Raise a Glass to the Good Old Days

Things were so much simpler back in 1922:

"Fuller was an easy-going indolent Premier who spent most of his time gossiping in the Premier's office. Like his predecessors he, too, had an overseas trip. When he got back the reporters asked him if he discovered anything new. He told them he had. While in Scotland he had discovered a new brand of Scotch whisky called Glen Kenchie, and if there had been nothing else, that had justified the cost of his trip to the State [NSW]." (The Turbulent Years, J.T. Lang, 1970, p 54)

OK, Sir George may have been a bit of a bugger but if all he brought back with him from a trip to the Old Dart was a crate of Glen Kenchie no great harm was done.

But these days? Just look at them:

"On its 10th anniversary, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council's (AIJAC's) Rambam Fellowship program has received the ultimate vote of approval from Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem. In the last 10 years, more than 400 politicians, union leaders, journalists and student leaders have travelled to Israel to experience the realities of life on the ground there as a result of the program... 'The visits, the meetings and the follow-up,' [said Rotem,] '... are developing a generation of public servants and elected officials who are more aware, better informed and sufficiently equipped with information and knowledge to challenge those who try to undermine the very existence of my people and my state.'... AIJAC executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein added, 'In essence, Rambam has been our best effort to objectively convey the political and social realities on the ground in Israel and in the region, warts and all.'" (Rambam reunion, The Australian Jewish News, 7/9/12)

Over four hundred Australian politicians (or wannabes), dumb and/or undignified enough to fall for a cheap little propaganda stunt, have returned to these shores armed with Israeli talking points and ready to assume the missionary position when required for a state founded on ethnic cleansing and wholesale theft, whose salient features today are the rampant colonization of occupied territories, apartheid laws, serial aggressions and contempt for international law.

Oh, and the suborning of dumb and/or undignified Western politicians.

Sir George Fuller would be turning in his grave.