The Vietnam War-era slogan “Make love, not war” has been taken to its logical extreme by an Israeli pornographic website, which is engaged in a sort of cultural exchange of bodily fluids with the Arab world.
According to a recent report in Daily Variety, when executives at Ratuv installed software that could track where their users were logging in, they found that the site was getting thousands of hits a week from such countries as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, even though some of these governments block the “.il” domain address on Israeli websites. So Ratuv responded by translating the entire site into Arabic, and traffic quickly skyrocketed.
What makes this more than a tale of clever entrepreneurs making a buck off Middle Eastern sexual repression is that Ratuv isn’t an ordinary porn site. It’s a clearinghouse of political parody porn, making fun of Israeli affairs such as sex scandals and often featuring Mossad agents or army soldiers getting out of uniform, thus providing a view of the Israeli military seldom seen in the Arab world. The next step, says Ratuv’s manager, is to make movies with Israelis and Arabs performing together, in order to foster more intimate relations between the two peoples.
They should call it “The Arab-Jewish BOOM BOOM Room”.
Yaaay to making love, not war! 
UPDATE: Here’s a related post about porn and the difficulty of getting married in Muslim countries thanks to crappy economic conditions.
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s no surprise that the Arab and Muslim world tend to be extremely sexually frustrated.
For example, Pakistan produces the most Google searches for pornography.
Heheheh.
Seriously though, this will do little more than build up the Jews=Perverts stereotype that seems to prevail in Iran, for example.
I volunteer to be a “piece” maker.
“For example, Pakistan produces the most Google searches for pornography.”
Why is that a sign of frustration?
I think the Paki’s are just sexier…yeh baby…yeh!
“Seriously though, this will do little more than build up the Jews=Perverts stereotype that seems to prevail in Iran, for example.”
Cheer up Roman, Arabs will also perform in the movies. I’m sure we’ll get called perverts too. It’s a good thing. We’ll have a common enemy to unite against. Hahaha!
Unless… Persian Jews start participating. Now THAT would be some real peace making. We shouldn’t leave out the Persians!
“I volunteer to be a “piece” maker.”
Oh yeah, me too. Get me some hot IDF babes. I’ve seen the pictures. Some look absolutely SEXY in their uniform, holding machine guns. Yummy! LOL!
Yaaay to making love, not war!
Bom chiki pow wow!!
Bom chiki chiki POW WOW!!
Yea that was my sad attempt at making porn music. You don’t have to tell me, not quiting my day job.
However, I fully support this, “Make love, not war” sentiments… literally.
This is all shades of hilarious. Can’t possibly pass it up.
howie, if you visit Karachi, you’ll understand why.
Having been a few times, I often go to street shops in various suburbs and notice that on the computer screens, there are often windows of porn sites in full visibility lol
On a serious note…I really like this silly idea (with some reservations)especially if the emphasis is on satire.
It is one more step…like blogs like these…that bring people a bit closer in terms of understanding each other and seeing the basic humanity in us all.
Yes…I can poke fun at my own remarks in this comment…but I guess it just kind of speaks to the rebel and universalist in me.
I go back to what Victor Frankel once said…summing up this whole mess of Arabs, and Jews and Muslims etc etc.
“There are only two types of people in the world, decent and indecent”
A gross oversimplification, yet not without significant merit.
There are so many complex issues, and no major decision, that benefits many, is not going to hurt many…
But if you are among those that strive towards something decent, even if it is using porn to poke fun at ourselves and break down a few barriers…then so be it.
Along this line…you really need to read a very short book called “Listen Little Man”. Dude believed orgasm was the essence of all being (I should know…I have spent enough time alone practicing) and got into a bunch of trouble. Even tried to build a real life “orgasmatron”…really…However…the best part of the book is about authoritarianism and folks that blindly follow their glorious leaders. Richard Reich was maybe his name???? I read it long before Drima was born…so cut me some slack here!!!
Now…back to that porn link for some political science investigation…professional necessity only.
Let’s have a contest for titles of these porn flicks like”
“Is that a sucide bomb in your pants or are you just glad to see me”
“Your circumcision certainly wasn’t extreme”.
“You Hotter than a Hamsim”
“A Kosher Harem”
“Put your Pita in my Humos, Baby”
“On Our Knees 5x a Day”
“Fatima Does Tel Aviv”
“Rabbis on Viagra”
“in order to foster more intimate relations between the two peoples.”
This is such a gimmick it’s not even funny. What is funny is to read all the comments to this post.
“Seriously though, this will do little more than build up the Jews=Perverts stereotype that seems to prevail in Iran, for example.”
I love those people who think that other people are perverts and can then describe exactly why.
hmmm… i encountered already several of such ethnicity-mixed porn through p2p programs, actually.
btw, Drima:
Israel to naturalize several hundred Darfur refugees
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901138.html
That is cool!
Will add to the interesting ethnic and cultural mix in Israel.
*listens to Ethiopian music*
We’re quite diverse as it is, Andrew.
If we are at the state where our lack of spiritual dicipline is the only thing that can save us, then we’re screwed, i’m sorry
Please, elaborate, Ahmad
If such a disease as porn is the only thing that can save us, then honestly, we’re finish. I am against pornographic material, since i believe that intercourse is a martial matter and not entertainment. Not to mention the youth who get stuck on masturbation based in this material.
This is not something that will save us. It will only change the focus of some of the misled.
I will probably getting attacked for saying this, but wait and see - this will not solve anything, it will only contribute to the lack of spiritual self-dicipline that is terrifying the Middle East.
You do not cure a cancer patient by infecting his blood with HIV, do you?
Ahmad, I agree with your view regarding porn, but honestly, man, no one is taking this as a serious solution for anything. So laugh, laugh while it lasts, because this is sure better than bombs or guns or videotaped beheadings.
Laugh, man. We have so very little left to laugh about as it is.
“You do not cure a cancer patient by infecting his blood with HIV, do you?”
No, but you do vaccinate a patient by infecting his blood with a weaker version of the disease.
Spiritual self-discipline is not the result of others taking away temptation, it is the result of resisting temptation; just like faith is not the result of fearing death for disbelieving but believing when one doesn’t have to believe.
Ahmed-
Nobody attacking you. I respect your point though I tend to disagree with parts.
I don’t care about porn much but yes it can have a negative affect on people…no doubt…I actually work in the field of sex offenders.
But you know…about two years ago…I went and saw some Roman ruins up around Beit Shean in Northern Israel…This stuff is like 1,800 years old…the guide was reading some of the writing on the ground for us…yup..porn.
Point being…porn has been around since man could draw a stick figure with tits or a wee-wee. And I went looked at the site (scientific necessity only) and it sure looked that same old same old…but I believe with some political irony mixed in.
Everything said and done…I don’t care a hoot about masturbation and due take exception to you knocking my only hobby. Severe sexual repression doesn’t work, never has…and most sexual behavior does not much bother me…
I wish people were a whole lot more excited about spiritual strength in the areas of; torture, denial of rights, child and spouse abuse, cheating the faithful, misleading the faithful, lying, and I could go only.
And I am not anti-religion…in fact…just the opposite.
How does religion though…tend to get SO wound up with sexual issues…and then close their eyes to horrors…history of Catholic Church, Taliban, and many others sure come to mind
Ahmad, I agree, but chill bro. This post is nothing but a silly joke. The story is hilarious. I was laughing so hard when I read it. That’s why I mentioned it here.
“Spiritual self-discipline is not the result of others taking away temptation, it is the result of resisting temptation; just like faith is not the result of fearing death for disbelieving but believing when one doesn’t have to believe.”
Andrew, that’s the most beautiful set of words I’ve read in quite a while. Generally speaking, we share the same understanding of religion.
Just like Prof. Abdullahi An-Naim’s priceless words, “If I don’t have the freedom to disbelieve, I cannot believe”.
By the way, my computer got screwed with a really bad virus so I’m going to need a day or two to fix it. I’m writing this from a friend’s computer at the moment. Anyways, hope you’re all doing good.
Later!
Drima…
Your computer saw the porno…got “screwed” up…caught a virus..
You see, Ahmed is right…even for computers
“Andrew, that’s the most beautiful set of words I’ve read in quite a while. Generally speaking, we share the same understanding of religion.”
Thanks, I was quite happy with what I wrote. I am going to rephrase it a bit, maybe, and use it as a general motto.
You are probably right. But it took me a lot longer than you to achieve the understanding. I have always believed, but I have also been a social liberal (although I have mostly conservative values). It is only the last few years that have taught me that religion, tolerance, and conservatism together form a coherent system of thought.
Andrew, could I quote you there? I appreciate the flow and spirit of your words as well. Do tell if you rephrase.
Kinzi, everyone,
Quote away! No problem.
“Spiritual self-discipline is not the result of others taking away temptation, it is the result of resisting temptation; just like faith is not the result of fearing death for disbelieving but believing when one doesn’t have to believe.”
I think it is neat enough as phrased.
But to be fair, I would have to point to an essay of a friend of mine which triggered the thought:
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2004/06/VirtueisasVirtuedoes.shtml
Andrew:
Yes, but in this case, do you think that watching porn is reducing the risk of falling into sin?
And regarding your statement: Yes, but you do not have to contributing to others weak state of self dicipline. I mean: You do not resocialize a criminal by giving him an opportunity to commit more crime. Resocializing criminals (especially arab and muslim criminals in this european country) is acutally my profession, and i can tell you for sure that this does not work. Before one will abstain from crime, he has to build up his spiritual self-discipline, it is something that do recuire work if your self-discipline is weak.
Roman and Drima: hehe Thank you… i am laughing. Drima, perhaps i was too conservative to see the funny aspect
Howie: I am for defeating this sad trend through arguments, because it remains a spiritual disease. Quite another case with things like torture and spouse abuse, which requires more than arguments only.
“Yes, but in this case, do you think that watching porn is reducing the risk of falling into sin?”
I seem to remember statistics that confirm that countries where prostitution and pornography are legal have lower rates of rape and teenage pregnancy than countries where prostitution and pornography are illegal.
But that was not my point. My point was that unless people have a choice between the sin and the virtue, they cannot develop spiritual self-discipline, because they never come into contact with the question it is supposed to answer.
“And regarding your statement: Yes, but you do not have to contributing to others weak state of self dicipline. I mean: You do not resocialize a criminal by giving him an opportunity to commit more crime.”
Actually, that is exactly what you do. Resocialising a criminal is exactly the process of allowing him back into a world where the choice is his and watch him.
The safest method to keep people from stealing is to put them into prison. But claiming that prison inmates have high spiritual self-discipline because they don’t steal seems odd to me.
Ahmed…
I really like the way your mind works…even though I don’t agree with some of your points.
OK..let me try to keep a straight face here…
I am for freedom…If that means porno on the Internet…then so be it…I am VERY suspicious of any “caretaker” telling me what I can watch, say, think, feel etc.
Of course there must be limits (the tired but true cliche about you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater)…But people fundementally must take responsibility for their actions.
If no porno…then no alcohol, maybe no R-rated moveies..ah certain songs…maybe no songs that are anti-government or anti-religion…and maybe no short skirts, not short sleeves…
We have to draw a line…Where would you put that line? Where would you limit individual freedoms and to whom would you give the authority to play God for us?
nice discussion, but typically a men point of view
I come back on the exemples quoted in AB’s link
the analyse finds its clue in a predetermined morality : our single god societies !
what about the inuits, or pacific islands inhabitants, Tahiti for exemple, where the views on human comportment differ ; you may recall some adventurous narrations, trappers borrowing an Inuit’s wife or seemen borrowing a woman, or even Rimbaud in Abyssinie, a tribe woman was lend to him. or the marriage in test in Iran…
this is not a question of good or bad behaviour, it’s a question of culture, somewhere in a given time. I certainly would not condamn any of the women ; each one acts with her own feelings and self-confidence ; I would say, the first one is kind of contented and not complicated person ; the second one is the most self confident, free, responsible of her libido ; the third one, is the most timorous, she’d like it but she doesn’t dare it, she is always in the dream of it, certainly not a happy person !
Ahmad, courage !
Nomad-
I disagree…
You are talking about moral relativism here which I do not agree with…I don’t care much about culture…which becomes an excuse for terrible behavior “oh those Aztecs…the only do those silly human sacrifices because, you know…it is just part of their culture”. Silly Aztecs…
We are just taking a man’s perspective? Why do you say that? I don’t see that in the least in this conversation…
By the way…the old crap about porno being an exploitation of women is just that…CRAP…Porno is primarily an exploitation of the poor sucker consumer…99.9999% MALE…
Can’t agree with you here Nomad…culture is an explanation but not an excuse for rotten behavior.
OK, Howie, but you put a jugment on a dead civilisation (or culture) with your 21th century spirit, so you can’t say it is bad, that’s the way they lived
well, I know you are talking about porn and so on, I was only jumping on the opportunity of AB’s link on which he says it is the resumé of what he thinks that a “man” ’s behaviour should be
of course porn is a women exploitation, (children and males are not safe in that business too)
as I am living in the same century as you, I can’t say it’s “good”, but, also, as none can’t prevent it from being real and lucrativ, the best we can do is to regulate it, as the Germans did, officially acknoledge that some women or males can exert a porn profession and being normal humans with social insurances
Nomad-
OK..we are closer, but I still don’t see culture as an excuse for horrible behavior…
In terms of legalizing porno…it is legal in most of the west… In fact, I live about 40 miles form the porn capital of the entire world (can’t seem to get a job though)…
And no…though the porn. world ain’t just a bunch of nice guys…I still say the most exploited person is the customer…not the actors…Phone sex is a real classic…where the women string these poor suckers along for as many minutes as they can rip them off for…but that is another story…
Back to our topic…if you don’t like porn…don’t watch it…don’t work in it…But don’t try to protect us with some mullah’s or rabbi’s or minister’s rules…they can preach to me…but don’t try to TELL me what the hell to do…especially when many have not demonstrated themselves as the role models or practioners of what they preach.
I agree with Howie regarding moral and cultural relativism, Nomad. For many the past, for example. slavery was an acceptable and even respectable practice. Should I then refrain from passing judgement on slavery in general, or even the slavers of the past?
No. We should always keep the historical and cultural context in mind, but to a point. And that point is where our own morality begins. So yes, we judge the past with the eyes of the 21st century, because otherwise our 21st century eyes might start looking at everything with the same relativist mindset, to the point where our own moral framework becomes irretlevant…
“I was only jumping on the opportunity of AB’s link on which he says it is the resumé of what he thinks that a “man” ’s behaviour should be”
Excuse me?
Where did I say that the article I linked to was the “resume” of what I think that a “man’s behaviour” should be?
When did I mention “man”? What does the article say about the behaviour of men?
What does any of what I said have to do with “men” and “women” as different beasts?
Confused…
“but I still don’t see culture as an excuse for horrible behavior…”
Culture is not an excuse for behaviour, culture is a blueprint for behaviour.
Behaviour can be virtuous or horrible and cultures can be virtuous and horrible.
Morality is distinct from culture. A given culture can be moral or immoral (or amoral).
Sacrificing human beings is wrong, the ethnicity or “culture” of the perpetrator has no influence on the value.
–
Sorry, yeah, confused !
Roman and Howie, the difficulty is to keep a sane regard on the human weaknesses ; and our duty is to protect the persons who fall in porn exploitation gangs as slaves ; of course this “dirty” business would not exist if there were no customers, so lets make it clearly defined with laws !
“Spiritual self-discipline is not the result of others taking away temptation, it is the result of resisting temptation; just like faith is not the result of fearing death for disbelieving but believing when one doesn’t have to believe.”
I think it is neat enough as phrased.
But to be fair, I would have to point to an essay of a friend of mine which triggered the thought:
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2004/06/VirtueisasVirtuedoes.shtml
sorry, it ddn’t appear in the previous post
“and our duty is to protect the persons who fall in porn exploitation gangs as slaves ; of course this “dirty” business would not exist if there were no customers, so lets make it clearly defined with laws!”
With law against what? Commerce?
No business would exist if there were no customers and all businesses have traditionally exploited workers and slavery to keep costs down.
I bet in western countries the chances are that if you buy any toy for kids the toy have been produced by exploited labout in China.
Hence we should make Christmas illegal, I suppose.
The problem is, if you demand that a certain business be declared illegal because it might use slave labour (or exploit workers), and you find another business that does too, you’d have to declare both illegal to be consistent.
And what if we find that the pornography industry uses less slave labour than the Christmas present industry? Does that mean that Christmas has a lower moral value than pornography?
Mr Brehm your searching the confusion, your a mauvais coucheur !
then, tell the Chineses that their toys are not conformated to the high western standards, uhe, New Zeeland dared to say it !
yeah why not a fest for the sex then, think about !
Nomad,
I find that what you write is becoming more confusing. I still don’t know what you were referring to above and I have no idea what you are referring to now.
I didn’t say anything about tests for sex or anything like that.
Could you PLEASE become more rational and refer to something I did say, just to make it easier to understand what you are talking about.
And please do stop putting words in my mouth.
Nomad, I think laws against exploitation exist in most countries that legalized pornography as it is, regardless of the pornography itself. It would also mean rape charges or something similar, most likely, which would be the difference between porn exploitation/slavery and any other exploitation.
When it happens in another country we have a problem though, that of specific proof regarding the particular product.
MR Brehm, may-be your too sophisticated to be understood by a simple-minded alike me, but I take the words as litterally they mean
Roman, I know that laws against exploitation exist but is is a bit the same problem with alcool or drugs prohibition, if the business is not framed, then there are abuses and criminality ; we act alike ostriches when we deny the very existence of this reality. I would rather prefer that prostitution activity would be openly recognized and codified as it was (not officially though) in the 19th century and the first half of 20th century in France. I think it is hypocrisy that our puritan elite labelled it as a criminal activity
“MR Brehm, may-be your too sophisticated to be understood by a simple-minded alike me, but I take the words as litterally they mean”
So pray tell, what do they mean?
I appreciate that you assume evil in all you read, but I asssure you that I neither wrote anything about “man” and “woman” as two different beings, nor did I claim that the text I linked to says anything about how a “man” should behave, and nor did I understand anything you said after that.
And then, instead of clarifying why you put words in my mouth and what you were referring to, you started insulting me. What’s the point?
What exactly did I say that you took, literally, to mean that I was saying anything about “men” and “women” as different beings or about the article I linked to as a “resume” of how I think “men” should behave???
Nomad, Andrew only linked to that essay of his friend’s because he said it inspired the statement he made about spiritual self-discipline being about resisting temptation rather than removing it outright.
The essay was not linked to for any other reason. You seem to be inferring Andrew’s opinions based on a link that was brought as more of an off-topic clarification than anything to do with the topic of the post, or anything that followed.
Roman, thanks for clearifing ; definitely I have some difficulty to interpret Mr Brehm, well, no insult was ment though ;
http://lechristallin.over-blog.com/photo-111147-les-prix-a-la-pompe-_prostituee__jpg.html
it’s a prices list of different services Melle Lapompe in 1915
Andrew:
No, that is not what you do. This is my profession, so i should know. You help them building up their discipline first, then you give them the choice. Releasing all inmates in the prisons would’nt make them less criminal. So your arguments is invalid.
Howie: No. I view porn as a spiritual disease, and i encourage the youth to stay away from this. There is a difference between:
1) Arguing against something
2) Arguing that it should be outlawed
Ahmed,
I didn’t say anything about simply releasing all inmates into the wild.
My point was that they are being released, ultimately, into a world where they CAN steal again. Of course you train them not to before you release them. But if we want to compare this to the pornographic industry and their customers, we cannot use the prison and training part of the equation, because it does not apply to them.
Otherwise I agree with you. There is a difference between arguing against something and arguing that something should be outlawed. And that difference is often lost on people.
Good discussion
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