Targets and Nazis, Rabin and Giffords

The attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords threw me back to the rhetoric that preceded the Rabin assassination.

It’s the fall of 1995, and there’s a sense in Israel that a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians is imminent, and that Rabin is going to realize the Oslo accords signed just two years earlier. Rabin’s mandate is shaky – the Israeli populous, still reeling from the horrendous terrorist attacks of 1994, is skeptical as to Arafat’s sincerity in recognizing Israel.

The political and religious right, led by Bibi Netanyahu, launches a huge anti-Rabin campaign. Posters of Rabin in S.S. uniform and public statements by prominent rabbis that Rabin is a traitor and should be eliminated–basically a Jewish fatwa–pop up in newspapers, poster boards and demonstrations.

The culmination of the anti-Rabin campaign was the Likud rally in Zion Square, Jerusalem in October 1995, less than a month before the assassination. From the speakers’ balcony Netanyahu and the Likud leadership could easily hear the masses chanting “in blood and fire we shall do away with Rabin”, “he’s a traitor!” and “death to Rabin”. Many demonstrators carry signs depicting Rabin wearing a kafiah (eluding to Arafat) and in S.S. uniform.

Likud leaders, from the balcony, call for the ousting of the ‘Quisling’ government (after the WWII Norwegian traitor). Netanyahu claims that Rabin’s government is based on a non-Zionist majority – the five Arab MKs associated with the PLO.

Rabin counteracts with a pro-peace rally in Tel Aviv, at the very square that would eventually bear his name. Minutes after the last chord of ‘Song for Peace’, which ended the rally, Rabin is shot to death by Yigal Amir, a right-wing activist and follower of a rabbi that called for Rabin’s elimination.

In the aftermath of the assassination, the right’s mea culpa was drowned by the voices that called for understanding, bridging and healing. “Now is not the time to point fingers, we need to first dress the wounds”. But the time to assign blame never came. Within a few months Israel was mired in another round of fighting in Lebanon, and soon after Likud took the reins. The lessons were never learned, and the mere commemoration of Rabin became a political matter.

Now, I’m not saying that Sarah Palin called for the assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, or that she should be held liable in any way for the shooting in Tuscon. At most she is guilty of applying really bad judgement and using incendiary language (“Don’t retreat, instead reload!” she tweeted).

But the Tuscon shooting should serve as a warning that there are psychos out there that will take the rhetoric and even the imagery too literally. And maybe at the same time, reconsider the gun laws that enabled a known disturbed person to freely obtain a gun and buy ammo at Wal Mart.

A woman is not a hamburger

The overarching role of marketing is to create in the customer the imperative to take a desired action, hopefully while doing no evil.

Today, children, we will talk about really evil people.

In my hometown of Tel Aviv, Israel, there’s a restaurant called Agadir which prides itself on its excellent hamburgers. It also prides itself on the attractiveness of its female servers, so much so that for the Jewish new year they issued a calendar featuring wholesome photos of the girls in action.

Here are a few samples:

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The man behind the campaign is actually a woman, one Keren Arnaldes, creative director for the Mu-Ar ad agency. Here are excerpts from an interview with her published in The Marker Online magazine (translated by me from Hebrew):

“You can choose to see them as humiliated and abused, but nothing there was staged…”

“Q: Does this mean that the waitresses chose to be photographed on all fours?… A: Totally… it reflects the kind of reality these girls live in… [these girls] are women, not little girls.”

“There’s nothing grotesque or pornographic about it…”

“Not every girl shown on all fours is submissive. Could be that she just wants to [bend over] that way. It comes from a place of strength. You shouldn’t take it to a sexist place…”

“They all do it out of loyalty to Agadir” (duh…)

Listen. I know sex sells, and I’m no prude, and bla bla bla. I have no problem with erotica or pornography or whatever. But there’s a big difference – from Maxim to Hustler to any amateur porn site, the models and actors are self-aware adult entertainers. This is not the case. Encouraging the servers to pose in compromising positions (the photos will haunt these girls for years to come), and taking advantage of their loyalty to the workplace, crosses a big, fat line.

From the creative director to the restaurant’s owner, you are nothing but self-righteous smut peddlers. And that’s evil.