For those among you who don’t speak Hebrew: the previous post was a tongue-in-cheek eulogy I wrote for Sefi Rivlin (the one mentioned in the post beforehand), on the second season of which Rivlin had appeared regularly. It was written as a parody of the song used on Nikui Rosh, which was probably the most influential satirical television programme in Israel ever (except maybe Eretz Nehederet). Nikui Rosh was thoroughly criticised for being very leftist and daring to venture into mocking people and institutions that were thoroughly taboo at the time, such as the President of Israel at the time, Efrayim Shamir, who accidentally let it slip for some obscure reason that Israel had nuclear arms in an agricultural convention (incidentally, mocking the President was considered taboo even as late as the ‘90s―HaKhartsufim, the Israeli version of Splitting Image, had to censor a skit mocking then-President Ezer Weiszmann).
The series lasted for two seasons, as the crew decided it was too bold and risky to keep running. At the end of season 1 they made a song mocking themselves mercilessly, describing themselves as a leftist menace; at the end of season 2 they paraphrased this song, saying (somewhere in the mock-self-mockery) that Golda Meir (who was returning to politics at the time) was enough of a joke to make them redundant.
I used the songs as a basis for the eulogy I wrote, presenting Rivlin, a staunch right-winger who had appeared in the Likud’s campaign in the ‘80s (when political campaigns still used articulate arguments instead of catchy gimmicks), as a dangerous right-wing nutjob who lures children into his radical worldview (every child who grew up in Israel in the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s saw him on two popular children’s programmes), clearly in jest, with a brief preview explaining that I do not resent right-wingers in general, and that I have nothing against the recently departed Rivlin, whom I’d never met in person, and thought would have laughed from the eulogy if he read it himself. Also, in the poem I labelled one Amir Hetsroni, a lecturer in the Mass Media Department in
Ariel ‘University’, and the Israeli newspaper
Israel Today as the ‘heirs’ of Rivlin, just as Meir was
Nikui Rosh’s.
Aparently, someone told Hetsroni about this post (or, more likely, he Googled his name and came across it), and he decided
to link the post on his Facebook Wall, with the following description: ‘Before you stands a true curiosity: the blog of a poet and multi-lingual translator (from Swedish to Mandarin), who claims to have an IQ of no less than 160, and proudly displays the manga graphics of a 16-year-old girl. Last week he wrote a memorial poem for Sefi Rivlin, to the tune of the finishing song of
Nikui Rosh (which is far less known than the opening song) [which was
covered as a hip-hop song in 2006]. Due to reasons I truly find difficult to comprehend in depth, he crowns me the heir of the late entertainer from Rishon leTsiyon [Rivlin’s hometown, whose city hall he had been a member of for a while]. As stated before, a curiosity indeed. If the blogger or anyone who knows him is reading this post―I’d be happy to receive more details.’
Putting aside the poor ad hominem derailments, I found it curious that neither Hetsroni himself nor any of his commentors seem to have understood the meaning of the song, even though I linked the original song in the post, as if my lyrics weren’t enough over-the-top as it was. Well, actually, I’m not all that surprised about Hetsroni misunderstanding; after all, this is the man who:
- suggested in April 2010 that Israel should not submit to international pressure, as South Africa did so in cancelling the Apartheid, a move that wound up harming the white population;
- defended importing women in March 2012, arguing, ‘Who are we to preach to putrid old men that they are not to enjoy the pleasantries of young meat that desires them?’ and claimed feminists were trying to push away ‘imported goods’ so they can keep ‘selling mediocre goods’ at a preposterous ‘price’, having seen Israeli men looking for foreign women;
- said in July 2012 about Moshe Silman, ‘We may have been spared a parasite at a low cost’;
- claimed a Facebook campaign for women to detail their history of sexual abuse was ‘perjurious’, calling them ‘sexual confessions’ (this sparked a public outcry demanding that he be fired);
and that’s just what Wikipedia mentions. There were other incidents. Plenty of other incidents―such as the ageist and sexist remark about 16-year-old girls, whom I have seen post better texts than Hetsroni.
So, if I may be so frank, being insulted by this man, after the initial shock, comes across now as possibly the most significant compliment I’ve ever received. I feel flattered.
As for the personal attacks I put aside:
- Had Hetsroni bothered to read the lists on the sides of this blog slightly better, he would have noticed that, among other things, I was said to be both seventeen (which was the reason I expressed such intense hatred towards some poets, given that I had to study their works in high school and was very displeased with them) and born in 1991, and I mentioned a profound hatred for Yuli Tamir (Ministress of Education between 2006 and 2009). That was when those lists were written. Clearly, most of it is not up-to-date, and I have indeed re-written them.
- As for my translation services: I stated that my proficiency of the languages stated is far below fluent. I never claimed to be able to translate anything other than Hebrew and English; only on occasion did I find this piece or another in any other language as translatable, and had never had the nerve to offer my services to translate any other language until very recently, and even then it was only one specific work I found within my ability to translate faithfully from Japanese: Kaze to Ki no Uta, a shojo manga. I would kindly suggest that Hetsroni work on his reading comprehension.
- As for my IQ: yes, it really is my IQ. I was tested after failing to enter a gifted children’s programme, due to the test being held at a large classroom with many other students in an unfamiliar environment, which impeded my abilities significantly. At the time, following the famous then-blogger Senia Waldberg’s example (a mistake I will never repeat, ever), I figured mentioning my IQ in advance would make people think of me as a force to be reckoned with in an argument and not dismiss me as a fool right away. It seemed like a good idea at the time; it no longer does.
- As for the design: I found the cool, dark colours very soothing when I designed the blog. I still do, so they stayed. The title picture is from the manga adaptation of Neon Genesis Evangelion, my favourite television programme of all times. I would like the honourable Mr. Hetsroni to try and watch Evangelion before dismissing any allusion thereto as puerile, as his review would most likely be quite amusing, and, quite likely, unintentionally very flattering to its brilliant creator, Hideaki Anno; I may be inclinded to send Hetsroni’s review to Mr. Anno myself.
Now it is already quite late indeed, and I must go get some sleep. Good night, readers, and may you all receive such well-deserved flattery.
Unum diem...
(P.S.: I would like to thank my friend Eli Björk for bringing Hetsroni’s review to my attention. Tack så mycket!)
EDIT: Hetsroni replied to his own post, mentioning this post I wrote in response. Amazingly, he managed to misunderstand the point again, twice: he couldn’t understand the analogy I made between him and Rivlin on one hand and Meir and Nikui Rosh on the other, thinking I ‘compared [him] to Golda’; and he had the audacity to write that the IQ level I stated was, and I quote, ‘wishful thinking’.
For the benefit of Mr. Hetsroni, whose reading comprehension is so low he could claim that if I tried to sue him for libel, I will clarify:
What I said in the lyrics was that the relation between Nikui Rosh and Meir is the same as the relation between Rivlin and him: Nikui Rosh were the intentional, intelligent ‘clowns’, while Meir was a ‘clown’ in the sense of ‘a person worthy of mockery’, who outlived Nikui Rosh; Rivlin, a comedian, was a ‘clown’ in the former sense, while Hetsroni is a clown in the latter. Perhaps it would be clearer is a more graphic form:
1 Smart clown, 2 smart points, 3 gone : 4 Dumb clown, 5 staying
1 Nikui Rosh, 2 well-deserved satire, 3 gone off the air : 4 Meir, 5 coming back to politics
1 Rivlin, 2 sensible right-wing arguments, 3 passed away : 4 Hetsroni and his right-wing nonsense, 5 not going anywhere
As for my intelligence: I pointed out that I was tested after not being accepted. In other words, there were two tests, the second of which demonstrated that my IQ level was as I stated. The only detail I didn’t bother mentioning was that the latter test was run as an IQ test should be: with only the tester, a psychologist trained to run the test, and the person tested. An adult with normal reading comprehension, let alone someone who calls himself a ‘professor’ (seriously, he has the habit of talking about himself in the third person and referring to himself as ‘the professor’) should have been able to understand this.
Jesus Christ... I asked Eli to warn Hetsroni to think twice before addressing me, after he asked how I could be reached, even though my e-mail address appears on this blog, and he could’ve simply replied to this post or used the chatbox―that’s three glaringly obvious channels he managed to miss. It seems he is simply irredeemably stupid.
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