Breaking: Israel not a part of Scandinavia

Orientalism is about the West oppressing the East, prolonging colonialist violence--just ask the late Edward Said. True supporters of Western civilization are supporters of Israel and vice versa.

While you're unlikely to hear both the above remarks from the same person, there is a certain consensus that Israel is of the West. I've had my doubts, and these doubts were confirmed when I read fashion writer Amy Odell's account of her Birthright Israel trip.

The Birthright cheesiness is off-putting, there's no way around it. As Odell notes, and as I've also mentioned, the Mega-Event (like Shmuley Boteach) is an example of lowest-common-denominator Christianity getting injected into Judaism to make it all more festive. And, also like Boteach, the Mega-Event does what it can to ensure that all hip and/or intelligent Jews abandon ship.

But what Odell dislikes is not Birthright, but Israel. She says of an Israeli singer at the Mega-Event, "I can’t say I enjoy his Hebrew wailing." Granted this was probably not the best musician Israel has to offer, but it soon becomes clear where Odell's post is going. When she writes, "We dance and mingle with aggressive, swarthy Jews for as long as we can bear," you have to tell yourself that she is Jewish, so of course this isn't racist. You have to avoid imagining how the remark would look if "blacks" or "Arabs" were in its place, because... right.

Odell seems to think the point of Birthright is to encourage Diaspora Jews to move to Israel. While I wouldn't object if that were the case, it's not. The point is to be more involved in one's own Diaspora Jewish community. But in any case, here are Odell's reasons for not moving to Israel:

I certainly don’t feel like this is my homeland. And I certainly don’t feel like I want to move here. In fact I feel no connection to this place at all. I feel more connected to London, simply because I so loved drinking Guinness at picnic tables at 11:30 a.m., and cheap shopping during July sale season. Israel doesn’t have beer or shopping like that, and it looks decrepit and third worldish.

Israel does have beer and shopping (scroll down for evidence), but in a sense, point taken. Israel is not London. The men are hairier, the food spicier. One could almost say there's something exotic and Oriental about the place.