Israel Disses RBG, Gets Burned By Natalie Portman
"Do tell me more about the politics of Star Wars..." (Photo: Official site )
I was gonna write more of a think-piece on Israel at 70 and what its "Jewish history pageant" at the Independence Day ceremony says about it, and hopefully still will soon. But the current events hits just keep on coming, so enjoy this fresh bit of crazy from the land of milk and honey:
Several months ago, the board of the Genesis Prize (the so-called "Jewish Nobel," given annually since 2014 to an A-list Jewish person from around the world) decided to bestow its annual award upon US Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (aka the NOTORIOUS RBG.) But then word got back to Prime Sinister Bibi Netanyahu, and he panicked. Ginsburg is notorious, among other things, for her open[1] disdain of President Trump and support for Hillary Clinton. The Genesis Prize is presented by the PM personally onstage. Bibi feared that a photo-op of him bestowing a $1M prize[2] on Ginsburg would be just the sort of perceived slight that makes Trump turn on people contrary to all logic or previously stated position.
[1] For a SCOTUS Justice
[2] Doubled to $2M in 2018 by billionaire (and super decent guy, as I happen to know) Maurice Kahn. The prize money is customarily donated by the winner to a cause of their choice (but they could technically keep it, if they weren't all the kind that don't really need the money).
(Photo: Frank Chi and Aminatou Sow, Rolling Stone )
ERDAN'S JEDI MIND-TRICK
So Bibi got the board to change their decision. The annual prize would go instead to Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman, and Ginsburg would be given a newly cooked-up (and redundant) "lifetime achievement award" which would be bestowed by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, not by Bibi, so no problem there.
This was in November. Meanwhile, Israel continued to spiral away from democracy, human rights and respect for the majority non-Orthodox Jewish diaspora, culminating lately in callous over-reaction to Hamas's armistice-fence provocations. So Portman announced that in light of the above, "Recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel."
In the blink of an eye, Portman - born in Israel, always proud of her Israeli and Jewish heritage[3], whom Israeli propaganda was always glad to wave in the face of detractors - was turned into a pawn of BDS, aider and abbettor of Israel's enemies and antisemites everywhere.
Israel's lying sack of shit of a Homeland Security Minister, Gilead Erdan, tried to mind-trick Ms. Portman, telling Padme that she, like Anakin, was being seduced by the Dark Side into hating the angelic Jedi. I'd say something about the deeply problematic politics of the Jedi, but with Erdan... what's the point? The moral of the story, as always: You fuck with the Notorious RBG, bad things will ensue for you.
Endnote: Now that Portman has declined, the money will go directly to women's rights orgs, which is cool.
[3] Portman called her son Aleph, after the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet - something that this word-nerd finds deeply cool. My son, incidentally, is named Kedem, which means "past", cause I'm also a history-nerd.
QUICK HITS:
After the Independence Day ceremony and the public hazing suffered by Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, he retaliated by leaking that in the run-up to the ceremony, Vulture Minister Miri Regev proudly informed that she had invited Margaret Thatcher to the ceremony! Can't make this up. At least I can't. Maybe Edelstein is.
Now that Independence Day is over, Bibi's corruption cases are back on the front page. One Hadas Klein, assistant to Hollywood billionaire producer Arnon Milchan (the guy who kept Bibi supplied with fine cigars and his wife with pink champagne) testified that Bibi told her to tell Milchan that "If it's not an apartment, he's allowed to give." (Narrator: This is false. The threshold for forbidden gifts is MUCH lower.) Both Bibi and his wife told her to tell Milchan that by not keeping them in luxury goods, he was joining "the forces working against us." Again, I couldn't make this up, and in this casle I strongly doubt the police (or Ms. Klein) are either. These fucking Nutandyahoos are a piece of work, I tell you what.
That's it for now. I'll leave you with a lick from Israel's greatest blues guitarist, and the sincere hope that you don't invite Maggie Thatcher to speak at your ceremony (and wouldn't even if the hell-spawn were alive).
Shlomo Mizrachi / The Guitar And Slaughtered Chicken Blues (No actual chickens were harmed in the production of this song)