Peace through pornography.

September 3, 2007 6:31 PM

An Israeli porn site is trying to promote peace through pornography, and has succeeded in getting surfers from Arab countries that normally block access to all Israeli sites. Specializing in pornography with political themes, Ratuv is part of an industry that features Jewish, Israeli Arab, and Druze actors and plenty of political tension. The most popular downloads from Arab countries is apparently an X-rated parody of the kidnapping of nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu, though pictures of women of the IDF are also popular. Salman Rushdie has noted the power of pornography in the Muslim world, arguing that pornography is vital to freedom in his essay, The East is Blue. [All links are worksafe to major mainstream news sources, except potentially the fourth link, which goes to Nerve].
posted by blahblahblah (53 comments total)

Pepsi Jew.
posted by Rangeboy at 6:37 PM on September 3, 2007 [5 favorites]

Is this peace through understanding, or Arab guys lusting over control of Israeli "bitches?"
posted by caddis at 6:38 PM on September 3, 2007

The thread is useless without hard-core crotch shots.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:40 PM on September 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

Cocktease
posted by dhammond at 6:44 PM on September 3, 2007

I like porn. I like politics.

I am really really conflicted about political porn.
posted by lekvar at 6:59 PM on September 3, 2007 [3 favorites]

All links are worksafe...

See, that's the problem with this post.
posted by delmoi at 7:02 PM on September 3, 2007 [15 favorites]

...and I thought I would be appreciated for a worksafe, discussion-friendly FPP that combines both pornography and the Middle East. On second thought, why did I think that?

In any case, alvy, dhammond, & delmoi - you can always post your own links in your comments to, um, illustrate your points.
posted by blahblahblah at 7:06 PM on September 3, 2007

Here is one of their arabic pages [NSFW], it's pretty easy to figure out where to click to get previews.
posted by delmoi at 7:06 PM on September 3, 2007

...and I thought I would be appreciated for a worksafe, discussion-friendly FPP that combines both pornography and the Middle East. On second thought, why did I think that?

I really have no idea. You're familiar with how the internet works, right?
posted by Item at 7:18 PM on September 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

I apologize for not making a comment that gives this matter the serious consideration it deserves. To be honest, I - or rather, a friend of mine - saw one of these films. I believe the last picture in delmoi's link is a screencap of it; some gals from the IDF are captured by the enemy and soon discover they have a lot more in common than they thought... with sexy results!

If the Middle East's attitudes towards pornography are similar to North America's, wherein the performers are often marginalized and considered sideshow freaks or damaged goods, I doubt these films will make any sort of contribution to peace or have any value beyond being a fleeting curiosity.

And it wasn't very good pr0n.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:35 PM on September 3, 2007 [4 favorites]

Peace is for fucking pussies.
posted by phoque at 7:38 PM on September 3, 2007 [6 favorites]

Pls post pics of Israeli soldier wimmins, kthxbye.
posted by Justinian at 7:43 PM on September 3, 2007

Huh. I thought I'd seen everything in porn, but I'd never seen a veil-facial before (in Delmoi's link). Neat.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 7:45 PM on September 3, 2007

im in ur holee landz, peecin thru ur boobies

Let's be honest here people, EVERYONE likes breasts, and if that ends conflicts by briding (bra-ing?) the divide, I think we should just roll with it
posted by foxywombat at 7:51 PM on September 3, 2007

"Ratuv" means "Wet"
posted by growabrain at 8:20 PM on September 3, 2007

Huh. I thought I'd seen everything in porn

I don't think that's possible.
posted by mrnutty at 8:23 PM on September 3, 2007

Specializing in pornography with political themes

WTY?*




(What the Yiff?)
posted by KokuRyu at 8:52 PM on September 3, 2007

http://israelmilitary.net/showthread.php?t=13
posted by jcruelty at 8:58 PM on September 3, 2007

Peace through pornography --- I feel like I've stumbled into a Xeni Jardin blog posting.
posted by jayder at 9:06 PM on September 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

Its good to know that men of all stripes, religions, nationalities and creeds can come together for the metaphorical olive branch that is The Facial.
posted by Avenger at 9:08 PM on September 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Nice gimmick.

I wonder how many of the 'Arab' downloads are coming from the West Bank or Gaza? Israel has made peace with its Arab neighbors such as Egypt and Jordan. Israel and Saudi Arabia are both client states that serve the same master. So, if Arab guys (even in non-Hezbollah Beirut) are tossing off Israeli porn, that is hardly peace-making.

If it were Palestinian dudes, that might be interesting in a reverse-Abu-Ghraib kinda way ... but that is doubtful.

Israel needs to make peace with the people whose land it is occupying, i.e., the Palestinians, and the rest will follow.
posted by Azaadistani at 9:23 PM on September 3, 2007

Could someone please post some longer and more distinctly NSFW links to Israeli / Arab porn? Thanks in advance.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:25 PM on September 3, 2007

World peace you say? The godless sodomites will lead the way!
posted by disgruntled at 9:32 PM on September 3, 2007

See, all this time I haven't been watching massive amounts of porn, I've been promoting peace.

I wonder if this makes me eligible for the Nobel prize...
posted by quin at 9:36 PM on September 3, 2007

Re delmoi's (much appreciated) link:

WTF? No condoms in the ME?
posted by humannaire at 10:03 PM on September 3, 2007

NSFW links are not possible, as the viewers have already turned to pillars of salt.
posted by mosk at 10:15 PM on September 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

An Israeli porn site is trying to promote peace make money through pornography, by using a media-savvy gimmick to attract pornsurfers both at home, and also in an otherwise inaccessible Arab market.

There you go, nice & fixed.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:16 PM on September 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

UbuRoivas - Sure, they want to make money and they have a gimmick, but the back story is pretty fascinating and suggests that there really is more to this than just cash. You may want to read the Nerve piece.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:24 PM on September 3, 2007

Actually, if religious fundamentalism is the problem, porn might realistically be considered part of the solution. Religious fundamentalism is not really compatible with porn, and porn might have a stronger draw on some people. Particularly if they can get away with it, and there's an endless supply.

I think a lot of these people could be pacified by simply giving them uncensored internet access, video games, and porn. Some of them might be liberalized, and lots would simply be made too distracted to be useful for anything except the base amount of work necessary for survival. That's why the fundamentalists work so hard to ban these things.
posted by Mitrovarr at 10:42 PM on September 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Let's be honest here people, EVERYONE likes breasts...

I have nothing against breasts, but what I like are naked hairy Arab men, and I'm not seeing them here. Fuck, even the "gay Arab" sites are faux-Arab Italians and half don't even have fucking mustaches.

Life isn't fair.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 10:52 PM on September 3, 2007 [6 favorites]

I'd occupy her gaza strip any day.

After looking at those pix, off for a bit of a west bank now.
posted by lalochezia at 11:15 PM on September 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: What I like are naked hairy Arab men, and I'm not seeing them here.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:21 PM on September 3, 2007 [4 favorites]

MetaFilter: too distracted to be useful for anything except the base amount of work necessary for survival
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:49 PM on September 3, 2007

Burka facial? For peace? I'm all for confronting fundies with their hypocritical and unnatural suppression of the sex drive, but burka facial really doesn't say, "peace and equality" to me. Why that is will be left as an exercise for the reader.
posted by Skwirl at 12:37 AM on September 4, 2007

H'ya see dem tits?

Hasidim! Hasidim!
posted by HTuttle at 12:38 AM on September 4, 2007 [2 favorites]

The following response is probably NSFW. Just consider this your parental discretion advisory. You're welcome.

I prefer lesbian porn (yes the fake lipstick lesbian kind I know they're not real lesbians quit peein' in my oatmeal) for the predominant reason that there's no men in it. I cannot contemplate why anyone who isn't bi or gay or whatever (nothin wrong with that just not my poison) would want naked men in their porn. They get in the way.

Don't even get me started with bukakke (or however the hell you spell it); a circle of guys surrounding one chick, taking turns spooging on her. So basically what the camera captures is a bunch of male buttcracks and occasionally the girl. Who cums up with this shit?

Likewise, facials make no sense to me. Close ups of women with some guy's jizz in their face. It's some other guy's jizz in her face. That's not a turn on. That's just gross. Here, the lady is veiled, so at least the cleanup is easier. Finally I see a practical purpose for the burqua that doesn't involve demeaning the female (more than she was getting demeaned already). I feel sorry for the poor little sperms that land in the girl's eye socket. I bet they're really fuckin' confused before they die. The eyeball must look like a big fuckin egg; terrible fate.

Now we've got ourselves political porn. Like politics isn't a buzzkill? I can't get a hard on thinking about Hillary (Chelsea maybe) so how is the mideast crisis supposed to get the home fires burning? We can't cure cancer, but we got viagra. Humanity is seriously fucked up.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled, more mature and meaningful responses to jewish pornographic peacemongering, already in progress.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:01 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow.
posted by StopMakingSense at 1:20 AM on September 4, 2007

Zach, that was almost a beautiful screed. Except, dude, haven't you figured out that, at best, it is totally stupid to knock what other people like in porn? Or, is this a case of you protesting too much?

Some like action, some don't. "Different strokes" seldom applied so beautifully. I've a gay friend who has taken a liking to straight porn, because he decided the men were more appealing. Some guys are happiest projecting themselves into the role of someone else in action. Some are purely voyeuristic. Some just want to see titillating shots of the sort of person/s they want to have sex with (that's my favorite).

There are very few rational things you can say about porn. Mostly, you like it, or you don't. Maybe you might rationally comment that you find something repulsive. I bet somewhere there's someone who thought goat.se was hot! Human sexuality is truly a bizarre thing.

That being said, does anyone see a link to some hot IDF men? Or even some IDF/Arab male-on-male action? My idea of porn-for-peace in this case would be such a pair doing the 69.
posted by Goofyy at 1:37 AM on September 4, 2007

Goofyy: "Zach, that was almost a beautiful screed. Except, dude, haven't you figured out that, at best, it is totally stupid to knock what other people like..."

I really wish people would just read my screeds, instead of reading into them.

Wasn't knocking it. Just simply saying I don't get it. Politics in porn is a buzzkill for me. I also have difficulty getting off on porn with religious overtones. They won't let me wantonly have sex in their churches. I don't want them prosletyzing in my porn.

We each choose our own poison. I don't get the furry thing either, but I got nothing personally against people that do, and think of the benefits it must mean to the dry cleaning industry.

"I bet somewhere there's someone who thought goat.se was hot!"

...ew! Does that mean somebody got off on TubGirl? cuz, ...damn! I really can't wrap my mind around that one.

What's really caused the upsurge in violence in recent years is the polarization of both politics and religion. If GW would quit swinging his cross around and banging people over the head with it, maybe the muslims which are turning more extreme and militaristic would have less reason to do so.

The one commonality all human beings have regardless of race, color, creed, or gender, is that we ALL have sexual proclivities of one form or another. Even if it's just the missionary position. It makes sense to build on what unites us, rather than what divides us.

I'm all for more porn. I just wish it was porn I could actually enjoy personally. I was born and raised on Sesame Street, MTV, and Saturday morning cartoons. I have a short attention span. Dance of the Seven Veils don't quite cut the mustard for me.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:11 AM on September 4, 2007

This might seem like sort of an off-topic comment, but after viewing jcruelty's link, I'm more than a little disturbed. I understood intellecutally that the IDF was made up of a kids barely out of high school (and that the US Army and all of 'em too, I know, but the sheer contrast between what these kids do and the poses they strike in the pictures. Naive but not innocent. Scary.
posted by Football Bat at 3:34 AM on September 4, 2007

What I like are naked hairy Arab men, and I'm not seeing them here

because they're all in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and in the CIA's secret gulags!
posted by matteo at 3:39 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'd like to make some of those soldier girls challah.
posted by Tullius at 5:09 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

For the record, I've checked into this, and apparently the lesbians don't get off on porn featuring Zachsmind.
posted by Hildegarde at 5:17 AM on September 4, 2007

Metafilter: Who cums up with this shit?
posted by trondant at 5:41 AM on September 4, 2007

Call me when there's man-on-man Arab-Israeli porn. Let's see the download-tracking stats for *that*.

I'd watch that.
posted by LMGM at 5:50 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Perhaps this won't lead to peace, but at least the Arab porn viewers will be able to see where the Israelis are coming from.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 7:29 AM on September 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Something along these lines cropped up on Fark recently. For some reason, women on motorcycles (sport bikes) and young Israeli women soldiers with guns are strangely attractive. I refuse to think about what this says about me.
posted by craniac at 9:59 AM on September 4, 2007

Yay for explicitly Semetic porn.
Personally, I enjoy watching Jews and Arabs have sex.

If only they could find a goth or two to throw into the mix, it would be perfect.
posted by elr at 10:18 AM on September 4, 2007

Clinton likes to be in the middle
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:52 AM on September 4, 2007

Except, dude, haven't you figured out that, at best, it is totally stupid to knock what other people like in porn?

I dunno. I think there's a middle-of-the-road argument to be made somewhere between Dworkin anti-porn feminism and "Your Kink Is OK, It's Just Not My Kink," political correctness. Active suppression of natural drives is always, always, always bad, but if someone puts their sexuality out in the public or commercial sphere, it should be open to public debate. The prevalence of the type of porn that Zachsmind points out does have semiotic meaning about where our society is going and how women in our society are treated. To self-censor that discussion just because it's likely to end in a judgmental flame-out may or may not be the best way to go.
posted by Skwirl at 12:31 PM on September 4, 2007

Why does Long Island Phone Sex sketch suddenly come to mind?
posted by Pollomacho at 12:46 PM on September 4, 2007

How is it that an Israeli porn post went over 50 comments without one single innuendo about the films being "uncut"? Man, this place is slipping I tell ya'...
posted by Pollomacho at 4:56 PM on September 10, 2007

Such puns are circumscribed here, pollomacho.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:30 PM on September 10, 2007