Smack-down of a Thirteen-year-old Girl
There are two women in this narrative. An inquisitive thirteen-year-old and an older woman, who isn’t wiser.
Shachar Rabinovitch had a term project to do for school. She’s interested in horses and decided to do her assignment on horses. She has the gumption to use more than local resources and writes to the older woman in this morality play, retired Cambridge University Lecturer Dr. Marsha Levine.
Dr. Levine could have ignored the request, and no one would’ve been the wiser. As the late great comedian John Belushi would have exclaimed, BUT NO! Dr. Levine had not just to respond, but to perform a smack-down on a thirteen-year-old girl.
You see, dear readers, Shachar carries a terrible burden. She is, say it ain’t so, ISRAELI! My God, what a terrible thing! Dr. Levine, who according to the Times of Israel thinks the Israelis have become the Nazis, had to come down on this young lady.
The following segment is from the December 1st, 2015 Times of Israel issue from the article by Marissa Newman:
Shachar Rabinovitch wrote recently to Levine that she was doing a school project about horses and requested details about the domestication and breeding of early horse species. Wouldn’t you think, this is a young lady willing to go the extra mile for a school project?
The Daily Telegraph showed what Shachar wrote to Dr. Levine:
In the email exchange, the teenager said she was working a school assessment about horses, and it would be ‘great’ if Dr Levine could help her.
She said: ‘I know you are a very important person, and I’ve read your article about horses (Domestication, Breed Diversification and Early History of the Horse). ‘I love horses and it will be an honor if you will answer my questions.’
Wouldn’t you, dear reader, classify this email as a respectful one; especially having informed Dr. Levine that she read her article about Horse Domestication? Shachar acknowledges Dr. Levine’s importance and busy schedule, and would be honored by expected responses, not the irresponsible response she received. Shachar’s father stated how angry she was, but Shachar had the class, not to respond in kind, tempting as it is. Abraham Lincoln, according to Dale Carnegie would write such letters to get them out of his system; except his never sent them. They were found in his desk after his murder.
According to a Facebook post by her mother, Shamir, on Monday, Levine replied: “I’ll answer your questions when there is peace and justice for Palestinians in Palestine.” Surely not the response poor Shachar was expecting. Was Shachar excited when she saw the email header? What kind of crushing blow was it, when she read the email. Did she read it twice, three times, just to absorb what she was reading. Was this what she was really reading, or was she seeing things, Shachar wondered.
In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Levine said: “I made the decision that I have the choice not to waste my time on people who tread on the rights of other people.” Treading on the rights of other people? I have a documentary on in the background about the American Civil War. I am trying to imagine Shachar back in time a Southern slave owner whipping and riding down her black slaves.
I didn’t do anything to her. I said that when there is justice for Palestine I will answer her – that’s a fair answer. Dr Levine, Shachar is thirteen years old. Unless you know something about her and her family, the rest of us don’t, you may know a lot about horses but have no horse sense.
“I want this girl not to worry about horses. I don’t need people emailing me… I don’t see any obligation to further her ego or make her feel better about herself,” she added. Levine said she gave Rabinovitch “useful information that might help her for the rest of her life.”
Why shouldn’t Shachar worry about horses? She owns, loves and rides them. Should she give all that up on your say so? Furthering her ego? This is a class project. Useful information that might help here for the rest of her life? Will you pay Shachar’s psychiatric bills if she needs them, because her self-esteem is in the dirt, thanks to someone she looked up to and trusted? If poor Shachar made a mistake, it was not researching Dr. Levine further, finding she belongs to BDS, (Boycott, divestment, sanctions).
Again, from Marissa Newman’s article from Shachar’s mother, Shamir – Shamir Rabinovitch described the academic’s response as “unbelievable.”
“The BDS movement is here,” wrote Shachar’s mother. “The reply that was sent to a 13-year-old girl is unbelievable, a girl who has not yet managed to kill anyone and, on the contrary, is quite supportive of world peace and brotherhood.” So there you have it, dear readers, Dr. Levine fancies herself a psychologist and already “knows” Shachar Rabinovitch. She sees Shachar as an obnoxious Israeli rich kid, who just wants her ego flattered by help from an academic so that she can trump her classmates. She plans to grow up, join the Jerusalem Police as a mounted officer and ride Palestinians down in demonstrations, like Cossacks in Russia did to Jews a century ago. What do her Mom and Dad say? They are part of the Israeli Apartheid system, and you can’t believe anything they say. Does that about sum up, what Dr. Levine thinks?
To conclude. Dr. Levine is a very angry woman. There may be other issues, but she uses not just Israel, the country, but Israelis as dehumanized targets. I am going to write something crude I don’t normally do. Maybe she needs to get laid.
Shachar, sweetheart, don’t let this let you down. Write to another horse expert, not a horse’s ass.
