Duet for Hypocrites

"The prospect of Australian participation in a war against Islamic State fighters in Iraq is edging closer with both Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten in lockstep yesterday branding the militants respectively 'a death cult'* and 'an enemy of humanity'." (We cannot just watch: united front on Iraq, Mark Kenny, David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 2/9/14)

Abbott:

"In good conscience [Australians]... cannot leave the Iraqi people to face this horror, this pure evil alone."

Abbott, however, has no problem leaving the Palestinian people to face Israeli genocide alone because, as long as they refuse to acquiesce in the settler-colonial land-grab known as Israel, hey, they deserve what they get: "The problem in the Middle East is that... so many people are not prepared to accept Israel's right to exist."

Abbott:

"As things stand, doing nothing means leaving millions of people exposed to death, forced conversion and ethnic cleansing. I refuse to call this hideous movement 'Islamic State' because it's not a state - it's a death cult."

However, a Jewish State that's been ethnically cleansing Palestine of its non-Jews for over 65 years, hey, that's OK.

Shorten:

"The inescapable fact is that genocide is being perpetrated against defenceless people and we cannot co-operate with this evil by refusing to support the innocent."

Shorten, of course, has no problem with Israeli genocide being perpetrated against defenceless Palestinians because, despite every square inch of Israel being stolen Palestinian land, "every country's got the right to secure borders," don't you know?

[Quotes from: We cannot just watch: united front on Iraq, Mark Kenny, David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 2/9/14; Abbott backs Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas rockets, Jared Owens, The Australian, 31/7/14]

[*Did Abbott's mate, The Australian's Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, write this speech for him? See my 21/5/09 post Repeat After Me.]