Wild About Kevin

In the wake of the News of the World debacle, Prime Minister Gillard advised the Murdoch press only the other day at the National Press Club: "Don't write crap. Can't be that hard." (Ninth arrest in hacking scandal & Gillard has some media advice, Tim Dick, Sydney Morning Herald, 15/7/11)

Unfortunately, her sage advice came a day too late for the Herald Sun when it went to press with this 'story':

"Australia's former Prime Minister, now Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd today made a stand against anti-Israeli demonstrators who targeted a Melbourne chocolate store earlier this month." (Kevin Rudd slams anti-Israeli protests as 'archaic', Nathan Mawby, 14/7/11)

Anti-Israeli? Correct. For once!

Melbourne chocolate store? Try 'Israeli chocolate store in Melbourne'.

"Militant protesters..."

Militant? So now we have militant and non-militant protesters? This is getting rather silly.

"... targeted the Max Brenner store in QV on Lonsdale St and claimed the franchise had aided the Israeli Army."

Militant protesters... claimed? Sorry, Israel's Strauss Group (of which MB is a part) claims. Check out their "Company Responsibility" statement at my 12/7/09 post How Sweet It Is: "Our connection with soldiers goes as far back as the country and even further. We see a mission & need to continue to provide our soldiers with support..."

"But today Mr Rudd took time to meet with Jewish MP for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby, at the same Max Brenner store for a hot chocolate and a slice of cake."

Jewish MP? Ultra-Zionist MP I can understand, but Jewish? If we're going down this path, consistency surely requires all Australian MPs from now on to be given a sectarian label: atheist Prime Minister, Christian Foreign Minister etc...

"He said the decision was a personal one not intended to reflect the government's views, but slammed the protesters for the archaic stunt. 'I went there deliberately to make a point and that is I don't think in 21st century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business', he said. 'I thought we had learnt from history'."

But... but... I thought the Herald Sun journalist, Nathan Mawby, had called the demonstrators anti-Israeli? Now I'm all confused. If Max Brenner can be described as Israeli or Jewish (even if he trades on the Sabbath), does this mean that Michael Danby can be described as Jewish or Israeli?

Ah, but enough of Zionist word games, what I really want to slam here is Krudd's vile innuendo, which belongs down in the muddy bottom with Bolt's and Henderson's (See my 12/7/11 post Smearing BDS), and, for all we know, may even have been picked up from the latter or adapted from the same document out of Israel's Ministry for Talking Points.

To spell out Krudd's Zionist syllogism: Hitler attacked Jews. The Zionist entity (in its arrogance) calls itself the 'Jewish' state. Therefore, any attack on Israel is an attack on Jews (and to be anti-Israeli is to be anti-Semitic in the Nazi mold). And for Krudd this is not only impeccable logic, but "history."

But it gets better:

"Mr Danby described those responsible for the protests as militants as he discussed the incident with Mr Rudd. He said the presence of Mr Rudd was a message to those responsible that their views were not accepted by the wider community. 'What it says is that mainstream Australia refutes both their attacks and what they stand for and their strategies', Mr Danby said."

So Krudd represents the wider community, so-called mainstream Australia? He's a man of the people, blessed with the proverbial common touch, a blokes' bloke. As those who have basked in his warm and cuddly presence have testified:

"Rudd didn't lift a finger for Labor in the high political excitement of Malcolm Fraser's early years. He didn't march in the streets against Whitlam's nemesis, the governor-general Sir John Kerr, or man the booths in the election campaigns of 1977 and 1980. The wild politics of the campus held no fascination for him. He found purpose in another quarter altogether. He led a group of evangelicals called the Navigators, intent - or so it seemed to other students - on imposing a puritan rule on Burgmann, the college where he lived. The Navigators were particularly worried about liquor - Rudd is remembered as a serial complainer about booze being sold at the college bar - rock music and fornication. Philip Hirst, an international lawyer who was then a fellow student at Burgmann, remembers fresher Rudd vividly: 'He would walk down the corridor and in his wake like ducklings after a mother duck were his Christian acolytes'." (We need to talk about Kevin... Rudd, that is, David Marr, Sydney Morning Herald, 7/6/10)

"Kevin Rudd is what I call a PPP - a prissy, precious prick. One with a glass jaw, a quick temper and, when he loses it, a foul tongue. And don't imagine I'm the only one who thinks so. One day the electorate will learn about Rudd's very human, if dark side." (Forget policy, the aim is to channel imagery, Alan Ramsey, Sydney Morning Herald, 28/4/07)

"Labor MPs have called former prime minister Kevin Rudd a 'bully', reportedly saying they would rather 'chew their arm off' than have him back as leader." (Rudd attacked by Labor MPs as 'bully', The Age, 18/6/11)

Danby, of course, knows Rudd very well. So close were they that the MP for Israel & Tibet fought tooth and nail to keep him on as PM last year:

"This morning's leadership challenge followed a tumultuous 24 hours in politics as a last-minute push yesterday to oust Mr Rudd, driven by the Right faction in Victoria and South Australia, gathered momentum. The crisis came to a head last night at a meeting in the Prime Minister's office attended by Mr Rudd, Ms Gillard, Mr Albanese, Mr Tanner, Mr Swan and Defence Minister John Faulkner. The push for Gillard to take over was started by elements of the Victorian, NSW and South Australian right and the Victorian left faction. Victorian Parliamentary Secretary Bill Shorten, Victorian Senator David Feeney, Melbourne Ports member Michael Danby and South Australian Senator Don Farrell from the right were involved..." (Gillard becomes Australia's first female PM after Rudd goes down without fight, The Age, 24/6/10)