Only Israel

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

A hit on YouTube with over 350,000 views, Yedida Freilich's song "Only Israel" speaks the truth louder than the meager words I can write.

A 22-year-old pianist from the Gush Etzion settlement of Neveh Daniel has become the latest YouTube phenomenon with her pro-Israel hasbara song “Only Israel.”

Yedida Freilich, a composition student at the capital’s Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, wrote the mournful piano ballad along with her father, Gabby, and brother Yuval, following the Gaza flotilla incident last month. In only two weeks, the video has attracted over 350,000 views on YouTube and turned Freilich into a celebrity in nationalist circles.

“The song transpired by chance,” Gabby Freilich told The Jerusalem Post this week from Australia, where he was visiting family. “One of Yedida’s projects in school was to compose a musical piece for a political song. As it happened, the assignment fell on the same week as the flotilla.”

Freilich said he was moved to write down lyrics after seeing the world’s reaction to the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara, which left nine passengers dead.

The video clip of her moving performance on piano and vocals, with lyrics switching between English and Hebrew, is juxtaposed with images of Kassam rockets, St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, judge Richard Goldstone and the Mavi Marmara.

The lyrics decry the double standard Freilich says Israel faces when trying to defend itself, and includes couplets such as “Eight thousand rockets is no excuse / suicide bombers, it’s all just a ruse” and a Hebrew chorus of “Darfur is ignored, Russian troops in Chechnya, only Israel has no right to defend itself, because the world cares nothing about Jewish blood.”

“It was obvious to me that this was a hasbara [public diplomacy] song. Our efforts at explaining what happened with the flotilla were so appalling, and this did so well in explaining our positions, I knew it had to go on YouTube,” said Freilich.

He found a professional videographer, Daniel Sass, who volunteered his time, and together they chose the images and produced the clip.

Freilich insisted that the song appear with English, Hebrew and Arabic subtitles.

“I thought that it was important that the Arabs would be able to understand it,” he said.

“I think it’s a powerful song and a great tune. Yedida sings it from the heart. You can tell she’s involved in the lyrics and the performance, because it’s part of her life – her friends and her family are involved.”

Read the full story here.

Only Israel

Pass this on!

Pakistan Blocks YouTube From Entire Country Due To "Blasphemous" Depictions of Mohammed

Shortly after the country of Pakistan decided to block Facebook from internet access within the country, they also have added YouTube as another blocked site due to what they deem as "blasphemous" depictions of the prophet Mohammed of islam.

From the report at DAWN:

Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday.
The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.
Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” blockade of YouTube.
“It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.

Gee, I wonder if Holger Awakens is blocked in Pakistan today? LOL

I wonder, do you suppose that Pakistan's decision had anything to do with the fact that today is "National Draw Mohammed Day"?!!

Pakistan blocks YouTube over “blasphemous” material


ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday.

The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.

Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” blockade of YouTube.

“It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.

YouTube was also blocked in Pakistan in 2007 for about a day for what it called un-Islamic videos.

A PTA official, who declined to be identified, said the action was taken after the authority determined that some caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) were transferred from Facebook to YouTube.

Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.

Siraj said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to 25 per cent of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.

“It'll have an impact on the overall Internet traffic as they eat up 20 to 25 per cent of the country's total 65 giga-bytes traffic,” he said.

Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of the caricatures.

Jihadists Being Coaxed To Use YouTube

You know, I don't know if I'm missing something here with this story or what, but the article over at The Daily Times here is all about how islamic jihadists are being coaxed and encouraged to put up video after video of Western forces coming under attack by jihadists. So, my question to the Daily Times is (well, actually it is a Reuters article, figures)...where have you been the last year? The article makes a big deal about how there have been instructions posted on how to post on YouTube as seen here:

Islamic extremists are being instructed on how to use the popular video-sharing site YouTube as a way to disseminate propaganda videos, a US-based terrorism monitor said on Tuesday.Militants are being encouraged to use the online site through postings on other Islamic forums on the Internet, SITE Intelligence Group reported. Last week, an extremist authored step-by-step instructions on posting videos to YouTube, which he described as “one of the most famous and biggest international sites that publish sections of videos from all over the world.”Extremists: The posting encourages readers to post scenes of Western forces coming under attack to which it says, “shame the Crusaders by publishing clips of videos showing their losses, which they hid for a long time.”Islamic extremists have long used the Internet as a tool to communicate with supporters and distribute propaganda but the latest posting specifically coaxes militants towards YouTube and touts it as a user-friendly tool. “I say that YouTube is one of the easiest sites to record and upload the clips,” the posting states, pointing readers to the software they might need to publish on the Internet.

My point is that YouTube, currently, is INUNDATED with jihadist videos! Don't believe me? Go to YouTube and in the search box, just put in "insurgents iraq" and then, sort by "Date" and you will see that 90% of the videos put up in the past 3 months are all jihadists videos purporting to show U.S. and coalition forces hit by IED's, mortar attacks and snipings. Take it from me, someone who, having posted hundreds of "war porn" videos on this site, has lived on YouTube and LiveLeak ....well, I know what I'm talking about.

The ridiculous part of the YouTube scenario is that now the jihadists are using an even more sinister trick to their YouTube postings - they figured out that the majority of people weren't really interested in seeing an IED attack on a U.S. tank from 5 years ago that completely missed the tank so now the jihadists are putting the videos up under false titles, such as "U.S. troops vaporize insurgents"....you click on that video and it will show a jihadist attack on coalition troops or some ancient footage of some propaganda.

The fact of the matter is that there are very few new videos on YouTube right now of current military operations in Iraq - it's that quiet there right now and believe me, if there aren't any new videos to put up of U.S. marines kicking al Qaeda in Iraq ass, there are NOT any new videos of al Qaeda bombing our troops.

Islamic extremists being coaxed toward YouTube

WASHINGTON: Islamic extremists are being instructed on how to use the popular video-sharing site YouTube as a way to disseminate propaganda videos, a US-based terrorism monitor said on Tuesday.Militants are being encouraged to use the online site through postings on other Islamic forums on the Internet, SITE Intelligence Group reported. Last week, an extremist authored step-by-step instructions on posting videos to YouTube, which he described as “one of the most famous and biggest international sites that publish sections of videos from all over the world.”Extremists: The posting encourages readers to post scenes of Western forces coming under attack to which it says, “shame the Crusaders by publishing clips of videos showing their losses, which they hid for a long time.”Islamic extremists have long used the Internet as a tool to communicate with supporters and distribute propaganda but the latest posting specifically coaxes militants towards YouTube and touts it as a user-friendly tool. “I say that YouTube is one of the easiest sites to record and upload the clips,” the posting states, pointing readers to the software they might need to publish on the Internet.“I ask you, by Allah, as soon as you read this subject, to start recording on YouTube, and to start cutting and uploading and posting clips on the jihadist, Islamic, and general forums,” the posting states.YouTube, a unit of Google Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment on how it might respond to the types of postings described in the message. The message author calls for a “YouTube Invasion” by militants and includes several screenshots showing step-by-step instructions on how to create a YouTube account and to upload material. The video-sharing site has often been a chosen venue for users to post controversial clips and other material. In March, Pakistani authorities ordered Internet service providers to block the website after it ran material deemed insulting to Islam.

You Tube Says It Won't Remove Jihad Videos

Senator Joe Lieberman's request that YouTube remove jihadist videos - you know, the film clips of attacks on U.S., Iraqi and Afghan troops, has been denied by YouTube. Of course, YouTube is taking the yellow belly approach that they just can't do it technologically. Yeah, right. Here's some of the article here at TG Daily:

YouTube has told Senator Lieberman that it will leave it up to its viewers to help remove Al-Qaeda terrorist videos. In an open letter, Lieberman demanded that YouTube immediately remove thousands of videos because they clearly intended “to encourage violence against the West”. YouTube in its public blog post says hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded everyday and that it cannot arbitrarily remove one group's videos.

Well, since YouTube seems unaware of how to monitor this group's postings of videos, I'll give you a couple of tips, YouTube:

1. Do a search under "Insurgents" and you will see a daily posting of these jihad postings - you won't find all of them there but about 75% of them - so there they will be ... ready for you to remove, k?

2. The majority of these videos are put up by a collection of two dozen posters. When you find one posted by a member, look up that member's post history and you will find a multitude of them.

Seems simple enough, right? I mean, why doesn't YouTube just come out and say they won't because they don't WANT to?!! What YouTube is saying is this: patriotic videos put up by Americans will come down off of YouTube because the jihadists are intent on flagging them but since most YouTube viewers are not involved in YouTube jihad, the terrorist videos will stay up.

Note: To Holger Awakens readers...if you want to be part of a movement to flag and take down jihadist videos on YouTube, you will find the "Jihadi Smackdown Of the Day" link over on the right side bar of this site (just below the Blog Archive) - that will direct you to identified jihadist members of YouTube that need a little slap around.

YouTube says it won't remove most Al-Qaeda videos

Mountain View (CA) – YouTube has told Senator Lieberman that it will leave it up to its viewers to help remove Al-Qaeda terrorist videos. In an open letter, Lieberman demanded that YouTube immediately remove thousands of videos because they clearly intended “to encourage violence against the West”. YouTube in its public blog post says hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded everyday and that it cannot arbitrarily remove one group's videos.It's easy to see Lieberman's viewpoint because he is a conservative-leaning independent and the chairman of the powerful Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He believes that most of the Al-Qaeda videos show “gratuitous violence” and that terrorist organizations use the popular video site to spread propaganda and perhaps even worse recruit followers. He added that the terrorist groups even use YouTube for weapons training.In the open letter to Google head Eric Schmidt, Lieberman demanded that all of the Al-Qaeda videos be immediately removed (even the nonviolent ones). Schmidt and the YouTube team did actually remove many of the violent videos, but left all of the non-violent videos. He emphasized that users are always free to leave feedback and “flag” videos that are offensive.“Users are always free to express their disagreement with a particular video on the site, by leaving comments or their own response video. That debate is healthy,” said Schmidt.