“How a Hamas Anthem Became a Hit in Israel”

Yoram Hazony:

A few days ago, I called a young relative who is serving in the Israeli air force and asked him: “Do you know that song—“Kum, Aseh Piguim”?
 
Without missing a beat, he said: “You mean that song that’s a hit all over Israel? The song that all my friends are singing all the time?”
 
“Yeah,” I said. “That song. I wanted to know if you can explain to me why they are singing it?”
 
What I actually meant to ask was: Can you please explain to me why all the young people in Israel are singing a song entitled “Up, Do Terror Attacks”—a song recorded and released by Hamas in Gaza, which repeatedly calls for killing or expelling all the Jews from of Israel? But I didn’t have to say all that. He knew why I was asking.
 
“It’s because it makes us feel good,” he replied.

Why? Hazony points out that the song isn’t even idiomatic Hebrew:

Another soldier told me something similar. “We all know that they are trying to scare us. That’s what all this is about. But the truth is that they can’t even put together a song in our language. When you see that they can’t even find somebody who can pronounce the words, the feeling is: You’re trying to scare us and that’s all you can do?”

One wonders how Hamas, with its many supporters around the world, can’t produce competent propaganda in the language of its neighbors. Aren’t Arabs supposed to be good at this kind of thing? Maybe they no longer need to be, since they have much of the western press on their side.

Hazony thinks Israelis’ mocking embrace of the song is not only a way for them to stick it to Hamas but also to show the extreme contrast in values between them and their enemies. His thoughts are worth reading in full.

Here’s the song:

 
 
An Israeli parody: