It is hoped this clip will promote Israel's military might in India. An unusual way of going about it... the Bollywood-style clip has not gone down well with everybody.

A contribution from one of our Israeli Observers, Roi Ben-Yehuda.

An Israeli government-owned arms company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, produced the Bollywood-esque video in aims of strengthening Israeli-Indo defence ties. The clip, which was recently showcased at the Aero India exhibition in Bangalore, features a man (Israel) who promises to defend and shield a woman (India) asking for protection and security.  Dancing on a stage flanked by flower draped missiles, the actors jointly sing: ‘Together, forever, I will hold you in my heart. Together, forever, we will never be apart'.

According to Assy Josephy, the Director of Exhibitions for Rafael, the idea of the video came about as a result of Israel's familiarity with Indian culture. 'In Israel we have Jewish people from India', explains Josephy, 'so we know about Bollywood and the song and dance numbers. Israelis are generally aware of Indian culture. This video is to help build familiarity between India and Israel and Rafael'.

Josephy further explains that making a locally flavoured defence videos is not unusual for his company. 'In Brazil we did a video of football. Football is very big there. In Paris the video had a theme that included Napoleon and the Renaissance. In Poland our video had themes of Chopin and Copernicus. In England it was about Shakespeare.'

The blogosphere, however, has not been so kind to Rafael's culturally-sensitive promotional video. The security-centred Danger Room has claimed that ‘every element of the promotional film is just plain wrong'. Over at the Dew Line, Stephen Trimbles calls it a ‘catastrophic collision of Bollywood and the arms industry' And at MensXP.com, India's largest men's lifestyle portal, the film's lyrics are lambasted as representing ‘everything that is wrong with arms and defence equipment marketing campaigns'."