The ACTU's Sarah Palin

Remember when Sarah Palin was John McCain's running mate and we were all chilled by the realisation that Hockey Mom could be but a heartbeat away from the presidency? To be sure, the stakes are nowhere near as high, but the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) vice president Paul Howes is but a heartbeat away from the ACTU presidency, and I find that pretty chilling. As if his anti-BDS front, TULIP - see my 29/9/09 post ACTU: Missing in Action on Palestine - weren't worry enough, now he's come out, in a column in Murdoch's Sunday Telegraph, as a cheerleader for Mossad assassins:

"Let's be clear: the death of al-Mabhouh is a positive outcome for those who believe in peace and justice... [W]e're talking about a man who has turned Palestinian children into human bombs to murder and terrorise Israeli civilians..." (Dubai killing strikes blow for decency, 7/3/10)

Note here the recycling of Zionist propagandist and Age 'journalist' Julie Szego's line about Mabhouh "turn[ing] Palestinian children into bombs for the wiping out of Israeli children..." (beautifully skewered by letter writer Sol Salbe: "How could he have been involved in the use of children, or anyone else, as suicide bombers when he left the occupied territories* before the first suicide bomber appeared on the scene, and spent 2003, one of the worst years for such bombings, in an Egyptian jail?" See my previous post, Mabhouh Mythology).

[*In 1989 to be exact. Hamas' first suicide bombing wasn't until 1994 - 8 years after its founding - and "was carried out in retaliation for the Hebron massacre, in which a fanatic Israeli settler killed 29 Palestinian worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in February 1994." (Hamas for Beginners, Khaled Hroub, 2006, p 52)]

Of course, the drive-by smear is the weapon of choice for Zionist media assassins like Szego and Howes, and that turning Palestinian children into human bombs is typical. It goes without saying that the findings of those who've actually researched the phenomenon, such as political scientist Mohammed Hafez (University of Missouri), are simply not on their radar: "Observers of the second intifada often comment that suicide bombers do not lend themselves to easy generalizations. Other than being Muslim, usually unmarried, and in their late teens or early 20s, the bombers have little in common." (Manufacturing Human Bombs: The Making of Palestinian Suicide Bombers, 2006, p 24)

And those Australian passports? Not a problem. What's a passport (or two, or three) between friends?: "The question of the use of Australian passports in the operation in Dubai raises many issues for the Australian Government. Traditionally, Australia has been a loyal friend of Israel, no matter which party is in government. This is something that should make us all proud. Some have argued that if Israel has illegally used Australian passports, this is not the action of a friend. Maybe. But in my view, friends stand by each other in the good times and the bad, and a friend is someone who lends a hand when the going gets tough. That's why I'm proud that our nation has played a small, and accidental role, in the removal of the terrorist al-Mabhouh from the planet."

Friends stand by each other, eh? But think about it. If Australia were a real friend to Israel, surely we'd be supplying Australian passports, no questions asked, right? But hang on! Aren't we really more than just good friends? Aren't we, in fact, mates? After all, we partied together in Parliament House, didn't we? And we drop in on each other regularly for a spot of mutual backscratching, don't we? Not to mention our love-ins at the UN. So, in addition to keeping our little mate in passports, why don't we also join him in the biffo and mount a few joint Mossad/ASIO operations? But let's not stop there. As a reflection of true mateship, ASIO could be rebadged Ozzad and operate under the motto By way of self-deception.

Now someone needs to get that ball rolling here, and who better, say I, than the Sarah Palin of the ACTU? Howes is obviously a straight shooter - if you get my drift - and a man who puts his money where his mouth is, so I imagine he's already lent his mates a hand and given them his passport, and is now in the process of assembling a bipartisan team of Arab fighters. Such doughty pro-Israel warriors as Christopher Pyne, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, and Kevin Rudd, to name only the most obvious, spring to mind.

I mean, would you expect anything less from the man who penned these rousing, dare I say Churchillian, words?: "The world defeated Nazism. Now the world must support those countries fighting Islamo-fascism. It is a war that is being fought on the streets of Tehran, where democratic forces battle that Islamic dictatorship; it's being fought on the streets of Gaza, after Hamas launched their coup there; it's being fought in Lebanon against Hezbollah and in the mountains of Afghanistan against the remains of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The fighters had a small victory in Dubai."

And these words - are they not straight out of John Howard's mouth?: "It is in our nation's interest and the interests of the world as a whole, to ensure democracy, liberty and freedom thrives. It is in our interest to ensure that a free, secular and healthy democratic Palestinian state is created. It is in our interest to ensure that when private citizens leave their homes and go to work or school that they don't have to fear suicide bombers will kill them." Just beautiful! Takes you back, doesn't it?

Except there's only one hitch. Howes is adamant that Hamas' redundant and superseded 1988 Charter is what rules it out of the "national liberation movement" stakes, and puts it into the "ugly Islamo-fascist terrorist organisation" category instead. Still, what's good for the goose is equally so for the gander, no? So the Likud Charter (aka Likud Party platform), which "flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River," should not only rule out the creation of a "free, secular and healthy democratic Palestinian state," but any claim of Israel's ruling party to being merely a Middle Eastern version of the Australian Labor Party, right?

Now I'm sure that as a teen Trot once, Howes must've heard Che Guavara's famous Create One, Two, Many Vietnams. Maybe this explains his distinctively neoconservative cry, Create One, Two, Three Wars on Terror: "This is not an easy war to fight, or to win. It has to be fought in many different theatres."

Pretty heady stuff, eh? But he does have lighter side. Check this out for comic relief: "But it is in our interest to ensure that all human beings regardless of their sex, race, religion, sexual orientation and political belief can live their lives free from persecution or harassment. Hamas and al-Mabhouh stand against all these values - values we hold dear. Therefore, it is in our nation's interest to do whatever we can to remove these vile people from power - by any means necessary." Regardless of religion? Apparently, not only does the Jewish state not discriminate on religious grounds, but the world is flatter than you ever thought possible.

Only... one... heartbeat... away. One! Scary!