For sheer self-serving cynicism Mike (Walk on Water) Baird's 4/4/16 Facebook post is hard to beat:
"Today, while visiting a refugee camp in the West Bank, I met a group of young kids the same age as my son. I asked one of the boys what he dreamt of becoming when he was older. 'It's hard to have dreams when you know they can't come true,' he told me. The situation here is nothing short of heartbreaking. I don't know where the cycle of thousands of years of violence ends. But I do know that all kids should be able to dream. That they should have hope of a better future. The team at the Aida refugee camp are doing a great job in a difficult situation. The money donated by the Australian Government - and therefore Australian taxpayers - is doing great work in helping these kids. These kids are funny. They love soccer (Real Madrid, specifically). They love learning at school. And the hope is that they are given a chance to chase their dreams and enjoy the peace that, in NSW, we can take for granted."
The only matter at issue here is whether was it penned by Clare Masters, Baird's senior media advisor/speechwriter, formerly at Murdoch's Daily Telegraph, or by Imre Salusinszky, his media director, formerly at Murdoch's Australian, where he was an integral part of Operation Spread the Word: BDS is Electoral Poison for the Greens.
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6 comments:
Oh Grappler, you beat me to it!
Grappler, who is always spot on, beat me to it too. "Thousands of years of violence" is obviously scripted, from the Hasbara talking point songbook. I believe Baird took a social media/twitter/facebook spin-doctor along-at taxpayer expense.
OK, I confess, I read it in The Daily Telegraph, but I picked up a copy at a cafe.
When I first read this - actually stopped reading at "Thousand years of violence"- thinking that Baird, like most of Australia's politicians, had been indoctrinated by Israeli hasbara, because he was saying, in effect, that Jews and Palestinians have been at war for thousands of years. I thought he should read a bit more history rather than hasbara.
The I realised that this couldn't have come from Israeli brain-washing - the Israelis say, again and again ad nauseam, that there is no such thing as Palestine, never has, (and never will be) and that "Palestinians" never existed. Therefore whoever suggested to Baird that there had been thousands of years of violence between Jews and Palestinians either got their lines wrong, or Baird got that from somewhere else. But where? Does he never read history? He could start, eg, with an Israeli journo, Uri Avnery, who tells it as it is. There are a few more Israelis as brave as he. So, Mike, read a bit more. It is not good enough to weep crocodile tears for the Palestinians under occupation, all the while doing business with the occupiers.
BTW who paid for this trip?
Gabi, Baird's dumb comment is typical of those who know nothing of the history of the Palestine/Israel conflict, which dates essentially from Britain's issue of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The assumption is it's been going on since time immemorial and can therefore be consigned to the too-hard basket. In reality, it's simply an unresolved colonial problem.
The "Anonymous" comments here really made my day - thank you. I felt I was having an effect - slight but nonetheless positive. MERC does this blog day after day, week after week, year on year. It is to MERC we should be giving praise and support on a daily basis for the ceaseless effort of spreading the truth, fighting for justice for Palestinians, and combating the utter hypocrisy of our pitiful politicians and mainstream journalists. Keep it up MERC!
Thanks Grappler for the link just looked at it and it is very impressive. Then I looked at some of the comments - boy, there is a lot of hatred out there. I think those who argue "there was no such thing as Palestine" until the Romans gave it the name" should read the Old Testament - many references there. And for those who say there is no "P" in Arabic so Palestine is a fake - well, the answer to that is "there is no such thing as a "Jew" because there is no "J" in Hebrew. Shows how silly that argument is . . .
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