Champagne Zionism
So heres to 3 events that have buoyed the secular-zionist heretic in me that lurks just below my religious-zionist fascard.
Bloody hell i hate being assumed to be a raving right-wing settler and suppporter of the mavdal (the National Religious Party). Note: I stopped wearing my Tzitzit out when a taxi driver assumed he was taking me to the West Bank as I looked to him like the stereotype of what the world likes to call a 'Jewish Settler'. I am a secular, cultural zionist at heart and devotee of Ahad Ha'am in many respects. Anyway more of this rant later,well before i leave it alone, much as i love my little jerusalem bubble and living in Jerusalem in general, Jerusalem is not Zionism, it is not Israel (no im not making a radical leftist political statement about the future status of Jerusalem, its just Jerusalem is not 'the real israel' as so many people will cheesily claim, it is not representative of what the Zionist dream, such as it was, was all about and you cannot possible claim that it is any way representative religiously, ethnically and politically of the rest of the country).
Anyway i digress, even before i started, impressive...
So first football...for this im taking you back to March, a time of celebration. Initially and primarily because of the Marriage of Jon and Shula - Landsman (extremely close family friends). So first off all the family are here Mum, Dad Nina and Dan- Nina enlargening with my new nice/nephew inside (ill be, please G-d an uncle by mid July).
The weekend before the wedding is a critcal Wold Cup qualifying match in Tel Aviv Israel vs Ireland. One side of the Landsman family herald from Dublin's Jewish community and have come in force for the wedding and of course the game, for which a coach had been laid on from Jerusalem.
The game itself was not great, but was marked by a jovial and respectful atmosphere and critically a superb 1-1 result for israel - secured with a last minute equalising goal. So aside from the result the best moment of the evening and the most stirring by far was the stirring rendition of the Hatikvah.
Publicly singing of the national anthem is always a moving and enjoyable moment. This was extra special. The stadium is a wash in blue and white, flags are waving , people of all different stripes, religious, secular, jewish, arab, citizen, visitor are joining with gusto, 40,000 of them! Having 40,000 people fill the evening air with the stirring melody and moving words of the Hatikvah is something that will remain etched on my memory forever as i stood, we stood as one, belting out the lyrics. Superbly spine-tingling stuff!
Particularly when you compare the friendly atmosphere with that which greated the french football team the following wednesday in the second of this huge World cup qualification double-header. Again a largely poor match, marked by vicious play and a superb 1-1 result for israel.
The french dont have a good reputation here and are seen as anti-semitic and anti-israel. This image was not helped by some ill advised comments (for which he later apologised, to no avail) by Barthez the French Goalkeeper who said we didnt want to puit himself and by extgension his family at risk by coming to israel and 'support the occupation' by coming to Israel Ramat Gan Stadium (Suburban Tel Aviv) isn't exactly Hebron, Fabian!. Anyway, needless to say these comments did not endear him to the crowd and the match itself was full of bad blood. In a moment of pleasing poetic justice Israel's goal was caused by a goal keeping error and scored by one of the Israeli-Arabs in the National Team. Couldnt have been planned better! Beautiful.
The return game with Ireland was proceeded by many things, but while were ona Zionist theme i wasnted to mention Yom Ha'atmaut (independence day). A group of us went into town to mark the celebrations. Whilst there, I saw David Broza's free concert at Zion Square - very cool, slightly ironic that he lives in new york these days (allegedly)- but no one mentioned that so it was ok. And then there was all night israeli dancing outside the town hall. That was really cool, i didnt think people really did that anymore, but there were young people and even real israelis not just American sem-girls and tourists, hurrumph for Zionism's cheesy side - long may it continue!
I actually had another of my big warm-fuzzy i love israel moments that night, the like of which i havent had for ages. I was standing watching the concert and everyone was whooping and screaming as David Broza played, everyone cheered whenever he mentioned Israel, 57 years of the State, Happy Yom Ha'atmaut' etc. Pleasingly this wasnt just a frum, crowd, there was young (lots of young children too) and old secular and religious all brought together by their love of Israel and whatever it means for them.
Everyone sang Yiheh Tov together with David Brozaand there were fireworks too, the feeling was magic.
The moment was somewhat dissipated when they immediately called Jerusalem's Mayor the Ultra-Orthodox Uri Lapolansky to the stage to address the crowd. Never mix politics with a rare moment of happiness and unity like this!
To be fair, lapolansky has wide cross-sector appeal primarliy as the founder of Yad Sarah, a Jerusalem wide charity that works with all sections of the community. Also as charedim go, he's pretty damn liberal ( i mean apart from having to please everybody all of the time anyway) he recently permitted the annual Jerusalem gay pride parade to take place as normal.
And so again to the football. The return Ireland-Israel match was a week and a half ago. Again it was dirty and a fairly poor game, which Ireland should have won easily, especially given that they were 2-0 ahead after 20 minutes. By half-time it was 2-2! Israel only had 2 shots on target all night- the second a controversial and retaken penalty.
Jo and i and some either friends watched on a big screen in a bar down town. It was fun to watch the game surrounded by real israelis at the bar - even if they did talk through the national anthem and kept their mobile phones on throughout the game!
This was a superb result and leaves Israel with a genuine chance of qualifying for next years World Cup. Come On!
Champagne zionist, me? Yeah really
Bloody hell i hate being assumed to be a raving right-wing settler and suppporter of the mavdal (the National Religious Party). Note: I stopped wearing my Tzitzit out when a taxi driver assumed he was taking me to the West Bank as I looked to him like the stereotype of what the world likes to call a 'Jewish Settler'. I am a secular, cultural zionist at heart and devotee of Ahad Ha'am in many respects. Anyway more of this rant later,well before i leave it alone, much as i love my little jerusalem bubble and living in Jerusalem in general, Jerusalem is not Zionism, it is not Israel (no im not making a radical leftist political statement about the future status of Jerusalem, its just Jerusalem is not 'the real israel' as so many people will cheesily claim, it is not representative of what the Zionist dream, such as it was, was all about and you cannot possible claim that it is any way representative religiously, ethnically and politically of the rest of the country).
Anyway i digress, even before i started, impressive...
So first football...for this im taking you back to March, a time of celebration. Initially and primarily because of the Marriage of Jon and Shula - Landsman (extremely close family friends). So first off all the family are here Mum, Dad Nina and Dan- Nina enlargening with my new nice/nephew inside (ill be, please G-d an uncle by mid July).
The weekend before the wedding is a critcal Wold Cup qualifying match in Tel Aviv Israel vs Ireland. One side of the Landsman family herald from Dublin's Jewish community and have come in force for the wedding and of course the game, for which a coach had been laid on from Jerusalem.
The game itself was not great, but was marked by a jovial and respectful atmosphere and critically a superb 1-1 result for israel - secured with a last minute equalising goal. So aside from the result the best moment of the evening and the most stirring by far was the stirring rendition of the Hatikvah.
Publicly singing of the national anthem is always a moving and enjoyable moment. This was extra special. The stadium is a wash in blue and white, flags are waving , people of all different stripes, religious, secular, jewish, arab, citizen, visitor are joining with gusto, 40,000 of them! Having 40,000 people fill the evening air with the stirring melody and moving words of the Hatikvah is something that will remain etched on my memory forever as i stood, we stood as one, belting out the lyrics. Superbly spine-tingling stuff!
Particularly when you compare the friendly atmosphere with that which greated the french football team the following wednesday in the second of this huge World cup qualification double-header. Again a largely poor match, marked by vicious play and a superb 1-1 result for israel.
The french dont have a good reputation here and are seen as anti-semitic and anti-israel. This image was not helped by some ill advised comments (for which he later apologised, to no avail) by Barthez the French Goalkeeper who said we didnt want to puit himself and by extgension his family at risk by coming to israel and 'support the occupation' by coming to Israel Ramat Gan Stadium (Suburban Tel Aviv) isn't exactly Hebron, Fabian!. Anyway, needless to say these comments did not endear him to the crowd and the match itself was full of bad blood. In a moment of pleasing poetic justice Israel's goal was caused by a goal keeping error and scored by one of the Israeli-Arabs in the National Team. Couldnt have been planned better! Beautiful.
The return game with Ireland was proceeded by many things, but while were ona Zionist theme i wasnted to mention Yom Ha'atmaut (independence day). A group of us went into town to mark the celebrations. Whilst there, I saw David Broza's free concert at Zion Square - very cool, slightly ironic that he lives in new york these days (allegedly)- but no one mentioned that so it was ok. And then there was all night israeli dancing outside the town hall. That was really cool, i didnt think people really did that anymore, but there were young people and even real israelis not just American sem-girls and tourists, hurrumph for Zionism's cheesy side - long may it continue!
I actually had another of my big warm-fuzzy i love israel moments that night, the like of which i havent had for ages. I was standing watching the concert and everyone was whooping and screaming as David Broza played, everyone cheered whenever he mentioned Israel, 57 years of the State, Happy Yom Ha'atmaut' etc. Pleasingly this wasnt just a frum, crowd, there was young (lots of young children too) and old secular and religious all brought together by their love of Israel and whatever it means for them.
Everyone sang Yiheh Tov together with David Brozaand there were fireworks too, the feeling was magic.
The moment was somewhat dissipated when they immediately called Jerusalem's Mayor the Ultra-Orthodox Uri Lapolansky to the stage to address the crowd. Never mix politics with a rare moment of happiness and unity like this!
To be fair, lapolansky has wide cross-sector appeal primarliy as the founder of Yad Sarah, a Jerusalem wide charity that works with all sections of the community. Also as charedim go, he's pretty damn liberal ( i mean apart from having to please everybody all of the time anyway) he recently permitted the annual Jerusalem gay pride parade to take place as normal.
And so again to the football. The return Ireland-Israel match was a week and a half ago. Again it was dirty and a fairly poor game, which Ireland should have won easily, especially given that they were 2-0 ahead after 20 minutes. By half-time it was 2-2! Israel only had 2 shots on target all night- the second a controversial and retaken penalty.
Jo and i and some either friends watched on a big screen in a bar down town. It was fun to watch the game surrounded by real israelis at the bar - even if they did talk through the national anthem and kept their mobile phones on throughout the game!
This was a superb result and leaves Israel with a genuine chance of qualifying for next years World Cup. Come On!
Champagne zionist, me? Yeah really
posted by Ben at 10:32 pm
1 Comments:
First of all, it's mafdal, not mavdal: stands for miflaga datit leumit.
Second, they are not all raving right wingers, as you seem to think. You can learn more about the party and its history at
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mafdal
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