Mystery Solved

Politicians are nothing if not consummate actors. Almost invariably, whether they're embroidering a talking point or delivering a speech, what they say has invariably been scripted by someone else.

This is especially true on the subject of Palestine/Israel. It hardly matters whether the speaker is, say, a Trumble or a Short-on, pretty much the same, tired, pro-Israel talking points are trotted out, again and again and again.

Far more interesting than what these actors say is the question of who actually writes their pro-Israel script.

Whether it's today in Australia:

"Ted [Lapkin] then spent three years as Director of Policy Analysis for the Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) before working as a speechwriter/political advisor for the Howard Government during its final year [2007] in power. Over the following decade Ted bounced in and out of Coalition politics, serving both in opposition and government as a media and policy advisor for various Liberal frontbenchers." (Former Abbott Government advisor, abc.net.au, 27/2/17)

Or decades ago in the UK:

"Two days later, Ben-Gurion, writing to his wife from London, was exultant: 'The speeches by Lloyd George, Leopold Amery, Tom Williams, Creech Jones, Herbert Morrison, James de Rothschild and Victor cazalet were wholly or partly prepared by us... But the best speech was by Herbert Morrison'." (The British left & Zionism: History of a Divorce, Paul Kelemen, 2012. p 31)

There's your answer.

Trooper Ted Battles the BDS 'Barbarians'

In my previous post, I quoted the former editor of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council's Review and now self-styled 'political analyst', Ted Lapkin. The rest of his story is worth citing (and reflecting on) here:

"But then the story got complicated. I received a call from a friend who works in the Victoria Police Security Intelligence Unit..."

Funny, Lapkin didn't mention he'd run his plan to counter-protest past a "friend" in the police force. And isn't the fact that our Zionist propagandist has such a "friend" most interesting? And what does that tell us about the Victorian police force?

Or is Lapkin's "friend" just an imaginary friend, enabling him to contrast his pure-as-the-driven-snow self with the straw BDS "barbarians" of the earlier quote? Did I say pure? Check him out: "I invited a few friends to join me... I made all participants take a vow of absolute nonviolence. No response to any provocation would be allowed."

Could this paragon of pacifism be the same Ted Lapkin who stormed into and occupied Lebanon in 1982 as a member of Israel's - wait for it - Golani Brigade*, the troops who unleashed the genocidal Lebanese fascist dogs on the defenceless refugee inhabitants of the Sabra and Shatila camps at the time and who have been "adopted" and "spoilt" for "over 30 years" by the Max Brenner firm?**

[*Soldiers, not pacifists, gave us freedom, Ted Lapkin, The Age, 26/4/05; **See my 12/7/09 post How Sweet It Is)]

"... asking me to stand down. It turns out that he had information that the BDS rabble intended to provoke a violent incident..."

What did Judge Judy say? Something about not pissing on my leg and telling me it's raining?

"... And naturally, the police didn't want us caught up in the middle of what they expected - and what actually turned out - to be a small riot."

A small riot! The mind boggles.

Is this Ted Lapkin, who says he doesn't want to "complicate the work of the police," but also doesn't want to "sit supinely by without challenging these new barbarians on their own terms," the same Ted Lapkin whose concluding paragraph of the Age piece above reads: "It is the soldier, not the campus organiser, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag"?

So trooper Ted can sit back and allow protesters to burn, say, an Israeli flag, but come on boots and all if they demonstrate outside Max Brenner outlets. Strange man.