What My Mind Turns to on Armistice Day

In his peerless work on the perfidious Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the appalling consequences for Palestine and its people that flowed (and continue to flow) therefrom, Palestine: The Reality (1939), British historian J.M.N. Jeffries wrote these justifiably angry words:

"The underlying assumption of [a certain line of 'thought' peddled by the Anglo-Zionist establishment of 1920-23] is that the soldiers who fell in Palestine fell fighting to provide there that form of government which [wartime prime minister] Lloyd George installed. The 5th Norfolks, the 8th Hampshires bled so that the Sevres Treaty might not die: the men of the 53rd Division left six hundred casualties on the Samson Ridge so that the nine subterfuges of the Balfour Declaration might pass unchallenged: the Australian Light Horse charged crying, Advance the National Home! Was anything further from the truth? We know why our soldiers died - in loyalty to their country." (p 402)

My first inkling that this old Zionist myth, stripped of course of its British references, was being recycled here in Australia came when I read the following in 2008:

"The ties that bind Jerusalem and Canberra were further cemented with the commemoration last November of the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Australian Light Horse brigade [31/10/07], when brave Aussie Diggers trounced the Turks at Be'er Sheva, paving the way for the capture of Jerusalem... And it is in Be'er Sheva that Richard Pratt is ploughing funds to build the Park of the Australian Soldier - a permanent memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state." (Editorial by Dan Goldberg, Rhapsody: Linking Culture between Israel & Australia, Jan-Mar 2008)

I had stumbled upon what might be termed a 'zombie myth' - long buried, effectively forgotten (but for Jeffries' mention), dug up decades later, dusted off, and re-purposed for another use, but retaining still the core propaganda trope of the original. After all these years, whether with or without external involvement, Pratt Foundation CEO Sam Lipski and his cardboard king (Visy Industries) boss and prominent Zionist donor to the Labor and Liberal parties, the late Dick Pratt, had come up with a neat way of "cementing" - mark that word! - alleged "binding ties" between Israel and Australia when Pratt funded the construction of the Park of the Australian Soldier in Be'er Sheva*. This has now become the point of dissemination of the zombie myth to thousands of clueless Australians, especially politicians, who flock to Be'er Sheva annually.

Never have Zionist PR merchants managed anything quite like this in any country, except perhaps in fostering the myth of 'lost Jewish tribes' in many of our South Pacific neighbours.

 For my exploration of this phenomenon, just click on the AIF label below.

[*Of course 'Be'er Sheva' simply did not exist in 1917. Back then it was the Palestinian Arab town of Beersheba. Hopefully, one day, it will return to its old self.]

Same Sex Marriage at Beersheba

For king & country? Nah. For the sons & daughters of Abraham, mate :

"Nearly 4,000 years ago, Abraham came to Be'er Sheba... Exactly 100 years ago, brave ANZAC soldiers liberated Beer Sheba for the sons and daughters of Abraham and opened the gateway for the Jewish people to reenter the stage of history." (Netanyahu's address at the 31/10/2017 memorial ceremony for the ANZAC troops who fought and died at Beersheba on 31/10/17, jwire.com.au)

Blood brothers, mate:

"This momentous occasion was a historic milestone in the natural kinship between our peoples."

And Bible-bashers to boot, mate:

"ANZAC soldiers... were retracing the footsteps of the heroes of the Bible... stepping on the verses of the Bible, and they knew it, and their clergy who spoke of this so movingly a moment ago, they knew it too."

Round two, mate:

"In the defeat at Gallipoli, two things were forged. One, the absolute resolve of the ANZAC forces to redeem their fallen brethren and establish this glorious victory here." 

Love at first sight, mate:

"And the second thing that was forged was the first meeting between ANZAC fighters and Jewish fighters, the first Jewish fighters who stood shoulder to shoulder with them in Gallipoli, the first Jewish fighting force in 2,000 years."

A National Home among the gum trees, mate:

"When I joined the Israeli army 50 years ago... I was given a broad hat. It was called an Australian hat... We also sat next to eucalyptus trees that came from Australia."

***

Yes, Bibi, even if they tag me a Christian Zionist, I'm going to say it: fulfilling history!!!:

"'The mad Australians', was a common description. Not so mad. Brave, heroic, turning the tide of history, making history, fulfilling history." (Turnbull's address)

Oh yes, Bibi, without the ANZACs Johnny Turk'd still be ruling the, er, your roost:

"That [taking of Beersheba] did not create the State of Israel, but enabled its creation. Had the Ottoman rule in Palestine and Syria not been overthrown by the Australians and New Zealanders, the Balfour Declaration would have been empty words."

I'm sorry, Bibi, I just can't contain myself any longer. I want to shout it from the rooftops! Izzy, Izzy, Izzy, Oi, Oi, Oi:

"But this was a step for the creation of Israel... and while those young men may not have foreseen, no doubt did not foresee the extraordinary success of the State of Israel, its foundations, its resilience, its determination, its indomitability against overwhelming odds, their spirit was the same. Like the State of Israel has done ever since, they defied history, they made history and with their courage they fulfilled history."

A Fool for Zion

So strained is the concocted connection between Beersheba, 1917, and Israel, 1948, that even a gentile Zionist fanatic such as The Australian's foreign editor, Greg Sheridan, is forced to acknowledge the bleeding obvious:

"You cannot say that everything that followed that Australian victory [at Beersheba in October 1917] was caused by that victory." (Friends from birth, in The Australian's commemorative magazine, Beersheba: Legend of the Light Horse)

Yes, Greg, and water is wet, right?

But there's worse to come, far worse. You see, Sheridan's very next sentence reads:

"But everything that followed from it did indeed follow from it."

Seriously, have you ever read a more fatuous statement than that? Proof positive that only a complete fool bothers defending the indefensible.

Turnbull & Pratt's Beersheba Duet

The Pratt Foundation-funded magazine, Beersheba: Legend of the Light Horse, that came with last Saturday's Weekend Australian, begins with two editorials, on facing pages, the first by PM Turnbull, the second by the Foundation's Anthony Pratt (son of the late Dick Pratt).

Predictably, Turnbull's is a transparently Zionist propaganda brew, which conflates, in complete defiance of the historical record, the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba (31/10/17), the Balfour Declaration (2/11/17) and the creation of the state of Israel (14/5/48):

"The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba has inspired Australians for generations The veterans of the charge re-enacted it in Charles Chauvel's 1940 movie Forty Thousand Horsemen - a confidence booster for a beleaguered nation at war. As a young boy at boarding school in the early '60s I watched it again and again - we all imagined ourselves spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory... Just weeks later, the Australians marched with General Allenby into Jerusalem, while in London the Balfour Declaration was signed, paving the way for the creation of the modern state of Israel. A century on, the city of Be'er Sheva is an oasis of technology and great practical ideas - a shining example of the best attributes of Israel and the Israeli people - ingenuity, resilience, and hard work. Today, Australia and Israel share these values. We have an unbreakable bond that is only getting stronger. As we honour the memory and sacrifice of the Anzacs of 1917, and in the years to come. Lest we forget." (Our unbreakable bond)

Apart from Turnbull's chronological confusion (the BD came before the takeover of Jerusalem), what is significant here is that in addition to his blatant fabrication of Australian and Palestinian history, he also appears to be embroidering on his own, personal history:

As Paddy Manning's biography of Turnbull, Born to Rule (2015), reveals, young Malcolm was packed off to a boarding school in 1963 at the age of 8. Curiously, in his editorial, Turnbull recounts watching Chauvel's Forty Thousand Horsemen "at boarding school in the early '60s...again and again." Now I can understand one of his teachers screening the film once, but "again and again"? WTF is going on here?

Quite apart from what repeated showings might imply about the teacher in question (some kind of obsessive military fanatic?), surely the inevitable chorus of 'Aw, sir, not again!' would deter any but the most foolhardy teacher from this practice. And as for Malcolm and his classmates imagining themselves "spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory," Turnbull once disclosed that "I would struggle to find one positive memory of my time at boarding school... really it was a bleak, bleak period for me." (Manning, p 21)

As for Pratt's contribution, it reads like an echo of Turnbull's. (Or should that be the other way around?):

"Next Tuesday, October 31, 2017, Australia will mark the 100th anniversary of the victorious charge by 800 Lighthorsemen against the Turkish defences at Beersheba. The 'shock and awe' victory changed the course of Middle East history, and paved the way for Israel's establishment some three decades later. It's entirely fitting, therefore, that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will lead the Australian delegation at the Centenary commemoration services in Be'er Sheva, the modern Israeli city that has arisen around the former battleground, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin will represent Israel. In honouring the historic moment for both nations, I'd like to note that the Light Horse Centenary also has a personal significance for the Pratt family. While the Centenary's opening ceremony... is to be in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Beersheva, the concluding ceremony will happen at the Park of the Australian Soldier, just a few kilometres away in the same city. The Park, a Pratt Foundation initiative to honour Australia's military involvement in the Middle East at critical times in Israel's history,* was opened in 2008... " (A proud legacy)

The fact is that the Pratt Foundation's 'Park of the Australian Soldier' is really all about Israel. The Park is an integral part of a Zionist propaganda initiative, whereby a moment of Australian and Turkish military history has been appropriated and misrepresented as somehow uniquely enabling (and legitimising) the much later installation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

It should be obvious to all that the capture of Ottoman Beersheba by Australian forces in 1917 is being manipulated to fit the false Zionist historical narrative, primarily with a view to ensuring ongoing Australian diplomatic support for a pariah apartheid Israel in UN fora.

Turnbull, who hosted Netanyahu in Sydney earlier this year, could now, arguably, be described as the most Zionist of all Australian prime ministers, and a sycophant of the worst kind.  And the irony is that it only seems like yesterday that he was slamming opposition leader Bill Shorten (who, like Turnbull, is currently partying in Israel) in federal parliament as "the great sycophant of billionaires," and accusing him, specifically, of "sucking up to [the late] Dick Pratt." That was back in February this year.

Has Paul Daley Dropped the Ball on Beersheba?

Today, of course, marks the centenary of the Battle for Beersheba, about which I have posted much under the label 'AIF'.

I will be dealing more with the politics of its Israeli/Australian 'commemoration' this week.

For now, however, let me recall the following words by Guardian columnist and historian Paul Daley (Beersheba: A Journey Through Australia's Forgotten War, 2009), written on this very day last year (See my 2/11/16 post Keep Your Eye on Beersheba):

"It will pay to listen closely and to be wary about what you might hear from the Australian and Israeli governments. Israel? It didn't exist, of course, at the time of the charge, which took place in what was Ottoman Palestine. But Israel has gone to some lengths to claim what happened as something of a formative step in its establishment [...] I realised how readily certain groups - not least Zionists, Christian Zionists and evangelicals, were appropriating the stories of the Australian Light Horse [...] Some historians of the Middle East and Palestinian groups were, rightly, angry at the conflation. Beersheba, you can be certain, will be evoked next year as testimony to the 'special' Israel/Australia relationship... Well, they ain't seen nothing yet, I fear... I'll be writing a lot more here about Australians in the Middle East during world war one." (Beersheba: we must keep an eye on how the story is told & interpreted, theguardian.com, 31/10/16)

Is it just me, or is the take-home message here: I know what the Zionists and their camp followers are up to here. I'm on their case, and I'll be keeping a watching brief on their distortions in the lead-up to the Beersheba centenary, and reporting back on same?

In fact, to my knowledge, Daley has written nothing since on the subject of Beersheba... until yesterday that is, and even then most of its content consisted of military minutiae. Buried in said minutiae was this faint echo of last year's fighting words:

"For decade after decade the critical Australian role in the Beersheba victory was little more than a footnote in military history... But such is the politics of remembrance that the centenary of the battle of Beersheba, which falls at the end of the third year of Australia's $600 million-plus world war one commemoration extravaganza, will finally have its moment. Politicians, of course, are wont to commemorate significant moments in military history for many reasons, not least to justify participation in contemporary conflicts. Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull... and Labor leader Bill Shorten are due to attend Beersheba commemorations in Israel this week where the battle - and especially the charge - will be invoked as defining a special relationship between Canberra and Tel Aviv. The events will be marked with Australian flags and those of Israel, the modern Jewish state that did not actually exist until 1948." (Beersheba centenary: let's remember that story is not the same as history, theguardian.com, 30/10/17)

Again, is it me, or has Daley squibbed it? And why?

The Palestinian Genocide

The Guardian has a piece by Gavin Haynes (26/10), The Stupidest thing a nation has ever done, in which he kicks off a discussion by citing 5 examples: The Trojan Horse; King Vortigan's mercenaries; Myanmar's nines; the Confederacy's cotton ban; and the Maginot Line. As of this morning it's garnered some 864 comments.

Predictably - this is Jonathan Freedland's Israel-friendly Guardian after all - the Balfour Declaration, even as it fast approaches its centenary of November 2 - wasn't on Haynes' list. However, it was cited twice, in the comment thread, the first time with 15 likes, the second with 20, more likes than most other examples, it should be noted. (Sykes-Picot, mentioned once, got 9 likes.)

Apropos the Balfour Declaration, one of the most interesting of the many essays currently appearing on the subject is Gideon Polya's 100th anniversary of Australian Beersheba Charge, UK Balfour Declaration & Palestinian Genocide Commencement. 

Deploying the UN Genocide Convention's definition of the crime of genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," Polya sets out to show that what has happened to the Palestinian people since the British takeover of their homeland in 1917 fits this definition, and quantifies the genocide as 2 million deaths from violence (0.1 million) or imposed deprivation (1.9 million) since WW I.

By way of encouraging a reading of the whole, here is section 4:

Summary of the horrendous dimensions of the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, the 50-year Occupation and egregious violations of Palestinian human rights: 

(1) The Palestinian Genocide commenced in earnest with the famine deaths of 100,000 Palestinians after conquest of Palestine in WWI by the British and the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS).

(2) The violent killing of Indigenous Palestinians commenced with the 1918 Surafend Massacre by ANZAC soldiers.

(3) Since WWI there have been 2 million Palestinian deaths from Zionist violence (0.1 million) or Zionist-imposed deprivation (1.9 million).

(4) There are 8 million Palestinian refugees and all of the 14 million Palestinians are excluded from all or part of Palestine.

(5) Of about 14 million Palestinians (half of them children), 7 million are forbidden to even set foot in their own country, 5 million are held hostage with zero human rights under Israeli guns in the Gaza Concentration Camp (2.0 million) or in ever-dwindling West Bank Bantustan ghettoes (3.0 million), and 1.8 million live as Third Class citizens as Israeli Palestinians under Nazi-style Apartheid Israeli race laws.

(6) 90% of Palestine has now been ethnically cleansed of Indigenous Palestinian inhabitants in an ongoing war criminal ethnic cleansing that has been repeatedly condemned by the UN and most recently by UN Security Council Resolution 2334 that was unanimously supported (with a remarkable Obama US abstention but subsequently fervently pro-Zionist Trump America and Turnbull Australia opposition).

(7) GDP per capita is US$2,900 for Occupied Palestinians as compared to US$37,000 for Apartheid Israel.

(8) Through imposed deprivation, each year Apartheid Israel passively murders about 2,700 under-5 year old Palestinian infants and passively murders 4,200 Occupied Palestinians in general who die avoidably under Israeli Apartheid each year (this violates Articles 55 & 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War that demand that an Occupier must provide life-sustaining food and medical services to the Occupied "to the fullest extent of the means available to it.").

(9) Apartheid Israel violently kills an average of about 550 Occupied Palestinians each year.

(10) Occupied Palestinians are deprived of essentially all human rights and civil rights by Apartheid Israel (e.g. Apartheid Israeli home invasions, beatings, executions, killings, exilings, mass imprisonments, seizures of land and homes, and population transfers in violation of the UN Genocide Convention and the Geneva convention).

(11) Nuclear terrorist, serial war criminal, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel determines that 74% of its now 50% Indigenous Palestinian subjects who are Occupied Palestinians cannot vote for the government ruling them (i.e. egregious Apartheid).

(12) US-, UK-, Canada-, France- and Australia-backed Apartheid Israel in its genocidal treatment of the Palestinians ignores numerous UN General Assembly Resolutions and UN Security Council Resolutions, the UN Genocide Convention, the Geneva Convention, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and many other aspects of International Law.

(13) Apartheid Israel has attacked 12 countries (including the US) and occupied 5 with 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in countries neighbouring and variously occupied by Apartheid Israel totalling 24 million.

(14) 5 million Occupied Palestinians (half of them children) are routinely blackmailed through torture or denial of life-saving medical care to spy on fellow Palestinians for Apartheid Israel.

(15) 5 million Occupied Palestinians (half of them children) are excluded by checkpoints from Jews-only areas and Jews-only roads.

(16) 50% of Israeli children are physically, psychologically or sexually (17%) abused each year but 100% of the 5 million Occupied Palestinian children (2 million in Gaza Concentration Camp, 3 million in West Bank ghettos) are subject to traumatizing human rights abuse by the serial war criminal Israel Defence Force (IDF).

(17) There is a 10-year gap between Israeli and Palestinian life expectancy.

(18) Theocratic Apartheid Israeli laws prohibit all but religious marriages and marriage between Israelis and Occupied Palestinians is effectively excluded (they are forbidden from co-habiting).

(19) Decent, anti-racist Jewish Israelis, as well as decent, anti-racist Jews worldwide, are grossly and falsely defamed by conflation of Apartheid Israel and its appalling crimes with all Jews, as in the false appellation 'Jewish State'.

(20) There is an ever-present threat expressed by Apartheid Israeli ultra-extremists of a neo-Nazi Final Solution in which the Indigenous Palestinians, who presently constitute 50% of Apartheid Israeli subjects, will all be expelled from Palestine.

Zionising Palestinian & Australian History

Here we go again: more Zionisation of Palestinian and Australian history:

"Anticipating a visit to Israel by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for centenary commemorations of the charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba on October 31, the Times of Israel has reproduced a re-enactment photograph showing horsemen bearing the Australian and Israeli flags side-by-side. Quite apart from anything else the image is historically inaccurate since no such Israeli flag existed in 1917, nor the State of Israel itself. That would come 31 years later. (Australia's complicated contribution to the State of Israel, Tony Walker, Sydney Morning Herald, 16/10/17)

"Why such an ahistorical embellishment of a sacred event in Australian history should be necessary is a matter for the organisers, but it is difficult to escape a conclusion politics is involved... "

"Sacred"? When (not to mention why) did this event become "sacred."? If it ever did.

And no, it's not at all "difficult" to escape the conclusion that this event has been Zionised. (The word 'politicisation' doesn't even begin to call a spade a spade in this case.)

"It remains a stretch... to suggest that Beersheba was a midwife to Israel's birth."

Merely a "stretch"? Try 'utter bullshit'.

The Indigenous Pilgrims' Progress

October 31, 2017, of course, is the centenary of the much hyped charge of the Australian Light Horse at Turkish trenches defending the Palestinian town of Beersheba. The hype is largely due to the event's appropriation by Australia's Israel lobby, part of its ongoing effort to manufacture alleged historical links between Australia and Israel as part of the fiction that a 'unique relationship' exists between the two countries.

Although but one part of an Anglo-Arab thrust aimed at dislodging the Turks from the Levant in World War I, the victory of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba has been opportunistically appropriated by our Israel lobbyists and hyped as an integral component of the Zionist project in Palestine, on a par, almost, with the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917.

Of course, no such explicit linkage was ever made by Zionist spokesmen in the immediate post war years. Burnishing Israel's image in contemporary Australian domestic politics is what this blatant propaganda exercise is all about.

Here, for example, are some of the latest Zionist iterations of the linkage:

"On 31 October 1917 two events happened which shaped future world history. The first was the capture of Beersheba by British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers... The second was the decision by the British war cabinet to endorse the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home - the legal foundation of the future state of Israel." (The History, beersheba2017.com)

"The date of the Beersheba charge generally coincided with the Declaration by the British Government that led to the establishment of the modern State of Israel." (Connections to Indigenous Diggers of World War I, jwire.com.au, 23/2/17)

If we look back at earlier Zionist statements, part of the hype surrounding the construction at Beersheba of a 'Park of the Australian Soldier' by the Pratt Foundation in 2008,* the linkage rhetoric was far more explicit: the park was described as "a memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state"; "the result of the victory was the emergence of a thriving democratic and vibrant nation"; "the Australian victory... set in train... the establishment of the state of Israel"; and "the gallant 800 changed Jewish history, and the history of the Middle East." (See my 1/5/08 post Zionist Myth In-Formation by clicking on the AIF label below.)

Need I remind the informed reader that Allenby's Anglo-Arab campaign against the Turks, let alone its Beersheba component, was a purely military affair related to the stalemate on the Western Front, and not in any way a paving of the way for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, and that the British war cabinet decision to issue a declaration of support for the Zionist movement was made on the same day as the charge at Beersheba which could not, therefore, have influenced the decision one way or the other. (British attempts to enter Palestine had actually been underway since February 1917.) The Balfour Declaration, that is Balfour's infamous letter to Lord Rothschild, which gave voice to the decision, not unnaturally emerged soon after - as it happens, on November 2.

IOW, the timing was pure coincidence. If we bear in mind the Anglo-Zionist machinations which led up to the Balfour Declaration, the British decision to support Zionist aims could have been made as early as July 1917, long before Allenby's campaign. And as for the Ottoman Empire as a whole, the British had had designs on that stretching back at least to the De Bunsen Committee Report of June 1915, which made no mention whatever of Zionist aims.

Having clarified that, I will now move on to the latest, grotesque stage in this cheap Zionist production, already hinted at in the title of the jwire report, the appropriation of descendants of a claimed 100 Aboriginal Lighthorse soldiers, not merely for use as props in the coming centenary celebration in Israel, but to underscore Israel's bogus claim to indigeneity in Arab Palestine.

This was featured recently in Murdoch's Australian, in a front-page article headed, Remembering Beersheba's heroes, the Aborigines willing to die for their country. The article was accompanied by a photograph of Indigenous Australians, Ray Minniecon and Elsie Amamoo, kitted out as Light Horse troopers. Here's the propagandist core of the piece:

"The pilgrimage to Israel [by the descendants of Aboriginal Lighthorse soldiers next week] has been organised by the Rona Tranby Trust, with the support of the Pratt Foundation. Thomas and Eva Rona were Holocaust survivors who found sanctuary in Australia, and their trust specifically supports and preserves indigenous oral history. 'There are so many parallels between the Jewish people and indigenous Australians,' [Trust administrator Jennifer] Symonds says. 'They both understand dispossession from their lands, and the importance of oral histories - This project [the Rona Tranby Australian Light Horse Project] will enable descendants to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors, and when they return, they will record the stories, so the experience of those soldiers is not forgotten'." (Caroline Overington, 7/10/17)

The cynicism of this "pilgrimage to Israel" emerges only if we bear in mind the wider historical context.

Ostensibly, 'The Rona Tranby Australian Light Horse Project' is merely 'enabling' these descendants of Aboriginal victims of British settler-colonialism in Australia to "walk in the footsteps of their ancestors." The reality, however, is that they are being involved in a propaganda exercise designed to cement White Australia's connection with another settler-colonial state, one, moreover, which eschews any genuine reconciliation with its indigenous Palestinian Arab victims, having deluded itself into believing that its European Jewish colons, not the native Palestinians, are in fact the indigenous population of the land they now occupy, their 2,000-year spell in Europe notwithstanding.

Those post pilgrimage stories should indeed make interesting reading. As should the product outlined in the notice appended to Overington's article: "The Weekend Australian will publish a special magazine on October 28 commemorating the centenary of Beersheba."

[*The late Dick Pratt, in addition to being a cardboard tycoon (Visy), was a generous donor to both Israeli 'charities' and Australian mainstream political parties, a convicted price-fixer, and a key supporter of Bill Shorten.]

In the Beginning Was the Word... 2

OMG - An up-close look at the "apostle-prophet team," aka Indigenous Friends of Israel, the Israel lobby's latest pop-up grouplet, on the tail of the dastardly Bob Carr:

Selections from

MINISTRY BIO NORMAN & BARBARA MILLER (reconciliationandpeace.org):

*"Part of the vision of the Centre [for International Reconciliation & Peace Inc] is to be a prophetic end-time church without walls and a house of prayer for all nations and Israel is to raise up the Tabernacle of David... Norman and Barbara have received prophetic words that they have a Jeremiah 1:10 mandate "See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

*"Their local Church took on the name Tabernacle of David in 2000 and they hosted Tabernacle of David conferences in the Gold Coast and Cairns in 1995. They have a strong focus on spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare... They work as an apostle-prophet team. The Centre hosted an Apostolic and Prophetic conference in Cairns in Sept 2001 with speakers from Christian International in the USA and the conference ended on the same night as the Twin Towers of 9/11. The Lord showed Norman that Amos 9:11 is His answer to terrorism i.e., raising up the Tabernacle of David."

*"Through the CIR&P the Millers have hosted Psalm 24:7 conferences to open the gates to the King of Glory and close the gates to what is not Godly (Isa 62:10) in a number of cities... "

*"They have held conferences on transformation and are working towards revival and transformation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. They also have a heart for the people of the Pacific and hosted 'The Islands Will Look to Me' conference in Cairns for Purim 2014."

*"Norman and Barbara were (2005-2012) the leaders of the Bethany Gate Australia under the Jerusalem House of Prayer for All Nations and hosted the Bethany gate & All Pacific Prayer Assembly of 2,000 people in cairns in May 2006 timed to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the proclamation by Ferdinand de Quiros over the Pacific of 'the South Lands of the Holy Spirit'. Barbara later wrote a book about de Quiros. They were the founding national co-ordinators for the International Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem under Eaglewings USA."

*"The Millers teach on Israel and have celebrated the Biblical feasts since 1997. They lead a team of Australians to Israel regularly...

*"Norman and Barbara organised a very special tour and led an ANZAC/Lighthorse team of 14 Australians and 7 New Zealanders to Israel in 2010 to pray over battle scenes of World Wars I and 2, pray at the borders and visit holy sites. It was timed for the October 31 anniversary of the battle at Be-er-Sheva which opened the gateway to Jerusalem and the end of 400 years of the Ottoman Empire rule over Jerusalem. With the Balfour Declaration, it paved the way for the British mandate and eventually the modern state of Israel.

*"The Millers took the group to Richon Le Zion which is built on top of Ayun Kara, where NZ, in World War I greatly outnumbered, were victorious. The team lay wreaths at the newly completed statue to the NZ Mounted Rifles at Ben Gurion School in Ness Ziona. Norman and Barbara facilitated a time of repentance for revenge killings of Bedouins in Surafend and left a letter of apology to go into the city archives of Richon Le Zion.

*"Norman and Barbara returned in Dec 2010 for the honouring of Australian Aboriginal William Cooper at Yad Vashem. He is recognized as leading the only private protest worldwide against Kristallnacht in 1938. Barbara has written a book about his life including his stand on Aboriginal advancement."

But there's more! How about joining the Millers on their "life-changing" Sons of Abraham and ANZAC Centenary Tour to Beer Sheva?

"Is the Lord calling you to Israel this year for a once in a lifetime opportunity to be there for the 100th anniversary of the Australian daring victorious Lighthorse charge straight into the Turkish canons with planes flying at them from above? This would not have been possible but for the Allied forces who fought all day and the NZ contingent who took the high place. We are not glorifying war but the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy as the Battle of Beersheba made it possible for the breakthrough to free Jerusalem from 400 years of the rule of the Ottoman empire so that a Jewish homeland could be set up in Palestine. We are calling forth the ANZACS fought ((including battles special to Kiwis like Ayun Kara.) We will pray for breakthrough on Israel's borders and in Judea and Samaria. Not only that, we will be in Tel Aviv Nov 2 for another not to be missed once in a lifetime opportunity which is the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration by the British Parliament supporting the formation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine."

Words fail me.

A Book of Revelations

I've just been reading Deborah Rechter's review of Mark Dapin's new book, Jewish Anzacs: Jews in the Australian Military. (Lest we forget the Australian Jews who served too, The Australian, 6/5/17)

And lo, I learnt therein that which I did not know before!

Did you know, for example, that according to Rechter, "the assault on Beersheva [sic: Beersheba]," "lead [sic: led] to the Balfour Declaration supporting the establishment of the State of Israel"?

Whether this astonishing revelation is Rechter's, or Dapin's, or both, I do not know, but there you go: the taking of Beersheba from the Turks by the Australian Light Horse on October 31, 1917, directly sparked the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917!

One pictures Britain's foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, eyes aglow, turning to his War Cabinet colleagues on November 1, and saying:

'I say, chaps, I hear the colonials have just stormed some God-forsaken Turkish rathole in Palestine called... err... Beirut... no, no, not Beirut... B... B... B... that's it, Beersheba - so, hey, let's give Palestine to the Jews, shall we?'

And they, replying as one:

'Brilliant, Arthur! Your logic is impeccable!'

'Isn't it always, gentlemen. Now let's see.' Balfour scribbles away. 'How's this? Dear Lord Rothschild, the British army has just captured Beersheba. Let the State of Israel begin! Now! And seeing this matter is so frightfully urgent, gentlemen, let's drop everything, war and all, and issue it tomorrow, which is, if I'm not mistaken, and I never am (chuckles), is November 2, 1917. Let it be known as the Beirut... no... the Beersheba... no... the Balfour Declaration!

Cabinet, as one:

Way to go, Arthur...

Rechter then quotes a short extract from Dapin's book, in which we discover that which is entirely new to archaeology: "... the pyramids of Gaza..."

***

While on the subject of WWI history, I really can't let this priceless editorial letter (The Australian, 4/5/17) by Howard Dewhirst of Burleigh Heads, Qld, go without a mention:

"One thing Yassmin Abdel-Megied forgot is that World War I ended several hundred years of Ottoman colonialism. Why is it good to recall the disappearance of the British Empire and not good to note the same feelings about Ottoman colonialism? The Gallipoli campaign was a failure but helped to win the war, thereby contributing to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire."

Maybe, Howard, that's because "Ottoman colonialism," as you choose to call it, in the Levant was relatively benign compared to the Anglo-French dispensation which followed the eviction of the Turks there, and involved parliamentary representation, open borders, and, of course, nothing even remotely resembling the colonial-settler, apartheid state of Israel. Lest we forget, indeed!

Brownlee Blinked First

Remember Netanyahu recalling Israel's ambassador to New Zealand following that country's vote in support of SC resolution 2334 (23/12/16), which declared Israeli settlements "a flagrant violation of international law"?

Well, that vote took place under the watch of National Party foreign minister Murray McCully, who has decided he's not standing for re-election this year. (Could his decision, perhaps, have had something to do with resolution 2334?)

As of May 2, McCully's place as foreign minister has been taken by Gerry Brownlee, who, for reasons which elude me, seems to be in an awful hurry to mend fences with the obnoxious leader of the apartheid state:

"I sent [Netanyahu] a letter yesterday afternoon," he said, "expressing a desire to get the relationship back on track, to recognise that we have had an incident that has caused a problem and proposing that we have a process for getting full diplomatic representation back in place and reasserting that New Zealand has been a long-term friend of Israel." (New foreign affairs minister Gerry Brownlee knee-deep in restoring relations with Australia and Israel, stuff.co.nz, 3/5/17 )

Interestingly, according to Israel's Haaretz, Australia's PM Trumble had raised the matter of the Israel/NZ rift with Netanyahu, who then proceeded to improve on his demented accusation that, in voting for the resolution, NZ had actually declared war on Israel with an insistence that the country move first to repair the damage - in a word, grovel:

"Western diplomats told Haaretz that during Netanyahu's visit to Australia some months ago, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull advocated ending the breakdown in relations with New Zealand. Netanyahu clarified that New Zealand would have to take the first step and make a gesture towards Israel." (New Zealand's new foreign minister wants to end diplomatic crisis with Israel, Barak Ravid, 3/5/17)

Haaretz continued:

"Mere hours after Brownlee was sworn in, he made his first official decision and sent the letter to Netanyahu. 'I've sent a letter to Mr Netanyahu... firstly congratulating them on their national day but expressing a desire for the Israeli-New Zealand relationship to get back on track and to do that by recognizing that we've got synergies and innovation and agriculture and various other things like that,' Brownlee told the New Zealand Herald. He added that he believes the letter will enable the foreign ministries of Israel and New Zealand to start talks ahead of resuming diplomatic relations, saying he would like the crisis to end by October, when Israel will be marking the 100th anniversary of the battle for Be'er Sheva [sic] during World War I - a battle in which Australian and New Zealand soldiers met their deaths."

Which makes one wonder: surely Brownlee was not so desperate to participate in Israel's appropriation of Anzac history to serve its own ends that he decided to blink first?

No Apology Necessary, Yassmin

I see that the Murdoch press has, predictably, raised a hue and cry over an Anzac Day FB post - Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine) - by Muslim activist and ABC television presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied.  According to The Australian, it "sparked scores of outraged responses, with many accusing Abdel-Magied of disrespecting Australian soldiers." (Muslim blogger's 'disrespectful' message deleted, Pia Akerman, 26/4/17)

Yes, I'm sure it did. The entire Abdel-Magied Monitor unit at NewsCorpse must have been, like, spewin'.

As it happens, Yassmin ended up deleting, and apologising for, the post on the same day. But really, what was the need? Frankly, who gives a toss what the Murdoch press thinks! And anyway, isn't NewsCorpse the self-appointed defender of free speech against the dreaded political correctness?

What's more, thinking Anzacs would have approved of Yassmin's post.

After all, here's what Australia's last Anzac, Alec Campbell, had to say about Gallipoli on his deathbed in 2002: "For God's sake, don't glorify Gallipoli - it was a terrible fiasco, a total failure and best forgotten."

And this from Anzac Len Hall: "Next time I would fight for the Turks. They are good people and it was their land not ours." (See my 23/4/13 post Real Anzacs Don't Wave Flags. Under the AIF label below.)

But let's look on the bright side. In a 25/11/16 post Ya Yassmin, I voiced my irritation at Yassmin's doing a gig in Tel-Aviv as part of a government-sponsored speaking tour of the Middle East and Africa last year. I went on to note, however, that she had (in Ramallah?) acquired (or was given) a copy of Joe Sacco's amazing/must-read/must-have graphic history, Palestine, and expressed the hope that as she read it, "the proverbial light bulb" would grow "ever brighter in her head," and that this would be the beginning of "an intellectual journey" for her.

Well, I'm pleased to say that her Anzac Day FB post, with its reference to Palestine, seems to have confirmed that hope.

You might recall an earlier hue and cry over SBS presenter Scott McIntyre, who referred to the commemoration of Anzac Day, in a 2015 Anzac Day tweet, as "Remembering the summary executions, widespread rape and theft committed by those 'brave' Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine* and Japan." (He also added, "Wonder if the poorly-read, largely white, nationalist drinkers and gamblers pause today to consider the horror that all mankind suffered.")

Scott refused to apologise, was duly sacked by his employer, and went on to fight an unfair dismissal case which was settled out of court last year. Again, on April 24, 2016, he tweeted yet another anti-war message, "Heroism on demand, senseless violence, all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism," and backed up his 2015 tweet with chapter and verse from the historical record.

[See my 29/7/09 post The Sarafand Massacre.]

Bored with Gallipoli? Then Try...

Another interesting ad. This time in Monday's Australian:

100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF BEERSHEBA
Oct 22-Nov 3, 2017

On 31 October, 1917, the strategic town of Beersheba was captured by the Australian Light Horse Brigades in a helter skelter great cavalry charge, with the Lighthorsemen armed only with rifles and bayonets.
Join Military History Tours as we follow the campaign of the Australian Light Horse in Palestine (now Israel) during the First World War. This is a special tour is [sic] developed in the hope that we will, in a small way, ensure that this part of Australia's history is not forgotten as we visit the battle sites, each with an informative briefing, meet the local dignitaries who maintain our military heritage and pay our respects at the resting places of our fallen.

To register for attendance pass, visit https://overseascommemorations.ticketek.com.au/
For more information call 1300 364 671 or visit www.militaryhistorytours.com.au
Limited spaces left. Book now to avoid disappointment.

***

See my 23/6/13 post How Palestinian Beersheba Became Israeli Be'er Sheva

History Repeating Itself

In his account of the massacre of the Palestinian Arab inhabitants of Surafend (Sarafand) by ANZACs in December 1918 (following the death of a New Zealand trooper at the hands of an Arab thief), the Australian war correspondent and historian, Henry Gullett wrote as follows:

"In fairness to the New Zealanders, who were the chief actors, and to the Australians who gave them hearty support, the spirit of the men at that time must be considered. They were the pioneers and the leaders of a long campaign. Theirs had been the heaviest sacrifice. The three brigades of Anzac Mounted Division had been for almost three years comrades in arms... The war task was now completed and they... were going home. To them the loss of a veteran comrade by foul murder, at the hands of a race they despised, was a crime that called for instant justice. They were in no mood for delay. In their movement against Surafend, therefore, they felt that, while wreaking vengeance on the Arabs, they would at the same time work off their old feeling against the bias of the disciplinary branch of General Headquarters, and its studied omission to punish Arabs for crime. They were angry and bitter beyond sound reasoning. All day the New Zealanders quietly organised for their work in Surafend, and early in the night marched out many hundreds strong and surrounded the village. In close support and full sympathy were large bodies of Australians. Good or bad, the cause of the New Zealanders was theirs. Entering the village, the New Zealanders grimly passed out all the women and children and then, armed chiefly with heavy sticks, fell upon the men and at the same time fired the houses. Many Arabs were killed, few escaped without injury; the village was demolished. The flames from the wretched houses lit up the countryside, and Allenby and his staff could not fail to see the conflagration and hear the shouts of the troops and the cries of their victims. The Anzacs, having finished with Surafend, raided and burned the neighbouring nomad camp, and then went quickly back to their lines." (Quoted in Paul Daley's Beersheba: A Journey Through Australia's Forgotten War, 2009, pp 343-44)

A comment on my 15/10/12 post Time to Revisit the ANZAC's Sarafand Massacre indicates that bayonets were also used:

"I first heard about this event from the son of a NZ soldier who was there (I think) name of Gainfort and he was in 2000 one of the last survivors of WW 1 being nearly 100 years old. I was told the story after I mentioned a sickly lamb I had, had died. I said it had not been worth treating... and was told 'not worth a bullet'. His father told him they bayonetted the Arabs as they were not worth a bullet. Tough men in those days."

My reason for returning again to this subject, is the appearance of a new book, Hit & Run, by New Zealanders Nicky Hager and John Stephenson. The book's blurb runs:

"In August 2010, a New Zealand soldier died in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan. In retaliation, the New Zealand SAS led a raid on two isolated villages in search of the fighters they suspected were responsible. They all knew the rules. Prior to firing weapons, their freshly issued orders said, 'the commander approving the strike must determine that no civilians are present.' If they could not assess whether civilians were present, firing was prohibited. But it all went horribly wrong. None of the fighters were found but, by the end of the raid, 21 civilians were dead or wounded. Most were children or women, including a three-year-old girl who was killed. A dozen houses had been burnt or blown up. The operation was personally approved by the prime minister via phone from New Zealand. More missions against the group of fighters and more potential crimes of war followed, including the beating and torture of a prisoner. Afterwards no one took responsibility. The New Zealand military denied the facts and went to great lengths to cover things up. This book is the story of those events. It is, at heart, about the meaning of honour; about who we want to be and what we believe in as New Zealanders."

What we have here is an uncanny similarity to the events of December 1918 in Palestine. It seems that the only appreciable differences between the two war crimes are that, in the case of Afghanistan, the go-ahead came directly from the prime minister of the day, John Key, and not even the women and children were spared. (That is, if, with respect to the latter, Gullett's account is correct.)

Keep Your Eye on Beersheba

Australian journalist and historian (Beersheba: A Journey Through Australia's Forgotten War (2009)), Paul Daley, has written an interesting essay for the Guardian Australia (31/10/16) website on the coming commemoration of the fall of Beersheba to Australian troops in 1917.

The title - Beersheba: we must keep an eye on how the story is told and interpreted - indicates that Daley, for one, realises that someone out there may have an interest in misrepresenting the historical record on this one. Hm... now who could that possibly be?

He begins:

"It's 99 years today since soldiers of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade took part in what is generally regarded as the last 'great' successful cavalry charge. So in a year we can expect the Australian - and Israeli - governments to go overboard on commemorating an event that has never received the considered national attention it warrants. The story of what happened at Beersheba in Palestine (today's rather inhospitable Israeli city of Be'er Sheva) has long been eclipsed by the intensive commemoration... of other Australian military events - most notably the failed invasion of Gallipoli in 1915 and dramatic, later, Australian casualties on the European western front. But the federal government is now cashed up (with some $600m). And, so, Beersheba will get its moment." 

Now here's where he gets really interesting:

"It will pay to listen closely and to be wary about what you might hear from the Australian and Israeli governments. Israel? It didn't exist, of course, at the time of the charge, which took place in what was Ottoman Palestine. But Israel has gone to some lengths to claim what happened as something of a formative step in its establishment."

No surprises there, Paul, Israel has gone to some (nay, to extraordinary) lengths to claim all sorts of things - hence this blog which can barely keep up with them all.

Daley returns to the theme later in his piece:

"During the weeks and months I spent walking the Beersheba charge site and travelling from Gaza to Jordan, Damascus and Lebanon, tracing the mounted Australian battles, I realised how readily certain groups - not least Zionists, Christian Zionists and evangelicals, were appropriating the stories of the Australian Light Horse. I negotiated my share of eccentrics, including those dressed as light horsemen who insisted that the Australians were doing God's work in wresting Palestine from the infidel Turks so that a Jewish homeland might re-establish itself there. That the charge coincided with the British war cabinet's formulation of the Balfour Declaration - in support of a Jewish state in Palestine - is grist to the (Christian/Zionist) mythology... While some of the light horsemen did refer to the biblical names they passed through as they fought, few saw themselves as being guided by the hand of God, let alone working towards the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland. A small prelude to what we might expect next year came in 2013 with the joint release by Australia Post and Israel Post of stamps commemorating Beersheba. 'The capture of Beersheba allowed British empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.' Some historians of the Middle East and Palestinian groups were, rightly, angry at the conflation. Beersheba, you can be certain, will be evoked next year as testimony to the 'special' Israel/Australia relationship... Well, they ain't seen nothing yet, I fear... I'll be writing a lot more here about Australians in the Middle East during world war one."

Although I have been justifiably critical of Daley's take on the contemporary Middle East (Just click on the label below), it's good to see that he has at least cottoned on to what the Zionist lobby in Australia is up to on this one. Two things in his piece, however, require correction: 1) The Sarafand (or Surafend, if you will) massacre should not be dressed up as a "less than noble act." A massacre is a massacre is a massacre; 2) Australian troops did not enter Damascus "before TE Lawrence 'of Arabia'." To begin with, the reference to Lawrence should be ditched. It was the forces of the Arab Revolt, led by the Emir Faisal, who entered Damascus first. (See my posts Daley of Damascus (13/12/11) and The Aussie Shirtfronter's Guide to History (29/7/16).)

The Aussie Shirtfronter's Guide to History

I doubt failed PM Tony Abbott has ever come across a war he didn't like. (As opposed to actually being in one of course.) And, as a natural-born scrapper and pugilist, it seems to be of crucial importance to him that, in any stoush in which Australia has ever been involved, we land the first punch.

How else to explain this stuff and nonsense from his recent opinion piece published in the incredibly shrinking Sydney Morning Herald, Australians on the Western Front still offer a lesson to us today:

"But Australians didn't just fight at Gallipoli and in France. An Australian battery fired the Empire's first shot in anger to stop a German ship leaving Port Phillip. The Australian Light Horse was the spearhead of the British army that liberated Jerusalem and Damascus." (28/7/16)

Life being too short, I won't burden you with the rest of the paragraph, let alone a discussion of the the entire piece, but that second sentence cannot be allowed to pass as fact. No Australian (or Brit for that matter) ever fought his way into Jerusalem in December 1917 or Damascus in September 1918.

On the 'liberation' of the former, see my 24/4/15 post In the Burning Sands of the Middle East, a response to an earlier attempt by Abbott to peddle this tripe. On the 'liberation' of Damascus, you can read my 13/12/11 post Daley of Damascus.

But just to underline what fantastic bullshit Abbott is feeding us mushrooms here, let me focus again, using a different source this time, and at greater length, on the circumstances in which the 'liberation' of Damascus from Turkish control occurred:

"What a British army, much superior in numbers and arms and enjoying the goodwill of the Arab civil population, did to a Turkish army, much inferior in equipment, ill-fed and ill-clad and moreover operating in a hostile country has been well told in the official history [by Captain Cyril Falls, 1930]. All that is proposed to chronicle here, if only very briefly, is the part played by the Arabs in the victory and the whole campaign. The three Turkish armies in Palestine to the east and west of the River Jordan were supplied by the Hijaz railway running from Damascus to the junction at Dir'a from which one branch fed the forces in the western sector and the other those in the eastern. It was of vital military importance to cut off these connections before the British offensive was launched. The task was entrusted to Faisal [leader of the Arab Revolt]. A mobile column of 5,000 Arabs, who on the 17th and the 18th of September 'emerged like phantoms from the desert', blew up the railway to the north, south and west, shutting off Turkish supplies and cutting off lines of retreat. The few available British aeroplanes struck at Turkish army headquarters, telegraph, telephone, and road junctions. In the words of the historian, [British commander General Edmund] Allenby's victory was thus facilitated by 'two comparatively novel tools - aircraft and Arabs'.

"Once the Turkish lines were pierced to the north of Jaffa the fate of the two [Turkish] armies to the west of the Jordan was sealed. They offered such resistance as was necessary to cover the retreat northwards. The Arabs threw themselves across the line of retreat of the army to the east of the Jordan, hindered its retreat, captured prisoners and inflicted heavy casualties. Thus Allenby's victory was assured long before his forces reached Magiddo, the official name of the battle for Palestine and Syria. Limon von Sanders [the German commander of the Turkish forces], like British official historians of the war, stressed the importance of the aid given to the British forces by the Arab civil population. He cited the specific example of his headquarters at Nazareth, into which the British forces were led by Arab scouts along tracks.

"Confidence in victory was so high that barely 24-hours after the breakthrough [of] the Turkish lines Allenby despatched [T.E.] Lawrence by plane with a message to Faisal in these terms: 'I send Your Highness my greetings and my most cordial congratulations upon the great achievement of your gallant troops at Dir'a, the effect of which has, by throwing the enemy's communications into confusion, had an important bearing upon the success of our operations. Thanks to our combined efforts, the Turkish army is defeated and is everywhere in full retreat.'

"After the capture of Nazareth, von Sander's headquarters, the advance on Damascus was a speedy combined operation: the British army swung north-east inland along the ancient highway that forded the Jordan at Jisr Banat Ya'qub and straight to Qunaitira; the Arabs along, and mostly to the east of, the Hijaz railway. There was no 'fall' or 'surrender' of Damascus in the military sense. Politically the four centuries of Turkish rule came to an end at 2 pm on 30 September when, while the senior Turkish and German commanders were still in the city and offering no resistance, a provisional Arab government was proclaimed and the Arab flag was hoisted on the Town Hall. During the night of 20 September an advance force of the Arab Camel Corps entered the city, apart from many irregulars. Next morning at 7.30 am, Sharif Nasir rode, accompanied by Nuri Sha'lan, into the city to the Town Hall, soon to be followed by Lawrence.

"Here it is relevant to dispose of a myth that the city 'surrendered' to an Australian force and that the Arabs were not the first to take it. An advance guard of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade was ordered to block the road from Damascus to Hims to prevent the Turkish retreat. But on account of the terrain in the Barada Gorge it was necessary to pass through the northern outskirts of the city. This the Brigade did unobtrusively early on the first of October. To magnify this episode and to represent it as evidence that the Arabs were not the first to enter Damascus is absurd. As stated above the city was under an Arab government from the afternoon of the previous day. There was no significance, military or political, in the passing of the Light Horse Brigade even through its centre. Allenby himself put it in the right words in a report to London: 'When my troops [Arab, Australian and British] entered the city an Arab administration was in being and Arab flags were flying from government buildings.' He described his own entry into the city as merely a 'visit'." (Anglo-Arab Relations & the Question of Palestine 1914-1921, A.L. Tibawi, 1977, pp 294-96)

PS: This very evening, while browsing in a bookshop, I happened upon a just-published 'history', The Last Fifty Miles: Australia & the End of the Great War, by Adam Wakeling. I couldn't help but note that Wakeling - *sigh* - peddles the very myth alluded to by Tibawi.

Bergin of Beersheba 1

Our man, Anthony Bergin, deputy director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI*), in Beersheba (and its so good to see he spelt it correctly!):

"Beersheba is a modern Israeli city and a burgeoning cyber-security hub in the Negev." (Better Israeli defence ties will boost our hi-tech industries, The Australian, 10/11/15)

I don't know about you but BURGEONING CYBER-SECURITY HUB does it for he.

"Sadly, last month it was the scene of a terrorist attack..."

Bloody Negev Bedouin, never happy! Bulldoze their villages and this is all the thanks you get!

"I was recently in the city to attend commemorations for the 98th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba."

Where else, mate?

"The 4th Australian Light Horse took less than an hour to overrun the [Turkish] trenches and enter Beersheba, with 1000 Turkish soldiers taken prisoner..."

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi! Oi! Oi!

 "They did what no one, least of all the Turks expected. Some 500 riders charged, short bayonets in hand, because they didn't have swords. The Light Horse... dismounted to fight. Their success was not only due to their courage and daring, but also to their ability to be disruptive and to take risks, the characteristics we need today in our national reform agenda."

Memo to Malcolm: Whip out your short - sorry, mate, in your case, long - *ahem" bayonet and SLASH those penalty rates, CUT those company taxes, and STICK the GST up 'em, OK?

[*"ASPI is an independent, non-partisan think tank that produces expert and timely advice for Australia's strategic and defence leaders." About ASPI, aspi.org.au]

To be continued...

Sweet Charity

"Heloise Waislitz was only 13 years old when her parents, Richard and Jeanne Pratt, took her to South Africa on a family holiday... I was completely traumatised... I thought 'How can you separate people by the colour of their skin?' And that's why I got into philanthropy,' she tells The Australian in the first wide-ranging interview." (The heiress who keeps on giving, Damon Kitney, The Australian, 8/6/15)

Yes, Heloise, it's dreadful what they got up to in apartheid South Africa back then. Of course, separating people by religion so that you and yours can go and live in Israel but Ahmed Bloggs in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp just across the border in Lebanon can't, that's perfectly OK, right? But I digress:

"In 1995 Richard Pratt made Heloise... the chairman of the Pratt Foundation. He implored her to give and give, declaring he had never heard of an unworthy charity... Few know Waislitz as one of the nation's leading philanthropists, for which she is today [8/6] being awarded a Member of the Order of Australia. The Pratt Foundation... run by distinguished [Zionist] journalist Sam Lipski for the past 17 years... donates to causes in Australia, the US and Israel, giving away $15-$17 million a year."

Tax deductible of course.

The Pratt Foundation's best known project in Israel is probably Beersheva's Park of the Australian Soldier, where rambammed Australian politicians go to learn that Australian troops, by ejecting the Turks from the southern Palestinian town of Beersheba (as it was then known) in World War I, were not engaged in paving the way for the implementation of the proclaimed Allied war aim of a post-war settlement based on the principles of the 'right of self-determination' and the 'consent of the governed' for Palestine's then 90% Arab population, but rather paving the way for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

This deliberate linking of the military exploits of Australian troops in Palestine in World War I with the lobbying exploits of the Zionist movement in London at the same time has, as I have shown in previous posts on the subject, become a staple of Zionist propaganda directed at uninformed Australians.

Pratt Foundation CEO Sam Lipski, for example, put it this way in a recent issue of the Spectator magazine:

"On the same afternoon that the 4th and 12th Light Horse regiments... raced towards Beersheba... Lloyd George's war cabinet met in London. It agreed to support 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...' A few days later, on 2 November, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote to lord Rothschild advising him of the British government's decision... More than any other political event... the [Balfour] Declaration... greatly invigorated the Zionist movement [and] paved the way for Israel's emergence 31 years later... If the Turks had held the line at Beersheba... and if the first world war had ended with the decaying Ottoman empire still ruling Palestine, then the Balfour Declaration would have been meaningless. The Light horse victory ensured that didn't happen." (Beersheba Diary, 31/5/15)

What Lipski doesn't tell us, of course, is that, instead of making illegitimate promises to the Zionists in London in 1917, the British had a clear moral and legal obligation to honour their earlier 1915 pledge to the Arabs, given by the British High Commissioner in Cairo to the Arab nationalist Sharif of Mecca, to support Arab independence in the Middle East, including in Palestine, if the Arab forces agreed to join with the British in driving the Turks out of the Middle East.

That Anglo-Arab pact of 1915 was scrupulously observed by the Arab forces who fought and died (alongside the British and the Australians) all the way from Mecca to Damascus for an independent and unified Arab state in the region. Unfortunately, the Arabs were betrayed by Anglo-Zionist collusion and deal-making far from the scene of battle.

The sad truth is that if the Australian troops who'd captured Beersheba had had any inkling of what was afoot in the smoke-filled backrooms of Whitehall, they may well have had second thoughts about the entire Palestine campaign, let alone Beersheba. 

Lipski concluded his piece thus:

"Legendary the Beersheba victory may be for many. But for most Australians it's not as legendary as the Gallipoli defeat. For most Israelis, and many Australian Jews, the Light Horse's contribution to Israel's eventual establishment is virtually unknown."

Not if Lipski or the mayor of Beersheva have anything to do with it, however:

"Come the centenary in 2017, Mayor Ruvik... wants thousands of Australians and Israelis to come to Be'er-Sheva, not just to mark the the 100th anniversary, but to honour and celebrate his city's permanent Anzac legacy. I am booking early."

So too, I imagine, will Heloise Waislitz.

In the Burning Sands of the Middle East

Life can be very confusing and sooo complicated. We're lucky, then, we have Tone around to guide us through its complexities. I mean where would we be without such helpful shortcuts as these?

Climate science=crap
Australia before the White Man=nothing but bush
Australians=Israelis
The war in Syria=baddies vs baddies

What more do you need to know about those 4 issues after that?

Thankfully, Tone's come up with a newie: The Middle East=sand

"In the sands of the Middle East, Australian soldiers fought with skill and determination alongside British troops to capture Jerusalem and Damascus." (Worst of times brought out the best in Anzac troops, Tony Abbott, The Sydney Morning Herald, 22/4/15)

That being the case, the Australian War Memorial's website cannot be allowed to get away with the following any longer:

"Unlike their counterparts in France and Belgium, the Australians in the Middle East fought a mobile war in conditions completely different from the mud and stagnation of the Western Front. The light horsemen and their mounts had to survive extreme heat, harsh terrain, and water shortages." (awm.gov.au)

Hello, where's the bloody sand, AWM? You have until April 25 to fix it, OK? Better get moving!

As for Australian soldiers fighting [up-to-their-undies, or at least knee-deep, through the burning sands of Palestine ie, before Israel made the desert bloom!] alongside British troops to capture Jerusalem,  the following from Roger Ford, author of Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East (2009) my heretofore trusty guide to boots on the ground in the burning sands of Palestine in World War I, is going to have to revisit this:

"In fact, in keeping with Falkenhayn's instructions, the Turkish defences around Jerusalem were withdrawn during the early hours of 9 December [1917]. The first the British knew of this was a report from two mess cooks of the 2/20th Londons, wandering in search of water, who stumbled into the southern suburbs and upon a party led by the Mayor of Jerusalem, looking for someone to whom he could surrender his city. They declined to accept, and returned to their lines. Next the mayoral party happened upon two sergeants of the 2/19th Londons, on outpost duty, but they likewise declined the honour. Next it came upon two officers from the 60th Division's artillery, who promised to telephone the news to their headquarters but respectfully refused to take a more active part in the proceedings... Finally the mayor made contact with the commander of the 303rd Brigade, RFA, himself out on a reconnaissance mission, and managed to convince him of his bona fides. Lt.-Col. Bayley sent back for additional personnel, and was eventually joined by Brig.-Gen. Watson, the 180th Brigade's commander. Some while later Shea arrived and formally took the surrender in Allenby's name. British troops were henceforth confined to the suburbs, outside the city walls, until the commander-in-chief had made his own entrance. He did so - on foot, with no pomp and little ceremony - on 11 December." (p 359)

Not happy, Roger! Where are our Aussie diggers? And how about a bit of bloody action, mate? I want this passage Toned up, NOW, OK?

As for Australian troops fighting [again through the burning sands]... alongside British troops to capture... Damascus, I refer you to my 13/12/11 post Daley of Damascus, upon the reading of which, I'm sure you'll agree, that that uppity dune-coon George Antonius needs a thorough whipping. 

History 1, Nick Cater 0

In his attack on Australian historians who dare to examine critically (or revise) accepted Anzac dogmas, Anzac cynics blind to reality: Historians of the Left fudge the facts to fit their own myth (22/4/14), The Australians' Nick Cater writes mockingly:

"Major General Herbert Cox must have been mistaken when he told officers departing for France in April 1916 they were fighting for 'the suppression of a tyrannical and brutal militarism, the refutation of the abominable doctrine that Might is Right, the defence of the rights of weaker nations, and the solemnity and binding nature of treaties'."

Fine sentiments indeed, Nick. However, in the case of the Arabs during and after WW1, that's all they were.

When it comes to a tyrannical and brutal militarism, the British and the French, in the case of Palestine and Syria respectively, simply replaced the Ottoman Turkish version with their own. The British, moreover, paved the way for the apartheid Zionist version which continues to plague Palestine and its neighbours to this day.

As for the solemnity and binding nature of treaties, the British failed to honour the Hussein-McMahon Treaty of 1915, in which they had promised independence in exchange for the Arab Revolt against the Turks (1916-18), and took over Palestine as a colony (or 'mandate' if you're into euphemisms).

Finally, with regard to the Palestinian rights of self-determination and independence, the British ignored these at every turn, preferring instead to flood Palestine with Zionist settlers who, in 1948, did away with them entirely and went on to rule Palestine according to the abominable doctrine that Might is Right.