Monday, September 06, 2004

Mail:

Dear imshin,

I've just read the guardian article about Tel Aviv nightlife you linked in your 5th September entry and I can't find most of the quotes you highlighted there.

Nowhere does it contain the words 'military regime' - which I agree would have been idiotic. Maybe the guardian decided to clean up the text a bit after you'd got hold of it, but now it just reads like a pretty straight piece about some spirited partying and I can't really see the harm in it to be honest.

best wishes

J

Thank you for your comment, J. Curiously, I can still see the passages I quoted when I access the article, 'military regime' included.

I agree that there is really nothing actually wrong with the article. What annoys me is that a publication like the Guardian refuses to write anything about Israel without mentioning the oppression of the Palestinians, no matter how frivolous the subject.

Imagine if everything you ever read about Russia, say about the Bolshoy Ballet, or a new book, always mentioned Russian cruelty to the Chechens, or everything written about China, like touring the Great Wall or the latest hairstyles of Shanghai women, included a snide comment about China occupying Tibet. It sounds absurd, doesn't it? But this is exactly what the Guardian is doing here.

Can you understand how frustrating it is for us, to be forever perceived as far far worse than those vast and powerful nations?

I actually think the OTC recreation drug mentioned is interesting enough in itself, without the tedious mandatory moralizing.

Update: Apparently J was subconsciously blanking out the bits of Guardian idiocy his mind didn't like :-)

'military regime' - still there.

I wish I could do that.

Update update: Now J is feeling rather silly, but he shouldn't really. I'm happy. Anything that gets me to write :-~