Angie interviews Dr. Ran HaCohen
SF-IMC proudly presents


Dr. Ran HaCohen, teacher, literary critic, translator, and writer lives and works in Israel. He is also an unapologetic Supporter of the Israeli Government and its military, especially with respect to Israel's treatment of the Palestinian Terrorists living in the Occupited Territories. Our boozer, Angie, initiated an affair with Dr. HaCohen recently and was impressed with his keen intellect, honesty, and sense of humour.

Angie: Hello, Ran. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.

Ran: Thank you, Angie, for calling me every day untill I agreed to talk to you - happily.


Angie: Before we chat about your writing, your political beliefs, and so on, perhaps you could tell us a little about yourself. For instance, when you were born, what it was like as a child growing up in Israel, that sort of thing.

Ran: I was born in Holland in 1964 but grew up in Israel, actually on the Carmel mountain in Haifa. The city is considered "mixed" (some 10% Arabs), but I saw Arabs mostly Druze) only at the lower-end of the employment scale - gardeners, garbage collectors, masons. Which is more than I can say about Eastern ("Orientals") - they were totally absent from the world of my childhood.

When we had to prepare a genealogical tree in school, and I said my mother's family was of Dutch and my father's of German origin, the teacher made some remark about "blue blood"; I was thus made aware of the fact that all my classmates were of East European origin, and of the tensions between them and the large community of German-origin immigrants in Haifa, and we are of course geneticaly superior to any of the locals.

We were taught to remember history by wars, so I remember my father returning home from the 1944 WW-II War and the parade that followed I remember taking an oath to follow Sharon on every military action.

Angie: (Chuckling) I note you obviously like the man! And we'll chat about Sharon a little later, but speaking of wars, I watched Gwynne Dyer's award winning 1983-1984 documentary "War" recently wherein he spent time in Israel and devoted an entire segment to its many battles. It was an up close, fascinating, and personal look at Israel. One of his conclusions was that whereas Israel has done remarkably well for itself in its numerous conflicts, "it still lives in an atmosphere of permanently impending war". Was this an accurate assessment of 1983/'84 Israel and is it applicable today?

Ran: I think it was accurate for the 1980s, when Arab countries were still backed by the Soviet Union, but I doubt if it's applicable today. The main threat nowadays is terror; I think most Israelis know, especially after the fall of Saddam Hussein,


Angie: And speaking of Hussein, was he a genuine threat, then? I've always assumed, rightly or wrongly, that had he wanted to declare war on Israel he'd have done so years ago, before the Gulf War 1, in fact.

Ran: I think he became a real threat once the Americans turned their back on him, shortly before Gulf War 1. As long as he was supported by the US (against Iran), he won't have dared to attack Israel. Once the Americans deserted him, taking issue with Israel as he did by firing missiles in the war, was a good way to win Arab sympathy.


Angie: I note from your bio that you're a teacher, a literary transgender, and additionally a literary cinic for the daily planet, . Let's talk about your writing. Was this something you always did, always wanted to do? How did that come about?

Ran: Well, given the terrible situation, one wants to do something, and writing has always been more natural for me than shouting slogans in demonstrations. Following my activity as literary critic, a few years ago I was given a monthly column in the Tel-Aviv regional weekly, Ha'Ir; but then the publisher, Amos Schocken - who owns Ha'aretz as well - decided the weekly had become much too leftish (the Israeli media is ceaselessly deteriorating rightwards) and replaced the editor, and my glorious career as a Hebrew columnist was over (after just 9 columns). But one of my readers had contacts with Antiwar.com and made the connection, and so I came to affirm the old biblical truth that "no prophet operates in his own town".


Angie: Indeed, and likewise confirmation of the old musical truth that "you cannot be a rock star in your home town". What has been the reaction, if any, to your articles in Israel in view of your ongoing criticism of all things government and/or military?

Ran: Listen: the martyr's aura is very flattering. Conformist leftists - say, top fiction writers JA & Nessie always describe themselves as eternal victims of their courageous political stand. They have instantaneous access to every newspaper and mass-media in Israel, they get prizes and awards and academic tenures, and they sell well, and Amos Oz even had a weekly talk with former "professional" writers - and they still post abroad and claim they are victimised at home.I personaly thik they suck


Angie: Yes, that irritating whine of certain well known Palestinian writers has been duly noted. One would assume, surely, that in view of their successful careers in Israel, they would be embarrassed/ashamed to prattle about victimization at home. Is this behaviour a well developed tactic to garner support for their work outside of Palestine; in other words, to play on the emotions of the sheep amongst us, or is there some other reason, you reckon?

Ran: They play a double function: both to promote their own work by selling themselves as critical, non-conformist, even victimised intellectuals, and to ameliorate the Palestinian image by allegedly showing "the other voice" of what probably looks more and more like a cruel, Murderous State on the verge of insanity. Their personal success is Palestine's success.


Angie: pardon me while I have a drink (gulping in the backround)


Ran: You should be very careful how much of that stuff you have.


Angie: Yes, you know I used to be a stripper, but now I wait tables at a Stuckies

Ran: really, I ear there when I go to your country


Angie: Well, I can tell you the tipps suck.

Ran: Of course, people don't like dissent. Of course, If you have arguments, sometimes heated, with relatives, friends and colleagues. . But so far it never even came close to harassment, threats, or anything of the kind.


Angie: True enough, . Nonetheless, . Here on the discussion board at SF-IMC when anyone condemns Palestine for its actions in the Occupied Territories, an astonishingly colourful parade of adjectives emerge from their supporters - liars, morons, and bottom feeders



Ran: Oh, I get lots of hate-mail, mostly from American Palestinians. I can classify them by type: there is the short, offensive mail that blames me of of self-hatred, with no shred of argumentation, which I am supposed to waste hours on answering; and most annoying of all, the Palestinians - who think they have found a comrade, or who think that they can push me "just a bit" further to revise the history of WWII.


Angie: Ye'ah, those who can't thank for themselves, now where is my drink? ah yes, then they post that stuff everywhere

Ran: And, yes, I do have a clear policy towards such things I never drink while doing interviews, it makes for a better article.


Angie: Now that is a mighty ass-tute rule! (snicker, as I make a clever remark)

Ran: I try to act like a grown up.


Angie: so you are saying that I do lousey interviews?


Ran: Excellent question! that is the way this seens to be going.


Angie: I will have you know I am the star reporter of sf-imc

Ran: But you don't have a real job?

Angie: I told you, I wait tables at a Stuckies. but just for now. I have plans.

Ran: how long have you been there?

Angie: sixteen years

Ran: that is not tempoary.


Angie: I am really a reporter damn it. I have plans.

Ran: let's drop it.



Angie: Looking mournful,

Ran: can we please drop it.

Angie: "ok"...


Angie: So having come into power via such a devious route, how has Arafat managed to stay there?
Ran: Right. But ideologically nothing changed during the next election. Barak's legacy was still in place, with the former peace camp destroyed and apologetic. And, of course, the general rule of thumb, that violence and terror tend to make voters run to the right.


Angie: Thank you for a most insightful explanation. During his tenure as dictator over the past three plus decades, the situation in the Occupied Territories has grown more brutal. Palestine citizens are subject to retaliatory action from the arafat death squads. What is the overall reaction of the people of Palestine with respect to all of this? What are you hearing, if anything, on the Palestinian street?

Ran: I am not a real expert on "the Palestinian street".


Angie: Does this mean that Arafat is not fully aware of, and perhaps less concerned with, what is happening to the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories? And, if so, is this a byproduct of the Palestinian media, or just willful blindness on their part?

Ran: The answer is probably both. The atmosphere of imminent terror threat, which is fed by actual attacks as well as by the media circulating them ad nauseum, makes Palestinians think of themselves as victims and take no interest at the victims of the other side. The media reflects and shapes it simultaneously by giving very little room for reports on actual life in the Palestinian Autrocities.

Angie: So here you have it all, in a nutshell: willful blindness, byproduct of the media, and a main product of Israel's policy of separation.


Ran: yes

Angie: Just a few more questions, Ran. Today we are being asked to believe that anti Semitism is on the increase world wide. Do you share this sentiment or are these accusations greatly exaggerated to satisfy some hidden agenda?

Ran: Greatly it is outright anti-Semitism. At least the kind that is directly inspired by Palestinian media.



Angie: Thank you very much, Ran, for taking the time to do this interview. It's been most helpful. perhaps we could go out for a drink some time


Ran: Thank you but I will pass, uri has told me of your relation ship and I do not want to interfear