Song in Lieberman TV ad seems to echo Nazi anthem in ‘Cabaret,’ ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’

by on February 22, 2009 25

Here’s Avigdor Lieberman’s stirring ad on Israeli TV, a song sung by (the wonderful but scary) Russian Aleksandr Rosenbaum, in Russian, over Holocaust imagery and Jerusalem footage. Watch it to the end. Someone who knows a little Russki tells me the words are all about the singular beauty of Israel, its land and history…


Okay, now here’s “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from Cabaret. No translation needed. There’s a lot about the beauty of the land here, too, its traditions, and nationalist symbols, too:

Do you hear an echo? I do.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine, US Politics

{ 25 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. David F. says:
    February 22, 2009 at 12:09 pm

    Okay, a Israeli nationalist tv-ad, sung in RUSSIAN?

    It was weirdly retro, almost like it was based on a Soviet film glorifying the Kibbutz movement and Social-Zionism, but with updated visuals.

  2. LD says:
    February 22, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    Affirming that Israeli society has become fascistic and radically nationalistic? The world knew this since 1900. The ignoramuses are only just now learning of the parallels between German nationalism and Jewish nationalism.

    If Jews didn't shovel the memory of the Holocaust down peoples' throats then we'd treat them like human beings, like everyone else.

  3. translator from russian says:
    February 22, 2009 at 1:06 pm

    in seven winds and on seven hills
    I found myself, but lost you..
    Just one aim – Eretz Israel,
    Just one anthem – Ierusalim
    Yom-velaila yom-velaila
    The Jew plays with fate every day
    Yom-velila, yom-velaila
    All we are called by Ierushalaim
    Blood and tears year after year
    Ierushalaim, you have always been with (your) people
    [The sky was burning, (they) burned Rabbai
    But the world remembers Sinai and the rage of "entepe"] — 2 times (NTP??)

    alschim aharim, akolot harim bla-bla-bla-bla (in barbaric lingo)
    shil ko ha shirim (the whole stanza in barbaric)
    …………….
    …………….
    It was shining to us through all our hurts,
    the six-point star of david,
    anad madenu ad kora lenu (more in barbaric)
    …….
    and there is no land where we are unknown
    All is great, my friends, our home is Israel

    THIS IS AN EL:ECTORAL AD for the party "Our Home is Israel"

  4. music man says:
    February 22, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    Tomorrow Belongs To Me, set to a German folk song, lyrics written by a famous jewish team.

  5. Sword of Gideonthe point. says:
    February 22, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    I can see where this would bother "Pig Weiss" Israeli soldiers, Jews that wave the israeli flag. The western wall. All anathema to the "Pig".

  6. marco ross says:
    February 22, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    Entepe is Entebbe, the Israeli rescue of hostages in Uganda in 1976

  7. chris berel says:
    February 22, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    LD, if we didn't constantly shove the holocaust into every single one of your orifices 24 four hours a day, you might breed. And that would be a shonda.

    You really don't think any of us care what you think or how you'd treat us, do you?

    Are you really that stupid?

  8. Main Street says:
    February 22, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    lol, chris & Soggy actually think we care about them. We salute the red, white, and blue–not the blue & white hex flag.

  9. chris berel says:
    February 22, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    Actually, we don't. We know real Americans do, but not people like you.

  10. goy says:
    February 22, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    Real Americans salute a foreign flag?

    LOL

  11. Suzanne says:
    February 22, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    We salute the red, white, and blue–not the blue & white hex flag.

    Yeah, yeah, but you sure spend oodles of time thinking about that hex flag everyday, don't you?

    Pretty creepy.

  12. Eurosabra says:
    February 22, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    It should be noted that religious iconography is still present, and the references to it are in Hebrew, and they are purely Jewish Biblical references of the type often made in Israeli culture. If anything, the hostility towards Judaism expressed by the critics of that ad is noteworthy, because the "barbaric" terms are in fact use of the religious vocabulary of quiescent, pietistic Jewish communities of Jerusalem. If the Western Wall is "barbarism", then you must admit your objection is to Jews' prayer at their holiest site, which simply makes you anti-Semitic assholes. I would actually have expected a philo-Semitic objection to a cynical Russo-Jewish nationalist's CO-OPTATION of traditional Judaism, but since you hate Jews and Judaism as such it didn't occur to you.

  13. Citizen says:
    February 22, 2009 at 6:42 pm

    Sure is. What normal American would not think it's pretty creepy to salute a foreign hex flag? All Americans, except those drilled in goy-protected jewish summer camp as children. Or those who came back here from Israel as dual citizens.

  14. Suzanne says:
    February 22, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    My horrified revelation of the day: Anti-Semitism exists because all these puerile wee-wees want to be called Chosen People.

    If they can't be called chosen people then no one can. That's their credo.

    Beam me up, Scotty, I believe I've just landed on the planet of the Apes.

  15. Duscany says:
    February 22, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    The "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" segment is such a wonderful piece of film making, from the clear tones of the blond Hitler-youth singer, to the fish-lipped girl with a zealot's demeanor jumping up to join in, to the distressed old man in the black cap (a disillusioned veteran of the Great War) declining to stand up as everyone else rises to their feet in patriotic frenzy.

  16. David F. says:
    February 22, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    Eurosaba: I would actually have expected a philo-Semitic objection to a cynical Russo-Jewish nationalist's CO-OPTATION of traditional Judaism, but since you hate Jews and Judaism as such it didn't occur to you.

    You must have missed my post, Eurosaba. For my part, I am so frusterated at the way the Jewish religious heritage has been subsumed into a 19th century ethno-nationalist movement.

    I have no problem with Zionism per-se, only with the US paying so much of its political, financial, and humanitarian costs.

    From a religious standpoint, though, I think Zionism is idolatry.

  17. Chris Berel says:
    February 22, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Judaism. You seem to be a member in good standing at Phil's phools.

    Many of your compatriots are upset at the amount of money the US spends on aid to Africa to control AIDS.

    Many of your compatriots are upset with the amount of money being spent in West Virginia to alleviate hunger.

    Seems very few care what upsets you and your friends.

  18. Koshiro says:
    February 23, 2009 at 5:14 am

    What's Michael York saying at the end? (I don't know the movie, only the stage version.)

    @ Suzanne
    "My horrified revelation of the day: Anti-Semitism exists because all these puerile wee-wees want to be called Chosen People."
    You misspelled "Zionism" there.

  19. Golden Rule says:
    February 23, 2009 at 10:38 am

    Where's your proof Chris Berel? We know, why spend usa tax dollars on AIDS control in Africa or in behalf the Irish-Scot denizens of West Virginia, when it can be better used funding the whims of the much smaller 2% of the usa population that is Jewish–in a foreign land yet, a land that practices ethnocentric rule?

  20. Citizen says:
    February 23, 2009 at 10:57 am

    Koshiro , while peeling the layers off Sally's flamboyance, Brian comes to see that the decadence in the German capital harbors genuine evil (to which Sally is oblivious). He also discovers his own bisexuality. The screen writer and director are responsible for the very evocative capture of a moment in time that would become
    legion, and change the course of history. Duscany is perceptive. The Cabaret film segment shows us the
    problem when tribal idealism brings itself into unbalanced play against real hurts absorbed by the tribe.
    Brian sees this. The worst side of romanticism is given the audience–who have the advantage of
    looking back over many years. Too bad the hasbara crowd here does not get the point at all–i.e.,
    why Phil showed the two video clips.

    As an aside, the the film cabaret was true art at its best in depicting the human condition at a certain time and place. The other video clip at best is really bad propaganda "art", like something out of Bolshevik Russia.

  21. Suzanne says:
    February 23, 2009 at 11:53 am

    Citizen–I nailed it yesterday when I said you were guilty of tribal jealousy–all bent out shape, and feelings hurt about something that was written in the Bible.

    You need to overcome your cultural baggage and move into the 21st century. Emotionally, you're stuck in the 18th-19th century. That's why no one takes your fringe politics seriously.

  22. Suzanne says:
    February 23, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    In keeping with the new policy (which I saw after I posted) let me reframe my message so that it does not single out Citizen.

    I think the obsession with Israel and Jews–is not so much concern about Palestinians in many cases, but a centuries old tribalist mindset playing itself out in the 21st century. Some infantile people feel spurned because they can't let go of this biblical concept of Chosen People.

    Jews don't seem to be terribly focused on this Chosen People thing….other people however…whoa!

  23. AntiHasbara says:
    February 23, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    Keep sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich, Suzanne. People hate Israel because of its' actions, not because the Jewish people think they are the "Chosen People".

  24. Koshiro says:
    February 23, 2009 at 6:16 pm

    "Jews don't seem to be terribly focused on this Chosen People thing."
    Huh? Have you ever seen, heard or read what religious settler types have to say about this?
    And FYI: If someone disapproves of an attitude, it does not mean that they are jealous. It could just mean for example, that you don't believe in God, and much less believe in "chosen" people.

  25. Citizen says:
    February 23, 2009 at 8:41 pm

    Suzanne needs to read the statement of principles and mission on the world zionism web site. It also wouldn't hurt for her to read the statements of Israeli leaders over the years, not to mention, the myriad of opinions by Israel Firsters over the years in the USA MSM. When Suzanne is done boning so up, she can start reading the zionist leaders public appeals dating from the 19th Century.

    As AnatiHasbara suggests, who cares if someone thinks they are chosen by G-D? Not I. But when they act upon
    this fantasy, over and over again, and I have to pay for it, and it's done in my name as a USA citizen, I object. Pardon me for being a responsible Citizen of a nation with the highest values enshrined in its
    founding documents, and a long history of bloody conflict to fulfill those values.

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