Israel’s ‘King of Entertainment’ takes a dive
Dudu Topaz in better days.
That’s because, in its infancy, the summer has already produced its major scandal. The ‘King of Entertainment’ in Israel, Dudu Topaz, has been arrested and accused by police of ordering a team of Soprano-like associates to assault two senior TV network executives and an actor’s agent who rebuffed his overtures regarding new TV vehicles for himself.
It’s like a combination of Fatty Arbuckle, OJ Simpson and Phil Spector all rolled into one – a revered public entertainer who seemingly has everything falling to the depths. And the Israeli public, being like any other social group in the world, can’t get enough of it.
“He wanted to be on TV and work with them. They said no,” a police source said, explaining the possible motive for the brutal attacks over the last few months on Shira Margalit, deputy director-general of the Reshet television network, Avi Nir, director-general of the Keshet network, and actor’s agent Boaz Ben-Zion.
Evidently, the rumor mill in the entertainment industry had pegged Topaz long ago as being connected, with the nightly news shows already last week running interviews with him in which he denied the rumors. At that time, it appeared that Topaz looked uneasy and psychologically possibly unstable. And according to news reports today, since his arrest, he’s been transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
The tabloids are having a field day recounting Topaz’s fall from grace as one of the TV top hosts and comedians. His humor has always been a little broad based, with sexist overtones, but he built a huge audience with the ‘Am’ – the people in the street – as an everyman kind of comic – the boy next door with a touch of evil.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he was a TV staple, hosting a range of shows including an Israeli version of The Dating Game, and a satirical TV show, which depicted a range of Israeli characters and stand-up routines. In the early 1990s, Topaz hosted a weekend comedy and chat show on Channel 1. He then moved to the newly created Channel 2, breaking ratings records with his own TV show. Always controversial, Topaz made headlines when he allegedly took a sexually-motivated bite on the neck of guest, South American bombshell Natalie Oreiro. He claimed he was just being friendly.
Earlier this decade, Topaz bounced around different channels, alienating himself with Channel 2, where both Nir and Margalit run the show, by jumping to Channel 10. Since that show was cancelled, Topaz has been out of a steady gig.
While his performing days may be behind him, as he faces a prolonged prison term if convicted, you can check out some of his shtick below.
Scroll wars
Filed under: coexistence, Crime, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics, Religion, War
A sad byproduct of the tragic media war we’re currently engaged in is that Zionists and Palestinian nationalists seemingly can’t even agree on what the region looked like 2000 years ago. Forget about the possibility that we just might have common ancestors – if the “facts on the ground” are disputable today, then all the more reason to dispute what they were in ancient times.
Because for hard-core dogmatists, much of the “whose land is it, anyway” debate boils down to whose land it was back in the day. For many years, the Palestinians have been excavating the Temple Mount, with Israelis decrying the destruction that these excavations have allegedly wrought. Many have even posited that the digs have a goal of finding and destroying any evidence of a historical Jewish connection to the area, with a nationalist agenda.
Archeology and nationalism can go hand in hand easily. In the best cases, they can even build bridges of international cooperation, as we saw this past winter with the Italian government’s interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
But in Jerusalem, where high-stakes heists and sleuthery are known to rear their heads every now and then, sometimes the powers that be feel the need to exert their power in order to maintain an edge in the information war.
And that’s how it came to be that a crack team made up of several Israeli bureaucracies came together to put the sting on two area Arabs this week. The Undercover Unit of the Jerusalem Border Police, the Intelligence Office of the Zion Region, the Archaeological Staff Officer of the Civil Administration and the super-specialized Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery all worked together to recover what experts are calling a Second Temple-era Jewish legal document.
As the AP tells it:
Undercover Israeli officers foiled an attempt by two Palestinian men to sell an ancient, valuable papyrus document on the black market, police said Wednesday. The men were arrested at a Jerusalem hotel Tuesday after a sting operation lasting several weeks, police said. The 1,900-year-old Hebrew document, previously unknown and valued at millions of dollars, was rescued, and police showed it to reporters.
…. They are suspected of violating Israeli antiquities laws by illegally possessing and trafficking in archaeological artifacts and could face several years in prison if convicted. Police are trying to determine how the document fell into their hands.
This specimen of Second Temple-style Hebrew calligraphy (pictured), written on six square inches of papyrus scrolls seems to be from around the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and it could help (Jewish nationalism-tolerant) historians to better understand what life was like in the region some 2000 years ago, about 500 years before the birth of Muhammad.
Amir Ganor, director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explains:
“From an initial reading it seems that this document deals with the property of Miriam Bat Ya‘aqov, who was apparently a widow. The deciphering of the entire document by expert epigraphers and historians may shed light on how the people of the period managed their affairs and supplement our knowledge about their way of life. What we have here is rare historic evidence about the Jewish people in their country from more than 2,000 years ago, during the days following the destruction which sent the people of Israel into exile for a very long time – until the creation of the State of Israel.”
Aye aye sir – Israeli guards fight piracy on the high seas
Piracy – just the word sums up visions of cannons, rigging, cutlasses and eye patches. But as shipping companies worldwide know only too well – piracy didn’t end in the 19th century, but continues to be an increasingly well-armed modern-day plague.
Piracy just ain't what it used to be.
Now there’s a new weapon in the fight against 21st century pirates – Israeli security guards.
It’s hardly surprising is it? Security forces worldwide are turning to Israel to learn how to protect themselves, and Israeli bodyguards are the security of choice for all the Hollywood superstars.
Out on the high seas, Israelis are proving to be just as successful in protecting their charges from the 1,000 or so Somali pirates holding the world’s ships to ransom on the Indian Ocean. (Last year alone 100 ships were attacked, and pirates are currently holding at least 16 ships and more than 250 seamen to ransom.)
Not long ago, Israeli guards repelled a pirate attack on an Italian cruise ship, the Melody, off the coast of Somalia. There were 1,500 people on board the cruise liner, and pirates tried to storm it, firing automatic weapons at the ship.
As the pirates tried to clamber up the sides of the ship on ladders, the Israeli security staff employed by Israeli maritime security company Mano International, opened fire and sprayed them with fire hoses, driving the attackers away after a 10 minute battle. Surprisingly, given the situation, it was the first time a ship’s crew actually fought back.
In an Israeli newspaper, the head of the Italian cruise line said he hired the Israelis because they were the best-trained security agents.
Mano has been operating covertly in this area for 22 years, and the company’s owner told the press he has no interest in exposure. This is the same company, however, that extracted passengers from the Italian ship Achille Lauro when it was hijacked and set alight in 1985 by Palestinian terrorists.
With two other Israeli companies operating in this area, it’s nice to know that Israelis are helping keep the world’s waterways safe from modern day Blackbeards. Oh Arr me hearties.
Cops and robbers on Shabbat in Jerusalem
Filed under: coexistence, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life
The scene of the crime.
Two policemen were sitting on the side guarding the store against looters, we thought. Even though it looked like vandals had been at work over Shabbat, never a laughing matter, the way the mannequins were askew was actually quite comical. My wife remarked that it looked like they had been nabbed attempting a breakout, which cracked up the kids in the car.
It was only this morning that we opened the paper and saw that the shop had been the target of a robbery, and that the police had shot and killed one of the burglars. According to The Jerusalem Post, an Arab man and a Jewish woman reversed their Mazda 3 vehicle into the display window at the clothing store.
They then started filling the car with merchandise, when police arrived on the scene. The crooks ran into the car and attempted run over the cops, who opened fire in return. A car chase ensued, until a few blocks later the getaway car stopped and the driver, Salah Salaima, 30, tried to flee on foot. However, the police had succeeded in wouding him and he collapsed after a few yards and died of his wounds. The female suspect, in her 20s, was taken into custody.
Man, it was a good thing we didn’t know any of that while we sat in the synagogue. After that cops and robbers scene, the intrigue and excitement of the Parshat Shavua, Ki Tissei, and the saga of the Golden Calf, would have paled in comparison.
Should we allow porn in Israeli jails?
Filed under: Crime, History and Culture, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Religion
About five years ago, Emanuel Peled made headlines when he was convicted of fraudulently billing suckers for phone sex calls they didn’t make. He stole hundreds of thousands of shekels from strangers by threatening to make public these peoples’ love of audio porn, even though in most cases, the victims probably had no such attachments.
Now residing at the Hasharon Prison, Peled is making headlines again, this time for his own proud love of video porn. According to Haaretz….
The Public Defender’s Office says the petition [to the High Court] concerns the right to freedom of expression and consumption of information. The Israel Prison Service (IPS), however, claims that eliminating the ban on pornography could disturb religious inmates and lead to more violence inside prisons.
According to the petition, the prisoner does not have a partner and is therefore not privy to conjugal visits. He argues that being able to access pornography may offer a partial solution to his distress.
Apparently, Peled is notorious for getting the court system bogged down by his various appeals. But in a country where even those who assassinate politicians are allowed to marry people whom they’ve met while serving time, pornography seems like little to ask for.
It all comes down to how we define pornography as a people, and to what extent the evidence against the presence of porn holds water:
Attorney Tal Enar of the Public Defender’s Office claims that the IPS directive banning all pornographic material is disproportionate and illogical. The IPS claim that pornography in prisons will cause violence among inmates is scientifically unfounded, he says, adding that, pornography can instead be used to alleviate tension among sex offenders.
He also pointed out that the High Court rulings on the subject were handed down 25 years ago; since then, society’s attitude toward pornography has changed, he says: Consider, for example, the High Court’s decision to allow the Playboy Channel to broadcast in Israel.
It also comes down to the community of prisoners, which apparently has a high enough “religious” contingent that a porn infiltration might cause unrest among offended offenders. But really, it’s more of a question of philosophy. Of course convicts have rights too, but they’re not exactly put in these facilities to enjoy themselves either – it’s a matter of striking the right balance. The panel ruling on Peled’s plea, which includes Supreme Court Justices Hannan Meltzer (pictured), Elyakim Rubinstein and Dorit Beinisch, is not expected to decide in his favor.
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