Journalists and Generals; Popularity and Protektzia
JOURNALISTS AND GENERALS Israeli politicians screaming their heads off -- "Boosha, Boosha, worst government ever, threat to the future of the state." The drama, the sensationalism. And its not spur of the moment. Its planned. Its every day. Its a strategy. They're proud of it. They post on Twitter: "Look how red my face was." "Look, I nearly fainted." What's going on here? Why does a first-world country have third-world politician behavior?
US Politicians: In the U.S., the percentage of politicians, of legislators, of governors with legal backgrounds as lawyers is very high - most of the senate, most recent presidents- most. And in the US, a law degree requires three years of graduate school, that's three years post undergraduate. And if its not law school, its graduate business school. Journalists and Generals turned politicians are rare.
Israeli Politicians: In Israel, the percentage of politicians with law degrees is much lower. And in Israel, a law degree is only an undergraduate degree. Merits aside, its simply takes less time. And compared to the US, and the entire world for that matter, the number of former journalists and former senior military officers in Israeli politics is much higher. Two-thirds of Israel's top military generals have entered national politics. Two-thirds. Its the expected route. And while you probably can't name a US journalist turned politician, in Israel its expected. At times, 10% of the Knesset was made up of former journalists.
Nu, what's the point?
US Voter Expectations: In the US, American voters expect substance, they expect debate. They hold primaries. They hold debates. They discuss. They argue. They challenge one another in real time, before public, in debates. And its been going on for centuries. Americans in fifth grade learned about the Lincoln-Douglas debates; seven debates for a senate seat. The voters expect it. Its serious. And these public debates demand credentials, experience, education. At least superficially, the voters are impressed by ideas, by policies.
Now, can a lot or even all of that be rhetoric, nonsense, and show? Absolutely, and they often are. But that's not the point. The point is, what the voters actually expect. They expect discussions, debates, and policies.
Israeli Voter Expectations: In Israel, the voters have very different expectations. Sorry to say, but the expectations of politicians are much much lower. They don't even need or demand debates. They don't even demand experience or academics. There are no primaries. There are no debates. And what are the consequence?
-Israeli politicians come from senior military leadership. A field notoriously tied to rank, longevity, connections - protectsia, as we like to say in Israel. And that's how they rise to senior levels, not necessarily substance or debate.
-Israeli politicians also come from superficial journalist backgrounds. A backgrounds that rewards drama, shows for the camera.
So a good politician in Israel starts with a good television look, or a high military pedigree. In other words, Popularity and Protektzia. And its enhanced by an ability to yell, to be bombastic, to provide the one-liner, to produce a dramatic effect - shouts, tears, anger, insults - its all encouraged.
So the notorious Howard Dean scream of years ago; in Israel, it makes a campaign, it doesn't break it. A little scream and Dean was deemed crazy, unhinged, out of control. In Israel he's effective.
Name-Calling and Threats: And unfortunately, the practical ramifications are real. And that's why the discourse in Israel is very simple, childish, its based on name calling and threats
-Everyone is throwing random words at each other - everything is a boosha, everyone is anti-democratic, anti-Zionist, racist, criminal, corrupt... extremes, superlatives. All repeated, all undefined, all with no details. No depth is offered and no depth is demanded.
-Everything is the end of the State. And with that, a politician doesn't even have to prove his own merit. He just has to scare you with the other extreme. For the left, "Vote for me or the righty fanatics will win". For the right, "Vote for me or the lefty liberals will win."
Now, part of this has to do with the fact that there are no party primaries, so voters don't have real options. But that's a sociological and historical discussion for another day.
The Galut "Boosha": And when you combine this with the Jewish exile mentality, the galut mentality, which is alive and well all over Israel and in Israeli-born Jews, that's when everything becomes a Boosha, an embarrassment. Nonstop, Boosha Boosha.
Why? You can only have a Boosha, a shame, if someone is watching, someone is judging. Big Brother. The Truman Syndrome. "What will they say? What will they think?"
And who is even watching? Who is judging? This overarching Western judge and jury? The US public, a French president, a UK reporter? People who hate you anyway. People who only have a say in what you do because you've been allowed them to do so for 100 years, for 2,000 years.
And why did you give them such input, such a say? That's the core of the Galut mentality. To seek their approval, and more so their acceptance.
So when your Israeli politicians scream and are removed from the Knesset all the time, like in the third-world. Its not cute. Its not funny. Its not "the Israeli way". Its pathetic. It comes from these superficial politicians, from this popularity contest, from this drama show. And it dictates Israeli security, war policy. "Why incite? Why escalate? Appease, apologize, justify."
Israelis die because we are so worried about what "they" will say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0 (Howard Dean Scream)
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