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Go Go club owner Kobi Mizrahi outside of the club this week
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Last update - 12:34 05/03/2009
OPINION / 'Lapdancegate': Strip club witch-hunt misses the point
By Benjamin L. Hartman
Tags: Israel Navy 

Master and Commander Major General Eliezer Marom faces the end of his long and storied career leading those who patrol Israel's shores, after he was spotted at a Tel Aviv strip club earlier this week. While many Israelis' initial reaction was to admonish the man for his unseemly conduct, cooler heads laughed and pondered what the big deal was.

As far as the public is concerned, Marom served with distinction up until this point; he helped plan and oversee the Navy Seals raid on the Karine-A weapons ship, commanded of the Israel Navy's seaborne attacks on Hezbollah and Hamas and implemented the blockade on the Gaza Strip. Israel's Navy is an instrumental part of the long arm of the IDF and Marom performed brilliantly until now.

It's not a conduct issue, or a personal morality issue. Strip clubs and sailors (or marines, pilots, combat medics, buglers and chaplains) go together like Knesset MKs and "discounted home renovations" or Republican congressmen and underage males. For me, a sailor who abhors strip clubs makes about as much sense as a vegan quarterback or a governor of Texas who prefers soccer to football. Besides, these sailors don't even get shore-leave, they always patrol the shores of Israel back and forth, with none of the "join the Navy, see the world" (or its strip clubs) sentiment the Navy used to recruit in the United States. There is no shore-leave, no fleet week for these seamen.
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There was a time when a man's right to visit a strip club was sacrosanct, a right to not be infringed upon. Strip clubs are strange places, full of hazy multi-colored lights, watered-down drinks, and endless Prince songs, and are a rite-of-passage to countless men both military and civilian.

The real issue overlooked in this witch-hunt, other than Marom's lying to Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, an offense that could rightfully earn his termination, has to do with the nature of strip clubs in Israel. Strip clubs in Israel bear a closer resemblance to those in Mexican border towns and Southeast Asia than their counterparts in the United States and Britain. While the music and overpriced drinks are a universal theme, in Israel, the line between strip club and brothel is far more blurred, creating a criminal climate that should be avoided by any public figure looking to keep his name clean.

In Israel, these clubs are a hands-on experience where "private dances" of a near-biblical nature are easily purchased, especially on the salary of a senior military official. Furthermore, such operations typically have a heavy link to organized crime, and the "performers" are often not citizens, and their legal rights and the level of exploitation they are subject to is anyone's guess.

The affair also brings up another aspect of Israeli life, that is, when living in an oversized fish bowl where there is rarely more than 2 degrees of separation between any two people, the ability to get caught for wrong-doing is immeasurably higher than in larger countries. The country is so small that anytime carousing you could easily be caught by someone you know directly, a co-worker or in-law, former employee or disgruntled underling. Simply put, you don't have to be a celebrity to get caught in Israel, just walking down the street is often enough.

Finally, the outrage is comical when for years, ever since the first Zionist in Israel picked up a firearm, some military officials have harassed, groped, and assaulted their female staffers with impunity, while the olive-green old boys network looked the other way. For a country that has taken so long to join the western world in its views on sexual harassment, and still lags far behind, the outrage over this man's visit to a strip club sounds hollow at best.

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      1.   Now, that`s a real feminist article. 12:48  |  Gabriela 05/03/09
      2.   He harmed no one 12:49  |  Liliane 05/03/09
      3.   Where to seek entertainment 13:03  |  Rina 05/03/09
      4.   to liliane 13:25  |  g. lee 05/03/09
      5.   The author/journalist who wrote this article is 13:52  |  Erastus CoupeDeVille 05/03/09
      6.   strip clubs 13:54  |  hidden face 05/03/09
      7.   hypocrisy 13:58  |  observer 05/03/09
      8.   who works in these strip clubs? 15:02  |  john 05/03/09
      9.   DELETED BY MODERATOR 15:51  |  גמד מבולבל 05/03/09
      10.   Will Liberman Fight Russian Prostitution 16:13  |  Texas Matt 05/03/09
      11.   # 9 What? could you repeat that? 16:14  |  American in NY 05/03/09
      12.   Just where are Marom`s priorities? In his head or in his pants?.. 16:37  |  bat yam 05/03/09
      13.   Give me a break 16:53  |  George 05/03/09
      14.   Why visiting a strip joint is a crime? I love it! 17:22  |  Yaakov Sullivan 05/03/09
      15.   What`s the problem, we all do it?? 20:53  |  May Tab 05/03/09
      16.   What Prince songs are they talking about? 04:45  |  Astasheiks 06/03/09
      17.   Take it fr0om an XSailor B.L. Hartman knows the score 06:53  |  XIsraeli Navy. 06/03/09
      18.   Not feminist enough 10:47  |  Sharon 06/03/09
      19.   What`s the problem ?? 12:41  |  Eliezer 06/03/09
      20.   bat yam his `priorities` have kept you free. 15:12  |  petra 06/03/09
      21.   Excellent article! 16:55  |  canoerib 06/03/09
      22.   Never Got One Of Those Lap Whatchacallits! 08:39  |  Yosemite 07/03/09
      23.   strip clubs 20:36  |  cassandra 08/03/09
      24.   Liliiane, someone that high up in . . . 23:19  |  Zev Davis 11/03/09
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