Why Does Melbourne Ports Keep Voting for Michael Danby?

What kind of electorate is Melbourne Ports?

In election after election after election (1998 on), the voters there have voted again and again and again, either directly or through preferences (Hello, Greens), for a politician whose sole interest, if one is to judge by the frequency and nature of his comments in the Australian press, is deflecting criticism of Israel.

Here he is again, butting in on the proposal by some in NSW Labor to ban Israel lobby-sponsored trips to Israel at February's NSW Labor annual conference:

"The federal Labor MP for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby, asked why Israel was being singled out. 'If a Labor person takes a trip to the United States, do they have to spend the same time in Russia?" (Shorten leaves Israel up to MPs, Mark Coultan, The Australian, 29/1/16)

Why is Israel being singled out?

It's the OCCUPATION, stupid.

As a former Israeli attorney-general (1993-96), Michael Ben-Yair, once wrote:

"The Six-Day War was forced upon us [A zombie myth, but we'll let it go for now]; however, the war's seventh day, which began on June 12, 1967 and has continued to this day [He was speaking here in 2002!] is the product of our choice. We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one - progressive, liberal - in Israel; and the other - cruel, injurious - in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That regime exists to this day."

The question on everyone's lips should not be 'Why is Israel being singled out?' but 'Why does Melbourne Ports keep voting for Michael Danby?'