How not to criticise Israel

[johnny9fingers]

Some time ago, fridi posted about Israel and the definitions of anti-Semitism:

talkpolitics.dreamwidth.org/2030790.html#comments

Wherein Milady gives a cogent argument about how any criticism of Israel whatsoever is being shut down by any means, fair or foul.

Now today my morning paper gives me this snippet of news:

www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/12/israel-fines-new-zealand-teenagers-18000-for-urging-lorde-concert-boycott

Wherein we find that:

"An Israel court has ordered two New Zealand women to pay damages for harming the “artistic welfare” of three Israeli teenagers after the pop star Lorde cancelled a planned performance in Tel Aviv.

Judge Mirit Fohrer ruled that Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab of New Zealand must pay damages to Israeli teenagers Shoshana Steinbach, Ayelet Wertzel and Ahuva Frogel totalling more than NZ$18,000 for writing a letter urging the singer to cancel her concert in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Post reports."

And I think I'm in a Monty Python sketch.

I think we all need to be fulsome in our praise of Israel from here on in. How does this play against First Amendment rights? Will Israel be able to enforce any of these orders beyond their borders?

Have you ever written anything critical of Israel? I guess they will not try to make this legislation retrospective, but you never know?

Isn't Israel a wonderful country? Such freedom of thought, such honour, such nobility... How fortunate we all are to have such a beacon of decency in a nation, in that sea of conflict that is the Middle East. And even with the turbulence all around them they are a still point of reason and saintliness. One wonders at the structural reasons for that; but they seem to believe it is just because they are better - and who can argue with them there?

Not me, I'm far too poor these days.

 
I know it's Friday and we are meant to post something funny, but I felt certain absurdist facets of this allowed me to shoehorn this in here today. To me it's bleakly funny in a "Twelve Monkeys" kind of way.

Comments

[halialkers]

The Israelis are living proof akin to the Pakistanis that there is no such thing as a nation-state founded on a religion that endures with any of its virtues intact past the initial generation or two from its founding.

[johnny9fingers]

Some don't appear to have many founding virtues to begin with.