Mamet On Israel - Playwrite

Mamet On Israel - Playwrite David Mamet - who describes himself as an "aging diaspora Jew" - writes this excellent piece in "Forward" on life as a Jew, outside looking in at Israel.

There, before me, was a broken-down Volvo of old, the vehicle of my brethren, the congenitally liberal. It was festooned, as are its kind, with every sort of correct exhortation: "Save James Bay," "Honor Diversity" and so on. A most interesting bumper sticker read: "Israel Out of the Settlements." Now this is a legitimate expression of free speech. Israel has been involved, as we know, in a rather protracted real estate dispute with several hundred million of its neighbors. This legitimate political expression, however, had all its "S"s transformed into dollar signs. Here we have, one would have supposed, a civilized person (one would assume that one could reason with the owner of a Volvo) sporting a slogan which could best be translated as "Hook-nosed Jews Die."

It's been interesting, watching the little scraps of endemic anti-semitism creeping out from the left this past two years. It continually begs the question - why do Jews keep voting Democrat?

Mamet did pull one clinker:

My very airplane book, my refuge on the endless flight to Israel, is Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears," in which I find the major plot point, the misplacement, by Israel, of an atom bomb. As per Mr. Clancy, in this otherwise ripping yarn, the world is going to end because these lazy or distracted Mockies have committed a blunder no civilized folk would make.

I have to wonder if Mamet actually read the book - the bomb was hardly "misplaced". The scene where the bomb is accidentally put on a plane that is shot down, and the bomb buried underground in the Golan, reads like an utterly ecumenical SNAFU. I can think of few authors who admire Israel as effusively as does Clancy.

Mamet again:

It is — I cannot say "refreshing" — a relief to trade a low-level umbrage at anti-Israeli tripe for the reality of a country at war. Israel, at war, looks very much like Israel at peace. Life, as the phrase has it, goes on.

It's a great article, and well worth a read.

(via Andrew Sullivan)

Posted by Mitch at December 30, 2002 08:24 AM