Sunday, September 9, 2018

A Happy New Years Greeting Like You've Never Seen



 You can probably guess what a New Years Greeting video must look like from a President or a Prime Minister. It's a tradition: the President or PM seats at a desk facing the camera. He speaks for perhaps 2-3 minutes. His gives the viewer his New Years Greeting.

This year, to welcome the new Jewish year, number 5779, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has his own way to greet the year: It's a different 'greeting', indeed--assuming, of course, that what you are about to see is, in fact, authentic. In today's world of fake news, you can't always tell what's true.  

You can watch in a moment, but first...this video is in Hebrew. There are no subtitles.

So here's a verbal preview:

As the video opens, a nice modern, young Israeli Jewish family is sitting with their young son, and guests, around the family dining room table that's already been set for a holiday meal. Everyone at the table is singing 'Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Happy New Year'. Everyone appears to be having a good time. 

As they sing, there's a knock at the front door. The young son--perhaps 6 year old--jumps up and (apparently thinking this is a Passover Seder holiday) says, 'It's Eliyahu HaNavi! (Elijah the Prophet, who is 'welcomed' at one's front door as part of the Passover Seder ritual). 

As the boy jumps from the table to rush to the door, his mother turns towards the boy's retreating figure and says, essentially, 'wrong holiday, Yoavi'. 

The boy opens the door. He finds...Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is dressed in suit , white shirt and no tie, wearing potholders on his hands and holding a hot pot. 

The boys asks him, 'Eliyahu?' Netanyahu looks at him, smiles, and says, 'Netanyahu'.

The little boy turns to face the interior. He shouts, 'it's a guy from TV'.

[Wait. This is a Prime Minister's New Year's Greeting? Yep--and the fun hasn't even begun].

The father in the video hear's the boy call out that 'it's a guy from TV'. The father shrugs, says, 'let him come in!'...then whispers to his wife the name (I think) of a children's TV character.

Netanyahu enters the dining room carrying the hot pot. The parents are shocked. They stand up--stunned. The father says, 'Prime Minister??????'. 

Netanyahu smiles. He gives over the hot pot to the wife, along with the potholders, and starts to sit at the table. As he does so, the father, now smiling broadly, asks, 'It was a tough year, eh?' (something like that).

As Netanyahu bends to sit, he says,  'Nooooo, it was an EXCELLENT' year.' Then he proceeds to explain exactly why the year just past was so EXCELLENT.  

He doesn't stop talking. He never runs out of examples to show how fantastic the year was. The parents wilt. The guests wilt. The wife appears ready to fall over, asleep. As Netanyahu pauses to take a breathe, the husband starts to eat something, then stops as Netanyahu launches into another list. The husband's face is frozen in astonishment --and a desire to start eating already.

The young boy falls asleep, his face on his plate. Everyone at the table is asleep.

 Finally, Netanyahu ends, clearly delighted with what he's just said, and just as clearly oblivious to his audience's stupor. The husband claps, politely. As he claps, his son suddenly sits up and says something (I can't translate it). Netanyahu turns to him with an eager look on his face,  points a finger at the boy and says, ' Education! I didn't tell you about education!'

Netanyahu launches again into another list of accomplishments. Everyone at the table wilts. 

The camera fades--out the window. From the outside, we see Netanyahu at the table, talking again with great relish; the parents and guests are completely bored to death. As you watch this scene , large words appears on the screen: "Happy New Year". 

After that, the camera is back inside. You see the wife eating, apparently from the food Netanyahu had brought with him. The wife loves it. She says, 'you must give me the recipe'. He says, in essence, 'of course'.

He pulls out a huge three-ring binder from his lap, as if he'd been waiting for her to ask. He opens the binder, starting to thumb through the pages. For the first page he looks at, he says, 'Not this one'; he turns to a second page and says, 'definitely not this one...'


Take a look. The video is less than 1:40 long. You can see from the first picture below how the wife wilts while the PM talks. I'll comment afterwards:







To an American, this presentation of a national leader as a man who doesn't know when to shut up must appear downright weird. The only logical explanation for such a portrayal would be that it was made as a spoof by the political opposition. But this is Israel. This is Netanyahu. 

It's not like America here. This ad was made by Netanyahu's office (at least, that's my impression; if I'm wrong--and if this was made by the Opposition here--I'll let you know).

Netanyahu has done something like this before. I can remember that, in the last election, he ran a campaign ad that begins by showing a family waiting in their apartment for a babysitter to show up so they can go out for the evening. The doorbell rings. The father opens the door. It's not the babysitter. It's Netanyahu--who announces, using his nickname, Bibi--hi, I'm your Bibisitter'. Can I come in?'

At the end of the  ad, Netanyahu is sitting with his charge on the sofa, watching TV, eating popcorn with the child, clearly enjoying himself.

That's a campaign ad?

Even if you don't like this guy, he does appear to have a sense of humor. He also seems to have a sense of, hey, let's lighten up a bit, eh? 

The video comes from here.  

Happy Rosh Hashanna! 

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