Yediot writer calls U.S. expats in Israel stupid following Glick's entry into politics

Caroline Glick was born in the US, and was an IDF officer who worked on the Oslo negotiations team and a deputy foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A VIDEO posted on Twitter by former MK Dov Lipman, an immigrant from the US, showing him at a restaurant in Tel Aviv asking in Hebrew, ‘Do you want fries with that?’ (photo credit: screenshot)
A VIDEO posted on Twitter by former MK Dov Lipman, an immigrant from the US, showing him at a restaurant in Tel Aviv asking in Hebrew, ‘Do you want fries with that?’
(photo credit: screenshot)
American Jews move to Israel because they are too incompetent to get decent jobs otherwise, Yediot Aharonot columnist and Blazer magazine editor Ra’anan Shaked implied, after former The Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick announced her entry to politics on the New Right Party (Hayamin Hehadash) list. He later clarified that he was only referring to “messianic extremists” like Glick.
“Caroline Glick? Really Naftali [Bennett] and Ayelet [Shaked]?” Shaked asked in a tweet directed to New Right’s leaders. “You really think that there is some electoral force to the always-amusing sub-stream of scattered Isramericans that came here from their homeland – where there is a doubt if they would have gotten a job that doesn’t includes the question ‘Do you want fries with that?’ – in order to be Daniella Weiss with an accent? Nu, good luck to you.”

Glick was born in the US and has degrees from Columbia University and Harvard University. She was also an officer in the IDF who worked on the Oslo negotiations team, and a deputy foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Weiss is the former mayor of Kedumim and a longtime settler leader, who is from Ramat Gan, not the US. Bennett, however, is the son of two American parents who moved to Israel from San Francisco.
New Right declined to comment, with a party spokesman saying he will let Shaked’s comment speak for itself.
More than 400 Twitter accounts liked Shaked’s tweet, including Yediot political reporter Yuval Karni and Globes columnist Moti Kristal, among other prominent figures. Meretz activist Uri Zaki responded that “in the current American administration, Glick could be a leading candidate for ambassador to the UN or human rights commissioner.”
But many of the responses accused Shaked of bigotry.
Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel executive director David London called the comment “disgusting and derogatory... a horrible thing to write, and totally not true.”
“Olim from Western countries are some of the best and brightest and most committed Jews and human beings that we know of,” London said. “They have a high percentage of MAs, the vast majority have BAs. There are lawyers, doctors and some of the most accomplished professors and people in the world have made aliyah, and contribute every day to Israel. There is not a hospital [in Israel] that you can go to without seeing Anglos in the most senior positions.

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Former Yesh Atid MK Dov Lipman, who made aliyah from the US, filmed himself at a burger restaurant in Tel Aviv asking in Hebrew, “Do you want fries with that?” He thanked Shaked for suggesting a new job for him. Lipman posted the video on Twitter, and several other users made their own copycat videos.

Yesh Atid took the opportunity to promote an event in English.
“Journalist @raananshaked thinks English speakers who move to Israel are stupid and only here because they can’t get a job elsewhere,” the party’s tweet in English reads. “We don’t & that’s why Yesh Atid has the most active English speakers branch in Israel & Yair Lapid is doing an English town hall on the 13th.”
Almost a full day later, following the uproar, Shaked clarified that “American and Anglo-Saxon immigrants to Israel are mostly excellent people, Zionists, and make a significant and necessary contribution to the state. A small minority of them are messianic, right-wing extremists. Caroline Glick represents the extremist alt-Right, sends Rosh Hashanah cards that mark ‘internal enemies’ and has delusions of annexation. Is she an electoral asset? We’ll see.”
In 2017, Shaked joined a Nefesh B’Nefesh flight of immigrants from the US to Israel, and wrote a column with an entirely opposite message. Shaked said that they “closed successful businesses, left beautiful homes, [and] said goodbye to friends and families.” He wrote that the immigrants were “sober-minded” and aware of the difficulties that could come with moving to Israel.