Israel Searches for a Hero, Spiderman Will Do
It’s just days after the general election, and Likud and Kadima are at it again — arguing over the issue of territory.
But if you’re getting the impression that the two parties have stopped bickering over who won the election and started talking about Israel’s peacemaking policy, you are mistaken. Instead, think teen movies and specifically the turf wars over who gets the best table in the cafeteria.
This territorial debate going on in Knesset concerns the “sovereignty” of the largest (and on the authority of Knesset insiders comfiest) conference room.
This room goes to the party leading the government, but with two parties claiming they will lead the government, there has been a clash. Kadima is so insistent that it has dibs on the room that it reportedly stopped Likud from holding a meeting there. Likud says its ranks grew so much as a result of the election that it members can’t possibly fit in a smaller room anymore.
At times of political paralysis like these, Israel is in need of somebody to look up to, a unifying figure, a national hero, if you will. Well for a few minutes on Sunday night, it not only got a hero but a superhero.
Dozens of drivers near Rosh Ha’ayin, called police to notify them there was a man dressed as Spiderman jumping from car to car wielding ropes that were apparently meant as a substitute for a web. Police arrested the man, but say that he has still not managed to explain why he was wearing a Spiderman outfit.
Equally mysterious is how Tel Aviv municipality managed to send out a letter to a resident calling her a bitch. “Mrs. Cohen the bitch,” began a letter to Na’ama Cohen who wrote to the municipality disputing some parking fines.
According to reports in the Tel Aviv media, the municipality described the letter as a “regrettable mistake” and promised to apologize to Mrs. Cohen and send her flowers. There was no information on wording for the card accompanying the flowers.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

