This post originally appeared on LobeLog.
Israelis are being sold on war with Iran in more ways than one.
In a commercial featuring John Cleese (a veteran of the zany British comedy shows, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers), a high level general takes a taste of a delectable chocolate and hazelnut spread and inadvertently sets in motion an Israeli military strike on an unnamed country — Iran by implication and context — a command that the Israelis have been waiting for and are eager to carry out.
The ad’s tour de force hinges on a pun. Three high level military officers, for whom “General Rogers” (Cleese) is the spokesman, are seated at a table in a war room. Across the table is a silver-haired man flanked by two military officers trying to persuade the generals to authorize an attack that they are apparently reluctant to approve. “I promise you we will be in and out in 33 minutes,” the silver-haired civilian tells them. “We have the right to defend ourselves!” Mulling what the panel’s response ought to be, Cleese opens the container of chocolate-hazelnut spread that happens to be on the tablet, removes the inner liner and licks it. Impressed, he reads the product’s name aloud: Sababa Egozim. Adweek claims the phrase translates into something like “Let’s get nuts.” According to Gabe Fisher in the Times of Israel:
“Sababa” means “cool” in Israeli slang (taken from the Arabic, like many Hebrew slang words) and “egozim” are “nuts.” Put together, though, the term is slang for “super cool” or “hell yeah.”
Whatever the translation, the Israelis construe Cleese’s utterance as the generals’ official approval of a military strike. Delighted, they give one another victorious high five signs and triumphantly exit to launch their attack.
Tim Nudd of Adweek has criticized the promotional video for being “weird” and has faulted the offbeat comic for doing anything for money. An earlier version of the Adweek article, quoted by the British website, The Drum, apparently included the observation, “What would the young, rebellious Cleese, at the height of his powers in the early 1970s, say if he could see the depths to which his septuagenarian self has sunk?” Cleese reportedly received $50,00o for appearing in the ad, which was filmed in Monaco, where he lives.
This isn’t the first case of an Israeli commercial finding humor in Israel’s bellicose relationship with Iran. Last February — a few weeks after the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, that was widely believed to have been carried out by the Mossad — a commercial for the Israeli cable company HOT featured four characters from the Israeli television series Asfur. Poorly disguised as Iranian women, the foursome wonder how they’ll be able to find Kosher food in Iran. They meet a Mossad agent who is watching their show on his Samsung tablet. While examining the numerous features of the tablet, which the cable company was offering for free in a promotion, one of the “women” accidentally touches a button that causes a nearby nuclear plant to explode. The timing of the commercial also coincided with an upsurge in media speculation that Israel was indeed on the verge of attacking Iran this past spring.
Iranians didn’t think the ad was very funny. Iran’s Press TV objected to the ad’s assumption that Israel was powerful enough to easily destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, and its lighthearted view of the assassination of the country’s nuclear scientists. Arsalan Fathipour, an Iranian lawmaker who heads the Energy Committee of Iran’s parliament, called for a ban on the import of all Samsung products, objecting to Samsung’s attempt to curry favor with Israelis through the commercial. A Samsung spokesperson in Iran insisted that HOT — not Samsung — had produced the ad and was not responsible for its contents, while Samsung’s Dubai office condemned the role of the company’s Israel office in the production.
What do these Israeli commercials that make light of Israeli attacks and sabotage against Iran reveal about the prospects for war? Joking about attacking Iran may function as an emotional safety valve for Israelis, allowing them to cope with a geopolitical situation that may be spinning out of control. Iranians can hardly be blamed if they don’t appreciate the humor. An optimist might opine that Israelis being able to find amusement in attacking Iran could indicate that an actual strike is less likely.
But humor about an attack on Iran may also signal a darker trend in Israeli popular culture: the acceptance that war with Iran is inevitable, so Israelis might as well take it in stride, sit back and enjoy the show.
even if israelis convince themselves that war with iran is inevitable, does this mean that americans must accept the inevitability of such a war? accept it even though the u.s. government could easily prevent it by threatening the zionist entity with economic sanctions, just as president dwight eisenhower’s ended israel’s* 1956 invasion of egypt with his threat to apply such sanctions to israel unless it ended its attempted takeover of the suez canal? oh, but president obama would never bite the hand (zionist campaign contributions) that feeds him? even when american lives are at stake, as would be the case should israel call for assistance in its effort to destroy iran? nonsense! israel lobbyists would run for cover if the president were to couple the threat of economic sanctions on israel to something akin to what both president bush’s did when they decided to take on israel** and its israel firster enablers here in america, namely, tell the american people that he would be remiss in fulfilling his pledge to uphold the constitution, if he failed to respond to the threat posed by the few individuals and organizations here in america that put the interests of israel before those of the u.s. of a., yet until today haven’t had to register as agents of a foreign entity. today, however, i have ordered the secretary of state to declare aipac and other key organizations of what’s widely known as the israel lobby to register under the provisions of the foreign agents registration act. i will not allow america to be dragged into a war that not only would be detrimental to u.s. interests, but could plunge the world into a doomsday scenario. since i will need your support in withstanding pressure from israel firsters to reverse this decision, please let your senator and representative in congress know that you support me in this effort to prevent an iran war.
*together with france and great britain
**for its west bank settlement expansions
I think it is just humorous relief to the tension that must exist, all to sell dessert. The Israelis pushing for war are presented as clownish, even more than the American generals are. The Israeli spokesman is obviously uptight, in no way heroic, and, when he promises to be in and out in 33 minutes, he looks like Jon Stewart doing a mock up of someone making an obviously outlandish claim. When he asserts that we have the right to defend ourselves, the American flips some small object across the table, as if to say, defend yourself from this, asshole, and the red phone being knocked off the hook shows how dangerous it is having clowns in charge of nuclear decisions, it’s slapstick mocking Netanyahu and Barak. The use of Arabic slang – cool nuts – interpreted as a go ahead, further mocks the Israeli leaders here – adoption of language is a cultural sign of respect, like adoption of Yiddish in English, and the Israelis’ interpretation of this as approval, and celebration of a supposed green light to attack Iran, while the American enjoys his chocolate yoghurt with schmutz on his face, is a total disintegration. The final frame, if frozen, show General Rogers flipping the bird at everyone, the “spoon” he’s been licking transformed into a cigar-like object he’s handling – interesting camera work and prop. The Israeli leaders are clowns with nuclear weapons, the situation has resulted in shit smeared on the face of the American military, and the go ahead for war is being manufactured out of nothing in the face of American military hostility (see Acts of Valor). What I’d like to know is, does the ad work in selling dessert? If so, I would say that is bad news for Bibi and Ehud – they’re being mocked. Totally different dynamic than Samsung making fun of blowing up nuclear facilities, as if a troop of clowns could pull that off. Sasha Barat Cohen vs Jon Stewart.
Is no one getting that the officers in question are obviously depicting a foreign, non-Israeli military?
This is a joke at the expense of a grim reality: that what Israel does is constrained in large part by US permission.
NC, the officers in question may be depicting a military (foreign or not is not the issue)but how can you construe the men dressed in civilian clothing are not from the same country? maybe i am reading it wrong.
This is a joke at the expense of a grim reality: that what Israel does is constrained in large part by US permission.
or it could be the civilian leadership being constrained by military leadership, as in partly the case with israel.
israel is not looking for US permission, they have been hammering for the US to get the job done or at a minimum back israel taking the lead (and the ‘glory’) and finish off the job israel can’t do alone. everyone knows that.
It will happen (bombing of Iran). There’s simply not enough power against it. The only question is what will be the result, in the long and short term. Neither is good for living humans.