VIDEO: Paparazzi At Kotel Harass Leonardo DiCaprio & Israeli Girlfriend

Comments

[Ben Qor'ha (Baldwin)]

hearing all the screaming, the pushing, the abuse to one another makes one question the desirability of having our own country.

Four friends - an American, a Russian, a Japanese and an Israeli - are shmoozing over a cup of coffee in some coffee house. There comes a journalist into the place, finds them and asks them, "Excuse me, what is your opinion about the shortage of meat in the world market?" The American answers, "Excuse me, but what is 'shortage'?" The Russian says, "Excuse me, but what is 'meat'?" The Japanese says, "Excuse me, but what is 'opinion'?" And finally the Israeli asks, "What is 'excuse me'?!"

[mazeartist]

Frankly, I was hoping that Leo would avoid visiting Israel. That country is already too Americanized- now its media is becoming as celebrity-obsessed as the American media. Celebrity pilgrimages may be good for hasbara and the local economy, but it comes at a huge cultural cost.

you will enjoy the sound bite

[http://chocus-pocus.blogspot.com/]

http://chocus-pocus.blogspot.com/

[Yochanan Lavie]

So Israel is not Utopia. In the words of Dr. Evil "Boo-frickety-hoo!" Just because Israelis are rude we should pack our bags and allow Jihadistine to rise in the void.

"Hey Moshe, Leo was dissed. Let's just give up and go back to Poland." "But Shimon, my mother's Moroccan- can half of me go to Poland and the other half to Morroco?"

During the Shoah the St. Louis couldn't dock and Breckinridge Long, an official of St. FDR's white house did whatever he could to prevent the kikes from landing- knowing full well what Hitler was doing.

Granted, there is no Holocaust today, and America is a much different place than in was in the 1940's. But you never know what will happen in the future.

Having a country is good. Power is good. It is hard not to abuse it, so that's why there is democracy with checks and balances. Abuse and cultural rot is endemic to the post-Modern Western world- unfortunately Israel is not exempt. But it's not a nightmare state like North Korea, either. If there was another Jewish country somewhere maybe I'd prefer it, but I think Biro-Bidzhan is out of business (and what connection do we have to that Yahweh-forsaken wasteland anyway).

I am not an ultra-nationalist, Kahanist, or theocrat. But also, I am not a "trembling Israelite" who begs the Poritz for permission to live.

[Yos]

I'm always reminded of those uber-liberal 'historians' when they say Sodom was destroyed not because of homosexuality but unfriendliness. I can kind of see that whenever I visit family in New York or Israel. Rude people can bite me.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Yos- I feel your pain. I hate rude people, too.

My point is: Not all Israelis are a-holes. I have met plenty who are the salt of the earth. That's a stereotype- and like stereotypes they are often true, but not always true (or racially ingrained).

Second, many lefties (and some on the right) are doing everything in their power to delegitimize and dismantle Israel. That would not solve anything- the Palestineans would still have their civil war- jews would be displaced and/or massacred, and many Jews (including me) would be so disheartened as to give up on Judaism (one Shoah is enough, thank you). Rudeness doesn't mean the country forfeits it's right to exist. Israel is the only country where criticism leads to questioning its right to exist. That's absurd, and because Israel is the Jewish country, it leads me to believe that by extension many critics (not all) think the Jewish people have no right to exist (at least as a national entity, if not physically). That is why anti-Zionism often (but not always) is disguised judeophobia (or leads to it).

As for Sodom, it wasn't destroyed because people didn't say "slicha" or cut into line. It was destroyed because of a lack of hospitality- a cardinal sin in the ancient world- as well as wanton cruelty (attempted rape- Lot offering his daughters w/o their consent, etc.).

Let's build a better Israel, and better, kinder Jewish people. People like you, Yos, give me hope that it is possible.