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The far right is up in arms about the Israeli TV satire, Eretz Nehederet (“Wonderful Country”), whose new season opened with a skit about the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier (I tried like hell to find some Israelis to either caption this in English or provide a good translation, so far no luck). As the soldier records a “proof of life” video, you the viewer anticipate the plot will reflect the real capture by Palestinian militants of Gilad Shalit. In the TV scene, the soldier begins by singing the praise of his captors, saying he is being treated well and “fed…[pregnant pause] Kosher.” The camera then withdraws and the viewer sees that the captors are settlers who proceed to argue about what their demands should be. As they list each demand (eg. end of the settlement freeze, amnesty for attacking police, creation of preferential development zones for settlements, etc.) they realize the government has already conceded them. This leaves them confused and demoralized till they come up with a new demand: pictures of a female ultra-Orthodox newscaster must be published in Blazer, a macho Israeli girlie mag, with her “elbows” uncovered! (Thanks for the translation to Zvi Solow). You can only imagine why Ketzele would find this to be sacrilege.
The skit concludes with two IDF officers responsible for negotiating the captive’s release, who watch the video and then confer about how to respond. The 5 o’clock alarm goes off in the office and they merrily head for home to do “yoga” leaving the soldier to fend for himself till tomorrow.
The religious right was exercised further when the new season promo for Eretz Nehederet pictured naked cast members spreading paint on each other’s bodies. Uptight pro-settler Knesset members were not amused (to say the least–see video). While my Hebrew isn’t too shabby, the bearded rabbimullah in this education committee hearing is so pissed and talking so fast I literally thought his head might explode. Haaretz conveyed a few snippets of his bilge:
…A sketch of West Bank settlers kidnapping an Israel Defense Forces soldier, sparked cries of anti-Semitism and [incitement to] violence at a meeting of the Knesset Education Committee on Monday.
MK Ya’akov Katz, of the right-wing National Religious Party, said the promo for Eretz Nehederet reflected the sentiments of hatred exhibited toward Jews throughout history.
“When you see this program, you can understand how the Nazis slaughtered my grandfather, my uncles and my whole family in Poland,” Katz declared. “This is anti-Semitic propaganda, anti-Jewish. It shows a complete loss of self-rule and self-control, exploiting the right of decent and cultured people for freedom of expression.”
This guy is a stark raving lunatic if he believes even a tenth of what he claims. The sheer hysteria and foaming of the mouth in this diatribe shows the pro-settler right to be chewing-the-scenery actors whose role is to convince the electorate if they don’t get what they want then all of Israel, and even the Jewish people with them, will go to Hell.
I’m amused by the right-wing commenters here who complain about the hatred and violence espoused by the “radical left.” Take one look at this guy and tell me who hates best: the left or right. If someone shoved a gun or knife in this guy’s hand how hard would it have been for him to use it on the poor unfortunate television network lawyer attending the hearing to testify on behalf of the media company? Or alternatively, you could say it was typical settler Kabuki drama in which they attempt to convey their conviction to the rest of the nation that they are holy warriors and any bastard actor or satirist who gets in the way should have his head or other part of his anatomy chopped off.
These jokers don’t really care that they live in a democracy. They don’t know the meaning of the word. Democracy is what’s good for them. What’s not is poison, anti-Semitism, Jew hatred, any term that they can drege up that puts them in a favorable light and makes them out to be victims. Victims? These people are sly like a fox. They rule the roost, just like the settler-kidnappers realize in the skit.
Thanks to Sol Salbe for finding the YouTube video.
In a similar story, the Israeli TV show Big Brother has a contestant who is an anti-Occupation activist. Imagine how the settlers feel about a left-wing Israeli given the run of prime time television to say things like:
On the show, [contestant Edna] Kanti described her volunteer work at Machsom Watch, which monitors the conduct of Israel Defense Forces soldiers manning roadblocks in the West Bank, by saying: “I go to the roadblocks and I see all the thousands of people going where they are told, showing their identity cards and lifting their shirts. If they were to say, ‘Shove your laws up your ass, we don’t want to show you identity cards and we aren’t going away from the roadblocks,’ and if 2 million [Palestinian] people were to rise up, put on white clothes and say, ‘We are going where we want to go, this is our land,’ the occupation would be over.”
They quote Kanti as saying she would not follow “orders that seem to me retarded.”
And in this big, beautiful democracy that is Israel what are they saying about Ms. Kanti’s right to free speech? She has none. In fact, they want to convict her on charges of inciting Palestinian rebellion:
MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) and Sholom Dov Wolpo, the Chabad rabbi who heads the right-wing Eretz Yisrael Shelanu…asked Deputy Attorney General Shai Nitzan on Monday to investigate…Edna Kanti. They say she has publicly incited rebellion and advocated refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.
“These remarks are slanderous and contain violations of the law,” they wrote. “Ms. Kanti is in effect calling upon the Arabs to revolt against the state of Israel, to disobey orders from Israel Defense Forces soldiers and even start a rebellion.”
They’re only pissed because they didn’t think of putting one of their own cute, cuddly settler haus-frau on the show first to plead their cause. The left gets oodles of free publicity and they’re jealous as hell.
