This is a parody, right?
"Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer has revealed his secret weapon to pressure the government to posthumously promote World War I military mastermind John Monash to field marshal... Mr Fischer... indicated he would use Tony Abbott's appointment of Prince Philip as a knight... as ammunition in his fight to have Monash's promotion announced in 2018 to mark the centenary of the end of World War I... Although a $100 million war museum in France is to be opened in Monash's name, Mr Fischer said the government... appeared reluctant to promote Monash to field marshal. But Mr Fischer has marshalled influential federal MPs 'on both sides of the aisle' to mount a pincer movement against the Prime Minister and Bill Shorten to achieve bipartisan support for the project. They include ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg, Nationals MP Michael McCormack, Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus and backbencher Michael Danby... because of what is believed to be prejudice in the British high command and on the part of Australia's then prime minister Billy Hughes, Monash was never promoted to field marshal. He ended his career as a general.'He was an outsider because he was Jewish...,' Mr Danby said." (Fischer enlists Prince Philip in campaign to promote hero Monash, Ean Higgins, The Australian, 11/5/15)
PS: Letter in today's Australian: "As a former army officer, Tim Fischer should know that [there are] different ranks in the military command at different levels... John Monash's most senior command was that of corps commander, and corps were commanded by a lieutenant-general. Monash was later promoted from lieutenant-general to general in recognition of his service. This was seen as an appropriate appointment. It should also be noted that Monash's boss when he was corps commander, Henry Rawlinson, finished his career with the same rank of general. Why then should Monash be posthumously promoted two ranks above the level he commanded? Yes, Monash was a fine general, but he didn't win the war single-handed or invent a method of warfare. He was a successful corps commander. He finished the war heaped with honours appropriate to his rank and achievements. Let's not let populism and parochialism shape our recognition of him." Stephen Barton, Scarborough, WA
But Stephen, it's not populism and parochialism that's behind Fischer's campaign. It's Zionism.
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Since this article Monash-worship has become a new national religion. Scarce a day goes by without some new eulogy to Sir John Monash, and I did a little googling to see what the legendary gassing-general of WW1 thought about Zionism.
It turns out he was sweet on Zionism.. very sweet indeed. Honorary President of the Australian Zionist Federation, no less.
https://www.jta.org/1928/09/09/archive/sir-john-monash-heads-the-australian-zionist-federation
No wonder Monash's reputation is promoted so hard a century later, while the name of his more illustrious co-religionist, Isaac Isaacs, slides unremarked down the Memory Hole..
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