Cheap Zionist Thrills

"The Marrickville mayor, Fiona Byrne, has a prior engagement and will not be attending tonight's concert by the award-winning Israeli singer Efrat Gosh... at the Camelot Lounge in Marrickville Road. Gosh, named Israeli female artist of the year last year, was originally going to perform just a single gig in Sydney last weekend." (Israeli culture in Marrickville, Sydney Morning Herald, 15/6/11)

Marrickville? Surely not!

- Afraid so. The buggers just couldn't resist now, could they?

So what happened?

"... the Israeli embassy in Canberra and the Zionist Federation in Australia decided to promote a second show as a direct consequence of the council's controversial 'boycott Israel' proposal earlier this year." (ibid)

Ah, the usual suspects! They must've put the hard word on young Efrat. I mean, she probably hadn't even heard of BDS, let alone Marrickville.

- Did they what!

"While Gosh lamented the politicising of her music, she said she thought Marrickville Council was short-sighted in its condemnation of Israel and she felt 'sorry' for those who had not experienced Israeli culture. 'Of course, it is a complicated situation, but unless you've actually lived there, through it, you don't really have an understanding of the people and the place', she said yesterday. 'There are so many religions, different types of people, and a great music scene in Israel. It is really them that are missing out... My brothers had to serve in the army and, like most Israelis, it was hard for them to see what goes on between the two sides', she said." (Israel strikes a note of defiance, Sallie Don, The Australian, 15/6/11)

Ah yes, the fabulous Israeli army - which has to be dragged kicking and screaming (But what about our souls?) to the wild West Bank to keep order among the thoroughly ungrateful Arabs who infest the place. But what a little trooper Efrat's turned out to be! Despite being consumed with anguish at the politicisation of her music, on learning of the existential threat posed to her homeland by Marrickville Council, she's agreed to stage a daring raid into enemy territory, at no small risk to her reputation as an artiste. And notice how diplomatically she puts it, as befits her obviously sensitive, artistic nature.

- Her handler, however, had no hesitation whatever in sticking it directly to Fraulein Byrne:

"Embassy spokeswoman Einat Weiss, who has helped to promote the singer's tour in Australia, was not so diplomatic and criticised Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne... 'I would say to Fiona Byrne you have misrepresented and misjudged the people of Israel', Ms Weiss said." (ibid)

Talk about cheap Zionist thrills.