One Quick Blog About Israel

I know this is supposed to be a travel blog now, but I can't resist talking about Israeli politics a little bit.

Here are two really interesting articles about Arab Israelis protesting against anti-Arab politics in the Knesset (specifically Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Yisrael Beitenu). The first is here on Ynet and the other is a video from the Guardian.

It is disturbing for me when I see people who hold racist policies in high regard in Israeli politics (or any politics for that matter). Lieberman has shamelessly said on many occasions that he wants to forcefully transfer all Arabs outside of Israel. He is also trying to get all Arab political parties banned from running in the upcoming elections on accounts that they are racist. This is pure Kahanism at its best, and that scares me. It's that type of anger that fuels violence and close-mindedness.

If Baruch Goldstein were still alive, he would vote for Yisrael Beitenu, and wherever Baruch Goldstein's politics lie, I stay far far away. How about instead of ousting an entire ethnicity from your country, warmongering in the process, why don't you actually address the issues and figure out how to improve your current situation? How about working with Israeli Arabs instead of ostracizing them? Seeing how much media attention Lieberman's been getting, I'm a bit nervous about the upcoming Israeli elections.

But I am excited to see how the Holocaust Survivors & Grown Up Green Leaf Party does. Yeah, that's right, its the name of a coalition formed by two parties that could not be any more different from each other. If they get even one seat, I will be the happiest man alive. Their platform is so random that I first thought it was a joke. Why don't all parties start combining in order to get more seats? How about the Communist party and the National Religious party? Or Shas and the environmentalist Party?


UPDATE: I spoke too soon... click here.

Rabbi Gabe's New Book

I just picked this book up off the "To Be Reviewed" shelf at Tikkun and it made me really happy. This is the book that Gabe Greenberg, my old counselor and close friend, co-wrote when he was a senior at Wesleyan. Not only is this an amazing achievement for Gabe, but it's also a really important topic at the moment, and it's getting a good amount of press. It was reviewed in the most recent issue of New Voices with an awesome interview with Gabe, and the Amazon site is getting a lot of hits (although, one of the "suggested reading" on that page is The Israel Lobby).
I started reading it so that I can write the review for the next issue of Tikkun, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's partly a historical analysis of the Western world's relation to Islam, and it's partly a book about how Arabs are conceived in the media, (similar to my last post) focusing on political cartoons and how they represent American society and its anxiety towards Islam.

I can't wait to talk to Gabe about this book, he's a really great guy. He worked at Adamah (which I hope to do someday), then he went to Israel and studied at Hamivtar for a little while, now he's at camp doing an organic farming elective for the kids, and soon he'll be going to rabbinical school.
Kol hakavod, Gabe! Hope that your book becomes standard reading material for classes in Arabs in the Media and Middle East Studies.

Why, Adam Sandler, Why?

Last night I was intending to see this really cool documentary at the Pacific Film Archive called The Decline of Western Civilization (with the director present) about Punk in the early 80's, but it was sold out. So after some discussion, we headed over to pay 10 bucks for Adam Sandler's new movie about an Israeli hair dresser.
I'll admit, it was exactly what I expected it to be. It was incredibly stupid with some funny slapstick and we were the only ones in the theater laughing at the Israeli jokes. But one thing that I didn't expect to see (although I guess I should have) was all the horrendous stereotyping that went on throughout the film. I didn't like constant use of the word feygele to make fun of hair dressers (yet a fair criticism of the macho attitude of Israeli society), and the terrible way that Palestinians were portrayed. Jack Shaheen is having a field day with this movie.
At the beginning there was a funny bit of dialogue that showed that the makers of the movie weren't total Islamophobic idiots. As Zohan, the superhuman Israeli counter-terrorism commando, has a fight scene with Hamas terrorists, in between punches in kicks they begin to argue about the conflict saying, "you know, its not so cut and dry, we've been here for a long time" "Right, and there were never any Jews in the Middle East." After hearing that exchange I had false hopes that the movie would continue with witty, intelligent humor instead of Sandler's usual poo poo jokes, but I was wrong. I should have remembered that movies like this are funny for the first ten minutes in order to hook you, and then they just get stupid.
They started blurring the lines between Arab and Palestinian, at some points given them Saudi head coverings, confusing the Lebanese flag with the Palestinian flag, and persisting the Arab stereotypes that have been going on since the beginning of Hollywood. The writers must have done their homework. I can just see them watching Lawrence of Arabia, taking notes, and saying, "Yeah, thats offensive and inaccurate, let's add that to the storyboard." Having the evil Palestinian leader surrounded by a harem of belly dancers and making the Arabs so incompetent that they couldn't figure out how to make a bomb, forcing them to call the Hizbollah hotline, must have been taken straight out of Arabs in American Media 101.
I understand that stereotypes are funny and that they are an easy way to introduce a character in a short period of time, but we shouldn't be trying to persist those stereotypes. It is movies like these that lead to the experience that I had in the airport in Detroit. Producers should start focusing less on "how can we make the most money with the least amount of thought" and more on "how can we make a great movie that will be funny for a mainstream audience."
Even comedic movies that focus on stereotypes can be made intelligent. Take Borat, for example. It was a smart film because they used stereotypes to poke fun at the kind of people who use and believe these stereotypes. So although there were parts of the movie that seemed anti-semitic, in reality they were making fun of anti-semites and may have even opened peoples consciousness to antisemitism. We need more Sacha Baron Cohen films.

I am officially a terrorist

Last week I visited Tammy in SyraJews. Getting there was a huge balagan because of the ice storm that swept through the Midwest, but my favorite part of the voyage was my encounter with the police.
I had a layover in Detroit, and I was talking to Tammy on the phone while I was at the gate waiting for the flight. I was telling her how I hadn't davened yet, and how davening in front of everyone in the Detroit airport was sketchy, but definitely not as sketchy as when I davened in the lobby of a hotel in Egypt when I was there with her last summer. I said sarcastically that there is probably less of a Taliban presence in this airport than there was in that hotel. And then, I went on to tell her how I learned some new words in Arabic. And then I did this crazy prayer ritual. Normal activity in the life of Eric, right?
But when we started boarding, the lady at the desk pulled me aside because she wanted to "have a word with me." Apparently, I had made some other passengers "feel uncomfortable" by using the word "Taliban" in public. And the procedure for dealing with possible terrorists is to immediately inform the captain, who ordered that I was not allowed to get on the plane until the airport police had come and interrogated me, and that if it took long enough they would fly away without me. So I watched everyone else board the plane as I was questioned by three police officers who proceeded to ask me stupid questions and check my criminal record. The whole time I had to stop myself from flipping out at the ridiculousness of the situation, but I knew that if I did that, there was no way I was getting to SyraJews before Shabbas. I eventually got on the plane and made it there, although I did get some really nice looks as I boarded the plane at the last minute. I stared back at my "fellow passengers" with my beady Jihad-eyes hoping to freak them out, but trying to avoid making any sudden movements so as not to get shot by a sky marshal.

My reaction to the whole situation can be summed up in one phrase, "What the fuck!?" It's not like the new Arabic words I had learned were "lets kill Americans" or "I can't wait to blow myself up on this flight." Of course, no one should be profiled for looking or acting like a terrorist, but... I don't even look Arab! I look as white as any other stupid hillbilly on that flight. They hear the word "Taliban" in an airport and they freak out? What kind of people have Americans evolved into since 9/11? And that they can't even tell the difference between a Muslim prayer and a Jewish prayer? These people must have been so ignorant, sucking in every anti-Arab anti-Muslim slogan they hear, soaking up all of Bush's anti-terrorist propaganda for the past seven years. I really think its sad. I can't imagine what its like for arabic-speakers or people with hijabs or even dark skin. I got a little taste of what they must experience all the time.
It's a good thing I cut off my beard a week ago though, it was huge. I definitely would not have gotten on the flight with that baby.