Levantine TV Turnoff Week

Tim Cavanaugh | June 5, 2006

Palestine: Hamas goons raid and burn the office of Palestine TV, accusing the station of favoring Fatah in its coverage:

Muhammad ad-Dahudi, director of Palestine Television, said on Monday that "dozens of Hamas gunmen and members of a back-up force of the interior minister ... are setting equipment on fire" at the office in the Gaza Strip.

The channel is under the control of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah.

Bassam Abd Allah, a Palestine TV cameraman, said that "around 100 gunmen ... destroyed cameras, and hit me and the bureau chief, Ahmed Saqer".

Lebanon: Hizbollah pigs riot, burn tires, beat up Christians after LBC's Saturday Night Live-type show Bas Mat Watan satirizes General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah:

The program , which can translate into "A Nation's Smiles" or "A Nation That Died," depending how it is pronounced, showed an actor in the role of Nasrallah talking about his alliance with Gen Michel Aoun. The actor wore Nasrallah's trademark black turban, his clerical robe and sported a similar beard and spectacles.

In the scene that provoked the riot, a woman -- played by a man in drag -- asks Nasrallah whether Hizbullah would lay down its arms after Israel's withdraws from the disputed border region of Shabaa.

Nasrallah replies that Hizbullah's weapons will still be needed for "liberating the house of Abu Hassan in Detroit from his Jewish neighbor."

Comments

|6.5.06 @ 4:03PM|#

This post would be hysterically funny if it weren't true. It seems to me that there will never be peace in the middle east so long as they lack even a semblence of a sense of humor.

Of course everyone claims to have a sense of humor, but they are truly humor impaired.

Regards

Joe

|6.5.06 @ 4:04PM|#

Nasrallah replies that Hizbullah's weapons will still be needed for "liberating the house of Abu Hassan in Detroit from his Jewish neighbor."

That's funnier than anything on SNL the last 5 years other than "The Chronic-les of Narnia" and "Blue Oyster Cult:Behind the Music."

|6.5.06 @ 4:06PM|#

And I see the BOC thing was more than 5 years ago.

Tim Cavanaugh|6.5.06 @ 4:07PM|#

That's funnier than anything on SNL the last 5 years

It's a good show. They're pretty daring: The first time I saw an episode I knew something like this would happen eventually.

|6.5.06 @ 4:10PM|#

Tim:

Are there any YouTube-type sites with clips from them? Also, will I be required to learn a new language to enjoy them?

|6.5.06 @ 4:20PM|#

Do the Palestinians need to achieve statehood before they can have a civil war? Or are they getting things a little backassward?

|6.5.06 @ 4:22PM|#

It's neat to hear news that evidences this cosmopolitan side of Lebanon, although it is also a little disappointing to hear that Hizbollah are beating it up.

|6.5.06 @ 4:33PM|#

On one hand, it is so encouraging to know that political satire is popular entertainment for the beleaguered people of Lebanon. However, it is so difficult to understand the reactions of the Hizbollah.
I cannot ever tell if religious fanaticism drives this sort of intolerance, or if intolerance itself is a root cause of the wave of fanaticism.
In any event, the power of religious fanaticism remains the strongest threat to human dignity and progress, whether it is Hizbollah or Pat Robertson.

Timothy|6.5.06 @ 5:05PM|#

Pat Robertson could kick Hizbollah's ass, but he won't, for he is just & merciful. Also, he needs the allies.

|6.5.06 @ 5:11PM|#

Timothy, I just fell off my fucking chair at work I am laughing so hard! Classic post.

|6.5.06 @ 5:30PM|#

It's all Mossad's doing.

|6.5.06 @ 6:35PM|#

"The program, which can translate into 'A Nation's Smiles' or 'A Nation That Died,' depending how it is pronounced"

Now that's a language with nuance!

|6.5.06 @ 7:46PM|#

SR writes: "Now that's a language with nuance!"

Please god, don't ever let George W. Bush try to say anything in that language.

|6.5.06 @ 10:39PM|#

Now that's a language with nuance!

One time I was hanging with a Palestinian chess buddy at a Barnes and Noble. Some of his Arab-speaking friends came over to sit with us and I asked one of em how to say in Arabic, "A friend of Yousef's is a friend of mine". She told me, I repeated, and they all looked horrified in a painfully embarrassed way. I asked Yousef what in the Hell I had said and he told me that I didn't really wanna know.