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Sacha Baron Cohen dupes former Mossad agent

08/07/2008

Box office hit Borat appears not to have translated to the Middle East after Sacha Baron Cohen duped a former Mossad agent into giving an interview.

The Cambridge graduate was in the guise of his Austrian TV personality character, Bruno, and managed to convince Yossi Alpher, a former operative of the Israeli intelligence agency into being interviewed for a new spoof documentary.

Ghassam Khalib, a Palestinian academic, was also tricked into the interview, which could be seen in the final film after its May 2009 release.

In the interview, Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion show presenter, asked: "What's the connection between a political movement and food? Why hummus?"

Alpher stepped in to explain: "Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political movement. Hummus is a food."

However, Baron Cohen's character continued to discuss the chickpea-based dip, adding:: "Yesterday I threw away my pitta bread because it was dripping hummus. And it's too high in carbohydrates."

Bruno also told his guests: "Your conflict is not so bad", and compared the political tension between Israel and Palestine to the alleged feud between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie.

"Why don't you Jews and Arabs settle the conflict with a time-share on the land?" he added.

"When will you Jews return the pyramids? Why can't Jews and Hindus get along?" Bruno continued.

Alpher told the Haaretz newspaper: "We knew something ludicrous was happening but couldn't quite figure it out.

"Besides, we ourselves were not being ridiculed - only the conflict that occupies and preoccupies us."