Sunday, July 24, 2011
Yaso
you the exact moment when I fell in love with her. It was the first
and only time that I watched "A Star is Born," Israel's analogue to
"American Idol." It is not something I voluntarily watch. But I was
in the hospital ward after surgery, unable to get up to turn the TV
off. And that is where it happened.
You probably have already heard of her. Hagit Yaso is the Israeli
Ethiopian Jewish woman superstar who has knocked the socks off the
entire country. The 21 year old (see her photo here:
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtl-41yuvMni3qERCV3Ao3JC1X318xi3vwrK7VK_UnmWmyZ_C-
) won the last round of the song contest, held last night on the Haifa
beach (no I was not there). But even before that, she had rocketed
within just a few weeks to becoming one of the most recognized persons
in the country. Hers is being described everywhere as the Israeli
"Cinderella story." She lives with her struggling parents and family
in Sderot, the town at which the barbarians most like to fire rockets,
and she works as an assistant daycare provider in a kibbutz nearby.
And she sings like an angel.
From out of nowhere she emerged to take the entire country by storm.
Instead of the bubblegum pop songs usually featured in the Israeli
singing contest, she stands with quiet dignity, singing with pathos,
including a song based on Ethiopian melodies in Hebrew, with Amharic
(Ethiopian) sentences mixed in. Rather than downplaying her Ethiopian
identify, she celebrates it. And there is never a dry eye in the
house when she does. In the hospital ward I had chills running up and
down my spine as she sang, and it was not from the medications!
I have confessed to my Missus that I am in love with Hagit. My Missus
does not seem to mind, as long as I do my chores, since the only
conceivable relation I could have with Hagit would be if she were to
offer to walk me across the busy street. Besides, the wife was long
used to me also being in love with singer Ofra Haza, before Ofra's
tragic end. Hagit is inevitably being compared with Ofra, that other
Cinderella story. Ofra had emerged from a low-income Yemenite family
in a Tel Aviv slum to take the country by storm and hold it in her
palm for years. Hagit's winning performance last night was with a
song made famous by Ofra. Yes, and of course this all makes a
mockery out of the "Israel is an Apartheid State" claims of the
Hitlerjugend.
For those of you who understand such things, Hagit has a facebook at
http://he-il.facebook.com/pages/Hagit-Yaso%D7%97%D7%92%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%99%D7%90%D7%A1%D7%95/212294138797621
You can see her singing in a youtube clip at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOiJxgrzlIc and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsIANYhs3b0 and they have other clips
you can find by searching youtube for hagit yaso.
2. Bibi Netanyahu, who really should be called Bibi Peresyahu, was
not content with sabotaging the recent Knesset initiative to demand
transparency in the finances of subversive anti-Israel leftist NGO's
operating in Israel. So these picayune groups can continue to strive
for Israel's elimination using the generous funds of anti-Israel
groups and governments from around the world, all thanks to Bibi.
Bibi's latest is that he now wants to issue an apology to Turkey for
Israeli soldiers defending themselves against the Flotilla terrorists.
Sure, it will be a watered down namby pamby apology, but he still
says he wants to apologize to the Turks for allowing Israeli soldiers
to be beaten by Turkish terrorists. An apology by Peresyahu is indeed
in order, but it should be an apology to Israelis.
I know that if Bibi really issues such an apology to the Saracens, I
will never ever vote Likud again.
Will Bibi's next initiative be an apology to Germany for the
mistreatment of all those Germans by Jews in the 1930s?
3. It turns out that the day BEFORE The Oslo mass murders, the very
same teenagers in the Norwegian Labor Party camp who were targeted on
that island had issued a call for an international boycott of Israel.
See this: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099122,00.html
4. Palestinians against the Bible:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146005
