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"To me the most disturbing section was not visual at all.
The clip is just a phone call—placed by a terrorist to his family back in Gaza.
He tells his father that he is calling from a Jewish woman’s phone. (The phone recorded the call.)
He tells his father that his son is now a “hero” and that “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands.”
And he tells his family, about a dozen times, that they should open up WhatsApp on his phone, because he has sent photographs to prove what he has done. “Put on Mom!” he says. “Your son is a hero!”
His parents, I noticed, are not nearly as enthusiastic as he is.
I believe that the mom says “praise be to God” at one point, which could be gratitude for her son’s crimes or pure reflex, indicating her loss for words to match her son’s unspeakable acts.
They do not question what their son has done; they do not scold him. They tell him to come back to Gaza. They fear for his safety.
He says, amid rounds of “Allahu akbar,” that he intends “victory or martyrdom”—which the parents must understand means that he will never come home. From their muted replies I wonder whether they also understand that even if he did come home, he would do so as a disgusting and degraded creature, and that it might be better for him not to."
Joe Strummer explained in his liner notes that he got the idea to write "Tommy Gun" when it occurred to him that terrorists -- like rock and movie stars -- probably enjoy reading the press about their so-called triumphs.
[Urgent riffs, a rapid machine-gun barrage of guitar stabs and drum fills mimicking the rat-a-tat-tat.
A barely audible melodic guitar line; a powerful one-note solo as the song approaches its gripping climax.]
Tommy gun
You ain′t happy unless you got one
Tommy gun
Ain't gonna shoot the place up just for fun
Maybe he wants to die for the money
Maybe he wants to kill for his country
Whatever he wants, he′s gonna get it
Tommy gun
You better strip it down for a customs run
Tommy gun
Waiting in the airport 'til kingdom come
An' we can watch you make it
On the nine o′clock news
Standing there in Palestine, lighting the fuse
Whatever you want, you′re gonna get it
Tommy gun
Tommy gun
Tommy gun
You'll be dead, war is won
Tommy gun
But did you have to gun down everyone?
I can see it′s kill or be killed
A nation of destiny has got to be fulfilled
Whatever you want, you're gonna get it
Tommy gun
You can be a hero in an age of none
Tommy gun
I′m cutting out your picture from page one
I'm gonna get a jacket just like yours
An′ give my false support to your cause
Whatever you want, you're gonna get it
Okay, so let's agree about the prize
And make it one jet airliner for ten prisoners
Boats and tanks and planes, it′s your game
Kings and queens and generals learn your name
I see all the innocents, the human sacrifice
And if death comes so cheap, then the same goes for life
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