Zionism's Long March Through the Institutions

Remember Rudi Dutschke's idea of a leftist 'long march through the institutions of power', aimed at achieving cultural hegemony or dominance in society? In relation to 'the Left' you'll probably only come across the expression these days in the anti-Left rantings of the likes of Gerard Henderson (or Gerard (Gollum) Henderson as Mike Carlton so felicitously calls him).

That doesn't, of course, mean that there is no long march through the institutions going on out there. How else, for example, to describe Zionism's penetration of our parliaments, both federal and state, through the formation of Parliamentary Friends of Israel groups? These currently exist in federal parliament, and in the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Western Australian parliaments.

Now we have this:

"The Queensland Parliamentary Friends of Israel met last week for the first time since the election of the new Labor government. More than 20 members attended from both major political parties, including opposition leader Lawrence Springborg... [Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies (QJBD) president Jason] Steinberg... said an Israel study tour... was [a] possibility going forward. 'That's definitely the plan, obviously tying in with AIJAC [Rambam] and other similar programs,' he said." (Qld pollies unite for Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 29/5/15)

QPFOI seems to have been formed last year during the inglorious, one-term reign of Campbell Newman.

For the record, some of the other names mentioned in the AJN's report on the parliamentary side are Steve Minnikin (National MP for Chatsworth) and Linus Power (Labor MP for Logan). On the Zionist side, there's - *sigh* - Vic (I Get Around) Alhadeff (NSW Jewish Board of Deputies).

These PFOI groups would certainly make an interesting subject for a thesis by some Palestine/Israel savvy political science student out there.