Israeli journalist Amira Hass reports on the progress of the Israeli master plan for the ethnic cleansing of Hebron:
"The sickest imagination of present-day anti-Semites cannot compete with the handiwork of Israel and its emissaries the settlers in Hebron for the past 20 years. The demand for the Jewish return is broken down here into all its raw components: the expulsion of the Palestinians, the destruction of their homes and cultural legacy, destruction of the economy, extreme ethnic-spatial separation and deranged prohibitions regarding movement and housing, attacks in the name of the Torah, harassment and denial of the other. If gentile foes were to say that's how Jews behave, the institutes for the study of anti-Semitism would sound the alarm.
"Today, February 25, is the 21st anniversary of the massacre perpetrated by Dr Baruch Goldstein against worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque (the Cave of the Patriarchs). The prime minister and defence minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, could have dismantled the nuclear bombs stored by his colleagues from Mapai (the forerunner of Labor) in the late 1960s - Yigal Alon and Moshe Dayan - when they allowed groups of messianic Jews to settle there and encouraged them by providing military protection and weapons. The evacuation of the settlers from Hebron would have been received with great understanding in 1994. But Rabin decided to continue with the traditional policy, which was natural for Mapai, of pampering the settlers, and instructed the army to punish the Palestinians for the massacre committed against them by a Jewish doctor - an immigrant from the United States - with a prolonged curfew, restrictions on movement, the closing of shops and marketplaces, and criminal forgiveness for the violence of the settlers. Since then Israel has continued with its policy of punishing those who are attacked.
"Twenty-one years after the massacre, the settlers in Hebron have many reasons for celebration. President Reuven Rivlin visited them and gave his approval for the evaporation of the Palestinian community from the center of Hebron. Last week a second representative of the Hebron settlers entered the Knesset, instead of the late Uri Orbach: Rabbi Hillel Horowitz of Habayit Hayehudi, who is joining his colleague and neighbour Orit Strock. And even if it's only symbolic and for a month or two, there's a chance that another of their neighbors, Baruch Mazel, who lives in the settlement of Tel Rumeida, will preserve the handsome quota in the next Knesset: two elected officials from a community of several hundred people who have orchestrated one of the most violent and racist realities.
"The Hebron settlers can be credited with several more accomplishments achieved in the past 3 years: another new promenade connecting Kiryat Arba and the Cave of the Patriarchs, an expanded Beit Romano, an archaeological park under construction, the Cave of the Patriarchs as a national heritage site, tours by school students, and the main thing - a first settlement site in Hebron in 30 years in 'Beit Hameriva' (the house of contention) in the heart of the ar-Ras neighborhood, after the Supreme Court confirmed that it was purchased legally.
"And among the achievements and festivities, the center of the city is deserted and in ruins. You have to visit there, repeatedly, in order to begin to understand not only how it looks when 120 blockades and checkpoints cut off abandoned streets in the middle, and how it is when young soldiers enforce the prohibition against visiting the family that insists on continuing to live in its home or walk in the street that's for Jews only, and how the elderly climb up the incline short of breath, because Palestinian cars are not allowed there. The visit is necessary in order to understand this all-Israeli creation: Active and conscious assistance of Labor governments, and conscious support, indifference and the emotional and intellectual laziness of elites and ordinary people, have implemented the most extremist settlement-oriented-messianic-right-wing master plan since 1948." (Israel's Hebron handiwork: Its most heinous endeavor since 1948, Haaretz, 25/2/15)
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Anyone Remember 'No War for Oil'?
Remember the bullshit we used to hear about the 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq - that it was all about oil?
The fact that it was really all about Israel seldom emerges from the mouths of mainstream political figures. Which is what makes the following snippet so interesting:
"On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry questioned Mr Netanyahu's foreign policy judgment as he testified before a Republican-dominated foreign affairs committee in the House of Representatives. Referring to Mr Netanyahu's condemnation of the Iran talks, Mr Kerry said with clear irony: 'The Prime Minister was also profoundly forward-leaning and very outspoken about the importance of invading Iraq under George W. Bush'." (White House-Israel relations at new low over Iran deal, Nick O'Malley, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/2/15)
For those of you who still have oil on the brain, and still haven't read my 22/12/08 post Absent-Minded Professors Inadvertently Set Iraq Ablaze, do so NOW. Just click on the Stephen Sniegoski label below.
The fact that it was really all about Israel seldom emerges from the mouths of mainstream political figures. Which is what makes the following snippet so interesting:
"On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry questioned Mr Netanyahu's foreign policy judgment as he testified before a Republican-dominated foreign affairs committee in the House of Representatives. Referring to Mr Netanyahu's condemnation of the Iran talks, Mr Kerry said with clear irony: 'The Prime Minister was also profoundly forward-leaning and very outspoken about the importance of invading Iraq under George W. Bush'." (White House-Israel relations at new low over Iran deal, Nick O'Malley, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/2/15)
For those of you who still have oil on the brain, and still haven't read my 22/12/08 post Absent-Minded Professors Inadvertently Set Iraq Ablaze, do so NOW. Just click on the Stephen Sniegoski label below.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Blowing the Whistle on Zionist Control of the MSMedia
From the opening paragraphs of British journalist Jonathan Cook's 24-page essay Publish it not! How Israel controls the way the international 'liberal' media portray its illegal and vicious occupation of Palestine & why the media allow them to get away with it:
"Probably like many other journalists, at some point in my childhood I fell in love with the idea of the crusading, fearless reporter - unafraid of bullying figures of authority and always looking out for the little guy... Life, of course, has proved to be less simple. Who is the bully and who is the little guy? I, like more notable reporters who preceded me, would find that conundrum expressed most powerfully in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"In the mid 1990s, I arrived in Jerusalem for the first time - then as a tourist - with another potent Western myth at the front of my consciousness: that of Israel as 'a light unto the nations', the plucky underdog facing a menacing Arab world ranged against it. A series of later professional shocks as a freelance journalist reporting on Israel would shatter my assumptions about both Israel and courageous reporters.
"These disillusioning experiences came in the early stages of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising that began in late 2000. At the time I was writing for Britain's Guardian newspaper... The Guardian has earned an international reputation - including in Israel - as the Western newspaper most savagely critical of Israel's actions. That may be true, but I quickly found that there were still very clear, and highly unusual limitations on what could be written about Israel.
"During my years at the Guardian, I had regularly travelled to the Middle East from where I dispatched a number of reports. Only when I offered articles about Israel itself - or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did I sense a reluctance, even a resistance, to publishing them. The standard of proof required to print anything critical of Israel, it became apparent to me, was far higher than with other countries. Particularly problematic for the Guardian - as with other news media - was anything that questioned Israel's claim to being a democracy or highlighted the contradictions between that claim and Israel's Jewish self-definition."
Google it and read the lot!
"Probably like many other journalists, at some point in my childhood I fell in love with the idea of the crusading, fearless reporter - unafraid of bullying figures of authority and always looking out for the little guy... Life, of course, has proved to be less simple. Who is the bully and who is the little guy? I, like more notable reporters who preceded me, would find that conundrum expressed most powerfully in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"In the mid 1990s, I arrived in Jerusalem for the first time - then as a tourist - with another potent Western myth at the front of my consciousness: that of Israel as 'a light unto the nations', the plucky underdog facing a menacing Arab world ranged against it. A series of later professional shocks as a freelance journalist reporting on Israel would shatter my assumptions about both Israel and courageous reporters.
"These disillusioning experiences came in the early stages of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising that began in late 2000. At the time I was writing for Britain's Guardian newspaper... The Guardian has earned an international reputation - including in Israel - as the Western newspaper most savagely critical of Israel's actions. That may be true, but I quickly found that there were still very clear, and highly unusual limitations on what could be written about Israel.
"During my years at the Guardian, I had regularly travelled to the Middle East from where I dispatched a number of reports. Only when I offered articles about Israel itself - or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did I sense a reluctance, even a resistance, to publishing them. The standard of proof required to print anything critical of Israel, it became apparent to me, was far higher than with other countries. Particularly problematic for the Guardian - as with other news media - was anything that questioned Israel's claim to being a democracy or highlighted the contradictions between that claim and Israel's Jewish self-definition."
Google it and read the lot!
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Dog-Whistling with a Vengeance
"The Prime Minister called on Islamic leaders to rise to the challenge of condemning terrorism more frequently and openly. 'I've often heard Western leaders describe Islam as a 'religion of peace'. I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often, and mean it,' he said." (Citizenship may be stripped away under tougher security laws, Mark Kenny & David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 24/2/15)
Monday, February 23, 2015
Menage a Trois
Mike's got the hots for Israel:
"Premier Mike Baird addressed the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies' luncheon club earlier this month... Baird, who has been in the top job since April last year, has pledged to lead a trade delegation to Israel if elected on March 28 - should he do so he will become the first NSW Premier to visit the Jewish State this century." (Premier Baird at the Board, The Australian Jewish News, 20/2/15)
Miranda's also got the hots for Israel:
"Miranda Devine... Australian columnist and writer, has a conservative stance on a range of social and political issues and was recently on a visit to Israel." (Quoted in an AJN ad listing speakers for the coming United Israel Appeal NSW Campaign 2015 (24/2-11/3)
And for Mike:
"NSW Premier Mike Baird is the political candidate from central casting. Tall, handsome, and popular, he also is a deft financial manager with a clear plan for the state... If Baird falls, so too does any hope for micro-economic reform and responsible fiscal management in Australia... While Baird is ahead in the polls, the 'Abbott factor' is proving toxic, according to candidates doorknocking in their electorates... But other candidates doorknocking in the Liberal heartland of the Hills district say all they hear is praise for Baird. 'People just love him. They say that Mike Baird is a nice bloke,' the people say... Middle-aged women swoon when he walks through a suburban shopping centre to buy a salad sandwich. 'He wears a suit so well,' they gush. A colleague describes him as 'the guy everyone hopes their sister would bring home.' A veteran news photographer says Baird has the 'it factor' - he's cool, like Bill Clinton without the sleaze'." (Why Mike makes us go weak at the knees, Miranda Devine, Sunday Telegraph, 23/2/15)
NB: Apparently, real men do eat salad sandwiches.
"Premier Mike Baird addressed the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies' luncheon club earlier this month... Baird, who has been in the top job since April last year, has pledged to lead a trade delegation to Israel if elected on March 28 - should he do so he will become the first NSW Premier to visit the Jewish State this century." (Premier Baird at the Board, The Australian Jewish News, 20/2/15)
Miranda's also got the hots for Israel:
"Miranda Devine... Australian columnist and writer, has a conservative stance on a range of social and political issues and was recently on a visit to Israel." (Quoted in an AJN ad listing speakers for the coming United Israel Appeal NSW Campaign 2015 (24/2-11/3)
And for Mike:
"NSW Premier Mike Baird is the political candidate from central casting. Tall, handsome, and popular, he also is a deft financial manager with a clear plan for the state... If Baird falls, so too does any hope for micro-economic reform and responsible fiscal management in Australia... While Baird is ahead in the polls, the 'Abbott factor' is proving toxic, according to candidates doorknocking in their electorates... But other candidates doorknocking in the Liberal heartland of the Hills district say all they hear is praise for Baird. 'People just love him. They say that Mike Baird is a nice bloke,' the people say... Middle-aged women swoon when he walks through a suburban shopping centre to buy a salad sandwich. 'He wears a suit so well,' they gush. A colleague describes him as 'the guy everyone hopes their sister would bring home.' A veteran news photographer says Baird has the 'it factor' - he's cool, like Bill Clinton without the sleaze'." (Why Mike makes us go weak at the knees, Miranda Devine, Sunday Telegraph, 23/2/15)
NB: Apparently, real men do eat salad sandwiches.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
The Potemkin Kitchen
Zionism is all about deception... and self-deception.
Palestine is Ersatz* Israel.
The Apartheid State is a Light Unto the Nations.
Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.
Freedom fighters are terrorists (and vice versa).
The Haram ash-Sharif is the Temple Mount.
David Grun, of Plonsk, Poland, is David Ben-Gurion.
Black is white.
Up is down... and so on.
Oh, and Benjamin Mileikowsky** is Binyamin (Fibi) Netanyahu.
Which brings me to Fibi's kitchen (s):
"In a preemptive strike before the release of the report [by the Israeli State Comptroller condemning the Netanyahus for 'excessive spending' at both the prime minister's official residence at 2 Balfour Street in Jerusalem and the couple's private beachfront villa in Caesarea] the Netanyahus had the Israeli interior designer Moshik Galamin over to film a walk-through of the official residence, to show the people the couple do not live in the lap of luxury but rather must endure tired carpets, dusty lamps and the kitchen from hell.
"A 15-minute episode was released via social media on Sunday by the decorator with full participation by the Netanyahus and their people. It is high camp. When Mr Galamin, dressed all in black, isn't gushing, he is holding his hand to his cheeks in mock shriek. Quelle horreur! Dingy drapes! As they tour the residence, Sara Netanyahu has to yank open stuck doors. She apologises for the dust and an arrangement of wilting flowers still on display 3 weeks after she received them from the visiting Japanese prime minister.
"The piece de resistance of the tour is the kitchen, which, depending on whether you are an average Israeli voter or an average Israeli interior decorator, is either a bit frumpy... or a dump. 'I am shocked that this is your kitchen!' Mr Galamin declares. He says it reminds him of a '1960s public health clinic' or 'a Romanian orphanage.' Quick-eyed Israeli reporters noticed right away that the kitchen presented in the video is not the Netanyahu's only kitchen. It is the staff kitchen, they said, the working galley where chefs whip up dinner for guests. There is a modern, unrevealed kitchen for the couple's use on the second floor." (Benjamin Netanyahu's $30,000 takeout bill is causing a scandal, William Booth, Washington Post/Sydney Morning Herald, 18/2/15)
[*See my posts Ersatz Israel 1 (12/7/12) & 2 (13/7/12); **See my 24/9/11 post Benzion, My Father.]
Palestine is Ersatz* Israel.
The Apartheid State is a Light Unto the Nations.
Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.
Freedom fighters are terrorists (and vice versa).
The Haram ash-Sharif is the Temple Mount.
David Grun, of Plonsk, Poland, is David Ben-Gurion.
Black is white.
Up is down... and so on.
Oh, and Benjamin Mileikowsky** is Binyamin (Fibi) Netanyahu.
Which brings me to Fibi's kitchen (s):
"In a preemptive strike before the release of the report [by the Israeli State Comptroller condemning the Netanyahus for 'excessive spending' at both the prime minister's official residence at 2 Balfour Street in Jerusalem and the couple's private beachfront villa in Caesarea] the Netanyahus had the Israeli interior designer Moshik Galamin over to film a walk-through of the official residence, to show the people the couple do not live in the lap of luxury but rather must endure tired carpets, dusty lamps and the kitchen from hell.
"A 15-minute episode was released via social media on Sunday by the decorator with full participation by the Netanyahus and their people. It is high camp. When Mr Galamin, dressed all in black, isn't gushing, he is holding his hand to his cheeks in mock shriek. Quelle horreur! Dingy drapes! As they tour the residence, Sara Netanyahu has to yank open stuck doors. She apologises for the dust and an arrangement of wilting flowers still on display 3 weeks after she received them from the visiting Japanese prime minister.
"The piece de resistance of the tour is the kitchen, which, depending on whether you are an average Israeli voter or an average Israeli interior decorator, is either a bit frumpy... or a dump. 'I am shocked that this is your kitchen!' Mr Galamin declares. He says it reminds him of a '1960s public health clinic' or 'a Romanian orphanage.' Quick-eyed Israeli reporters noticed right away that the kitchen presented in the video is not the Netanyahu's only kitchen. It is the staff kitchen, they said, the working galley where chefs whip up dinner for guests. There is a modern, unrevealed kitchen for the couple's use on the second floor." (Benjamin Netanyahu's $30,000 takeout bill is causing a scandal, William Booth, Washington Post/Sydney Morning Herald, 18/2/15)
[*See my posts Ersatz Israel 1 (12/7/12) & 2 (13/7/12); **See my 24/9/11 post Benzion, My Father.]
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Abbott Comes Out Swinging
OMFG:
"Tony Abbott suggested a unilateral invasion of Iraq, with 3500 Australian ground troops to confront the Islamic State terrorist group. Flanked by his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, in a meeting in Canberra on November 25, the prime minister said the move would help halt the surge of Islamic State in northern Iraq. After receiving no resistance from Ms Credlin or his other staff in the room, Mr Abbott then raised the idea with Australia's leading military planners. The military officials were stunned, telling Mr Abbott that sending 3500 Australian troops without any US or NATO cover would be disastrous for the Australians.
"They argued that even the US was not prepared to put ground troops into Iraq and it would make Australia the only Western country with troops on the ground. Asked this week about the suggestion by the PM of sending Australian ground troops to Iraq, a spokesman for Mr Abbott said: 'The PM has consistently said that the Australian government will continue to talk to the government of Iraq and to our coalition partners about what Australia could usefully do to make the world a safer place and to make Australia a safer country'... The Iraq idea was not the first time Mr Abbott had suggested a military intervention by Australia's armed forces. The Australian reported in August that in the week following the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine by Russian-backed militia, Mr Abbott suggested sending 1000 Australian soldiers to secure the site of the crash... Australia's leading military planners also argued against that proposal, telling Mr Abbott there were serious problems with the plan: Australian soldiers would not be able to speak either Ukrainian or Russian, and the Australian troops would have difficulty distinguishing between Ukrainians and Russian militia." (Abbott sought military advice on go-it-alone invasion of Iraq, John Lyons, The Australian, 21/2/15)
"Insiders say that, these days, Abbott sits for much of the day in his office in parliament House pondering national security, Islamic State and reading Winston Churchill." (In command & out of control, John Lyons, The Australian, 21/2/15)
And another thing...
"John Lyons has been appointed an associate editor of the paper. He has worked at senior levels in Australian journalism for 35 years... He has been Washington and Middle-East correspondent for The Australian and has recently returned after 6 years based in Jerusalem for the paper. Lyons has won many awards, including 3 Walkleys, and was the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the year in 1999." (Appointment, The Australian, 21/2/15)
Question: Has Lyons been punished for transgressing the party line?
See my 9/3/14 post John Lyons Slams Sheridan, AIJAC.
You might also like to revisit my 11/4/09 post The Ambassador Reflects, on the experience of former Fairfax Middle East correspondent Ed O'Loughlin.
"Tony Abbott suggested a unilateral invasion of Iraq, with 3500 Australian ground troops to confront the Islamic State terrorist group. Flanked by his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, in a meeting in Canberra on November 25, the prime minister said the move would help halt the surge of Islamic State in northern Iraq. After receiving no resistance from Ms Credlin or his other staff in the room, Mr Abbott then raised the idea with Australia's leading military planners. The military officials were stunned, telling Mr Abbott that sending 3500 Australian troops without any US or NATO cover would be disastrous for the Australians.
"They argued that even the US was not prepared to put ground troops into Iraq and it would make Australia the only Western country with troops on the ground. Asked this week about the suggestion by the PM of sending Australian ground troops to Iraq, a spokesman for Mr Abbott said: 'The PM has consistently said that the Australian government will continue to talk to the government of Iraq and to our coalition partners about what Australia could usefully do to make the world a safer place and to make Australia a safer country'... The Iraq idea was not the first time Mr Abbott had suggested a military intervention by Australia's armed forces. The Australian reported in August that in the week following the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine by Russian-backed militia, Mr Abbott suggested sending 1000 Australian soldiers to secure the site of the crash... Australia's leading military planners also argued against that proposal, telling Mr Abbott there were serious problems with the plan: Australian soldiers would not be able to speak either Ukrainian or Russian, and the Australian troops would have difficulty distinguishing between Ukrainians and Russian militia." (Abbott sought military advice on go-it-alone invasion of Iraq, John Lyons, The Australian, 21/2/15)
"Insiders say that, these days, Abbott sits for much of the day in his office in parliament House pondering national security, Islamic State and reading Winston Churchill." (In command & out of control, John Lyons, The Australian, 21/2/15)
And another thing...
"John Lyons has been appointed an associate editor of the paper. He has worked at senior levels in Australian journalism for 35 years... He has been Washington and Middle-East correspondent for The Australian and has recently returned after 6 years based in Jerusalem for the paper. Lyons has won many awards, including 3 Walkleys, and was the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the year in 1999." (Appointment, The Australian, 21/2/15)
Question: Has Lyons been punished for transgressing the party line?
See my 9/3/14 post John Lyons Slams Sheridan, AIJAC.
You might also like to revisit my 11/4/09 post The Ambassador Reflects, on the experience of former Fairfax Middle East correspondent Ed O'Loughlin.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Escaping Zionist Groupthink
Free at last!
"The treasurer of the United Kingdom Jewish Board of Deputies, the representative body of British Jews, has stepped down saying he 'could not contemplate another 3 years of not being able to speak freely,' the Jewish Chronicle reported.
"Laurence Brass, an asylum judge, had been tipped to run for board president in the May election after being twice elected as treasurer. But he told a plenary meeting of the executive on Sunday that 'I decided that to be true to my principles and beliefs was more important than seeking office.'
"Brass said he had been 'bursting to criticise the Israeli administration' for 6 years and took the board to task for preventing honorary officers from expressing personal opinions. 'I felt constrained not to have been able to speak out on subjects that are close to my heart, such as the treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories and the discrimination still being suffered by Arab citizens of Israel,' Brass said. 'There have been countless occasions over the last 6 years when I've been bursting to criticise the Israeli administration, but I've restrained myself. I want to be released from the chains of office to contribute to the wider debate on the Middle East, as well as on the critical political issues that I consider to be important here at home.'
"Saying that he had encountered 'very harsh and often quite abusive personal criticism' when speaking out, Brass called for his replacement to be free to speak out.
"Brass received a standing ovation after his speech, the Chronicle reported, but board president Vivian Wineman cautioned other executive members to maintain their silence. 'People aren't interested in our private opinions; they're interested in what the Board thinks and what the Jewish community thinks,' Wineman said. 'When we express ourselves, we always have to keep that in mind'." (UK Jewish leader steps down due to ban on criticising Israel, Haaretz, 17/2/15)
A number of rather obvious things may be deduced from the above:
1) Zionism mandates groupthink and conformity to the party line. It abhors dissent.
2) If Zionists abuse dissenters within their ranks, just imagine the kind of abuse they hurl at anti-Zionists. Why, they might even accuse them of anti-Semitism!
3) Bodies with titles such as 'Jewish Board of Deputies' are more about maintaining Zionist hegemony within Jewish communities than catering to their real interests.
See my related posts: Where's This All Going? (1/14/13); The Tel Aviv Declaration On Combating Criticism of Israel (17/5/12); Behind the Anti-Semitism Industry (30/4/13).
"The treasurer of the United Kingdom Jewish Board of Deputies, the representative body of British Jews, has stepped down saying he 'could not contemplate another 3 years of not being able to speak freely,' the Jewish Chronicle reported.
"Laurence Brass, an asylum judge, had been tipped to run for board president in the May election after being twice elected as treasurer. But he told a plenary meeting of the executive on Sunday that 'I decided that to be true to my principles and beliefs was more important than seeking office.'
"Brass said he had been 'bursting to criticise the Israeli administration' for 6 years and took the board to task for preventing honorary officers from expressing personal opinions. 'I felt constrained not to have been able to speak out on subjects that are close to my heart, such as the treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories and the discrimination still being suffered by Arab citizens of Israel,' Brass said. 'There have been countless occasions over the last 6 years when I've been bursting to criticise the Israeli administration, but I've restrained myself. I want to be released from the chains of office to contribute to the wider debate on the Middle East, as well as on the critical political issues that I consider to be important here at home.'
"Saying that he had encountered 'very harsh and often quite abusive personal criticism' when speaking out, Brass called for his replacement to be free to speak out.
"Brass received a standing ovation after his speech, the Chronicle reported, but board president Vivian Wineman cautioned other executive members to maintain their silence. 'People aren't interested in our private opinions; they're interested in what the Board thinks and what the Jewish community thinks,' Wineman said. 'When we express ourselves, we always have to keep that in mind'." (UK Jewish leader steps down due to ban on criticising Israel, Haaretz, 17/2/15)
A number of rather obvious things may be deduced from the above:
1) Zionism mandates groupthink and conformity to the party line. It abhors dissent.
2) If Zionists abuse dissenters within their ranks, just imagine the kind of abuse they hurl at anti-Zionists. Why, they might even accuse them of anti-Semitism!
3) Bodies with titles such as 'Jewish Board of Deputies' are more about maintaining Zionist hegemony within Jewish communities than catering to their real interests.
See my related posts: Where's This All Going? (1/14/13); The Tel Aviv Declaration On Combating Criticism of Israel (17/5/12); Behind the Anti-Semitism Industry (30/4/13).
Thursday, February 19, 2015
One Man's Terrorist...
Imagine you're an Australian army officer, on location as a war of resistance between an occupied people and a brutal occupying power rages around you. (I'm speaking here of the 1982-2000 war of resistance waged by the occupied Lebanese against the Israeli occupiers of their land.)
But here's the kicker:
You haven't the faintest as to what the hell is really going on around you. In fact, you probably think the occupying Israelis are the goodies, and you certainly think the resisting Lebanese are the baddies, or 'terrorists', as you and the Israelis routinely call them.
Just the right (captain's?) pick for a seat in federal parliament and a spot on its Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence & Security, right?
Meet Andrew Nikolic, MP (Bass, Tasmania).
Now check out the opening paragraphs of his opinion piece, which appeared in The Australian on February 16:
"The terrorist's answer was so matter-of-fact that its full meaning crept into my consciousness only gradually. It was September 1991 in South Lebanon and the captured terrorist leader responded calmly to my question about his team's mission. It was a mission they would never achieve after their small boat was seized by my United Nations colleagues. The boat was crammed with AK-47s, hand grenades, knives, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades.
"He said their mission was to land on the Israeli side of the border, near the beautiful town of Nahariya, and kill as many Jews as possible before they themselves were killed.
"When not working in South Lebanon as Team Leader of UN Mobile Team Zulu, I lived in Nahariya with my wife and two young daughters - a street away from the terrorists' planned landing point. I asked how his thee-man team would distinguish between Jews and overseas visitors. He confidently put that question in the hands of God.
"At the time I thought how lucky we were not to have such irrational, indiscriminate killers in Australia. Those days are gone." (Let's confront passports to terror)
What a pity young Andrew didn't get to discuss these matters with the Lebanese guy quoted below - but then his words would probably have gone way over Andrew's head:
"You look at it with a Western mentality. You regard it is barbaric and unjustified. We, on the other hand, see it as another means of war, but one which is also harmonious with our religion and beliefs. Take, for example, an Israeli warplane or, better still, the American and British air power in the Gulf War. They dropped tons of bombs on their targets. The goal of their mission and the outcome of their deeds was to kill and damage enemy positions just like us, except our enemy is Israel. The only difference is that they have at their disposal state-of-the-art and top-of-the-range means and weaponry to achieve their aims. We have the minimum basics, but that does not bother us because we know that if and when required we also have ourselves to sacrifice. They get medals and titles for their feats of bravery and victories. We, on the other hand, do not seek material rewards, but heavenly ones in the hereafter. But in truth there is no difference between their attacks and ours. Both of us have one thing in common - to annihilate the enemy. The rest is mere logistics and differences in techniques. Whether one attacks by planes or by car bombs the objective is the same. Who is to say that they are better or more civilised just because they use twentieth-century equipment? Who decides that it is more right or correct or even more acceptable to kill one's enemy by warplanes rather than by car bombs?" ('Hasan', quoted in Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance, Hala Jaber, 1997, pp 92-3)
For more on Andrew Nikolic, try Bernard Keane's post at crikey.com.au: Andrew Nikolic's Middle Eastern vision provides something for everyone. Here's how it begins: "Following Andrew Nikolic's logic on the Middle East is quite a challenge but it seems he never saw a Middle Eastern country he didn't want to attack." I don't know why Keane neglected to tack on the words, 'except Israel', though.
Want more on clueless Australian soldiers with 'experience' in the Middle East? Of course you do! See my posts Onward Christian Soldiers (9/8/10), featuring Brigadier Jim Wallace; Mike Kelly's Mission Impossible (19/1/13), featuring Clanking Colonel Mike Kelly; and Operation Get Goldstone (4/10/09), featuring Major General Jim Molan.
But here's the kicker:
You haven't the faintest as to what the hell is really going on around you. In fact, you probably think the occupying Israelis are the goodies, and you certainly think the resisting Lebanese are the baddies, or 'terrorists', as you and the Israelis routinely call them.
Just the right (captain's?) pick for a seat in federal parliament and a spot on its Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence & Security, right?
Meet Andrew Nikolic, MP (Bass, Tasmania).
Now check out the opening paragraphs of his opinion piece, which appeared in The Australian on February 16:
"The terrorist's answer was so matter-of-fact that its full meaning crept into my consciousness only gradually. It was September 1991 in South Lebanon and the captured terrorist leader responded calmly to my question about his team's mission. It was a mission they would never achieve after their small boat was seized by my United Nations colleagues. The boat was crammed with AK-47s, hand grenades, knives, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades.
"He said their mission was to land on the Israeli side of the border, near the beautiful town of Nahariya, and kill as many Jews as possible before they themselves were killed.
"When not working in South Lebanon as Team Leader of UN Mobile Team Zulu, I lived in Nahariya with my wife and two young daughters - a street away from the terrorists' planned landing point. I asked how his thee-man team would distinguish between Jews and overseas visitors. He confidently put that question in the hands of God.
"At the time I thought how lucky we were not to have such irrational, indiscriminate killers in Australia. Those days are gone." (Let's confront passports to terror)
What a pity young Andrew didn't get to discuss these matters with the Lebanese guy quoted below - but then his words would probably have gone way over Andrew's head:
"You look at it with a Western mentality. You regard it is barbaric and unjustified. We, on the other hand, see it as another means of war, but one which is also harmonious with our religion and beliefs. Take, for example, an Israeli warplane or, better still, the American and British air power in the Gulf War. They dropped tons of bombs on their targets. The goal of their mission and the outcome of their deeds was to kill and damage enemy positions just like us, except our enemy is Israel. The only difference is that they have at their disposal state-of-the-art and top-of-the-range means and weaponry to achieve their aims. We have the minimum basics, but that does not bother us because we know that if and when required we also have ourselves to sacrifice. They get medals and titles for their feats of bravery and victories. We, on the other hand, do not seek material rewards, but heavenly ones in the hereafter. But in truth there is no difference between their attacks and ours. Both of us have one thing in common - to annihilate the enemy. The rest is mere logistics and differences in techniques. Whether one attacks by planes or by car bombs the objective is the same. Who is to say that they are better or more civilised just because they use twentieth-century equipment? Who decides that it is more right or correct or even more acceptable to kill one's enemy by warplanes rather than by car bombs?" ('Hasan', quoted in Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance, Hala Jaber, 1997, pp 92-3)
For more on Andrew Nikolic, try Bernard Keane's post at crikey.com.au: Andrew Nikolic's Middle Eastern vision provides something for everyone. Here's how it begins: "Following Andrew Nikolic's logic on the Middle East is quite a challenge but it seems he never saw a Middle Eastern country he didn't want to attack." I don't know why Keane neglected to tack on the words, 'except Israel', though.
Want more on clueless Australian soldiers with 'experience' in the Middle East? Of course you do! See my posts Onward Christian Soldiers (9/8/10), featuring Brigadier Jim Wallace; Mike Kelly's Mission Impossible (19/1/13), featuring Clanking Colonel Mike Kelly; and Operation Get Goldstone (4/10/09), featuring Major General Jim Molan.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
The Casino Republic 2
By Uri Avnery
"Money plays an ever-increasing role in politics. Election propaganda is made on television, which is very expensive. Both in Israel and the US, legal and illegal funds pour into the campaign, directly and indirectly. Corruption is abetted or tolerated by the courts. The very rich (known euphemistically in America as the 'wealthy') exercise undue influence.
"In the last US presidential elections, Adelson poured rivers of dollars into the contest. He supported Newt Gingrich, and then Mitt Romney, with huge sums of money. In vain. Perhaps Americans don't like to be ruled by captains of casinos.
"For the next US presidential elections, Adelson has started early. He has summoned to his Las Vegas casino HQ all leading Republican candidates, to grill them on their allegiance to him - and to Netanyahu. Nobody dared to refuse the summons. Would a Roman senator refuse the summons of Caesar?
"In Israel, such rituals are superfluous. The Adelsons... know who their man is.
"The Israel Hayom newspaper is, of course, a big propaganda machine, totally devoted to the re-election of Netanyahu. All quite legal. In a democracy, who can tell a newspaper whom to support? We are still a democracy, for God's sake!
"It seems strange for a country to allow a foreigner who never lived in the country to have such enormous power over its future, indeed, over its very existence.
"That's where Zionism comes in. According to the Zionist creed, Israel is the state of the Jews, all the Jews. Every Jew in the world belongs to Israel, even if temporarily residing somewhere else. A few days ago, Netanyahu publicly claimed to represent not just the State of Israel but also the entire 'Jewish People'. No need to ask them.
"Accordingly, Adelson is not really a foreigner. He is one of us. True, he cannot vote in Israel, though his wife probably can. But many people, including himself, believe that he, being a Jew, has a perfect right to interfere in our affairs and dominate our lives.
"For example, the appointment of our ambassador in the US. Ron Dermer is an American, born in Miami, who was active in Republican politics. To appoint an American functionary of the Republican Party as ambassador of Israel to a Democratic administration may sound strange. Not so strange if Netanyahu acted under the orders of Sheldon Adelson.
"It was Adelson who prepared the witches' brew that is now endangering Israel's lifeline to Washington. His stooge, Dermer, induced the Republicans in Congress - all of them dependent on Adelson's largesse or hoping to be so - to invite Netanyahu to give an anti-Obama speech before both Houses. "While the intrigue was in preparation, Dermer met with John Kerry but did not tell him of Netanyahu's coming. Neither did Netanyahu inform President Obama, who, in a fury, announced that he would not meet with the Prime Minister.
"From the point of view of Israel's vital interests, it is sheer madness to provoke the President of the United States of America, who controls America's flow of arms to Israel and the American veto power in the UN. But from the point of view of Adelson, who wants to elect a Republican president in 2016, it makes sense. He has already threatened to invest unlimited sums of money to prevent the reelection of any Senator or representative who is absent from Netanyahu's speech.
"We are nearing open warfare between the Government of Israel and the President of the United States.
"Is someone playing roulette with our future?" (zope.gush-shalom.org, 14/2/15)
"Money plays an ever-increasing role in politics. Election propaganda is made on television, which is very expensive. Both in Israel and the US, legal and illegal funds pour into the campaign, directly and indirectly. Corruption is abetted or tolerated by the courts. The very rich (known euphemistically in America as the 'wealthy') exercise undue influence.
"In the last US presidential elections, Adelson poured rivers of dollars into the contest. He supported Newt Gingrich, and then Mitt Romney, with huge sums of money. In vain. Perhaps Americans don't like to be ruled by captains of casinos.
"For the next US presidential elections, Adelson has started early. He has summoned to his Las Vegas casino HQ all leading Republican candidates, to grill them on their allegiance to him - and to Netanyahu. Nobody dared to refuse the summons. Would a Roman senator refuse the summons of Caesar?
"In Israel, such rituals are superfluous. The Adelsons... know who their man is.
"The Israel Hayom newspaper is, of course, a big propaganda machine, totally devoted to the re-election of Netanyahu. All quite legal. In a democracy, who can tell a newspaper whom to support? We are still a democracy, for God's sake!
"It seems strange for a country to allow a foreigner who never lived in the country to have such enormous power over its future, indeed, over its very existence.
"That's where Zionism comes in. According to the Zionist creed, Israel is the state of the Jews, all the Jews. Every Jew in the world belongs to Israel, even if temporarily residing somewhere else. A few days ago, Netanyahu publicly claimed to represent not just the State of Israel but also the entire 'Jewish People'. No need to ask them.
"Accordingly, Adelson is not really a foreigner. He is one of us. True, he cannot vote in Israel, though his wife probably can. But many people, including himself, believe that he, being a Jew, has a perfect right to interfere in our affairs and dominate our lives.
"For example, the appointment of our ambassador in the US. Ron Dermer is an American, born in Miami, who was active in Republican politics. To appoint an American functionary of the Republican Party as ambassador of Israel to a Democratic administration may sound strange. Not so strange if Netanyahu acted under the orders of Sheldon Adelson.
"It was Adelson who prepared the witches' brew that is now endangering Israel's lifeline to Washington. His stooge, Dermer, induced the Republicans in Congress - all of them dependent on Adelson's largesse or hoping to be so - to invite Netanyahu to give an anti-Obama speech before both Houses. "While the intrigue was in preparation, Dermer met with John Kerry but did not tell him of Netanyahu's coming. Neither did Netanyahu inform President Obama, who, in a fury, announced that he would not meet with the Prime Minister.
"From the point of view of Israel's vital interests, it is sheer madness to provoke the President of the United States of America, who controls America's flow of arms to Israel and the American veto power in the UN. But from the point of view of Adelson, who wants to elect a Republican president in 2016, it makes sense. He has already threatened to invest unlimited sums of money to prevent the reelection of any Senator or representative who is absent from Netanyahu's speech.
"We are nearing open warfare between the Government of Israel and the President of the United States.
"Is someone playing roulette with our future?" (zope.gush-shalom.org, 14/2/15)
Monday, February 16, 2015
The Casino Republic 1
by Uri Avnery
"Who is the ruler of Israel?
"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, of course.
"WRONG.
"The real ruler of Israel is one Sheldon Adelson, 81, American Jew, casino king, who was rated as the world's tenth richest person, worth 37.2 billion dollars at the latest count. But who is counting?
"Besides his casinos in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Macao and Singapore, he owns the US Republican Party and, lately, both Houses of the US Congress.
"He also owns Binyamin Netanyahu. Adelson's connection with Israel is personal. On a blind date, he fell in love with an Israeli woman... Both Adelsons are fanatical supporters of Israel. Not just any Israel, but a rightist, supremacist, arrogant, violent, expansionist, annexationist, non-compromising, colonialist Israel.
"In 'Bibi' Netanyahu they found their man. Through Netanyahu they hope to rule Israel as their private fief.
"To ensure this, they did an extraordinary thing: they founded an Israeli newspaper, solely devoted to the furthering of the interests of Binyamin Netanyahu. Not of the Likud, not of a specific policy, but of Netanyahu personally.
"Years ago I invented a Hebrew word for papers which are distributed for nothing... But I did not dream of a monster like Israel Hayom (Israel Today) - a paper with unlimited funds, distributed every day for nothing in the streets and malls all over the country by hundreds, perhaps thousands of paid young persons.
"Israelis love getting something for nothing. Israel Hayom is now the daily paper with the widest distribution in Israel. It drains readers and advertising revenue from its only competitor - Yedioth Ahranoth (Latest News), which held this title until then. Yedioth reacted furiously. It became a ferocious enemy of Netanyahu. Yossi Werter, a commentator of the center-left Haaretz (which has a far lower circulation) even believes that the present election boils down to a contest between the two papers.
"That is vastly exaggerated. Judged by political and social content, there is little to differentiate between the two. Both are super-patriotic, war-mongering and rightist. That is the journalistic recipe for attracting the masses anywhere in the world...
"Adelson is unique. In Israel, betting is forbidden by law. We have no casinos... In our youth we were taught that casino moguls are bad people, almost like arms merchants... Israelis read Israel Hayom... but they don't necessarily like the man and his methods. So some members of the Knesset were encouraged to enter a bill forbidding gratis newspapers altogether.
"Netanyahu and the Likud party did everything to obstruct this bill. But in the preliminary vote (necessary for private members' bills) they were beaten in an amazing way. Even members of Netanyahu's governing coalition voted for it... The vote was 43 to 23. Almost half the Likud members absented themselves. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his party voted for the bill. So did ministers Ya'ir Lapid and Tzipi Livni... Netanyahu was furious. A few days after the vote, he dismissed Lapid and Livni from the cabinet, causing the government coalition to break up and the Knesset to disperse.
"Why did Netanyahu do such a foolish thing less than half way through his (third) term of office? There can only be one logical explanation: he was ordered to do so by Adelson, in order to prevent the adoption of the law.
"If so, Adelson is now our chief lawmaker. Perhaps he is also our chief government-maker." (zope.gush-shalom.org, 14/2/15)
To be continued...
"Who is the ruler of Israel?
"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, of course.
"WRONG.
"The real ruler of Israel is one Sheldon Adelson, 81, American Jew, casino king, who was rated as the world's tenth richest person, worth 37.2 billion dollars at the latest count. But who is counting?
"Besides his casinos in Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, Macao and Singapore, he owns the US Republican Party and, lately, both Houses of the US Congress.
"He also owns Binyamin Netanyahu. Adelson's connection with Israel is personal. On a blind date, he fell in love with an Israeli woman... Both Adelsons are fanatical supporters of Israel. Not just any Israel, but a rightist, supremacist, arrogant, violent, expansionist, annexationist, non-compromising, colonialist Israel.
"In 'Bibi' Netanyahu they found their man. Through Netanyahu they hope to rule Israel as their private fief.
"To ensure this, they did an extraordinary thing: they founded an Israeli newspaper, solely devoted to the furthering of the interests of Binyamin Netanyahu. Not of the Likud, not of a specific policy, but of Netanyahu personally.
"Years ago I invented a Hebrew word for papers which are distributed for nothing... But I did not dream of a monster like Israel Hayom (Israel Today) - a paper with unlimited funds, distributed every day for nothing in the streets and malls all over the country by hundreds, perhaps thousands of paid young persons.
"Israelis love getting something for nothing. Israel Hayom is now the daily paper with the widest distribution in Israel. It drains readers and advertising revenue from its only competitor - Yedioth Ahranoth (Latest News), which held this title until then. Yedioth reacted furiously. It became a ferocious enemy of Netanyahu. Yossi Werter, a commentator of the center-left Haaretz (which has a far lower circulation) even believes that the present election boils down to a contest between the two papers.
"That is vastly exaggerated. Judged by political and social content, there is little to differentiate between the two. Both are super-patriotic, war-mongering and rightist. That is the journalistic recipe for attracting the masses anywhere in the world...
"Adelson is unique. In Israel, betting is forbidden by law. We have no casinos... In our youth we were taught that casino moguls are bad people, almost like arms merchants... Israelis read Israel Hayom... but they don't necessarily like the man and his methods. So some members of the Knesset were encouraged to enter a bill forbidding gratis newspapers altogether.
"Netanyahu and the Likud party did everything to obstruct this bill. But in the preliminary vote (necessary for private members' bills) they were beaten in an amazing way. Even members of Netanyahu's governing coalition voted for it... The vote was 43 to 23. Almost half the Likud members absented themselves. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his party voted for the bill. So did ministers Ya'ir Lapid and Tzipi Livni... Netanyahu was furious. A few days after the vote, he dismissed Lapid and Livni from the cabinet, causing the government coalition to break up and the Knesset to disperse.
"Why did Netanyahu do such a foolish thing less than half way through his (third) term of office? There can only be one logical explanation: he was ordered to do so by Adelson, in order to prevent the adoption of the law.
"If so, Adelson is now our chief lawmaker. Perhaps he is also our chief government-maker." (zope.gush-shalom.org, 14/2/15)
To be continued...
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Tanya Plibersek: Remorseful & Redeemed
Deputy opposition leader and foreign affairs shadow, Tanya (Once Was Warrior) Plibersek, speaking on the subject of the impending executions in Indonesia of two convicted Australian drug smugglers, has gone personal:
"During a motion in Parliament calling for a stay of execution, Ms Plibersek used the example of the jailing of her husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter, on a drugs charge to argue for mercy. 'I perhaps have a particular view of remorse and redemption,' she told the lower house. Ms Plibersek's husband is now a senior NSW public servant. He had been a drug dealer in early 1980s, a fact Ms Plibersek acknowledges but rarely speaks about." (Bali two bound for execution island as MPs plead for mercy, Topsfield, Ireland & Bourke, Sydney Morning Herald, 13/2/15)
Whilst I happen to agree with her in this matter, I should point out that her experience of remorse and redemption is not limited to the example of her husband.
As a humble backbencher, Plibersek had once fiercely criticised Israel, declaring it to be, in 2002, a rogue state led by a war criminal (Ariel Sharon). On becoming Bill Shorten's sidekick, however, she publicly expressed remorse for her former honesty by claiming that she had spoken injudiciously at the time.
But more than that, she has gone on to redeem herself by declaring Sharon to be a courageous peace maker and going on a pilgrimage to Israel (January, 2014).
This means that, when it comes to Ms Plibersek, those in the know cannot but "have a particular view of remorse and redemption."
"During a motion in Parliament calling for a stay of execution, Ms Plibersek used the example of the jailing of her husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter, on a drugs charge to argue for mercy. 'I perhaps have a particular view of remorse and redemption,' she told the lower house. Ms Plibersek's husband is now a senior NSW public servant. He had been a drug dealer in early 1980s, a fact Ms Plibersek acknowledges but rarely speaks about." (Bali two bound for execution island as MPs plead for mercy, Topsfield, Ireland & Bourke, Sydney Morning Herald, 13/2/15)
Whilst I happen to agree with her in this matter, I should point out that her experience of remorse and redemption is not limited to the example of her husband.
As a humble backbencher, Plibersek had once fiercely criticised Israel, declaring it to be, in 2002, a rogue state led by a war criminal (Ariel Sharon). On becoming Bill Shorten's sidekick, however, she publicly expressed remorse for her former honesty by claiming that she had spoken injudiciously at the time.
But more than that, she has gone on to redeem herself by declaring Sharon to be a courageous peace maker and going on a pilgrimage to Israel (January, 2014).
This means that, when it comes to Ms Plibersek, those in the know cannot but "have a particular view of remorse and redemption."
Friday, February 13, 2015
God Help Australia 1
"A cop edged towards the horde of blood-soaked figures with his gun drawn. It was the middle of the night in Granville, in Sydney's western suburbs, and a resident had called triple-O to report a 'mass stabbing' outside her home. 'We're just shooting a zombie film,' the director yelled at the 6 police carloads of armed officers. It has been a crazy 4 years for Sydney brothers Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner, who have spent every weekend and minute of their spare time creating the self-funded Wyrmwood, an independent zombie film set in a post-apocalyptic Australia. 'We had letterboxed the suburb but it only takes one person to come out of their house and see a corpse eating someone's intestines,' director Kiah Roache-Turner said." (Zombie film one horror event cops were relieved to respond to, Gina Rushton, The Australian, 13/2/15)
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Indonesian Rambamming 2
Another group of Indonesians has just been rambammed*:
"A visit to Israel by a delegation of Indonesian scholars last month has 'the potential to change the world', says the local communal leader who led it." ('World changers' visit Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 6/2/15)
No names, no pack drill.
Says Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) director of international affairs Jeremy Jones:
"This group is a group of people who are currently playing roles in main organisations and who will continue to do so."
That is, well-placed to sell Israel to Indonesians.
"The trip was co-organised with the Elijah Interfaith Institute in Israel."
To get the measure of the Elijah Interfaith Institute, here's an extract from a letter by its director, Rabbi Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein in response to Archbishop Desmond Tutu's call for the boycotting of Israeli apartheid:
"If, as I believe is the case, Israel is the only one to benefit from your religiously inspired vision, manifesting through an economic-political instrument of boycott and divestment, there is something deeply disturbing about being singled out in this way. "
Notice how the skilled Zionist propagandist invites the reader to infer anti-Semitism - something deeply disturbing - rather than crudely allege it? Now for the whataboutery:
"Couldn't the plight of Syrians who are being slaughtered by their own regime, and who can suffer on a given day the same number of casualties that Gaza has seen in the space of a month, be alleviated through BDS? What about tackling the Chinese occupation of Tibet... with the same tools you propose for Israel? This double standard seriously undermines the credibility of your global religious voice." (Alon Gottstein responds to Archbishop Tutu about Palestine & Gaza, tikkun.org, 9/9/14)
As I've mentioned before, the real agenda behind any interfaith initiative in which Zionist lobbyists (who conflate faith with political ideology, Judaism with Zionism) are involved is not to promote understanding of Jews and Judaism as such, but to promote Israel by muting or blunting criticism of it.
"The itinerary saw the group travel all over Israel and meet with rabbis, imams, peace negotiator Tal Becker, a Muslim judge and the governor of Bethlehem. They toured Sderot and the Erez crossing, where they spoke to ordinary Gazans coming in and out of the strip."
Prison? What prison?
"Being a religious group, the delegation prayed in locations including at Yad Vashem - 'they saw it as a spiritual place', Jones said - overlooking the Sea of Galilee, at the Al -Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and even in a rabbis house... At the Ziv Hospital in Tzfat, the group conversed in Arabic with Syrians being treated for injuries sustained in Syria's civil war..."
For the low-down on Ziv, see my 12/12/14 post A Side of Israel the World Too Rarely Acknowledges.
[*See my 6/5/10 post Indonesian Rambamming.]
"A visit to Israel by a delegation of Indonesian scholars last month has 'the potential to change the world', says the local communal leader who led it." ('World changers' visit Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 6/2/15)
No names, no pack drill.
Says Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) director of international affairs Jeremy Jones:
"This group is a group of people who are currently playing roles in main organisations and who will continue to do so."
That is, well-placed to sell Israel to Indonesians.
"The trip was co-organised with the Elijah Interfaith Institute in Israel."
To get the measure of the Elijah Interfaith Institute, here's an extract from a letter by its director, Rabbi Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein in response to Archbishop Desmond Tutu's call for the boycotting of Israeli apartheid:
"If, as I believe is the case, Israel is the only one to benefit from your religiously inspired vision, manifesting through an economic-political instrument of boycott and divestment, there is something deeply disturbing about being singled out in this way. "
Notice how the skilled Zionist propagandist invites the reader to infer anti-Semitism - something deeply disturbing - rather than crudely allege it? Now for the whataboutery:
"Couldn't the plight of Syrians who are being slaughtered by their own regime, and who can suffer on a given day the same number of casualties that Gaza has seen in the space of a month, be alleviated through BDS? What about tackling the Chinese occupation of Tibet... with the same tools you propose for Israel? This double standard seriously undermines the credibility of your global religious voice." (Alon Gottstein responds to Archbishop Tutu about Palestine & Gaza, tikkun.org, 9/9/14)
As I've mentioned before, the real agenda behind any interfaith initiative in which Zionist lobbyists (who conflate faith with political ideology, Judaism with Zionism) are involved is not to promote understanding of Jews and Judaism as such, but to promote Israel by muting or blunting criticism of it.
"The itinerary saw the group travel all over Israel and meet with rabbis, imams, peace negotiator Tal Becker, a Muslim judge and the governor of Bethlehem. They toured Sderot and the Erez crossing, where they spoke to ordinary Gazans coming in and out of the strip."
Prison? What prison?
"Being a religious group, the delegation prayed in locations including at Yad Vashem - 'they saw it as a spiritual place', Jones said - overlooking the Sea of Galilee, at the Al -Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and even in a rabbis house... At the Ziv Hospital in Tzfat, the group conversed in Arabic with Syrians being treated for injuries sustained in Syria's civil war..."
For the low-down on Ziv, see my 12/12/14 post A Side of Israel the World Too Rarely Acknowledges.
[*See my 6/5/10 post Indonesian Rambamming.]
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Australia's Benjamin Netanyahu
Tony Abbott is Australia's Benjamin Netanyahu, OK?
After all, wasn't it on some enchanted evening in Davos last year that Tony felt Bibi calling across a crowded room, flew to his side, made him his own*, and invited him down under for a cuppa?
But hey, don't take my word for it, just listen to the good Zionist burghers of Wentworth:
"Count your blessings, Malcolm. Had the leadership spill succeeded and Turnbull declared his hand, most Wentworth Liberal voters would have turned against him at the next federal election and made him the second Liberal prime minister in a decade to have lost his seat." Letter to yesterday's Australian by George Fishman, Vaucluse, NSW
[*With apologies to South Pacific.]
After all, wasn't it on some enchanted evening in Davos last year that Tony felt Bibi calling across a crowded room, flew to his side, made him his own*, and invited him down under for a cuppa?
But hey, don't take my word for it, just listen to the good Zionist burghers of Wentworth:
"Count your blessings, Malcolm. Had the leadership spill succeeded and Turnbull declared his hand, most Wentworth Liberal voters would have turned against him at the next federal election and made him the second Liberal prime minister in a decade to have lost his seat." Letter to yesterday's Australian by George Fishman, Vaucluse, NSW
[*With apologies to South Pacific.]
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Daesh's Great Grandaddies
"Yet could the Wahhabis not be restrained. Whether with or without provocation - their apologists find reasons for most of their excesses - they raided at the turn of of the [19th] century right up to the Euphrates. There they pillaged and massacred, looted and sacked. In such abandon they took peculiar delight, for, although they contemned the infidel Sunnis, they contemned the infidel Shiahs much more. And Iraq was largely a Shiah country.
"In April, 1801, the Holy City of Karbala was sacked by the fearless Puritans, now under the command of Sa'ud, the son of Abdul Aziz [ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'ud]. The tomb of Husain (on whose beloved name the Shiahs cry every Month of Muhurrum) was desecrated, and all the city's inhabitants were put to the death. It was such frightfulness as had not been seen in Iraq since the Mongols of Hulagu, who destroyed for ever the vast irrigation systems of that once fertile land.
"Gorged with booty and self-satisfaction, Sa'ud now retired, laying waste the territory between Karbala and Basra. An iconoclast damns all the consequences.
"Dar'iya [the Sa'udi capital] went wild with delight at the triumph. Yet the Islamic world was in tears. Persia in particular, whose Faithful in Iraq had suffered most, showed unappeasable resentment, but the shock went through the world of Islam from one end to the other. Yet more terrible alarms were to come.
"The futility of making treaties with these Wahhabis of the first Empire was again proved when, without warning, they occupied Hali, a port on the Red Sea under the jurisdiction of [the Grand Sharif of Mecca] Ghalib. Remonstrance was useless. The Wahhabis obviously meant war. They offered such terms to the Hijaz as militaristic Empires suggest to small but proud States that are in their way.
"Sa'ud, in fact, the commander whose name was already execrated throughout the Shiah world, anticipated the declaration of war. He captured the summer residence of the Meccans, the pleasant town of Taif, and thence he sent his soldiers raiding in all directions. The situation for the Sharif was untenable; he had no force capable of withstanding these Puritan zealots who equated the gaining of loot with the will of Allah.
"As was to happen before a similar threat a hundred years later, the ruler of Mecca retired on Jidda. In April, 1803, Sa'ud made a bloodless entry into Mecca itself.
"Then took place what might have been anticipated: the purgation of the Holy City. Mecca, in the eyes of Abdul Wahhab, was the font of iniquitous practices. It was in Mecca that the hajis had seen the holy religion defiled and debased, and from Mecca, therefore, that erroneous doctrines had been propagated throughout the world of Islam. Now should its cleansing be done.
"The Ironsides in a 'Romish' Church were not more thorough than were the Wahhabis now. The worship of Allah alone should be allowed among the Faithful, and anything savouring of adoration of any mortal being, whether Abraham or Muhammad himself, should be disrupted. Tombs were destroyed. The coverings of the Kaaba were torn off. Traffic in holy things was forbidden. Places of visitation were blotted out. Of all the local ceremonies two only were allowed to endure: the Stoning of the Devil at Mina and the Kissing of the Black Stone in the Kaaba. Presumably this was because God alone was honoured by such rites.
"Intoxicated with the ease of their success, the Wahhabis marched on from Mecca to the Red Sea. At Jidda, however, the history of 1925 was to be anticipated: it put up a fierce resistance. And, just as Medina was the last town in Turkish hands to surrender during the Great War, so now the second holiest city in Islam foiled the Wahhabis' attempts to capture it.
"All this was in the year 1803. Towards the end of it, on November 4th, an event occurred which might have taught the Wahhabis a lesson on how the outside Islamic world was reacting to their regime of terror. For an that day, just as Abdul Aziz was acting as Imam to a mass of worshippers for the afternoon prayer, a man rushed forward, to plunge a dagger in the Imam's heart.
"The assassin was a Shiah, a Persian. Two years previously he had seen the Wahhabis slaughter his children at Karbala. For reprisal he had to wait long and to plan carefully. At last, after pretending to be a Wahhabi, he created his opportunity. Abdul Aziz was dead. The Shiahs were revenged.
"This fanatically consummate exponent of the doctrine of taqiya was burned alive by the indignant Wahhabis." (Ibn Sa'ud: The Puritan King of Arabia, Kenneth Williams, 1933, pp 36-39)
"In April, 1801, the Holy City of Karbala was sacked by the fearless Puritans, now under the command of Sa'ud, the son of Abdul Aziz [ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'ud]. The tomb of Husain (on whose beloved name the Shiahs cry every Month of Muhurrum) was desecrated, and all the city's inhabitants were put to the death. It was such frightfulness as had not been seen in Iraq since the Mongols of Hulagu, who destroyed for ever the vast irrigation systems of that once fertile land.
"Gorged with booty and self-satisfaction, Sa'ud now retired, laying waste the territory between Karbala and Basra. An iconoclast damns all the consequences.
"Dar'iya [the Sa'udi capital] went wild with delight at the triumph. Yet the Islamic world was in tears. Persia in particular, whose Faithful in Iraq had suffered most, showed unappeasable resentment, but the shock went through the world of Islam from one end to the other. Yet more terrible alarms were to come.
"The futility of making treaties with these Wahhabis of the first Empire was again proved when, without warning, they occupied Hali, a port on the Red Sea under the jurisdiction of [the Grand Sharif of Mecca] Ghalib. Remonstrance was useless. The Wahhabis obviously meant war. They offered such terms to the Hijaz as militaristic Empires suggest to small but proud States that are in their way.
"Sa'ud, in fact, the commander whose name was already execrated throughout the Shiah world, anticipated the declaration of war. He captured the summer residence of the Meccans, the pleasant town of Taif, and thence he sent his soldiers raiding in all directions. The situation for the Sharif was untenable; he had no force capable of withstanding these Puritan zealots who equated the gaining of loot with the will of Allah.
"As was to happen before a similar threat a hundred years later, the ruler of Mecca retired on Jidda. In April, 1803, Sa'ud made a bloodless entry into Mecca itself.
"Then took place what might have been anticipated: the purgation of the Holy City. Mecca, in the eyes of Abdul Wahhab, was the font of iniquitous practices. It was in Mecca that the hajis had seen the holy religion defiled and debased, and from Mecca, therefore, that erroneous doctrines had been propagated throughout the world of Islam. Now should its cleansing be done.
"The Ironsides in a 'Romish' Church were not more thorough than were the Wahhabis now. The worship of Allah alone should be allowed among the Faithful, and anything savouring of adoration of any mortal being, whether Abraham or Muhammad himself, should be disrupted. Tombs were destroyed. The coverings of the Kaaba were torn off. Traffic in holy things was forbidden. Places of visitation were blotted out. Of all the local ceremonies two only were allowed to endure: the Stoning of the Devil at Mina and the Kissing of the Black Stone in the Kaaba. Presumably this was because God alone was honoured by such rites.
"Intoxicated with the ease of their success, the Wahhabis marched on from Mecca to the Red Sea. At Jidda, however, the history of 1925 was to be anticipated: it put up a fierce resistance. And, just as Medina was the last town in Turkish hands to surrender during the Great War, so now the second holiest city in Islam foiled the Wahhabis' attempts to capture it.
"All this was in the year 1803. Towards the end of it, on November 4th, an event occurred which might have taught the Wahhabis a lesson on how the outside Islamic world was reacting to their regime of terror. For an that day, just as Abdul Aziz was acting as Imam to a mass of worshippers for the afternoon prayer, a man rushed forward, to plunge a dagger in the Imam's heart.
"The assassin was a Shiah, a Persian. Two years previously he had seen the Wahhabis slaughter his children at Karbala. For reprisal he had to wait long and to plan carefully. At last, after pretending to be a Wahhabi, he created his opportunity. Abdul Aziz was dead. The Shiahs were revenged.
"This fanatically consummate exponent of the doctrine of taqiya was burned alive by the indignant Wahhabis." (Ibn Sa'ud: The Puritan King of Arabia, Kenneth Williams, 1933, pp 36-39)
Monday, February 9, 2015
Me, Myself & I in Raqqa & Melbourne
Raqqa:
"In Islamic State's de facto capital, Raqqa, a Syrian city on the banks of the Euphrates, few Syrians hold positions of power. Running the show, residents say, are the thousands of foreigners who have converged there to establish an Islamic utopia they believe will soon conquer the planet. 'What we have is a foreign occupation,' said Sarmad al-Jilane, a former electronics student from Raqqa who now runs a website - Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently - from neighbouring Turkey documenting Islamic State's abuses in his home town. 'Those who are paid by them, like them, of course. But most others hate them because of all these killings and beheadings.' About 20,000 foreign fighters have joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq over the past two years, Western intelligence officials say. While virtually all nationalities are represented, countries such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Russia and France have produced some of the largest contingents. As this influx continues, mostly through Syria's long and porous border with Turkey, the rise of the foreign fighters is changing the face of the Syrian war. In the early days of the conflict, many combatants came to Syria to defend Sunni Muslims against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Now, their main motivation often appears to be creating a new Islamic society - an experiment in which the fate of Syria and Syrians is secondary at best." (Foreign fighters run caliphate's capital, Yaroslav Trofimov, The Wall Street Journal/The Australian, 6/2/14)
Melbourne:
"Musa [Cerantonio] seems to know everyone in Footscray. He moseys down the street with his hand in his pocket, shooting 'Salaam alaikums' and small talk to the perfume salesman in the mall and the old men in a Sudanese restaurant. He's like the Fonz. We chew on Sudanese meat dishes in the restaurant. He's ranting about a woman, a left-wing activist from his uni days. Musa had enrolled at Victoria University in an arts course, majoring in media and history, and on Orientation Day he found she had set up a stall next to his Islamic Society table. 'She came over and dropped this pile of flyers for an event they were having, something pro-Palestine,' he recalls. 'So I said to her, 'Please take them off. I don't want them here'.' This is the first time I've seen fire in his eyes... 'She was giving me this confused look, like, 'Why not? I mean, it's for Palestine.' I said, 'Look, you're not a Muslim, you don't agree with Islam. As for us, that's what we want for Palestine. We want Sharia, we want Islamic law. You don't want that, so let's admit we don't want the same thing.' She started to get a little bit offended. She's like, 'Oh, but, you know, we have to work together,' and I'm like, 'No, we don't have to work together.'
"Musa wipes yogurt off his fingers, still fiery, as he moves from Palestine to Syria. 'We believe that Jesus will return as the Messiah. We do agree with the Christians that it will be Jesus Christ, except when he comes back, he's actually going to be fighting against them and show them that their religion has been corrupted. We believe that when he does return, he would return to Syria.' I think how at odds Musa is with everyone, from Tony Abbott to the regular hippies in the Q&A audiences who insist this sort of thing isn't about religion.
"He prefers Melbourne to Sydney. 'You don't have any Lebanese over here. Personally, I think that's not entirely a bad thing,' he chuckles darkly. 'They're always up to something.' When he says this, with his white skin and Aussie accent, he sounds like a shockjock talkback caller. His position is not as incongruous as it first seems. Musa, like other Islamic State supporters, believes solely in Islam the religion. Anything cultural, like things associated with being Arab, is seen as a distraction or even blasphemous. When he sees the Palestinian flag, he tells me, he wants to spit on it. The Koran demands one Islamic super-state, not nation states, he says... Today [Musa] was angrier at left-wingers than neo-cons. He prefers George W. Bush to Barack Obama, and Zionists to hippies." (Free radical, John Safran, Good Weekend, 17/1/15)
"In Islamic State's de facto capital, Raqqa, a Syrian city on the banks of the Euphrates, few Syrians hold positions of power. Running the show, residents say, are the thousands of foreigners who have converged there to establish an Islamic utopia they believe will soon conquer the planet. 'What we have is a foreign occupation,' said Sarmad al-Jilane, a former electronics student from Raqqa who now runs a website - Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently - from neighbouring Turkey documenting Islamic State's abuses in his home town. 'Those who are paid by them, like them, of course. But most others hate them because of all these killings and beheadings.' About 20,000 foreign fighters have joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq over the past two years, Western intelligence officials say. While virtually all nationalities are represented, countries such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Russia and France have produced some of the largest contingents. As this influx continues, mostly through Syria's long and porous border with Turkey, the rise of the foreign fighters is changing the face of the Syrian war. In the early days of the conflict, many combatants came to Syria to defend Sunni Muslims against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Now, their main motivation often appears to be creating a new Islamic society - an experiment in which the fate of Syria and Syrians is secondary at best." (Foreign fighters run caliphate's capital, Yaroslav Trofimov, The Wall Street Journal/The Australian, 6/2/14)
Melbourne:
"Musa [Cerantonio] seems to know everyone in Footscray. He moseys down the street with his hand in his pocket, shooting 'Salaam alaikums' and small talk to the perfume salesman in the mall and the old men in a Sudanese restaurant. He's like the Fonz. We chew on Sudanese meat dishes in the restaurant. He's ranting about a woman, a left-wing activist from his uni days. Musa had enrolled at Victoria University in an arts course, majoring in media and history, and on Orientation Day he found she had set up a stall next to his Islamic Society table. 'She came over and dropped this pile of flyers for an event they were having, something pro-Palestine,' he recalls. 'So I said to her, 'Please take them off. I don't want them here'.' This is the first time I've seen fire in his eyes... 'She was giving me this confused look, like, 'Why not? I mean, it's for Palestine.' I said, 'Look, you're not a Muslim, you don't agree with Islam. As for us, that's what we want for Palestine. We want Sharia, we want Islamic law. You don't want that, so let's admit we don't want the same thing.' She started to get a little bit offended. She's like, 'Oh, but, you know, we have to work together,' and I'm like, 'No, we don't have to work together.'
"Musa wipes yogurt off his fingers, still fiery, as he moves from Palestine to Syria. 'We believe that Jesus will return as the Messiah. We do agree with the Christians that it will be Jesus Christ, except when he comes back, he's actually going to be fighting against them and show them that their religion has been corrupted. We believe that when he does return, he would return to Syria.' I think how at odds Musa is with everyone, from Tony Abbott to the regular hippies in the Q&A audiences who insist this sort of thing isn't about religion.
"He prefers Melbourne to Sydney. 'You don't have any Lebanese over here. Personally, I think that's not entirely a bad thing,' he chuckles darkly. 'They're always up to something.' When he says this, with his white skin and Aussie accent, he sounds like a shockjock talkback caller. His position is not as incongruous as it first seems. Musa, like other Islamic State supporters, believes solely in Islam the religion. Anything cultural, like things associated with being Arab, is seen as a distraction or even blasphemous. When he sees the Palestinian flag, he tells me, he wants to spit on it. The Koran demands one Islamic super-state, not nation states, he says... Today [Musa] was angrier at left-wingers than neo-cons. He prefers George W. Bush to Barack Obama, and Zionists to hippies." (Free radical, John Safran, Good Weekend, 17/1/15)
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Haj Amin: No Collaborator
I've noted before that the past 15 years has seen a massive decline in the number of reputable current affairs documentaries being shown on ABC TV and SBS, particularly in relation to the contemporary Middle East, and their replacement by what seems to be a never-ending supply of World War II documentaries.
Which brings me to the Watch Now on TV section of yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald website. It read:
Hitler's Arab SS
Documents the rise of 'Grand Mufti' Husseini who set up Arab divisions of the SS to support the Nazi cause in WW II
The subject, of course, is Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974), Mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian national movement at the time. As for those "Arab divisions of the SS," bide your time...
Click on Hitler's Arab SS, and you come to episode 8 in a 13-episode series (available at ABC shops!) called Nazi Collaborators.
Nazi Collaborators is listed under the heading Genre as History (!!!), and described thus:
"Nazi Collaborators explores the shocking tales of how individuals from all walks of life turned against their nations to fight alongside the Nazis."
Note the definition of 'collaborator' here: one who turns against his own country.
But wasn't Haj Amin al-Husseini's nation Palestine?
And wasn't Palestine under the British jackboot when World War II broke out in 1939?
And wasn't Haj Amin on the run from the Britz over his leadership of the Palestinian Revolt of 1936-39 at the time?
Under the heading About this episode we get this:
"When the Nazis came to power, Haj Amin el Husseini offered his services to them, broadcasting their message against the Allied invasion of Muslim countries. Husseini also set up Arab divisions of the SS to support the Nazi cause in World War II."
Oh, I see. So when the Nazis came to power in 1933 there was Haj Amin, knocking on their door? Not.
Google the series and you get this synopsis:
"Of those individuals who have been accused of collaboration with Hitler and the Nazis during World War 2, it is perhaps Mohammed Amin al-Husseini who is the most controversial of all."
But of course... anyone in a prominent position who voices an opinion contrary to the dominant Zionist narrative ipso facto becomes 'controversial'.
"Debate still rages to this day as to whether his apparent pact with the National Socialists was a purely individual act or whether al-Husseini was a mouthpiece for the wider, fanatically anti-Jewish Arab world. That he was sympathetic to the Nazi cause is in no doubt. But what were his motives? And how much did he really support the Nazi's intentions towards the Jews?"
What were his motives?
Hatred of Jews was in his DNA?
The Arabs sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers' breasts?
Nothing whatever to do, of course, with the fact that the Britz were flooding Palestine with fanatical European Jews who believed that that they were on a mission from God to make it as Jewish as England is English. Nah... too far fetched that one.
"This film takes a detailed look at the life of al-Husseini and explores the true nature of his collaboration with the Nazi's [sic]. It examines the legacy of his actions during World War 2 and explores the impact of his influence on the Middle East in the 21st century." (The Grand Mufti)
Now I hasten to add that I haven't seen this doco, but if the blurb is any guide to its content, and life being too short anyway, I doubt I'll be wasting my time. So here, for what they're worth, are the facts on the Mufti in wartime Germany:
The Mufti (still on the run from the Britz) reached Berlin in 1941. He wanted:
"... a [public] statement to the Arabs in which Germany would disavow imperial interests in the Arab world and would support Arab independence, especially the independence and unity of Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. Such a statement would, Amin insisted rally support for a revolt... The revolt would be preceded by appeals to the Arabs from the Mufti and by the formation of an Arab legion... Hitler pointed out, however, that such a statement would be premature... [so] the Mufti asked for a secret agreement... Hitler agreed...
"The key paragraph [of the secret agreement] stated that Germany and Italy were ready to grant to the Arab countries in the Near East, now suffering under British oppression, every possible aid in their fight for independence; to recognise their sovereignty and independence; to agree to their federation if this is so desired by the interested parties; as well as to the abolition of the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine'...
"Now that he had a commitment from the Axis, he had to fulfil his side of the bargain: spread propaganda, recruit Arab troops, promote sabotage, and call for revolt...
"The Mufti also began in late 1942 to help organize Arab recruits into an Arab Legion called the Deutsch-Arabische- Lehrabteilung (DAL)... To his mind, the DAL was a response to the Zionist recruitment in Palestine approved by Churchill in late 1940, and to the demands of Arabs living in Axis countries to free their own countries. He insisted that the recruits - Arabs living in Axis territory and Arab prisoners of war captured by the Germans in North Africa and Greece while fighting the Allies - should be used for only Arab objectives, fighting under Arab command and flag, and on Palestinian, Syrian or Egyptian soil...
"The Mufti's other military-related activities included helping to recruit Muslims for Yugoslavia and Albania in 1943 to fight in Croatia and Bosnia against the Communist forces of Tito and the Serbian forces of Draza Mihailovic... The results of these efforts were an abysmal failure... But the failure lay less with Amin, who played little part in the actual military and strategic planning, than with Germany, which failed to adequately mobilize its diplomatic, propaganda, and military machine for a challenge to the Allies in the Middle East.
"After the war, Zionist groups called on Britain to try the Mufti on charges of collaboration or treason. Britain replied that since he was not a British subject he could not be tried either as a traitor nor as a collaborator." (The Mufti of Jerusalem: Haj Amin Al-Husayni & the Palestinian National Movement, Philip Mattar, 1988, pp 104-05)
Neither traitor nor collaborator? So what's he doing in the series?
Thereby hangs a tale...
Which brings me to the Watch Now on TV section of yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald website. It read:
Hitler's Arab SS
Documents the rise of 'Grand Mufti' Husseini who set up Arab divisions of the SS to support the Nazi cause in WW II
The subject, of course, is Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974), Mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian national movement at the time. As for those "Arab divisions of the SS," bide your time...
Click on Hitler's Arab SS, and you come to episode 8 in a 13-episode series (available at ABC shops!) called Nazi Collaborators.
Nazi Collaborators is listed under the heading Genre as History (!!!), and described thus:
"Nazi Collaborators explores the shocking tales of how individuals from all walks of life turned against their nations to fight alongside the Nazis."
Note the definition of 'collaborator' here: one who turns against his own country.
But wasn't Haj Amin al-Husseini's nation Palestine?
And wasn't Palestine under the British jackboot when World War II broke out in 1939?
And wasn't Haj Amin on the run from the Britz over his leadership of the Palestinian Revolt of 1936-39 at the time?
Under the heading About this episode we get this:
"When the Nazis came to power, Haj Amin el Husseini offered his services to them, broadcasting their message against the Allied invasion of Muslim countries. Husseini also set up Arab divisions of the SS to support the Nazi cause in World War II."
Oh, I see. So when the Nazis came to power in 1933 there was Haj Amin, knocking on their door? Not.
Google the series and you get this synopsis:
"Of those individuals who have been accused of collaboration with Hitler and the Nazis during World War 2, it is perhaps Mohammed Amin al-Husseini who is the most controversial of all."
But of course... anyone in a prominent position who voices an opinion contrary to the dominant Zionist narrative ipso facto becomes 'controversial'.
"Debate still rages to this day as to whether his apparent pact with the National Socialists was a purely individual act or whether al-Husseini was a mouthpiece for the wider, fanatically anti-Jewish Arab world. That he was sympathetic to the Nazi cause is in no doubt. But what were his motives? And how much did he really support the Nazi's intentions towards the Jews?"
What were his motives?
Hatred of Jews was in his DNA?
The Arabs sucked anti-Semitism from their mothers' breasts?
Nothing whatever to do, of course, with the fact that the Britz were flooding Palestine with fanatical European Jews who believed that that they were on a mission from God to make it as Jewish as England is English. Nah... too far fetched that one.
"This film takes a detailed look at the life of al-Husseini and explores the true nature of his collaboration with the Nazi's [sic]. It examines the legacy of his actions during World War 2 and explores the impact of his influence on the Middle East in the 21st century." (The Grand Mufti)
Now I hasten to add that I haven't seen this doco, but if the blurb is any guide to its content, and life being too short anyway, I doubt I'll be wasting my time. So here, for what they're worth, are the facts on the Mufti in wartime Germany:
The Mufti (still on the run from the Britz) reached Berlin in 1941. He wanted:
"... a [public] statement to the Arabs in which Germany would disavow imperial interests in the Arab world and would support Arab independence, especially the independence and unity of Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. Such a statement would, Amin insisted rally support for a revolt... The revolt would be preceded by appeals to the Arabs from the Mufti and by the formation of an Arab legion... Hitler pointed out, however, that such a statement would be premature... [so] the Mufti asked for a secret agreement... Hitler agreed...
"The key paragraph [of the secret agreement] stated that Germany and Italy were ready to grant to the Arab countries in the Near East, now suffering under British oppression, every possible aid in their fight for independence; to recognise their sovereignty and independence; to agree to their federation if this is so desired by the interested parties; as well as to the abolition of the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine'...
"Now that he had a commitment from the Axis, he had to fulfil his side of the bargain: spread propaganda, recruit Arab troops, promote sabotage, and call for revolt...
"The Mufti also began in late 1942 to help organize Arab recruits into an Arab Legion called the Deutsch-Arabische- Lehrabteilung (DAL)... To his mind, the DAL was a response to the Zionist recruitment in Palestine approved by Churchill in late 1940, and to the demands of Arabs living in Axis countries to free their own countries. He insisted that the recruits - Arabs living in Axis territory and Arab prisoners of war captured by the Germans in North Africa and Greece while fighting the Allies - should be used for only Arab objectives, fighting under Arab command and flag, and on Palestinian, Syrian or Egyptian soil...
"The Mufti's other military-related activities included helping to recruit Muslims for Yugoslavia and Albania in 1943 to fight in Croatia and Bosnia against the Communist forces of Tito and the Serbian forces of Draza Mihailovic... The results of these efforts were an abysmal failure... But the failure lay less with Amin, who played little part in the actual military and strategic planning, than with Germany, which failed to adequately mobilize its diplomatic, propaganda, and military machine for a challenge to the Allies in the Middle East.
"After the war, Zionist groups called on Britain to try the Mufti on charges of collaboration or treason. Britain replied that since he was not a British subject he could not be tried either as a traitor nor as a collaborator." (The Mufti of Jerusalem: Haj Amin Al-Husayni & the Palestinian National Movement, Philip Mattar, 1988, pp 104-05)
Neither traitor nor collaborator? So what's he doing in the series?
Thereby hangs a tale...
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Inconvenient Memories
From a letter to the Australian Jewish News (30/1/15) by Helen Leperere, Rose Bay, NSW:
"The liberation of the camps was a bitter-sweet pill for us to follow. The tragic impact of the 6-year war hit us all with its might. We were homeless orphans. No families, no homes to return to. Surely our Jewish world will embrace us and help us to come back to life, we thought.
"How very naive we were. Australian Jewry did not lift a finger to help us. We were mocked and belittled and told that it was not too easy here either, there was a shortage of herrings! A certain Jewish lady, a third generation Australian, told me how angry they were with one of their cousins, because she married out. She married a non-Jewish man? I asked. No... she married one of your mob, a man with a funny British accent. That 'funny English accent' was very much welcomed by the family after it brought the first million dollars.
"With great pride we were told how the local Jews entertained the American Jewish soldiers who were stationed here during the war. How they frequently invited them for Shabbat dinners. I do not know of any of us who were invited to Shabbat dinner by the local Jews. American Jewry extended the same cold shoulder to their newly-arrived survivors.
"The scenario that took place in Israel/Palestine then was even more painful. Friends told me that they had to hide the numbers tattooed on their arms. They were constantly told that they went like sheep to the slaughter without defending themselves. Never mind the uprisings in Warsaw, Sobibor or the partisans.
"Their opinions changed only after the trial of Eichmann. Then they understood."
"The liberation of the camps was a bitter-sweet pill for us to follow. The tragic impact of the 6-year war hit us all with its might. We were homeless orphans. No families, no homes to return to. Surely our Jewish world will embrace us and help us to come back to life, we thought.
"How very naive we were. Australian Jewry did not lift a finger to help us. We were mocked and belittled and told that it was not too easy here either, there was a shortage of herrings! A certain Jewish lady, a third generation Australian, told me how angry they were with one of their cousins, because she married out. She married a non-Jewish man? I asked. No... she married one of your mob, a man with a funny British accent. That 'funny English accent' was very much welcomed by the family after it brought the first million dollars.
"With great pride we were told how the local Jews entertained the American Jewish soldiers who were stationed here during the war. How they frequently invited them for Shabbat dinners. I do not know of any of us who were invited to Shabbat dinner by the local Jews. American Jewry extended the same cold shoulder to their newly-arrived survivors.
"The scenario that took place in Israel/Palestine then was even more painful. Friends told me that they had to hide the numbers tattooed on their arms. They were constantly told that they went like sheep to the slaughter without defending themselves. Never mind the uprisings in Warsaw, Sobibor or the partisans.
"Their opinions changed only after the trial of Eichmann. Then they understood."
Thursday, February 5, 2015
The Love Song of B. Hussein Obama
From US Ziocon Bret Stephens:
"Even friends of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are second-guessing his decision to accept US House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to address congress next month on the subject of Iran, over loud objections from the Obama administration. The prospect of the speech, those friends say, has sparked a needless crisis between Jerusalem and Washington. And it has left Democrats with an invidious choice between their loyalty to the President and their support for the Jewish state, jeopardising the bipartisan basis of the US-Israel relationship." (The speech Bibi must give in US congress to demand respect, The Wall Street Journal/The Australian, 4/2/15)
Democrats faced with an invidious choice between their loyalty to their President and their support for the Jewish state?
Could there possibly be a plainer statement of just who controls these buggers? Perhaps only this: Democrats face an invidious choice between their loyalty to the President and their loyalty to the Jewish state. (Republicans apparently don't even have to face this invidious choice. There is no question at all where their loyalty lies.)
Just imagine this scenario transposed to Australia: LNP parliamentarians are faced with an invidious choice between their loyalty to the Prime Minister and their support for the Jewish state. (Of course, were such a scenario to eventuate here, my money would be on Israel every time.)
Stephens continues:
"Sensible concerns - except for a few things. Relations between Israel and the US have been in crisis nearly from the moment Barack Obama stepped into office. Democratic support for Israel has been eroding for decades. It was the US President, not the Israeli Prime Minister, who picked this fight."
How dare Obama even look sideways at Israel! How dare he disagree with its leader! The sheer hide of the man!
Doesn't he know his place? Doesn't he know that Netanyahu's more American than he and apple pie put together?
Stephens goes on to describe Obama as having had a "histrionic fit over the Netanyahu speech," and displaying "the mentality of a peevish and callow potentate."
Doesn't he know - to borrow the words of a certain ex-American poet - that he "should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas"?
That he's "not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be"?
But rather:
"... an attendant Lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two.
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous -
Almost, at times, the Fool."
And Prince Bibi?
"The margin of Israel's security is not measured by anyone's love but by the respect of friends and enemies alike. By giving this speech, Netanyahu is demanding that respect. Irritating the President is a small price to pay for doing so."
But of course.
Go kick ass, Bibi!
"Even friends of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are second-guessing his decision to accept US House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to address congress next month on the subject of Iran, over loud objections from the Obama administration. The prospect of the speech, those friends say, has sparked a needless crisis between Jerusalem and Washington. And it has left Democrats with an invidious choice between their loyalty to the President and their support for the Jewish state, jeopardising the bipartisan basis of the US-Israel relationship." (The speech Bibi must give in US congress to demand respect, The Wall Street Journal/The Australian, 4/2/15)
Democrats faced with an invidious choice between their loyalty to their President and their support for the Jewish state?
Could there possibly be a plainer statement of just who controls these buggers? Perhaps only this: Democrats face an invidious choice between their loyalty to the President and their loyalty to the Jewish state. (Republicans apparently don't even have to face this invidious choice. There is no question at all where their loyalty lies.)
Just imagine this scenario transposed to Australia: LNP parliamentarians are faced with an invidious choice between their loyalty to the Prime Minister and their support for the Jewish state. (Of course, were such a scenario to eventuate here, my money would be on Israel every time.)
Stephens continues:
"Sensible concerns - except for a few things. Relations between Israel and the US have been in crisis nearly from the moment Barack Obama stepped into office. Democratic support for Israel has been eroding for decades. It was the US President, not the Israeli Prime Minister, who picked this fight."
How dare Obama even look sideways at Israel! How dare he disagree with its leader! The sheer hide of the man!
Doesn't he know his place? Doesn't he know that Netanyahu's more American than he and apple pie put together?
Stephens goes on to describe Obama as having had a "histrionic fit over the Netanyahu speech," and displaying "the mentality of a peevish and callow potentate."
Doesn't he know - to borrow the words of a certain ex-American poet - that he "should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas"?
That he's "not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be"?
But rather:
"... an attendant Lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two.
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous -
Almost, at times, the Fool."
And Prince Bibi?
"The margin of Israel's security is not measured by anyone's love but by the respect of friends and enemies alike. By giving this speech, Netanyahu is demanding that respect. Irritating the President is a small price to pay for doing so."
But of course.
Go kick ass, Bibi!
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Conspiracy Realists
Conspiracy theorists?
"The lesson was meant to be about Napoleon, but a history teacher in the Parisian suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine decided instead last week to hold a discussion with her teenage pupils about the terrorist attacks in [Paris]... For Marie, 30, the teacher, the shock of 3 days of terror in which 17 people were killed was compounded by the discovery that her 14-year-old pupils, most of North African origin, did not believe the attack had happened. 'They're lively, intelligent children,' she said. 'But most of them are convinced it's some sort of conspiracy involving the government, Israel or the CIA.... The parents think the same way. It's sad, really'." (We're not Charlie here: Muslim teens in banlieues, Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times/The Australian, 19/1/15)
No, conspiracy realists:
"Five former US intelligence officials have revealed that the CIA and Mossad cooperated on the assassination of Imad Mughniyah*, the military chief of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, in February 2008. The bomb which killed Mughniyah... was triggered remotely from Tel Aviv by agents with Mossad, who were in communication with US operatives on the ground in Damascus. 'The way it was set up, the US could object and call it off, but it could not execute,' said a former US intelligence official." (CIA aided Mossad to assassinate terrorist, Adam Goldman, Washington Post/Sydney Morning Herald, 2/2/15)
[*Chris Wallace: Director [of National Intelligence Mike] McConnell... the assassination of terrorist Imad Mughniyah this week - did the US have anything to do with that? McConnell: No, Chris. I'm aware of the circumstances around it, and we are now - interestingly from the kinds of capabilities we're talking about, we can see how various parties are commenting and so on. And the big question of course - Hezbollah has blamed Israel. But there's some evidence that it may have been internal - Hezbollah. (Transcript: DNI Mike McConnell on 'FNS', foxnews.com, 17/2/08)]
"The lesson was meant to be about Napoleon, but a history teacher in the Parisian suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine decided instead last week to hold a discussion with her teenage pupils about the terrorist attacks in [Paris]... For Marie, 30, the teacher, the shock of 3 days of terror in which 17 people were killed was compounded by the discovery that her 14-year-old pupils, most of North African origin, did not believe the attack had happened. 'They're lively, intelligent children,' she said. 'But most of them are convinced it's some sort of conspiracy involving the government, Israel or the CIA.... The parents think the same way. It's sad, really'." (We're not Charlie here: Muslim teens in banlieues, Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times/The Australian, 19/1/15)
No, conspiracy realists:
"Five former US intelligence officials have revealed that the CIA and Mossad cooperated on the assassination of Imad Mughniyah*, the military chief of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, in February 2008. The bomb which killed Mughniyah... was triggered remotely from Tel Aviv by agents with Mossad, who were in communication with US operatives on the ground in Damascus. 'The way it was set up, the US could object and call it off, but it could not execute,' said a former US intelligence official." (CIA aided Mossad to assassinate terrorist, Adam Goldman, Washington Post/Sydney Morning Herald, 2/2/15)
[*Chris Wallace: Director [of National Intelligence Mike] McConnell... the assassination of terrorist Imad Mughniyah this week - did the US have anything to do with that? McConnell: No, Chris. I'm aware of the circumstances around it, and we are now - interestingly from the kinds of capabilities we're talking about, we can see how various parties are commenting and so on. And the big question of course - Hezbollah has blamed Israel. But there's some evidence that it may have been internal - Hezbollah. (Transcript: DNI Mike McConnell on 'FNS', foxnews.com, 17/2/08)]
Monday, February 2, 2015
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em:
"A large contingent of school leavers from NSW this week departed to Israel on the Shnat 2015 gap year program. Almost 50 teenagers from around the state are participating in the year-long educational and leadership program, together with 91 other young adults from Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and New Zealand. The teenagers - who are all part of local Zionist youth movements... will partake in various movement-run Jewish learning activities, including leadership training, touring, hiking, ulpan, kibbutz experiences and volunteer work." (Shnatties set off for Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 30/1/15)
Other mothers don't:
"On January 21st, 14-year-old Malak Khatib was sentenced by the Israeli military courts to two months in Israeli jails. Malak has been in Hasharon prison for over a month now as her family continues to endure the unbearable absence felt in their small apartment home in the West Bank village of Beitin. Malak was arrested by Israeli forces one morning on her way to school. Her imprisonment came based on a testimony from Israeli soldiers. Regardless of her young age, she was interrogated without legal representation or the presence of a legal guardian. Today Malak continues to remain incarcerated in Israeli jails. The court has also sentenced the family to approximately $US1,500 in fines. If they are not paid her release may be prolonged by the court. Malak Khatib is one of 700 Palestinian children to be arrested and interrogated by Israeli forces annually... Prior to her arrest, Malak enjoyed playing soccer and sketching... She is the youngest of 8 children and, despite her age, continued to enjoy sitting on her mother's lap. She found refuge in it... Malak now sleeps in a jail cell with blue barred doors and grey concrete walls." (International Solidarity Movement)
Fuck, some of them don't even have mothers:
"Diana and Mohammed Ayad were orphaned after their widowed mother was killed during [Israeli] shelling of Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood as the family tried to evacuate their home. Neither child has received psychological testing or support, despite experiencing enduring mental health problems, according to relatives, in addition to physical injuries that left Diana, 15, needing extensive skin graft surgery, and Mohammed, 10, having a toe amputated. Diana, who once wanted to be a doctor, no longer attends school because of the incident and is confined to the family's shell-ravaged home by her injuries. 'I feel very bad psychologically because of the incident and suffer badly from my leg injuries,' she said. 'I'm not glad I survived. I wish I had died'." (Hundreds of thousands of children shell-shocked after the war in Gaza, Robert Tait, telegraph.co.uk, 28/1/15)
Other mothers don't:
"On January 21st, 14-year-old Malak Khatib was sentenced by the Israeli military courts to two months in Israeli jails. Malak has been in Hasharon prison for over a month now as her family continues to endure the unbearable absence felt in their small apartment home in the West Bank village of Beitin. Malak was arrested by Israeli forces one morning on her way to school. Her imprisonment came based on a testimony from Israeli soldiers. Regardless of her young age, she was interrogated without legal representation or the presence of a legal guardian. Today Malak continues to remain incarcerated in Israeli jails. The court has also sentenced the family to approximately $US1,500 in fines. If they are not paid her release may be prolonged by the court. Malak Khatib is one of 700 Palestinian children to be arrested and interrogated by Israeli forces annually... Prior to her arrest, Malak enjoyed playing soccer and sketching... She is the youngest of 8 children and, despite her age, continued to enjoy sitting on her mother's lap. She found refuge in it... Malak now sleeps in a jail cell with blue barred doors and grey concrete walls." (International Solidarity Movement)
Fuck, some of them don't even have mothers:
"Diana and Mohammed Ayad were orphaned after their widowed mother was killed during [Israeli] shelling of Gaza City's Shejaiya neighbourhood as the family tried to evacuate their home. Neither child has received psychological testing or support, despite experiencing enduring mental health problems, according to relatives, in addition to physical injuries that left Diana, 15, needing extensive skin graft surgery, and Mohammed, 10, having a toe amputated. Diana, who once wanted to be a doctor, no longer attends school because of the incident and is confined to the family's shell-ravaged home by her injuries. 'I feel very bad psychologically because of the incident and suffer badly from my leg injuries,' she said. 'I'm not glad I survived. I wish I had died'." (Hundreds of thousands of children shell-shocked after the war in Gaza, Robert Tait, telegraph.co.uk, 28/1/15)
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Junk Journalism at the Herald
Is it really too much to expect someone describing herself as a journalist to do some elementary research before pronouncing on the issue of Palestine/Israel?
Take the following, for example, from yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald:
"In Australia, there has been a marked increase in harassment of identifiably Jewish people in public. One consistent trend is a spike in attacks on Jewish communal buildings - and people - when conflict breaks out in the Middle East. The recent disputes in Gaza have underlined this. This suggests we have a particular responsibility to be careful when it comes to the discussion of Israeli-Palestinian conflicts." (Hate speech should be shut down, Julia Baird)
Frankly, any journalist who can reduce the near 100-year-old, Anglo-American-backed, genocidal Zionist project in Palestine to the level of mere "disputes in Gaza" and "Israeli-Palestinian conflicts" brings discredit upon herself, upon her paper and upon her profession. For one so clueless to then go on and advise that "we have a particular responsibility to be careful when it comes to the discussion of Israeli-Palestinian conflicts," merely adds insult to injury.
The following bald assertions in the same opinion piece, moreover, raise the issue of just how much research, if any, went into her piece:
"In Sydney... Hitler placards and T-shirts were sported at rallies here and elsewhere as people chanted 'Jews, Jews to the gas'; swastikas were sprayed on buildings. Facebook pages identified Jewish people and provided their location to aid attackers."
Turning to my copy of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry's (ECAJ) 2014 Report on Antisemitism in Australia, I note that the section headed Leaflets, posters, stickers, other (pp 36-9) contains no reference whatever to Hitler placards or T-shirts. Likewise, there was no mention of the allegation regarding Facebook under that heading on p 34. Nor, for that matter, could I find any mention of the alleged anti-Semitic chant in the report. And as for that old, anti-Semitic standard, the swastika, the report records just 8 instances, only one of which appeared on a wall. (For the record, 5 were found scratched onto, variously, a lamp post, tram stop (x2), door frame and park bench, while the other 2 appeared at a skate park and on a whiteboard respectively.
It is still possible, of course, that Baird has relied on ECAJ's report for her assertions.
If so, however, she hasn't looked further than the lousy cartoon reproduced on page 2, which smears anti-Zionists as neo-Nazis who revere Hitler and chant 'Jews to the gas'. Surely, any informed journalist, after seeing the cartoon, would respond by consigning the report, in its entirety, to the rubbish bin on the grounds that ECAJ's real agenda has more to do with discrediting and silencing opposition to Israeli apartheid and genocide than with exposing genuine instances of anti-Semitism.
If she hasn't relied on the ECAJ cartoon, whence the above assertions?
Julia?
Take the following, for example, from yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald:
"In Australia, there has been a marked increase in harassment of identifiably Jewish people in public. One consistent trend is a spike in attacks on Jewish communal buildings - and people - when conflict breaks out in the Middle East. The recent disputes in Gaza have underlined this. This suggests we have a particular responsibility to be careful when it comes to the discussion of Israeli-Palestinian conflicts." (Hate speech should be shut down, Julia Baird)
Frankly, any journalist who can reduce the near 100-year-old, Anglo-American-backed, genocidal Zionist project in Palestine to the level of mere "disputes in Gaza" and "Israeli-Palestinian conflicts" brings discredit upon herself, upon her paper and upon her profession. For one so clueless to then go on and advise that "we have a particular responsibility to be careful when it comes to the discussion of Israeli-Palestinian conflicts," merely adds insult to injury.
The following bald assertions in the same opinion piece, moreover, raise the issue of just how much research, if any, went into her piece:
"In Sydney... Hitler placards and T-shirts were sported at rallies here and elsewhere as people chanted 'Jews, Jews to the gas'; swastikas were sprayed on buildings. Facebook pages identified Jewish people and provided their location to aid attackers."
Turning to my copy of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry's (ECAJ) 2014 Report on Antisemitism in Australia, I note that the section headed Leaflets, posters, stickers, other (pp 36-9) contains no reference whatever to Hitler placards or T-shirts. Likewise, there was no mention of the allegation regarding Facebook under that heading on p 34. Nor, for that matter, could I find any mention of the alleged anti-Semitic chant in the report. And as for that old, anti-Semitic standard, the swastika, the report records just 8 instances, only one of which appeared on a wall. (For the record, 5 were found scratched onto, variously, a lamp post, tram stop (x2), door frame and park bench, while the other 2 appeared at a skate park and on a whiteboard respectively.
It is still possible, of course, that Baird has relied on ECAJ's report for her assertions.
If so, however, she hasn't looked further than the lousy cartoon reproduced on page 2, which smears anti-Zionists as neo-Nazis who revere Hitler and chant 'Jews to the gas'. Surely, any informed journalist, after seeing the cartoon, would respond by consigning the report, in its entirety, to the rubbish bin on the grounds that ECAJ's real agenda has more to do with discrediting and silencing opposition to Israeli apartheid and genocide than with exposing genuine instances of anti-Semitism.
If she hasn't relied on the ECAJ cartoon, whence the above assertions?
Julia?
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