BlueStarPR

June 18, 2004 2:24 AM

This postcard (possible NSFW), likens Israel to a small penis in a speedo. If it's small on your monitor, there is a larger PDF version. Confused yet? It turns out blueStarPR produces several other curious pro-Israel postcards, including this one, featuring Ray Charles (who knew?). I have to give them props for being funny and slick. Some of their material is pretty extreme, though, such as this one, which likens the Jews to the Navajo, with the punchline: "Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism." Then there's this one, about Israel's liberal gays-in-the-military policy (I think they actually have to serve, don't they?). An interesting mix of humor, media, and politics. [warning: propaganda]
posted by scarabic (14 comments total)

Imaginative, but I don't think it's the size people are concerned about, I think it's that they keep sending in tanks to crush the left testicle.
posted by biffa at 3:26 AM on June 18, 2004

which likens the Jews to the Navajo

HOLY SHIT! Joseph Smith was right!
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:56 AM on June 18, 2004

Yeah, and I'm sure that nobody in the US would get upset or anything if some world body decided to give Arizona and Nevada to the Navajos because it was once historically theirs, would they? It'd only be fair, right?
posted by crank at 5:39 AM on June 18, 2004

scarabic: Israel's liberal gays-in-the-military policy (I think they actually have to serve, don't they?)

You don't get out of serving because you're gay - I'm not sure that's exactly the same thing as wanting you there, it just means every able bodied person has to serve.

From my reading, Israel's not exactly a place I'd call "gay-friendly" (being, essentially, a theocracy). Then again, one of Israel's biggest pop stars is openly gay, and one of the best gay-themed films I've seen recently is also of Israeli origin (coincidentally, set in a remote northern military guardpost). (Eww, that makes it sound like low budget porno - it's actually a nice little character driven film; I recommend highly).
posted by JollyWanker at 7:27 AM on June 18, 2004

I had a friend in college from Colorado who used to talk about how, on Friday nights, the Navajos on the nearby reservation would all get in their apache helicopters and fire missiles into his neighborhood. I think they were looking for their local priests. I also hear those reservations are just filled with nuclear warheads.
posted by jpoulos at 7:46 AM on June 18, 2004

Now imagine living in New Jersey while most people living in the other 49 states want to see you destroyed.

Imagine?
posted by milovoo at 8:00 AM on June 18, 2004

which likens the Jews to the Navajo

Um, wouldn't the metaphor work better with the Palestinians as the Navajos? [*ducks*]
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:21 AM on June 18, 2004

Yeah, and I'm sure that nobody in the US would get upset or anything if some world body decided to give Arizona and Nevada to the Navajos because it was once historically theirs, would they? It'd only be fair, right?

Actually, crank, about 1/4 of Arizona *has* been given to the Navajo and Hopi.

I've actually seen these people's billboards and such up around the Bay Area, come to think of it. They had a billboard up in a BART station about how Israel is the only country in the Middle East that treats women as equals, with a picture of a big, blonde hottie staring at you. "Israel: just like you."

This seems incredibly disingenuous to me, as they leave out facts like: "Israel is the only country in the Middle East that's packed 1.5 million refugees into the most densely populated area on Earth, which they keep under military occupation, and regular shell and bomb."

Only in Israel.
posted by scarabic at 10:39 AM on June 18, 2004

Actually, crank, about 1/4 of Arizona *has* been given to the Navajo and Hopi.

True, but none of the good parts...
posted by crank at 11:10 AM on June 18, 2004

I hitchhiked across the entire northeast quadrant, and I can't agree completely. What about Canyon De Chelley? Of course, this is all relative to the question: "Are there any good parts of Arizona?"

Anyway, the analogy is bunk. And when you're the one packing people into refugee camps and walling them in, it's pretty galling to try to compare yourself to people who were herded onto reservations themselves.
posted by scarabic at 11:30 AM on June 18, 2004

I had a friend in college from Colorado who used to talk about how, on Friday nights, the Navajos on the nearby reservation would all get in their apache helicopters


Navajos in Apaches. Hahah.



But yeah, if native americans took New Jersy by force, and then put all the non-native people into camps, I'm sure the rest of us would be pretty upset.

Come to think of it, that's basicaly what we did to them.

Of course, not so much with the shelling, and bombing, and all that that goes on in Isreal these days.
posted by delmoi at 3:55 PM on June 18, 2004

Actually, crank, about 1/4 of Arizona *has* been given to the Navajo and Hopi.

Yeah, it rather weakens to analogy to use such moderately populated places, though. Arizona & Nevada have some room to spare. It would be much more like returning manhattan to the natives. Or to keep with their analogy, to return new jersey to the natives (assuming they claimed some tribal/mythological connection, as judaism has to israel).

Which I think helps to highlight just how unreasonable both sides are in this fight. We'd have trouble backing the native's right to take back the area, but I'd imagine we'd also be partly sympathetic, and try to see what sort of compromise could be reached. The problem in the middle east is that the conflict is fueled by a deep racial hatred / pride (two sides of a coin, really), not by simple practical concerns of land dispersement.

posters: weird - israel being the small penis seemed to have different implications when I first saw it. Comments on that site were a little depressing, too.
posted by mdn at 6:20 PM on June 18, 2004

I hitchhiked across the entire northeast quadrant, and I can't agree completely. What about Canyon De Chelley? Of course, this is all relative to the question: "Are there any good parts of Arizona?"

I've been to the reservations out there too. Very beautiful country, but desolate for the most part... Mesa villages are interesting places to visit; perhaps not so great to live in for a lot of reasons... Anyway I think the NY/NJ examples from other posters speak better to the point I was getting at...
posted by crank at 10:32 AM on June 19, 2004

The amount of $$$ spent to convince Americans that Israel is good and is their friend is staggering. These are kind of neat though, good find Scarabic.
posted by cell divide at 12:04 PM on June 19, 2004