Nicky Larkin: Israel is a refuge, but a refuge under siege

[oberliner]

I used to hate Israel. I used to think the Left was always right. Not any more. Now I loathe Palestinian terrorists. Now I see why Israel has to be hard. Now I see the Left can be Right -- as in right-wing. So why did I change my mind so completely?

Strangely, it began with my anger at Israel's incursion into Gaza in December 2008 which left over 1,200 Palestinians dead, compared to only 13 Israelis. I was so angered by this massacre I posed in the striped scarf of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation for an art show catalogue.

Shortly after posing in that PLO scarf, I applied for funding from the Irish Arts Council to make a film in Israel and Palestine. I wanted to talk to these soldiers, to challenge their actions -- and challenge the Israeli citizens who supported them.

I spent seven weeks in the area, dividing my time evenly between Israel and the West Bank. I started in Israel. The locals were suspicious. We were Irish -- from a country which is one of Israel's chief critics -- and we were filmmakers. We were the enemy.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/nicky-larkin-israel-is-a-refuge-but-a-refuge-under-siege-3046227.html

[AverageJoe90]

1. I see where Mr. Larkin is coming from.

I was in the same boat myself for a while......I've changed my viewpoint now but still wish I could undo 3 years of partial ignorance.

[yalil]

2. Israel/Palestine

I was impressed with Mr.Larkin's NEW point of view about Israel.Takes a real independent thinker to admit he & so many others are
wrong.The world has a "knee-jerk" reaction to anything with word "Palestine" in it.They don't know the truth,but condemn Israel
none the less.

[shaayecanaan]

3. My gosh, I have seen the light...

Last edited Wed Apr 11, 2012, 08:58 PM - Edit history (1)

A guy goes to the West Bank, and finds an Israeli soldier who is like totally cool dude and who only wants to talk about Palestinian beer. Much more pleasant conversation than those Arabs who only want to talk about occupation. He is converted to being a hasbarado on the spot. Who wouldnt?

My favourite paragraph was this:-

Back in Tel Aviv in the summer of 2011, I began to listen more closely to the Israeli side. I remember one conversation in Shenkin Street -- Tel Aviv's most fashionable quarter, a street where everybody looks as if they went to art college. I was outside a cafe interviewing a former soldier.

He talked slowly about his time in Gaza. He spoke about 20 Arab teenagers filled with ecstasy tablets and sent running towards the base he'd patrolled. Each strapped with a bomb and carrying a hand-held detonator.

The pills in their bloodstream meant they felt no pain. Only a headshot would take them down.

Well, its good to see that Hamas are such enthusiastic dispensers of ecstasy. It could make for some good tourism opportunities now that the Dutch are cracking (ahem) down on their coffee houses.

But I digress. Now, I am not much of a partier, but when I party I party hard. I like to strut my funky stuff and shake my sizzling booty with the best of them, and that means I have been "e to the me" on more than one occasion.

Now, it may well be that Hamas' ecstasy is better than the local stuff you get around here, but I still say that if you cop a 7.62 mm round in the thigh you are still going to fall to the ground and cry like a little bitch, no matter how much ecstasy you've taken.

In any event, this is just more credulous tosh from someone who confesses he was never that well-versed in the conflict.

[oberliner]

5. Ecstasy, hashish seized in Gaza

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Police in north Gaza on Monday detained a man in possession of Ecstasy and hashish.

Jabalia police said they received a tipoff that a man was picking up drugs from Rafah, a town on the Egyptian border, to sell.

Police tracked the suspect and found 50 packets of Ecstasy pills and six kilograms of hashish in his car, a statement said.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=471581

[holdencaufield]

6. Seriously...

... if I live in Gaza, I couldn't get ENOUGH "E"

[shaayecanaan]

8. Exactly how that rebuts anything I posted, I'm not sure (nt)

[oberliner]

9. Hamas does not allow ecstacy into Gaza (nt)

[shaayecanaan]

10. That wasnt a claim that I made (nt)

[jimmie]

4. Great article

Mr. Larkin is not alone.

The mindless "group-think" says more about them than it does about Israel. And this group think often is a cover for their own hatreds and antisemitic views.

Great article.

Thanks for posting.

[King_David]

7. Good Read nt

[shira]

11. Video: Nicky Larkin on Michael Coren show

[bemildred]

12. War zones never did make much of a refuge.

Maybe that's the problem.