkers in bath robes. Need I say any more.

#4: Starbucks, Cairo, 2010

Unimaginative, seemingly unprepared and about as bored as everyone else subjected to watching them.

#3: Israel Ballet, Maryland, February 2010

Old men in ballet tutus, horrendous puns and attempts at rhyme, climaxing in off-key singing.

#2: Best Buy, November 2009

Unattractive David and Victoria Beckham impersonators, coupled with horrendous Spice Girl vocals.

#1: Assorted Businesses, NYC, July 2010

Awful acting, awful singing, awful dancing. And not just confined to the one place.

By the way,  pro-Israel activists in the US are planning a massive national “Buy Israel Goods (BIG)” campaign next Tuesday and hope it will continue every day. Go here to find stores in different areas that carry Israeli products.

I think the film-maker is missing an important point: if the woman is talking on a cell phone, then there has to be more than one time traveler.

As you can imagine, this video has generated many responses. My favorite has to be this:

A Northern Irish film-maker has insisted that a scene from the 1928 Charlie Chaplin film The Circus is proof positive of time travel, because nobody ever touched their face in the 1920s.

George Clarke from east Belfast has been puzzled for more than a year by a scene in the film which appears to show a woman walking along whilst touching her face with her left hand.

The unusual thing is that the movie was made by Charlie Chaplin in 1928 – long before the concept of touching your face whilst walking along was even invented.

Mr Clarke told us, “As I sat back to watch it I realised in the first 30 seconds there’s a lady strolling by with her hand up to her face, something which you see regularly today.”

“But everyone knows that face touching didn’t appear until the 1980s, and even then it was big bulky exaggerated touching, not the small discreet touching that you see today, and in that Chaplin film.”

“This type of face-touching can mean only one thing – that woman is from the future.”

Poorly-qualified historians and YouTube viewing morons have backed Mr Clarke’s theory, suggesting that time travelers could already be among us today.

YouTube commenter Simpleton247 wrote on the site, “I read that in the 1920s if someone had a massive facial boil, or some sort of hideous disfigurement, they would walk along and brazen it out, letting everyone see it.”

“It’s only in the last thirty years that people have thought about covering up embarrassing facial features when in public by using their hand.”

“So how would this woman have known to try and cover something like that up with her hand is she wasn’t from the future, eh?”

Mr Clarke had the last word, concluding, “The evidence is pretty compelling, but bottom line, I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure if she was from the future.”

But there’s a hitch. The caption writer falls asleep at the wheel, and Israel is not blamed for the photographed palestinian’s predicament.

[click on image to enlarge]

This is not acceptable. After all, people might think the damage was caused by a work accident or palestinian infighting.

Not to worry. It is moments like these that the trusty caption correction comes in handy.

[click on image to enlarge]

Ahh, that’s better.

An international peace activist (L) gestures from inside a vehicle next to a Hamas policeman upon his arrival at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip October 21, 2010. Hundreds of international peace activists arrived in Gaza on Thursday in a convoy carrying humanitarian supplies, to show solidarity with Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip, an official in the convoy said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Does he look familiar?

The last time we saw him, he was “gesturing” in a radically different way.

International peace activist?

(hat tip: Vicious Babushka)

I realize Jimmy is dressed like a Republican. Since there was no Carter character available, I used the one that looked most like him – McCain!

Update: Video updated and problem solved!