That was fantastic!!! you are right, it was a lot of fun.

And did you see Bashar Assad… almost LAUGHING… he could barely keep it in! it was hilarious. It was like school kids trying to stifle their giggles.

they were even laughing out loud when he suggested that anyone of them could be hanged next! (by the americans)

I actually thought the latter part of his statement about how they hate each other and the intelligence services conspire against each other and they fight with ferocity for each other much more than they give to the enemy…. was pretty accurate and poignant. He comments and critiques that Syria has much better relations with Turkey and Iran and Russia than it does with the other Arab states, an unfortunate reality.

what a show!

and what if arab leaders laugh? big deal…my self-captured video of me trying to do break-dance is bound to make you and them laugh even more!

Like many people, I wish that Qaddafi’s reality matched his rhetoric – because his rhetoric is really good.

Isn’t this old news ??

WOW

All sad but true, for me his speach was like listening to my father and receiving one of his lectures as a schoolboy, very similar views. This is unfortunately the sad state and affairs of the Arabs.

Like Qunfuz however, i equally agree his rhetoric is not matched by his reality or actions. Maybe Qaddafi can set an example and walk the talk.

Arabs like to hold other Arab leaders accountable. How about the Syrians holding Asad accountable and the Lybians holding Ghdaffi accountable? Why do many Arabs believe that it is only the other dictators that have to change but not theirs?

Offended,

Send me that video and I’ll post here : )

AIG,

Absolutely true. Arabs do that. Their country is wonderful, but the neighbors are full of defects.

Let me try my Simo impression (before he wakes up):

Tell me AIG, are you not the same? it is amusing how you seem to always criticize Arabs but you can’t see the crimes and human rights abuses of your own country.

(end of Simo impression)

By the way, don’t bother telling me how Haaretz and others criticize their government all the time. I am an avid reader of Haretz as you know by now, I was not referring to Israel as a whole, I was referring to YOU personally.

Alex,
Let’s first discuss the main point. Arabs criticize the lack of democracy in other Arab countries but not in their own country. That is hilarious. Arabs criticize democracy in Israel when Israeli Arabs have more rights than most Syrians. That is hilarious. The Israeli Arab is on average 4-5 times richer than the average Syrian and is much more educated. Just compare illiteracy rates between Syrian women and Arab Israeli women, 30% compared to perhaps 3%. Yet what do many Syrians do instead of making their society better? They complain about Israel. That is hilarious.

Now for me. I certainly am not happy with many aspects of what the Olmert government is doing. That is why I will vote for Netanyau (just like Shai). Crimes and abuses? Of course there are at the individual level, but the Palestinians are ENEMIES of Israel. We owe them nothing until there is peace. They want a fight, they will get a fight. They want to fight and then complain that we fight back or that we are too strong? I find that hilarious. There is a struggle between two nations for the land and the better nation will win.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If for the Palestinians ANY way of fighting is legitimate including suicide bombing and if it is ok for Asad to host Meshal that has sent scores of suicide bombers to kill Israeli children then it is more than ok for Israel to deny Gaza fuel and food. Let them get it from their Egyptian and Syrian brothers like you. Why should I care about people that are trying to kill me? Why should I care more about the welfare of Gaza then Hamas? All they have to do is stop the rockets, but even that they won’t do.

Asad wants to support Hamas? Fine with me. But don’t complain after a regional war about the state of Syria. Israel has every right to make sure that Syria does not have the financial resources to support terrorist organizations in the future. You play with fire, do not complain when you are burned. But who am I kidding, of course you will complain. After all, most Arabs do not take any responsibility for the state of the Arab world.

“all they have to do is stop the rockets”

and Israel will stop its settlements and it will give the Palestinians back their rights.

Right.

Anyway. Don’t worry about it… and try to also not worry much about democracy in Syria, because the Syrian people are overwhelmingly your enemies too… they want peace (When you have another Rabin-like leader), but until then, they are indeed your enemy.

If you don’t worry about Palestinians dying everyday at your troops’ hands, then one would expect you to not spend hundreds of hours at this Syria blog worrying every other post about democracy and rate of literacy for Syrian women… sounds a bit secondary to dead Palestinian children.

I can’t believe that no one here noticed it, but to me, the most impressive part of Qaddafi’s video clip was the gentleman behind Mahmoud Abbas (about 20 to 30% through the video clip) … he actually picked his nose on camera.

How could anyone NOT have seen the nose picker….. ! It was huge, but the camera cut away really fast to spare us…

maybe you are talking about a second nose picker though…cause the one i saw was the Qatari or somebody… gulfish…not behind Abbas. Maybe the second one had the whole thing recorded.. how terrible.

I’ve seen three different Nose- pickers in that short video. I think it’s a common cultural denominator 🙂 By the way it seems Carter was about to pick his nose until he noticed the Camera man. Perhaps it’s all stress induced and calls for a healthier summit with less nitpicking, etc. 🙂

This is what you read from the video:
All of them were silence when Qadhafi mentioned the 1 million dead in Iraq, all attendance were like speaking in low voices to themselves about this number. It is a terrible number. No one had dared to air it on their airwave fearing from angering USA and the public. It is shameful number, 1 million Iraqis killed in front of their eyes, specially the eyes of the national Baathists, better not to mention this number now, but may be 50 years from now so we can trash others with it. Their eyes turn and they start thinking and saying to themselves: Qadhafi, do you want us to go out and say to our people that we witnessed and we did nothing to stop this killing, and even some of us cheered the American and hosted them in our soils, we can not mention this number otherwise our people will know our impotence and we want be men in their eyes, just lousy weak leaders, hey you one of us too, so stop it man. So, to hide the number the best thing they can do, is to smile in front of the Camera giving the felling that this guy is crazy. But he is not! These are facts, and we need some logic from the national guys to explain it to us.

When he said there is nothing unite us except this hall, all silence, their eyes turns and start thinking: what are you talking about man, so why we are here man, we have to issue a meeting results telling people that we agreed on something, where you coming from, did you forget how to lie, when did you change man.

When he talked about the hanging of Saddam Husain, president Bashar was laughing hard, from the bottom of his heart, he was saying to himself, great this guy at last letting it out of my chest, I was suppose to be the second one and never thought any of us Arab Dictators we could have the chance to complain, and now this guy is revenging to me, great, God bless Gadhafi.

When Qadhafi said that the turn on you coming soon, the Iraqi representative was thinking: he is right, all those here in the hall going to be gone like my great great president Saddam.

I swear to God, if the funniest clown in the world starts his act by mentioning 1 million victims, from any race, I do not think any reasonable human being would laugh thereafter.
And the funny thing that brothers watching the video noticed the nose picking which is was normal for others.

Ofcorse what Qaddafi is saying is old news. That is not the point. The striking thing is, that all what he says is still the reality in the Arab world. Which is very sad, to say the least… But still necessary to say. That the Saudis and Bashar Assad are laughing is to my opinion because of the tragic truth.