It is amazing that Avishai Ben-Haim's embarrassing book is called "Second Israel" and not "An Introduction to the Theory of Bibism"

It is a bit unnecessary to write a critique of the "second Israel" of the IDF. If you agree with it, it is great, and if you write against it - you prove the suppression of media hegemony. Among other things because it's boring

Living Room Fellow

14/06/2022

Tuesday, 14 June 2022, 00:00 Updated: 00:05

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

A toxic document dipped in honey.

Avishai Ben Haim's book (Photo: Official website, Alon Baskind)

Not every cover file bound in a cover should be referred to as a "book," and not every collection of nonsense deserves literary criticism at all.

So yes, technically, Avishai Ben-Haim's "Second Israel" is indeed a book, but a short reading of a few pages is enough to understand that this is a Facebook post that got out of hand.

The book is not well written, not well edited and after getting used to the poor academic level, which includes blatant factual errors - it is mostly very boring.

"The Second Israel. The Sweet Gospel, the Bitter Oppression" (Yedioth Books Publishing) is an attempt by Dr. Ben-Haim to write down his intricate thesis, which he has previously presented with his captivating television charisma on our screen, and mostly dug endlessly about it. On his Twitter page. For years when asked legitimate questions about (huge) holes in theory, he asked his followers to fuck patiently, and wait for a book to answer all the questions and solve all the dilemmas. Well, the book does not, but it does something more important: he Clarifies Ben-Haim's contempt for those people he calls "second Israel" as he downplays their whole essence in support of a particular politician.

For the avoidance of doubt, I do not belong to those who claim that there is no such thing as "second Israel," even the opposite.

Ben-Haim's choice to reclaim the concept might even have been appropriate had he not sought to base the whole line of concept renewal on a distorted basis.

According to the book, "second Israel" is not defined by country of origin, but by "point of origin".

This is the starting point according to Ben-Haim: Eastern ethnic significance, clear socio-economic oppression, clear respect for tradition, clear respect for nationalism, clear support for Bibi.

In other words: a traditional Jew who immigrated from Casablanca, fought in the army and suffered discrimination in the labor market - is not part of Ben Haim's "second Israel", if he voted in the Lieberman election.

Is it impossible to be part of the second Israel without supporting Bibi?

seriously?

Avishai Ben Haim (Photo: Official Website, Alon Baskind)

There are parts of the book that if not written seriously could have been entertaining.

Nadav Menuhin has already written about the embarrassing factual errors regarding the songs mentioned in the book on this site.

Ben-Haim is not stupid, he knows that Jonathan Geffen wrote "it could be over" many years before Begin's political upheaval, and no less important - he wrote it as a parody of the people of the "good old Land of Israel."

But Ben-Haim probably thinks his readers are stupid, and builds on the fact that they will believe that Geffen wrote "songs of destruction and lamentation" about the Begin government.

It would also have been amusing to explain the contribution of Shas (a party that completely excludes women) to equality in political representation, had it not been for the utterly serious. On Netanyahu (and to some extent on Deri), it seems as if he is losing all moral or intellectual conscience. There is nothing to talk about journalistic ethics at all. It is amazing that the book is called "Second Israel" and not "Introduction to Bibism", because it There is no frog he is unwilling to swallow, no lie he is unwilling to publish, no exaggeration he is unwilling to sign - when the goal is one - to save Baba Bibi from the jaws of the democratic rule of law of the State of Israel. Takes Ben Haim's nonsense seriously.

In the back cover of the book, Ben Haim explains that it is a historical document (!) Written from the heart and mind, and it expresses what many generations in Israel feel, "a feeling that has not yet been formulated in a book."

In other words, the whole theory spread over 400 pages is basically a feeling.

feel.

Personal interest.

Not exactly a scientific thesis or serious research.

Something written "from the heart."

Sabba, I have no interest in arguing with what Ben Haim feels.

The problem is I do not believe him.

This is a book that aims to convey messages and convince the unconvinced of the righteousness of the path of the one and only, Benjamin Netanyahu, to whom a case has been sewn by the bad guys from hegemony.

It is part of the process of consciousness engineering done by the Bibism cult in recent years.

At the end of this tunnel there is no better life for the citizens of Israel, there are only more interests of capitalists and government corruption.

More on Walla!

In line with persecution: This is how the Second Israel's journey of hardship has continued since the 1977 coup

To the full article

Exploiting or being exploited?

Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)

The first part of the book ("The Bitter Oppression") is full of racism that is unaware of its racism, and maybe actually is.

His attempt to turn the Balfour 2020 protest (in which Mizrahis, Ashkenazis, Arabs, Russians, religious and more took part) into a protest against the '77 upheaval is one of the most heinous things written and written by Bibismists.

The attempt to describe the disgust that half of the people have towards Netanyahu as an attempt to suppress the "sons of light" from hegemony, while ignoring the acts (some of which are allegedly criminal) that led to Netanyahu's loss of power, makes the whole book unreadable.

If one ignores all the passages about Netanyahu, all that remains is the racism and hatred of the "sweet" writer towards anyone who thinks differently from him.

Ben-Haim reaches the pinnacle of detachment (or exaggeration) when he compares the trial of Dreyfus (the Jewish officer accused of espionage and exile from France solely for anti-Semitism) to the Netanyahu trial in the Alps.

"The Dreyfus affair comes up quite a bit in the context of the Netanyahu trial," Ben-Haim lies to his readers, as the only person who occasionally raises this comparison, "and it should be said: it is forbidden to compare, but in some ways the" Netanyahu trial "is more serious than the Dreyfus trial."

This is a low rhetorical exercise even for Ben Haim.

Equally I can say that I do not compare Avishai Ben-Haim's book with Maine Kampf.

Really, do not compare.

It is worth noting that there is quite a bit of truth in the allegations of discrimination against Mizrahis in Israel, certainly in the past but also in the present.

The stereotyping of the Mizrahi as "ars", the police profiling, the under-representation in the justice system and other sick evils are still prevalent in our society.

Ben Haim could present data that would prove that these are not just "feelings."

He does not do that.

Not because the data is not available, but because they may prove along the way how little Deri and Netanyahu's Shas did to change this reality during their many years in power. The repeated claims against "hegemony" become ridiculous at some point, especially when everything Haim wants to save Netanyahu from the terror of hegemony, and not the Mizrahi public.

More on Walla!

The last miracle of Rabbi Kanievsky: turned Avishai Ben-Haim into a journalist

To the full article

Lots of crocodile tears, few accomplishments for the Eastern public.

Aryeh Deri (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The second part of the book ("The Sweet Gospel") is already more interesting and less affected by blind admiration for corrupt politicians.

In this section, Ben-Haim conducts some interesting and even important discussions with himself about the place of Eastern / traditional society in the overall picture of the Zionist movement, and in its realization as the State of Israel.

Ben-Haim does not recreate here much, and even drips into a blind nostalgic look, but at least this time he seems to be writing about things "from the head," and not just "from the heart."

The connection he makes between Herzl and Bob Marley is original, as is the use of Einav Bublil's Big Brother anecdotes in an argument between Maimonides and Rabbi Nachman. Preceded by it.This is exactly the constant benevolent method.Wrap all racism and hatred with a wide smile and moving words about brotherhood and reconciliation.

To sum up this is a bad, mostly boring book and the number of times I laughed out loud (partly because he reads Bob Marley's song: "Who knows it-fills it" instead of "Who feels it knows it") does not justify the nerves that the false claims brought.

The problem is that no matter what I write about this book, it will serve the destructive and false narrative at the heart of Avishai Ben - Haim's racist theory.

His method is simple and effective: if you agree with the theory - great.

If you do not agree with the theory - you are proving it to be true as the representative of oppression on earth.

The truth is that I did not want to write this review because I did not want to become a tool in Ben Haim's cynical play, but one must not remain silent in the face of such a sickening text that is published by a reputable publishing house in the State of Israel.

This is a toxic document dipped in honey, as Ben Haim does, and the bottom line is that it is better to simply ignore it.

I apologize to my readers, and especially to myself, for not being able to do this.

• culture

• Digits

• Book review

Tags

• Avishai Ben Haim

• Benjamin Netanyahu