Brian Blum
April 3, 2012, Updated May 8, 2012
Oren Zarif with a happy patient

For several years the local “In Jerusalem” supplement to Friday’s Jerusalem Post ran series a full-page ads for a “miracle worker” named Oren Zarif who claimed to heal people through his psychokinetic powers. His ads featured rows of elated  patients with brief quotes about how Zarif had “saved me from painful back surgery,” or “made the pain in my neck go away” (the latter presumably had nothing to do with ridding the patient of an ex-husband or wife).

Zarif never explains how he does it, but the ads featured graphics of some squiggly lines going from Zarif’s head to the now-cured-ones.

Frankly, I always found the ads kind of pathetic. I mean, who would feel the need to pay good money to have some unknown guy with long stringy hair send squiggly lines across the ether.

Apparently, Zarif thinks that Shaul Mofaz should. In a letter to Mofaz, the new head of Kadima who displaced Tzippi Livni in the party’s primaries last week, Zarif has apparently demanded that Mofaz make him his number two man in Kadima. This comes from this morning’s online edition of The Times of Israel.

Zarif has always had a big ego – the copy in his ads leave no room for modesty – but this latest play goes over the top. Zarif claims that it was only because of his supernatural powers that Mofaz won and that “the political system can’t operate without the aid of [his] alternative powers.” It’s also not the first time that Zarif says he has intervened in the past on behalf of other politicians, though he wouldn’t provide specifics.

Zarif operates four treatment clinics in Israel where he “transfers energies to the subconscious of the patient, awakening a process of self-healing,” according to his website. This, however, appears to be his first foray into politics.

It comes with an explicit threat. If Mofaz doesn’t heed his demands, Zarif says, he will send those squiggly lines towards Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, ensuring his future success in the next election.

Perhaps Mofaz should give in to Zarif’s psychic blackmail. Zarif promises that “if I am number two on [Kadima’s] list, I will retire from my business.” That might not be good for Mofaz, but it sure could help the rest of us. And isn’t that what politics is all about – helping the voters.

Squiggly lines coming your way, Shaul.

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