That's a moderately horrible title for an Easter Sunday, isn't it? What on earth is Possum ranting about now?
The video above, (Open Salon readers can watch it here), is from an Israeli television show called "Toffee and the Gorilla".
"Yeshu" is the Hebrew name for the historical/religious/mythical figure known in English as Jesus. So Toffee opens by telling the gorilla that Jesus was an enemy of the Jewish people because, "he tried to convert us all to Christianity". That statement is just so wrong, from so many different directions, that I'm not even going to bother refuting it. But it typifies both the raging paranoia that is so typical of the Israeli Right, and the shameless re-writing of history which is their typical modus operandi.
And then the pretty Israeli girl, with her boobage nicely displayed, tells the stuffed gorilla that he'll be playing the part of Jesus, and nails him to the cross. While telling him that he's a Nazi and a coward. As he screams in pain and begs her to stop.
Umm, whiskey tango foxtrot, over?
Now some background. You know, the boring, "let's be fair" part.
This program did not air today, on Easter. The video was posted to YouTube some months ago.
My sources in Israel inform me that this is not typical of the thinking of most Israelis, but that it is typical of the thinking of the Right. While the Right is very much in the political ascendancy in Israel, (as it is here in the USA), it is always worth remembering that Israel has a fearlessly outspoken community of Socialists and other Progressives. It would be a mistake to condemn all Israelis categorically, just as it would be a mistake to condemn all Americans categorically.
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