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Monday, January 10, 2011

Cleaning out the inbox: Rogue Nation

I've been meaning to post this for a while. (Hat tip: Shragi) Elder of Ziyon is one of many linking to this great story about a 19-year old in Cambridge who was given the unenviable task by the Cambridge Union debating society of being 'pro' a proposition stating that Israel is a rogue state. The student, Gabriel Latner, who is pro-Israel and had served in the Israeli Army (?), decided to do exactly that - while praising Israel in the process.  
His conduct earned him a lifetime banning from the Cambridge Union.  You might want to know that Lauren Booth was on the proposing side too - no surprise there then! I know its incredibly long, but just imagine the scene - most of the room are obviously NOT Jewish and time and time again these debates will never go in our favour. However Gabrielle  won this for the opposing side.  He received a standing ovation from the majority of the room,  obviously not from Lauren Booth!!  Please pass this on as it truly is an amazing speech from a young boy, 19 years of age, swigging from a hip flask for Dutch courage!!!
The actual speech he gave is brilliant - read the whole thing at EoZ.

2 comments:

  1. Not at all impressed. While I may agree with his point of view (I do, in fact), he is a debater. His job is to tackle difficult issues and take positions that he may often find unpalatable.

    He was given a difficult task and failed.

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  2. It's more of a hobby than a job, and the brilliance is that he tackled the issue perfectly - read what he said. He succeeded tremendously. As others noted, people often would twist the wording of the topic to argue in clever ways, this was no different in that regard.

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