You know when you come across an article where you just want to find out who wrote it, find his address, ring his doorbell and knock him on the head with a Homie The Clown sock?
When I came across this piece, I figured, OK, it’s in Haaretz. Where’s he going with this?
I read every word of the article and found no mention of why one shouldn’t be ashamed of being an Israeli. Not only that, I found an article that touched a bit of a soft spot for me because, like the author, I also have a 2 year old in an Israeli daycare.
First off, go to the article and read it. I invite you to. Come back here when you’re just as angry as I am because I need your blood good and boiled before you continue reading below.
The author starts with telling his kid’s daycare provider that it’s “too soon” to start teaching the kids what “Independence Day” is as if the holiday celebrating our becoming a sovereign state is the new sex ed.
At my daughter’s daycare, it was same. Flags and decorations all around, just like every other holiday celebrated in Israel. My daughter came home singing “Eretz Israel Sheli Yafa V’Gam Porachat” (My land of Israel is beautiful and blooming). The kids were taught what a joyous day Yom Ha’atzmaut really is for us.
Enter Captain Buzzkill here at Haaretz with his story that just gets worse and worse the more your read. He calls Yom Haatzmaut an “indoctrination”. Yes. The independence day of YOUR OWN COUNTRY is an “indoctrination.” Tell that to any daycare that celebrates 4th of July, or Canada Day. You are being indoctrinated to celebrate the birth of your own country.
We have already had a few cases this year of English news publications and journalists trying to inflict shame on us for celebrating Yom Haatzmaut but wait till you see what this guy does TO HIS OWN CHILD to make a point.
“Take a flag – your son made it himself,” the teacher persisted.
“I don’t want a flag.”
“Take it.”
“Leave me alone. I don’t want a flag.”
“But your son made it. Take it, keep it as a souvenir.”
“I don’t want a flag and I don’t want a souvenir.”
“Take it anyway,” she said, stuffing the flag into my hand and leaving me no choice.
I took the flag. The paint was still damp and my fingers got smudged with blue-and-white gouache. I cleaned them with a wet wipe and threw the flag into the garbage.
My son ran to me with arms wide open. On his head he wore a cardboard hat with the slogan “I am an Israeli.”
“Hold on, hold on,” I said to him. “Before you hug me, take off that hat.” He’s 18 months old, doesn’t understand a thing. I took his hat off myself. And hugged him. I gave the teacher the hat.
“Keep it for yourself,” I told her.
“Take the hat. It’s a present from the nursery school.”
“I don’t want a present from the nursery school,” I declared.
“Take the hat. Don’t you identify with what it says? Do you mean to tell me that your son is not an Israeli? That you’re not an Israeli?”
“My son is an Israeli and I am an Israeli. What of it?”
“Then take the hat, what’s it to you?”
I took the hat. I put my son in the stroller and we left. I left the hat on a bench on the sidewalk. The wind whipped it onto the road. A black Land Rover ran it over and tore it into cardboard shreds. My son started to cry. Kids are very possessive at that age. I patted him on the head. Tried to calm him down.
Digest that for a moment. A man is proudly claiming he took his son’s art, his creation, and threw it in the garbage in front of him, because he didn’t agree with a principle. Then described another one of his creations being ripped to shreds by a Land Rover. And he’s proud of this.
Now. Read the title of this piece again.
“There’s No Reason to Be Proud – or Ashamed – of Being an Israeli”
So far, no mention of the “ashamed” part. This sounds like a person with major psychological issues, and frankly I’m scared of the fact he has a child. Regardless of his political views.
I explained to him that before he’s an Israeli, he’s first of all a human being. A human creature whose ancestors emerged from the prehistoric ooze and became a two-legged mammal. After that, he’s a citizen of the world, born on Earth, which has existed for billions of years, before there were borders or nations.
How about teaching your child that he is a member of a community? He wishes to take away his Israeli identity at such a young age. Does an Israeli identity necessarily mean you’re an extremist right winger? The kid is 2. Let him enjoy the pleasures and unique wonders of an Israeli childhood.
Besides that, he’s a male. A man. With two balls and a sausage that underwent circumcision. And he is also my son. He is obliged to love me and I am obliged to love him, because we’re stuck with each other.
Aside from this totally necessary description of his son’s baby tackle, the author mentions he is “stuck” with his son and his “obliged” to love him.
So anyway, assuming you made it to the end of this barf-fest or just skipped to the comments section, you’d understand the types of people Haaretz attract.
Yeah. Folks still managed to sludge through an article about daycare art, and toddler penises and made reference to South Africa Apartheid.
Haaretz is a lost cause.
