The Girl from Tel-Aviv Who Wouldn't Kneel

While it is difficult to know if this is about a specific person, the lyrics link the conflict in the Middle East between Palestine and Jerusalem to American cultural imperialism, especially the gendered submission to power inculcated through images such as the machos on the wall, a reference to heroically posed men, and symbols and signs, the sort of things like flags, icons, and slogans, associated with religion and nationalism. The lyrics focalize a girl from Tel Aviv, an Israeli city with a reputation for progressivism, who "wouldn\'t kneel," ie refused to shown submission to the patriarchal and nationalistic forces demanding it of her.\n\nAll the friends of the persona singing the song are in trouble. This claim evokes not only the literal trouble that any independent thinkers suffer in a police state -- the constant risk of imprisonment or worst -- as well as the idea of a willingness to risk oneself by refusing to submit, reminiscent of Judith Butler\'s phrase "gender trouble," describing the perils of having a non-binary sexual identity in a heteronormative society.\n\nI love the lyrical lightness of the song\'s instrumentation and melody, especially as the lyrics darkly foreground the true root of the cultural mayhem in the Middle East: "The land weeps oil." Hate on Morrissey as you must, but this song is cutting, expressive, emotionally moving and unforgettable, at least for me.