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.
that MK is ketzele. yeah, he’s a little crazy.
The skit was hilarious, and I don’t understand Hebrew. People have to remember to laugh at themselves, and this is a good way to do it. Heck, I’m a fan of Achmed the Dead Terrorist.
It would be a good thing for the right wing to remember that they are living in a democracy (supposedly). And no, I don’t think it would be a good thing if 2 million Palestinians decided they weren’t going to show their ID cards or lift their shirts anymore, simply because the IDF tends to shoot uncooperative Palestinians, no matter how many there are. Maybe it would be a good thing if six million Israelis got together and took away the checkpoints, removed the blockades and evicted the settlers. I could live with that.
Hey Richard–
Thanks for this. You may want to know that among other threats Ketzeleh made (in the Knesset committee meeting) he said, “When the day comes, and we will be in power, we will establish retroactive laws against all those who were anti-Semitic, against settlers and against the people of Israel and against the army, and I assure you, they will face trial.”
Ron
Thanks, Ron. That’s shocking. Right out of Kahane & even Hitler I’m sorry to say. Do you have any reference to where these quotations are published (Hebrew is OK too).
Richard, How was is ketzele like Hitler? you’re an idiot…but what’s worse is that you’re an idiot foaming at the mouth with hatred…oh well….but you like klezmer….
He, like Kahane and other good Kahanists believes that secular Israelis, esp. those expressing ridicule for settlers and rightist politicians like himself should be tried & jailed for their views. Views that ridicule the army, settlers or religious Jews are specifically anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli & thereby punishable as serious offenses. That’s precisely what fascists all over the world believe, Hitler included.
I’d say Ketzele is the one foaming at the mouth if you bother to watch the video. I don’t even foam at the mouth with hatred when idiots like you (though not necessarily you) do Google searches on the term “Kill Silverstein.” Those are the people w. foam in the mouth. Are you one too?
Lol, not sure why you’re babbling about Kahane and “Kill Silverstien” (you must have some inflated ego if you think random commenters like me know or care enough about you to want to harm you in any way, let alone, god forbid, kill you, lol unless you start drawing cartoons of mohammed, peace be upon him.)
My comment was simply pointing out that your rants and raves against people who you disagree with on Israeli policy issues who you sloppily compare to Hitler make you look more like an idiot than one presumes you already are. Dedicating your life to spreading inuendo and hatred against Israelis and their supporters may be your own pathetic “lifes work” but for god’s sake, try to tone down on your one-side clap trap. One senses, and I just stumbled on your blog, that you are so steeped in your hysterical mission of attacking anyone who disagrees with you on the Israeli Arab conflict, that you dig deeper and deeper so as to desperately maintain your ignoble title of Jewish detractor of Zion.
The most bizarre thing about your cesspool of a blog is the Orwellian title – one-sided and relentless bashing of anyone who stands up for Israel and desperate apologetics and whitewashing of the atrocities of Israel’s enemies has nothing to do with Tikkun Olam. Shame on you for using a beautiful term so ripe with meaning and goodness and dragging it through the dreck of your hyper-opinionated drivel.
Funny thing is, I’m on the political left on American and foreign policy issues and have been involved with several dialogue groups here in Brooklyn. But when it comes to these issues, thank god you don’t speak in my name. It’s obvious the foaming contempt you have comfortably living in America for the Israelis whether in Tel Aviv or elsewhere who disagree with you. But if you can’t have peaceful dialouge with or even write humanely and civilly about Jews in Israel who you disagree with – do you really expect Hamas to have dialogue with Fatah, let alone Israel.
Sorry about taking you to task, not that it will matter, but since you probably live in a bubble of self-rightousness and have some fawning fans among the Israel haters of the world, I thought I’d write to you with a different perspective.
Finally, I don’t know who this Katzele is, but it seems to me if I was wounded in service for my country and loved my country and its people and its citizen soldiers and someone used gov. dollars to imply I would kill the same soldiers for political reasons in order to dehumanize me and my outlook, I would get emotional, too.
Try to be part of the solution for peaceful coexistence instead of exacerbating the problem in the most cynical and ugly ways I’ve seen in a long time.
You admit in your comment that you know nothing about Ketzeleh. Yet you have the termerity to claim that my comparison of him to a fascist is sloppy. Who’s sloppy now? You naturally admire Ketzeleh (or would if you actually bothered to read anything about him before exposing yr ignrorance by not doing so) therefore objecting to my calling him a Jewish fascist wannabe. But that doesn’t make the comparison wrong. It makes it one you disagree with because you too are as right wing as he.
That’s the 2nd time you’ve called me that. That is a violation of my comment rules. If you can’t be bothered to respect the rules of discourse you’ll not be here long.
That again is a lie. I don’t spread hatred against Israelis. I only point out the hate harbored by settlers, many of whom don’t consider themselves loyal citizens of the state of Israel, but rather a category Bernard Avishai aptly calls “Judeans.” There is a diff. bet. settlers and Israelis though you naturally dislike acknowledging this.
In other words, you’ve barely read 100 words here & never been here before & are fully prepared to wax eloquent on who I am & what I believe. Do spare us yr ego & grandiloquence.
Another violation of my comment rules. You have been banned.
Again confusing settlers w. Israelis. Of course, you meant to say “anyoen who stands up for settlers.”
I criticize both sides of the conflict. But that’s certainly not good enough for you because anyone who criticizes Israel at all is whitewashing Israel’s enemies regardless of what he says about those enemies. Which only points out the utter bankruptcy of yr position.
If there was such a thing as twice-banned you’d be it for this lulu of a comment violation.
You mean you’re PEP! Of course. You love voting Democratic on domestic issues, but at least you’re candid enough to allow us to correctly infer that you are not on the left when it come to Israel. As for “dialogue group” I have no idea what that means. It’s so vague as to be close to meaningless. What are you dialoguing about? Broadway plays? Middle Eastern cuisine?
I wouldn’t dream of it. But chances are the type of dialogue in which you engage in empty of any true meaning, power or utility.
That’s funny because who Ketzeleh is is at the heart of this post & comment thread. You’ve just further implicated yrself in ignorance.
Sorry, leftist that you are for pointing out the disingenuousness of yr characterization but there are many Israeli citizens on the left who suffered wounds as severe as Ketzelah & yet they don’t hate their fellow Israelis even when they disagree w. them. The video did not say that the settlers were going to kill the kidnapped soldier. YOu & Ketzeleh added that distortion. Ketzeleh does not love Israelis btw. In fact, he hates most secular Israelis who make up the majority of the Israeli populace.
You mean “try to agree with me and my political allies,” don’t you?