Sunday, January 05, 2014

Halper's Bellow

I received this description of the debate at St. James' in Picadilly over the "replica wall":-

I am just back from the debate. Alan Johnson of Bicom spoke brilliantly; cogently articulating the case for the wall as a security issue. His rhetorical devices were masterly, as he spoke of the realities of the actual wall as against the never never world of the pretend wall, which in turn facilitated the calcification of the intellectual wall which refused to recognise the reality of the need for the real wall. He cited famous harrowing instances of bombing and terror. He showed graphs of how the level of terror decreased dramatically after the wall, He cited last week's abortive bus bombing where the terrorists had got through a breach in the wall, from Bethlehem. When he finished, (to a good round of applause from the substantial pro Israel presence there) Jeff Halper, the next speaker, opened his mouth wide and bellowed: 'This wall has NOTHING to do with security'. And without his having to say a single thing more to back up or verify this bellow, the hall erupted into cheers and applause. I watched 2 attractive young women behind me as their faces broke into delighted beaming smiles of relief, clapping wildly. Without more, everything they had invested in, momentarily in danger of panicky disturbance by Johnson was reassuringly reinstated by this single, unsubstantiated bellow.

and someone else commented on that:


The primeval bellow of a man, passionate in his rejection of the other side's case, must have sounded just the right comforting note. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

But never mind the competing moralities, Halper just shouted total outrageous lies, that Israel was killing children with chemicals which melted their insides, (WP again?) and with weapons with whirling blades which shredded them. All to wild cheers.