TEL AVIV — For the past six months, an Israeli army reservist named Yoni has spent his days relearning to walk after a bullet fired from a Kalashnikov rifle tore through his right hip and severed his sciatic nerve. Today, he’s wearing a T-shirt, one of several distributed among his army buddies, with a logo that reads, “Hamas Hunting Unit.” “Limited edition,” quips the bearded and bear-shouldered 24-year-old, one of 170 wounded IDF soldiers who’ve been medevaced to Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center since the war with Gaza began.
I’m on a media tour of Israel sponsored by the Jerusalem Press Club. The trip, with its emphasis on murder, kidnappings, and war , isn’t exactly a load of laughs — but even on the darkest days, you can always fall back on that cringy Israeli sense of humor. Viva la cringy! Coming from dismal New York, once the global capital of cringy comedy before wokeness pooped on the party, I can’t tell you how refreshing that T-shirt is.
We should celebrate taking down Hamas. Because taking down Hamas is awesome. Because they’re the bad guys.
It’s a little thing, the shirt, but it’s a microcosm of the Israeli way. They don’t mince words. They’re progressive, but not woke.
Nobody tears down hostage posters – of which there are tens of thousands in Tel Aviv alone – just as nobody rips anyone over an edgy T-shirt about taking down terrorists. Israelis will argue on just about any matter, especially politics and religion. But on.
