Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's 2

Sarah Ferguson: They're [the Israel lobby] still a very small group of people. How do you account for them wielding so much power?
Bob Carr: I think party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel.

***

We covered Morrison's fundraiser at the Pratt's in my 15/3/19 post Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's. The Australian's Business Review, you'll recall, concluded it's Margin Call entry on the subject thus: "Bet you the Visy billionaire [Anthony Pratt] is back in the manor when ascendant Labor leader Bill Shorten and his troops arrive for a reciprocal fundraising event in a couple of weeks."

As predicted, he was! Now here's Margin Call's account of Shorten and troops, cap-in-hand:

"He's on track to be our next prime minister, but Labor leader Bill Shorten is still shy about tucking his knees under the table of Australia's richest family. Just over six weeks from the federal election, Shorten last night entered the billionaire Pratt family's historic mansion Raheen via the secret stable doors, a laneway entrance normally reserved for deliveries. Maybe the leader of the worker's party thought it was the tradesman's entrance?

"For Shorten, it was a return to the Melbourne home of the billionaire family's matriarch Jeanne Pratt, her son Anthony Pratt and his wife Claudine, after a long absence. The politician was previously a frequent guest via his first marriage to Debbie Beale, a god-daughter to Jeanne and her late husband Richard Pratt. But last night Shorten was back in the Pratt fold, with the doors of their Kew home Raheen thrown open for a left-of-centre political fundraiser featuring a powerful clutch of Melbourne business types. Amazing how the sniff of victory can pull a crowd, even at $5000 a head.

"While their leader didn't want to be photographed, his deputy Tanya Plibersek arrived through Raheen's imposing main gates to be greeted by her packaging hosts at the arched front door. Very civilised. Almost Treasurer Chris Bowen, who has become quite chummy with Anthony Pratt of late, had slipped inside much earlier. Their Labor colleague Clare O'Neill had a bumpier entree. The shadow minister for financial services... and her VW family wagon were turned back at the Pratt's threshold and directed to a car park on the street. Retiring Member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby also drove himself in his Ford Territory.

"Rich-lister businessman Peter Scanlon was in for the night, as was former Tennis Australia chair Harold Mitchell and one-time Packer lieutenant and now Ellerston Capital chief Ashok Jacob. Former Telstra chair Bob Mansfield and leading Melbourne lawyer Mark Leibler, both at Prime Minister Scott Morrison's fundraiser at Raheen a fortnight ago, were back to play the other side, as was rich-lister and Jeanne's son-in-law Raphael Geminder. Former Victorian premier and industry super fund CBUS chair Steve Bracks came in a heavily tinted car with driver. Will Shorten soon make his New York dreams come true?

"Outgoing member for Lilley and Labor national president Wayne Swan, looking tanned and relaxed, was in bright and early, as was Member for Isaac Mark Dreyfus and Shorten's good friend and now senator for Victoria Kimberley Kitching, who Margin Call awarded best dressed on the night in a classic navy wrap dress." (Upmarket welcome for the workers' warriors, Will Glasgow & Christine Lacy, 28/3/19)

A LibLab Witch Hunt

A South Australian public school teacher, Regina Wilson, is currently being crucified by the Murdoch press for introducing "partisan politics" - the words are those of the Liberal South Australian treasurer, Rob Lucas - for posting the following on the Australian Education Union's FB page:

"I am going to try to ensure that the next generation of voters in my classroom don't vote Liberal, without being political of course, as I won't tell my students what to think, but I teach them how to be critical thinkers who question those in power and especially those who seek to keep the status quo for the rich, upper classes and refuse to acknowledge the rest of us." (Teacher's vow to turn kids off Libs, Michael Owen, The Australian, 21/11/18)

Far from being hounded by the Murdoch press, Ms Wilson deserves a medal for her devotion to the welfare of her students. After all, she's doing her bit to ensure that the racist, sexist, born-to-rule rabble, quoted below, get nowhere near the reins of power:

"... CBD has stumbled upon a rich resource that should allow future anthropologists to answer the question: how do party staffers and their friends see themselves? The answer is in a private Facebook page populated by Liberal staffers for dozens of (NSW) MPs from Premier Gladys Berejiklian to Finance Minister Victor Dominello, Sports Minister Stuart Ayres and Better Regulations Minister Matt Kean. Its name? 'Not so Subtle Young Lib Traits'.

'Having the ethnic pushed to the front of every group photo,' one Lib suggests.

'And the females!' another quips.

'Thinking that you're a humanitarian because coal exports lift billions out of poverty' is another well-liked post.

'The ratio of gay to straight men almost making up for the lack of women,' gets 60 likes.

'Working for a politician and realising that you're working in this public sector and that makes you nothing more than a filthy commie', comes with the crying face emoji.

One of our favourites: 'Trying to hide your metro aussie accent when talking to Young Nats, Aboriginals or anybody over the age of 50 by faking a strong rural accent like a top country gent' (only 18 likes).

Less creative: 'Being white.' " (The Young Liberal Manual, Kylar Loussikian, CBD, Sydney Morning Herald, 25/10/18)

Now read on as South Australian and federal Labor unite with the Liberals against this admirable woman:

"State Labor's education spokeswoman, Susan Close, said yesterday: 'Party politics should be kept out of the classroom.' This came a day after federal Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek joined federal Education Minister Dan Tehan in calling on schools to ensure children were not being indoctrinated with the political ideologies of teachers." (Teacher claims harassment by 'sexist minister', Michael Owen, The Australian, 24/11/18)

Truly vile.

Jerusalem Tweets

Jeremy Corbyn - Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, including occupied Palestinian territory, is a reckless threat to peace. The British Government must condemn this dangerous act and work for a just and viable settlement of the conflict. (6/12/17)

Meanwhile, on another planet entirely:

Malcolm Turnbull - 0
Bill Shorten - 0
Julie Bishop - 0
Tanya Plibersek - 0

A MSM Political Donations/Junkets Roundup

Left until the final paragraph:

"Mr [Anthony] Albanese said he was concerned about foreign political funding and said China, Israel and Taiwan were among the biggest spenders of sponsored travel and donations in Australia." (Labor seeks foreign donations revamp as Dastyari row festers, Tom McIlroy, Sydney Morning Herald, 5/9/16)

OMG, Albo's only just noticed that politicians have been popping off to Israel in rather LARGE numbers (including his mate, Plibersek, in 2014).

***

It seems that Australian politicians can always be relied upon to burst into song if the price is right:

"Enjoying a glass of red wine, Chinese businessman William Chiu announced he would donate $25,000 if the NSW attorney-general Greg Smith sang him three songs. Mr Smith obliged with Elvis and Sinatra." (Secret past of China donor, Kirsty Needham, The Sun-Herald, 4/9/16)

But it's not just China that gets Greg Smith going. Here he is in fine voice in 2011:

"The BDS resolution against Jewish businesses passed in December 2010 by the Marrickville Council and, more recently, violent activist protests against Jewish businesses, in particular Max Brenner chocolate and coffee stores, are eerily reminiscent of Jewish pogroms of earlier times." (Israel ban bid 'is anti-Semitic', Imre Salusinszky, The Australian, 24/8/11)

***

Now here's music to Israeli ears:

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, currently in Israel, has just invited Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Australia, cooing, "The Australian public would warmly embrace you, welcome you," and brushing aside Israel's stated intention to try World Vision employee Mohammed Halaby in a secret court with a cheery, "Closed proceedings are not unknown in legal systems around the world." (AM, Radio National, 5/9/16)

OMFG, if that doesn't reflect the influence of Israel-linked donations and propaganda trips in Australian political life, I don't know what does. But will our MSM join the dots? Purely rhetorical question, of course.

***

There are many references to China in George Williams' (Dean of Law, UNSW) opinion piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald, but I'm afraid you've got to read between the lines for any hint that Zionist money and junkets are impacting Australia's foreign policy position on Palestine/Israel:

"When it comes to foreign donors, there can be no suggestion that these corporate, national and other interests are acting out of altruism. They are investing in the hope of a return. That might be a favourable decision in regard to a foreign investment, or to shape Australia's foreign policy. They seek to secure these outcomes by direct payments and all-expenses paid study tours." (Dastyari the canary in coal mine for donations reform, 5/9/16)

Plus Ca Change Plus La Meme Chose

Note:

The shadow foreign affairs portfolio has now passed from Tanya (Rogue state? What rogue state?) Plibersek to Penny ("I was struck by the challenges of Israel's leaders having to juggle the work of government with managing a constant existential threat"*) Wong.

Penelope, of course, is eminently qualified for the post, having been rambammed in 2014. (Which explains her fluency in Ziospeak.) I for one simply cannot wait for more of her penetrating insights on this and other over-the-hills-and-far-away matters.

[*See my 9/6/14 post Israeli-Occupied Labor.]

How to Stop Tanya Plibersek in Her Tracks

For what it's worth - fuck all! - here's federal Labor's July 2015 policy fudge on Israeli settlements:

"Recognises that settlement building by Israel in the occupied territories that may undermine a two-state solution is a roadblock to peace. Labor calls on Israel to cease all such settlement expansion to support renewed negotiations toward peace... If... there is no progress in the next round of the peace process, a future Labor government will discuss joining like-minded nations who have already recognised Palestine..."

Returning to earth, here's the latest on the inexorable Israeli colonisation of the occupied West Bank:

"In a move which most analysts agree portends another massive expansion of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Civil Administration has brought in a special team to 'remap' some 15,000 acres of 'state-owned' land in the territory. The remapping on the one hand is done to label territory as 'military fire zones', which is then used to justify the military expelling the Arabs living in those areas, even those built before the occupation, as 'illegal' and give the land to settlements." (Israel remaps West Bank for massive settlement expansions, Jason Ditz, antiwar.com, 31/5/16)

Shadow FM Tanya - Once was Warrior - Plibersek is, of course, currently on the campaign trail.

If any of you out there manage to get her ear, you might like to ask whether she's aware of this rogue development, and if so, will she be calling on Israel to cease such settlement expansion forthwith.

If stopping a politician in her tracks is your thing, that should do the trick. 

Danby/Plibersek: Netanyahu's Tag Team in Federal Parliament

Fresh from Labor's shadow foreign minister Tanya (Once Was Warrior) Plibersek's linking of IS with Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation - on February 22's Q&A (See my 24/2 post Lobbyotomised) - we now have its shadow minister for Israel, Michael Danby, pushing the nakedly Netanyahu agenda of screwing the Iranian economy through international sanctions in order to preserve Israeli hegemony in the Middle East:

"Melbourne ports MP Michael Danby has won support from the Labor caucus to refer the government's decision to ease sanctions to the Senate Foreign Affairs Defence & Trade Reference Committee, but will need the support of the Greens and four crossbench senators for it to go ahead... Danby said the inquiry was needed because the decision had been made without any parliamentary debate or scrutiny. He also said the Senate would be able to determine whether any Australian goods shipped to Iran following the eased sanctions could have military use... Mr Danby said... there was also a need for the Senate to examine Iran's involvement in the Syrian conflict." (ALP seeks probe into Iran sanctions relief, Sarah Martin, The Australian, 3/3/16)

This BTW is the same man who "last year... erected [at taxpayers' expense?] a giant billboard in St Kilda of the Foreign Minister in a headscarf meeting the Iranian President, Hassan Roubani." (ibid)

In addition to her support in caucus for Danby's posturing, the shadow minister thought she'd do some posturing of her own on the coming visit of Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif:

"The Foreign Minister has been... so prepared to turn a blind eye to the anti-American rhetoric of the Iranian government, the anti-Israeli rhetoric of the Iranian government, to the human rights abuses, where people are locked up for their sexuality, for following a religion that's not approved of by the regime and, most particularly, for political organisation against an oppressive government." (Tanya Plibersek 'hysterical' on Iran, Sarah Martin, The Australian, 15/3/16)

Which merely allowed Liberal foreign minister Julie Bishop to remind her of her 2002 description of Israel as a "rogue state" led by a "war criminal," the only thing of any substance Plibersek has ever said on the subject of the Middle East.

Melissa Parke MP: Nice Girl in a Place Like This

New Matilda journalist Max Chalmers' excellent piece on Labor MP (Freemantle, WA) Melissa Parke, who has announced she will be stepping down at the next election, is called Labor's conscientious objector: inside Melissa Parke's war on indifference (28/2/16). It could just as well have been called What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? 

Chalmer's essay is a fascinating reflection on the interface between a thoroughly decent, principled, and beautiful human being and a thoroughly indecent, unprincipled, ugly-as-sin party machine. Or, to put it another way, the interface between a human being so morally and intellectually courageous that the issue of Palestine is central to her outlook on life and a party machine committed to ensuring that it is consigned to history's dustbin. Which is to say, a rotten-to-the-core Zionist party.

I would urge all of you to read the essay in its entirety. For now I wish only to highlight the following passages and say a few words:

"The issue of BDS in Australia, and of the Israel/Palestine conflict generally, remains politically unrewarding. Support begets accusations of anti-Semitism, and as The Greens have learnt, dogged attacks from the conservative press. If you are unlucky you might even end up in court. Meanwhile, most Australians couldn't tell you the first thing about the aging conflict. The repercussions for pushing it onto the public consciousness are severe, and the political payoffs somewhere between questionable and nonexistent."

Now isn't that the naked truth?! And yet, it seems to me, that even as good a journalist as Chalmers is afraid to spell out the bleeding obvious; whether Lib, Lab or Green, the Zionist lobby has Australian politics by its non-existent balls.

Example? Melissa Parke MP is tabling a petition in support of BDS by a dissident Israeli academic resident in Australia, Marcelo Svirsky. Writes Chalmers: "Despite being delivered to a near-empty chamber, Parkes' remarks were punctuated by outraged interjections."

Near-empty chamber... outraged interjections. Says it all, really.

So why has Parkes embraced the cause of Palestine? Simple. Being the intellectually and morally courageous individual she is, and having seen what she's seen, she simply cannot look away. From this:

"As the Second Intifada raged [2000-2005]... Parke was in Gaza... working as a Legal Officer for a UN refugee agency... At the time, Israel was deploying what Parke describes as 'a sort of shock and awe bombing campaign.' She says thirty-six bombs were dropped on her first night in Gaza city, shaking her building and its surrounds. She lay awake. Then Israel started targeting leaders of Hamas - too bad if you're the one who gets stuck in traffic behind them when the IDF locks on. 'You could be driving behind the car targeted with Hamas in it and you're gone as well,' Parke says. She was scared, and her fears were soon vindicated. The same year as Parke arrived in Gaza, a place she stayed for two and a half years, fellow UN worker Ian Hook was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper from a nearby building. Hook was in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank but was inside a UN compound at the time he was shot. He'd been there to help rebuild homes. Israel contests the exact details of the killing, but those like Parke believe the shooter must have known who they were about to slay. Despite some outrage, and conciliatory calls from Israel's then foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to the English government, a UN resolution condemning the murder was vetoed by the United States.

"The killing of Hook and lack of international response outraged Parke, and she carries the injustice of it with her still. So too the many others she witnessed directly in the shelled and reshelled streets of Gaza. 'I didn't go there with a preconceived view,' Parke insists. 'I obviously had read about the situation. But it's not until you're there on the ground that you come to appreciate the absolute imbalance of power. You're talking about the fourth largest military power in the world with the latest technology and with an army, navy, airforce, versus an occupied people - an impoverished, occupied people.' These experiences soaked deep into Parke. When I tried to move the interview on, at one point, she moves us back to Palestine. This is what she wants to talk about and part of the reason she came to Parliament: to grab the megaphone and to use it."

Inevitably, the subject of Tanya (Once was warrior) Plibersek arises:

"Both Parke and Plibersek secured progressive inner-city seats and have an affinity for development and international affairs. Both are used as counter-examples by party faithful disillusioned with the middling leadership of Bill Shorten. Both have a powerful charisma and independent streak. But only one has played the disciplined insider game: Plibersek now finds herself on the ladder's penultimate rung. Yet... Tanya Plibersek underwent a transformation over the period of her ascent, especially in regards to international affairs. In earlier times, Plibersek decried Ariel Sharon as a war criminal and blasted the US but by the time he died in 2014, she was thanking the former Israeli leader for his 'courageous stand' for peace."

Yet another example, if one were needed, of the extraordinary power of the Israel lobby in this country. The appalling reality of Australian political life, as of American, is that the path to the the political ladder's penultimate rung passes through the Zionist lobby.

Finally, a quibble: "[Parke] is drawn to Labor's history and points to Doc Evatt... as [a source] of inspiration."

Melissa, should ever get around to reading this post, please, please, please take the trouble to click on the Dr Evatt label below and find out a little more about this Zionist icon.

Lobbyotomised

The power of the Israel/Palestine issue to remove the mask and reveal the true face of our political representatives was evident once again on Monday night's Q&A.

The following ludicrous question, in compere Tony Jones rephrasing, was lobbed at Labor's shadow foreign affairs minister Tanya Plibersek:

"What do you say to the general notion that... the Israeli mentality, the Israeli way of dealing with [terrorism] is something that Australia should learn from?"

You will of course recall Plibersek's 2002 assertion (in federal parliament) that, in so many words, Israel was a US-funded rogue state which massacres civilians. (See my 17/10/13 post A Heretic Recants)

That, it goes without saying, was a rare case (as was Liberal MP Craig Laundy's December 2014 speech in the same place) of a simple, bleeding obvious truth spoken by a political neophyte who, critically, had not yet undergone a lobbyotomy.

Now listen to the opening two sentences of Plibersek's Q&A response - the only ones of any consequence in her entire performance:

"I'm not sure that the premise of the question that Israel hasn't been attacked by IS holds, as Eldad [Beck] has said. There has been a series of knife attacks at bus stops and so on as well."

The rogue state and the massacres of 2002, obviously, are conspicuous by their absence, seemingly erased from memory.

The opportunity to reference a representative of the rogue state which massacres civilians, thoughtfully provided by Q&A, is taken full advantage of.  

Desperate acts of resistance (those not concocted by the rogue state itself, that is) by a people groaning under the tyranny of a brutal near 60-year occupation are vilely and casually tarred with the IS brush.

And the incredible hold of the Israel lobby over the minds of our elected representatives is once again manifest.  

Off to Israel with Him!

Strewth, just how long has this bloke been in the party? Talk about loose lips:

"The new head of the NSW union movement will criticise federal Labor for following Malcolm Turnbull's push to make Australia a 'start-up nation,' in a speech to the ALP's state conference on Saturday. 'Start-ups often pay much less than established companies [...] getting a mortgage is harder [and they] don't always offer decent employment rights,' Mark Morey, the new secretary of Unions NSW, will say in a speech to the state Labor conference on Saturday." ('Start-up nation' can mean a raw deal for workers: Unions NSW boss Mark Morey, James Robertson, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/2/16)

But, Mark, Labor's not just blindly following M' Lord Turnbull here.

It's acting out of its own DNA, mate. As a Zionist party, the ALP cannot help but lap up and regurgitate anything that comes out of Israel. It used to be the kibbutz, but that's sooo yesterday. Now that we're all agile, innovative, neo-liberal go-getters, it's Upstart Nation.

As Zionist elder Mark Leibler once put it:

"Bill Shorten embodies the traditional core values of the Labor Party, and his solid support for Israel reflects that." (See my 21/10/13 post Danby to Keep Young Bill on Straight & Narrow.)

Mark, mate, zip it! Don't go there! Workers be buggered! It's Israel, mate! Israel!

Remember what they did to Tanya (Once was Warrior) Plibersek?  Not a pretty picture these days, eh?

Mark, I'm telling you, utter one word against Upstart Nation and they'll have you marked down... for a right rambamming.

Tanya Plibersek Channels Mark Regev

One of the only truly independent voices - as in willing to speak up for Palestine - in the Australian Labor Party was retired Labor MP Julia Irwin.

Irwin once observed that:

"There is certainly a belief [in the Party] that support for Palestine will swiftly end any prospect of a front bench position. Even a hint of offence can result in an immediate, unconditional apology... Labor members will talk about human rights abuse in every corner of the world, but not in Palestine." (See my 11/8/10 post Julia Irwin Spills the Beans.)

The absolute beyond classic case of this bizarre phenomenon today is surely Australia's shadow foreign minister Tanya (Once was Warrior) Plibersek, who, as a mere MP back in 2002, condemned Israel as "a rogue state... led by a war criminal."

Of course, that was long ago, and the various stages of her transformation from one who once spoke up for Palestine into someone who now speaks up for Israel have been, for those interested, documented by this blogger.

Her opinion piece in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, however, is the first time where I've actually felt she's become a mouthpiece for Israel:

"The Iranian nuclear deal... is significant [but] we need to maintain a healthy degree of scepticism in our dealings with Iran... Australia must continue to steadfastly oppose Iran's human rights abuses, its inciting language towards the United States and Israel, its support of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and its sponsorship of terrorism." (Clear grounds for Australia to remain cautious with Iran despite nuclear deal, 21/1/16)

As for healthy scepticism in our dealings with Israel, steadfast opposition to Israel's human rights abuses, its threats to nuke Iran, its support for creepy crawlies in Syria and its actual, routine terrorism in Occupied Palestine and elsewhere... forget it!

"When Iran tests ballistic missiles... we should speak up."

But of Israel's tried and tested nuclear arsenal, we shall say nothing.

"We must continue to stand up for our values."

Whose values, Tanya???

[*See my 17/10/13 post A Heretic Recants.]

Diddums

Quoting the pro-war Hilary [Benn, UK shadow foreign secretary] and the pro-war Hillary [Clinton] approvingly, Labor's pro-war shadow foreign minister Tanya Plibersek flaunts her hypocrisy and ignorance on the subject of Syria in Tanya Plibersek: Australia deserves a seat at the table in Syria negotiations, theguardian.com, 15/12/15: 

"As President Assad has proved to be incapable or even unwilling to protect Syrian civilians..."

Never a mention of Prime Minister Netanyahu who just can't wait to maul and maim Palestinian civilians...

"... and as the border between Syria and Iraq is now virtually non-existent, there is also a strong argument that the international community has a responsibility to prevent attacks being launched from Syria. The United Nations Security Council has labelled Daesh an 'unprecedented' threat to international peace and security, with Resolution 2249 calling on member states to 'take all necessary measures... to eradicate the safe haven [the terrorist groups have] established in Syria and Iraq.'"

Safe haven?

No mention, of course, of that fascinating, declassified 2012 US Defence Intelligence Report,* and its "supporting powers to the [Syrian] opposition," who wanted to establish a "Salafist principality" in eastern Syria...

Namely, according to the same document, "THE WEST, the Gulf countries and Turkey."

Which means us!

Deal with it, Princess!

"Small steps towards peace in Syria have been made recently, through negotiations in Vienna. These talks included Iran, a key if disagreeable player in the Syrian conflict, for the first time."

Disagreeable... because USsrael doesn't like them. We know who to take our cues from, don't we, Princess?

"On the other hand, there are also some concerns with the Vienna agreements: there were no Syrians present and no agreement on the future of Bashar al-Assad. It is perplexing that Australia was not invited to these negotiations... We have ideas and we deserve a seat at that table."

So we have a God-given right to pronounce on the future of Asad, do we? We have be at the table to tut tut, swivel our eyes and prate inanely on the subject of his disagreeability? That's our job, is it?

Thank God we haven't been invited.

Neither you nor your opposite number have any idea about anything of substance, Princess, and we, USrael's lackey in the South Pacific (along with Micronesia, the Marshalls, Nauru and Palau), deserve nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Get over it! 

[*See my 26/5/15 post Frankenstein Monster Mark III.]

So You Think It's Tough Being a Woman in the Labor Party?

"Women face systemic, cultural and rules-based impediments to participation in the Labor Party, according to a landmark report that urges strengthening affirmative action requirements for selecting candidates, officials and union delegations, and imposing sanctions for failure to comply." (Labor's internal sexism revealed, Troy Bramston, The Australian, 4/7/15)

OK, so Labor's still too blokey for female candidates. But, hey, it could be worse, far worse.

What if the candidate is not only a woman but has also been critical - even ONCE - of Israel as well?

That's when the going really gets tough. That's when a sort of McCarthyite process kicks in: 'Are you now, or have you ever been, a Palestinian sympathiser?'

Think I'm exaggerating? I wish! Just click on the Julia Irwin, Rose Jackson or Tanya Plibersek labels below...

Sophie's Choice

Any young Australian setting out to climb the greasy pole of LibLab politics will, sooner or later, be 'encouraged' (there are other words I could use, but...) to go over to the Zionist dark side. Sadly, precious few, however, as far as I am aware, will have the capacity (a combination of knowledge and intellectual & moral integrity) to resist such 'encouragement' come what may.

Most I imagine go over out of sheer ignorance (I'm putting the best possible complexion on this distasteful business), and without a moment's thought. Some may wrestle with the matter a little before taking the plunge. But even those who, like federal Labor's Tanya (Once Was Warrior) Plibersek, who began the climb knowing full well the nature of the Zionist beast, can be prevailed upon to make the transition, if reaching the top of the pole requires it. One minute she's shouting from the rooftops that Israel is a rogue state led by a war criminal, the next she's beating a path to the place.

Going over fully to the Zionist dark side usually involves a kind of induction ceremony - what I, as a long-time observer of this passing strange phenomenon, call a rambamming. Others might prefer the term 'propaganda tour'. Those in the business, and their 'customers', will call it, euphemistically, a 'study tour'.

The rambamming begins with an initial approach by smiling, glad-handing suits whose charm and powers of persuasion do credit to their prototypical ancestor, Chaim Weizmann.

Before long, our aspiring LibLabber finds himself in Israel, in the company of others of his kind, being put through his paces, leaping through hoop (e.g., Lebanese border) after hoop (e.g., Sderot) after hoop (e.g., Yad Vashem).

Upon his return, he will invariably be prevailed upon to sing the praises of the Jewish State at a Zionist gathering convened for just that purpose. This crucial phase of the rambamming ceremony is known as the report-back, and usually elicits from the rambammed more gibberish than a dozen Pentacostal gatherings rolled into one. (One can imagine, for example, one of them waking up the next morning, rubbing his head and wondering to himself: OMG, did I really say that?!)

Whatever misgivings the rammbammed may have had in the cold light of next day, or later, such is the omerta-like hold of the rambamming process over them, that not one has ever been known to come forward and repudiate or qualify his comments after the event. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the rambammed forever after remain upon the Zionist straight and narrow.

The above reflection was occasioned when I read the following:

"The son of Indian migrants made Australian political history on Tuesday, becoming the first MP to be sworn into office on the Hindu religious text. Entering NSW Parliament Labor upper house MP, Daniel Mookhey pledged his loyalty by swearing on the Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse Hindu scripture whose title translates to 'Song of the Lord'... Born in Blacktown and raised in Merrylands, Mr Mookhey is the son of migrants from northern India's Punjab state. The 32-year old from Labor's right wing has worked as a management consultant and was the 2013 federal campaign director for the Australian Council of Trade Unions." (MP's swearing in political history, Nicole Hasham, Sydney Morning Herald, 13/5/15)

And yes, Daniel has been rambammed. You can read the gory details on my 24/2/14 post Let's Do the Rambam Again...

So much for Daniel, but I've also become aware of another aspiring LibLab politician, not yet in parliament, and not yet, as far as I'm aware, rambammed. However, she has me worried, for reasons I'll explain, after this introduction:

"She's a former migrant, a human rights and employment lawyer, and she's gay. On paper, the new candidate for Melbourne sounds like a Green out of central casting. But Sophie Ismail is central to Labor's plans to wrestle its erstwhile federal seat back from Adam Bandt... The 37-year-old is from Labor's Socialist Left faction. Left candidates have lost the past two elections to Mr Bandt, and voters to the Greens more broadly, as the inner city grows more affluent... Ms Ismail hopes those voters can be persuaded to come back to Labor. In her successful pitch to Labor members for preselection, Ms Ismail - whose East Africa-born father is Indian - said Melbourne was a young and diverse electorate, and 'only a candidate truly representative of that diversity can reconnect with the communities who have lost faith in Labor'." (Labor candidate for Melbourne admits 'I look like a Green', Bianca Hall, The Age, 14/5/15)

My worry about Sophie stems from my reading of a PDF, Questions for Melbourne Labor Candidates: Sophie Ismail, which contains the answers to 17 questions, to all of which, save 3, she manages plausible, though not terribly inspiring, answers.

Question 2 asks, Do you have any other political heroes? only to bring us down with names such as  Obama and Hilary Clinton, thus prompting the obvious question: Seriously, Soph, is that the best you can come up with?

Question 8 asks, What is your position on the treatment of asylum seekers? only to reveal that, far from closing down our little Gitmos on Manus and Nauru, she'd merely call for an increase in "oversight and accountability" of them. Sooo Lib-lite!

But it's question 15 that particularly concerns us here. It asks: Do you support the creation/recognition of a Palestinian state? Her answer, the most perfunctory and formulaic of the 17, betrays not one iota of conviction or understanding of the issue.

Here it is:

"Yes. It is the only way to achieve peace in the region and to protect the sovereign rights of Israel and Palestine, and to uphold the human rights of their citizens."

Astonishingly, this meaningless pap is not the answer of some gormless teen, but that of a 37-year old with a degree in international law from Melbourne University!

I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but should Ismail manage to give Bandt the boot at the next federal election, my guess is she'd be a pushover for our latter-day Weizmanns.

Blinky & Tanya Run Scared

Federal Deputy Opposition leader Tanya (Once Was Warrior) Plibersek has been lately "calling on her party to compel MPs to vote for same-sex marriage, ending it as a conscience issue for the ALP... 'Labor has always been a party that is opposed to discrimination,' Ms Plibersek told Fairfax Media in an interview last week. 'It is a clear question. Do we support legal discrimination against one group in this country? Or do we not?'... A long-time supporter of same-sex marriage, Ms Plibersek said her position was 'fundamental to my politics'." (It's time: push to unite ALP on marriage, Judith Ireland, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/4/15)

Whatever one's position on same-sex marriage, the point I wish to make here is that Plibersek is clearly comfortable in speaking out on the issue, which, need I say, is as it should be if we purport to be a robust democracy.

Yet, on another issue fundamental to anyone who opposes discrimination wherever it rears its ugly head, she is curiously reticent:

"Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek refused to answer questions about Palestine on Wednesday, with the deputy leader declaring 'I don't think today is the day for these other questions' following the execution of the Bali nine duo."  (Plibersek push on gay marriage backfires, James Massola, Sydney Morning Herald, 30/4/15)

And this while others in her party, particularly its justice [???!!!] spokesman, David Feeney, speak out loud and clear in defence of a certain entity founded on gross discrimination and inequality:

"... Mr Feeney questioned the push for a national conference resolution, which will be led by NSW frontbencher Tony Burke after discussions with Mr Shorten, for a future Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state in the absence of progress towards a two-state solution. Mr Feeney said that 'with so much going on in the Middle East, with more Arabs killed every year in Syria than have been killed in the history of Arab-Israeli conflict, the fixation on Israel is just that'." (ibid)

As for Labor leader Bill Shorten "who refused to answer questions on Wednesday," all it took was a mere phone call to get a reiterated pledge of allegiance reassurance from him:

"But president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot, said on Thursday he had rung federal Labor leader Bill Shorten's office and been told that any moves to change the ALP's national position did not have Mr Shorten's approval." (Palestinians call for 'balance' on vote, Deborah Snow, Sydney Morning Herald, 1/5/15)

And this is despite Mr Goot's ECAJ colleague Alex Ryvchin asserting, in another context, the idea that the use of "terms such as 'Jewish lobby', 'Zionist lobby', and 'Israel lobby'" is "intended to appeal to antisemitic views of the Jews as exercising an extraordinary or dark power," and an example of "crude, conspiratorial thinking." (Activists corrupt noble principles in defence of Lynch, The Australian, 24/4/15)

(NB: For me to even hint that Mr Goot's ability to get just the answer he wants from Blinky Billy by means of a simple phone call (an ability you or I could only ever dream of) is an example of the Israel lobby at work is apparently conspiratorial thinking and "intended to appeal to antisemitic views." So, lest I be accused of same, let me state clearly that I'm absolutely certain Mr Goot had a great deal of difficulty getting through to Bill - Goot who? ECAJ? Never heard of it! - and I'm equally certain that his colleague, Mr Ryvchin had enormous difficulty getting his opinion piece published in the Australian. Oh yeah.)

But I digress. Back to Blinky. Frankly, I'm a bit worried about the guy. He's all over the shop if you ask me. I mean, look at this:

"Bill Shorten will anoint Nelson Mandela as a Labor hero at the July national conference, which will vote on a platform for 'a practical and pragmatic party, tinged and touched by a romantic spirit'." (Shorten to put Mandela on Labor pedestal, Sid Maher, The Australian, 21/4/15)

The problem with this is that Blinky seems blissfully unaware that Mandela once said (loud and clear I might add) the following:

"Arafat is a comrade-in-arms."

 "The people of South Africa will never forget the support of the state of Israel to the apartheid regime."

"We know all too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."

Tanya Plibersek: Remorseful & Redeemed

Deputy opposition leader and foreign affairs shadow, Tanya (Once Was Warrior) Plibersek, speaking on the subject of the impending executions in Indonesia of two convicted Australian drug smugglers, has gone personal:

"During a motion in Parliament calling for a stay of execution, Ms Plibersek used the example of the jailing of her husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter, on a drugs charge to argue for mercy. 'I perhaps have a particular view of remorse and redemption,' she told the lower house. Ms Plibersek's husband is now a senior NSW public servant. He had been a drug dealer in early 1980s, a fact Ms Plibersek acknowledges but rarely speaks about." (Bali two bound for execution island as MPs plead for mercy, Topsfield, Ireland & Bourke, Sydney Morning Herald, 13/2/15)

Whilst I happen to agree with her in this matter, I should point out that her experience of remorse and redemption is not limited to the example of her husband.

As a humble backbencher, Plibersek had once fiercely criticised Israel, declaring it to be, in 2002, a rogue state led by a war criminal (Ariel Sharon). On becoming Bill Shorten's sidekick, however, she publicly expressed remorse for her former honesty by claiming that she had spoken injudiciously at the time.

But more than that, she has gone on to redeem herself by declaring Sharon to be a courageous peace maker and going on a pilgrimage to Israel (January, 2014).

This means that, when it comes to Ms Plibersek, those in the know cannot but "have a particular view of remorse and redemption."

The Glass Wall

Back in August last year, journalist and writer Tim Robertson couldn't help but notice something missing in Morry Schwartz's Saturday Paper:

"There's been high praise for the Saturday Paper... the paper's commentary is insightful and well-informed: it has a stable of some of Australia's best writers... and it's a welcome addition to the Fairfax/News Ltd duopoly that's been one of the great scourges of Australian democracy... Nonetheless, the Saturday Paper's coverage of Israel's assault on Gaza has been conspicuously, well, non-existent. As the death toll rises and more atrocities are committed, the Saturday Paper's pages remain, to date, devoid of any comment. One might consider this highly unusual. After all, it's long been left to independent Left-wing media to support the Palestinian cause in the face of the grossly more powerful Israeli state and its supporters here in Australia. But for long-time readers of The Monthly, which, like the Saturday Paper, is published by Morry Schwartz, the coverage might not come as such a shock. (Mr Schwartz also publishes Black Inc. and the Quarterly Essay.)" (Excerpt from Palestine & the Saturday Paper, overland.org.au, 1/8/14)

Robertson went on to quote John Van Tiggelen, former editor of the Saturday Paper and now staff writer at The Monthly, speaking at the June 2014 Wordstorm Festival in Darwin. (Since Robertson's original quote is highly edited, I've reproduced the Van Tiggelen quote below more fully):

"I have to be careful here because I still get most of my wage from The Monthly. But, um, it's very different from Fairfax. I have to be honest here and say that at Fairfax, at the Good Weekend writing the long features, I never experienced political interference... Whereas when you work at a small publication, and it doesn't matter whether it's Graeme Wood at The Global Mail or Morry Schwartz... at The Monthly, you work very closely with a publisher and things do get spiked and you have raving rows about what goes through and what doesn't. And there are certain glass walls set up by the publisher that you can't go outside of. And we were talking about it beforehand with Antony [Loewenstein] - one of those is Palestine. [The Monthly's] seen as a left-wing publication but the publisher is very right-wing on Israel. He's Jewish, um, and he's very much to the Benjamin Netanyahu end of politics. So you can't touch it. We just don't touch it. There's just a glass wall goes around it." (abc.net.au/tv/bigideas, 25/6/14)

Robertson concludes correctly that the editorial regime which prevails at the Saturday Paper (and by extension at Schwartz's other publications such as The Monthly and the Quarterly Essay) "is no different to the Murdoch press' universal support for the Iraq War (though the scale is smaller): top-down, institutionalised censorship based on the political beliefs of one individual," adding that "It's fundamentally undemocratic and undermines the whole notion of a free press."

But that's not all - apart from being destructive of journalism per se, the erection of glass walls (and the phenomenon of self-censorship that accompanies it) leaves the consumer of that journalism in something of a quandary.

Take, for example, the following passage from Van Tiggelen's admiring profile of Labor's Tanya Plibersek in The Monthly of November 2014:

"If deputy leaders didn't get to choose their portfolios, foreign affairs might have eluded Plibersek. Her reputation has been built on tackling social issues, such as homelessness, domestic violence and discrimination. More significantly, she is of the Left, a faction less inclined to bipartisanship (and, specifically, to pro-Israel views) than the portfolio generally demands. Back in 2002, in an otherwise sharply argued speech dismantling the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Plibersek described Israel as a 'rogue state' for its flouting of UN resolutions. She also called its then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, a war criminal. Today, though, you'd be hard-pressed to find a crack between the Government and the Opposition on security or Middle East policy. Plibersek has long recanted her comments on Israel and appears to be in lock step with the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, on the matter of Australia's renewed military engagement in Iraq."

Take that highlighted bit. I may be wrong but Van Tiggelen seems to be suggesting that, but for the references in the speech to Israel, the speech was fine. And yet he makes no attempt to explain why those references are in any way problematic. More importantly, what about his failure to probe the issue and circumstances of Plibersek's recantation of those references, surely a matter that goes to the very heart of Plibersek's intellectual and moral courage? I mean, isn't that what any journalist worth his salt would do? Could Van Tiggelen be self-censoring or Schwartz red-penciling?  Who is really speaking here, Van Tiggelen or Schwartz? See the problem?

Recently Rambammed

Sarah Ferguson: How do you account for [the Israel lobby] wielding so much power?
Bob Carr: I think political donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel.
7.30 Report, 9/4/14

Remember Paul Howes' flirtation with horticulture, TULIP (Trade Unions Linking Israel & Palestine)? Well, ever since Paul left off linking Israel and Palestine (LOL) and took up a position with KPMG last year, TULIP seems to have withered, judging by the sad state of its Australian website. 

So where's a Labor lad/ladette to get his/her Ziofix these days? No problem! Meet TULIP's successor AILD (Australia Israel Labor Dialogue), which aims "to promote and foster dialogue and fraternal links between the Australian and Israeli Labor parties" (aild.org.au)

AILD, you'll be pleased to know, had its first rambam last month:

"In the first mission of its kind, the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue has hosted a group of 11 members and officials of the Australian Labor Party on a Study Mission to Israel."  (ALP on an Israeli study mission, jwire.net.au, 24/12/14)

Just for the record, the lucky 11 were:

Paul Frayne (Office of Andrew Giles MHR), Kent Rowe (ALP Secretary NT), Mitchell Wilson (NSW ALP Organiser), Jessica Malnersic (President NSW Young Labor), Tim Hammond (Barrister), Adam Slonim (AILD), Kaila Murnain (Assistant Federal Secretary ALP NSW), Michael Vaughan (Office of Tanya Plibersek MHR), Greg Holland (ALP candidate NSW state election), Rose Butler Jackson (Assistant Secretary NSW ALP), Michael Borowick (AILD chair & ACTU Assistant Secretary).

Hm... Rose Jackson, who, like federal opposition deputy leader Tanya (Once Was Warrior) Plibersek, had to recant her views in order to climb the greasy pole. (Just click on the Rose Jackson and Tanya Plibersek labels below.)

Hm... Office of Tanya (Once Was Warrior) Plibersek.

Hm... Assistant Secretary, ACTU.

Here's some of what they got up to:

"The group spent a week touring Israel being briefed by academics, journalists, and policy advisers, the Australian Embassy, the Knesset and spent a morning in Ramallah meeting the Palestinian Authority and PLO spokespeople. Mission highlights included meeting the leadership of the Israeli Labor Party, touring Sderot and the Gaza border crossing, visiting Gush Etzion, and seeing first hand the work of Australian doctors at the Tzefat hospital treating Syrian child casualties of the civil war."

Hm...

Note how a cup of coffee with the PA is always part and parcel of these Zionist propaganda tours, yet has bugger all impact on the rambammed. What happens I wonder? Do the rambammed a) play with their phones? b) roll their eyes? c) stare out the window? d) dream of the long liquid lunch that awaits back in Jerusalem? e) nap? f) all 5?

Note how the Australian Embassy is part of (complicit in?) the exercise.

Note how the carry on at Ziv Hospital, Israel's cover for its intervention in Syria, has become part of the program. (See my 12/12/14 post A Side of Israel the World Too Rarely Acknowledges.) 

Let Us Pray for Sussan Ley

The msm can always be relied upon to foreground trivia and ignore matters of substance. Here, for example, is the introduction to an article on Australia's new health minister Sussan Ley:

"But who is Sussan Ley, the rising star of Australian politics many voters may have never heard of? As a high school student in Canberra in the 1970s, Ley walked around with no shoes, black lipstick, spiky purple hair, a dog collar and a nose piercing connected to the razor blade in her ear. Over 30 years later, she still describes herself as a 'recovering punk rocker from a time when it really mattered'." (Sussan Ley: from punk rocker to health minister, Gareth Hutchens, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/12/14)

In a federal parliament swarming with Zionist apologists and dupes, trust a journalist to home in on Ley's punk rocker past.

No, what really distinguishes her from most of her colleagues is that she's neither Zionist apologist nor Zionist dupe. More than that, Sussan Ley actually gets it.

For example, in 2008, the MP for Farrer (in the context of a bizarre bilateral parliamentary celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary) spoke as follows in parliament:

"Israel has many friends in this country and in this Parliament. The Palestinians, by comparison, have few. Theirs is not a popular cause. But it is one I support, in part out of knowledge that the victors of World War II, including Australia, wrote a 'homeland' cheque to cover the sins of the holocaust and centuries of anti-Semitism in Europe, but it was the Palestinians who had to cash it." (Quoted in Blinkers off for the other side of story, Alan Ramsey, Sydney Morning Herald, 15/3/08) (See my 20/3/08 post The Israeli Occupation of Federal Parliament 5.)

And in 2012, back from a trip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, she had this to say in parliament:

"The Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem told us the government had cancelled his residency permit in spite of family connections dating back to the British Mandate. I met my World Vision foster child in the village of Nahalin, surrounded by encroaching settlements, and stood in the treeless playground amongst the falling-down classrooms and tired soccer balls, looking just across the gully at the settlement school with its modern buildings and latest equipment. Visiting the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, as I did high on a hill near Jerusalem, inside the West Bank on Palestinian land, the outlook is serene. The Jewish residents travel on Israeli-only roads straight to Tel Aviv and cannot even see the second road network or the villages hidden in the valley below. It is as if the Palestinians have been airbrushed out of existence." (A say for Palestine, sussanley.com, 23/9/12)

In fact, Sussan Ley, got it early in life:

"She is the daughter of a British colonial police officer who served in British-mandated Palestine in the 1930s..." (Ramsey)

Nothing like a first-hand account!

The question is, will she now come under pressure to eat her words, and end up, like Labor's Tanya Plibersek, ignominiously recanting and kissing the ring?

Watch this space...

Bob Carr Mugged By Usual Suspects

Bob Carr's declared transition from Labor Friends of Israel (1977) to Labor Friends of Palestine (2014) has the usual suspects ducking for cover or jumping up and down. What a pathetic rabble they are:

"As the party prepares for a rancorous ALP national conference battle over the issue [of recognising Palestinian statehood], several of Mr Carr's former colleagues moved to distance themselves from his comments - or openly attack him. Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said recognition of Palestinian statehood must occur in the context of a negotiated peace process. 'I don't think we should diminish the seriousness of the apartheid struggle in South Africa,'* the opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman told Sky News's Viewpoint." ('Pope' Carr raises party ire on Israel apartheid claim, Jared Owens/Verity Edwards, The Australian, 10/11/14)

Here's South Africa's Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils writing about his visit to Israel in 2007:

"We are leaving through Tel Aviv airport and the Israeli official catches my accent. 'Are you South African?' he asks in an unmistakable Gauteng accent. The young man left Benoni as a child in 1985. 'How's Israel?' I ask. 'This is a f**cked-up place,' he laughs, 'I'm leaving for Australia soon.' 'Down under?' I think. I've just been, like Alice, down under into a surreal world that is infinitely worse than apartheid." (Israel 2007: worse than apartheid, Mail & Guardian, 21/5/07)

But then what would he know?

"Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby... called Mr Carr 'the Pope of Social Democracy' pronouncing party policy. 'Bob Carr never says anything about the 7 million peaceful Tibetans living under Chinese oppression,' he said. 'He has never said anything about the 300,000 North Koreans in concentration camps. He said little about the 200,000 dead in Syria, or the Christians and other minorities facing death right across the Middle East,' Mr Danby, one of two Jewish federal Labor MPs, told The Australian."

Funny how Labor's unofficial Minister for Israel, Israel, and Israel, in that order, only ever pipes up on Tibet etc whenever a thinking politician has the guts to point out the bleeding obvious in relation to Palestine.

"Josh Frydenberg, the Coalition's only Jewish MP, attacked Mr Carr as a 'lazy' minister and a 'dilletante' on foreign affairs. 'This grandstanding by Bob Carr is all about him. It is nothing else but an obsession on Bob Carr's part,' Mr Frydenberg told Sky News's Australian Agenda. 'I just think it is because he has got relevance-deprivation syndrome. He was a failure as a state premier, he was a failure as a foreign minister'."

Well, what else is he going to say?

[*Carr had said: "... an indefinite occupation morphs into the extremists' goal of a Greater Israel. With one catch. It will have two classes of citizen. 'A term used about another country on another continent', Ehud Barak told me when I as foreign minister discussed this very dilemma. The word is apartheid, of course... and the only word that can be applied if, within one nation, there is one set of laws for one race and an inferior set for the other - the other being the majority." (Why I'm now a friend of Palestine, The Australian, 8/11/14)]