The "Palestinian Chicken" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm was interesting in that Larry David's character portrayed the emerging ideology among my generation's Jewish-American population; which is a new, universal liberalism.Whereas, in the past, Jewish-Americans would define themselves as liberal, left-leaning, Democratic, etc., or whichever synonym you'd like
to use, there was a ceiling when it came to Israel's occupation of Palestine; amongst my generation -- there certainly still exists the aforementioned liberal Zionist -- Jewish youth are exceedingly more outspoken in their criticism of American Israeli policy and Israeli domestic policy. Many young Jews, as referenced in the above Beinart article, even empathize with the plight of the Palestinians.
In the episode, there still existed certain stereotypes (both Jewish and Palestinian) and caricatures; however, I appreciated Larry's treatment of Palestinians as just another ethnicity.
His Jewish friends aggressively denounced the opening of a Palestinian restaurant (Al-Abbas) next-door-to a Jewish deli (Goldblatt's); here, Larry shows his genius by using the Ground Zero Mosque fiasco as a reference point. Larry's friends lambast the opening of a Palestinian restaurant next a "sacred deli," and offer that the restaurant should be at least a mile away. Larry responds, "Hey, this is America, they can do whatever they want!" He not only says they can do whatever they want, but that they should be able to open the restaurant wherever they want.
When Larry's born-again Jewish friend says, "If Rabin can break with Arafat... I can have chicken at this anti-Semitic shit-hole," Larry immediately turns to defend the Palestinians, in his own way, of course. He asks his friend to remove his yarmulke before walking in the restaurant; in my opinion, it's not for the fact that he is wearing a yarmulke, but, rather, how he is wearing it.
He's saying, "I don't like how you are representing Judaism, and, if that's how you want to represent our religion, I don't want you representing it at all."
Despite his obvious flaws, Larry's message seems to be that we shouldn't define ourselves by any certain aspect of our lives-- rather, we should be greater than the sum of our parts.
Larry's friends are certainly close-minded and racist; however, the lead Palestinian character, Shara, plays their counterpart. It's true Hollywood has vilified Arabs for decades upon decades; and it's also true there is no positive, Palestinian alternative to Shara's character (which is my only criticism of the episode), but those holes seem at least partially filled by Larry's Zionist criticism. Because he does not shy away from criticizing Zionists, I find Shara's racist character, at the least, bearable, and, at the most, an honest reflection of a certain portion of the Arab population.
While, in my life, I may have surrounded myself with Arab and Jewish friends who are quite progressive, it is true that racism does exist within the Arab community. Some Arabs immediately assume any Jew they meet is a Zionist. In this way, Shara's character does represent a problem within the Arab community. If we want to be completely honest in our discussion of the conflict, Arabs must acknowledge this. It's something we must work on as a culture. I know too many progressive Jews to allow the "Jew = Zionist" rhetoric to persevere.
Simultaneously, Larry is telling us that there are also problems in the Jewish community. That it is silly for Jews to have such blind, unquestionable support for Israel and Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
The episode only jokes at a solution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine: that sending some of Al-Abbas' chicken to Israel will convince all the settlers to withdraw; but, we shouldn't expect Larry David to offer a solution to the conflict. It's not his job.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia did a great, perhaps, even better, job of tackling the conflict, but we'll save that analysis for another post.
For now, what's important is that Larry David is bringing the conflict into the mainstream. He's letting us know it's okay to talk about it, and that we should. Even more importantly, Larry shows us that Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians are human; they have flaws just like everyone else. And, when you accept that we're all human, it's much easier to talk about your differences.
