Hamas Has Unconventional New Weapon In Israel-Palestine Conflict, You’ll Never Guess What [Video]
Hamas continues to fire rockets deep into Israel, targeting civilians even as Israel’s counterattacks continue to raise the death toll in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Now, Hamas is trying a rather unconventional new weapon in its arsenal.
Music video.
Yup, you read that right. Hamas is using music video — and a pop music video at that — in an attempt to intimidate Israel. The song is titled Shake Israel’s Security. Lest Israel miss the message, Hamas had the song — which, according to a report in The Times of Israel, was originally recorded in Arabic during the last Israel-Palestine conflict — translated into and sung in Hebrew. Makes sense if you want to use the power of song to rattle a nation’s resolve to fight, you should sing in their native language.
This isn’t the first time music has been used as a weapon of war. Drums, fifes, trumpets and other musical instruments have been used on the battlefield from time memorial. Israel has a long history of using musical instruments in battle, particularly if biblical accounts are to be trusted. According to the Book of Joshua, the Ancient Israelites once blew trumpets of rams horns in the Battle of Jericho. Another biblical account, in 2 Chronicles 20, tells of King Jehoshaphat of Judah sending singers and musicians in ahead of the army.
Hamas isn’t exactly the first country to use music as a weapon in modern times, either. In 1989, U.S. military forces in Panama blasted Jethro Tull, Metallica, AC/DC, Twisted Sister, and Guns’N’Roses to get into General Manuel Noriega’s head. It apparently worked, as he eventually surrendered.
The lyrics to Shake Israel’s Security, translated into English in the Times of Israel report, include:
We prepare a generation of warriors
who cling to death like the enemy clings to life,
A (nation) state of weakness and illusion can’t hold out during wars
They fall apart like spider webs when they meet knights.
A report in PRI translates a different verse of the song:
Exterminate the cockroach nest
Expel all the Zionists
Rain upon them many rockets
Make their world into a horror
Here’s a look sat the video Hamas is using in the Israel-Palestine conflict, which so far does not appear to be intimidating anybody in Israel:
[Video via YouTube]
The video is recorded in poor, heavily accented Hebrew. For those who don’t understand the Hebrew, don’t feel bad. A lot of people who speak Hebrew fluently won’t understand them, either. Think of it as if one of the call center people you reach when you call for IT service for your electronics or Internet service were to try to give you the instructions by singing them. Now, throw in a few insults, taunts and threats that the call center person had no way of carrying out, and you have the overall comedic effect of the Hamas video.
Most of Israel’s people find it funny, if they give it any attention at all.
Just a thought, but if Hamas really wants to use a music video as a form of psychological warfare in the Israel-Palestine conflict, they might consider using a Justin Bieber video instead. Or, on second thought, no… that would be inhumane, even for Hamas.
