How Israelis Clap

August 2, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality 

Here’s an analysis from the Muqata on Israeli applause technique and Ehud Olmert’s recent address to the nation:

Have you ever sat in an audience with a group of Israelis?

Did you notice (how could you not?) the beat of their synchronous clapping as the crowd applauds in perfect unison with impeccable timing?

Nothing at all like the free-for-all ‘white noise’ clapping of an enthusiastic American audience that fills an auditorium.

Annoying, isn’t it?

Have you ever wondered why Israelis clap that way?

My theory is that it is a side-effect of the Israeli fear of being alone and unloved.

That theory explains why the Israeli behind you is practically on top of you when you are entering your bank code at the cash machine, it explains why the Israeli sticks to the back of your car even if you are the only two cars on the highway, and it explains why Israelis want the UN to love them even as they say “Um Shmum”.

Israelis can’t stand to be alone and different, so they even clap in unison with the rest of the crowd.

A form of isopraxism, if you will, as they try to reach a unified synergy with those around them.

Scientists have actually studied the phenomenon and have come up with different explanations for the cause.

One study (done in Europe, as the phenomenon is relatively uncommon in the US) found that synchronicity vs. white noise clapping is directly related to the actual enthusiasm and true excitement of the crowd. A less enthused crowd will clap in unison, a genuinely appreciative or enthused crowd will exhibit much more white noise for longer periods of time.

Why do I mention all this?

Well, the Prime Minister just got on TV in front of a crowd in Tel Aviv and said, “There is no cease fire, there will be no cease fire, we will continue to fight and we will win.”

The crowd spontaneously broke out in massive white noise clapping that went on at least 45 seconds before it became synchronous. I have never heard an Israeli crowd clap non-synchronously for more than the 2 seconds it took them to find the beat.

And just now, at the end of his speech, again white noise clapping for at least 15 seconds (though some sounds of synchronicity were trying to force their way in).

In short, Israel actually and truly does want to fight and win this war.

Tags:

Sleepless in the North

August 2, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality 

Melly had a hard time getting to sleep last night. She posted after midnight:

I cannot help but wonder what tomorrow holds for us, or even tonight. We moved a sofabed into the living room and all three of us now sleep in the living room together (there’s another couch there), as it’s the inner most room in the apartment. For whatever good that would do.

I’m expecting a difficult day tomorrow as I’m sure Hezbollah will hit us hard, compensating for the two days cease fire. We can actually almost feel the tension in the air. I can’t explain it. It’s like we know.

There have been heavy ground fighting in Lebanon today and three soldiers are dead.

There have also been heavy chopper traffic this evening (still) and I think I know what it means, only I don’t want to speculate needlessly here. People are on edge as it is.

I saw the fleeing Lebanese on the news today and these were difficult pictures to see. I still haven’t cried despite everything I’ve been through and the difficult reports from Lebanon. I can’t afford to. I already stress people out too much with my over rationale at times. But that’s how I deal with it. So no one needs to see me cry, that’s for sure.

I doubt, for example, that my sister will ever come visit my parents again as I mentioned that I think that any place we choose to hide from the rockets is doomed and I listed the reasons: Under the stairs – too close to some gas tanks and too open. At home – too northern. In the stair way – too open and too northern. Options? To leave again. And I’m all for that if my family joins me. Not going to happen.
And if you read this, sis, I’m sorry.

Why can’t anyone stop this madness already?

Tags:

Step Away From the Computer Screen

August 2, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality 

Adrian, who lives in the north and therefore is justifiably glued to the news, has nonetheless received a sign that maybe he’s been overdoing it.

I know my obsession with the news is bothering Mrs E. when she says ‘Why don’t you go and find some decent porn on the Internet instead of the news?’

Tags:

All Our Sons

August 1, 2006 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality 

Gavriel has something to say about the Qana deaths and Israeli soldiers:

Forget that this civilian area was the launching point for over a hundred missiles that have been aimed and fired without regret or remorse into the civilian heart of our cities for two and a half weeks. Forget that the intended target of the strike was Nasrallah’s missiles and their Hizballah crews cowering inside the building between launches — Hizballah forces that knew full well who was in the basement, even if the IDF did not. Forget that the IDF had done all it could, and had every reason to believe it was targeting missile crews, not civilians.

You are just supposed to believe that civilian death is what Israel’s military wants.

I’ll guarantee you it’s not.

Because I know these soldiers. We know these soldiers. They’re our neighbors’ kids. They’re all of our kids — for some of us literally so. We’ve known them since they were little. They’ve grown up in front of us, we’ve watched how they’re raised. We’ve watched them shoot hoops, and play games in the street. We’ve bought cotton candy from their neighborhood stand. We’ve followed their musical ambitions, saw them play in the band.

We know who they are, and who they are not. They’re not killers but defenders, the best that we’ve got.

These kids were not raised on a steady diet of Kill-the-”Other” propaganda. They were not raised to believe a neighboring country should be eradicated — but that it should live beside us in peace instead of attacking us. They were not raised to believe civilians are pawns in a struggle for the sympathy of the global media or the diplomats wandering the world’s plushest halls. Nor were they raised to believe that death is a greater good than life. They were simply raised with the wish to live here in peace, and to do good. That these good kids must now take up arms to defend us, their neighbors, is one of the least known tragedies in this conflict: warfare is not what they were raised for, violence never their calling. They were raised with books, not guns.

They’re barely young men, so recently kids, yet forced to assume the responsibility of defending the rest of us from a murderous, genocide-pushing Sheik and the country he’s hijacked. And while enemy fighters exultantly rocket our civilians while hiding behind their own, our young soldiers struggle to defend us while being held accountable by the morally blind for the well-being of those same civilians whose presence, never noted as shields, is loudly trumpeted once they are victims.

Were you ready to deal with something like that when you were 20 and partying in college? Our neighbors’ kids aren’t partying in college. They’re heroes, risking their lives to protect us from an enemy that violates the most basic laws of conflict — that civilians must be protected from combat, not herded into the middle of it — forcing our young men to defend us with the utmost care, lest the slightest mistake or misfortune of circumstance bring that tragic result they all fear yet must somehow cope with. And worse, this enemy puts our neighbors’ kids in the position of living with the knowledge that some civilians may die no matter what they do, whether that tragedy befall Lebanese through their action, or their own families through inaction.

All these heroes are our neighbors’ kids. They’re all our kids. And whatever you might think, whatever you’ve been told, we’re damned proud of them.

Tags:

A Visit to a Bomb Shelter in Safed

August 1, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality 

Tags:

Page 292 of 303« First...102030...290291292293294...300...Last »

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Sitemap