Et Tu, ECAJ & AIPAC?

Over at News Corpse, Greg Sheridan's fairly beside himself at the First Coming of King Bibi. Even Fairfax has plonked its useless bum on the proverbial fence for the occasion, with a pro (Anthony Bergin) and a con (Stuart Rees) on its opinion pages. But this week's (17/2) Australian Jewish News is strangely silent on the subject, no front cover pic of the Zionist Messiah, no editorial encomiums, nothing really.

Could this AJN report on page 3 possibly have anything to do with it?:

"Australian Jewish leaders have expressed concern over Israel's controversial new legislation on settlements, describing the law which would retroactively legalise an estimated 4000 West Bank settler homes built on privately own Palestinian land as 'troubling' and 'counterproductive'. In a joint statement, Executive Council of Australian Jewry [ECAJ] president Anton Block and executive director Peter Wertheim said the Regulation Law passed by the Knesset last week, which prevents the government demolishing the homes and forces the landowners to accept compensation, is 'very troubling'. 'It seeks to legalise retroactively outposts that were built on land in the West Bank that had been privately owned by Palestinians. At the time they were built these outposts were illegal under Israeli law,' Block and Wertheim noted. Stating that the law was enacted 'despite the opposition of the Attorney-General of Israel', they said, 'Both he and the Defence Minister, as well as many legal experts, are predicting that the law will be successfully challenged in the Supreme Court of Israel. We can only hope that occurs, reaffirming that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is a democracy governed by the rule of law'." (Leaders unsettled by settlement legislation)

OMFG, they're criticising Israeli colonisation here, folks! ECAJ is criticising core Zionist business, namely the theft and settlement of any and every bit of Palestinian land they can possibly lay their hands on!

So WTF is going on here? These boZos have spent their entire lives cheering on, and otherwise aiding and abetting, Israel's colonisation of occupied (River-to-Sea) Palestine, but this latest land grab is a bridge too far? C'mon, guyZ, talk about swallowing the proverbial camel but straining at the proverbial gnat.

But lest one think that the Zcales have at last fallen entirely from their eyes, Block and Wertheim are really only worried that "this episode will... have  the 'unfortunate effect of feeding the false narrative that settlements are the primary reason for the absence of peace and will provide the Palestinians with a further excuse to keep avoiding a return to direct negotiations with Israel'."

(As Yishai Fleisher, the International spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron, said in the New York Times recently: "Israel never seems to have a good answer to accusations against the settlement enterprise. Whenever the claim that Israel stole Palestinian lands is heard, Israel's answers inevitably are: 'We invented the cellphone,' 'We have gay rights,' 'We fly to help Haiti after an earthquake.' Obvious obfuscation. And when pushed to explain why the much-promised two-state solution is perenially stuck, the response is always to blame Arab obstructionism." (A settler's view of Israel's future, 14/2/17))

But there's more:

"Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) national chairman Mark Leibler and executive director Colin Rubenstein said AIJAC believes the bill is a 'counterproductive and unwise piece of legislation aimed at pandering to fringe constituencies at the expense of Israel's integrity and image abroad'."

Whaaat?! Did they say "fringe"? As in 'lunatic fringe'? OMFG, they're calling Israeli colonisers, pioneers, FFS, who are merely doing what Zionist colonisers, formerly known as kibbutzniks, have been doing ever since Balfour gave them Britain's blessing in 1917, lunatics! Can you believe it?

Nonetheless, they too insist that "the Palestinian refusal to negotiate, not settlements" is "the biggest barrier to peace."

(Reread Fleisher.)

Seriously - well, not really - you've got to feel sorry for the current King of the Colonies once he gets to Sydney. Should Block, Wertheim, Leibler and Rubes draw too close to Caesar, will he fix them with his eye, and ask, Et tu, ECAJ & AIJAC?

Bergin of Beersheba 2

Back to ASPI's Anthony Bergin:

"Two Australian delegations attended the service for the Battle for Beersheba. I was with a group of defence experts who were in Israel to participate in a forum convened by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies. The other delegation of about 50 entrepreneurs, industry representatives and government envoys, led by assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy, was in Israel to seek inspiration for the Turnbull government's innovation agenda." (Better Israeli defence ties will boost our hi-tech industries, The Australian, 10/11/15)

The Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies (BESA)?

Check out their website: "The Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies advances a realist, conservative, and Zionist agenda in the search for security and peace for Israel." (besacenter.org)

You'll also find a video of Bergin's address on homeland security there, with a straight-faced Bergin telling his Israeli audience that Israel been "fighting terrorism for a lot longer than Australia has."

Hello? Has he never heard of Menachem Begin?

Begin was the Daddy of all Middle Eastern terrorists!

At least ex-foreign minister Krudd, who cracked that tasteless joke in Jerusalem's King David Hotel in 2010 about Begin redesigning the hotel's interior back in 1946, was alive to the fact. (See my 6/12/11 post The Joke.)

But I guess history and irony and all that sort of stuff just aren't Bergin's thing. He's in Israel for other reasons:

"Our exchange on strategic issues soon demonstrated a whole range of areas where our military forces could learn from one another. These ranged from defence industry co-operation (our army has purchased an Israeli battle management system) to counter-insurgency, urban intelligence gathering, coalition warfighting, countering improvised explosive devices, military education, the use of reservists, airpower developments (both countries are acquiring F-35 joint strike fighters), military procurement processes and maritime security (Israel is developing offshore gas fields). Issues related to counter-terrorism and social resilience were highlighted as common interests of both states." (ibid)

Bergin's obviously the sort of bloke who loves things that go *BANG*, and has decided that, in the *BANG* department, Israel is where it's at. And he wants a slice of that (field-tested on Palestinian guinea pigs) action for Australia.

So what?

Here's the bottom line:

To the extent that Bergin's views and advice are embraced by the Australian government, and defence and security ties with Israel, an ethnocratic, apartheid state, are advanced, we can expect a malign process of creeping Israelisation in this country. This will inevitably be characterised by a slackening of support for the role of the United Nations in international affairs; a deepening contempt for international law and norms; an erosion of basic civil liberties; and rampant Islamophobia.

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...