Just How Bright is Tony Abbott?

"After a big night out in my fourth year of university, a squad car observed me trying to bend over a street sign in a test of strength with a fellow student." (Tony Abbott, Battlelines, 2009, p 9)

Although Zionist propagandists work hard to suggest the contrary, 'getting' Palestine/Israel is hardly rocket science.

That being the case, you'd think a Rhodes scholar would be able to make short work of the issue, right? Well, there's at least one Rhodes scholar around who finds it all a bit of a struggle - Australia's prime minister-elect, Tony Abbott.

The available evidence suggests that on this particular issue (and who knows on how many others?), Abbott's position hasn't advanced one inch since his university days. That position, needless to say, is one of uncritical, knee-jerk support for Israel.

As the Australian's Paul Kelly put it succinctly: "Abbott knows little about Israel yet his views are fixed." (See my 23/12/12 post Tony Abbott On the Prowl.)

Here's Abbott in 1977, at the age of 20:

"No doubt the silliest thing we did at the [Australian Union of Students] conference [at Monash University] was to attend a Palestinian film night... [W]e heckled the film a bit... the film was stopped and we were told we had to leave." That's Abbott's bestie, the Australian's 'suppository of all wisdom', Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, recalling the good old days. (See my 13/9/12 post Greg & Tony Do Monash.)

Abbott, it seems, not only valued ignorance, but strongly believed that others too should be kept in the dark.

Fast forward 23 years to October 2003, and here he is, addressing the Zionist Council of Victoria:

"Tony Abbott has accused the Sydney Peace Prize winner, Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi, of justifying terrorism against civilians, and declared that the Bali bombing has made all Australians 'Israelis now'... Mr Abbott, responding to criticism of Israel by The Australian's columnist Phillip Adams, said it was not 'anti-Semitic to criticise the Israeli government when it's wrong. But what is it, then,' he asked 'to proclaim moral equivalence between an Israeli leadership striving to preserve a liberal, pluralist democracy and Palestinian leadership running a one-party statelet dedicated to destroying its neighbour?" (We're all Israelis now, says Abbott, Dennis Shanahan & Megan Saunders, The Australian, 30/10/03)

Clearly, Abbott hadn't a clue.

In fact, so challenged was he that a tutor had to be engaged to help him out:

"Online magazine crikey.com.au reveals that after federal Health Minister Tony Abbott gave a speech at the annual general meeting of the State Zionist Council last week, he joked about the fact that [Colin] Rubenstein had vetted it, saying: 'Did I get anything wrong? Colin, you better correct it so I get the script right.' Abbott told The Australian that he 'asked Colin to have a look at the speech on the Middle East because he's an expert in a way I'm not'." (Take the free out of speech, Elisabeth Wynhausen, 4/11/03)

And here's our Rhodes scholar, 9 years later, on March 9, 2012, parroting the very same lines at Sydney's Central Synagogue:

"In so many ways, [Israel is] a country so much like Australia, a liberal, pluralist democracy... And yet, we are not threatened in the way Israel was and is, and if we were threatened in the way Israel was and is, I am sure that we would take actions just as strong in our own defence. When Israel is fighting for its very life, well, as far as I'm concerned, Australians are Israelis. We are all Israelis in those circumstances'." (See my 18/3/12 post Abbott: We Are All Israelis.)

Almost a decade on, and still as clueless as ever.

Could Tony Abbott, perhaps, be Australia's answer to George W. Bush?