Senator Leyonjelm's New Job

I know I've been lax of late in reporting the rambamming of our politicians. My laziness in this respect, however, should not be interpreted to mean that the practice is in decline. My only excuse is weariness of the whole damn business. I promise I'll try to keep up with this under-the-msm-radar business from now on.

Suffice it to say that no reckoning of the moral and intellectual degeneracy of Australia's political class would be complete without a reference to these endless propaganda junkets to the apartheid state.

Here are the names of the latest group of AIJAC Rambam Program junketeers, fresh from their 'study tour,' followed (or maybe that should be 'dogged') by their utterly predictable, inane and sycophantic 'report backs' to their AIJAC handlers. The star of the show this time around was obviously our lone Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonjelm:

"Senator Leyonjelm said that while he has tracked events and political trends in the country very closely, the trip added 'considerable detail' to his understanding. He was struck by the size of Sderot, which he'd initially thought from news reports to be a small, isolated village rather than a fully integrated town, as well as the widespread agriculture in the Negev. He discussed his impression of Palestinian refugee camps, which he characterised as 'ramshackle' neighbourhoods rather than tent cities. 'I've seen worse,' he said, 'much, much worse in Asia and Africa.' As a result of his briefings on how Australian money for the United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA) is spent, Leyonjelm says he intends to push the government to cease funding the organisation. He maintained that as long as the Palestinian attitude towards Israelis is so hostile, there won't be a resolution of the conflict. He is dubious about the two-state solution under the current circumstances." (Politicians' impressions of Israel, jwire.com.au, 25/5/18)

It's apparently of no consequence to our 'close tracker of events and political trends in Israel' that those Palestinian refugee camps (and their inhabitants) have been in existence since 1948. Leyonjelm's deep ignorance of the history of the issue would, of course, preclude such knowledge. The really interesting bit here, however, is that he's come back with a job to do, unsurprisingly one quite integral to Israel's foreign policy agenda, namely the scuttling of UNRWA. Who needs an Israel lobby when you can get an Australian taxpayer-funded senator ($199,000) to do your work for you?

Trent Zimmerman (Lib MP for North Sydney) "said he also learned so much during this trip, although he had already fallen in love with Israel because of its rich history and spirit of innovation. The trip made him realise the 'security pressure' on Israel stemming from its tiny size and proximity of its enemies, and said that given the flaws in the Palestinian Authority 'the preconditions for a peaceful settlement just simply don't exist'."

I note that Trent's love affair with Israel, btw, is nowhere mentioned in his 2016 maiden speech.

Two other rambammed pollies, Rick Wilson (Lib WA) and Kevin Hogan (NSW National MP for Page), failed to 'report back.' Maybe they just went along for the ride.