I write often about how sex is used to stoke young American Jews' identification with Israel. A lot of American Jews lose their virginity there. Rose Surnow has a funny piece up about Birthright, called "I gave a handjob at Jew Camp". Notice how Jewishness is almost an anti-tribal identity in her piece. Oh and if you think this is the basis of real political solidarity....
Without question the best thing about being Jewish is the free sex vacation to Israel. Most Jewish youths between the ages of 18 and 26 have taken advantage of this miraculous perk to enjoy a weeklong, all-expenses-paid orgy in the desert. I am, of course, referring to Birthright. The goal of Birthright, which is partially sponsored by the Israeli government, is that young Semites will meet, marry and procreate, yielding little mini Jews. I am not religious but I do love hummus and making out, so obviously I had to go...
As soon as we got back from the Holy Land we made a plan to get lunch in SoHo. It was so trippy to see my Birthright boyfriend here in my very own city! As soon as we started talking and catching up, Matt was being awkward. He was so cold that at one point during the meal I just asked him flat-out, “What is going on?” Apparently, he was deeply offended that I had conflicted feelings about Israel. As the tattoo of the Israeli flag on his thigh would indicate, he was pretty hardcore about the issue. He told me he couldn’t date someone who didn’t 100% embrace and support Israel. I told him I couldn’t date someone with a thigh tattoo. Our relationship in New York lasted approximately two lemonades and one salad. I guess once we got back to reality it was clear we actually had nothing in common. Oh well, we’ll always have the Bedouin tent.
The image of orgiastic zionist youths in action does not appeal in the slightest – neither erotically nor politically.
The above article is proof positive that zionists are dumb f*cks for falling for the proverbial and primordial ‘honey-trap’.
i found the article funny, taxi, but when putin does something like this in russia (see ‘nashi’) encouraging the ‘right’ type of young russians to procreate, hooking up at patriotic youth camps, the natural analogy to the lebensborn program is made.
does not appeal in the slightest
i swear taxi, it’s even worse after you read it!
can’t stop laughing. can anyone even imagine a palestinian girl writing this???
;)
Maybe they should start selling it as Sex-Rite Israel: Your Right to Get Laid in THE Land. How about a sound-track of Summer Nights (He got friendly, holding my hand. She got friendly, down in the sand)? And then, in that beautiful Bedouin tent, westerners can project their orientalist stereotypes about the lush and decadent otherness of the experience and think that their sexual encounter in a tent with 45 other 20-somethings is adventurous and romantic (rather than degrading and depersonalized).
Somehow I have a hard time picturing 45 Palestinian Americans or Solidarity activists doing this together on a trip in a huge tent. It seems they have enough psychological stimulation, of a different kind, from the guards who the birthright visitors date.
I couldn’t sleep with a Zionist. Bar Rafaeli may be a popular lady but once she opens that mouth and those rs start rolling and then she starts on about ze Aghabs . Pass.
Damn funny.
Bedouin tent? Confiscated (with a tub of hummus) from Israeli Bedu, I s’pose. Very Israeli! (You know, because stolen.)
…the free sex vacation…a weeklong, all-expenses-paid orgy in the desert…
Phil, you are not gonna believe this…I just remembered! I don’t know how this could have slipped my mind…I am Jewish!!
Uh…where do I sign up?
Talk to the nearest mohel …
It isn’t worth it just for the sex, because it decreases performance.
that photo rose’s link is unreal! birthright to israel wallows in arab culture, that tent is amazing. wtf is it about jewish youth getting hot in a bedouin tent? jeez louise. because arab is hot hot sexy turnon.
i’m surprised you didn’t grab that photo for the post phil, says it all.
I guess mondoweiss doesn’t think arab is hot hot sexy turn on after all
you don’t think those tents are cool just say so.
No the tents are very cool in fact i visit them quite often
while camping in the Negev desert.
My remark was related to another censored comment but
it’s not that important.
That’s lovely Oleg. You should thank God you are a Russian Jew, a chosen person, and not a Palestinian Bedouin , an unwanted person, who wants to live in the desert in a tent as his people have done since long before Abraham turned up on the scene.
No deary, you didn’t “visit” the tents, you OCCUPIED them with brute base force.
don’t you find it a tad odd to bring jewish kids on a birthright trip for the purpose of embedding them in hebrew culture but when it comes time to hook them up they drop the hebrew/jewish thing and immerse them in an arab setting?
it just seems odd to me. i mean where’s the sexy jewish setting? or are they adopting the bedouin tents as they adopted hummus and the arab sunrise and arab night sky? and the land…
oh never mind. you wouldn’t understand. too primordial.
“i mean where’s the sexy jewish setting?”
I may sound rude, again, but I just can’t fit the words “sexy” and “Jewish” together. No doubt there are sexy Jews, but, for me, all the connotations of “Jewish” simply put a damper on sexiness.
RoHa, you sound like an old fart. there are definitely some sexy jews out there. trust me on that.
;)
“RoHa, you sound like an old fart”
I plead guilty. (And you left out “boring”. )
I’m sure there are sexy Jews out there, but the word “Jewish” makes me think of things like funny black hats, Mooser, bagels, and Barbara Streisland.
Of those, the ones nearest to sexy are the bagels, and they are not very.
Good with jam, though.
you’ve been deprived. my entire teen years i was engrossed in the melody/lyrics of laura nyro. my awakening.
link to youtube.com
another thing..it is irrelevant i had no idea she was jewish. it never even crossed my mind. which reminds me of another conversation we are having on another thread. so sorry to go OT on this one but it is fair to ask where her influence came from..ethnically she’s american italian and jewish. yet to me she was just laura, my huge influence as a young girl. i suppose my point is that one doesn’t always recognize the ethnic influence or is one even able to identify where ones attributes comes from because of the merging. to me she’s american but primarily ethnically a new yorker. but her influence on my life is immeasurable.
“yet to me she was just laura,”
And that is all she needs to be.
link to youtube.com
yeah, but in reality, like the rest of us, she did have an ethnicity. so when you say ‘bagels’ i have to say..i have to say..in the hours of my cryin’ days…
come on you old fart, you gotta admit she is sexier than a bagel
link to youtube.com
Sexier than a bagel with jam.
But the word “Jewish” doesn’t make me think of her. I’ve never heard of her before.
“in reality, like the rest of us, she did have an ethnicity”
I don’t think I’ve got one. I don’t remember having one, but if I ever did have one, I don’t know where it is now. Perhaps my wife put it away somewhere.
I don’t think I’ve got one. I don’t remember having one, but if I ever did have one, I don’t know where it is now.
funny, weren’t you just saying something about “un-Australian ideas, such as “food should have taste””
link to mondoweiss.net
maybe, being australian and all..you just do not recognize yourself as an ethnic being. but you do seem to recognize what’s NOT australian. you’ve got one, you better believe you’ve got one. your so full up on the media’s idea of what’s jewish (barbara/bagels) you’ve failed to identify what it means to you outside of that. think harder.
Well no Annie that’s because you are a bit unfamiliar
with the Israeli Jewish life experience and what it encompasses.
The desert is a huge part of Israel one of the more beautiful parts in it
i grew up there in fact in one of the small towns right on the edge of the
Ramon Crater.
Camping in the desert for a few days or visiting it is something that people
do routinely.
So it makes sense to show those Jewish kids the Israeli desert.
Regarding the question why in the Bedouin encampment for tourists
is because that they run it for the most part (the large ones at least) it’s their livelihood and they do a good job at it.
The idea afaik is to show those kids the Israeli version of Jewishness.
That’s a bit different then an American one.
And if you think about it deeper, who was our mutual patriarch Abraham according to the scriptures.
He was a nomad a Bedouin.
Regarding the sexy Jewish setting.This is Israel Annie a Jewish state, every sexy setting there is a sexy Jewish setting, by definition.
Australian is an ethnicity? Wow!
oleg,
Occupation and oppression are the antithesis of “sexy” – just ask any holocaust survivor if the SSS are sexy.
And because I know you won’t, I gotta tell you that you’re a miserable and vain colonialist who has no charm, no charisma and most certainly no mojo.
EVERYTHING in Apartheid israel is stolen by foreigners like you and will one day be returned to it’s rightful native owners – including all the freebie whorehouses in the Palestinian desert.
To say you utterly disgust me is to put it mildly.
I will chip in here having not read the previous thread, so pls forgive me in advance :-)
I don’t think of ‘Australian’ as an ethnicity but a nationality. The only authentic “ethnic” Australians are I guess aborigines. I think of Australia – and similarly the US and Canada – as multicultural ‘new world’ nations composed mostly of immigrants. We are lucky in that we can easily shed a lot of the old ethnic conflicts that belong to the ‘old world’ – e.g. Europe, or Asia, or the ME, or Africa etc.
It is much easier for our nations to be multicultural because of the whole ‘melting pot’ concept. This is also inextricably tied up with post-colonialism – the responsibilities of the new world countries to make amends for the impact that settlement had on the indigenous population.
Just looking around on wiki I found this Annie – a list of Australian ethnicities:
Demographics of Australia / Ethnicities
No plain old ethnicity “Australian” – always the hyphenated one!
Anyway to bring this back to I/P – when Israel transitions to a single state with equal rights it will also become in my mind a new world country, on account of the way it was settled since 1947. It will have to go through exactly the same transition our countries have or are undertaking from colonial to post-colonial.
A long way to go indeed.
“This is Israel Annie”
Nope. It’s Palestine. Always was, always will be.
Some people get several homelands to choose to live in, while others get practically none.
“we can easily shed a lot of the old ethnic conflicts that belong to the ‘old world’ ”
Though the Serbian and Croatian immigrants seem to find it difficult. (Particularly in the later 1960s.)
“It is much easier for our nations to be multicultural because of the whole ‘melting pot’ concept. ”
There is a tension between the ‘melting pot’ concept – which I approve of – and some standard versions of multiculturalism. The melting pot involves all the immigrants integrating into a mixture.
Not too long ago I saw a video of some girls in Adelaide doing some Indonesian dancing at a festival. At least half the girls were blonde, with no sign of any Indonesian ancestry. Chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow, and chicken tikka pizza is a British national dish. Our PM, the Leader of the Opposition, and the openly lesbian Minister for Finance and Paper Clips (Penny Wong) are all immigrants. They all sound more Australian than I do. These are examples of melting pot integration, with the various strands coming together to form a single culture.
The multiculturalists seem to me to want a sort of apartheid, by encouraging the immigrants to cling to their old ways, remain in separate “ethnic communities” and by slapping hyphenated labels onto them. This, first and foremost, unfair to the children. (It is also racist and immoral to exempt immigrants from their duties to society on the grounds that the immigrants are a bit brown.) They seem to think that integration is somehow wrong, in spite of the long history showing that integrated societies work far more smoothly than segregated societies.
“Some people get several homelands to choose to live in, while others get practically none.”
What do you mean by a homeland? As a dual citizen, I can choose to live in Britain and Australia. (Via my wife, it would not be too difficult to go to live in Japan as well.)
But my home is in Australia, so that is my homeland now.
We’re pretty much on the same page RoHa, except I haven’t really encountered any multiculturalists who would actually encourage immigrants to ‘ghettoise’ themselves [my shorthand words not yours].
I think we should go fairly easy on 1st generation immigrants, especially economic immigrants or refugees – it’s not easy for them. Everyone knows the story of someone who was a doctor or professional in their home country and they land here and end up unemployed or in some menial job that is nowhere near tapping their intelligence or capabilities. Things will be different for their children. Everyone should have to learn English, and beyond that they should be free to integrate as little or as much as they want. I have in mind especially refugees. I think they’ve probably been through enough already.
Thinking of something like the Cronulla Riots – that had as much to do with idiot racist white bogans thinking they epitomise “Australian”, as any immigrants integrating or not.
“I think we should go fairly easy on 1st generation immigrants, especially economic immigrants or refugees – it’s not easy for them. ”
In general, yes. It varies with age and background.
” they should be free to integrate as little or as much as they want.”
Don’t entirely agree there. I think they should set up ghettoes.
“idiot racist white bogans”
If I am not already on record for this, I’ll say now that I much prefer slim, smart immigrants to fat, stupid, bogans.
Hold on – that’s a typo right? You meant to say “don’t think they should…”, right??
I agree. I live near one of the big housing commission blocks in Melbourne with a large African population, a lot of Sudanese and Somali refugees. Because it’s housing commission (public housing for non-Aussies) there is a clustering of population. I don’t know if you’d call it a ghetto though…
You must have good genes. We’ll let the bogans interbreed themselves out of existence :-)
“agree. I live near one of the big housing commission blocks in Melbourne with a large African population, a lot of Sudanese and Somali refugees.”
ah yes i have been there near st vincent hospital, only place i could find foul medammes in the city, loads out by roxburgh (?) park, many arabs and arabic shops, syrians and lebanese, and sri lankans, i lived on rotis and foul, everybody rubs along very well, i got to know a lot of Sri lankans who seemed very chatty and at ease, katta sambol is delicious and lunimaris (?)
a friend works for the local municipality, putting up signs designating one or other tribe as “tradtional owners” of the land on city buildings, i couldnt help but conclude that “traditional” ownership is to ownership, what obama is to change, i’d be pissed off to be robbed of a whole continent, treated like a brute and then be fobbed off with a brass plaque, i found no black conciousness in Oz amongst the longstanding immigrants, i noticed a whole lot of anti-indigenous racism, both casual and passionate.
as to ghettos why not if they want, whats wrong with a voluntary ghetto, integration, even though i have participated in the formal process and various strategies in various countries i still have no clue what is meant by it, it doesnt seem to mean people doing what they want which is what i would recommend, are rich people and poor integrated? if not why not.
I saw a young white skater dude get badly chopped up by some “asian” boys, possibly vietnamese in st. kilda’s by the beach, while watching the amazing kite boarding skills of the locals, well i was amazed they were spectacular, the stabbing was apparently related to tensions about drug selling territory so the cops claimed, i didnt see any street dealing. he was not that badly hurt nasty slice across shoulder and deep gash on the forearm and back of the head, he trembled a bit but on the whole he coped.
Aaaaarrrgggghhh! Yes, the “don’t” should be in there.
Ghettoes are bad for the children, in that they cut them off from the greater society they live in. This is usually a disadvantage.
>> RoHa: I think they should set up ghettoes.
>> Sumud: Hold on – that’s a typo right? You meant to say “don’t think they should…”, right??
>> RoHa: Aaaaarrrgggghhh! Yes, the “don’t” should be in there.
I think RoHa should not be ridiculed for having made a mistake.
Ooops, hang on, I *ahem* inadvertently omitted a “don’t”… ;-)
I think RoHa should not be ridiculed for having made a mistake.
Well, it’s not as if RoHa ever points out other people’s mistakes or anything. We should really cut him some slack. Nobody’s prefect and mitsakes will happen, especially in a nedium such as tis.
Ugh, don’t know how I am going to get the picture of this out of my mind.
arab culture? what arab culture? those were israeli rugs and tapestries. and the double-h of birthright, the hummus and hookah? mmm, yeah, israeli.
Being from a more backward country I find the idea of a sex camp to promote some national feeling in bad taste.
And besides why not hire some prostitutes to entertain the boys? This doesn’t leave anything to chance, and a new Jew could be born every 9 months, for every girl. The battle would be finally won, as I doubt Islam will tolerate something like this.
“A lot of American Jews lose their virginity there.”
And wasn’t there a half-Jewish American woman writer who claimed she lost it in a taxi-cab? Frankly, I am just a little leery of this whole “losing” of virginity. If so much goddam virginity has been lost everywhere, how come I can never find any? Ah well, that’s life, you can’t get enough of that funky stuff (I’ve tried, I’ve tried!) and you can’t find virginity, only lose it. Maybe I’ll make inter-alia. I bet if I was in Israel I could find my virginity.
I think Rose IS funny. Obviously she is someone who wouldn’t have a problem telling her parents that there was no happy Israeli end to her trip. (Unlike Ilyse Hogue)
Well – there was a happy ending for Matt.
Yeah, what are you talking about, no happy ending?
As they have long said, Israel will always be “a handjob without a people, for a people without a handjob.”
Also, how was this post not titled “HJ Street”?
I absolutely LOVE your comment (in a totally non-sexual way, of course!)
Who gives hand-jobs? Matt definitely had a right to be “deeply offended” – guy goes all the way to the Middle East and all he gets is a “handy”?? Sheeee–ittt!!
My new tee-shirt Idea: I went to a Orgy in the Desert and all I got was this lousy tee-shirt and a handjob from some hipster chick
the back would read: It was Birthright, not BurningMan
dan, i’ve heard of sympathy sex before, but a sympathy hand job? i don’t know exactly what emotion that gesture was born out of, but i doubt it’s sympathy.
RE: “Rose Surnow has a funny piece up about Birthright, called ‘I gave a handjob at Jew Camp’.”
MY COMMENT: Very “stimulating” indeed, but what about some stories for the lesbian, bisexual, gay, transsexual, etc. members of the GMC (Greater Mondoweiss Community)?
DIRECTED BY HAROLD PINTER, “IN POINT OF FACT”!
Butley, 1974, R, 124 minutes
This witty adaptation of Simon Gray’s play tracks a day in the life of Ben Butley, an embittered English professor who learns that his homosexual lover is leaving him for another man and that his ex-wife is about to marry someone he hates.
Cast: Alan Bates, Jessica Tandy, Richard O’Callaghan, Susan Engel, Michael Byrne, Georgina Hale, Simon Rouse, John Savident
Director: Harold Pinter
Netflix availability: Streaming and DVD
• Netfix listing – link to movies.netflix.com
• IMdB listing – link to imdb.com
• Butley [excerpt] (VIDEO, 02:24) – link to youtube.com
• Butley [Susan Engel excerpt] (VIDEO, 09:44) – link to youtube.com
P.S. FROM WIKIPEDIA [Butley (play)]: In his introduction to the play, Harold Pinter wrote:
Simon Gray asked me to direct Butley in 1970. I found its savage, lacerating wit hard to beat and accepted the invitation… The extraordinary thing about Butley, it still seems to me, is that the play gives us a character who hurls himself towards the destruction while living, in the fever of his intellectual hell, with a vitality and brilliance known to few of us. He courts death by remaining ruthlessly – even dementedly – alive. It’s a remarkable creation and Alan Bates as Butley gave the performance of a lifetime.[1]
P.P.S. Quite the slugfest, “metaphorically speaking”!
he tries too damn hard and not much funny about the right wing
The modern right wing has made good satire obsolete –how can a self parody be satirized (to borrow a Norm Lear quip).
Now I see the point of being Jewish.
In Philip Roth’s novel, Portnoy’s Complaint, the protagonist travels to Israel and has a disastrous sexual encounter with a female Israeli military officer. Portnoy fumes, “What kind of a Jew am I? Can’t get it up in the Holy Land”.
Roth was blasted by the writer Marie Syrkin, well-known Zionist booster, in a letter to Commentary, in which Syrkin accused Roth in almost every paragraph of her letter of being an anti-Semite. See the exchange in the letters column of the New York Review of Books.
“A lot of american jews lose their virginity there”.Ahem… and a lot of enterprising palestinians too.
Yes, but when Palestinians do it, it’s a crime against the state. Wasn’t there an article here in the last year or so about that?