At face value, the story of Ben and Izzy seems like a wonderful way to promote understanding between East and West, right?
A Jordanian media firm hopes its new TV cartoon series can achieve what politicians have failed to do so far: bridge the cultural divide between East and West.
It sounds like a tall order, but the Rubicon firm — named after the river Caesar crossed to establish the Roman Empire — is armed with an equally mighty motto: “to embark on a mission from which one cannot turn back.”
Even more important is that the cartoon, called “Ben and Izzy” and aimed at 8 to 11 year olds, has royal backing from Jordan’s media savvy rulers, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, who have made it their goal to promote tolerance.
Rania will showcase Jordan’s first TV cartoon export in New York on May 8 at a black-tie dinner she’s hosting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. American media ‘royalty,’ like Barbara Walters and Katie Couric, are expected to be on hand.
“Ben and Izzy has all the right ingredients,” Rania told The Associated Press. “It uses the fun medium of a children’s cartoon, promotes important intercultural understanding and educates our children as well.”
“It’s all about partnership. This isn’t about East telling West, or West telling East, but rather East and West putting their heads together and figuring out what’s best for us both,” she added.
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As the grandsons of archeologists, the two boys get up to all kinds of adventures traveling in time accompanied by a genie, named Yasmine, while trying to stay one step ahead of an evil antiquities dealer named Clutchford Wells.
Hrm… let’s look at the Ben and Izzy website, navigate over to the characters…
Ben appears to be a blond-haired, blue-eyed “All-American boy.” Promoted as “A symbol for his country.” Just keep Michael Jackson’s hands off of him, okay?
Izzy is your smart and wily Arab Muslim boy. Sort of like a Short Round, but not the annoying yelps and hardly the errors of the diabolically annoying Korean tyke.
But let’s look at the bad guy, Clutchford Wells:
Wells is a wealthy, larger-than-life villain, whose history is an enigma. The man is tall and foreboding. Wells has an angular, chiseled face – refined, intelligent, affluent… and at the same time, shallow and greedy. He is like his hair – slick, dark and greasy.
Hrm… slick and greasy hair… shallow and greedy… fat, like a certain incapacitated ex-Prime Minister and war criminal in the eyes of the Arab World…
Like the archaeologists, Wells loves antiquities – but not for the same reasons. To Jake and Omar, ancient artifacts unlock secrets to the past which, in turn, give us greater understanding about ourselves. The object itself is important for what it represents and reveals. Wells, on the other hand, can only see these objects for what they’re worth. He doesn’t care about the craftsmanship or the history; he wants to put a price tag on it! Wells is totally the opposite of what archeology represents. He is the yin to the grandfathers’ yang.
Values money over everything else, including the historical value of an object or a location… hrm…
Wells is completely self-serving and cares nothing for decency, order or ideals.
You know, like the UN does?
It’s hard to make out Wells’ nationality. In fact he is non-national – a cultural vampire, feeding on our world’s history and civilization. Altruism is a foreign concept to him. Wells is very knowledgeable and very powerful, so it irritates him no end that he is defeated at every turn by a couple of snot-nosed boys. It’s the one time he loses his cool in each episode.
A non-national: could also be interpreted as someone who belongs to a country that isn’t recognized to exist or shouldn’t exist in the eyes of an observar.
A cultural vampire… hrm… drinking Arab baby blood and using it in matzohs, perhaps? Or is that taking vampire too literally?
Altruism… not giving through Islamic charities, perhaps even shutting them down when they’re used as conduits for funding terrorism?
Feeding on history and civilization… you know, like a certain people keep getting accused of “exploiting” the Holocaust” for land.
Defeated by snot-nosed boys… Mohammed Al-Dura and child martyr parallels here.
Wells is actually from another time. He was born thousands of years ago. The only reason that we see Wells in this series is because he now has the ability to time-travel (thanks to the Second Pearl). He is not immortal, however. In fact, this is one of his overriding ambitions. Wells is trying to find the Fourth and final Pearl which will give him immortality.
From another time… Biblical times, I reckon. Or at least before Rome kicked the Jews out of the Kingdom of Israel centuries ago and the Muslims took over the holy sites during their conquests…
Connect the dots, folks. Christian American and Muslim Arab kid teaming up to defeat the big fat greedy Jew.
No wonder why Abdullah and Noor of Jordan approve.
You know, for a show that says
it’s funny — the first ten episodes have eight Eastern guest stars, and only two from the West.
Let’s just call it what it is: More Arab propaganda.
This is pretty good news
Moussaoui Gets Last Chance to Speak Before Going to Jail
I’m sure the production team behind Ben and Izzy are working up a render of Moussaoui for the second season.
He’ll be their pilot.
At Brandeis University, the politically correct Left has has already bridged the “cultural divide”.
I dunno, Benjamin and Izzy both sound like Jewish names to me. And what civilization is more of a “cultural vampire,” drawing its accomplishments from others and utterly uninterested in world history, than Islam?
Maybe you have this backwards.
I’ll be waiting patiently for the episode when Ben’s sister, who marries Izzy’s Saudi cousin, is beaten and made a virtual prisoner in her home, forbidden to leave Saudi Arabia, despite maintaining her US citizenship.
And I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the poignant ‘martyrdom’ episode, wherein Izzy wants to condemn his neighbor’s support of Jihad Islami, but learns the valuable lesson that resistance trumps morality every time in his part of the world.
And of course, I’ll make sure my kids see the show where Ben learns that although Americans are good people, our ‘foreign policy’ is responsible for the problems in the world.
Thank you, ABdullah and Rania.
i guess this a reason we fight these people ae the enmies of evryone Jews included