Silenced by YouTube.

Remember the "We Con the World" video I sent out last week?  This is the video produced, among others, by Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick parodying the "Freedom Flotilla" incident and the international outcry it engendered against Israel.  When I first saw it last week on YouTube it had been viewed by 1.6 million people.  By the time I got around to circulating it had been seen by 2 million plus.

The video has reached viral proportions--now seen by 3 million viewers--and presumably has created quite a stir among Israel's enemies.  YouTube has taken the parody down from its website, claiming that it violates copyright protection afforded to the creators of "We are the World," a claim Ms. Glick refutes.  According to Caroline, the parody is protected under the "fair use" doctrine of the U.S. Copyright Act, leading her to believe that there is something more sinister going on here:

If YouTube didn't already have a track record for censoring pro-Israel material, I would say that despite the obviously frivolous and unsubstantiated nature of the copyright claim against We Con the World, the company was simply erring on the side of caution. 

The fact that more than 3 million people have already seen the video and that it has been written up in major newspapers and featured on major television networks around the world since we first posted it last Thursday night however causes me to fear that something else is going on here. 

Despite these obstacles, we at Latma have no intention of crying Uncle. By tomorrow, we will repost our song on blogs throughout the world. If you already downloaded the song, please post it on your website. If not, I will post a non-youtube version on my site tomorrow with instructions from my webmaster about how to download it. 

Moreover, stay tuned for our next video next Thursday night.

If someone is in fact trying to silence our voices, they will soon discover that they are messing with the wrong Jews. 

I don't claim to know Ms. Glick personally (although we have corresponded a time or two in the past).  But based on what I now of her through her writings and her curriculum vitae, indeed one "messes" with Caroline at his or her own peril.

To Caroline and friends, I say "Bravo."

If you want to follow up on this story, please visit Caroline's website at Carolineglick.com.