Nostalgia Sunday – Arye Deri is back

December 26, 2010 - 6:21 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture, Profiles, Religion 

Arye Deri is making his long-awaited return to the political arena which makes this the perfect time for the following exercise. Say it together with me: “Prime Minister Arye Deri… Prime Minister Arye Deri”. Rolls nicely off the tongue, doesn’t it? I’m not saying I like this prognostication. I’m just saying, get used to it.

Of course, I’m not the first person to predict Deri’s future. That was done a long time ago when Deri first burst on the scene to take the reins of the Shas Party, becoming the youngest minister in the State’s history. Legend has it that party elders said, “That young man will either go to jail or become Prime Minister.”

Well, he’s done the jail part — convicted in 2000 of bribe-taking, served a jail sentence and lived under sanction from political activity — and now he’s back, still the darling of the secular population for his perceived ability to unite factions, and a divisive element among the religious for approximately the same reason.

And he’s about to do it again. There’s been some buzz about his running for mayor of Jerusalem where he recently made the local Time Out’s “50 Sexiest Jerusalemites” list, (though that may say more about Jerusalem than Deri).

In an interview with Maariv on Friday, Deri said that he was “working on establishing a new socio-economic party that would bridge between religious and secular, Right and Left, Ashkenazi and Sephardi and rich and poor.”

In previous go-rounds, he was able to capture a great many former Labor and Likud party voters, including voters from the Arab sector who appreciated the fairness he displayed as Minister of the Interior.

To mark the return of Deri, we’ve gone back to the archives of Yom HaShishi, a now-defunct weekly newspaper for the religious sector. Yom HaShishi made waves back in the 1990s for its bold use of photo-illustrated political cartoons on its covers — something that hadn’t been seen before. The artworks were executed by Jonathan Sierra of Icons, a studio that pioneered the use of Photoshop, photo-montage and multimedia in Israel.

Sierra notes that Yom HaShishi was very, very literal in its humor. So, if Deri’s was breaking bonds with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, then that was shown.

And if Deri and fellow Shas party leader Shlmo Benizri were “tailoring a suit for someone” (the phrase also means, “to frame someone”), then they were shown tailoring a suit!

(Benizri is, by the way, currently serving a jail sentence also for taking bribes).

In the early nineties, the protracted investigation into Deri’s financial affairs and consequent trial had a profound effect on Israeli society. “Hu zakai” (“he is innocent” or “free from guilt”) became a famous pro-Deri catchphrase, particularly among Shas voters who saw the whole matter as the Israeli establishment’s persecution of their party, the religious sector and Sephardic Jews in general.

The topsy-turvy atmosphere of the day is reflected in this Purim holiday cartoon from 1993. According to Jewish tradition, on Purim, everything is upside-down. Therefore, Deri was shown as a policeman while Police Commissioner Yaakov Terner was shown in religious garb. Twirling a noisemaker in the background: Moshe Shahal, then Minister of Police.

At the time, Deri’s popularity was such that people said the harder you hit him, the stronger Shas became. Imagine, then, what he can do now with a broad-based party.

Let’s face it, Arye Deri is the only politician on the Israeli scene with genuine charisma. So do your exercises and get ready for what’s coming next.

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Pin-ups

October 4, 2009 - 2:30 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Art, design, History and Culture 

I’m a sucker for calendars, because I love the feeling of filling up the days of the month with what’s happening, from dentist appointments and school events to visits from friends, deadlines and, hopefully, vacations. So the advent of a new year is always advantageous for me, because everyone is passing out calendars these days.

There’s my fruit-and-vegetable guy, who always prints a magnetic one for the fridge:
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And Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, which runs the pool and gym complex in our area, was offering their own version this year:
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My mother-in-law always buys one for us each year, because she’s also a big fan of calendar-filling:
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And then I noticed this item in Ha’aretz, pointing out that this year’s Carlsberg Beer calendar is using Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as the pinup figure to be admired, rather than the usual photos of good-looking young folk quaffing a few cold ones. According to the report, the calendar, which was distributed along with the Shas newspaper Yom Leyom, was seen as disrespectful by more than a few in the ultra Orthodox community. I can see that. But I gotta get a copy…
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