Genocide-scented threats made by Almog Boker are simple. And that’s just so much more entertaining
Boker’s inflammatory tantrum was wonderfully comical but also terribly tragic, because it represented the failures of Right-wing thinking that brought us to the brink of extinction. ■ On Israeli Channel 12 it is forbidden to call for an end to the war in Gaza, but it is permissible and even desirable to propose psychologically disturbed solutions and call for the extermination of two million people
By Yoana Gonen • Translated by Sol Salbe
The title of Almog Boker’s role at Channel 12 News is quite vague, and I think it’s no coincidence. His official title is “Analyst/Commentator in south Israel,” but his real scope of coverage is “the most dopey angle on every possible topic,” and to his credit, he delivers it almost every day.
Yesterday, for example, he went berserk following the decision to erect a protective wall in two sections of the Sderot-Ashkelon railway line. On the face of it, it is a reasonable and even a requisite decision, but as far as Boker is concerned, it is a shameful surrender to Hamas. “Prime Minister Netanyahu himself should have said: I don’t want to see any shielding provided to that rail line!”, a seething Boker told Nesli Barda and Yoav Limor on their program. “It’s all a matter of what you come up in terms of your deterrence, and that isn’t how you deter them, quite the opposite.” Since Booker is less of an analyst commentator and more of an embarrassing uncle at the Friday gathering of the old codgers at the cafe, you can probably guess how he does come up with proper deterrence. “ “There must be a very clear message to Hamas, that even if you fire a cap gun at the train, there will be no Gaza Strip left, we will erase it,” he explained in a video posted on Channel 12’s TikTok.
A serious commentator could, of course, have made it clear that shielding alone is insufficient, and that political and military measures must be advanced alongside it that will ensure the security of the residents of the south. As far as Boker is concerned, however, the shielding itself is a humiliation, and it must be given up and we need to confront Hamas like men. If they do dare to shoot, Boker’s fiery patriotism will simply melt the rockets in flight.
Boker’s inflammatory tantrum was wonderfully comical but also terribly tragic, because it represented the failures of Right-wing thinking that brought us to the brink of extinction. First, the childish approach that favours fantasies of invincible power over realistic solutions and recognition of reality; and second, the idea that anything can be solved by force and more force, and that total destruction is a proportionate response someone shooting a cap gun. Unfortunately, when this worldview crashes into reality — for example, civilians are killed by shooting at an unshielded train — it never acknowledges its responsibility for the disaster and only digs deeper and deeper into the fantasy.
On Channel 12 it is forbidden to call for an end to the war in Gaza, but it is permissible and even desirable to propose psychologically disturbed solutions and call for the extermination of two million people. Therefore, in response to Boker’s delusional monologue, Barda made do with a weak aside: “It’s complicated, after that, let’s say we wouldn’t provide shielding and there would be gaps in the passengers’ protection, in short, it’s complicated.” Striving for long-term military and political solutions is complicated. Leaving the residents of the south without protective shieling and making genocide-scented threats — that’s simple. What can we do, Simple is much more entertaining than Complicated, and the Keshet network loves entertainment.
