As if timed to illustrate my entry two days ago, the Jerusalem Post reports an update in a story Judith has been following from her home within the Zionist Entity.

She wrote to me at the end of November expressing her discomfort, even as a very close friend of Israel (and a Jewish one at that), at the tactics employed by an IDF officer at a checkpoint on the West Bank. A Palestinian presented himself with a violin case and was asked to play it for two minutes to prove he really was a musician. Judith pointed out that (rightly wary as she is of such comparisons) it called to mind Nazis forcing musical Jews to entertain them. My email reply was, I have to say, hawkishly dismissive. If I’d been in his seat I’d have done the same as the soldier, who was filmed by “Machsom Watch”, a group of women monitoring treatment of those crossing checkpoints. Four days later Judith emailed to say that a Palestinian in Israeli custody had admitted to smuggling explosives inside his guitar*.

But what happened next with the violinist? The sort of thing that makes you proud to be a friend of Israel. [Thanks again to Judith.]

*UPDATE: Claire points out by email that the “guitarist” didn’t just transport but detonated the explosives in question and what exactly passed between the fiddler and the border guard is the subject of some discussion.