Today is Israel's 60th birthday and the first well wishes have arrived. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad released a statement via his official news agency in which he calls Israel a "stinking corpse."
"Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation," he said. Ahmadinejad added that Israel "has reached the end like a dead rat after being slapped by the Lebanese" - a reference to the 2006 war between Israel and the Shiite Hezbollah militia.
Wait, what? Am I high or did Israel win that little catfight? Oh right, they did. In fact, hasn't Israel won every war it's fought since its inception?
The Arab world is like a schoolyard bully, picking on the littlest kid on the playground. Except this little kid knows karate.
More information on the aforementioned "July War" here. I especially like the part where Hezbollah continues to fire guns and rockets at Israeli soldiers after the official ceasefire agreement was reached.
I would like to begin by reminding everyone that all contestants knew about this competition in advance and agreed to participate. They even had, as you may remember, their pictures posted on this here blog. Curiously, however, several of them feigned ignorance when it came time to perform. And by "them" I mean the Israelis.
You can see in the video all four Palestinians chilling in their assigned positions, waiting patiently for the games to begin. On the other couch, the assigned Israeli dugout, things start to fall apart. And amidst loud complaints and relentless ribbing from their friends, the Jews decide not to compete. I had originally allowed only actual Israelis to enter the competition, not all Jews. But as the evening wore on, it became clear that Team Israel needed help if they were going to avoid a total forfeit. So I tried to convince Jordan (the Nikon lover) to help out, as well as Jessica, the one who revealed to the world that her people are really only good for telling jokes. What a shocker.
I believe I told several of you days beforehand:
Palestinians have more arm strength but Israelis are shit talkers.
It looks like they talked themselves right out of this. As Jordan stood up to leave, he said, "If I were competing, it would be on the Palestinian team because I don't support the occupation."
However, one brave soul did stay to play. And for obvious reasons. Edik's unbearably defined arm is clearly seen in the video, as is his amiable attitude and good-natured sportsmanship. Hazem was chosen to compete with him from Team P-stine because it was believed they were the most fairly matched, a suspicion reinforced by the fact that the match went on forever in what seemed like it could become a stalemate. It was ended twice by Hazem lifting his elbow, a foul that was not appreciated by the crowd. They went first with their right arms, then left, then right again, when it was finally agreed by the crowd that Hazem won fairly.
The opening band for the arm wrestling was the ongoing Nikon vs. Canon debate, this time featuring Jordan and the unwitting pawns, Lael and Ardit.
Basically what happened here was a bunch of friends had a really good time teasing each other and laughing about inside jokes.
Inside jokes that the world now knows about. Which makes them...outside jokes. I guess.
Anyway, I reiterate that all they need over there is a big dinner party, some music, and...a camera pointed at them at all times.
