might I commend to your attention the following:

http://www.darwinawards.com/

“Within These Portals Lurk 836 Enterprising Demises.
In honor of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool…by accidentally removing themselves from it. The Award is usually, by necessity, bestowed posthumously. “

We went last night to hear a conversation between Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel and the Chief Rabbi of England, Jonathan Sacks.

Reading David’s post after your comments, Melissa, I feel a little choked with emotion, a sadness and yet gratitude that our problems can be addressed by people of good will seeking to understand the world. I’m grateful for seekers and teachers like Rabbi Sacks (and David for that matter), people with vision broad enough to embrace differences and faith strong enough that they believe that the world can indeed be healed.

Weinberger says of the Rabbi,

“He thinks the only hope for Israel’s future is to embrace plurality among Jews and among all who live in the area. We need to learn to live together. (He did not go into detail about what that would mean politically.)”

This perspective is enough to make me somewhat optimistic, even in the face of undeclared and therefore unregulated Israeli nuclear weapons, and an obstreperous foreign policy bookended by the USS Liberty “incident” in 1967 and the 21st century IDF excesses in Gaza (including Rachel Corrie’s death and the nine dead on the Mavi Marmara).

A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule. See synonyms at caricature.
The genre of literature comprising such works.
Something so bad as to be equivalent to intentional mockery; a travesty: The trial was a parody of justice.
Music. The practice of reworking an already established composition, especially the incorporation into the Mass of material borrowed from other works, such as motets or madrigals.

And this IS a travesty. You don’t know anything about me, you’ve decided that because I have “Jew” attached to me, I’m automatically awful. Actually, my poor white mother gave me up for adoption, and the most kind, gentle Jewish couple took me in and raised me as their own.

I’ve spent my life in America, being told I’m a “dirty Jew”, that I “killed Jesus”, and now apparently I’m also an awful person.

Well, since you’ve already made up your minds, I can’t change them. The truth you can’t handle…this tiny little country is doing what it can to survive, including making sure more rockets don’t make it in to kill their innocent citizenry.

The people you are spending so much time defending, want me, my children, my sister, my husband, and almost everyone I know dead, so I’m sorry if I don’t come out like a bleeding heart. My bleeding heart is for childhood cancer cures, and lung disease cures, and helping people to make healthy choices in their lives, not for those who wish me and those I love harm.

The people you have so much sympathy for send rockets over, killing innocents, and yet I hear NO OUTCRY for that.

The people you want to give Israel over to are more than willing to strap bombs onto themselves to kill INNOCENT CIVILIANS, and still, heartfelt sympathy is directed to them, and not to the victims of those atrocities.

Even with all of that, still, Palestinians and Arabs are regularly the recipients of medical help in the bosom of Israel, a fact you seem to be completely missing.

And yet, while I can’t even truly claim to be a Jew (Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Austrian), The Jews have been responsible for more than their share of Nobel prizes and award winning discoveries.

Talk about bigotry.

• What is particularly disconcerting is that this outcome could have been easily avoided. Those leading the flotilla should have agreed to dock at the Port of Ashdod to allow Israeli officials to examine the cargo onboard. All legitimate humanitarian items would have been forwarded into Gaza without incident.

• However, it is clear that the purpose of the flotilla, organized by groups associated with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, was not essentially humanitarian, but rather it was to undermine Israel’s blockade.

• The purpose of the Israeli blockade, which is legal under international law, is to prevent rearmament of Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization backed by Iran, which openly seeks Israel’s destruction and over the years has launched thousands of rockets into Israeli cities.

• In addition to its terrorist activity, Hamas has been holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit hostage for almost four years and, contrary to the Geneva Conventions, denies all access to him.

• While Israel’s fundamental right of self-defense must be respected, questions have been raised about the execution of the interdiction. The highly respected Maj. Gen. (Res.) Giora Eiland has been appointed to head a team of experts, including foreign observers, jurists and former diplomats, to explore the flotilla operation and to derive lessons from it.

• Conditions in the Gaza Strip are difficult, no doubt, and this is due to the fact it is controlled by a terrorist organization with which much of the world does not want to engage. But there is no humanitarian crisis or starvation as some suggest.

• Israel, along with Egypt, which also controls Gaza’s borders, and the international community are looking for ways to improve the humanitarian conditions without strengthening Hamas’ ability to wage terror against Israeli civilians.

• Ultimately, only an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which leads to a broader Middle East peace, is the long term solution to this sad situation. Unlike the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which accepts the two state formula and has brought about a dramatic improvement in the economy and security there, Hamas rejects such an outcome and works tirelessly to undermine peace efforts.

• We support the efforts of the United States to advance the peace process and to encourage the parties to engage in direct negotiations over the issues that divide them.

• We also support the efforts of the international community to deprive Iran of nuclear weapons capability, a development that would make peacemaking in the Middle East much more complicated.

The video you offer is in my view ill-informed, racist trash. The parody of Arabs is over the top. Jews would not accept such a broad-brush and offensive portrayal of their accents or other markers of ethnicity (prayer shawls, yarmulkes, Hasidic garb, etc.). Why should Arabs/muslims be demeaned this way?

I suppose this would be funny if I were an Israeli sympathizer, but I am not. I see it as polarizing propaganda. LatmaTV has a winner with this one though. Over two million views on YouTube so far.

The only straight, non-Israeli news I could find about the sketch came from French and Swedish sources. They were not amused.