Ediblog.com
The Cultural Elites in Israel Are Sick
By Ariel Natan Pasko
True, cultural elites in most western countries today are anti-nationalist,
anti-traditional, and tend toward degrading whatever general society holds
in esteem, but it still hurts me to see this degenerate phenomenon in
Israel. After recently awarding the prestigious 2004 Israel Prize to the
Judeo-pathic Israeli artist Yigal Tumarkin; now the Israeli "guardians
of culture" have decided to honor Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel
Barenboim, with the 2004 Wolf Prize, even though he is an admirer of Nazi
Germany's favorite musician. Barenboim is currently the musical director of
the State Opera House in Berlin and of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and
an inveterate Wagner perpetrator.
Once, art, music and literature, were produced in Israel to build up
national identity in the fledgling Jewish State. Jews were returning home
after nearly 2,000 years of abusive exile, and they wanted to reconstitute
their own independent national - Hebrew - culture. Though sometimes at odds
with the traditional Jewish religious establishment, the New Hebrew -
"Israeli" - culture drew heavily from Jewish, and especially
biblical sources. But today, the cultural elites in Israel have spurned
"Jewishness" for a more secular global identity. They've even
become self-hating.
When an artist like Tumarkin can create pieces like, a pig wearing
"Tefilin" (phylacteries worn by Jewish men during prayer), and a
lithograph of an aerial view of Jerusalem's Old City, with a huge thumbprint
superimposed over it, written in pen on the top commenting, "From June
1967 Jerusalem started to turn ugly. Why? It's a fact," and be awarded
the Israel Prize, you know that the "gurus of Israeli culture"
have lost it. The pig is the most disgusting animal in Judaism, and the Holy
City of Jerusalem is held dear by nearly all Jews.
Tumarkin has said, "When you see the "Haredim" -
ultra-Orthodox Jews - you can understand why there was a Holocaust,"
justifying Nazi anti-Semitism. Tumarkin hasn't gained his reputation for
works of art, so much as for his habit of lashing out at religious Jews,
right-wingers, and Sephardim, whomever he dislikes. He once said, he wished
he had gunned down Israeli politicians on the right, Raphael Eitan and
Rechavam Ze'evi. Tumarkin has also remarked that his "true contribution
will be the taking of a submachine gun instead of pen and pencil, and
killing the religious settlers on the West Bank." Tumarkin has also
stated that he doesn't feel there's a need for a Jewish State.
In his petition to Israel's Supreme Court - trying to stop the prize to
Tumarkin - National Religious Party Member of Knesset Shaul Yahalom wrote,
"It is unreasonable that a man, as an artist and as a sculptor, whose
actions bordered on criminal activity, who acted violently towards his
family, disrespected people and the values of the Jewish people and made
racist and anti-Semitic remarks, will receive in a democratic Jewish state
the Israel Prize."
Yet he was just awarded the 2004 Israel Prize for sculpture...
One of Barenboim's many sins is that he forcibly played Richard Wagner's
music at the 2001 Israel Festival in Israel, after earlier agreeing not to
do so.
And why was he asked not to play Wagner?
Because, when chosen to play at the festival, his announcement that he
intended to break the Israeli taboo and play Wagner created such a
controversy in Israeli society, that the festival organizers decided to
cancel his performance, until he agreed not to play it.
Wagner, was a known anti-Semite, his music was revered by Hitler and the
Nazi leadership, and commonly played in Concentration Camps. Wagner's music
has been "persona non grata" in Israel for decades; it still
brings back horrible memories to many in Israel, especial Holocaust
survivors.
Yet Barenboim, in a flash of "I know better than you" cultural
elitism, chose to disregard his prior commitment to the Israel Festival
Committee, and play Wagner as an encore anyhow.
Barenboim is also an outspoken supporter of the so-called Palestinians. He's
been to Ramallah in Samaria - the West Bank - several times to play concerts
and give musical workshops, although Israel is at war with them. Barenboim
has said he knows that some Israelis hate him for going to Ramallah and
working with the Palestinians, "I can live with that," he's said
in defiance. Barenboim recently promised to help "Palestinian"
children learn classical music, while backing their demand for a state of
their own. He said that he would contribute the US$50,000 award to a
"Palestinian" music conservatory in Ramallah.
But the Wolf Prize Committee, like the Israel Prize Committee before it,
chose to honor one of the "beautiful people," who don't care how
much they hurt Jews or insult Israeli society.
The Israel Prize is the most highly regarded award in Israel. Under the
auspices of the Education Ministry, it was first awarded in 1953, and has
been awarded every year since then on Israeli Independence Day. The prize is
presented to the recipient before members of the Knesset, the Prime
Minister, the President, and members of the Supreme Court of Israel.
Although the Wolf Foundation - that awards the prize - has the status of a
private non-profit organization, and the prize money comes from the annual
income of the foundation's investments, it has the status of a
quasi-governmental prize. The award rules are embodied in the
'Wolf-Foundation Law-1975," approved by the Knesset, and the Foundation
is subject to the control of the State Comptroller of Israel. The prizes are
awarded in the Chagall Hall of the Knesset, with the participation of the
Speaker of the Knesset, the Minister of Education, who is the Chairman of
the Council of the Wolf Foundation, Trustees, and members of the Council.
The diploma and honorarium are presented to the recipients by the President
of the State of Israel.
In protest over the awarding of the prize to Barenboim, Knesset Speaker
Reuven Rivlin, earlier announced that he would boycott the 2004 Wolf Prize
award ceremony. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem - that fights
global anti-Semitism - backed up Rivlin's boycott of Barenboim, because
Barenboim "aroused the ire of so many Israelis by playing music
[composed] by the notoriously anti-Semitic composer."
Wiesenthal Center Director Dr. Efraim Zuroff said that Barenboim's violating
the agreement not to play Wagner at any publicly funded concert, indicated
"not only his lack of integrity, but also his unbridled arrogance and
extreme lack of tolerance." Zuroff called Barenboim's act
"cultural rape" and decried Barenboim's "obsessive efforts to
force his views on the Israeli public and to demonstratively and derisively
ignore the feelings of the majority of Israelis who are offended by the
playing of [Wagner's works]."
This is the sickness of the cultural elites in Israel today, "They know
better, and to hell with what society thinks."
Tumarkin only has to be disgusting, perverse, degrade all that is holy and
beautiful, and have the artistic talent of a four-year-old to get noticed.
Become self-promoting, attack the competition, cry foul, attack Haredim and
"settlers," question the legitimacy of Israel itself, and they
drown him in accolade, awarding him Israel's most prestigious prize.
Barenboim - admittedly a great musician - but a lousy politician, acts
insultingly and hurtful to great numbers of Israelis, supports the enemy -
the "Palestinians" - in wartime, and ditto, the "culture
gurus" drown him in accolade, awarding him the Wolf Prize.
Tumarkin and Barenboim also have another similarity; both have broken the
post-Holocaust Israeli taboo of a Jew returning to Germany. Tumarkin moved
from Israel to Germany to learn art in the 1950s. Barenboim once described
in his autobiography how, when in 1954 he was asked by the conductor Wilhelm
Furtwangler to play with the Berlin Philharmonic, his father said no. It was
too soon after the war for a Jewish boy to travel from Israel to Germany.
Yet today Barenboim is the musical director of the State Opera House in
Berlin. Both seem to have chosen to overlook Germany's Nazi past.
Once, the arts, tried to portray "the good, the true, and the
beautiful," and Jewish artists, writers, and musicians used their
talents to "redeem" Judaism and Jewish culture from its millennia
long exile among the nations. Hebrew culture was dignified, uplifting and
full of hope.
No more, today's "beautiful people" in Israel or as they're called
in Hebrew, "yofay nefesh," i.e. the beautiful souls, deliberately
try to disgust and degrade, to hurt and incite. Long detached from Jewish
culture and values, Israel's "artsy-craftsy" elite, promote love
for the enemy in wartime, and hatred of other Jews, not just like them.
Israel's cultural elites have virtually abandoned support for an independent
Jewish State, regularly delegitimizing Israel, while supporting the
"Palestinians," and lionize people like Tumarkin and Barenboim.
These "beautiful people" have internalized all the millennia long
Jew-hatred of the Judeo-paths, anti-Semites, and Nazis among the nations and
turned it on their fellow Jews. These "beautiful people" have
turned ugly...
The cultural elites in Israel today are very sick.
The struggle for Israel and Jewish survival isn't just political, military,
or economic, but also over the "soul" of Israel, i.e. a cultural
struggle.