[lbo-talk] the Israeli army - full of slackers?

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Wed Oct 18 21:16:43 PDT 2006


On 10/18/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> I recorded a long (50-min) interview with Tariq Ali today (on the
> Middle East & Latin America), which I'll run in a few weeks. In it,
> Tariq said that an under-reported aspect of Israel's unhappy
> experience in Lebanon was that, in contrast with a stoked Hezbollah,
> the IDF is now full of members of the global slacker class who just
> didn't want to be there. Any thoughts on this?

Was Michael Lucas a secret agent of Hizballah who succeeded in softening up the IDF?

<http://gaymiddleeast.blogspot.com/2006/08/gay-jewish-porn-actor-to-visit-israel.html> Gay Jewish Porn Actor to Visit Israel

PinkNews <http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-2275.html> recently reported that Michael Lucas, a Jewish-American porn actor, will be visiting Israel to offer a live show to entertain the troops. A quote:

His claim to be entertaining the troops will not be sanctioned by the Israeli army. Instead he offers free entry to soldiers attending his 'performance' in a Tel-Aviv nightclub.

And another:

Lucas also hopes his trip will bring awareness to the plight of gay people caught up in the current conflict:

"People need to see the faces of war, and I plan to shed light on the world where gay Israel exists," he writes.

"I will expose the reality that the people of Israel face right now, especially that of gay Israelis who are targeted by the hate of Hezbollah."

I was infuriated when I read this, and I didn't know why. It's great that he's going there to entertain, and it's great that such a show is accepted in Israel. I am competely supportive of that.

But the last lines irritate me immensely; they are inappropriate and uneducated. Gay rights are an international issue, and should not be confused with nationalist, ethnic, or religious conflicts.

Hizbullah has not been attacking Israel because of Israel's comparative support of gay rights, and Israel has not been attacking Lebanon in some spectacular defense of gay rights.

Going to entertain the troops is one thing, but going to ally gay rights with a national cause is wrong on many levels.

posted by Al-Fil at 8:20 PM

-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



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