Greg Sheridan's Tsunami

Anti-Semitism?

According to Tony Abbott's Suppository of All Wisdom, Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, foreign editor of The Australian, we'll soon be standing in it!

Here's Sheridan on the tsunami of anti-Semitism that's supposedly about to "engulf" us:

"There has been astonishingly, a recrudescence of Christian anti-Semitism. Some of this comes from Arab Christian churches who seek to portray Jesus not as Jewish, which he certainly was historically, but as a Palestinian." (Hatred of Jews on rise again: There is nothing isolated about the surge of anti-semitism engulfing us, 7/6/13)

Funny, I've never known Sheridan to have conniptions over the stereotypical depiction of Jesus as a blue-eyed, blonde, Nordic type, bearing not the least resemblance to Theodor Herzl, but as soon  as a Palestinian pipes up...

"It is indeed a legitimate element of Christian theology that the Old Testament promises are fulfilled by Christ in the establishment of Christianity. But it is not legitimate to deny the Jewish people, or their history."

Crafty bugger! Notice it's "the Jewish people," not 'Jews' (as in Christians, Muslims and Jews). Boilerplate Zionist dogma in other words. You see, what Sheridan's really defending here isn't Jews and/or Judaism, but political Zionism:

"The idea of Zionism is that there should be a Jewish state in the historical lands of Israel. It is not remotely necessary to have any religious faith at all to acknowledge the historic and ongoing Jewish connection with the land of Israel. This certainly does not entitle Israel to all the land of the Biblical passages."

Actually, Greg, that "connection," however you characterise it, doesn't "entitle" Israel (the creation, by bomb and bullet, of mainly East European Jews) to one square inch of Middle Eastern real estate.

"But it is a historic claim of association to a land of a kind that we recognise explicitly in our own legislation regarding Aboriginal land rights."

Only a rusted-on Zionist fanatic like Sheridan could twist Australian history in this shameless fashion.

We recognise Aboriginal land rights because Aboriginals were living here when our European mob arrived and dispossessed them. Likewise, Palestinian aboriginals were living in Palestine before Israel's European mob arrived and set about dispossessing them. However, not only does that particular mob NOT recognise Palestinian land rights but is still as busy snapping up Palestinian land as it was when it first arrived, and, to add insult to injury, claiming that God gave it to them!

"It is the kind of association of a people with a land that is the basis for many civic identities around the world."

Oh really? Name one other civic identity based on the X-ness of one's mother.

"But now, alone among all such claims, Zionism has become a dirty word in all progressive circles. But what is really disturbing is how many other rivers of anti-Semitism are all flowing together."

Presumably, "progressive circles" should instead be backing the Zionist in this imagined conversation:

Zionist (banging on Palestinian door): Hey, we're baaack!
Palestinian: Who the hell are you?
Zionist: We're the guys who own this place.
Palestinian: No you don't, this is my place. It's been mine for untold generations.
Zionist: Sorry, rootless Arab, before it was your place it was our place.
Palestinian: Says who?
Zionist: God, of course.
Palestinian: God! What if I refuse to leave?
Zionist: That'd be anti-Semitic.
Palestinian: Oh well then, I guess I better start packing...
Zionist: Correct. You've got 5 minutes to get your stuff out before the bulldozers roll.

Give us a break, Greg.

Why even bother with Sheridan's shit? Well, he is Tony's Suppository of All Wisdom, and not only do he and Tony go back a long way, but so does their anti-Palestinian bent:

"In 1977, Abbott and I drove down from Sydney to Melbourne to attend an AUS conference at Monash University... No doubt the silliest thing we did at the conference was to attend a Palestinian film night... we heckled the film a bit... the film was stopped and we were told we had to leave..." (See my 13/9/12 post Greg & Tony Do Monash 1 for the gruesome details.)