Author Topic: Great book:"Israeli Humor, the Content & Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah"  (Read 353 times)

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Offline Ari Ben-Canaan

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Israeli Humor, the Content & Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah", by Elliot Oring.

Very funny.  I do not get 100% of the jokes, but it is a very insightful look at what the early settlers considered funny.  Chizbat is Hebrewized form of the world Hizbat, an Arabic word for lies.  I guess you could call them tall tails about actual individual members of the Palmah*, or well known Jews of the time.  While computerless I read most of it, looking to finish it in the next week.

*"Abu Layish", "The Brother of Abu Layish", "Beni the Politurk", "Hayim the Fat"...  "The Arab Squad"... for examples.

Funny stuff like digging a hole up and loading it up on a truck for delivery... or being kicked by a snake.
"You must keep the arab under your boot or he will be at your throat" -Unknown

"When we tell the Arab, ‘Come, I want to help you and see to your needs,’ he doesn’t look at us like gentlemen. He sees weakness and then the wolf shows what he can do.” - Maimonides

 “I am all peace, but when I speak, they are for war.” -Psalms 120:7

"The difference between a Jewish liberal and a Jewish conservative is that when a Jewish liberal walks out of the Holocaust Museum, he feels, "This shows why we need to have more tolerance and multiculturalism." The Jewish conservative feels, "We should have killed a lot more Nazis, and sooner."" - Philip Klein