Qaddafi’s Dirty Joke on the NY Times?
Writing last month in The New York Times, Libya’s longtime tyrant and veteran terror-sponsor Muammar Qaddafi proposed a one-state compromise for Israel and the Palestinians, which he dubbed “Isratine.”
For Qaddafi to be preening as an elder statesman, and for the Times to publish his vaporings, all struck me as so over-the-top outrageous that in my Forbes.com column last week, “Freedom Beats a Global Retreat,” I noted “It’s tempting to dismiss such stuff as unintended self-parody — whether on the part of Qaddafi, the Times, or both.”
Turns out I was much too kind. I’ve just received a note from Youssef Ibrahim, free-lance writer, risk consultant and astute observer (he has worked over the years for The Wall Street Journal and New York Times, among others, and you can find his columns for PJ Media here). Youssef, a native Arabic speaker, points out that the media, and in particular the Times, which has some Arabic speakers on the staff, “totally missed the pun in Qaddafi’s designation of Isratine.”
Youssef explains that in Arabic, “tine” means “mud,” or, “in more evident colloquial Arabic a piece of excrement, dirt, garbage, refuse.” (I checked with another native Arabic speaker, who confirms this, and notes that Qaddafi loves to unload on the wide-eyed Western media this kind of derogatory pun).
And while the Times may have missed the sick joke in its own Op-ed columns, the Arab media did not. Apparently it’s a retread from Qaddafi’s repertoire. Youssef notes that Qaddafi has used the “tine” suffix before, attaching it as a dismissive insult to various other words (“socialism-tine,” “capitalism-tine”) and that “Isratine” first came up a couple of years ago. It has been widely commented upon — as comedy — by Arab pundits. So…. in the Arab world it’s bathroom humor, in the Times it’s an elder statesman’s Op-ed?
right on
But this ignores the fact that Palestine ends in time as well.
Could it just be a coincidence?
Yoni:
This is a play on words. It’s called pun. A pretty bad one, too. A bathroom humor, in short
I didn’t know the NYT has editors.
Oh, and it’s not a “dirty joke”, as, in our society, that refers to a sexual joke. It is properly a scatological joke. Anyway, that is where the article belongs… among the other crap they publish.
Add odd addendum to this is that the sadistic Nazi doctor known as “Dr. Death”, who apparently died in 1992 used a pen name of Youssef Ibrahim. I wonder whether he was trying to pass himself off as the respected journalist.
From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/africa/05nazi.html
“A list also showed plans to send drafts of the paper to prominent people around the world — under the name Dr. Youssef Ibrahim — including the United Nations secretary general, Kurt Waldheim, the United States national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Yugoslavia’s leader, Marshal Tito.”
No one care what the Times does anymore. Their bankruptcy is coming.
Beyond sloppy. Pwned. Fact-checkers and editors never even suspected it. Didn’t they feel a little funny at that bizarre name? It reminds one of “Ethniklashistan” of The Onion fame.
Hmmm, i am not so sure. By that logic then Pales-tine must be an insult also.
“Palestine” is an English word. In arabic AND farsi it is “filistina”.
So the “tine” part is not relevant in the Muslim world, as it does not exist. Khaddafi’s joke stands as a genius bitchslap of the NYT and a reputation enhancer for him in the Arab world.
And YES, the ‘filistina’ is relevant to ancient Biblical references to the “Philistines”. Same people, same places. In fact, you can read in some history books that after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, the Romans effectively gave the Judean land to the “philistines” as a final insult to the Jews.
Talk about a valid claim; if you were kicked off your land by an evil ‘occupier’ (Rome), should you be allowed the ‘right of return’?
The answer is yes, of course.
New York Times-itine?
Isratine is pronounced by Qadhafi and his followers as Israteen with an ‘S’ sound, where teen means dirt, mud, sludge.
Israteen is not the only instance.
-In 2004, official Libyan media called Paul Bremer, AlBul Bremer, where in Arabic AlBul means urine.
-Libya cut off diplomatic relations with Egypt after the late President Sadat’s trip to Israel. At the time, Qadhafi’s official media called Egypt’s capital “AlMaqhura”, which means the defeated. In Arabic, Cairo is pronounced AlQahira, which means the triumphant. Qadhafi and his media continued with mockery even after Hosni Mubarak became President of Egypt. Officially the Libyans called the President Mubarak “Elbarek”, which means kneeling either as an animal or in colloquial Libyan a man being dominated for a sexual act. To this date, some of Qadhafi’s followers informally refer to the Egyptian President as “Elbarek”, even though the Libyan dictator currently, calls Mubarak, “My dear brother and friend”
That Muammar…he’s a CARD, ain’t he?
Y’know, the more bombs you drop on him, the funnier he gets…
An absolute insult to the families of the Lockerbie terror attack that the NY Times even allows this piece of dung to express himself on their pages. Blood on his hands, evil personified. May he rot in hell with the other hateful Arab Dictators!! This isn’t funny. And I don’t care that he backed down in the face of sanctions and possibly regime change to give up his “nuclear program”. He and his evil Jew hating son still deserve a one way ticket to hell.
Although I may not agree of what Mr. M.Q. said
but I disagree that Tine means Mud in Arabic actually It is teen means mud and not tine.
Who cares any way…
Gaddafy could have called it PaleSrael for instance. In Arabic there is a much difference in which comes first. The Arab will understand that you get the honney first and the tine. Therefore it is a sick joke from Arab point of view.
In fact Gaddafy formed the name israteen from the first part of israil and the last part of palastine. There is no an insult at all.
Ah yes ; Nothing like a terrorist with a sense of humor!
Only a rag like the New York Times would give any credence to a contributor like Muammar Qaddafi.
The man is an opportunistic terrorist seeking personal fame since “he” thinks he is special among men. The new York Times still thinks “they” are special among newspapers, even as their lot drops into the cesspool known as “the tank.”
Then again, based on the partisan rantings of the NYT, its also possible they knew this & thought it would be neat to slap it on the populace as relevant reading. Relevant reading for NYT type useful idiots that is!
I disagree with the comment made about Isra-”Tine” being thought of as the word dirt = “T’een”, if So, can we say the same about Pales”tine”..Of course not! This is just a play on words by your friend Youssif and you are a fool for publishing it. Also, Gadafi has never made the same use when referring to Capitalism or Socialism before. That is just not accurate. As per “Isratine”; the idea was to borrow some letters from the two names for the same place; however, this was never the main issue, the name that is. The issue here, is to have two people live in one state with equal rights, democracy that is. As the west have loosely dubbed Israel as being one..
I am a native Arabic Speaker and never heard such none-sense !!
Your comments really reveal a lack of understanding of the main issue. Qadafi said in his article:” call the One State what ever you like”.. it does not have to be “Isratine” .. It just goes to show how ignorant or may be foulish you are. I would not take your friend Youssef’s advice any more if I were you. Or may be you are Jewish and afraid the current apartite racist jewish zionist state will disappear if just one state for both palestineans and jews were to be created ??? next time learn arabic or check your facts.
I think that both you and Youssef Ibrahim have missed the boat on this one by miles. I particularly surprised that the Arabic speaking Youssef fell in the same trap of analyzing Ghaddafi’s uttering using Western ideas. You both forgot that Ghaddafi is a certified megalomaniac who for the last forty years has been on an unrelenting quest for some colossal act or pyramid-size accomplishment to immortalize his name. Furthermore puns are not a common feature in Arabic nor do they have the entertainment value as they do in English, particularly American literature. With all that being said, I completely agree that it was wrong of the NY Times to publish Ghaddafi’s piece (of tine) as it was wrong of President Obama to send him a thank you not, encouraging him to seek an official visit to the US. Ghaddafi is still vicious tyrant and has no plans to change.
You have been missgided about “tine” the only meaning for it is ” mud ” or in colloqial Arabic ” clay ” ,but nt garbage or refuse as would like your readers to believe >
Carlos and Gadaffy, you both missed the importance of simplism. You could write a book on how gaddaffy view the world. From democracy as meaning “all people being always setting on chairs” (dema-karasy) to Shakespeare being Shaki-Zobare. If they could not agree on the name how could they even agree to live toghter in peace in one country?
THE WELL KNOWN ” MAD DOG ” HAS GONE MADDER AND MADDER. GADDAFY IS A PERSON WHO IS MENTALY SICK AND ANY ONE EVEN LISTENS TO HIM IS FOR ONE REASON AND ONLY ONE REASON ” MONEY “.
Gaddafi is a primo terrorist and vampire who lives on the blood of the poor Libyans . Since he came to the power ,he employed terror and killing as an instrument of his policy. Thousands of innocent Libyans who refused to bow to him and follow his crazy ideology were killed , both inside and outside Libya. He a criminal fascist dictator who rule a small rich country like his plantation. He and his family stole all the wealth of the country and deposited in foreign banks, and he uses it for his propagand abroad. NewYork Times, is a bankrupt paper, and I wouldn’t doubt it if it got millions from Qaddafi to publish his garbage. It will publish the words of any dictator as long they pay. Qaddafi is the most hated by the Libyans, and can’t wait when his end will be like that of Saddam, Hitler, and Mousilini.
You and your friend Yosef Ibrahim really don’t know Arabic. the word Tine (mud)when it is used as derogatory term is more in the Egyptian slang Not Arabic. I’m do fan of Qaddafi the dictator but his point is a combination of the two words (Israel) and (Palestine) Isra-Tine. The first four letters of the word Israel and the last four letters of the word Palestine. Duh. Please let Mr. Ibrahim know that he has to be careful with his comments if he wants us to take him serious.
Mixing jokes and analysis is misleading and that what happen to the writer Ms Rosett.
You are all including the person who shamefully reported this making much ado about nothing. It is a word coined from Israel/Palestine joined together. If Qaddafi had meant mud they would have used the proper arabic letter to end the word which is the arabic letter dtaa in his White Book where this idea is formulated he uses the letter ta which linguistically changes the meaning in arabic.
People cannot stand to see someone change , or that an actual sensible opinion is coming from someone who has been constantly villanized in the media. Instead of offering a solution to both the Israelis and Palestinians killing eachother this is what you come up with?
No reporter worth thier salt would stoop so low as write something you would normally find in a tabloid …hmm shocking indeed.
I always thought the bathroom was an appropiate place for the NYSLIMES,specifically by the toilet paper holder.
NYT owner /editor and his gang are doing exactly like anyone else including the Lockerbie bombing victims’ families …..Money is good even if it belongs to the Libyan people or it is blood money !!!!