Israeli ads

There will only be peace in the world when people finally realize there is no god. Religious zealots of all persuasions are just a throwback to our historical religious leaders' need to hold power over their people. "Do as we say our god says and you will be rewarded... go against our interpretation of a god and you will burn for eternity". This worked on the uneducated masses, but it is time for mankind to grow up and use our brains.

As a progressive Muslim, I used to support the two-state solution advanced by progressives on both sides: the State of Israel on all territory with the Green Line, the State of Palestine on all without, and Al-Quds/Yerushalayim shared as a common capital. However, when I now see that the Israelis are not willing to budge an inch, and many conservatives on their side calling us Muslims as "sub-human" (God forbid), I have now changed my viewpoint and channel all my energies on the Islamic Republic of Palestine all the way from Haifa to the Negev, Inshallah (God willing).

Oh so you're a Putin fan … the little Bonaparte of Russia … a new dictator … for Mother Russia?

Did you get lost on this site or do you have a point to make?

You give prominence to some wacko's comments about a few equally wacko Israeli's.
What about some revelations in your magazine about Abas's glorification of suicide bombers and his TV station programmes teaching children to kill Jews !

Thankfully, Israel's vibrant democracy nurtures freedom of speech. Just like in the United States, expect to find all sorts of talk/media in Israel, some that jives with you and some that does not. Of course, if you don't think that a free-speech environment is a good place for children (or for you), try visiting some of Israel's closest neighbors.

ariel is a boy's name in israel...

Israel is a terrorist entity.

Well, I saw this line of ads!!! Sorry to disappoint you but what is writen in this article just isn't true!!! Ads are calling aducated Israelis who left to America and Europe to return back home!!! I don't understand this, in last few weeks Israel isn't under huge spotlights of the world press, so you're trying to dig something out by force!!! Please, do us all a favor if you allready live on the top of the Golan hights, first learn hebrew and second try harder to write about bird migration over the Golan's sky!!!!

As an Israeli expat in the United States and no fan of Bibi Nethanyahu, I took a close look at the ads after reading Jeff Goldberg's article, prepared to be disturbed and upset. Much to my surprise, I found no reference in the ads to the spouses' ethnic origin, Jewish or non-Jewish. These ads are directed at secular Israeli Jews living in America, and reference uniquely Israeli Jewish experiences: the pain of the Day of Remembrance; the comfort of the Hebrew Language; and yes -- the celebration of Chanukah, so different in Israel than its celebration in the United States, where blue and silver were invented to compete and compensate for red and green. In the end, the way in which these ads were interpreted points to insensitivity that goes both ways. Clearly, the creators of the ad campaign did not foresee how it would play out in America. But Jeffrey Goldberg, who brings out some fine points in his article, seems to miss the general point of the ads. The Israeli Jewish experience in America, like any immigrant experience, is one of uprootedness; those of us who have chosen this path have done so for many different reasons, but are also paying a price. Yes, you can be a Jew in America; but you can't be an Israeli Jew in American and pass on that unique identity and experience to your children.
In the United States, you can send your children to Stanford University where they won't have to deal with Jewish religious fanatics in the West Bank or, for that matter, with Arab hostility and hatred, so prevalent in the Middle East. But they also will always experience their Judaism as a minority, outsiders looking in on the great Christmas extravaganza. The American Jewish experience is vibrant and rich despite (and sometimes because) of that minority experience; and the Israeli Jewish experience is vibrant and rich despite (and sometimes because) of 100 years of existential struggle. Let's celebrate all that we have to offer each other, as there is much to learn on both sides.

Well, after reading every single comment I am now convinced of something that I already suspected:

The Israelis and Palestinians are both wrong, anyone that supports one over the other is wrong, and everyone who thinks they have a monopoly on truth is an idiot.

There must be some part of human nature which causes us to turn every issue into a dialectic wherein one side or the other must be absolutely correct, worthy of praise and support, while the other must be absolutely wrong, worthy of derision and destruction. It is, apparently, impossible for most people to accept that every party to a dispute may suffer from acute cerebral-rectal colocation and that in such a situation, the only rational solution is to tell everyone to shut the hell up.

To that end, I propose a new option to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict: sort it out for yourselves by 2020, or everyone else turns the entire region and everyone living there into a sheet of highly irradiated glass. Nothing quite like the looming threat of thermonuclear annihilation to resolve childish disputes over who gets to "win" the prisoners' paradox.

Disclaimer: I do not actually advocate this option, I am simply sick to death of the ridiculous rhetoric the two loudest sides have spouted in their 60-year marathon of insulting everyone's intelligence.

[Am posting this because, in the comments I've read and in the analysis of the ad, this hasn't been mentioned.]

First, let's begin with a generalized format of a successful ad campaign:

We're X. We want you to buy (or, in this case, relocate) to Y. Here's why you should do so.

Now, if it's successful in, say, a test group, it's run. If it's not, it's modified until it meets a definition of is a successful ad.

So, let's assume that this Israeli commercial went through the same process. That is, it was modified it was until it was successful.

That is, it works (or, worked). This may be the reason that it was aired/made/ran.

tzatz: I defend my questioning of the conflation of anti-Israeli sentiment with antisemitism; Israel's critics are able to differentiate between Jewry and Israel.

Criticizing Israel does not equate to anti-semitism.

It may be that the ad was "promoting a narrow vision of national-religious identity". But I've spent enough time in Israel to know that it isn't the government that's doing it, just some pieces here and there.

The ad points out that American Jews don't understand a particular memorial holiday in Israel. Not so astonishing. But the Economist editorial just underscores that point, rather than refute it.

In Israel, for example, Hanukkah may be accurately described as a festival of jelly donuts, as much as a festival of lights. The jelly donuts outnumber the menorahs by a large number. Even in Jerusalem. Worry more about sugar than any "Narrow vision".

Will Zionists - be they Israeli, American or British - ever stop conflating anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism?

I'm an average secular English guy who is shamed by my nation's involvement in Israel from Christian Zionists in 1919 to the covert provision of heavy water to kick start Dimona.

'Israel's raison d'etre is that it is THE place for the Jewish people' ignores the dispossession by violence of 700K arabs in 1948 and the continued political and economic repression of millions now.

Israel routinely speaks of 'facts on the ground': it is not so keen to refer to the facts on the ground pre-1948.

"There's no corresponding powerful organisation with a critical interest in promoting a tolerant, liberal version of Zionism..."

I completely understand where you're coming from when you say this, but the simple fact is that tolerant, liberal ideologies are not very compelling. This ties in with the increasing rates of intermarriage and assimilation among Jews in the United States; Jewish identity in America has become little more than presents on Hanukkah and self-deprecating jokes about "my whiny Jewish grandmother." Why would anyone feel inspired by that culture? It is the self-confident and assertive groups like Chabad that will survive through the ages, because they actually take their identity seriously.

The right-wing Zionist groups are getting more aggressive because they're scared. They're scared about the continued safety and security of Israel, which is always in doubt. They're scared about the growing Arab demographic in their communities. And they're scared that Jewish identity itself is being diluted by modern sociological trends that encourage dismissal and minimization of one's religion. Now they're trying to do something about it. A politically correct ad campaign for a liberal, tolerant Zionism with a message of, "Hey, come to Israel. It's nice here. Your ancestors are from here. You can bring all of your Christian and Muslim friends, too" is just not going to change anything.

As an Israeli expat in the United States and no fan of Bibi Nethanyahu, I took a close look at the ads after reading Jeff Goldberg's article, prepared to be disturbed and upset. Much to my surprise, I found no reference in the ads to the spouses' ethnic origin, Jewish or non-Jewish. These ads are directed at secular Israeli Jews living in America, and reference uniquely Israeli Jewish experiences: the pain of the Day of Remembrance; the comfort of the Hebrew Language; and yes -- the celebration of Chanukah, so different in Israel than its celebration in the United States, where blue and silver were invented to compete and compensate for red and green. In the end, the way in which these ads were interpreted points to insensitivity that goes both ways. Clearly, the creators of the ad campaign did not foresee how it would play out in America. But Jeffrey Goldberg, who brings out some fine points in his article, seems to miss the general point of the ads. The Israeli Jewish experience in America, like any immigrant experience, is one of uprootedness; those of us who have chosen this path have done so for many different reasons, but are also paying a price. Yes, you can be a Jew in America; but you can't be an Israeli Jew in American and pass on that unique identity and experience to your children.
In the United States, you can send your children to Stanford University where they won't have to deal with Jewish religious fanatics in the West Bank or, for that matter, with Arab hostility and hatred, so prevalent in the Middle East. But they also will always experience their Judaism as a minority, outsiders looking in on the great Christmas extravaganza. The American Jewish experience is vibrant and rich despite (and sometimes because) of that minority experience; and the Israeli Jewish experience is vibrant and rich despite (and sometimes because) of 100 years of existential struggle. Let's celebrate all that we have to offer each other, as there is much to learn on both sides.

As an Israeli expat in the United States and no fan of Bibi Nethanyahu, I took a close look at the ads after reading Jeff Goldberg's article, prepared to be disturbed and upset. Much to my surprise, I found no reference in the ads to the spouses' ethnic origin, Jewish or non-Jewish. These ads are directed at secular Israeli Jews living in America, and reference uniquely Israeli Jewish experiences: the pain of the Day of Remembrance; the comfort of the Hebrew Language; and yes -- the celebration of Chanukah, so different in Israel than its celebration in the United States, where blue and silver were invented to compete and compensate for red and green. In the end, the way in which these ads were interpreted points to insensitivity that goes both ways. Clearly, the creators of the ad campaign did not foresee how it would play out in America. But Jeffrey Goldberg, who brings out some fine points in his article, seems to miss the general point of the ads. The Israeli Jewish experience in America, like any immigrant experience, is one of uprootedness; those of us who have chosen this path have done so for many different reasons, but are also paying a price. Yes, you can be a Jew in America; but you can't be an Israeli Jew in American and pass on that unique identity and experience to your children.
In the United States, you can send your children to Stanford University where they won't have to deal with Jewish religious fanatics in the West Bank or, for that matter, with Arab hostility and hatred, so prevalent in the Middle East. But they also will always experience their Judaism as a minority, outsiders looking in on the great Christmas extravaganza. The American Jewish experience is vibrant and rich despite (and sometimes because) of that minority experience; and the Israeli Jewish experience is vibrant and rich despite (and sometimes because) of 100 years of existential struggle. Let's celebrate all that we have to offer each other, as there is much to learn on both sides.

So the Israeli Jews are preparing us for WWIII. How are these guys any different to the Taliban?

I wouldn't live in the rump Bantustan 'states' being offered the Palestinians and you wouldn't either, tzatz. Emancipation and self-determination are fundamental human rights, not terms to be negotiated in some never-ending negotiations to nowhere.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love your neighbor as yourself. Anything less is a moral and intellectual fraud.

I'm relating fascism to fascism. Judaism, when lived righteously, is a light unto the world. Unfortunately, when religion and politics are combined, whether it be The Third Holy Roman Empire or Eretz Israel, the most likely outcome is a fire-breathing, self-righteous bastardization of religion which doesn't deserve a place in civilized society.

Now com'ere, tzatz, and let me give you a big hug to show you it's nothing personal.