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| Abbas and Barak - the rerun |
Israelis were glued to their screens yesterday. A secret meeting in Jordan between Ehud Barak, Israel's Minister of Defense and Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority was pushed to the sidelines. The new long range rockets acquired by Hamas couldn't even grab a headline. Israelis were far more interested in the final episode in this season of Survivors (the Israeli Version).
Some may criticize the final episode of being a costly ceremony devoid of real content and aimed simply at entertaining the masses. Others may point out the multitude of seasons and short lived fame of reality stars as proof of the mundane nature of these over-rated events. With all the REAL news out there why do Israelis vote with their remote for reality TV?
Perhaps it is that the Peace Process or Arab-Israeli Conflict also had too many seasons. Perhaps - like so many reality stars, however successful or unsuccessful they may be, politicians are destined to be forgotten in the dusty TV archives when the season ends. My opinion is that we watch TV, to deflect from our own survival in this conflict torn region, and that the ceremonious hand-shakes and hopeful speeches at the white house simply do not achieve this end anymore.
We tune in to see dramatic events not long drawn out processes that need years or decades to take root. At the Emmy awards, the pinnacle of TV events, George Clooney conveyed it perfectly:
"The truth is, when the disaster happens, everybody wants to help, everybody in this room wants to help, everybody at home wants to help. The hard part is seven months later, five years later, when we’re on to a new story. Honestly, we fail at that…that's the fact."
Reality TV plays on our need for immediate gratification, it promises a resolution and it delivers on-time, on-prime time…And Barak and Abbas? Well… Who wants to see another rerun?
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