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prisoners of war and political agendas in Hatufim and Homeland PDF

129 Pages·2017·1.06 MB·English
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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. 1 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 1 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 1 To My Family 1 “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 1 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 vi 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. vii 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. 1 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. 2

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