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Roses Put Bibi in Thorny Situation

PM rejects U.S. Christian group’s solidarity flowers

by
Marc Tracy
April 02, 2010
(Flickr)
(Flickr)

Following the U.S.-Israel brouhaha over East Jerusalem construction, Christian conservative Janet Porter and her Faith2action—“the nation’s largest network of pro-family groups”—asked listeners to buy a dozen yellow roses each (at a price of $19.48 per bouquet, natch) for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a show of support. And people ended up buying more than 800 flowers for the prime minister!

Did I say more than 800 flowers? I meant more than 800 dozen flowers! That’s … more than 9,600 flowers! At a cost of more than $15,584!

(Oh, and in case you were wondering, yellow roses convey “Joy, Gladness, Friendship, Delight, Promise of a new beginning, Welcome Back, Remember Me, Jealousy, ‘I care.’ ”)

Bibi’s mother no doubt taught him that such money shouldn’t go to waste. Yet a Netanyahu adviser reportedly said the prime minister could not accept the flowers, for fear of offending the Obama Administration at such a sensitive time.

So, basically, a massive geopolitical tension and millennia-old conflict has been reduced to an epic, crappy emo power ballad that might as well be called “My Roses Turned Away.” Which means that the weekend must be right around the corner.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.