Knesset Poetry Slam: She Spilled a Kos & Ran Amok

J.J. Goldberg January 17, 2012

Outrageous and, yes, hilarious: Knesset member (and onetime Arafat adviser) Dr. Ahmad Tibi got himself suspended for one week from Knesset debates (though not from votes) for reading an outrageous little poem he had made up in honor of fellow lawmaker Anastasia Michaeli. Michaeli, a member of Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, was herself suspended for a month on January 9 after pouring a glass of water on fellow lawmaker Ghaleb Majadleh of Labor. Tibi immortalizes the incident by stringing together a bunch of word-plays and insults, ending with:

Anastasia, who has run amok, poured a glass [kos] of water on her colleague, and therefore I will call the child by its name: Kos amok.

Here’s Tibi:

Haaretz translates the full poem (except the last two words) here.

A clip of the water-pouring incident after the jump.

Tibi’s poem:

Anastasia, who has a problem with her plumbing / who grew there in the garbage pile of Yisrael Beiteinu [Israel our Home], / Or should we say, Russia our Home, / From which the road was short for the bill called muezzin, now a joint Bibi- Anastasia venture / As well as her unwise use of water, during a dry spell in which every drop counts / For, Israel may be drying [mityabeshet], but it is far from being ashamed [mitbayeshet], / Anastasia, who has run amok, / Poured water on her colleague / And thus I will call the baby by its name: Kos Amok [literally, a ‘glass of madness’, but a play on words on an Arabic profanity].

Here’s Michaeli spilling on Majadleh. (The lead-up: He’s complaining about inequities in government treatment of Arab-sector schools; she interjects that he’s insulting the state of Israel):

J.J. Goldberg is editor emeritus of the Forward, where he served as editor in chief for seven years (2000-2007).

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO