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*** THE ALIYAH REVOLUTION ALBUM ***

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Media Analysis for Rosh Hashana

By גיל רונן

Mama said knock you out!

Class, let us look at this piece in Ynet B'Ivrit, shall we?

The headline says - Soldier's Mother: "I'm Calm, the Kid Isn't Going Back to Zikim"

You see, this item and the talkbacks to it actually encapsulate much of Israel's pacifist problem, and its solution.

As we learned in the first semester of this course, the Left in Israel has been using a Cindy Sheehan "Mother" type approach very successfuly over the past 20 years. The discourse is 50% radical post-marxist feminism, 50% Yiddishe-mameh castrative.

The article's heading and the use of of the word "child/children" with regard to the soldiers doing basic training in Zikim are classic Yiddishe-feminist-pacifist defeatism. The Middle East's toughest army, the IDF, is not being bombed by terrorist scum, the subtext says. Jewish children are being bombed and their mothers/parents will save them by evacuating them from Zikim. There is no masculine army defending us, it says. There are only children who long for their mothers' comforting hug.

Sub-subtext: WE ARE DOOMED.

As of 8:15 Wednesday, the item is top story in Ynet. The lowdown on the attack on Syria is (pardon me) lower down, despite being much more significant militarily and more recent. Taking it a step further - the headline actually tries to answer the criticism that the editor (probably one of the feminist-pacifists who abound behind the scenes in Ynet) knows is coming: no, the mother says, I'm not being hysterical. "I'm calm." But my child is staying home, i.e. refusing to serve. Because the big bad men of Gaza shot a rocket at him.

Those of us old and wise enough to know how this kind of discourse took over our lives during Shelly Yechimovich's years in Voice of Israel, and how it featured in the "Four Mothers" campaign, and how IDF bases have been taken over by mothers (and fathers) with the help of Yechimovich sidekick Carmela Menashe, and how sick and weak this made the army - know what the danger is.

What I am happy about is the talkbacks. If you want to enjoy them, you'd better learn you some Ivrit.

Shana Tova - this bodes well.

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posted by גיל רונן @ 7:59 AM







3 Comments:

  • At 5:14 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    You see, this item and the talkbacks to it actually encapsulate much of Israel's pacifist problem

    I read the first 20 talkbacks at ynet and excluding 2-3 one-liners they're all basically saying what you wrote above. I think most Israelis realize how ridiculous the mothers' behaviour is.

    And I don't think that this is related to leftist-pacifist ideology. The parents who came to Zikim to save their "children" weren't Haaretz-reading intellectuals from northern Tel Aviv. They were what some people call "Israeli rednecks" -- bamba-chewing sefaradim in polyester sweatpants and orange crocs. These are the type of families that jobnicks generally come from. They're basically good people but very egoistic and completely devoid of Zionist ideology. Considering the spineless, defeatist leadership of the country over the last decade I don't blame them for having no faith in the army and no desire to have their children risk their lives in the IDF. But these people weren't the ones who were calling for a withdrawl from Lebanon during the "four mothers" campaign or calling for a withdrawl from Yesha. I think their attitude is the fruit of years of appeasement and defeatism by the Labor, Likud and Kadima governments, and leftist ideology has very little to do with it.

     

  • At 4:58 AM , Blogger גיל רונן said...

    Natan hi,

    I disagree.

    First of all, I am averse to slapping on stereotypes like "bamba-chewing sefaradim in polyester sweatpants and orange crocs." Plus, in this case the stereotyping is simply inacurate: some of these "rednecks" are among Israels' best fighters, and many of the Ramat Aviv types are the ones who tend to serve as jobnikim.

    In this analysis of the Zikim debate, NRG's military writer says the opposite of what you said: that the only reason the media is giving these parents more play is that they are well connected and capable of going to the High Court, as opposed to the Sderot parents who nobody really cares about.

    In any case, the "sephardi redneck" type of thinking is way wrong and is no longer very acceptable among Israelis, most of whom are becoming mixed anyways, eda-wise.

     

  • At 5:19 AM , Blogger גיל רונן said...

    Look, even Ehud Asheri of Haaretz is talking about this here:

    התחושה היתה שהצבא נהפך לתוכנית "כבקשתך", סוג של קייטנה, שמשתתפיה אינם חיילים, אלא "ילדים" שנשלחים אליה על פי תנאי הוריהם.

    He also notes that

    כדאי לזכור שהשינוי במאזן הכוח בין צה"ל לחברה האזרחית לא צמח בחלל ריק; הוא פרי של תהליכים חברתיים, פוליטיים ותרבותיים, שכירסמו בהדרגה במעמדו המסורתי של הצבא וצימצמו בעקביות את סמכותו וחופש הפעולה שלו.

    ...although for him, obviously, the reasons are not Yechimovich and Menashe but the settlers and the kiboosh.

    And what you said about the talkbackers agreeing with me? Yes, that is precisely my point. That they agree with me. It is a sign that the people are thinking (somewhat) straight again. It was not like that a year ago.

     

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