You've GOT to Love the Israelis

Last Saturday the Jerusalem Post reported on a very unfortunate error committed by the Israeli Government Press Office:

The Government Press Office’s distribution of an e-mail containing a link to a satirical video on the Free Gaza flotilla affair was “an honest mistake” and has been corrected, the head of the GPO Daniel Seaman said on Sunday.

Seaman said the link to the video “We Con the World” was accidentally sent out to members of the foreign press on Friday along with hundreds of e-mails that are sent out on a daily basis, and does not represent any official stance of the GPO. After the e-mail was sent, the GPO sent out a statement explaining that the video “was not intended for general release” and that its contents “in no way represent the official policy of either the Government Press Office or of the State of Israel.”

Oh my. What an unfortunate error. How much more embarrassing that the darned video went viral, and quickly garnered over a million hits on YouTube. While it would be interesting to know how many hits it's received over the last week, alas, we'll never know. Because YouTube took it down, citing ". . . a copyright claim by Warner/Chappell Music, Inc." Users keep posting copies on YouTube, but the links get taken down, go back up, are taken down, and so on.

But the collection of tubes that is the interwebs is rather more robust than our wannabe masters might wish it were: