Elbow & Push

April 11, 2007 - 11:00 AM by Stephanie

Years ago while studying at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Yariv Ben Eliezer, a media professor who lectured overseas students (and also carries the legacy of being David Ben Gurion’s grandson) presented to us on the 1st day of classes:

“Give me a word that describes Israelis. Men in particular, if you will.”

And so we threw out a whole range of adjectives. Pushy ..Crass ..Opinionated ……

“Nope,” he grinned. “H—y” as in ready for sex all of the time, if you catch my drift wink wink.

We were stunned. This was our professor using this terminology, for criminy’s sake! But beyond the shock value, he had a point.

As does blogger Calev in this thought provoking blog entry about what Israel’s founding fathers might think of today’s push and shove mentality.

Sometimes I wonder what those early Chalutzim would think of modern day Israel. The technology, immigration and strong economy on the one hand, but also the poverty, lack of peace and the perception of wide scale corruption on the other. Modern day Israeli icons such as writer Etgar Keret or singer Aviv Gefen don’t idealize traditional Israeli symbols like the army while Meretz MK Haim Oron recently quipped that while his generation wanted Israel to be a ‘success story’, for his children its enough if its merely a ‘story’.

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