Getting Them While They're Young

The Israel lobby is not going to take the new Palestine-friendly Bob Carr or NSW Labor leader Luke Foley's new directive* on rambamming lying down:

"The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies has announced its new Berger Fellowship program designed to strengthen ties between the Jewish community and future political leaders. The 2015 program is for up-and-coming Labor Party members and has the support of the General Secretary of the NSW ALP.**

"The program has been developed to enable participants to:

*act as a vehicle for the Jewish community and Labor Party
*attend major Jewish community events
*provide advice on events of mutual interest

"The program culminates in a week-long study tour of Israel.

"Participants for the 2015 program are Darren Rodrigo - Office of Bill Shorten. Dave Latham, State Organiser, NSW Labor, Edward McDougall, Senior Advisor, Office of Steve Kamper [MP for Rockdale] and Trent Murray, Co-Convenor Australian Rainbow Labor." (New NSW program for up and coming politicians, jwire.com.au, 30/6/15)

These guys don't miss a trick...

[*See my 1/5/15 post My Solution to NSW Labor's Rambamming problem;**Jamie Clements]

My Solution to NSW Labor's Rambamming Problem

Check out this 28/4 press release from state opposition leader Luke Foley:

NEW TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS FOR LABOR MPS

NSW Labor leader Luke Foley announced today that any Labor MPs receiving assisted travel to Israel would be expected to spend an equivalent time in the West Bank and/or Gaza to hear the case of the Palestinians.

Labor believes in a two-state solution. A two-state solution must be built on understanding the perspectives of two people.

'This arrangement will mean that MPs understand the Palestinian as well as the Israeli case,' Mr Foley said.

'In that spirit I would expect all members of the parliamentary party who are assisted to travel to Israel would spend an equivalent time talking to Palestinians on the West Bank and/or the Gaza Strip.

'The MPs need to see the conditions under which Palestinians live.'

Mr Foley urged the Premier to match the commitment when it comes to travel to the Middle East by members of his Party.

At last, a recognition that rambamming is a problem. But is Foley's solution really the way to go?

My problem with his announcement is that it's based on the false premise that the land-grabbing, apartheid state of Israel actually has a legitimate case to offer.

My humble suggestion?

That Labor MPS belonging to the Parliamentary Friends of Israel group be sentenced to a stint with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank, paid for out of their own pockets, dodging Israeli bullets, tear gas canisters, sound bombs and skunk spray.*

Alternatively, they could be sentenced to clear away the rubble of shattered Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

(BTW, Labor MLC Walt Secord should be sentenced to both.)

Moreover, before going, Labor MPs should be required to read David Hirst's The Gun & the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East AND Saree Makdisi's Palestine Inside Out, followed by a written exam based on the content of those books.

(It goes without saying that I'd be happy to set and mark said exam, but I should warn that I do not, repeat not, believe in a no-fail policy. Any MPs whose responses are not up to scratch will be required to keep sitting the exam until they get it right.)

[*See my 7/4/13 post Mephitic Odours at Monash University.]

Luke Foley Gets the Koala Vote

You will of course remember my most recent post on NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley: NSW Labor: Out With the Old, In With the Same Old.

In it, I referred to Luke's namesake, Tom 'Fine Cut' Foley, the Queensland Labor Lands Minister who declared open season on koalas in the 1920s.

I'm pleased to see that Luke is an avid reader of MERC.

How else to explain his announcement on Monday that when he's elected Premier of NSW he'll establish Australia's first 'koala national park' on the NSW north coast?

NSW Labor: Out With the Old, In With the Same Old

While NSW Labor leaders may come and go, one thing never changes - their mode of dress. These days, they all sport Zionist straitjackets (hairshirts?). (Even ex-Labor Premier Bob Carr only managed to shuck his when out of office.) Which brings me to the current change in NSW Labor Party leaders:

The old leader was, of course, John Robertson. Once securely strapped in, he'd happily spout waffle such as:

"It is an eternal truth that the state of Israel... will always have a proud friend in NSW Labor," and "I've proudly visited a Max Brenner outlet in an act of solidarity against the BDS movement."  (See my posts Pollies in Love (4/11/12) & Marching Orders (8/5/13))

His same old, same old replacement, Luke Foley, belted and buckled seemingly in the cradle, and alas, infinitely more verbose than Robbo, already has a long history of Ziobabble behind him. For example:

"I recognise that the Palestinians have suffered greatly in pursuit of their legitimate aspiration - a national homeland of their own. I also recognise that Israel cannot make peace with those that seek to deny its existence. International campaigns to impose trade and cultural boycotts [on Israel] feed the eliminationist narrative of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran and all those who want Israel wiped off the map, and they align themselves with the putrid racism of those groups, their holocaust denial, promotion of anti-Semitic stereotypes and raw sewage Nazi ideology." (See my 4/4/12 post Where's Luke Foley Coming From.)

Now what it is exactly that causes the Robertsons and the Foleys of NSW Labor (not to mention their Liberal countrparts) to wear the wretched thing remains one of life's mysteries.

After all, what has Australian state politics got to do with Israel?

History, of course, tells us that it hasn't always been this way.

Take Queensland Labor for example. As historian Evan Whitton points out:

"Labor stood four square for authoritarianism; intolerance of dissent; union-bashing; politicisation of the police, public servants and the law; a rigged electoral system; public and private corruption; agrarian socialism; abuse of the Westminster system; institutionalised ignorance; and 'development'." ('The Hillbilly Dictator': Australia's Police State, 1989, p 3)

All proud Labor values, I'm sure you'll agree.

Face it, if Ziobabble like 'A land without a people for a people without a land' and 'Making the mulga bloom' had been part of that mix, a historian as sharp as Whitton would have included it in his list, right? I rest my case.

Is the present juncture not an opportune time then for NSW Labor to return to such time-honored values as the above?

Maybe Luke Foley could begin by modelling himself on his Queensland namesake, Tom Foley (1886-1973), and advocate for something that might actually benefit the people of NSW - as opposed to those of distant Israel.

For example, as Whitton writes: "In 1927, Lands Minister Tom Foley, intent on developing a fur trade, declared an open season on koala bears; in August of that year, 584,378 koalas were trapped and killed."

Oh well, no doubt it seemed like a good idea at the time...a bit like Zionism, I guess.

Tom Foley's brilliant career, however, didn't stop with wiping koalas off the map of Queensland. For example:

"Tobacco continued in short supply after the war and commanded high prices on the black market. In 1946, a large quantity of tobacco was found in the garage at the home of the old koala-killer, Cabinet Minister Tom Foley. He said that he had no idea how it got there and was 'cleared' of criminal activity. He was thereafter known as 'Fine Cut' Foley." (p 5)

1946?! Howzat for longevity!

In fact, Tom Foley was still at it well into the 1950s, tirelessly serving the people of Queensland:

"A public servant, V.R. Creighton, disclosed in 1956 that Lands Minister Tom 'Fine Cut' Foley was extorting money from Goondiwindi graziers as the price for renewing their leases." (p 6)

Now that's what I call real Labor!

So c'mon Luke, remove the straitjacket, cut the Ziobabble, and get back to those good old-fashioned state Labor values so beautifully exemplified by one of the greats of the Foley clan.

Doing the Donkey* in the NSW Knesset 2

On the speech of The Hon. Luke Foley, Labor Opposition leader in the NSW Legislative Council, arising out of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel (PFoI) "study mission" 'debate' of February 28:

Clearly the PFoI's 'ideas' man, Foley has obviously been lying awake at night trying drumming up a rationale for just why it is that NSW state politicians are falling over themselves to line up behind Israel. After all, hadn't Labor Left Pope Anthony (Albanese) once declared that "Foreign policy is a fair way from the parameters of the role of Marrickville Council."**

"Why would a group of State parliamentarians undertake a study mission to a foreign country, in this case Israel, given that the Australian Constitution provides that foreign affairs is a matter for the Commonwealth Government?" he asked. "I believe the answer is twofold: firstly, the role of NSW Jewry in the life of our state; and secondly, flowing from that is Israel's emotional appeal to NSW Jewry."

According to Foley, given that

a) "Jewish citizens of the colony and then State of NSW have always played a prominent role in the affairs and governance of our society;" and that

b) "Israel exercises an extremely powerful and emotional pull on Australian Jews;" such that

c) "the NSW PFoI group is not merely a friendship group with a foreign state [but] also a friendship group with the NSW Jewish community;" then

d) "[I]t was therefore appropriate for members of the NSW PFoI to embark on a study tour," because "I do not believe it is possible to fully understand the Jewish community of our State without making an attempt to familiarise ourselves with and understand the State of Israel."

Pretty neat, eh? Conversely, I suppose, because we can't find any Muslim First Fleeters and parliamentarians, despite "the extremely powerful emotional pull" on Australian Muslims of Mecca, no Parliamentary Friends of Mecca group has so far been formed. (If, on the other hand, we do eventually locate a Muslim First Fleeter...)

But I know what you lot out there are thinking, you cynical bastards. And so does Foley, because he hastens to add: "I note for the record that the 10 parliamentarians who went on the trip met their own airfares and accommodation costs." So there!

Padding his speech with a wad of 'Israel was born of the Holocaust' mythology and a reference to Vasily Grossman's The Hell of Treblinka (didn't I tell you he was an intellectual?), Foley goes on to pay lip service to the Palestinian untermenschen: "I acknowledge that in addition to our activities in Israel we also visited the [occupied] Palestinian territory, the West Bank, and were guests of the Palestinian Authority. We met with the PA governor of the Bethlehem district and some of his colleague. They, like our Israeli hosts, were most gracious with their time." [Typically, Foley's not telling what they had to say.]

And then, in an astonishing display of chutzpah, Foley comes out with this: "I conveyed to them the strong support of the Palestinian community in NSW for their legitimate national aspiration for a Palestinian nation state by the United Nations and the international community."

On what grand occasion of pomp and ceremony, one is left wondering, did the Palestinian community in NSW confer on Luke Foley the authority to convey such a sentiment to the PA?

Next in the Doing the Donkey in the NSW Knesset series: the Right Reverend Fred Nile MLC reveals that God's in His Heaven and all's well with Israel. Stay tuned.

[*See my 2/3/13 post Doing the Donkey;**See my 18/1/11 post A Rising Tide of Pro-Israel Bias at the ABC.]

Where Luke Foley's Coming From

One of the more vocal NSW Labor MLCs, Luke Foley, reflects on matters biblical this Easter:

"The message I take from the Bible is quite a radical one about solidarity with the marginalised, the powerless, the downtrodden." (MPs moved by heaven and earth, Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald, 6/4/12)

Well put, Luke. After all, for what it's worth, Luke is in Labor's left faction. One of Albo's mob.

Now when it comes to the wretched of the earth, it's hard to think of a more marginalised, powerless and downtrodden people than the Palestinians.

So, you ask, Luke's on their side, right?

Wrong. Here's his contribution to that extraordinary BDS-bashing 'debate'* which took place in the upper house of the NSW Parliament on September 15 last year. (You might like to bookmark it as a checklist of every current Israeli talking point in the book):

"Boycott, divestment and sanctions activists regularly demonise Israel as an apartheid state, even though the analogy between Israel, where Arabs exercise full citizenship rights, and apartheid South Africa is utterly specious. Israel is a pluralist democracy with an elected Parliament, independent courts, a free press and vigorous intellectual debate. Israel is a lot more accomodating of human rights, individual freedoms and democratic movements than any other nation in its region. It is, of course, possible to support Israel's right to exist and right to self-defence while at the same time oppose its excesses and counterproductive policies, such as ongoing construction of illegal settlements. I am no fan of Israel's current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Lieberman, but the Israeli polity alone in the Middle East permits opposition.

"I recognise that the Palestinian people have suffered greatly in pursuit of their legitimate aspiration - a national homeland of their own. I also recognise that Israel cannot make peace with those that seek to deny its existence. International campaigns to impose trade and cultural boycotts serve the purpose of de-legitimising the state of Israel and, in doing so, they feed the eliminationist narrative of Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and all those who want Israel wiped off the map, and they align themselves with the putrid racism of those groups, their holocaust denial, promotion of anti-Semitic stereotypes and raw sewage Nazi ideology.

"Israel is currently held to a far higher standard than any other country. Israel has not always got the balance right..."

To interrupt there, Israeli historian Benny Morris would quite agree with Luke on that. Speaking with his Zionist hat on, Benny once reckoned that "Ben-Gurion got cold feet during the [1948] war... he should have done a complete job... If Ben-Gurion had cleansed the whole country - the whole land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River... he would have stabilised the state of Israel for generations." (See my 11/5/08 post Benny Unhinged.)

"... between human rights and legitimate security requirements, but where are the campaigns to boycott the serial abusers of human rights, such as Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe, or the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela that are lauded by some who promote the BDS campaign against Israel? The call to boycott Jewish commerce is Europe's oldest political appeal. That call today goes under the name of the BDS campaign. I condemn it."

Now where did a nice young man like Luke, afire (or so he professes) with concern for the marginalised, the powerless and the downtrodden, pick up this affinity for a regime and an ideology that has marginalised the indigenous people of Palestine to such an extent that most Palestinians now survive/live beyond its borders; rendered them powerless both within the Arab world (Lebanon, 1982) and within the rump Palestinian territories (Oslo); and ground those within reach under its boot on a daily basis since 1948?

For an educated/thinking man of 52 years not to have cottoned on here is most strange. But, and here's the rub, is Luke a thinking man?

After all, thinking men and women have been dropping out of the ALP for years now, while Luke's been in for 24 years, much of it as an apparatchik (2003-10).

There's something else going on here, something stronger than thought.

A clue may be found in his maiden speech of 1/9/10:

"Mum instilled in me as a child faith in 3 institutions - the Labor Party, the Catholic Church and the Eastern Suburbs Rugby League Football Club - and on all 3 counts I have kept the faith..."

I'm sure the order there is deliberate. The significance of this disclosure is that it suggests an absence of the capacity for independent, critical thought or the questioning of received (so-called) wisdom. Sadly, some of us never move beyond uncritical acceptance of what mum and dad drum into us, and some do. Get my drift?

OK, but why is Luke so antsy over those who really do give a damn about marginalised, powerless and downtrodden Palestinians? Where does that special venom come from?

Well I don't know for sure, but there's a clue.

In 2005, in his capacity as Assistant General Secretary of the NSW branch of the ALP, Luke went on a study tour of the UK, and while there met with some interesting chaps calling themselves Labor Friends of Iraq. Mind you, they'd all supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and so owned their share of responsibility for turning that country upside down and rendering its people even more marginalised, powerless and downtrodden than Saddam could ever have managed, but here they now were, parading as 'friends' of what, at that time, passed as Iraq. With friends like these...

Anyhow, here's the relevant bit of Luke's report on his meeting with these caring souls:

"We discussed at length the democratic left's response to dictatorship, tyranny, and widespread human rights abuses. How does the world deal with mass-murdering dictators who take over a nation state and brutalise their own people?... Since my discussions with the LFIQ representatives, I have researched the writings and commentaries of numerous voices on the British left who maintain the tradition of international solidarity, support for human rights and anti-fascist struggles; including David Aaronovitch, Nick Cohen, Ann Clwyd, Norman Geras, Christopher Hitchens and Peter Tatchell."

To cut to the chase, Luke fell in with the sort of crowd who thought that the US invasion and occupation of Iraq was all about Bush, Blair, Howard and the rest suddenly conceiving such an access of concern for Iraqi suffering that their finely-tuned consciences left them no choice but to wade in and sort Saddam out. And Luke being Luke thought 'Geez, why didn't I think of that? I could've set Latham on the right track last year. Just imagine, flying the freedom banner and promising to draft every Australian 20-year old for the effort, he'd have blitzed Howard for sure!'

Now among the writings and commentaries of the above-listed luminaries, Luke would no doubt have gone on to read and heartily embrace a product of their labours known as the Euston Manifesto (2006), touted as an attempt at renewing progressive politics.

He'd have lapped up the manifesto's simplistic, manichean distinction between the 'bad' guys - "We decline to make excuses for, to indulgently 'understand', reactionary regimes and movements for which democracy is a hated enemy - regimes that oppress their own peoples and movements that aspire to do so" - and the 'good' - "The United States of America is a great country and nation. It is the home of a strong democracy with a noble tradition behind it and lasting constitutional and and social achievements to its name. Its people have produced a vibrant culture, the source-book and the envy of millions."

Fine words indeed! Just the kind to justify the Coalition of the Willies screwing over Iraq and who knows where or what else afterwards:

"Humanitarian intervention, when necessary, is not a matter of disregarding sovereignty... If in some minimal sense a state protects the common life of its people (if it does not torture, murder and slaughter its own civilians, and meets the most basic needs of life), then its sovereignty is to be respected. But if the state itself violates this common life in appalling ways, its claim to sovereignty is forfeited and there is a duty on the international community of intervention and rescue."

Blimey, this could've been penned by US neocon godfather John Podhoretz or our very own Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan (though neither, I'm sure, could come close to the honesty of dear Jonah Goldberg expounding the neocon version of the Euston Manifesto, which he dubbed the Ledeen Doctrine: "Every 10 years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business." (Baghdad delenda est, part 2, nationalreview.com, 23/4/02)

"We are united in our view about the reactionary, semi-fascist and murderous character of the Baathist regime in Iraq, and we recognise its overthrow as a liberation of the Iraqi people."

Try telling that to an Iraqi refugee today.

On Palestine/Israel, Luke would have thrilled to this:

"We recognise the right of both the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples to self-determination within the framework of a two-state solution. There can be no reasonable resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that subordinates or eliminates the legitimate rights and interests of one of the sides to the dispute."

Translated, that means, in theory, that Israel gets 78% of Palestine plus settlement blocs plus Jordan Valley plus settler-only roads plus army bases in the West Bank while Palestine gets the itty bits in between. In practice, of course, it means that the Eustonites, who'd be the last people at the barricades for even a Swiss cheese Palestinian Bantustan, can sit back while, in the words of John Lyons, The Australian's Middle East correspondent, Israel prosecutes "the world's slowest war [which] is being fought, and won, by Israel - house by house, settlement by settlement." (Israel winning its war of stealth house by house, 7/4/12))

No, the proliferation of racist, tribal settler scum in the West Bank, busy pulling the land out from under the feet of the Palestinians, is barely, if ever, on the Eustonites' radar. (Just a trifling matter of excesses and counter-productive policies, as Luke put it above.) Nor is the fundamentally racist notion of a Jewish state carved out of Palestine at the expense of the other, forgotten Palestinians still living in exile in camps in neighbouring Arab states since their expulsion over 60 years ago. But that doesn't stop the Eustonites from declaring rhetorically that they oppose "every form of racist prejudice and behaviour." What, in fact, really gets this crowd going is anti-Zionism, which they insist is really the new anti-Semitism:

"The recent resurgence of another, very old form of racism, anti-Semitism, is not yet properly acknowledged in left... circles. Some exploit the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people under occupation by Israel, and conceal prejudice against the Jewish people behind the formula of 'anti-Zionism'."

Notice the stock standard Zionist characterisation of Jews as the Jewish people? A dead giveaway.

"'Anti-Zionism' has now developed to a point where supposed organizations of the Left are willing to entertain openly anti-Semitic speakers and to form alliances with anti-Semitic groups. Amongst educated and affluent people are to be found individuals unembarrassed to claim that the Iraq war was fought on behalf of Jewish interests, or to make other 'polite' and subtle allusions to the harmful effect of Jewish inflence in international or national politics..."

Notice the dodgy substitution of Jewish influence for Zionist influence and the Israel lobby? For this lot there is no distinction between Jews and Zionists, and the less said about Israel lobbies and their malign influence over parties and politics on both sides of the pond the better.

So, for Luke (and his Eustonite mentors), Israel's a dinki-di democracy with, if you must, maybe just a few warts. But, hey hasn't everyone got a few of those? The focus for Luke and the rest is never the root cause of turmoil in the Middle East - Western imperialism and its strutting, overweening settler-colonial implant, Israel - but always and only the blowback. As Luke himself made very clear in his maiden speech:

"Anti-totalitarianism is at the heart of my politics. Today a totalitarian movement of the far Right is threatening pluralist democracies and the lives and freedoms of people in many societies, including our own. This global Islamist movement is misogynist, racist and homophobic. This movement's extremist ideology is, of course, based on an utter perversion of the Islamic faith. Too many progessives are silent about this or deny this. Governments everywhere have a profound duty to protect their citizens from the threat of extremist Islamist terrorism. I intend to maintain an active interest in this over my time in this place."

The marginalised, the powerless and the downtrodden? You've got to be joking!

[*See my September-December, 2011 series, Witches Brew.]

In the Dead of Night

Under the page 1* headline Don't mess with the Greens: anti-BDS protest ends in court, yesterday's Australian told the heart-wrenching story of one man's David and Goliath struggle against, well, the Green Goliath:

"A Jewish doctor who campaigned against the Greens in the recent NSW state election over their boycott of Israeli-owned companies operating in Australia believes senior figures in the party are behind his prosecution for a minor electoral breach." (Imre Salusinszky)

Can you believe this? A man who did no more than campaign during an election is being PROSECUTED for NOTHING!. What is this country coming to?

"John Nemesh, 55, yesterday pleaded not guilty in Sydney's Newtown Local Court to distributing unauthorised election material... The Hungarian-born son of Holocaust survivors, Dr Nemesh believes his career as a medical specialist, working in hospital intensive care units, is on the line as a result of the charge, which carries a possible fine of $550 or 6 months' jail."

A son of Holocaust survivors and a healer to boot! Practically a saint! All but on the dole!

"The Greens always go on about the poor individual who's having a hard time with the system', Dr Nemesh said yesterday. 'In my case, they are the system and I am the poor individual."

A true David facing the awesome and crushing might of a (Green) Goliath!

"Dr Nemesh's posters condemned the Greens for their support of the 'boycotts, divestment and sanctions' campaign. The posters, which targeted Greens candidate and local Mayor Fiona Byrne in the inner-western Sydney seat of Marrickville, were legal and duly authorised, except they did not include the name of the printer - an ommission Dr Nemesh claims was an honest mistake, given he had no motive to conceal the information. The case has been brought by the NSW police, who would have required a complaint to take action."

Shocking! I mean all the GOOD DOCTOR did was have some of the lads plaster the place, by the light of the silvery moon, with such statements of ABSOLUTE TRUTH as:

A Vote for the GREENS is AGAINST Gay rights, AGAINST Women's rights, AGAINST Community tolerance

&

The GREENS HATE GAYS: By boycotting Israel the NSW Greens are boycotting the only country in the Middle East where homosexuality is not a capital offence, or even a crime. Support gay rights. DON'T VOTE GREEN on March 26.

&

The GREENS SUPPORT TERROR: Iran is anti-Israel. Hezbollah is anti-Israel. Al-qaida is anti-Israel. Hamas is anti-Israel. And by boycotting Israel, so are the NSW Greens. Leave terror to the terrorists.

&

The GREENS OPPOSE DEMOCRACY. By boycotting Israel, the NSW Greens are boycotting the only country in the Middle East with a democratically elected government. Support power to the people. DON'T VOTE GREENS on March 26.

As I said, the GOOD DOCTOR was simply spreading the TRUTH, the whole TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH, so why should anyone complain? I just don't get it. I mean, until Honest John, crusader for TRUTH, JUSTICE and the ISRAELI WAY, did us all a service by blowing the whistle on them, none of us had any idea the Greens were just a pack of homophobic, misogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic terrorists. So thankyou Honest John!

"Despite repeated requests by The Australian, Ms Byrne and other senior NSW Greens yesterday declined to deny they had lodged the complaint against Dr Nemesh. But a spokesman for the NSW Electoral Commission said it had nothing to do with the case."

Aha! The Green Goliath unmasked by The Australian, the paper of TRUTH, JUSTICE and the USRAELI WAY! Guilty as sin, of course!

"Dr Nemesh, a member of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, was so incensed at Ms Byrne's support of the BDS that when she stood for parliament that he produced posters accusing the Greens of racism and homophobia, and posted them around Marrickville."

As any defender of TRUTH, JUSTICE and the ISRAELI WAY would.

"I heard Fiona Byrne's statements in Marrickville, and it was all about taking action against Jewish enterprises, Jewish shops and Jewish cultural exchanges', Dr Nemesh said. 'I felt so strongly that I couldn't sleep, so I very quickly designed some posters and hired some vehicles. I felt nothing was being done in terms of organised resistance."

OMG, it's back to the 30s! Kristallnacht has at last come to Australia! And seeing the IDF are off strangling the Palestinian economy, it's an 'If not me, who? If not now, when?' sort of scenario, right?

"He has now gone on the front foot by lodging a complaint with police against Ms Byrne for allegedly stealing his posters. It is a claim Ms Byrne will have difficulty denying, given a You Tube video on the internet features her and a fellow Greens activist boasting of stealing one of the posters, and offering it up for action."

Make that homophobes, misogynists, racists, anti-Semites, terrorists and thieves! But MEN of GOODWILL and CONSCIENCE are standing by Honest John:

"He received support last night from Luke Foley, Labor leader in the NSW upper house. 'The Greens are the first to condemn tough law and order legislation, yet they want to throw the book at a man for exercising his freedom of speech', Mr Foley said."

Luke's a GOOD MAN to have on your side. A courageous campaigner for free speech. I can see him now also comforting the equally aggrieved Andrew Bolt. So GOOD is Luke, so terrier-like, he's back nipping at the heels of the Green Goliath in today's Australian!:

"This is simply a revenge attack by the Greens Party, given they lost Marrickville because of their extreme campaign against the Jewish state of Israel', Mr Foley said. 'This was a minor technical oversight by Dr Nemesh, who is new to political activism." (Greens' attack 'was revenge', Imre Salusinszky)

OK, that's enough of Imre Salusinszky's David and Goliath spin. Let's get down to business here. What did Foley call Nefesh's dead-of-the-night deed? A minor technical oversight?

Ah, but he wasn't always so blase about breaches of the electoral act. Foley, you may recall, was intimately involved in the 2007 pamphlet scandal in the western Sydney seat of Lindsay, helping to bust some Liberal Party campaigners who were distributing a fake leaflet from a fake Islamic organisation alleging ALP support for the Bali bombers and the construction of a mosque in the suburb of St Marys.

As one of the Laborites who tried to wrest some of these pamphlets from the hot little hands of the Liberal Party campaigners** (as opposed to Fiona Byrne's alleged "stealing" of Nemesh's posters), Foley, then Assistant General Secretary of the ALP, was quoted in the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) Report on the 2007 Federal Election - Events in the Division of Lindsay of March 2010 as saying:

"So we would submit that there is an unfortunate trend in Australian politics exhibited at the last two federal elections concerning bogus material seeking to push the buttons of religion and race and seeking to divide the community on that basis. When that sort of material has been distributed on both occasions the aim has been to hurt the Labor candidate in a highly marginal seat. We are concerned to ensure that these tactics are drummed right out of Australian politics. We think that a $1,000 fine, the current maximum penalty that exists, is clearly inadequate for offences of this degree of seriousness." (2.21 p 14)

Hm... isn't falsely alleging homophobia, misogyny, racism, anti-Semitism and terrorism just as big a problem here?

"So we have had our candidates in marginal seats, in Greenway in 2004 and in Lindsay in 2007, subject to this sort of bogus material being distributed at night in the final few days of an election campaign. We want to ensure it never happens again. The only difference between Greenway in 2004 and Lindsay in 2007 is that the perpetrators were caught in Lindsay. They got away with it in Greenway. Louise Markus was elected narrowly over Ed Husic." (2.29 p 16)

Hm... bogus material being distributed at night in the final few days of an election campaign. Now doesn't that sound familiar?

And this is what the Lindsay Federal Electorate Council of the ALP had to say to the JSCEM:

"Our concern is that the pamphlet was a fraudulent pamphlet, indicating that it was from another political party, and it was malicious and it vilified people. I think it was meant to incite racial tensions as well. What we are concerned about is the actual content of the pamphlet." (1.4 p 2)

Hm... so Labor has concerns with the actual content of dodgy election material only if it's directed against Labor?

Right.

[* So important is this story for the Australian that it even has an editorial (Common sense should rule) on the matter in today's edition; **Egan drops prosecution of ALP figures, watoday.com.au, 7/7/09]

Labor Pot Calls Liberal Kettle Black

NSW Labor MLC Luke Foley is a vocal opponent of the NSW Greens' support for BDS, having attacked Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon, for her "high profile support in Australian politics of the BDS," which he branded "extremism." (Lee Rhiannon 'no victim of past', James Madden, The Australian, 28/4/11)

Presumably, as someone who opposes boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning the state of Israel, Foley subscribes to the key Zionist proposition that it is right and proper to establish and maintain in Palestine a nation where Jews reign supreme.

Imagine my surprise then to learn that Foley has come out swinging against Liberal MLC David Clarke, accusing him of being "a very right-wing character" who "cut his teeth running organisations in support of white supremacy in southern Africa." (NSW Govt 'pandering to far right': Opposition, abc.net.au, 19/5/11)

To Boycott or to Bed?

That is the question:

"The Greens have refused to retract a statement on their website that misleadingly denies they intend to push for a statewide boycott of Israel if they are successful at the NSW election on Saturday. Fiona Byrne, the Greens candidate in the inner-western Sydney seat of Marrickville, posted the statement last week after The Australian reported she planned to push for NSW to support the anti-Israel global boycott, divestments and sanctions movement (GBDS) if she is elected... Labor campaign spokesman Luke Foley... said... 'Her boycott policy is divisive and destructive'." (Greens Israel boycott confusion, Imre Salusinzky, The Australian, 22/3/11)

OMG! The Greens believe in boycotting the apartheid state!

Shouldn't they be bedding it instead, like NSW Labor:

"According to the [Labor] party, 'Industry & Investment NSW has been in discussions with the [Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce] regarding a memorandum of understanding for research and development technology over the last 12 months'. These discussions have included both Eric Roozendaal in his capacity as Minister for State Development and Jodi McKay, the Minister for Science and Medical Research. 'While an agreement has not yet been reached, it is anticipated the further steps in negotiations would take place in the middle of the year'." (Labor's Israel trade plan, The Australian Jewish News, 4/3/11)

And wouldn't it be safer for NSW to bed Israel - considering that, if we boycott, we might end up on the wrong side of the feared Israel Defense Forces:

"Military Intelligence is collecting information about left-wing organizations abroad that the army sees as aiming to delegitimize Israel, according to senior Israeli officials and Israel Defense Forces officers... The new MI unit will monitor western groups involved in boycotting Israel, divesting from it or imposing sanctions on it." (Military Intelligence monitoring foreign left-wing organizations, Barak Ravid, Haaretz, 21/3/11)

See what I mean? If you thought Mossad purloining our passports last year was a bit of a worry, what about the prospect of MI rifling through our drawers and filing cabinets this year?