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Subject: Visit Israel Ads
JIMF    10/22/2007 3:06:10 PM
I just saw a couple of Israeli Toursist Office ads featuring female soldiers in bikinis. One shows a lovely lady in a particularly skimpy bikini bending over to pick up a soccer ball. It ends with the caption "No wonder they call it the holy land". Although I personally found the ads stimulating, I understand that some of my more religious American countrymen find the ads offensive, and out of synch with their image of Israel. Are these ads an issue in Israel?
 
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Ezekiel       10/22/2007 3:09:20 PM
I think they got bigger problems on their hands....
 
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battar    Nice legs   10/23/2007 2:55:22 PM
Did you say female soldiers? How do you know they are soldiers if they are out of uniform?
 
First of all, advertising is targeted at a particular audience. These ads are trying to attract secular, indifferent Jews and just plain non-Jewish tourists to come and visit - and truth to tell, there are some very attractive women on the beaches here. (Oh, and some ugly ones too, but you didn't hear that from me).  I don't expect an increase in the number of tourists if I run adverts showing religious Jews in black suits and hats, or female soldiers in uniform toting short-barrel M16s.
 
Second, if every country displayed its' true image to potential tourists in advertising, we would probably all stay at home.
 
Third, adverts which are displayed outside of Israel are not an issue in Israel. The more loud-mouthed members of the religious community (and politicians, in an election year) can kick up a stink occasionally about local advertising, but it usually doesn't make headlines because a)Big companies run different ads in the secular and religious media and b)it's a commercial issue, no place for personal belief where the big money is.
 
Fourth, theres no point in running ad campaigns to encourage people to come her for ideological reasons. They'll come anyway.
 
So when are you coming ? You can get the worlds' best felafel and shawarma here.
 
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JIMF       10/23/2007 8:49:32 PM
Battar,
Actually the ad said they were soldiers.  I hope this youtube thing plays.  Play the one called Hot Israel with the blonde.
One of the advantages of being a beer drinker is that even the ugly girls on the beach tend to look good.
I've ruled out a trip to Europe next year because of the weak dollar.  I wonder how my battered dollar would fare in Israel.  How hot (as in temperature) is Tel Aviv in April?


http://www.youtube.com/v/fa1LwuS4lhw width=425 height=350 type=application/x-shockwave-flash wmode="transparent">

This is the verbiage from the website that posted the ads. 

'The Israeli govt wishes to re-image itself using Israeli female soldiers in bikinis. If that isn't tasteless enough (and exploitative to boot), one commercial has two men on the beach exclaiming, "Holy Mother of God," as a babe bends over to pick up a ball. They can't understand what they're saying. That commercial finishes with "ISRAEL No wonder they call it The Holy Land". And it shouldn't garner any good will in the Muslim world (bikinis? Mother of God?). With such a tin ear toward all religious sensibility, no wonder the West is in decline.

"This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder how long American Evangelicals (and even some Catholics) can be snookered by the notion that Israel is something other than a secular nation-state. The Golden Calf appeal to Money Sex and Power evident in the commercial is perfectly representative of typically debased postmodern secular culture and has nothing to do with "fulfillment of prophecy". Israel has the rights and responsibilities of any secular nation-state, but to concoct some notion that it gets special privileges as God's Chosen State is rubbish.

UPDATE: Greetings NRO! I'm not sure why Mike Potemra thinks I am trying to "drive a wedge" between Israel and Evangelicals when I observe that I don't think the state of Israel is the fulfilment of prophecy. Is it *necessary* for Israel to be the fulfilment of prophecy in order to support it? Is saying "Israel is a secular nation state" tantamount to saying "Down with Israel?" I certainly don't think so. America isn't the fulfilment of prophecy and I support and honor her, so I don't see why Christians can't likewise support Israel without having to tell themselves that it is something other than a secular nation-state.

As to rest of what Mike wrote, It's not *terribly* surprising that, as an Evangelical, he was not offended at somebody gasping "Holy Mother of God" in the presence of a pair of world class bazzooms. And much as I appreciate his willingness to be magnanimous about pieties he himself does not observe, I would nonetheless suggest he consider the possibility that, had the commercial instead featured a guy gasping "Jesus F-ing Christ!" at the sight of all that jiggle he might have found it just a bit tasteless--much as pious Catholics find gratuitous mockery of the Mother of God equally tasteless. He might have found it just a bit more tasteless to follow that completely gratuitous bit of nose-pulling with "No wonder they call it the Holy Land."

UPDATE II: Greeting Instapunditites! It is regrettable that Mr. Reynolds cannot read. I don't recall saying that the video was going to hurt Israel's image. Indeed, I expect all that jiggle will do a world of good to their tourism industry. I do recall saying that the video made clear that Israel is basically a secular nation-state like any other and not a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Since, so far as I know, Mr. Reynolds doesn't believe there to be such a thing as fulfilment of biblical prophecy, I'm not sure what the problem is. I do think the video will offend serious Catholics to some degree or other, but I doubt that will mean much in the grand scheme of things as far as what the commerical aims to achieve.

Beyond this, I notice that at least one reader has somehow gotten it into his head that criticism of a jiggle video is tantamount to anti-semitism. Not sure how he did the math on that one and he didn't really show his work, but there you are."
 
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JIMF    Try this   10/23/2007 8:52:47 PM
h*tp://markshea.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html#9023340843435196208
 
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VelocityVector       10/23/2007 9:01:08 PM

Well, the posters are probably classier than the grotesque Kim Kardashian videos and photos out there.  At least a floor has been set here.  All of us should aim to elevate game past the plebe level.  We can do better.

v^2

 
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