CAIRO: A populist crooner who won fame for his ditty I Hate Israel is releasing a new song in protest against Israel s attack on Hezbollah, his production manager announced Tuesday. Shaaban Abdel Rahim s For Only Two Soldiers, a reference to the two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 kidnapping by Hezbollah sparked the three-week-old conflict, is due out on a new album, said Alaa Wahbah. No one else dares to make political songs like Shaaban, Wahbah said. Even the Lebanese singers, nobody did anything. The former ironing man who sings a kind of Egyptian-folk rap has been widely panned by critics, but developed a huge following after the 2003 release of I Hate Israel and the anti-American and anti-Saddam Hussein Hitting Iraq. Following a similar formula, For Only Two Soldiers seems destined for success.In it, he exhorts Oh Arab men, wake up. One thousand times I warned of Israel, they thought I was kidding, the song opens. The truth is now clear. Because of two soldiers, they make a big fuss. They forget the massacres and the millions of prisoners. I feel sad for Lebanon and its people who were attacked and also for Palestine. Where is the voice of Arabs? A video clip released on the Arabic entertainment channel. Melody shows Abdel Rahim singing while pictures of destroyed houses and bodies of children were displayed on the background. The album should be in stores in a few days, Wahbah said. AP
