Thursday, July 18, 2013

Wash this! A Tumblr from Abraham's Grandchildren

Now this is funny.

From Abraham's Grandchildren, written by an "Ashkenazi Jew, Litvak, bicultural, Zionist, Semite, loves Israel, loves the many cultures of the Middle East. Hates racism, bad history, and narrishkeit about Khazars."   Check it out.

Wash this!

Some idiot in the Israel tag is now describing the Birthright trips as ‘bluewashing’. Some brief research shows this to be one of JVP’s new terms, joining ‘pinkwashing’ (Israel’s sinister and cynical insistence on giving its LGBTQ citizens rights and the protection of the law, in addition to recognition of same-sex marriages from outside the country) and ‘greenwashing’ (Israel’s cynical and sinister insistence on doing environmental shit).

‘Bluewashing’ appears to encompass any activity that involves encouraging Jews to feel a connection to Israel. This is sometimes known as ‘heritage tourism’ when other people do it.

I love the pathologizing of Israeli behavior, allow me to propose the following:

redwashing—Magen David Adom cynically provides disaster relief
orangewashing—Israel cynically exports Jaffa oranges
yellowwashing—Israeli cyclists cynically ride in the Tour de France
purplewashing—Israelis cynically pretend to care that Alice Walker won’t let The Color Purple be translated into Hebrew, when they have all read it in English anyway
indigowashing—Israelis cynically wear skinny jeans to convince the world they are hip and stylish
graywashing—Israel cynically gives old people pensions
washingwashing—Israelis cynically continue to do laundry

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