Local Impact

In the hills above Tiberias there was once a perfect view of the Golani
Memorial and now obstructing the view is a beautiful pair of golden arches
representing none other than McDonalds. I'm lovin' it.. maybe not!


"Last year they came. This year they conquered. There is American junk
food as far as the eye can see. Checked out the Dizengoff Center mall
lately? The Hard Rock Cafe, McDonald's, Burger King, Sbarro's, Pizza Hut
and Kentucky Fried Chicken. At this rate, another American chain is
certain to flourish. Its name? Weight Watchers"(1).

In the eyes of Americans, "Americanization represents the export of patterns of American mass culture, especially in the spheres of consumptions, entertainment, and leisure, into foreign cultural contexts"(5). Contrary to American eyes, "from a local perspective, it entails appropriation and imitation of the American way of life and the subsequent transformation of local cultural conditions"(5). Metaphorically speaking, this dynamic of Americanization and its externalities can be seen as a coin, Azaryahu states. The two sides are "the global hegemony of the United States and the triumph of American capitalist culture, the spread of which seems to create a global superculture that undermines and even supersedes local cultures and traditions"(5).

Israel is one of many nations that is influenced by the American way of life. The impacts of this can be seen on a spectrum, like many other things. With the good comes the bad and what goes up must come down. Does the cost outweigh the value? The Israeli people young and old, especially the working and middle classes(2), are worried that Americanization is causeing them to loose their religion, cultural identity, and possibly patriotism (3). Another negative impact is the growing economic differences between the lower and upper classes because of the slow disappearance of the middle class, one of the same problems America is having now as well, due to the free market economy (4).


America and the process of Americanization is far often seen as materialistic and shallow; however, since the 1990's, residents of Jerusalem have been able to rent movies from Blockbuster Video and buy Brittany Spears' latest
album at Tower Records. Azaryahu states that "in the mid-1990s, when the
"Invasion of all things American" seemed to assume extreme proportions,
there also appeared critical references to the Americanization of Israel. 
Allusions to Americanization as a threat to the distinctive character of
traditional settings reflected the notion of their cultural incongruence
with local contexts"(5). The presence of TNC's is destroying the land
physically as well as visually by creating pollution and building in
religious areas for instance, McDonalds being 100 meters from the Dead
Sea (see previous post "Americanized Much?"). Not only is the cultural identity being robbed of Israelis, but the beauty of their land as well. The land that they fought for for centuries. The land that they never thought they'd have, was given to them in 1948, following the extermination of millions of Jews under Adolf Hilter's regime and quest for a complete arian race. This land is not only a place where they reside, it is a place where they value much more than words can define. Is the value they place on their land pegged to monetary value just as much as sentimental value? In order to maintain the land for which they call home, must they conform to the American standards?




We pose the question: Why is Israel influenced so heavily by the United States, essentially by the process of Americanization? Perhaps because Israel is supported financially, militarily, and politically by the United States. Israel cannot, with the previous dependencies, separate themselves culturally. If American is influencing Israel in so many critical aspects, one should not assume that further influences are nonexistent. "The more the economic, military and political dependency on America deepened, the more the Israeli dream became similar to the American dream" (4).

Dr. Omri Padan, Chairman and CEO of McDonald's Israel is the "only franchisee in Israel, and all resturants are managed under this franchise" (7). McDonald's may be representative in part of what the American way life is; however, is it necessarily a negative externality? In October of 1993, Ramat-Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, opened the first McDonald's Israel. Fifteen years later, McDonald's Israel operates over eighty restaurants employing three-thousand Israelis and "proudly sources over 80% of its ingredients locally" (5).

"From a different perspective, Americanization represented the old Zionist
quest to normalize Jewish existence. Herzl, the Zionist visionary,
perceived the future state of Jews in the mold of the central European
civilization he had known and cherished. In this respect, Americanization
amounted to adjusting the original vision to the conditions prevailing a
century later, when the cultural norm was the West in general and American
capitalist culture in particular. When in 1995, Amnon Rubinstein, then
Minister of Education, declared that he did not fear Madonna and Michael
Jackson, he did not articulate his admiration for their music, but rather
the view that their popularity in Israel represented the normalization of
Israeli culture in that it was compatible with normative western culture.
Normalization meant that Israel was "a nation like any other" (6).


"Critical comments about the Americanization of Israel reflected different
concerns. For some, therefore, Americanization posed a threat to Israel's
cultural distinctiveness and national character, local cultural
traditions. In this view, the popular culture of the United States, its
entertainment media, its fast-food chains seemed to be overwhelming
Israel's unique national character. Others associated Americanization with
commercialization as a condition of ethical degradation" (6).

___________________________________________________________
1 "Invasion of the Golden
Arches," The Jerusalem Post, Weekly Supplement, 22 September 1995, 21.
2 (LeVine, Boston Globe)
3 (Puder, FrontPageMagazine.com).
4 Tom Segev haaretz.com "What's happening to you, America?"
5 Mcdonalds http://www.mcdonalds.com/countries/israel.html
6 (Azaryahu) "McIsrael? On the Americanization of Israel".
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/v005/5.1azaryahu.htm
7 http://www.mcdonalds.co.il/full.asp?pageName=english&worldName=none