Good Lorde!

NZ singer Lorde's 25/12 statement on why she's finally reversed her decision to perform in Israel:

"hey guys, so about this israel show - i've received an overwhelming number number of messages and letters and have had a lot of discussions with people holding many views, and i think the right decision at this time is to cancel the show. i pride myself on being an informed young citizen, and i had done a lot of reading and sought a lot of opinions before deciding to book a show in tel aviv, but i'm not too proud to admit i didn't make the right call on this one. tel aviv, it's been a dream of mine to visit this beautiful part of the world for many years, and i'm truly sorry to reverse my commitment to come play for you. i hope one day we can all dance."

While I'm glad Lorde has finally complied with requests to boycott apartheid Israel, I find myself profoundly irritated by her statement on many levels:

1) If, despite her claimed wide reading on the subject of Palestine/Israel, she'd decided to perform anyway, I seriously have to question a) her notion of wide reading (Wikipedia?) and/or the bona fides of whatever it is she claims to have read.

2) If visiting Tel Aviv is her idea of a "dream," I can only conclude that, at least for the most part, she's off with the pixies.

3) If she's really taken on board all of those "messages and letters/discussions" she's received, why does she feel the need to apologise to apartheid Israelis?

4) Why is there not a single reference in her statement to anything real she may have learned from all this?

And, of course, the question of questions:

5) Why, as a self-proclaimed "informed young citizen," did she even need to be told that apartheid Israel was no-no in the first place?

*...*