A reporter interviews Jewish-American students in bars in Israel. While I wouldn’t use it to try to gain any understanding of the political climate of Israel as some people have been attempting to do, I think it’s a perfect example of the fact that American college students are fully capable of being Ugly Americans no matter where they happen to be throwing back a few drinks. The video is worth watching, if only to get another glimpse of some of what is wrong with Americans. Seriously, alcohol may make you brave enough to say what’s in your head, but it doesn’t put these kinds of thoughts into your head if they aren’t already there. I can, for example, he falling down drunk, and you will never hear me saying something like “White power, f*ck the niggers!” or saying the President of the USA deserves to get shot. Alcohol doesn’t create that kind of thinking. It only unleashes it.

Here’s the “best” bit:

“I think it’s really f*cked up he’s [Obama] going to all the Arab states and not Israel. Oh, he’s a Muslim for sure! And who even knows if he was born in the United States? We haven’t seen his birth certificate yet. Bullsh*t. He’s not from the US. He’s like a terrorist.”

“Just what is he doing for this country [Israel] so far? Nothing! I’m a political science major, so like … I know my sh*t!”

[Interviewer] “Do you know who Binyamin Netanyahu is?

“No. No. Is he the Israel prime minister or something? I don’t know who he is. Who’s Benjamin Yahoo?”

Yeah, this chick from Florida really knows her politics, doesn’t she? All I can say is either the school she is studying at needs to have its accreditation revoked, or she needs to be kicked out for being an idiot. She’s living in a country and doesn’t even know who the recently elected Prime Minister is? I’m sure the Israeli elections were in the news there at least as much as they were in the news here in the USA. It seems a little odd to me she wouldn’t know without thinking who Netanyahu is, especially for a political science major who knows her sh*t and is living in Israel. Just as with the other hateful speech, alcohol can’t create this kind of stupidity. It only unleashes the stupidity that is already present.

And if there is one thing I could teach the youth of America (and maybe the world) it is this: do not say stupid or hateful stuff in front of a camera, particularly one not in your control. That kind of stuff can cause problems later in life, no matter how anonymous it seems at the time. All it takes is one person recognizing someone in the video and posting about it on their blog, and then it will never go away. The internet has a long, long memory. They can have whatever stupid, racist, hateful thoughts they want, but they should keep them to themselves when cameras are around, or it could come back and bite them in the butt later when they want to land that posh post-graduation job.