The “Most Israeli” Song?

       

Kobi Peretz

Messing around on the rooftop the other day while listening to a cultural roundup on the main current affairs radio station, Reshet Bet, I heard a new song by the Mediterranean music  singer Kobi Peretz called “Barukh Hashem”(Thank God). The presenter - Vered Yiftachi-Green - predicted that it was destined to become a “national anthem” and, after the final strains had died away, enthused: “This is the most Israeli song!”

The arrangement had all the elements of big hits in Israel nowadays: low key, minimalist verses accompanied only by Spanish guitar and oud, leading to an earworm chorus over a thumping Reggaeton beat. Yup, I nodded to myself, it’s a hit.

I hadn’t really paid attention to the lyrics, apart from noting that barukh hashem (thank God) featured regularly and that there was a general self-satisfied hakol beseder (everything’s fine) message. But since this was being touted as the quintessential Israel song of the moment, I decided to take a closer look.

Here’s are the lyrics in a rough English translation:

“The wife’s healthy and everything’s cool at work, there’s food on the table and you’re breathing, so say Thank God.

 If you fall out of bed, try to fall on the right side and believe that everything’s all right and that you’ve been given everything and even if you fell on your face, it left no marks .

You no longer have a reason to run away, sing with me with all your might, take the time to forgive yourself man, Thank God, everything is all right.

For as long as we’re here, if there’s no wine we’ll toast with water, we’ll say Amen, with children on our knees, I haven’t slept for two months, Thank God

So what if you got confused, it happens to all of us in life, so believe, it’s written in the Book.

… You have a million reasons to be happy

 You are everything my brother, you are the force, what a world, you are allowed to yell out man, Thank God, everything’s all right. “

So….the person addressed in the song is a man who has made some sort of mistake, apparently a serious one, since he’s taken a fall and needs time to “forgive” himself. The stress is here is definitely on self-forgiveness and not, for example, on repentance (“so what if you got confused, it happens to all of us”). And, after all, he has a lot to be thankful for, so Thank God.

In the clip, Kobi in trademark bleached hair,wears a virgin-white T-shirt and just to make sure that everyone gets the message, the lyrics appear in sync with the music.

Something about the lyrics needled me. I started to harbor suspicions about Kobi Peretz’s friend (“my brother”). What had he done that now needed to be forgiven and why was Kobi so keen - with the help of God, a healthy wife and a baby - to absolve him?  

Kobi Peretz’s Hebrew Wikipedia entry provided the answer. In March 2015 (after rejecting a plea bargain which would have avoided a prison sentence) he was convicted for tax evasion of 5 million shekels (and more) and sentenced to two years in prison. This was later reduced to 18 months and he was released in July 2018.

Of course, now I dimly remembered the headlines and the heavy hints in the lyrics fell into place. Kobi’s “brother” is none other than Kobi himself and his plea for forgiveness is part of his campaign for public rehabilitation. Kobi Peretz was once one of Israel’s leading Mediterranean music stars with a string of platinum and gold records and sold out shows. But in 2010, his legal troubles surfaced and were compounded by a series of dodgy decisions. His career took a dive and then came the prison sentence.

But he’s still a big star and his slick rehabilitation machine is working overtime. The first song he released after himself being released - “Toda Lakh Mami” (Thank you Mami) - has been watched over 6 million times on you tube. Will “Barukh Hashem” be the key to his return to the very top? I wouldn’t be surprised.

Many Israelis have always considered corruption to be normative but with the September 17 general election on the horizon, the country's various tribes are in an especially forgiving mood in which shortcomings are overlooked and exoneration granted to dubious politicians whose parties they support.

Public response to PM Netanyahu’s multiple corruption charges is a good case in point. While their exposure and his response (attacks against the media, the legal system and the police) has severely alienated his center-left-secular political rivals, his supporters on the traditional-religious-right show few signs, if any, of wanting to ditch him. In fact, as in the previous elections, the only real topic is how to react to Netanyahu's behavior: kick him out, or look the other way and forgive him.

And in the  liberal-left camp, Meretz was in a forgiving mood when it held its collective nose and joined forces with former PM Ehud Barak presently under a cloud of suspicion concerning his connections with pedophile businessman Jeffrey Epstein. “The minute he told me he had cut off all contacts with this person, the road to cooperation was opened,” newly appointed Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz told Israel Radio. ”[…] I prefer to look at the advantages and benefits that this connection brings us.”

As for me, at first I took offence at Vered Yiftachi-Green for characterizing the catchy but deeply cynical ‘Barukh Hashem’ as “the most Israeli” song”.

But sadly, having given the matter some thought, I guess I have to agree.