The Israeli sense of humor, especially during war times, tends to be immediate and sharp. That Anglo-Saxon trope of “Too soon?” rarely concerns the Israeli. In 2012 we gathered some of our favorite memes, tweets, and statuses from Operation Pillar of Defense – adding translations and explanations. (It’s true, one should never explain a joke, but if we don’t explain, only Israelis would find it funny!)
We tried to leave out all the borderline racist, sexist, or divisively political ones… Enjoy!
Kipat Barzel is Hebrew for the Iron Dome missile defence system, which downed several Fajer rockets sent over from Gaza. If you’ve seen The Princess Bride, you’ll need no more information, and if you haven’t that’s outrageous….
“Remnants of a missile found in Ramat Gan”
Ramat Gan, in Greater Tel Aviv, is home to a large tennis center. Tel Aviv has been known as a bubble disconnected from the security concerns of those in the South or the North.
Oh, and in Hebrew it’s the same word for missile and tennis raquette …
– Baby, everything will be all right.
– I know.
– Don’t get so stressed!
– I’m not…
– You can hug me tight if you want.
– I don’t know who you are.
More jokes about disconnected trendy Tel Aviv and the missile attacks:
“On the corner of Ben Yehuda Street and Frishman was felt an espresso-quake of 3 on the Hipster scale”
“On the news they said a missile had fallen in open ground in Tel Aviv. Open ground in Tel Aviv?? Can we get the details of the owner of the property? Sounds like an excellent investment”
“Disconnect Gaza immediately from electricity! Wait 10 seconds, and reconnect. Maybe it will all sort itself out.”
“France’s foreign minister, Foreign minister of Germany, Foreign Minister of the European Union, UN Secretary-General, Hilary Clinton… it’s true we haven’t been able to stop the fighting, but hey – look how many tourists!”
“Amazing how the moment a missile falls, all the People of Israel unite, Sefardis and Ashkenazis, Hungarians and Ethiopians, Yeminites and Russians, Religious and Secular, Ultra-Orthodox and Atheists, all against the lefties.”
The document calling up reservists can be mis-spelled as the word for turtle…
“What do you mean they’re starting to send out Reserve Duty Turtles?”
