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Some ‘Lish Photos: Girls in the Israeli Army

16 years ago
52 Comments
by aaron
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Serial No. 3817131 is the title of Photographer Rachel Papo’s latest essay, showing the everyday routine of girls in the Israeli Army. Some photos look like the ones my brother took of us during our Birthright trip on Mt. Hermon, but a few clearly rise above the rest. Papo’s plan is to reveal the demanding compromise Israeli girls who choose the military route make: a 2 year interruption, albeit a necessary one to protect the State, takes it toll. That and a gun slung around a shoulder shouldn’t subtract any humanity from a soldier. I’m not saying they enhance it either, though hot chicks with sniper rifles are definitely making me feel pretty human right now.

Much thanks to Paolo Dy, a Filipino cinematographer who did us all a favor by putting The Hotties of the Israeli Army, the tachlis album for those of us whose time is short.

Do you want more Rachel Papo?!

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52 Comments

  • This is great. But please also be thankful to the American women, Jewish or not, who sacrifice some, if not all, of their lives to serve their country.

  • This is great. But please also be thankful to the American women, Jewish or not, who sacrifice some, if not, of their lives to serve their country.

  • I’ll concede. It’s hard for me to believe you made up ‘lust salamander.’ I too will incorporate it into my saturday night language, when im out salamandering. speaking of which, i’ve got a non jewish girlfriend/girl i’m salamandering coming over to shabbat dinner tomorrow night.

    anything i should warn her about? what’s the most awkward moment for someone who hasnt been to a shabbat? mind you we’re iraqi/hungarian jews. and a lot of awkwardness never hurt anybody.

  • BTW, I love this expression “lust salamnder.” Kind of reminds me of a dirty joke I once heard about Kermit the Frog… 😀

  • Just a few additional comments, courtesy of another double-X chromosome …
    1. It’s a perfectly natural impulse for a man to stare & drool & act like an idiot/hyena in heat/lust salamander when he spots a hot babe. (Some folks get this confused with “appreciating female beauty.” Not even remotely close, darling.) It’s also a perfectly natural impulse to take a dump on the street or scratch your genitals when the need arises, but there’s a time and a place for everything. That’s what we call “self control.” Or more simply, “civilization.” Something the Jews are also pretty big on, at least as much as procreating.
    I agree with Froylein. If a woman is required to carry an Uzi and be prepared to kill — and die — to protect her country alongside her male compatriots it’s the height of hypocrisy, disrespect and stupidity to single her out for objectification. Unless, of course, you’re an equal-opportunity objectifier, i.e., play on both teams… not that there’s anything WRONG with that…

  • I’ve never fully understood my compulsive need to check out women ’til I read Aaron’s comment: it’s my need to make more Jewish people. Not because I’m a dog or anything.

  • Lust Salamander?? Golly gee I love it!
    There’s a difference between looking discretely and leering.

  • I’m totally using that word on my classmate. He’s from Munchen and totally in the closet. the last part was erroneous information, but relevant nonetheless.

  • Literally, it would translate as “lust salamander”; a way to refer to an overly sexualized & lusting male.

    The P-word’s “procreation / procreate”.

  • All Babelfish gives me for “Lustmolch” is “desire scrapper-cleaning”, and I’m pretty sure that’s not it.

    What P-word?

  • Muffti could bring great joy to a prospective father in law. But Ephraim’s right – we are biologically inclined to notice features in others and they trigger automatic responses.

    But it is bad if you keep on staring.

  • Aaron, we’re not fighting. Ephraim displayed an interest in German insults a while back, so along the line I’ll add a few to his list when I can think of them (I don’t usually use insults).

    Don’t mention the P-word unless you’re ready to be guilt-tripped.

  • alright kids. take sides, and then come out fighting. oh, i see it’s already started.

    fro, you make some good points. if i had a wife, had a daughter, and some creepy grandpa checked her out, yeah, it’d make me feel defensive and protective, but still i wouldn’t be shocked. it’s a natural, primitive thing thats going on in gramps’ head – i think that’s the root of ephraim’s point. that he gives no explanation, and relying on you to trust him, serves my point. there is no point. its just an anthropological trait that we do. blame it on the need to procreate and make more jewish people. isn’t that a positive outcome?

  • There’s a German word “Lustmolch”, but it doesn’t translate well into English. But you may add it to your vocabulary list. 🙂

  • Are you suggesting that older men who gaze lustfully at adult women who are younger than them are pedophiles?

  • Ephraim, I don’t even get shocked anymore by what you guys do when women aren’t around. 🙂

    I don’t mind a man appreciating female beauty; I mind men downgrading women to mere objects. Would you want guys double their age talk that way about your daughters (assuming you’ve got any), particularly when they’re not presenting themselves in a way that is meant to entice such a reaction?

  • Shrug.

    I pity a man who has trained himself to not appreciate female beauty. If that’s the kind of man you think is “grown up” best of luck to you.

    But my guess is they are just not obvious about it, or simply consider it not something to discuss in “polite” company”, i.e., when there are women around.

    You’d be surprised what we talk about when you guys aren’t around.

  • Ephraim, trust me, I could introduce you to men that would bring great joy to any prospective Jewish father-in-law (and no, I don’t mean Muffti).

  • No, a man who says he doesn’t is probably lying.

    Trust me on this, froylein.

  • You’re investing way too much energy in this, froylein.

    Men are always looking. Not because we are seeking to stray, necessarily, but because we always like to look at attractive women/babes/chicks/foxes/birds/insert-favorite-term-here.

    We like to look at pretty women. That’s it. No other explanation needed.

    Any man who says he doesn’t look is probably lying.

  • Aaron, I know quite a few nice, handsome, successful, healthy, straight men that take it for granted that men aren’t always looking.

    Ephraim, I explained Juliet’s misconception in that line from a Jewish perspective a while back.

  • Guys like babes. A guy is a guy if he’s 13 or if he’s 50. We’re always looking, even if we can’t touch.

  • “Semantics” as a response is overused whereas “semantics” as the study of the meaning of words is rather underrated. I’m certainly not struggling to comprehend the difference between “babes” and “women”; to point out the gender of the people in the picture just is polemics.

  • Semantics, froylein.

    You should stop struggling.

    Or do you mean to say that the people depicted in these photographs are not women?

    Sure look like females to me.

  • Men are always going to be interested in hot babes, froylein. That’s just how it is, and I think it would make your life a lot easier if you just acepted it.

  • I don’t see any fetishism here. Any fetish talk is larry’s doing, I swear. As I was going through the pictures, sure, they’re cute. But they’re also my cousins age. There was a very fine line between creepiness and a wish to give exposure to a topic that’s pretty relevant to this circle.

    What’s missing is talk of Sherut Leuimi. Is civic service comparable to the military option?

  • Fetishizing women dressed up as soldiers is in no way a disturbing comment on one’s masculinity. It really, really, really isn’t.

  • I consider it paradox that Israel’s mandatory military duty for men and women alike is considered a great step forward by many a politician promoting gender emancipation while at the same time the depiction of those women fulfilling their military duty serves to spur obvious sexual fantasies among certain men, downgrading those women to objects at that.

  • Does anyone know if he has a book of CryBaby pictures?By the way i was just trying to a be a smart ass last nite with the bible comment.I guess i failed

  • Leave it to Jewlicious to reprint the most non-sensual, least appealing pic of all.. hehe… why didn’t you use the pic of all the soldiers in a wrestling scrum pileup on the floor?

  • About the bible, it looks like the picture is of the Swearing in ceremony אני נשבע(ת). You are sworn in on the bible.

  • I was just wondering what they were doing with bibles. I thought they carried a Tehilim. LOL

  • Snipers are hot, but snipers instructor are a step above…

    Check out Serial17. Great shot too. nice kibbutz lighting.

  • Is it me or does anyone else there is something wrong with the caption for pic 11

  • thanks Ukraine. I added the link, and corrected the first. If it still doesn’t work felix, let me know and I’ll hire some freelancers to fix the code.

  • the first link of the post, the all-important one doesn’t work, man…