A piece of unmitigated schmaltz on the late Shimon Peres, Peres' wisdom: 'Peace is not perfect', by Age political editor Michael Gordon, appeared in yesterday's Fairfax papers - in addition to a New York Times obituary!
So why the overkill? Well, frankly, how could our political editor possibly refuse? After all:
"'Relax! Sit down,' Israel's most beloved public figure commanded, gesturing with his hands for his guests to resume their seats and a long conversation about life and hopes and dreams. 'If your dreams exceed the number of your achievements, you're young,' said Shimon Peres, then 93, with the optimism and wide-eyed wonder of a child. It was July 27 and I was among a group of Australian journalists on the final stop of a week-long study tour."
Strictly rhetorical question: Did any of these rambammed Australian journalists mutter to themselves: 'Dreams? Achievements? Your dreams are the stuff of nightmares, and your only achievements are massacres, settlements, nukes and bullshit by the bucketload'?
Some more gems from Peres' wisdom:
"'Peace is not perfect,' he quipped. 'It's perfect when you compare it to war'."
As if the likes of Peres ever had a problem with war. Fact: peace is only perfect when it comes with justice.
"Obama was one of the first to pay tribute, saying: 'There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history... because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people'."
Moral imagination? Obama? Don't make me laugh!
"Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council chairman Mark Leibler and executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein said in a joint statement: 'He was a true visionary, a giant of Israeli politics, the quintessential statesman on the world stage'."
Visionary? The only visionaries Zionism has ever produced are of the tunnel variety.
"The key to his longevity, said [he]... was to stay... focused on the future. 'The past doesn't have a future and the future doesn't need a past,' was how he expressed it."
That's funny, wasn't Peres a protege of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding PM, who told the 1937 Peel Commission in Palestine that "The Bible is our Mandate"?
"If he was deeply dismayed there was very little evidence of [a better world] happening on either side of the Israel-Palestine conflict, it did not show."
Deeply dismayed? You're kidding me! Of course he's not dismayed. Why would he be? With every square inch of Palestine under occupation.
"One of the final questions was how he liked to be remembered. He paused, repeated the question, and said: 'If I have saved the life of one child, that would be the greatest thing."
One Israeli Jewish child, that is.
Whatever happened to the cynical hard-bitten journalist of yore? Seems it's all just stenography these days.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Thursday, September 29, 2016
The Real Shimon Peres
If you have any doubts that Fairfax and Murdoch are both in the business of running a protection racket for Israel, just read the tributes (there is no other word for it) in today's Sydney Morning Herald and Australian to Shimon Peres (1923-2016). For the real Shimon Peres, read Ben White's Shimon Peres: Israeli war criminal whose victims the West ignored, Middle East Monitor, 28/9/16:
"Shimon Peres, who passed away Wednesday aged 93 after suffering a stroke on 13 September, epitomised the disparity between Israel's image in the West and the reality of its bloody, colonial policies in Palestine and the wider region.
"Peres was born in modern day Belarus in 1923, and his family moved to Palestine in the 1930s. As a young man, Peres joined the Haganah, the militia primarily responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian villages in 1947-49, during the Nakba.
"Despite the violent displacement of the Palestinians being a matter of historical record, Peres has always insisted that Zionist forces 'upheld the purity of arms' during the establishment of the State of Israel. Indeed, he even claimed that before Israel existed, 'there was nothing here'.
"Over seven decades, Peres served as prime minister (twice) and president, though he never actually won a national election outright. He was a member of 12 cabinets and had stints as defence, foreign and finance minister.
"He is perhaps best known in the West for his role in the negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords which won him, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Yet for Palestinians and their neighbours in the Middle East, Peres' track record is very different from his reputation in the West as a tireless 'dove'. The following is by no means a comprehensive summary of Peres' record in the service of colonialism and apartheid.
Nuclear weapons
"Between 1953 and 1965, Peres served first as director general of Israel's defence ministry and then as deputy defence minister. On account of his responsibilities at the time, Peres has been described as 'an architect of Israel's nuclear weapons programme' which, to this day, 'remains outside the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).'
"In 1975, as secret minutes have since revealed, Peres met with South African Defence Minister PW Botha and 'offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime.' In 1986, Peres authorised the Mossad operation that saw nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu kidnapped in Rome.
Targeting Palestinian citizens
"Peres had a key role in the military regime imposed on Palestinian citizens until 1966, under which authorities carried out mass land theft and displacement. One such tool was Article 125 which allowed Palestinian land to be declared a closed military zone. Its owners denied access, the land would then be confiscated as 'uncultivated'. Peres praised Article 125 as a means to 'directly continue the struggle for Jewish settlement and Jewish immigration.'
"Another one of Peres' responsibilities in his capacity as director general of the defence ministry was to 'Judaise' the Galilee; that is to say, pursue policies aimed at reducing the region's proportion of Palestinian citizens compared to Jewish ones.
"In 2005, as Vice Premier in the cabinet of Ariel Sharon, Peres renewed his attack on Palestinian citizens with plans to encourage Jewish Israelis to move to the Galilee. His 'development' plan covered 104 communities - 100 of them Jewish. In secret conversations with US officials that same year, Peres claimed Israel had 'lost one million dunums [1,000 square kilometres] of Negev land to the Bedouin', adding that the 'development' of the Negev and Galilee could 'relieve what [he] termed a demographic threat.'
Supporting illegal settlements in the West Bank
"While Israel's settlement project in the West Bank has come to be associated primarily with Likud and other right-wing nationalist parties, it was in fact Labor which kick-started the colonisation of the newly-conquered Palestinian territory - and Peres was an enthusiastic participant.
"During Peres' tenure as defence minister, from 1974 to 1977, the Rabin government established a number of key West Bank settlements, including Ofra, large sections of which were built on confiscated privately-owned Palestinian land.
"Having played a key role in the early days of the settlement enterprise, in more recent years, Peres has intervened to undermine any sort of measures, no matter how modest, at sanctioning the illegal colonies - always, of course, in the name of protecting 'peace negotiations'.
The Qana massacre
"As prime minister in 1996, Peres ordered and oversaw 'Operation Grapes of Wrath' when Israeli armed forces killed some 154 civilians in Lebanon and injured another 351. The operation, widely believed to have been a pre-election show of strength, saw Lebanese civilians targeted.
"According to the official Israeli Air Force website (in Hebrew, not English), the operation involved 'massive bombing of the Shia villages in South Lebanon in order to cause a flow of civilians north, toward Beirut, thus applying pressure on Syria and Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah.'
"The campaign's most notorious incident was the Qana massacre, when Israel shelled a United Nations compound and killed 106 sheltering civilians. A UN report stated that, contrary to Israeli denials, it was 'unlikely' that the shelling 'was the result of technical and/or procedural errors.'
"Later, Israeli gunners told Israeli television that they had no regrets over the massacre, as the dead were 'just a bunch of Arabs'. As for Peres, his conscience was also clean: 'Everything was done according to clear logic and in a responsible way,' he said. 'I am at peace.'
Gaza - defending blockade and brutality
"Peres came into his own as one of Israel's most important global ambassadors in the lat ten years, as the Gaza Strip was subjected to a devastating blockade and three major offensives. Despite global outrage at such policies, Peres has consistently backed collective punishment and military brutality.
"In January 2009, for example, despite calls by 'Israeli human rights organisations... for Operation Cast Lead to be halted', Peres described 'national solidarity behind the military operation' as 'Israel's finest hour.' According to Peres, the aim of the assault 'was to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel.'
"During Operation Pillar of Defence in November 2012, Peres 'took on the job of helping the Israeli public relations effort, communicating the Israeli narrative to world leaders,' in the words of Ynetnews. On the eve of Israel's offensive, 'Peres warned Hamas that if it wants normal life for the people of Gaza, then it must stop firing rockets into Israel.'
"In 2014, during an unprecedented bombardment of Gaza, Peres stepped up once again to whitewash war crimes. After Israeli forces killed four small children playing on a beach, Peres knew who to blame - the Palestinians: 'It was an area that we warned would be bombed,' he said. 'And unfortunately they didn't take out the children.'
"The choking blockade, condemned internationally as a form of prohibited collective punishment, has also been defended by Peres - precisely on the grounds that it is a form of collective punishment. As Peres put it in 2014: 'If Gaza ceases fire, there will be no need for a blockade.'
"Peres' support for collective punishment also extended to Iran. Commenting in 2012 on reports that six million Iranians suffering from cancer were unable to get treatment due to sanctions, Peres said: 'If they want to return to a normal life, let them become normal.'
Unapologetic to the end
"Peres was always clear about the goal of a peace deal with the Palestinians. As he said in 2014: 'The first priority is preserving Israel as a Jewish state. That is our central goal, that is what we are fighting for.' Last year he reiterated these sentiments in an interview with AP, saying: 'Israel should implement the two-state solution for her own sake,' so as not to 'lose our [Jewish] majority.'
"This, recall, was what shaped Labor's support for the Oslo Accords. Rabin, speaking to the Knesset not long before his assassination in 1995, was clear that what Israel sought from the Oslo Accords was a Palestinian 'entity' that would be 'less than a state'. Jerusalem would be Israel's undivided capital, key settlements would be annexed and Israel would remain in the Jordan Valley.
"A few years ago, Peres described the Palestinians as 'self-victimising'. He went on: 'They victimise themselves. They are a victim of their own mistakes unnecessarily.' Such cruel condescension was characteristic of a man for whom 'peace' always meant colonial pacification."
"Shimon Peres, who passed away Wednesday aged 93 after suffering a stroke on 13 September, epitomised the disparity between Israel's image in the West and the reality of its bloody, colonial policies in Palestine and the wider region.
"Peres was born in modern day Belarus in 1923, and his family moved to Palestine in the 1930s. As a young man, Peres joined the Haganah, the militia primarily responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian villages in 1947-49, during the Nakba.
"Despite the violent displacement of the Palestinians being a matter of historical record, Peres has always insisted that Zionist forces 'upheld the purity of arms' during the establishment of the State of Israel. Indeed, he even claimed that before Israel existed, 'there was nothing here'.
"Over seven decades, Peres served as prime minister (twice) and president, though he never actually won a national election outright. He was a member of 12 cabinets and had stints as defence, foreign and finance minister.
"He is perhaps best known in the West for his role in the negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords which won him, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Yet for Palestinians and their neighbours in the Middle East, Peres' track record is very different from his reputation in the West as a tireless 'dove'. The following is by no means a comprehensive summary of Peres' record in the service of colonialism and apartheid.
Nuclear weapons
"Between 1953 and 1965, Peres served first as director general of Israel's defence ministry and then as deputy defence minister. On account of his responsibilities at the time, Peres has been described as 'an architect of Israel's nuclear weapons programme' which, to this day, 'remains outside the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).'
"In 1975, as secret minutes have since revealed, Peres met with South African Defence Minister PW Botha and 'offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime.' In 1986, Peres authorised the Mossad operation that saw nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu kidnapped in Rome.
Targeting Palestinian citizens
"Peres had a key role in the military regime imposed on Palestinian citizens until 1966, under which authorities carried out mass land theft and displacement. One such tool was Article 125 which allowed Palestinian land to be declared a closed military zone. Its owners denied access, the land would then be confiscated as 'uncultivated'. Peres praised Article 125 as a means to 'directly continue the struggle for Jewish settlement and Jewish immigration.'
"Another one of Peres' responsibilities in his capacity as director general of the defence ministry was to 'Judaise' the Galilee; that is to say, pursue policies aimed at reducing the region's proportion of Palestinian citizens compared to Jewish ones.
"In 2005, as Vice Premier in the cabinet of Ariel Sharon, Peres renewed his attack on Palestinian citizens with plans to encourage Jewish Israelis to move to the Galilee. His 'development' plan covered 104 communities - 100 of them Jewish. In secret conversations with US officials that same year, Peres claimed Israel had 'lost one million dunums [1,000 square kilometres] of Negev land to the Bedouin', adding that the 'development' of the Negev and Galilee could 'relieve what [he] termed a demographic threat.'
Supporting illegal settlements in the West Bank
"While Israel's settlement project in the West Bank has come to be associated primarily with Likud and other right-wing nationalist parties, it was in fact Labor which kick-started the colonisation of the newly-conquered Palestinian territory - and Peres was an enthusiastic participant.
"During Peres' tenure as defence minister, from 1974 to 1977, the Rabin government established a number of key West Bank settlements, including Ofra, large sections of which were built on confiscated privately-owned Palestinian land.
"Having played a key role in the early days of the settlement enterprise, in more recent years, Peres has intervened to undermine any sort of measures, no matter how modest, at sanctioning the illegal colonies - always, of course, in the name of protecting 'peace negotiations'.
The Qana massacre
"As prime minister in 1996, Peres ordered and oversaw 'Operation Grapes of Wrath' when Israeli armed forces killed some 154 civilians in Lebanon and injured another 351. The operation, widely believed to have been a pre-election show of strength, saw Lebanese civilians targeted.
"According to the official Israeli Air Force website (in Hebrew, not English), the operation involved 'massive bombing of the Shia villages in South Lebanon in order to cause a flow of civilians north, toward Beirut, thus applying pressure on Syria and Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah.'
"The campaign's most notorious incident was the Qana massacre, when Israel shelled a United Nations compound and killed 106 sheltering civilians. A UN report stated that, contrary to Israeli denials, it was 'unlikely' that the shelling 'was the result of technical and/or procedural errors.'
"Later, Israeli gunners told Israeli television that they had no regrets over the massacre, as the dead were 'just a bunch of Arabs'. As for Peres, his conscience was also clean: 'Everything was done according to clear logic and in a responsible way,' he said. 'I am at peace.'
Gaza - defending blockade and brutality
"Peres came into his own as one of Israel's most important global ambassadors in the lat ten years, as the Gaza Strip was subjected to a devastating blockade and three major offensives. Despite global outrage at such policies, Peres has consistently backed collective punishment and military brutality.
"In January 2009, for example, despite calls by 'Israeli human rights organisations... for Operation Cast Lead to be halted', Peres described 'national solidarity behind the military operation' as 'Israel's finest hour.' According to Peres, the aim of the assault 'was to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel.'
"During Operation Pillar of Defence in November 2012, Peres 'took on the job of helping the Israeli public relations effort, communicating the Israeli narrative to world leaders,' in the words of Ynetnews. On the eve of Israel's offensive, 'Peres warned Hamas that if it wants normal life for the people of Gaza, then it must stop firing rockets into Israel.'
"In 2014, during an unprecedented bombardment of Gaza, Peres stepped up once again to whitewash war crimes. After Israeli forces killed four small children playing on a beach, Peres knew who to blame - the Palestinians: 'It was an area that we warned would be bombed,' he said. 'And unfortunately they didn't take out the children.'
"The choking blockade, condemned internationally as a form of prohibited collective punishment, has also been defended by Peres - precisely on the grounds that it is a form of collective punishment. As Peres put it in 2014: 'If Gaza ceases fire, there will be no need for a blockade.'
"Peres' support for collective punishment also extended to Iran. Commenting in 2012 on reports that six million Iranians suffering from cancer were unable to get treatment due to sanctions, Peres said: 'If they want to return to a normal life, let them become normal.'
Unapologetic to the end
"Peres was always clear about the goal of a peace deal with the Palestinians. As he said in 2014: 'The first priority is preserving Israel as a Jewish state. That is our central goal, that is what we are fighting for.' Last year he reiterated these sentiments in an interview with AP, saying: 'Israel should implement the two-state solution for her own sake,' so as not to 'lose our [Jewish] majority.'
"This, recall, was what shaped Labor's support for the Oslo Accords. Rabin, speaking to the Knesset not long before his assassination in 1995, was clear that what Israel sought from the Oslo Accords was a Palestinian 'entity' that would be 'less than a state'. Jerusalem would be Israel's undivided capital, key settlements would be annexed and Israel would remain in the Jordan Valley.
"A few years ago, Peres described the Palestinians as 'self-victimising'. He went on: 'They victimise themselves. They are a victim of their own mistakes unnecessarily.' Such cruel condescension was characteristic of a man for whom 'peace' always meant colonial pacification."
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
And the Winner Is?
You are girding your loins for the great debate, the one that may well decide whether or not you make it to the White House. Millions of Americans will be watching your every move. Millions of Americans will be hanging on your every word. Nothing, but nothing, can be allowed to distract you from your task of winning over Mr & Mrs America.
Except one thing - a one-and-a-half-hourmeeting encounter with Benjamin Netanyahu.
So he can vet your speech and make a few changes:
"The candidates hunkered for much of Sunday, during which each broke from debate preparation to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - Trump in the morning and Clinton, reportedly, was to see him later in the day. Having already abandoned an early undertaking to be 'neutral' in the Israel-Palestine conflict, a statement issued by the Trump campaign after the 90-minute encounter, argued 'peace will only come when the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State'. Trump also pledged a big shift in US policy, undertaking that if elected, he would recognise the contested city of Jerusalem as 'the undivided capital of the State of Israel'." (Election debate will be a mud wrestle, not a policy contest, Paul McGeough, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/9/16)
Only (?) in USrael.
Except one thing - a one-and-a-half-hour
So he can vet your speech and make a few changes:
"The candidates hunkered for much of Sunday, during which each broke from debate preparation to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - Trump in the morning and Clinton, reportedly, was to see him later in the day. Having already abandoned an early undertaking to be 'neutral' in the Israel-Palestine conflict, a statement issued by the Trump campaign after the 90-minute encounter, argued 'peace will only come when the Palestinians renounce hatred and violence and accept Israel as a Jewish State'. Trump also pledged a big shift in US policy, undertaking that if elected, he would recognise the contested city of Jerusalem as 'the undivided capital of the State of Israel'." (Election debate will be a mud wrestle, not a policy contest, Paul McGeough, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/9/16)
Only (?) in USrael.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
It's Not All Doom & Gloom
Is the hideous, cringeworthy spectacle of the American presidential race-to-the-bottom getting you down? On a more personal level, are you struggling just to make ends meet? Want something to cheer you up? Try this:
"As of August 2016, the US has already appropriated, spent, or taken on obligations to spend more than $3.6 trillion in current dollars on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and on Homeland Security (2001 through fiscal year 2016). To this total should be added the approximately $65 billion in dedicated war spending the Department of Defense and State Department have requested for the next fiscal year, 2017, along with an additional nearly $32 billion requested for the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, and estimated spending on veterans in future years. When those are included, the total US budgetary cost of the wars reaches $4.79 trillion." (From: US Budgetary Costs of Wars through 2016: $4.79 Trillion & Counting: Summary Costs of the US Wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Homeland Security, Neta C. Crawford, Boston University, September 2016)
"As of August 2016, the US has already appropriated, spent, or taken on obligations to spend more than $3.6 trillion in current dollars on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and on Homeland Security (2001 through fiscal year 2016). To this total should be added the approximately $65 billion in dedicated war spending the Department of Defense and State Department have requested for the next fiscal year, 2017, along with an additional nearly $32 billion requested for the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, and estimated spending on veterans in future years. When those are included, the total US budgetary cost of the wars reaches $4.79 trillion." (From: US Budgetary Costs of Wars through 2016: $4.79 Trillion & Counting: Summary Costs of the US Wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Homeland Security, Neta C. Crawford, Boston University, September 2016)
Monday, September 26, 2016
Just Stop Right There
How to read the Murdoch press, in this instance Bibi & Obama ease their rift, The Wall Street Journal/ The Australian, 23/9/16:
"Hours before Mr Obama and Mr Netanyahu met, Israeli security forces..."
Just stop right there. Shouldn't that be OCCUPATION forces?
"... shot and wounded a Palestinian teenager after she refused to stop at a checkpoint between the West Bank... "
Just stop right there. Shouldn't that be OCCUPIED West Bank?
"... and Israel. It marked the sixth straight day of Israeli-Palestinian violence."
Just stop right there. So the gunning down of a Palestinian kid by Israeli OCCUPATION forces for nothing more than refusing to stop at an Israeli checkpoint (on OCCUPIED Palestinian land) is an example of "Israeli-Palestinian violence," not simply ISRAELI OCCUPATION VIOLENCE?
Just stop right there. One final question. Do you honestly think that reading this kind of pro-Israel propaganda, day in, day out, will enable you to understand what's really going on over there?
"Hours before Mr Obama and Mr Netanyahu met, Israeli security forces..."
Just stop right there. Shouldn't that be OCCUPATION forces?
"... shot and wounded a Palestinian teenager after she refused to stop at a checkpoint between the West Bank... "
Just stop right there. Shouldn't that be OCCUPIED West Bank?
"... and Israel. It marked the sixth straight day of Israeli-Palestinian violence."
Just stop right there. So the gunning down of a Palestinian kid by Israeli OCCUPATION forces for nothing more than refusing to stop at an Israeli checkpoint (on OCCUPIED Palestinian land) is an example of "Israeli-Palestinian violence," not simply ISRAELI OCCUPATION VIOLENCE?
Just stop right there. One final question. Do you honestly think that reading this kind of pro-Israel propaganda, day in, day out, will enable you to understand what's really going on over there?
Who Now Controls Mount Thardah?
FYI. Here is the first ever reference to the ISIS takeover of Syrian positions on Mt Thardah (following the American/Australian/Danish 'accidental' bombing of Syrian army positions there) I've seen in the Australian ms press:
"Syria and the US have been at loggerheads since an airstrike by the coalition hit Syrian troops... on Saturday. US officials said the attack... was accidental and the warplanes intended to target ISIS positions. Russia said the strikes killed more than 60 Syrian troops and, afterwards, ISIS militants briefly overran regime positions." (Defiant or delusional? Assad rails against the West, Ian Phillips & Zeina Karam, AP/The Australian, 24/9/16)
Briefly overran? Is this deliberate disinformation, or is the devastated Syrian army now back in control Mount Thardah? That'd be quite a comeback, would it not?
[See my posts WTF are We Doing in Syria? (19/9/16) & Blame It on the Whizzbangs (21/9/16).]
"Syria and the US have been at loggerheads since an airstrike by the coalition hit Syrian troops... on Saturday. US officials said the attack... was accidental and the warplanes intended to target ISIS positions. Russia said the strikes killed more than 60 Syrian troops and, afterwards, ISIS militants briefly overran regime positions." (Defiant or delusional? Assad rails against the West, Ian Phillips & Zeina Karam, AP/The Australian, 24/9/16)
Briefly overran? Is this deliberate disinformation, or is the devastated Syrian army now back in control Mount Thardah? That'd be quite a comeback, would it not?
[See my posts WTF are We Doing in Syria? (19/9/16) & Blame It on the Whizzbangs (21/9/16).]
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Tweet of the Week
From George Galloway (25/9/16):
Hats off to Ken Stott!!
"We got off to a flying start this afternoon when actor Ken Stott, performing at The Theatre Royal, made a point of 'engaging' with us, only to aggressively screw up our leaflet, criticise Israel's treatment of Palestinians and eloquently tell us to 'Take your f*****g leaflet and stick it up your f*****g arse.' - Sussex Friends of Israel"
Why these pests were buzzing around The Theatre Royal at the time is unclear.
Hats off to Ken Stott!!
"We got off to a flying start this afternoon when actor Ken Stott, performing at The Theatre Royal, made a point of 'engaging' with us, only to aggressively screw up our leaflet, criticise Israel's treatment of Palestinians and eloquently tell us to 'Take your f*****g leaflet and stick it up your f*****g arse.' - Sussex Friends of Israel"
Why these pests were buzzing around The Theatre Royal at the time is unclear.
Saturday, September 24, 2016
The Rogue Elephant in the Room
M'Lord Turnbull struts his stuff and nonsense on the world stage:
"In his first address to [the UNGA]... Mr Turnbull has dispensed with the usual conservative coolness towards the UN's perceived ineffectiveness... to laud its performance in solving complex international problems... With the exception of Syria in particular, he will assert that the UN has performed remarkably well." (UN's crucial role in world peace lauded by Turnbull, Mark Kenny, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/9/16)
With the exception of Syria? That's it?
What a joke this puppet of the Israel lobby is.
"In his first address to [the UNGA]... Mr Turnbull has dispensed with the usual conservative coolness towards the UN's perceived ineffectiveness... to laud its performance in solving complex international problems... With the exception of Syria in particular, he will assert that the UN has performed remarkably well." (UN's crucial role in world peace lauded by Turnbull, Mark Kenny, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/9/16)
With the exception of Syria? That's it?
What a joke this puppet of the Israel lobby is.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Magic Happens
Remember how the proposed UC Berkeley course on Zionist settler-colonialism was dropped after Zionists pressured the university administration?* Well, the students who'd enrolled pushed back, and... magic happened:
"After an abrupt suspension last Tuesday, a college course about the decolonization of Palestine has earned a reprieve from the University of California on Monday. After reviewing the course material, the Berkely campus officials decided the class promoted open discussion and didn't push a political agenda." (UC Berkeley reinstates Palestine class, rejecting pressure from pro-Israel group, Wilson Dizard, mondoweiss.net, 20/9/16)
Free speech 1, Zionist bullying 0
[*See my 16/9/16 post Let's Have a Course on Startup Nation Instead.]
"After an abrupt suspension last Tuesday, a college course about the decolonization of Palestine has earned a reprieve from the University of California on Monday. After reviewing the course material, the Berkely campus officials decided the class promoted open discussion and didn't push a political agenda." (UC Berkeley reinstates Palestine class, rejecting pressure from pro-Israel group, Wilson Dizard, mondoweiss.net, 20/9/16)
Free speech 1, Zionist bullying 0
[*See my 16/9/16 post Let's Have a Course on Startup Nation Instead.]
Thursday, September 22, 2016
A Charming Visitor from Israel
This bloke was born in the Ukraine, migrated to "the only democracy in the Middle East," became a minister in the Netanyahu government, squats in a West Bank settlement, wants Israel to annex the West Bank, and is now in Australia to tell us we're being "ridiculous" and "anti-Semitic":
"A senior Israeli government minister has criticised as 'concerning' a new Labor publication produced for politicians who visit the only democracy in the Middle East. Ze'ev Elkin, who met Julie Bishop last week, told The Australian it was ridiculous to enforce requirements on how much time MPs spend in Israel and the Palestinian Territories and said anti-Israeli sentiment was the new politically correct form of anti-Semitism... Mr Elkin, who is in Australia to discuss environmental co-operation with the NSW and federal governments, said he was worried by anti-Semitism which, in his experience, was usually preceded by anti-Israel sentiment." (Labor guidelines a 'concern' for Israeli minister, Sharri Markson, The Australian, 20/9/16)
Oh, and:
"Mr Elkin... revealed he had little hope for a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority in the near future..."
Not, of course, that this has anything to do with his living in an Israeli settlement and wanting Israel to stop mucking around and annex the West Bank. Funny how Ms Markson left out that wee detail.
"A senior Israeli government minister has criticised as 'concerning' a new Labor publication produced for politicians who visit the only democracy in the Middle East. Ze'ev Elkin, who met Julie Bishop last week, told The Australian it was ridiculous to enforce requirements on how much time MPs spend in Israel and the Palestinian Territories and said anti-Israeli sentiment was the new politically correct form of anti-Semitism... Mr Elkin, who is in Australia to discuss environmental co-operation with the NSW and federal governments, said he was worried by anti-Semitism which, in his experience, was usually preceded by anti-Israel sentiment." (Labor guidelines a 'concern' for Israeli minister, Sharri Markson, The Australian, 20/9/16)
Oh, and:
"Mr Elkin... revealed he had little hope for a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority in the near future..."
Not, of course, that this has anything to do with his living in an Israeli settlement and wanting Israel to stop mucking around and annex the West Bank. Funny how Ms Markson left out that wee detail.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Blame It On the Whizzbangs
"[Defence Minister] Senator Payne echoed a Defence statement... in saying the coalition had been 'tracking' what they believed was an Islamic State fighting position 'for some time'. This could suggest there was an intelligence failure from the fusion of information from drones, satellites, signal intelligence from sources such as mobile phones and informants on the ground." (RAAF to press on with IS strikes despite fatal error, David Wroe, Heath Aston & Mark Kenny, Sydney Morning Herald, 20/9/16)
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
The Conroy Conundrum
Don the sackcloth and ashes now!
Stephen Conroy, 53, has up and resigned... and, thanks to 20 years 'service' in the Senate, this great man will be getting a cool annual pension of $200,000. Nice.
I know... WTF?! right?
But wait, it gets worse:
In his Diary of a Foreign Minister, Bob Carr described Conroy as "the firebrand of the Victorian Right with an umbilical attachment to the cause of Israel." (p 233)
I know... OMFG!! right?
But what I want to know is why, O why, anyone in their right mind, in the 21st century, other than maybe a certifiably mad Christian Zio, would have such a thing as "an umbilical attachment to Israel"?
I mean, if Conroy wore a pith helmet everywhere, or a monocle, or a Davy Crockett hat, wouldn't you want to know why?
Is it Christian Zionism? Is it parental blah? Priestly blah? Is it Leon Uris? Morris West? Is it patronage? Is it some unholy combination of these? What is it?
Seriously, I'd really, really love to know what IT is.
Stephen Conroy, 53, has up and resigned... and, thanks to 20 years 'service' in the Senate, this great man will be getting a cool annual pension of $200,000. Nice.
I know... WTF?! right?
But wait, it gets worse:
In his Diary of a Foreign Minister, Bob Carr described Conroy as "the firebrand of the Victorian Right with an umbilical attachment to the cause of Israel." (p 233)
I know... OMFG!! right?
But what I want to know is why, O why, anyone in their right mind, in the 21st century, other than maybe a certifiably mad Christian Zio, would have such a thing as "an umbilical attachment to Israel"?
I mean, if Conroy wore a pith helmet everywhere, or a monocle, or a Davy Crockett hat, wouldn't you want to know why?
Is it Christian Zionism? Is it parental blah? Priestly blah? Is it Leon Uris? Morris West? Is it patronage? Is it some unholy combination of these? What is it?
Seriously, I'd really, really love to know what IT is.
Monday, September 19, 2016
WTF are We Doing in Syria?
Just in:
"Australia has said its warplanes took part in US-led airstrikes in eastern Syria that mistakenly killed Syrian army troops in an incident threatening to wreck an already tenuous ceasefire before it is a week old... An Australian defence department statement said its jets had targeted what had been thought to be Islamic State (Isis) fighters... The US [and Australia] has offered condolences and insisted that the airstrikes were a mistake. It said it had targeted Tharda mountain where a Syrian government offensive was seeking to capture Isis positions overlooking the Deir ez-Zour military airport." (Australian warplanes took part in airstrikes that killed Syrian troops, Julian Borger, The Guardian, 19/9/16)
However:
"Thardah mountain is made up of 6... hills, all under SAA control with no prior presence of Isis on them./ [It] has always been under SAA control, bar a small breach a few months ago, which was quickly reversed./ So again CENTCOM's statement in which it says coalition has bombed these positions in the past is puzzling." (Tweets by former Sunday Times journalist Hala Jaber, 18/9/16)
Incidentally, Israel has been the only country up to now killing Syrian troops on Syrian soil.
PS: "In the defense of the Deir Ezzor Airport, the Syrian military has long depended on an army base in Jebel Tharda to repel ISIS advances. That base has been lost this weekend, after a disastrous series of US-led airstrikes killed a large number of Syrian troops defending the base, and ISIS quickly overran what was left." (ISIS overruns Syrian army base after US bombings, Jason Ditz, antiwar.com, 18/9/16)
"Australia has said its warplanes took part in US-led airstrikes in eastern Syria that mistakenly killed Syrian army troops in an incident threatening to wreck an already tenuous ceasefire before it is a week old... An Australian defence department statement said its jets had targeted what had been thought to be Islamic State (Isis) fighters... The US [and Australia] has offered condolences and insisted that the airstrikes were a mistake. It said it had targeted Tharda mountain where a Syrian government offensive was seeking to capture Isis positions overlooking the Deir ez-Zour military airport." (Australian warplanes took part in airstrikes that killed Syrian troops, Julian Borger, The Guardian, 19/9/16)
However:
"Thardah mountain is made up of 6... hills, all under SAA control with no prior presence of Isis on them./ [It] has always been under SAA control, bar a small breach a few months ago, which was quickly reversed./ So again CENTCOM's statement in which it says coalition has bombed these positions in the past is puzzling." (Tweets by former Sunday Times journalist Hala Jaber, 18/9/16)
Incidentally, Israel has been the only country up to now killing Syrian troops on Syrian soil.
PS: "In the defense of the Deir Ezzor Airport, the Syrian military has long depended on an army base in Jebel Tharda to repel ISIS advances. That base has been lost this weekend, after a disastrous series of US-led airstrikes killed a large number of Syrian troops defending the base, and ISIS quickly overran what was left." (ISIS overruns Syrian army base after US bombings, Jason Ditz, antiwar.com, 18/9/16)
Australia's Answer to BDS: MBWAI
MBWA? More Business With Apartheid Israel:
"The Turnbull government will introduce a tax treaty between Australia and Israel to improve business relations between the two countries. The treaty is linked to the government's plan to boost innovation in Australia as well as its push to further trade between the two countries as Israel's technology sector booms.
"Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the tax treaty on Friday at the [sic] Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce luncheon. 'The government has now formally commenced negotiations with Israel on a tax treaty that will improve trade and and investment by removing tax barriers for business which I'm hopeful will be concluded in the first half of next year,' he said.
"Speaking after the lunch, Mr Morrison said it was too soon to say whether the treaty would include a taxation information exchange agreement - an agreement that allows authorities in each country to request information relating to specific criminal or civil tax investigation. 'We've just started that process and the government hasn't come to any final view on a lot of these matters so we'll just work that process over the next 12 months,' he said. Mr Morrison also wouldn't be drawn on whether the package would benefit casino magnate James Packer who has recently become a resident of Israel." (Tax treaty talks with Israel promise boost to business relations, Sarah Danckert, Sydney Morning Herald, 17/9/16)
"The Turnbull government will introduce a tax treaty between Australia and Israel to improve business relations between the two countries. The treaty is linked to the government's plan to boost innovation in Australia as well as its push to further trade between the two countries as Israel's technology sector booms.
"Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the tax treaty on Friday at the [sic] Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce luncheon. 'The government has now formally commenced negotiations with Israel on a tax treaty that will improve trade and and investment by removing tax barriers for business which I'm hopeful will be concluded in the first half of next year,' he said.
"Speaking after the lunch, Mr Morrison said it was too soon to say whether the treaty would include a taxation information exchange agreement - an agreement that allows authorities in each country to request information relating to specific criminal or civil tax investigation. 'We've just started that process and the government hasn't come to any final view on a lot of these matters so we'll just work that process over the next 12 months,' he said. Mr Morrison also wouldn't be drawn on whether the package would benefit casino magnate James Packer who has recently become a resident of Israel." (Tax treaty talks with Israel promise boost to business relations, Sarah Danckert, Sydney Morning Herald, 17/9/16)
Sunday, September 18, 2016
First Bliar, Now Cameron
It seems that British prime ministers just cannot help themselves.
In 2011, a mere 9 years after Bliar invaded Iraq, former UK PM David Cameron (2010-16) got stuck into Libya. (Needless to say, as a Tory MP in 2003, he also voted in favour of the Bush/Bliar war on Iraq.)
Cameron's role in turning Libya into a base for the latter-day Wahhabis and takfiris of IS should receive the same scrutiny as Bliar's in the destruction and sectarianisation of Iraq, and both should be held to account for the devastating consequences of their actions. Hopefully, in Cameron's case, the following official report will help kick-start that process:
"Former prime minister David Cameron's 2011 decision to intervene militarily in Libya was misguided and helped give rise to jihadist extremism in North Africa, a key British parliamentary committee says. The report slams Mr Cameron and his top advisers for expanding a civilian protection mission in Libya to include regime change and failing to adequately plan for the country's future after the overthrow of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. It says Britain's military action was based on 'erroneous assumptions' and 'an incomplete understanding' of the ramifications of removing Colonel Gaddafi, and Mr Cameron's team should have been aware the rebel groups Britain was backing contained 'significant' numbers of extremists. 'The UK's actions in Libya were part of an ill-conceived intervention, the results of which are still playing out today,' said committee chairman Crispin Blunt, a Conservative Party MP." (MPs blame Cameron for Libya crisis, rise of IS, Gregory Katz, AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, 16/9/16)
In 2011, a mere 9 years after Bliar invaded Iraq, former UK PM David Cameron (2010-16) got stuck into Libya. (Needless to say, as a Tory MP in 2003, he also voted in favour of the Bush/Bliar war on Iraq.)
Cameron's role in turning Libya into a base for the latter-day Wahhabis and takfiris of IS should receive the same scrutiny as Bliar's in the destruction and sectarianisation of Iraq, and both should be held to account for the devastating consequences of their actions. Hopefully, in Cameron's case, the following official report will help kick-start that process:
"Former prime minister David Cameron's 2011 decision to intervene militarily in Libya was misguided and helped give rise to jihadist extremism in North Africa, a key British parliamentary committee says. The report slams Mr Cameron and his top advisers for expanding a civilian protection mission in Libya to include regime change and failing to adequately plan for the country's future after the overthrow of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. It says Britain's military action was based on 'erroneous assumptions' and 'an incomplete understanding' of the ramifications of removing Colonel Gaddafi, and Mr Cameron's team should have been aware the rebel groups Britain was backing contained 'significant' numbers of extremists. 'The UK's actions in Libya were part of an ill-conceived intervention, the results of which are still playing out today,' said committee chairman Crispin Blunt, a Conservative Party MP." (MPs blame Cameron for Libya crisis, rise of IS, Gregory Katz, AAP/Sydney Morning Herald, 16/9/16)
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Remembering Beirut's Sabra & Shatila Massacre, 34-Years On
The Israeli army invaded Lebanon in June 1982, laying siege to a resistant West Beirut.
A US-negotiated ceasefire led to an agreement allowing for the evacuation of PLO forces from West Beirut to Tunis. The agreement also guaranteed the protection of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians in West Beirut once the evacuation had been completed. Following the further withdrawal of a US-French-Italian multinational peacekeeping force from the area, and in violation of the ceasefire, Israeli forces entered West Beirut, blockaded the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra & Shatila, and, from 16-18 September, unleashed their ally, the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia on the defenceless, war-weary residents of the camps. Up to 3,500 were massacred.
A Singaporean orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Swee Chai Ang, working for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Sabra's Gaza Hospital, graphically recorded her dawning horror at the sheer scale and brutality of the massacre in a memoir, From Beirut to Jerusalem: A Woman Surgeon With the Palestinians (1989):
"The Israelis dropped us at the compound of the American Embassy in West Beirut. I did not want to go into the embassy: I wanted to go back to the camps. But I knew that I could not. While the rest of the team went into the embassy, I decided I would walk to the Commodore Hotel to talk to the journalists there, to see if I could find out more about what had happened. Paul Morris came with me.
"It was early in the afternoon when we got to the Commodore Hotel. We went to the press room, where TV crews had just returned from the camps and were reviewing what they had just videoed in Sabra and Shatila.
"First there were shots of the main road of the camp, the road we had been marched down earlier that morning. Heaps of corpses on both sides of the road. The people rounded up by the gunmen had been shot after we left. Then close-ups of the bodies filmed in the side allies of the camps. Bodies piled on top of each other - mutilated bodies, with arms chopped off - bloated decaying bodies that had obviously died a day or two before. Bodies whose limbs were still tied to bits of wires and bodies which bore marks of having been beaten up before their murder. Bodies of children - little girls and boys - and women and old men. Some bodies lay in blood that was still red, others in pools of brownish black fluid. Bodies of women with clothes removed but too mutilated to tell whether they were sexually assaulted or just tortured to death.
"I started to cry. For the first time I grasped the scale of what had happened. The truth hit me painfully. I had been so busy that I had no time to think. But now, I knew that while we had been trying to save a handful of people in the operating theatres of Gaza Hospital, the camp folks had been dying by the thousands outside. Besides being shot dead, people were tortured before being killed. They were beaten brutally, electric wires were tied round limbs, eyes were dug out, women were raped, often more than once, children were dynamited alive. Looking at all the broken bodies, I began to think that those who had died quickly were the lucky ones.
"The machine-gun rattle that we had heard from the hospital was not fighting between PLO terrorists and Israelis as I had vaguely assumed, but had been the sound of whole families being shot dead in cold blood. The heavy explosive noises we had heard had been the shelling of camp homes. The camps were completely sealed in by Israeli tanks and not even a child could sneak out past them. When we asked the two thousand people hiding in the Gaza Hospital to run away, they had nowhere to go. So they were all captured when they left the hospital, and indeed, many of them were murdered later that morning. People full of hope and life were now just mutilated corpses. These were the folks who after months of bombardment had come back from the bomb shelters to live in the camps. They had been so optimistic just a few days ago. They had believed the promises of the USA and other powerful nations that they would be left in peace, if the PLO left. They all thought they were being promised a chance of life.
"I had watched them rebuilding their shattered lives and homes just a few days before. I had spoken to women who had watched their sons, brothers and husbands being evacuated with the PLO under the peace agreement and then had taken the guns left behind to surrender them to the Lebanese Army or throw them away on the rubbish dump. I had eaten in their homes and had drunk Arabic coffee with them. My surgical skills had enabled me to treat a few people, to save them so that they could be sent out into the streets, unarmed, to be shot down again, this time successfully. I hated my own ignorance which had deceived me into believing that we all had a real hope of peace in Sabra and Shatila, a real chance of a new life. Like everyone else from the West, I thought things would be alright once the PLO left. I thought they were the ones whose presence caused all the attacks on the camps.
"I had thought the old people could retire when the PLO went, and the children could grow up - instead of having bullets put through their heads, and having their throats slit. I was a fool, a real fool. It had never occurred to me that this would happen. It was a grim moment. I felt forsaken by God, by men, by a world without conscience. How could little children suffer the agony and the terror of watching scenes of torture, of their loved ones being killed, of their homes being blown up and bulldozed over. For these children, the mental scars, the psychological wounds would probably never heal. It was one thing to die suddenly. It was entirely different to watch loved ones being tortured and killed while awaiting ones own turn." (pp 66-68)
A US-negotiated ceasefire led to an agreement allowing for the evacuation of PLO forces from West Beirut to Tunis. The agreement also guaranteed the protection of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians in West Beirut once the evacuation had been completed. Following the further withdrawal of a US-French-Italian multinational peacekeeping force from the area, and in violation of the ceasefire, Israeli forces entered West Beirut, blockaded the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra & Shatila, and, from 16-18 September, unleashed their ally, the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia on the defenceless, war-weary residents of the camps. Up to 3,500 were massacred.
A Singaporean orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Swee Chai Ang, working for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Sabra's Gaza Hospital, graphically recorded her dawning horror at the sheer scale and brutality of the massacre in a memoir, From Beirut to Jerusalem: A Woman Surgeon With the Palestinians (1989):
"The Israelis dropped us at the compound of the American Embassy in West Beirut. I did not want to go into the embassy: I wanted to go back to the camps. But I knew that I could not. While the rest of the team went into the embassy, I decided I would walk to the Commodore Hotel to talk to the journalists there, to see if I could find out more about what had happened. Paul Morris came with me.
"It was early in the afternoon when we got to the Commodore Hotel. We went to the press room, where TV crews had just returned from the camps and were reviewing what they had just videoed in Sabra and Shatila.
"First there were shots of the main road of the camp, the road we had been marched down earlier that morning. Heaps of corpses on both sides of the road. The people rounded up by the gunmen had been shot after we left. Then close-ups of the bodies filmed in the side allies of the camps. Bodies piled on top of each other - mutilated bodies, with arms chopped off - bloated decaying bodies that had obviously died a day or two before. Bodies whose limbs were still tied to bits of wires and bodies which bore marks of having been beaten up before their murder. Bodies of children - little girls and boys - and women and old men. Some bodies lay in blood that was still red, others in pools of brownish black fluid. Bodies of women with clothes removed but too mutilated to tell whether they were sexually assaulted or just tortured to death.
"I started to cry. For the first time I grasped the scale of what had happened. The truth hit me painfully. I had been so busy that I had no time to think. But now, I knew that while we had been trying to save a handful of people in the operating theatres of Gaza Hospital, the camp folks had been dying by the thousands outside. Besides being shot dead, people were tortured before being killed. They were beaten brutally, electric wires were tied round limbs, eyes were dug out, women were raped, often more than once, children were dynamited alive. Looking at all the broken bodies, I began to think that those who had died quickly were the lucky ones.
"The machine-gun rattle that we had heard from the hospital was not fighting between PLO terrorists and Israelis as I had vaguely assumed, but had been the sound of whole families being shot dead in cold blood. The heavy explosive noises we had heard had been the shelling of camp homes. The camps were completely sealed in by Israeli tanks and not even a child could sneak out past them. When we asked the two thousand people hiding in the Gaza Hospital to run away, they had nowhere to go. So they were all captured when they left the hospital, and indeed, many of them were murdered later that morning. People full of hope and life were now just mutilated corpses. These were the folks who after months of bombardment had come back from the bomb shelters to live in the camps. They had been so optimistic just a few days ago. They had believed the promises of the USA and other powerful nations that they would be left in peace, if the PLO left. They all thought they were being promised a chance of life.
"I had watched them rebuilding their shattered lives and homes just a few days before. I had spoken to women who had watched their sons, brothers and husbands being evacuated with the PLO under the peace agreement and then had taken the guns left behind to surrender them to the Lebanese Army or throw them away on the rubbish dump. I had eaten in their homes and had drunk Arabic coffee with them. My surgical skills had enabled me to treat a few people, to save them so that they could be sent out into the streets, unarmed, to be shot down again, this time successfully. I hated my own ignorance which had deceived me into believing that we all had a real hope of peace in Sabra and Shatila, a real chance of a new life. Like everyone else from the West, I thought things would be alright once the PLO left. I thought they were the ones whose presence caused all the attacks on the camps.
"I had thought the old people could retire when the PLO went, and the children could grow up - instead of having bullets put through their heads, and having their throats slit. I was a fool, a real fool. It had never occurred to me that this would happen. It was a grim moment. I felt forsaken by God, by men, by a world without conscience. How could little children suffer the agony and the terror of watching scenes of torture, of their loved ones being killed, of their homes being blown up and bulldozed over. For these children, the mental scars, the psychological wounds would probably never heal. It was one thing to die suddenly. It was entirely different to watch loved ones being tortured and killed while awaiting ones own turn." (pp 66-68)
Friday, September 16, 2016
Let's Have a Course on Startup Nation Instead
Zionists simply cannot tolerate dissent from the party line, whether in politics, the media... or on campus.
Academics have been smeared, and some have even lost their jobs as a result of Zionist pressure tactics. Pro-Palestine students too have been smeared and suspended merely for exercising the rights of assembly, protest and free speech. But I'm not sure if anything quite like this has happened before:
A proposed University of California Berkeley course Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis has been dropped because of Zionist pressure, on the grounds that it is an example of "the misuse of the classroom for political indoctrination."
Here is a description of the course:
"This 1-unit lecture and discussion-based course will examine key historical developments that have taken place in in Palestine, from the 1880s to the present, through the lens of settler colonialism. First, by utilizing a comparative approach and engaging with existing scholarship, we will gain a broad understanding of settler colonialism. Second, we will explore the connection between Zionism and settler colonialism, and the ways in which it has manifested, and continues to manifest, in Palestine. Lastly, drawing upon the literature on decolonization, we will explore the possibilities of a decolonized Palestine, one in which justice is realized for all its peoples and equality is not only espoused, but practiced."
In fact, it is those raised on the false historical narrative of Zionism, with its myths of a golden age of Jewish political sovereignty in Palestine, a forced expulsion, a dark, centuries-long exile, and an eventual, triumphant return to the 'Land of Israel', who have been politically indoctrinated. And it is they who resist tooth and nail any subjection of their narrative to critical scrutiny by historians.
Mind you, the early Zionists had no problems with the 'c' or 's' words. A few examples suffice:
There was Baron de Hirsch's Jewish Colonization Association and its successor, Baron de Rothschild's Palestine Jewish Colonization Association.
There was the call in the first Zionist Congress's Basel Program (1897) for "the settlement of Jewish farmers, artisans and manufacturers" in "Eretz Israel."
The were early descriptions such as this of Zionist settlers in Ottoman Palestine: "We found the graves of the great Talmudist Rabbi Meir and two of his pupils in a school of the Ashkenazim, which, for the nonce, was serving a very useful purpose as hospice for a number of German Jews travelling to a new colony farther south." (In a Syrian Saddle, A. Goodrich-Freer, 1905, p 305)
There was the July 1917 first draft of the Balfour Declaration, which called on the British government to establish "a Jewish National Colonizing Corporation."
And there was Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann with his "plans for immigration, irrigation [and] colonization." (Trial & Error, p 316)
Academics have been smeared, and some have even lost their jobs as a result of Zionist pressure tactics. Pro-Palestine students too have been smeared and suspended merely for exercising the rights of assembly, protest and free speech. But I'm not sure if anything quite like this has happened before:
A proposed University of California Berkeley course Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis has been dropped because of Zionist pressure, on the grounds that it is an example of "the misuse of the classroom for political indoctrination."
Here is a description of the course:
"This 1-unit lecture and discussion-based course will examine key historical developments that have taken place in in Palestine, from the 1880s to the present, through the lens of settler colonialism. First, by utilizing a comparative approach and engaging with existing scholarship, we will gain a broad understanding of settler colonialism. Second, we will explore the connection between Zionism and settler colonialism, and the ways in which it has manifested, and continues to manifest, in Palestine. Lastly, drawing upon the literature on decolonization, we will explore the possibilities of a decolonized Palestine, one in which justice is realized for all its peoples and equality is not only espoused, but practiced."
In fact, it is those raised on the false historical narrative of Zionism, with its myths of a golden age of Jewish political sovereignty in Palestine, a forced expulsion, a dark, centuries-long exile, and an eventual, triumphant return to the 'Land of Israel', who have been politically indoctrinated. And it is they who resist tooth and nail any subjection of their narrative to critical scrutiny by historians.
Mind you, the early Zionists had no problems with the 'c' or 's' words. A few examples suffice:
There was Baron de Hirsch's Jewish Colonization Association and its successor, Baron de Rothschild's Palestine Jewish Colonization Association.
There was the call in the first Zionist Congress's Basel Program (1897) for "the settlement of Jewish farmers, artisans and manufacturers" in "Eretz Israel."
The were early descriptions such as this of Zionist settlers in Ottoman Palestine: "We found the graves of the great Talmudist Rabbi Meir and two of his pupils in a school of the Ashkenazim, which, for the nonce, was serving a very useful purpose as hospice for a number of German Jews travelling to a new colony farther south." (In a Syrian Saddle, A. Goodrich-Freer, 1905, p 305)
There was the July 1917 first draft of the Balfour Declaration, which called on the British government to establish "a Jewish National Colonizing Corporation."
And there was Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann with his "plans for immigration, irrigation [and] colonization." (Trial & Error, p 316)
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Bushama's Legacy
Sit down before you read this:
"Israel's Channel 2 has today reported that Israeli officials have accepted the most recent US military aid package, which will see them receiving some $38 billion over the next decade." (Report: US, Israel agree on $38 billion military aid deal, Jason Ditz, antiwar.com, 12/9/16)
"Since taking office in January 2009, the Obama administration has offered over $115 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia in 42 separate deals, more than any US administration in the history of the US-Saudi relationship." (US arms transfers to Saudi Arabia & the war in Yemen, William D. Hartung, securityassistance.org, 9/6/16)
"Israel's Channel 2 has today reported that Israeli officials have accepted the most recent US military aid package, which will see them receiving some $38 billion over the next decade." (Report: US, Israel agree on $38 billion military aid deal, Jason Ditz, antiwar.com, 12/9/16)
"Since taking office in January 2009, the Obama administration has offered over $115 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia in 42 separate deals, more than any US administration in the history of the US-Saudi relationship." (US arms transfers to Saudi Arabia & the war in Yemen, William D. Hartung, securityassistance.org, 9/6/16)
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Think About It
In the ALP, we have 'Chinese Friends of Labor' and 'Labor Friends of Israel'.
They might sound similar but the word order is telling.
They might sound similar but the word order is telling.
The Penny's Stuck
I've been thinking about Bob Carr's limited understanding of Zionism and its apartheid colonial-settler project in Arab Palestine, Israel. His 2014 Diary of a Foreign Minister, for example, condemns only what he refers to as "the hard-line, Likud-aligned pro-Israel lobby."
I just wonder whether the man who (along with Bob Hawke) started up Labor Friends of Israel back in 1977, but is now (following his clash with Australia's Israel lobby during his stint as foreign minister) the patron of Labor Friends of Palestine, will ever come to see that political Zionism, in whatever guise, Likud or Labor, is toxic to the core, and that a real friend of Palestine cannot also be a friend of Zionist Israel. (See my 9/11/14 post Bob Carr: Nagging Questions Remain.)
I just wonder whether the man who (along with Bob Hawke) started up Labor Friends of Israel back in 1977, but is now (following his clash with Australia's Israel lobby during his stint as foreign minister) the patron of Labor Friends of Palestine, will ever come to see that political Zionism, in whatever guise, Likud or Labor, is toxic to the core, and that a real friend of Palestine cannot also be a friend of Zionist Israel. (See my 9/11/14 post Bob Carr: Nagging Questions Remain.)
Monday, September 12, 2016
The Australian's Dreaded Senior Labor Source
Beware The Australian's dreaded Senior Labor Source (SLS):
"Bob Carr's think tank at the University of Technology, Sydney, is operating as a 'propaganda arm' of the Chinese communist government, critics say, as they raise concerns that the university sector is compromising academic freedoms and has become a target for Chinese 'soft power'. A senior Labor source said the former foreign minister was responsible for pushing an aggressive pro-China position with Labor MPs in NSW. The Australia China Relations Institute at UTS was established in 2014 with a $1.8 million donation from property developer Huang Xiangmo, whose Yuhu Group also settled a $40,000 legal claim for Labor senator Sam Dastyari... Following Senator Dastyari's resignation, one senior Labor source told The Australian Labor's former foreign minister was responsible for pushing an aggressive pro-China position with Labor MPs in NSW, particularly within the party's Right faction. 'Sam Dastyari was just the monkey - the organ-grinder is Bob Carr'." (Carr 'operating propaganda arm', Sarah Martin, The Australian, 9/9/16)
Ever since Carr blew the whistle (in his 2014 Diary of a Foreign Minister) on the "subcontracting" of our foreign policy to Zionist "party donors" in Melbourne, The Australian's SLS has been biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to smote him. This, alas, was provided by the hapless Sam Dastyari - hence the above guilt-by-association attack.
Sarah Martin reported that Carr "did not respond to a request for comment." Wise man. Had he not, after all, described the Murdoch press in his book as "relentless, manic, cruel." He chose to hit back instead with an opinion piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald, Think tank that sees hope in China needed.
"Bob Carr's think tank at the University of Technology, Sydney, is operating as a 'propaganda arm' of the Chinese communist government, critics say, as they raise concerns that the university sector is compromising academic freedoms and has become a target for Chinese 'soft power'. A senior Labor source said the former foreign minister was responsible for pushing an aggressive pro-China position with Labor MPs in NSW. The Australia China Relations Institute at UTS was established in 2014 with a $1.8 million donation from property developer Huang Xiangmo, whose Yuhu Group also settled a $40,000 legal claim for Labor senator Sam Dastyari... Following Senator Dastyari's resignation, one senior Labor source told The Australian Labor's former foreign minister was responsible for pushing an aggressive pro-China position with Labor MPs in NSW, particularly within the party's Right faction. 'Sam Dastyari was just the monkey - the organ-grinder is Bob Carr'." (Carr 'operating propaganda arm', Sarah Martin, The Australian, 9/9/16)
Ever since Carr blew the whistle (in his 2014 Diary of a Foreign Minister) on the "subcontracting" of our foreign policy to Zionist "party donors" in Melbourne, The Australian's SLS has been biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to smote him. This, alas, was provided by the hapless Sam Dastyari - hence the above guilt-by-association attack.
Sarah Martin reported that Carr "did not respond to a request for comment." Wise man. Had he not, after all, described the Murdoch press in his book as "relentless, manic, cruel." He chose to hit back instead with an opinion piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald, Think tank that sees hope in China needed.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Zionist Priorities
Oppression? Not a problem.
Dispossession? No sweat.
Colonization? Easy peasy.
Occupation? Yawn.
Burkinis? "I can understand why the burkini arouses 'strong' emotions, or at least uncomfortable ones." (Burkinis & the fabric of society, Julie Szego, Sydney Morning Herald, 9/9/16)
Dispossession? No sweat.
Colonization? Easy peasy.
Occupation? Yawn.
Burkinis? "I can understand why the burkini arouses 'strong' emotions, or at least uncomfortable ones." (Burkinis & the fabric of society, Julie Szego, Sydney Morning Herald, 9/9/16)
Friday, September 9, 2016
Why Netanyahu? Why Australia?
So why has the Turnbull government invited Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Australia next year? Sure, there's the perennial need to keep party coffers topped up, partly through Zionist money, but surely Netanyahu's malignant presence here isn't the price they (and we) have to pay for that?
It's worth noting that Israel's Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, is currently in London seeking the British government's cooperation in tackling the growth of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement. He is reported as saying that:
"Great Britain is the world center of the anti-Israel BDS campaign... I'm going [to Britain] to battle the boycott and delegitimization in every arena, and to discuss with members of the British government - which is also committed to fighting boycotts - ways to strengthen our cooperation against [the] anti-Semitic boycott campaign... I will meet with government officials and law enforcement in order to form a front of democratic countries against the worldwide threat, which includes targeted action against incitement on the Internet." (Israeli minister says Brits will 'pay the price' for anti-Semitic boycotts, rt.com/uk, 7/9/16)
Remember too that Julie Bishop, extender of the invitation, declared back in 2013 that "the Coalition will institute a policy across government that ensures no grants of taxpayers' funds are provided to individuals or organisations which actively support the BDS campaign." (Libs to cut funding for anti-Israel activists, Ean Higgins, The Australian, 25/5/13) (See my 26/5/13 post Bishop Takes Axe to Human Rights Activism.)
Government invitations to war criminals to drop in for a cuppa are one thing, allowing them to lobby for restrictions on our democratic right to protest their criminality is quite another.
It's worth noting that Israel's Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, is currently in London seeking the British government's cooperation in tackling the growth of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement. He is reported as saying that:
"Great Britain is the world center of the anti-Israel BDS campaign... I'm going [to Britain] to battle the boycott and delegitimization in every arena, and to discuss with members of the British government - which is also committed to fighting boycotts - ways to strengthen our cooperation against [the] anti-Semitic boycott campaign... I will meet with government officials and law enforcement in order to form a front of democratic countries against the worldwide threat, which includes targeted action against incitement on the Internet." (Israeli minister says Brits will 'pay the price' for anti-Semitic boycotts, rt.com/uk, 7/9/16)
Remember too that Julie Bishop, extender of the invitation, declared back in 2013 that "the Coalition will institute a policy across government that ensures no grants of taxpayers' funds are provided to individuals or organisations which actively support the BDS campaign." (Libs to cut funding for anti-Israel activists, Ean Higgins, The Australian, 25/5/13) (See my 26/5/13 post Bishop Takes Axe to Human Rights Activism.)
Government invitations to war criminals to drop in for a cuppa are one thing, allowing them to lobby for restrictions on our democratic right to protest their criminality is quite another.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
The Teflon Lady
Curious how, with regard to the current hot-button issue of Chinese political donations, the msm is focusing almost exclusively on the relatively insignificant figure of Sam Dastyari while ignoring FOREIGN MINISTER JULIE BISHOP.
After all:
"A... report by Fairfax Media said the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party had benefited to the tune of half a million dollars in the past couple of years from donations from Chinese businesspeople with links to the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop." (On political donations, Canberra is sleepwalking into its own integrity crisis, Katherine Murphy, The Guardian, 2/9/16)
After all:
"A... report by Fairfax Media said the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party had benefited to the tune of half a million dollars in the past couple of years from donations from Chinese businesspeople with links to the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop." (On political donations, Canberra is sleepwalking into its own integrity crisis, Katherine Murphy, The Guardian, 2/9/16)
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Time to Wake Up to the Herald's Peter Hartcher
Peter Hartcher, the Sydney Morning Herald's international editor, reckons that "Australia's been pretty naive in the way it sees China," and that it's Time to wake up to rats in the ranks:
"We need to be alert to politicians compromised by China's embrace... Perhaps unwitting paid-mouthpieces for the interests of the Chinese regime... Business people so captivated by their financial interests that they demand Australia assume the kowtow position... Front organisations, apparently innocuous friendship societies... " (6/9/16)
But not, it seems, to journalists or politicians compromised by Israel's embrace and acting as perhaps unwitting paid-mouthpieces for the interests of the Israeli regime. Nor to Israeli front organisations.
In 2009, Hartcher went to Israel on a NSW Jewish Board of Deputies-sponsored/paid trip. This resulted in a SMH puff piece on Israel's infamous Operation Cast Lead, in which he dismissed the UN as a "resolution factory," claimed that Israel had invaded Gaza "to stop the firing" after "enduring 800 rocket attacks," minimised the massacre of over 1400 Gazans (to 13 Israeli deaths) by referring to it as a "clash," regurgitated Israeli propaganda about Hamas using civilians as human shields, described Hamas as a "terrorist group," and quoted only Israeli "experts."
Hartcher disclosed the identity of his sponsors at the foot of the article. Following a comment thred backlash by Herald readers, he brazenly went on to claim that it was "routine" for journalists "to accept paid travel," so long as they disclosed it. (For the details, see my posts No Hidden Agenda (18/11/09) and Pawns in a Propaganda Game (15/3/10).)
In 2011, he spoke at a forum on Palestine/Israel at the Sydney Opera House. When the subject of the Palestinian right of return arose, he arrogantly dismissed it as "a reversion to old narratives," and variously referred to it as "unrealistc," a case of "Marrickville Council syndrome," and an "old grudge." (For the details, see my 20/6/11 post Hartcher Brings the House Down.)
"We need to be alert to politicians compromised by China's embrace... Perhaps unwitting paid-mouthpieces for the interests of the Chinese regime... Business people so captivated by their financial interests that they demand Australia assume the kowtow position... Front organisations, apparently innocuous friendship societies... " (6/9/16)
But not, it seems, to journalists or politicians compromised by Israel's embrace and acting as perhaps unwitting paid-mouthpieces for the interests of the Israeli regime. Nor to Israeli front organisations.
In 2009, Hartcher went to Israel on a NSW Jewish Board of Deputies-sponsored/paid trip. This resulted in a SMH puff piece on Israel's infamous Operation Cast Lead, in which he dismissed the UN as a "resolution factory," claimed that Israel had invaded Gaza "to stop the firing" after "enduring 800 rocket attacks," minimised the massacre of over 1400 Gazans (to 13 Israeli deaths) by referring to it as a "clash," regurgitated Israeli propaganda about Hamas using civilians as human shields, described Hamas as a "terrorist group," and quoted only Israeli "experts."
Hartcher disclosed the identity of his sponsors at the foot of the article. Following a comment thred backlash by Herald readers, he brazenly went on to claim that it was "routine" for journalists "to accept paid travel," so long as they disclosed it. (For the details, see my posts No Hidden Agenda (18/11/09) and Pawns in a Propaganda Game (15/3/10).)
In 2011, he spoke at a forum on Palestine/Israel at the Sydney Opera House. When the subject of the Palestinian right of return arose, he arrogantly dismissed it as "a reversion to old narratives," and variously referred to it as "unrealistc," a case of "Marrickville Council syndrome," and an "old grudge." (For the details, see my 20/6/11 post Hartcher Brings the House Down.)
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
A MSM Political Donations/Junkets Roundup
Left until the final paragraph:
"Mr [Anthony] Albanese said he was concerned about foreign political funding and said China, Israel and Taiwan were among the biggest spenders of sponsored travel and donations in Australia." (Labor seeks foreign donations revamp as Dastyari row festers, Tom McIlroy, Sydney Morning Herald, 5/9/16)
OMG, Albo's only just noticed that politicians have been popping off to Israel in rather LARGE numbers (including his mate, Plibersek, in 2014).
***
It seems that Australian politicians can always be relied upon to burst into song if the price is right:
"Enjoying a glass of red wine, Chinese businessman William Chiu announced he would donate $25,000 if the NSW attorney-general Greg Smith sang him three songs. Mr Smith obliged with Elvis and Sinatra." (Secret past of China donor, Kirsty Needham, The Sun-Herald, 4/9/16)
But it's not just China that gets Greg Smith going. Here he is in fine voice in 2011:
"The BDS resolution against Jewish businesses passed in December 2010 by the Marrickville Council and, more recently, violent activist protests against Jewish businesses, in particular Max Brenner chocolate and coffee stores, are eerily reminiscent of Jewish pogroms of earlier times." (Israel ban bid 'is anti-Semitic', Imre Salusinszky, The Australian, 24/8/11)
***
Now here's music to Israeli ears:
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, currently in Israel, has just invited Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Australia, cooing, "The Australian public would warmly embrace you, welcome you," and brushing aside Israel's stated intention to try World Vision employee Mohammed Halaby in a secret court with a cheery, "Closed proceedings are not unknown in legal systems around the world." (AM, Radio National, 5/9/16)
OMFG, if that doesn't reflect the influence of Israel-linked donations and propaganda trips in Australian political life, I don't know what does. But will our MSM join the dots? Purely rhetorical question, of course.
***
There are many references to China in George Williams' (Dean of Law, UNSW) opinion piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald, but I'm afraid you've got to read between the lines for any hint that Zionist money and junkets are impacting Australia's foreign policy position on Palestine/Israel:
"When it comes to foreign donors, there can be no suggestion that these corporate, national and other interests are acting out of altruism. They are investing in the hope of a return. That might be a favourable decision in regard to a foreign investment, or to shape Australia's foreign policy. They seek to secure these outcomes by direct payments and all-expenses paid study tours." (Dastyari the canary in coal mine for donations reform, 5/9/16)
"Mr [Anthony] Albanese said he was concerned about foreign political funding and said China, Israel and Taiwan were among the biggest spenders of sponsored travel and donations in Australia." (Labor seeks foreign donations revamp as Dastyari row festers, Tom McIlroy, Sydney Morning Herald, 5/9/16)
OMG, Albo's only just noticed that politicians have been popping off to Israel in rather LARGE numbers (including his mate, Plibersek, in 2014).
***
It seems that Australian politicians can always be relied upon to burst into song if the price is right:
"Enjoying a glass of red wine, Chinese businessman William Chiu announced he would donate $25,000 if the NSW attorney-general Greg Smith sang him three songs. Mr Smith obliged with Elvis and Sinatra." (Secret past of China donor, Kirsty Needham, The Sun-Herald, 4/9/16)
But it's not just China that gets Greg Smith going. Here he is in fine voice in 2011:
"The BDS resolution against Jewish businesses passed in December 2010 by the Marrickville Council and, more recently, violent activist protests against Jewish businesses, in particular Max Brenner chocolate and coffee stores, are eerily reminiscent of Jewish pogroms of earlier times." (Israel ban bid 'is anti-Semitic', Imre Salusinszky, The Australian, 24/8/11)
***
Now here's music to Israeli ears:
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, currently in Israel, has just invited Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Australia, cooing, "The Australian public would warmly embrace you, welcome you," and brushing aside Israel's stated intention to try World Vision employee Mohammed Halaby in a secret court with a cheery, "Closed proceedings are not unknown in legal systems around the world." (AM, Radio National, 5/9/16)
OMFG, if that doesn't reflect the influence of Israel-linked donations and propaganda trips in Australian political life, I don't know what does. But will our MSM join the dots? Purely rhetorical question, of course.
***
There are many references to China in George Williams' (Dean of Law, UNSW) opinion piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald, but I'm afraid you've got to read between the lines for any hint that Zionist money and junkets are impacting Australia's foreign policy position on Palestine/Israel:
"When it comes to foreign donors, there can be no suggestion that these corporate, national and other interests are acting out of altruism. They are investing in the hope of a return. That might be a favourable decision in regard to a foreign investment, or to shape Australia's foreign policy. They seek to secure these outcomes by direct payments and all-expenses paid study tours." (Dastyari the canary in coal mine for donations reform, 5/9/16)
Monday, September 5, 2016
The Mother of All Myths
If historian Yuval Noah Harari were not an Israeli, seriously, would we be hearing about him? Just look at this fawning nonsense in Murdoch's Weekend Australian Magazine by Sunday Times journalist Josh Glancy:
"These are the views of Yuval Noah Harari, the 40-year-old Israeli historian who has become something of a prophet when it comes to explaining our past and predicting our future. He's like his namesake, the biblical Noah, warning of the coming flood. He is the seer loved by Silicon Valley who doesn't have a smartphone or use social media. The man who spends months at a time in silent meditation before emerging to write books that strike at the heart of the modern condition." ('People don't realise what is happening', 3/9/16)
A little googling tells us where Glancy's coming from:
"Last week I conducted an experiment. I was one of several partygoers being subjected to a long and tedious sermon on the Middle East by a Tehran-based journalist. As his references to Zionism became increasingly vicious (and his tone increasingly tiresome), I decided to change the direction. 'I'm a Zionist', I said. A shocked silence followed. the other members of the group stared into their wine glasses, mildly embarrassed to have ended up in conversation with such a mindless zealot. They quickly drifted away." (Ed got it wrong. Zionism is about more than support, thejc.com, 31/3/13)
He elaborates:
"For many, the word Zionism has become utterly toxic, symbolic not just of walls, tanks and dying children but of a vast imperialist project that from its inception sought to dispossess an indigenous population in order to accommodate the desires of European migrants with an ancient, even spurious territorial claim."
Glancy advocates "mounting an effective defence" of Zionism by pushing the idea that "Zionism is about more than providing shelter. It is also about giving a rootless, homeless people the freedom to build their own country. It seeks to give members of this nation the choice whether to live in that country or not... It seeks to normalise the Jewish experience, so that Jews do not forever remain a nation of forced exiles."
The problem here is that, like all Zionists, Glancy conflates Judaism/Jewishness with people/nation.
Israeli historian Shlomo Sand comprehensively demolished this fundamental Zionist dogma in his 2009 book The Invention of the Jewish People. In the introduction to that book, he writes:
"If world Jews were indeed a nation, what were the common elements in the ethnographic cultures of a Jew in Kiev and a Jew in Marrakech, other than religious belief and certain practices of that belief? Perhaps, despite everything we have been told, Judaism was simply an appealing religion that spread widely until the triumphant rise of its rivals, Christianity and Islam, and then, despite humiliation and persecution, succeeded in surviving into the modern age. Does the argument that Judaism has always been an important belief-culture, rather than a uniform nation-culture, detract from its dignity, as the proponents of Jewish nationalism have been proclaiming for the past 130 years?
"If there was no common cultural denominator among the communities of the Jewish religion, how could they be connected and set apart by ties of blood? Are the Jews an alien 'nation-race,' as the anti-Semites have imagined and sought to persuade us since the nineteenth century? What are the prospects of defeating this doctrine, which assumes and proclaims that Jews have distinctive biological features (in the past it was Jewish blood; today it is a Jewish gene), when so many Israeli citizens are fully persuaded of their racial homogeneity?
"Another historical irony: there were times in Europe when anyone who argued that all Jews belonged to a nation of alien origin would have been classified at once as an anti-Semite. Nowadays, anyone who dares to suggest that the people known in the world as Jews (as distinct from today's Jewish Israelis) have never been, and are still not, a people or a nation is immediately denounced as a Jew-hater.
"Dominated by Zionism's particular concept of nationality, the State of Israel still refuses, 60 years after its establishment, to see itself as a republic that serves its citizens. One quarter of the citizens are not categorized as Jews, and the laws of the state imply that Israel is not their state nor do they own it. The state has also avoided integrating the local inhabitants into the superculture it has created, and has instead deliberately excluded them. Israel has also refused to be a consociational democracy (like Switzerland or Belgium) or a multicultural democracy (like Great Britain or the Netherlands) - that is to say, a state that accepts its diversity while serving its inhabitants. Instead, Israel insists on seeing itself as a Jewish state belonging to all the Jews in the world, even though they are no longer persecuted refugees but full citizens of the countries in which they choose to reside. The excuse for this grave violation of a basic principle of modern democracy and for the preservation of an unbridled ethnocracy that grossly discriminates against certain of its citizens, rests on the active myth of an eternal nation that must ultimately forgather in its ancestral land." (pp 21-22)
In his puff piece on Harari, Glancy writes that his "basic theory [in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind] states that it is our capacity for telling stories that has made us great... We use our language skills to create myths - money, religion, nationhood - that bind us together and allow us to co-operate on a mass scale."
Indeed. And surely the "eternal nation that must ultimately forgather in its ancestral land" is the mother of all "active myths," to borrow Sand's words.
"These are the views of Yuval Noah Harari, the 40-year-old Israeli historian who has become something of a prophet when it comes to explaining our past and predicting our future. He's like his namesake, the biblical Noah, warning of the coming flood. He is the seer loved by Silicon Valley who doesn't have a smartphone or use social media. The man who spends months at a time in silent meditation before emerging to write books that strike at the heart of the modern condition." ('People don't realise what is happening', 3/9/16)
A little googling tells us where Glancy's coming from:
"Last week I conducted an experiment. I was one of several partygoers being subjected to a long and tedious sermon on the Middle East by a Tehran-based journalist. As his references to Zionism became increasingly vicious (and his tone increasingly tiresome), I decided to change the direction. 'I'm a Zionist', I said. A shocked silence followed. the other members of the group stared into their wine glasses, mildly embarrassed to have ended up in conversation with such a mindless zealot. They quickly drifted away." (Ed got it wrong. Zionism is about more than support, thejc.com, 31/3/13)
He elaborates:
"For many, the word Zionism has become utterly toxic, symbolic not just of walls, tanks and dying children but of a vast imperialist project that from its inception sought to dispossess an indigenous population in order to accommodate the desires of European migrants with an ancient, even spurious territorial claim."
Glancy advocates "mounting an effective defence" of Zionism by pushing the idea that "Zionism is about more than providing shelter. It is also about giving a rootless, homeless people the freedom to build their own country. It seeks to give members of this nation the choice whether to live in that country or not... It seeks to normalise the Jewish experience, so that Jews do not forever remain a nation of forced exiles."
The problem here is that, like all Zionists, Glancy conflates Judaism/Jewishness with people/nation.
Israeli historian Shlomo Sand comprehensively demolished this fundamental Zionist dogma in his 2009 book The Invention of the Jewish People. In the introduction to that book, he writes:
"If world Jews were indeed a nation, what were the common elements in the ethnographic cultures of a Jew in Kiev and a Jew in Marrakech, other than religious belief and certain practices of that belief? Perhaps, despite everything we have been told, Judaism was simply an appealing religion that spread widely until the triumphant rise of its rivals, Christianity and Islam, and then, despite humiliation and persecution, succeeded in surviving into the modern age. Does the argument that Judaism has always been an important belief-culture, rather than a uniform nation-culture, detract from its dignity, as the proponents of Jewish nationalism have been proclaiming for the past 130 years?
"If there was no common cultural denominator among the communities of the Jewish religion, how could they be connected and set apart by ties of blood? Are the Jews an alien 'nation-race,' as the anti-Semites have imagined and sought to persuade us since the nineteenth century? What are the prospects of defeating this doctrine, which assumes and proclaims that Jews have distinctive biological features (in the past it was Jewish blood; today it is a Jewish gene), when so many Israeli citizens are fully persuaded of their racial homogeneity?
"Another historical irony: there were times in Europe when anyone who argued that all Jews belonged to a nation of alien origin would have been classified at once as an anti-Semite. Nowadays, anyone who dares to suggest that the people known in the world as Jews (as distinct from today's Jewish Israelis) have never been, and are still not, a people or a nation is immediately denounced as a Jew-hater.
"Dominated by Zionism's particular concept of nationality, the State of Israel still refuses, 60 years after its establishment, to see itself as a republic that serves its citizens. One quarter of the citizens are not categorized as Jews, and the laws of the state imply that Israel is not their state nor do they own it. The state has also avoided integrating the local inhabitants into the superculture it has created, and has instead deliberately excluded them. Israel has also refused to be a consociational democracy (like Switzerland or Belgium) or a multicultural democracy (like Great Britain or the Netherlands) - that is to say, a state that accepts its diversity while serving its inhabitants. Instead, Israel insists on seeing itself as a Jewish state belonging to all the Jews in the world, even though they are no longer persecuted refugees but full citizens of the countries in which they choose to reside. The excuse for this grave violation of a basic principle of modern democracy and for the preservation of an unbridled ethnocracy that grossly discriminates against certain of its citizens, rests on the active myth of an eternal nation that must ultimately forgather in its ancestral land." (pp 21-22)
In his puff piece on Harari, Glancy writes that his "basic theory [in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind] states that it is our capacity for telling stories that has made us great... We use our language skills to create myths - money, religion, nationhood - that bind us together and allow us to co-operate on a mass scale."
Indeed. And surely the "eternal nation that must ultimately forgather in its ancestral land" is the mother of all "active myths," to borrow Sand's words.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Good One, Jill
"Even in the audience there seems scarcely time to breathe as 16 dancers flex their muscles in a tight ensemble, synchronised with military precision..." (From Jill Sykes' review of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company's Horses in the Sky, Sydney Morning Herald 1/9/16)
Seriously, would you expect anything less from an Israeli dance company?
Seriously, would you expect anything less from an Israeli dance company?
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Political Donations: The View from Murdoch
The rag you'd least expect to focus on the subject of foreign policy donations, given its slavish devotion to, and promotion of, all things Israel, is Murdoch's Australian.
And yet yesterday's issue has devoted almost a (broadsheet) page-and-a-half to the matter!
Sam Dastyari, of course, gets special treatment, referred to as a 'Manchurian candidate', and there are dark warnings by the outgoing US ambassador John Berry about the influence of 'soft power' by non-democratic countries. (Sam mired by soft power's hard sell, Anthony Klan & Sarah Martin)
There's also a profile ofThe Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu Minshen Zhu, Dastyari's benefactor, and a report, Junkets searching for a cause, in which we have to wait until the final paragraph for a mention of trips by politicians to Israel.
The centrepiece of the Australian's coverage, however, is an alphabetical list of "House of Representatives MPs' sponsored travel. Top five most-visited countries," with ISRAEL, not China, in first place with 24 visits. (China comes in second with 20 visits.)
According to the list the following 22 politicians have been to Israel, some more than once: John Alexander (L/NP); Sharon Bird (ALP); Bronwyn Bishop (L/NP); Gai Brodtmann (ALP) (x2); Mal Brough (L/NP); Terri Butler (ALP); Jim Chalmers (ALP); Michael Danby (ALP); Peter Hendy (L/NP); Stephen Jones (ALP); Craig Kelly (L/NP); Andrew Leigh (ALP); Russell Matheson (L/NP); Rob Mitchell (ALP); Christopher Pyne (L/NP); Wyatt Roy (L/NP) (x2); Andrew Southcott (L/NP); Tim Watts (ALP) (x2); Ken Wyatt (L/NP).
The list, however, is far from complete. MPs Bruce Bilson, Nick Champion, David Feeney, Joel Fitzgibbon, Richard Marles, Kelly O'Dwyer, Tanya Plibersek, Bernie Ripoli, Bill Shorten, Luke Simpkins and Dan Tehan are listed as junketeers but no mention is made of their trips to Israel.
Add those 11 to the Australian's 22, and the total of MPs who have been to Israel rises to 35.
Curiously, the following 25 MPs who have also been to Israel since 2007 are missing from the list: Penny Wong, Josh Frydenberg, Amanda Rishworth, Belinda Neal, Stuart Robert, Alex Hawke, Mathias Cormann, Kevin Rudd, Kim Carr, Stephen Conroy, Anthony Byrne, Mike Kelly, Julie Bishop, Kevin Andrews, Steve Ciobo, Julia Gillard, Peter Costello, Mark Dreyfus, Tony Abbott, Jacinta Collins, Jason Clare, Peter Dutton, Michael Keenan, and Shayne Neuman. Add them in and our total is now 59. (Note that senators and state politicians have been omitted.)
That's 59 visits to Israel and a mere 20 to China! Israel wins, hands down.
(See my 30/3/09 post I've been to Israel too for a fuller, regularly updated, list of Israel junkets by Australian politicians, journalists and other useful fools.)
And yet yesterday's issue has devoted almost a (broadsheet) page-and-a-half to the matter!
Sam Dastyari, of course, gets special treatment, referred to as a 'Manchurian candidate', and there are dark warnings by the outgoing US ambassador John Berry about the influence of 'soft power' by non-democratic countries. (Sam mired by soft power's hard sell, Anthony Klan & Sarah Martin)
There's also a profile of
The centrepiece of the Australian's coverage, however, is an alphabetical list of "House of Representatives MPs' sponsored travel. Top five most-visited countries," with ISRAEL, not China, in first place with 24 visits. (China comes in second with 20 visits.)
According to the list the following 22 politicians have been to Israel, some more than once: John Alexander (L/NP); Sharon Bird (ALP); Bronwyn Bishop (L/NP); Gai Brodtmann (ALP) (x2); Mal Brough (L/NP); Terri Butler (ALP); Jim Chalmers (ALP); Michael Danby (ALP); Peter Hendy (L/NP); Stephen Jones (ALP); Craig Kelly (L/NP); Andrew Leigh (ALP); Russell Matheson (L/NP); Rob Mitchell (ALP); Christopher Pyne (L/NP); Wyatt Roy (L/NP) (x2); Andrew Southcott (L/NP); Tim Watts (ALP) (x2); Ken Wyatt (L/NP).
The list, however, is far from complete. MPs Bruce Bilson, Nick Champion, David Feeney, Joel Fitzgibbon, Richard Marles, Kelly O'Dwyer, Tanya Plibersek, Bernie Ripoli, Bill Shorten, Luke Simpkins and Dan Tehan are listed as junketeers but no mention is made of their trips to Israel.
Add those 11 to the Australian's 22, and the total of MPs who have been to Israel rises to 35.
Curiously, the following 25 MPs who have also been to Israel since 2007 are missing from the list: Penny Wong, Josh Frydenberg, Amanda Rishworth, Belinda Neal, Stuart Robert, Alex Hawke, Mathias Cormann, Kevin Rudd, Kim Carr, Stephen Conroy, Anthony Byrne, Mike Kelly, Julie Bishop, Kevin Andrews, Steve Ciobo, Julia Gillard, Peter Costello, Mark Dreyfus, Tony Abbott, Jacinta Collins, Jason Clare, Peter Dutton, Michael Keenan, and Shayne Neuman. Add them in and our total is now 59. (Note that senators and state politicians have been omitted.)
That's 59 visits to Israel and a mere 20 to China! Israel wins, hands down.
(See my 30/3/09 post I've been to Israel too for a fuller, regularly updated, list of Israel junkets by Australian politicians, journalists and other useful fools.)
Friday, September 2, 2016
Just Chinese-Linked Donations?
This rings true:
"Everyone in Australian politics is chasing cash. It's not a random or rogue activity. Everyone. That's the hard fact of the matter. In the 1980s and for most of the 1990s, political fundraising was highly centralised - a handful of people, controlling a single pipeline. The prize was drumming up dollars for television advertising campaigns. Now the process is hardwired into organisational structures of political parties and their associated thinktanks: lots of people, chasing dollars to fund their campaigning activities (which cover a much greater field of activity than during the quaint analogue period) and also cover their own operating costs. It's more prolific, and it's more diffuse, and inside the system, effective fundraisers are rewarded - it helps them aggregate power. For someone like [Sam] Dastyari, who has been a state secretary and who would probably struggle to tell you accurately how much cash he's raised for Labor over the years, an inconvenient bill just north of $1,000 is lunch money, nothing you'd give even 10 seconds thought to." (On political donations, Canberra is sleepwalking into its own integrity crisis, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian, 2/9/16)
This too is revealing:
"As for China's interest in Australian politics - a recent investigation by the ABC found Beijing is now the largest source of foreign-linked donations in this country. Businesses with connections to China coughed up more than $5.5m between 2013 and 2015, according to that report. A separate report by Fairfax Media said the Western Australian division of the Liberal party had benefited to the tune of half a million dollars in the past couple of years from donations from Chinese businesspeople with links to the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop." (ibid)
But can you imagine the ABC, or Fairfax, or Jonathan Freedland's Guardian ever raising the issue of Zionist-linked donations in Australia, let alone investigating them?
"Everyone in Australian politics is chasing cash. It's not a random or rogue activity. Everyone. That's the hard fact of the matter. In the 1980s and for most of the 1990s, political fundraising was highly centralised - a handful of people, controlling a single pipeline. The prize was drumming up dollars for television advertising campaigns. Now the process is hardwired into organisational structures of political parties and their associated thinktanks: lots of people, chasing dollars to fund their campaigning activities (which cover a much greater field of activity than during the quaint analogue period) and also cover their own operating costs. It's more prolific, and it's more diffuse, and inside the system, effective fundraisers are rewarded - it helps them aggregate power. For someone like [Sam] Dastyari, who has been a state secretary and who would probably struggle to tell you accurately how much cash he's raised for Labor over the years, an inconvenient bill just north of $1,000 is lunch money, nothing you'd give even 10 seconds thought to." (On political donations, Canberra is sleepwalking into its own integrity crisis, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian, 2/9/16)
This too is revealing:
"As for China's interest in Australian politics - a recent investigation by the ABC found Beijing is now the largest source of foreign-linked donations in this country. Businesses with connections to China coughed up more than $5.5m between 2013 and 2015, according to that report. A separate report by Fairfax Media said the Western Australian division of the Liberal party had benefited to the tune of half a million dollars in the past couple of years from donations from Chinese businesspeople with links to the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop." (ibid)
But can you imagine the ABC, or Fairfax, or Jonathan Freedland's Guardian ever raising the issue of Zionist-linked donations in Australia, let alone investigating them?
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Is Australia's Foreign Policy for Sale?
This is certainly concerning:
"The role of Chinese donations to Australian political parties has been in the spotlight, with Mr Swan, a former treasurer and deputy prime minister, warning foreign donations could be 'skewing' Australian democracy. Last week the ABC reported $5.5 million had been donated by Chinese interests to the Labor and Coalition between 2013 and 2015. 'I certainly think we should be having a stronger debate about the role of political donations and how that potentially is leading to political decision-making being skewed in favour of foreign countries,' Mr Swan told the ABC." (Senator had Chinese interests pay for part of his travel bill, Latika Bourke, Sydney Morning Herald, 31/8/16)
But would either the ABC, Wayne Swan or the Herald ever question the role of Zionist donations to LibLab in skewing Australia's political decisions in favour of Israel?
Even with this appearing on the same website and on the same day as the above:
"Most of the world considers the Jewish settlements on the West Bank to be illegal, a conclusion that the Israeli government rejects and which Foreign Minister Julie Bishop - who is about to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories before attending the launch of the EU-Australia Leadership Forum - has questioned." (As Julie Bishop prepares to visit the Holy Land, one village tells whole story, William Booth, Washington Post/Sydney Morning Herald, 31/8/16)
You may recall Bob Carr in his Diary of a Foreign Minister quoting Kevin Rudd as saying that one fifth of the money raised for his 2007 election campaign had come from the Jewish community. (See my 20/4/14 post The Carr Diary 12: Reflections 6.)
"The role of Chinese donations to Australian political parties has been in the spotlight, with Mr Swan, a former treasurer and deputy prime minister, warning foreign donations could be 'skewing' Australian democracy. Last week the ABC reported $5.5 million had been donated by Chinese interests to the Labor and Coalition between 2013 and 2015. 'I certainly think we should be having a stronger debate about the role of political donations and how that potentially is leading to political decision-making being skewed in favour of foreign countries,' Mr Swan told the ABC." (Senator had Chinese interests pay for part of his travel bill, Latika Bourke, Sydney Morning Herald, 31/8/16)
But would either the ABC, Wayne Swan or the Herald ever question the role of Zionist donations to LibLab in skewing Australia's political decisions in favour of Israel?
Even with this appearing on the same website and on the same day as the above:
"Most of the world considers the Jewish settlements on the West Bank to be illegal, a conclusion that the Israeli government rejects and which Foreign Minister Julie Bishop - who is about to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories before attending the launch of the EU-Australia Leadership Forum - has questioned." (As Julie Bishop prepares to visit the Holy Land, one village tells whole story, William Booth, Washington Post/Sydney Morning Herald, 31/8/16)
You may recall Bob Carr in his Diary of a Foreign Minister quoting Kevin Rudd as saying that one fifth of the money raised for his 2007 election campaign had come from the Jewish community. (See my 20/4/14 post The Carr Diary 12: Reflections 6.)
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