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Israel

The Media and Israel

I’ve seen this joke several times.

AN ISRAELI ON VACATION
An Israeli is on vacation and is visiting a zoo in England when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside his cage, right under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The Israeli runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the Israeli brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him profusely.

A reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter says to the Israeli: ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I’ve ever seen a man do in my lifetime.’ The Israeli replies: ‘Why, it was nothing, really. The lion was behind bars. I just saw this little girl in danger and acted as I felt right.’

The reporter says: ‘Well, I’ll make sure this doesn’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page. So, what country are you from, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?’

The Israeli replies: ‘I’m from Israel. I serve in the Israeli army and I vote for the Likud.’ The journalist leaves.

The following morning, the Israeli buys the paper to see what was reported and reads, on the front page: ‘RIGHT-WING ISRAELI ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.’

And that pretty much sums up the media’s approach to Israel.

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If you want to get a more balanced view of Israel and its inhabitants, try my series of posts in the English Informer. The second one is now available here.

Categories
Books Israel

A Week of Exercise

Jerusalem Park Blossom2-30%
Jerusalem Park: Spring blossom

Jerusalem has a new park by the zoo. It’s part of a larger project called The Jerusalem Park. We can walk there from our house and we did the other day. There and back. And we walked all round the park and the zoo. The park is beautiful and so is the zoo. Jerusalem is hilly. We were exhausted when we returned, yet I managed to dance for over three hours (with breaks) that evening.

Jerusalem Park: Canal
Jerusalem Park: Canal

The next day we were in Tel-Aviv and did a fair bit of walking there. Fortunately it’s flat.

Jerusalem Park: Hopefully not full of Hyenas!
Jerusalem Park: Hopefully not full of …
Jerusalem Park AnimalSign2-30%
… hyenas!

Then there was a walk to the post office (twenty minutes each way) and more folk dancing. Tomorrow my writing group is meeting at a different location from usual. If the weather is okay, I’ll probably walk there, too (about half an hour each way).

Apart from being good for the body, walking provides more opportunities to see things: scenery, plants, animals, humans. Things to put into stories. The park is now ensconced in the first chapter of the sequel.

Jerusalem Park: my favourite bird
Jerusalem Park: my favourite bird