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New Era of Middle East Peace Begins

Israeli video mocking Qaddafi gains Arab fans

by
Dan Klein
February 28, 2011
(noyalooshemusic/YouTube)
(noyalooshemusic/YouTube)

It’s easy to get overexcited about the role Internet tools like Twitter have played in the Middle East uprisings. That’s not to say their impact isn’t important—people sure don’t seem to joke about the Internet only being good for porn anymore—but there isn’t an app yet for not running away when the men with clubs and guns arrive.

But! I’m happy to pin a badge for “marginal world improvement” on Israeli Noy Alooshe. His achievement? The Tel Aviv resident Auto-tuned one of Muammar Gaddafi’s now familiar stream of consciousness speeches. You know—the one where he promises to hound protesters “inch by inch, house by house, home by home, alleyway by alleyway,” and Monica tells Chandler she’s pregnant.

Alooshe then set it to Pitbull’s Hey Baby (featuring ubiquitous Auto-Tuner T-Pain)—and to top it off amateurishly added mirrored clips of dancing women on either side of the Gaddafi. The women represent freedom of assembly, I believe. He named it the “Zenga Song,” posted the result to YouTube and spread the word to “young Arab revolutionaries.”

The result? Well over 800,000 views on the original video as of Monday morning, plus 200,000 more on a parent friendly version lacking the dancers. Apparently, reactions have been largely good—even after net detectives uncovered that he was Israeli (in a band called “Lovers of Zion,” no less).

So nicely done, Internet and Noy Alooshe. In achieving your primary directive (almost funny videos) you have laid a cheaply made brick on the road to peace.