After a second woman came forward alleging sexual harassment against veteran Haaretz columnist, Ari Shavit, he resigned from the paper and from his weekly appearance on a Channel 10 news of the week show. The second victim, who refused to permit herself to be named, told the Jewish Forward that Shavit had molested her when she was a J Street staff member, as she chaperoned him from the Baltimore train station to a speaking engagement at Johns Hopkins University. As they drank coffee before his event, he grasped her hand and caressed it in a suggestive manner and asked her if she would spend more time with him alone the following day or later when she was in Israel leading a tour group. She said she would not have time due to her responsibilities for the group, but that perhaps they could have coffee. He told her he didn’t want coffee, but wanted to go drinking with her “alone.” She was so uncomfortable that another J Street staffer accompanied the two of them on the rest of the journey from Baltimore to his hotel.
Unlike his earlier acknowledgement of the incident with Danielle Berrin, when he asserted that he’d intended to “flirt” with her and that she misinterpreted his intent, this time Shavit offered an unconditional apology. He even managed to include his wife and children this time! He said that he had much work to do to learn from the suffering he’d caused others. It was an uncharacteristically chastened Shavit, whose normal mode is macho, superior Israeli Ashkenazi male.
Danielle Berrin said a few days ago that she objected to the media (including this blog, presumably) focusing on Ari Shavit as an individual, and that she wished the story focused on the general status of women in society and the need to develop greater sensitivity to these issues. While I have no disagreement with her, I think she’s a bit naïve. Considering she’s a reporter who covers Hollywood, that’s surprising. She should know that the way the public develops sensitivity to issues is through human interest stories. If you produced a 30-minute documentary about sexual abuse it would find a small audience. But find a woman groped by Donald Trump or a powerful alpha Israeli male, then you’ve got the audience by the lapels.
But given Berrin’s pronounced identity as a liberal Zionist (she still adores Shavit’s work), there’s another critical aspect of this story that’s overlooked. While I do not downplay the gravity of Shavit’s behavior and misogyny, his embrace of Zionist supremacism in his reporting and his best-selling book is, if possible, even more disturbing. It is not surprising that a man who refuses to consider women independent and peers, deserving of respect–that the same man refuses to acknowledge the identity of the Palestinian people as equals to Israelis; as a people deserving of the same rights. In other words, Shavit’s work is the literary equivalent of a mauling. He denies Nakba. While he bemoans the Occupation he, in typical liberal Zionist fashion, refuses to call for its immediate, unconditional end. He shoots and cries–he doesn’t like war but it’s a dirty business and someone’s got to do it. At least, so he claims, Israel wages war in as humane a way as possible. You’ve heard all these tropes before. They’re as tired and stale as they were when the first Israel apologist offered them. Just as tired as Shavit’s first quasi-apology to Berrin.
An aside: though I was the first blogger outside Israel to report that Shavit was Berrin’s attacker and the journalist released his first statement only a few hours after my first post was published, not a single media outlet in Israel or abroad has acknowledge the important role Tikun Olam played. Further, within a few hours of my second post being published, Shavit announced he was “taking a break” from Haaretz. Throughout this process, I kept Haaretz managing editor Aluf Benn apprised of what I was published so he would know that the media would hold both Shavit and Haaretz accountable. Yet, unsurprisingly no Haaretz report has referred to this blog or linked to any of my posts. The same holds true for The Forward, the Guardian and virtually everyone else. Though the Forward’s editor, Helen Chenikoff admitted she knew I had first reported the story, she claimed her paper decided not to credit my reporting because I conceded I did not yet have a direct source to confirm Shavit’s identity. Being first and right apparently weren’t enough to deserve any mention in the pages of The Forward. This is the type of artificial distinction and sophistry which gets the liberal Zionist media in trouble in the first place.
Even Danielle Berrin herself, in her initial response to Shavit’s “apology” to her only referred to “Israel and Jewish media” which had identified him. As a victim in this incident, I don’t find fault with her personally. But something there is about a liberal Zionist which makes them allergic to crediting or even acknowledging the existence Jews to their left.
I think that American Jewish organizations should reconsider permitting female staff to travel unaccompanied with Israeli men who travel here to speak on behalf of these groups. As Avital Chizik has confirmed, Berrin and the J Street staffer are not the first Jewish women to be assaulted in such circumstances by Israeli men. And if the NGOs don’t respond to this problem properly, they won’t be the last.
Before the Israeli men in the audience begin a geshrei, they should look in the mirror. If they haven’t done such things then they aren’t to blame. But too many Israeli men feel entitled to abuse women when they travel abroad and are away from their wives and family. It’s a temptation some seem unable to resist. So the temptation must be removed. The alternative is to equip every female Jewish staffer with mace to protect herself when she’s chaperoning Israeli men on behalf of her employer.
This post and the ones from the past week lead me to the following thought. Rather than me kvetching about what I consider your “unfair” treatment of Israel, it occurs to me that you do a lot more kvetching about the endless catalog of misdeeds, lies, incompetence and malfeasance perpetrated by an ever growing list of villainous Israel supporters, including but not limited to:
liberal Zionists
liberal Zionist media, and the media in general (who march to the orders of the Zionists)
Israeli Ashkenazi males
The US government and all recent US presidents
The Israeli government
The Israeli Knesset, except for the Arab MKs
The Israeli army and intelligence services
The Israeli courts
The Israeli police
The settlers, and their supporters
religious Zionists
the secular Right
Christian supporters of Israel
Jewish supporters of Israel
Arab countries that cooperate with Israel
Israel advocacy groups
Corporate entities who do business with Israel
Since most of these entities are separate, the only way that I could plausibly explain your wrath against them all, is either from a tremendous coincidence, or that they are all tied to one vast, sophisticated and interconnected Zionist web who conspire to brainwash Americans and Europeans into supporting Israel. And you, along with a few of the sidekicks here, have managed to break through that web of lies and discover the truth.
This inevitably leads you to make incredulous suggestions, such as your comment to prohibit journalists from being unaccompanied when with Israeli men. That you are blind to this statement as a breathtakingly crass and ignorant form of bigotry and over-generalization (at the same time you call me Islamophobic for just quoting a Pew poll) is truly astounding. Can you imagine somebody saying that here about, say, Egyptian or African American men?
@ Yehuda:
If you post such a false, defamatory claim here in the future you will be moderated. I do not allow commenters to concoct false claims about what I believe. Try it again & it may be the last thing you publish here. Consider yourself warned.
THis topic is completely off-topic. Your comments must be directly related to the blog post.
As for what American Jewish organizations will do with Israeli men whose events they sponsor, you will see that none of them will permit their female staff to work with them when they are unaccompanied or alone. It will no longer happen. If they don’t, they will be sued by female staff who are assaulted by these men (& that will happen in future just as it has in the past if no changes are made in staffing protocols). And there will be big judgments against them because they have these very public examples of what can happen unless precautions are taken.
I’ll give you a challenge: call Jeremy Ben Ami and ask him if he will permit female staff unaccompanied to attend to Israeli men who visit the States on J Street’s behalf. Ask Rob Eshman, Jewish Journal editor, if he will permit his female reporters to meet with Israeli men alone in hotels at 10pm at night. I’ll bet you anything he’s devising new rules about this very subject in order to protect his female staff.
Neither would probably be able to answer candidly. But if they did, this would confirm my view. Of this, I am certain. If they do permit female staff to continue doing such things they would be fools and very bad managers. Note also that thankfully there was a second female staffer involved in the Johns Hopkins trip who prevented Shavit from engaging in further mischief.
Normally, I agree with most of your writings. But your last comment that suggests that ALL Israeli men are sexual predators is ridiculous. One might say that ALL men are the problem, but that is equally ridiculous.
There’s no shortage of sexual predators in your country, good old US of A. This is the same country that gave Brock Turner a slap on the wrist after he was found guilty of raping an unconscious woman. Did you watch the Netflix doc “Audrie and Daisy”? Rape is as American as apple pie. Spare me your generalizations about Israeli men.
Is there a culture of rape in Israel? No. As an ex-Israeli, I can tell you that in no way, shape or form is rape an acceptable norm there. A freaking ex-president is sitting in jail as we speak for rape.
Are Israeli men more sexually aggressive than other men? No.
Is Ari Shavit a despicable human being who deserved to get canned years ago for his propaganda pieces in the service of Zionism? YES!!!
Finally, we agree about something!
In fact, my post says precisely the opposite. You clearly didn’t read the entire post. It warns readers just like yourself that if you are Israeli and haven’t done such things then you are not included in my comments on the subject. I realize you don’t choose to read or understand the words I wrote, but they very clearly indicate that not all Israeli Ashkenazi men are sexual predators. But the problem is that enough are that it ruins things for all the rest. Leaders of American Jewish orgainzations cannot & should not take a chance that one of their female staff would be molested or even raped in such circumstances. If they do take such a chance, they are fools.
As I wrote in an earlier comment (which you seem to have missed as well), sexual predators are much more likely to be caught, prosecuted & imprisoned in this country. Our police & prosecutors are much more sensitive to such crimes, and willing to prosecute them. Not so in Israel. Certainly you don’t like to hear this fact. But it is a fact and you can’t denounce your way out of it.
And as I wrote about Katsav (another comment you seem to have missed), he is only in prison because he stupidly refused to accept a plea for a lesser charge that did not involve rape. If he had accepted the plea he would probably not have served any prison time. But he was a fool & so went to prison. Not to mention that the investigation almost failed to result in any charges till Israeli women united to demand justice. Only this united resistance brought Katsav to be charged at all. So don’t use this case as an emblem of Israeli fortitude regarding violence against women. It isn’t. And don’t ever raise this issue again. It’s the tenth time I’m having to repeat myself which bores the shit out of me.
Why is it that Israeli men tell us there is no culture of rape or violence against women in Israel, when Israeli women say just the opposite? Why is it that Israeli men tell women anything about their experience as women? Why is it that Israeli men have the colossal chutzpah to think they know about the female experience in these matters? Why is that they can’t look at the ridiculous words and claims in their comments on this subject & say: “Gee, I’m being a colossal douchebag. What was I thinking?” Ah the ego of the Israeli male. It’s a site to behold.
You & I don’t agree on anything. Don’t fool yourself.
Did you hear about the Brock Turner case? The judge sentenced him to 3 months in jail after he was found guilty of raping an unconscious young woman in the street! Turned out the judge was a Stanford alum, just like good old Brock.
Did you hear about “Audrie and Daisy”? I highly recommend it (Netflix). It will be an eye-opener for you about how ingrained rape culture is in small-town America.
You are kidding yourself about your country’s sensitivities to sex crimes. As with everything in America, race plays a pivotal part. If you are white and privileged, you can easily get away with it. Brock Turner’s father pleaded with the judge to go easy on his son because he said his boy had suffered enough. The judge agreed.
Also, you confuse me with someone who defends Israel and Israelis. I don’t. I am simply correcting your gross generalizations about rape culture in Israel vs. other countries. Israeli men are sexually aggressive, that’s true. So are American men, French men, Italian men, Spanish men, British men, etc etc.
You are being unprofessional by singling out Israeli men as sex predators. I suggest you correct the record.
@ Danny: Did you hear the Brock Turner’s judge was removed from hearing criminal cases after his ruling in this one? Did you hear there was a statewide recall campaign against the judge & that he’s likely to be removed from the bench? You didn’t, did you? Can you point to any Israeli judge who’s been removed from the bench after freeing a rapist or offering a slap on the wrist sentence. And since so few rapists are even tried in Israel, can you name a single police commander removed from their job for refusing to press charges against a rapist? No, I didn’t think you could.
Not to mention, that you’re offering single anecdotes about a country of 365 million. While the statistics and overwhelming preponderance shows that Israel as a society condones rape & the subjugation of women.
Easily? I think not. But at least you will be tried. In Israel if you are Ashkenazi & privileged, the police won’t even press charges or mount a full scale investigation.
Simply not true. The percentage of Israeli men who abuse women is far higher in Israel than in other western democracies. Partly, because there is no serious effort to prosecute crimes of violence against women.
As for “defending Israel” you are indeed doing that, contrary to what you claim. And you are an Israeli male to boot. Which suggests you have a self interest in the matter. You are but another one of those Israeli males who feels wounded that his gender is blamed for things you refuse to acknowledge. Things which Israeli women experience virtually everywhere & every day. You, like many Israeli men, are morally obtuse & gender-insensitive.
I suggest, indeed I direct you to stop commenting in this thread. You’ve said your piece & are repeating yourself. Move on.
“The percentage of Israeli men who abuse women is far higher in Israel than in other western democracies.”
Again this is a significant claim. If I were to post something like that about any group you would demand “links and proof etc or you will be moderated posts need evidence if you want to continue posting here etc.”
You will probably say “this has been discussed before” or “go google it” but this is a blog with new people coming in all the time and you should respond with evidence from time to time instead of demanding people look for it themselves. It’s like on TV or a live internet show from time to time the hosts say “if you’re just tuning in we’re talking about XYZ…” so too for new readers who come in
@ John F.: Nope, buddy sorry. You don’t earn mercy for being “new.” I’ve written thousands of words on violence against women in Israel including links to Israeli NGO sources & statistics which prove everything I’ve stated. You’ll have to find them & do some work for a change.
This is your last comment in this thread. Move on.
This will be my final comment in this thread: You really confuse me for an “Israeli macho”. I’m an ex-Israeli who despises Israel for its decades-long crimes against Palestinians. I am quite possibly the last person you would accuse of being an Israeli chauvinist.
Be that as it may, I think you are mistaken about men in other western democracies being any better towards women than men in Israel. I believe that the rate of complaints by women may be higher in Israel than in other countries. Also, Israel is a much smaller country where such news travels faster than in other, larger countries.
I’ll end this thread with a recent anecdote by Tippy Hedren, who claims that Alfred Hitchcock sexually harassed her on multiple occasions and even punished her for rebuffing his sexual advances. There are similar stories about other famous men throughout the decades – all of whom never paid any price for the transgressions.
Don’t confuse my debating you on this subject as standing up for Israel in any way, shape or form. Israel is a horrible place for women and children, with lots of sexual predators lurking about potentially on every street corner. But my point is that this is not a singular phenomenon exclusive to Israel. Sex crimes are prevalent everywhere. Male sexual aggression is the problem, going back to the dawn of time.
Now – let us rejoice that the scumbag Ari Shavit is finished!
@ Danny: I don’t care what you call yourself: “Israeli macho,” “Israeli chauvinist,” Ashkenazi male, etc. But your defense of Israeli male supremacy is unconscionable given the sorry status of women in Israeli society. You also seem to be confusing politics and gender. You can be an enlightened, liberal-minded person on I-P politics and still hold reprehensible views of gender politics, which is true of you.
I am not saying that the status of women in other western societies is perfect and exemplary (except perhaps the Scandanavian states). There remains sexual abuse, violence, etc. against women. But the status of women in Israel is proportionally lower than those other nations.
The “rate of complaints” by women in Israel is only one relevant metric. Others would be the number of complaints investigated, the number prosecuted, & the number of convictions compared to the overall incidence of sexual violence (not the overall reporting, but overall incidence). YOu will find that Israel’s record in many, most or all of these categories is disappointing.
Alfred Hitchcock is, I daresay not a representative of all American men. He was a film director in Hollywood where the casting couch was the norm, not the exception. Nor were men prosecuted in those days generally for debauching younger women. Thankfully, that’s mostly gone these days here (though there are pockets of privilege like Cosby, Trump, which are throwbacks to darker era). This isn’t true at all in Israel. For yet another example, read my profile of Gandhi, who serially raped IDF women due to his exalted status as an IDF general. His habits were known everywhere in the army & elsewhere. Yet he got away with it till his death.
You certainly are ‘standing up for Israel’ in the context of the status of women there. That is an important snapshot of the status of Israeli society as a whole. When you dismiss the epidemic you whitewash a critical element of the society.
You are done in this thread. Move on.
BTW, a great subject to write about now would be Bibi fiasco with the Israeli Public Broadcast Agency which is disgraceful.
“Israeli Ashkenazi male”? How are you able to narrow it down to Ashkenazi like that. Do you have evidence or studies for this distinction of ashkenazi vs sefardi sexual harassment inclinations?
Your rules require evidence correct. And this is also a significant claim that should be accompanied by empirical data.