The Men’s Rights movement has reached the Knesset. It’s a little weird to me that the Israel world and the MRA world are now overlapping, but I think Israel has been one of the countries with the most vocal Men’s activism in the world, at least in the form of זכויות הגבר במשפחה (Men’s Family Rights) graffiti that for years competed with נ…נח…נחמ nonsense in some public spaces. Gil Ronen was also the first person I ever heard (through common friends) putting “men” and “rights” together and asserting that men have rights as men (late 2005).
I don’t believe in “men’s rights” because I don’t believe in any kind of rights as a concept or as an organizing principle, and I’m ambivalent about the advance of the men’s rights idea in Israel because it seems too easily established as a demon that the rest of polite society can oppose (“Rape is a serious problem in Israel; Men’s Rights Activists advocate rape; we must annihilate Men’s Rights”). Better to deconstruct the overall rights idea overtly and covertly, I think; but it’s still cool that things like this happen in the Knesset. Since presumably a majority of voters in every US congressional district are women, no one who ever advocated men’s rights could ever make it into Congress.
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Israel is the most feminized country in the world. Feminists are taking over the courts. The former President was convicted by two women and an Arab. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t exactly fit in with those who claim that Israel = apartheid.
Another story that caught my attention was about this woman police officer who was fired after her incompetence led to a dangerous hostage situation. She was reinstated to her job by the supreme court by three women judges.
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/186/590.html
I agree with your claim that feminization has gotten very advanced in Israel, but to call Israel the most feminized country in the world is far from accurate. Of course the legal regime is thoroughly feminized, but the culture has fortunately lagged behind.
I know from many offices where I’ve worked, for example, that people speak openly of their idea that men probably shouldn’t do what women are supposed to do, and women probably shouldn’t do what men are supposed to do (get a girl to order food and arrange parties for the office; get a man to carry heavy boxes and fix the computers when they break). Also, in the Israeli workplace, men are far more free than in the American workplace to make sexually explicit comments, to compliment a girl on her appearance or refer to another girl as ugly – and even to hire girls they find attractive (I once worked at an Israeli startup where, curiously, most of the female employees had the same body shape, normal to small boobs and a very large ass).
In relationships between men and women there is a strong desire among women for masculine men, and girls tend to be way more vocal in Israel than in America about wanting a guy who’s man enough. Anecdotally, it seems more common for Israeli mothers to be stay-at-home moms than American mothers, even though it’s definitely more difficult for a family to get by on one Israeli salary than on one American salary. Divorce is not quite as fucked up here as it is there, because a wife who takes the kids and walks out on her husband will have a hell of a time trying to get remarried until they find a mutually acceptable arrangement for the rabbanut.
It’s a little weird to me that the Israel world and the MRA world are now overlapping
I find it weird whenever I see anything in Israel reminiscent of US conservative ideologies. The organization that Yulia Shamalov spoke for (“Familism”) is a sort of pro-family values organization, not just an “angry divorced fathers” outfit.
These kinds of organizations seem a little… redundant in a country where an organization like יד לאחים is allowed to exist.
Right. There’s a big discrepancy between the establishment elite outside of the army and society at large.
@IHTG Have you lived in America?
@FirstComment I think the army’s establishment elite is more feminized than the internet industry elite.
How is the army feminized and what is the “internet industry elite”?
Have you lived in America?
A long time ago, yes.
@FirstComment, the main group of people who make decisions about military operations in Israel is the parents of the soldiers, and particularly their mothers. It’s the mothers who have their sons’ commanders’ mobile phone numbers (and aren’t afraid to call and make sure their boys are being treated fairly); it’s the mothers who are out wailing, “Protect our boys!” whenever an infantry brigade is called into action; and it’s the mothers who march around and meet with politicians to set national policy in matters that they have no special knowledge or authority whatsoever. So that’s a pretty disturbing sign of feminization in and of the military. The other main one is the extent to which the whole military apparatus has been so heavily bureaucratized and overrun by attorneys, who transmit every order and every action through the lens of the international human rights regime.
The internet industry elite is just the alternative branja of investors, entrepreneurs, programmers, VPs of marketing and biz dev and whatever else, who pretty much all seem to know each other.
@IHTG, do we know each other?
Do we know each other?
Only from this blog, as far as I know.
I see what you mean. I think you’re exaggerating a bit when you say the mothers are “the main group of people who make decisions” but I definitely see what you mean. If what you said was true to the extent you say it, Gilad Shalit would be home right now and so would Rehavam Zeevi’s killers’.
The graffiti you mention is a rip-off business. The sentiment is authentic.
How is it a rip-off?
“I don’t believe in “men’s rights” because I don’t believe in any kind of rights as a concept or as an organizing principle”
Good. There are no “rights” only power. Masculinism imbued with this sort of understanding is not so common – most anti-feminism tends to be based on self-defeating “equality and rights” idealism.
Genius:
Do you know the commenter “Aaron” who posts on AltRight?
I don’t read the comments there. I tried commenting maybe a couple times, and the other commenters voted down my comments so aggressively that I was even banned temporarily from commenting on other unrelated sites that used the same comments plugin. Why, does Aaron know me?
I haven’t ever talked to the guy, but I thought maybe you were familiar with each other (I’m fairly sure he is also an American oleh).
Back on topic:
There was an extended interview with Yulia Shamalov-Berkovitz in today’s Maariv weekly (סופשבוע). The interviewer was feminist but they did give her a fair hearing.
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