The two Faces of a castrated Stud

I learned something new during the eight years that I've had this website; something I call the law of random coincidences. This is when two or more articles appear on the same day or a day apart, each telling part of a story that's complemented by the parts told in the other articles.

One such case happened on September 21, 2015 when an article appeared under the title: “Vlad of Arabia: Putin's drive to the heart of the Middle East,” written by Benny Avni and published in the New York Post … and another article appeared on the same day under the title: “Israel Needs New Friends,” written by Shmuel Rosner and published in the New York Times.

The difference between the two is that Rosner – who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel – is interested in telling his people they are about to go through a period of major changes because many things, which are outside of their control, are happening around them, and that they must adapt or face the prospect of hard times ahead if not the prospect of whittling away.

On the other hand, Benny Avni – who lives in New York, USA – is interested in addressing two issues, each directed at one of two constituencies. The first is the Jewish rank and file in America which still supports Israel but needs to constantly be reassured that its effort in propping up a distant regime is not wasted on a lost cause. The second is the American Congress whose aid in feeding, arming and protecting Israel is what prevents the artificial entity from becoming a lost cause.

Before the advent of the internet, Jewish leaders such as Avni and Rosner had an easy time advancing two contradictory notions simultaneously. They did it for half a century because they could throw the anti-Semitic accusation at those that opposed them, thus ruined their lives and careers. From the Left side of the mouth, such leaders advanced the notion that Israel needed financial and military aid because it was about to be destroyed. From the Right side of the mouth, they advanced the notion that Israel was so strong, it could protect itself and also protect America, which is why America must continue to support it financially and militarily. In fact, Israel was getting it coming and going.

To spread their varied messages as widely as possible, the Jewish leaders built a formidable propaganda machine and used it to flood America with hundreds of thousands of stories for half a century. They disseminated those stories day after day through the audio-visual and print media which they took control of gradually and stealthily. They circulated stories they fabricated to suit the moment, thus helped to cement the self-serving notions which they drummed into the heads of the Jewish rank and file, and the heads of America's legislators.

The internet then came along and democratized the marketplace of ideas in that the contributors could now point out the Jewish contradictions without losing their job. This made it increasingly more difficult for the Jewish leaders to spread the two contradictory messages in the same place at the same time. The new reality signaled to them the need to separate the messages, directing each at the constituency that would be affected by it the most. And that's what is reflected in the Rosner and the Avni articles.

Rosner's message to the constituency that follows him is that Israel must learn to “make do with less” because it became lazy over the decades, having “developed an unhealthy overreliance on [America's] friendship alone. This needs to change.”

By that, the author means to say that Israel has cultivated its own impotence, having taken America for granted, a situation that can no longer be sustained. To Rosner, Israel is now a castrated eunuch that must relearn the art of studmanship – to coin a new word.

As to Avni's message – which is directed at the Jewish rank and file and the American Congress – it is to the effect that “Netanyahu's Moscow visit was about preventing a shooting war between Israel and Russia.” He thus set up an equivalence between the recognized military superpower that is Russia, and the yet to be recognized military stud that is Israel.

To cement this view, Avni draws a contrast between the reason why Netanyahu went to Moscow, and the reason why other Mideastern leaders did: “Everyone in the region visits Moscow these days to kiss the ring of Putin, the region's new don.”

Thus, his message to the Jewish rank and file and to the American Congress is that Netanyahu is the super-stud that did not kiss the don's ring. Moreover, in view of Obama's dereliction of duty in that part of the world: “our staunchest Mideast ally, Israel must fly to Moscow … to work out what really matters.”

In short, what used to be a single-faced castrated stud that lived on American aid because he was both a eunuch and a stud – has now split that face into one representing his castrated self, and one representing his hunger to become the stud he never was.