>Heading Shinui is Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, a charismatic
>former television journalist renowned for his tough
>rhetoric against the ultra-Orthodox and Israeli
>Arabs. His appeal is pitched at the middle
>class of European descent, the Ashkenazim. Shas's
>constituency is principally among Jews from North
>Africa and the Middle East who follow the traditions
>of their rabbinical leadership.
>
>[...]
>
>Mr Lapid believes Israel needs to fight against a
>"corrupt, lazy, backward Middle East environment". He
>told the Ha'aretz daily newspaper: "If our westernism
>erodes, we won't have a chance. If we let the east
>European ghetto and the north African ghetto take
>over, we will have nothing to float on. We will blend
>into the semitic region and be lost within a terrible
>Levantine dunghill."
It's an odd illustration of Israeli politics that he's running to protect Israel from becoming too "semitic."
Also, "a terrible Levantine dunghill" is quite a phrase. Nobody uses language that, um, vivid in American politics anymore.
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