Days after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. released a heavy-handed video equating Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s expected UN bid for non-member observer status to launching rockets from Gaza and driving a bus full of people off of a cliff.
The video made public on November 22, 2012 is a mélange of news clips and a cartoonish Abbas as the bus driver. The video ends with bus driver Abbas is left with a choice to make: turn left at the green sign that says, “road to peace” and points to a fairytale castle, or turn right towards the blue “United Nations” sign with a “no outlet” sticker that points to a pile of smoking rubble and raining bombs—likely nod to Gaza during Operation Pillar of Cloud.
The video departs from the embassy’s typical holiday Youtube greetings, which are generally single-camera tidings from ambassador Michael Oren. Although the video serves as one of Israel’s stronger public condemnations of the Palestinian move, the Jewish state is backing off from rebuking the resolution in the UN. Speaking to Haaretz an unnamed senior Israeli official said their plan is “lowering the profile” of the bid, continuing, “we examined different ways to react, but eventually the ministers realized that almost whatever we do will hurt Israel.”
The same day that the “President Abbas’ Palestinian Bus: Heading in the Wrong Direction,” video was released, the Israeli embassy in Washington DC also posted on Youtube “A Dinner For Peace: An Open Invitation to Palestinian President Abbas,” which uses the same image of Abbas about to drive the Palestinian people into a ravine of terror. But unlike the first video, the dinner party includes a cartoon President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Prime Ministers Netanyahu and Cameron who are depicted as waiting at the “negotiations table,” for the stalled Abbas who on the road deciding which way to turn.
The message to outsiders is clear: Israel is weighing both isolation from the international community and an unlikely subtle threat of military action if Abbas should continue on the path to statehood. But without any assurances from Netanyahu to halt settlement construction, at this point there is nothing meaningful to be gained in negotiations at “the dinner table.”
The first video shows Cameron and Rice as speakers (warners) about the dangers of the UN bid. They are (to my thinking) mere “puppets”, not independent speakers). Rice is supposed to be Obama’s puppet (that is, she is HIS ambassador to the UN). Obama, of course, walks an interesting tightrope, but AIPAC is always there, maybe less powerful than formerly, but not at all absent. Ask any Congressperson.
Wow! That was a scary looking dinner party!
Ban Ki is about the only one not bought and paid for.
Or doing the buying and paying…..
Couldn’t they find more credible guests?
“Dinner table” images are curiously un-inviting. I imagine that if you seriously prepare dinner, that the table setting would be more elaborate than generic plates from a dollar store and nothing else (cuttlery, napkins, flowers, bowls with something etc., get some Martha Stewart pics if you have no idea how it should look like!
http://www.marthastewart.com/276333/how-to-set-a-formal-dinner-table/@center/276958/holiday-entertaining
Of course, this drab setting is entirely proper to illustrate the issue.
In the second video (“Waiting on a Guest”), various world leaders are depicted around a table, each with a name card in front of him or her; “Obama”, “Clinton”, “Blair” et al.
The card in front of the UN Secretary General? “Ki-Moon”. It should, of course, read “Ban”, following the established usage of using the family name for each guest’s card.
The Embassy of Israel isn’t aware that Korean surnames appear before given names?
Way to go. A real diplomatic powerhouse, that Israeli embassy.
What? No cartoon bomb?
“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has a decision to make. Directly negotiate peace with Israel, or make a bad situation worse. Time and time again, President Obama and other world leaders have called him to the negotiating table. Time and time again President Abbas has chosen the futile path.
Leadership is needed now. President Abbas must stop the journey in the wrong direction–appealing to the United Nations–turn away from the cliff, and return to the negotiating table. The path to peace begins with the seven minutes between Jerusalem and Ramallah, not on UN podiums. Going to the UN General Assembly is a mistake.
Israel continues to seek a solution of two states for two peoples, the Jewish state of Israel next to an Arab state of Palestine, side by side in peace and security.”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKxcz5m4OZ4&feature=player_embedded
…”Israel continues to seek a solution of two states for two peoples, the Jewish state of Israel next to an Arab state of Palestine, side by side in peace and security”…..
But where is the Arab state of Palestine going to be? Jordan?