prisoners of war and political agendas in Hatufim and Homeland

129 Pages·2017·1.06 MB·English

Honors Theses Race and Ethnic Studies
Spring 2016
Captive audiences : prisoners of war and political
agendas in Hatufim and Homeland
Gillian Rose Friedman
Whitman College
Penrose Library, Whitman College
Permanent URL:http://hdl.handle.net/10349/201608091292
This thesis has been deposited to Arminda @ Whitman College by the author(s) as part of their
degree program. All rights are retained by the author(s) and they are responsible for the content.
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CAPTIVE AUDIENCES:
PRISONERS OF WAR AND POLITICAL AGENDAS IN
HATUFIM AND HOMELAND

by

Gillian Rose Friedman

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for graduation with Honors in Race and Ethnic Studies

Whitman College
2016
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Certificate of Approval

This is to certify that the accompanying thesis by Gillian Rose Friedman has been
accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with
Honors in Race and Ethnic Studies.

________________________
Dr. Tarik Ahmed Elseewi

Whitman College
May 11, 2016
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To My Family
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“Justice, justice shall you pursue.”
(Deuteronomy 16:20)

Why “justice” twice?

To teach us: Pursue the goal of justice through means that are just.

And to teach us: Justice for ourselves. And justice for the other.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow
September 20, 2001
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction 1
1. Industrial History and Political Context 21
2. Hatufim: Self-Defense and Siege Mentality 40
3. Homeland: The War on Terror and the State of Exception 72
Conclusion 105
Epilogue 112
Bibliography 114
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My father, quoting Marcus Aurelius, often reminds me: “life is more like a
wrestling match than a dance.” If I learned one thing from writing a thesis, it is that
Aurelius was onto something. From the first weeks of struggling to find a topic to the
final days of editing, this undertaking was more Super X-Cup and less Swan Lake. But
throughout the research and writing process, there were many individuals who were right
there in the ring with me as I battled it out. To each of them I owe my heartfelt thanks.
I am grateful to my professor and thesis advisor Dr. Tarik Elseewi. It was his
Middle East Media Studies class that first sparked my interest in Hatufim and Homeland.
His incisive editing enhanced my arguments and improved my critiques. Most of all, his
mentorship gave me both the permission and the courage to question some of my most
deeply held assumptions.
I would also like to thank Dr. Helen Kim and Dr. Zahi Zalloua for their
willingness to serve on my thesis committee. Dr. Kim was invaluable in helping me
organize my project, and her guidance allowed me to persevere when I felt completely
stuck. I am grateful to Dr. Zalloua for our lively debates. His tough questions pushed me
to think in new ways and thus significantly strengthened my arguments.
I would be remiss not to mention the vital support I received from my two best
friends, who kept me (mostly) sane throughout the thesis process. I am greatly indebted
to Jack Percival, who sat next to me in the quiet room, day in and day out, as I worked on
this project. Over the last four years, his astonishing work ethic and voracious love of
learning have continually motivated me to do my best work. Our laps around Ankeny
Field and our “Gilly breaks” put a smile on my face on the longest, hardest days. I am
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equally grateful to Anya Tudisco, the funniest person I know, and the best listener I have
ever met. I thank her for pulling me out of the library and into the outside world when I
needed it, reminding me of the importance of deep conversation, laughter and red wine.
My thesis is dedicated to my family. I am so lucky to have been raised in a
household of hard workers, great writers, fierce debaters, and life-long learners. I have
been privileged to follow in the footsteps of my sister Becca and brother Davey, whose
talent, tenacity and commitment to excellence I have always endeavored to emulate.
My dad Jaime is my Editor-in-Chief. He read every word of this thesis, and his
gift with language helped me produce a more concise, eloquent product. I cannot thank
him enough for the time he devoted to this project. My dad raised me to love film and
television, and his countless late-night runs to Scarecrow Video throughout my childhood
inspired me to study media in college. Most of all, I am grateful to my dad for teaching
me to be open-minded. My dad is a formidable debater, but he debates to learn, not to
win. During our long walks together, I learned to argue with my mind open out of
curiosity and humility – not closed out of pride.
My mom Kaila is my role model. Her independence, integrity, and wit have been
guiding forces in my life. I am grateful to her for raising me Jewish, and for the sacrifices
my parents made to provide me with a Jewish education. My Jewish upbringing instilled
in me a passionate interest in the Jewish people and the State of Israel. It taught me to
fight against racism and injustice and to stand up for what is right. As the youngest child,
tradition has forever tasked me with singing “The Four Questions” during the Passover
Seder. Thank you to my family for encouraging me to ask questions, and for being there,
year after year, to answer them.
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INTRODUCTION
More than a million viewers sat with their eyes glued to the television every
Sunday evening during the first season of Homeland, which premiered on October 2,
2011.1 The series was a hit with viewers as well as with critics, who awarded Homeland a
Peabody and an Emmy in its first year.2 While Homeland is widely known in the United
States, it is less well recognized that its premise was derived from an Israeli drama called
Hatufim (Prisoners of War) that aired between 2010 and 2012, and won the Israeli
Academy Award for Best Drama Television Series.3 The series concept was sold to 20th
Century Fox Television and adapted into Homeland for the American premium cable
network Showtime.4 Both Hatufim and Homeland detail the lives of prisoners of war as
they return home after years in captivity. Hatufim tells the story of two Israeli POWs, Uri
and Nimrode, who were held in Syria for 17 years after the Lebanon War.5 Homeland
follows Carrie Mathison, a CIA operations officer, who believes that U.S. Marine
Nicholas Brody was “turned” by the enemy while in captivity during the U.S. War in
Iraq.6
This thesis will examine the shows side-by-side as cultural artifacts, asking the
following research question: how do Hatufim and Homeland articulate the anxieties and
ambitions of the nations that produced them? I will argue that both dramas buttress a

1 Robert Seidman, “‘Homeland’ Posts Best New Drama Series Debut Ratings on Showtime in 8 Years;
‘Dexter Sees Season Premiere High,” TV by the Numbers, October 3, 2011, accessed March 25, 2016.
2 Vicky Frost, “Emmy awards 2012: Homeland’s triumph is richly deserved,” The Guardian, September
24, 2012, accessed February 23, 2016.
3 Michael Hogan, “Loved Homeland? Wait until you see its inspiration, Hatufim,” The Guardian, May 4,
2012, accessed February 23, 2016.
4 Nellie Andreeva, “David Nevins On the Move At Showtime: Picks Up Thriller from Howard Gordon,”
Deadline, September 19, 2010, accessed February 23, 2016.
5 Hatufim, directed by Gideon Raff (2010; Tel Aviv: Keshet Media Group), Television.
6 Homeland, produced by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon (2011; New York: Showtime Networks), Cable
television.
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dominant political agenda in their respective countries – that of justifying domestic and
foreign policies on the basis of self-defense. The shows achieve this through their
Orientalist representations of the Arab and/or Muslim Other and their portrait of
American and Israeli national victimhood. Most powerfully, both series employ what I
am calling “Simplified Complex Statism,”7 in which the shows appear to critique and
push back against the state, but in actual fact, reinforce and rationalize its policies.
It is essential to note that although Homeland is based on Hatufim, the shows
contain significant differences in plot, characters, and themes. In the course of my
discussion, I will delineate the ways in which these differences point to important
distinctions between the expressions of American and Israeli national identity, unity, and
anxiety. Ultimately, however, I will conclude that the content of both Hatufim and
Homeland reveals, above all, a fundamental commonality in the two nations’ conceptions
of the threats they face and the tactics they must use to preserve their ways of life.

Literature Review
Before embarking on this comparative study, I will first survey the literature that
other scholars have produced on Hatufim and Homeland. I have divided my literature
review into two sections: literature that compares the two series, and literature that only

7 Though I coined this term myself, it is inspired by Evelyn Alsultany’s concept of “Simplified Complex
Representations,” which she uses to describe representations of Arabs and Muslims in the post-9/11
American media. She defines Simplified Complex Representations as “strategies used by television
producers, writers, and directors to give the impression that the representations they produce are
complex…these representations appear to challenge or complicate former stereotypes and contribute to a
multicultural or post-race illusion. Yet at the same time, most of the programs that employ simplified
complex representational strategies promote logics that legitimize racist policies and practices” (Arabs and
Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11, 21). I apply Alsultany’s logic outside of the
realm of racial stereotyping, as a means of understanding how Hatufim and Homeland appear complex and
critical of the State without actually being so.

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