Israel: Love it or leave it.

Hello all! It’s Country Music Shabbat! And since I hopefully will be on vacay for Sunday/Monday/Tuesday and since I forgot to do it last week, I want to get in Israeli Music Sunday today.

So first of all, Country Music Shabbat: I just had lunch with this bizarre ulpanist who kept bragging about how great he is at dancing and at picking up girls, and he was bragging about how rich he is/is going to be. He thought I was really impressed by all of this, and I wanted to be like, “hooooooo boy, are you reading me wrong or what! I’d be more impressed if you were homeless and you danced like a total dweeb.” Is it weird to find a lack of money and nerdiness attractive? Please tell me I’m not the only one…

Anyway, during lunch this guy kept talking about how everything is better in his native country. I told him, “Well, I love my native country too, but you gotta understand that every country has its upsides and downsides, even Israel.” No no no, he refused to accept that Israel could even compare to HIS country. I wanted to tell him that if he honestly thought this place was the “shit hole” that he kept calling it, why the fuck didn’t he go back to that magical land of his. Apparently the toilets in his country are made of solid gold, the streets are paved with chocolate, dogs shit rainbows, leprechauns run wild, it rains marshmallows, and all the prostitutes are syphilis-free. Oh yeah, and the national anthem is “Oh What a Night!”

(That was so American of me. You know, first it’s “America: Love it or leave it!” and now “If you honestly think Israel is the ‘shit hole’ that you keep calling it, why the fuck don’t you go back to that magical land of yours??” I don’t think it has the same ring as “America: Love it or leave it,” but maybe I’ll run it by the Israeli government anyway and see what they think…)

So I thought it would be appropriate to play the song “Only in America” by Brooks & Dunn. Even though this guy wasn’t talking about the U.S. See, I just thought I had to counter his idealization of his own country with a song that idealizes mine.

(Another capitalist thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLILrC7Y5L4


I’m actually really glad I had lunch with this person, because I got incredibly defensive of Israel, like I used to. Ah, it felt nice to be a Zionist again….


For Israeli Music Sunday, here’s something by Idan Yaniv and apparently Dana International as well….. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ve heard it on the radio quite a bit. I think it’s kind of interesting.