is it really so bad?

From a friend in Efrat, Israel:

OK - I like this one, myself.

Here are the relevant facts: Six Israeli soldiers, on their final patrol the Jewish Quarter of Hebron, at 4:30 in the morning, staged a short flash dance episode, just following the Muslim call to prayer. The music, Keisha's Tick Tock (Rock The Casbah) is overdubbed and the episode was posted to YouTube. The video went viral, totaling over a million 'hits' in 24 hours -and all hell broke loose.

Robert Mackey of The Lede blogged about it. Both Mackey and the Christian Science Monitor quoted the same Palestinian youngster's reaction. "We were amazed… it looked like a dance group in uniform," said 15-year-old Rima Sultan. "At first I laughed, but it's not entertaining at all. It shows their ridicule toward us." A more expanded version of Rima's comment was carried by Ynet's coverage of the video: "In the past we were afraid of them, but today the soldiers are part of the neighborhood's landscape. We have gotten used to them. They have lost any sense of shame and so they allow themselves to dance in the middle of the street." But both Rima and her mother noted that the soldiers sometimes manage to make the local population happy. "For example, when the small children play football, the soldiers join them and they play together. That's actually nice. For us they are already part of the neighborhood."

More on that in a moment.

Most comments on YouTube were positive, commenting on the soldiers' sense of humor, if not their talent at tango. However, some folks were mildly -others wildly- incensed at the soldiers. The soldiers' commanders contemplated disciplinary action - but then wisely appreciated the moment for what it was - a bit of comic relief that physically harmed no one.

Perhaps Rima's initial reaction, "At first I laughed..." unvarnished by any overlay of cynicism, evidences a vestigial playfulness that has not yet been covered by the patina of Islamic scorn toward spontaneous fun. And yet, Rima clearly shows the effects of living in an upside-down world where Islamists have effectively hijacked civility, such that comedy is deemed insult and insulters are deserving of contempt -if not death. Note Rima's guarded follow-on comments that: "...it's not entertaining at all. It shows their ridicule toward us" and "They have lost any sense of shame and so they allow themselves to dance in the middle of the street." If Rima has lost her childhood, it is not the Israeli's fault. As Rima also observes: "... when the small children play football, the soldiers join them and they play together. That's actually nice." One can only hope that more soldiers will dance and that youngsters like Rima will be allowed to spontaneously smile, rather than be urged to revile and condemn.

NY Times blogger Robert Mackey, linked above, observes the soldiers may have been aware of The Simpsons' remix of Kesha's video.