Operation Breaking 'Breaking the Silence'

The Israeli organisation Breaking the Silence, an organisation of Israeli veterans working to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, which collects and publishes the testimonies of Israeli soldiers on the reign of terror inflicted by the IDF on occupied Palestinians, has done sterling work in exposing the brutal reality of Israeli military rule in the West Bank and Gaza.

Here, for example, are but three BTS testimonies among many from Israel's 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, reproduced by Norman Finkelstein in his breathtaking 2018 book Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom (pp 258-60):

[What were you shooting at?]
At houses.
[Randomly chosen houses?]
Yes.
[How much fire were you using?]
There was constant talk about how much we fired, how much we hit, who missed. There were people who fired 20 shells per day. it's simple. Whoever feels like shooting more - shoots more. Most guys shot more. Dozens of shells [per day], throughout the operation. Multiply that by 11 tanks in the company.

***

I don't know how they pulled it off, the D9 operators didn't rest for a second. Nonstop, as if they were playing in a sandbox. Driving back and forth, back and forth, razing another house, another street. And at some point there was no trace left of that street... Day and night, 24/7, they went back and forth, gathering up mounds, making embankments, flattening house after house.

***

There was one afternoon that the company commander gathered us all together, and we were told that we were about to go on an offensive operation, to 'provoke' the neighborhood that dominated us, which was al-Bureij... Because up until then, we hadn't really had any engagement with them... [W]hen it started getting dark my tank led the way, we were in a sort of convoy, and there was this little house. And then suddenly we see an entire neighborhood opening up before us, lots of houses, it's all crowded and the moment we got to that little house, the order came to attack. Each [tank] aimed at whichever direction it chose... And that's how it was really - every tank just firing wherever it wanted to. And during the offensive, no one shot at us - not before it, not during it, not after it. I remember that when we started withdrawing with the tanks, I looked toward the neighborhood, and I could simply see an entire neighborhood up in flames, like in the movies. Columns of smoke everywhere, the neighborhood in pieces, houses on the ground, and like, people were living there, but nobody had fired at us yet. We were firing purposelessly.

However, as Finkelstein warns:

"Once Israel successfully browbeat the international human rights community into submission, the only remaining chink in its armor was domestic human rights organizations. Of these, Breaking the Silence most aroused Israel's wrath. The soldier eyewitness testimonies it had compiled after each of Israel's massacres in Gaza were us unimpeachable as they were devastating. Israel consequently set out in a very public way to destroy Breaking the Silence... Should it neutralize breaking the Silence, Israel will have cleared the last obstacle in its path to committing future massacres in Gaza. Henceforth, no one will be around to compellingly document its crimes for a Western audience. However reputable and reliable Palestinian human rights organizations might be, unfortunately and unfairly, they lack credibility among the broad public in the West. In the 'operations' to come, Israel will be able to carry on as it pleases, emboldened in the knowledge that it can do so with guaranteed impunity. It's a new sequence of catastrophes waiting to happen." (p 288)

Could this be Operation Breaking Breaking the Silence's opening salvo?

"A group of active reserve duty IDF soldiers are flying to the UK this summer to share their testimony in parliament with MPs. This event, hosted by the [former Labour] MP [turned independent in February] Ian Austin in the Palace of Westminster on June 11, is part of a campaign on the dilemmas faced by Israeli soldiers on the ground. Organised by the Israel Britain Alliance and the organisation 'My Truth', the event will include opportunities for parliamentarians to put questions to soldiers." (IDF reserve soldiers hosted by MP Ian Austin in parliament to share testimony, Mathilde Frot, jewishnews.timesofisrael.com, 16/5/19)

Dave Sharma Watch 2

Poor old Dave Sharma's reportedly under email attack from some nutter claiming "he was facing a year in jail for not disclosing that his father was from Trinidad and Tobago," and "would end a global conspiracy to cover up molestation by the church and establishment." (Better call in Mossad, The Sauce, Sunday Telegraph, 12/5/19)

OMG, what to do? Well, Dave being Dave and all, it's obvious who he's gonna call, innit?

"... Dave Sharma enlisted ex-Mossad cyber-security specialist Adi Ashkenazy." (ibid)

There you go!

And Dave is pointing the finger at - wait for it - "foreign influence." (ibid)

Now that's chutzpah for you!

Still, despite his woes, Dave, who reportedly "persuaded" PM Morrison to relocate Australia's embassy to Jerusalem during last October's Wentworth by-election, should surely derive some comfort from such 'good' news as this:

"Israeli occupation forces have sharply escalated their demolitions of Palestinian properties in East Jerusalem. As a result more Palestinians have been made homeless this year than in all of 2018." (Israeli home demolitions skyrocket in Jerusalem, Tamara Nassar, electronicintifada.net, 11/5/19)

Meanwhile, back in the real world, it's business as usual for the valiant Israeli Defense Forces:

"Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian on Friday during weekly protests along the border with Israel, Gaza health officials say. In addition to the 24-year-old male fatality, 30 other people were wounded by live gunfire during the protest, in which thousands participated they said." (Israeli troops kill Palestinian at Gaza border protest - medics, Nidal Almughrabi, editing Catherine Evans, uk.reuters.com)

More Zionist Hypnosis in Australian MS Press

Whether it's the Nine Entertainment Co press, or the Murdoch, both rags are adamant that Israel and Hamas have fought THREE WARS since 2008:

"... the two sides, we have fought three wars... over the last decade." (Toll rises as Gaza violence flares, Nidal al-Mughrabi, AP, Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald, 6/5/19)

"Israel and Hamas... have fought three wars... since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007." (Rockets, missiles shatter Gaza truce, Fares Akram, AP/The Australian, 6/5/19)

"Israel says its blockade is necessary to stop weapons reaching Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007... " (Ceasefire claimed as attacks ebb, Nidal al-Mughrabi/Jeffrey Heller, Reuters/Sydney Morning Herald, 7/5/19)

"Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008 and the escalation brought them to the brink of another." (Israel, Palestinians pull back from brink, AFP/The Australian, 7/5/19)

But were they really WARS, or more akin to just shooting fish in a barrel?

Here is the incomparable Norman Finkelstein once again on the first of these alleged 'wars', Israel's Operation Cast Lead (2008-09), in which he irrefutably testifies to the latter characterisation:

"To justify the magnitude of the devastation it wreaked, Israel endeavored to depict the Gaza invasion as a genuine military contest. [US analyst Anthony] Cordesman* delineated in ominous detail, enhanced by tables, graphs, and figures, the vast arsenal of rockets, mortars, and other weapons that Hamas allegedly manufactured and smuggled in through tunnels (including 'Iranian-made rockets' that could 'strike at much of Southern Israel' and 'hit key infrastructure'), as well as the 'spider web of prepared strong points, underground and hidden shelters, and ambush points' Hamas allegedly constructed. He reported that according to 'Israeli senior officials,' Hamas mustered 6,000-10,000 'core fighters.' He juxtaposed the 'Gaza war' with the 1967 war, the 1973 war, and the 2006 war, as if they belonged on the same plane. He expatiated on Israel's complex war plans and preparations, and he purported that Israel's victory was partly owing to its 'high levels of secrecy,' as if the outcome would have been different had Israel not benefited from the element of surprise. The Israeli brief alleged that Hamas 'amassed an extensive armed force of more than 20,000 armed operatives in Gaza,' 'obtained military supplies through a vast network of tunnels and clandestine arms shipments from Iran and Syria,' and 'acquired advanced weaponry, developed weapons of their own, and increased the range and lethality of their rockets.'

"Nonetheless, even Cordesman was forced to acknowledge, if obliquely, that what Israel fought was scarcely a war. He conceded that Hamas was a 'weak, non-state actor,' whereas Israel possessed a massive armory of state-of-the-art weaponry; that the Israeli air force 'faced limited threats from Hamas's primitive land-based air defense'; that 'sustained ground fighting was limited'; that the Israeli army avoided engagements where it 'would be likely to suffer' significant casualties; and that 'the IDF used night warfare for most combat operations because Hamas did not have the technology or training to fight at night.' However, overwhelmingly, Cordesman persisted in his dubious depiction of Cast Lead. Israel had demonstrated that it could fight 'an air campaign successfully in crowded urban areas,' according to him, as well as 'an extended land battle against a non-state actor.' In fact, the air campaign was not a 'fight' any more than shooting fish in a barrel is a fight. As if (however unwittingly) to bring home this analogy, Cordesman quoted a senior Israeli air force officer who boasted, 'The IAF had flown some 3,000 successful sorties over a small dense area during three weeks of fighting without a single accident or loss.' But how could it be otherwise if 'the planes operated in an environment free of air defenses, enjoying complete aerial superiority'? Depicting Cast Lead as a protracted ground war was no less detached from reality Hamas was barely equipped, barely present in the conflict zones, and barely engaged by Israeli forces except when it could not fight back." (Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom, 2018, pp 63-64)

[*"Shortly after Operation Cast Lead ended on 18 January 2009, Anthony Cordesman published a report titled The 'Gaza War': A strategic analysis. It warrants close scrutiny both because Cordesman has been an influential military analyst, and because the report neatly synthesized and systematized Israel's makeshift rebuttals as criticism of the invasion mounted." (ibid, p 39) And how often have we heard this Israeli apologist on Radio National over the years?]

Shoot at Anything that Moves

Whenever you read about Israeli war crimes in Gaza in the msm, the latter's stenographers will faithfully parrot Israeli army spin about every effort being taken to ensure that Palestinian civilians come to as little harm as possible during the course of military operations. In fact, the opposite is true. For Israel, all Palestinians are the enemy. Hence, Palestinian civilians will always bear the brunt of any such Israeli attack.

Here is more from Norman Finkelstein on the original Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009):

"Parrying the censorious thrust of these human rights reports, Israel's brief declared that it 'took extensive measures to comply with its obligations under international law,' and that... the IDF directed attacks 'solely against military objectives,' and endeavored to ensure that 'civilians and civilian objects would not be harmed...

"Based on what journalists and human rights organizations found, and what Israeli soldiers in the field testified, however, a radically different picture of Cast Lead comes into relief. 'We're going to war,' a company commander told his soldiers before the attack. 'I want aggressiveness - if there's someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we'll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we'll take it down... There will be no hesitation.' A combatant remembered a meeting with his brigade commander and others where the 'rules of engagement' were 'essentially' conveyed as, 'if you see any signs of movement at all you shoot.' Other soldiers recalled, 'If the deputy battalion commander thought a house looked suspect, we'd blow it away. If the infantryman didn't like the looks of that house - we'd shoot' (unidentified soldier); 'If you face an area that is hidden by a building - you take down the building. Questions such as 'who lives in that building[?]' are not asked' (soldier recalling his brigade commander's order); 'As for rules of engagement, the army's working assumption was that the whole area would be devoid of civilians... Anyone there, as far as the army was concerned, was to be killed' (unidentified soldier); 'We were told: 'any sign of danger, open up with massive fire' (member of a reconnaissance company); 'We shot at anything that moved' (Golani Brigade fighter); 'Despite the fact that no one fired on us, the firing and demolitions continued incessantly' (gunner in a tank crew). 'Essentially, a person only need[ed] to be in a 'problematic' location,' a Haaretz reporter found, 'in circumstances that can broadly be seen as suspicious, for him to be 'incriminated' and in effect sentence to death'." (Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom, pp 44-45)

Zionist Propaganda Fatigue

Yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald excelled itself, devoting half a page to Zionist propaganda.

"Spacecraft snaps epic selfie," reads the headline.

That was followed by this nauseous Zionist trumpeting:

"Organisers of a privately funded Israeli space mission released a striking photo on Tuesday, London time. It shows the spacecraft Beresheet, Hebrew for Genesis, orbiting some 37,500 kilometres away, with the entire Earth (including Australia) visible. A plaque includes the Hebrew inscription 'The People Of Israel Live'. It's scheduled to land on the moon on April 11."

And the "epic selfie" of the headline turns out to be a sticker (?), partly obscuring a distant planet Earth. It contains an Israeli flag and the words SMALL COUNTRY, BIG DREAMS - yes, in bold upper case letters.

Meanwhile, in yesterday's Australian, we find the screaming headline Israelis shoot Palestinians dead after car-ram attack.

When you read the report, however, the "car-ram attack" begins to look more like a road accident.

What appears to have happened is this:

1) Israeli troops were leaving a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank after a routine terrorising of its inhabitants.
2) Their vehicle broke down near a bend in the road.
3) Three young Palestinian men in a small car, travelling in the opposite direction, rounded the bend and accidentally collided with the stationary Israeli vehicle, injuring 2 soldiers in the process.
4) Trigger-happy troops opened fire, killing two of the Palestinians and wounding a third.
5) The wounded survivor was  forced to confess that he and his friends had intended to ram the troops and also that they had been driving around, "hurling firebombs."
6) Conveniently, the troops allegedly "found additional firebombs" in the Palestinians' car.

In short, the Israeli troops murdered two Palestinian civilians, spun their crime as a response to a terrorist attack, tortured a wounded Palestinian to extract a confession, and planted 'evidence' at the scene of the crime.

Mahmoud Habbash, "a Palestinian supreme [court] judge and adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas," quoted in the AFP report, makes the bleeding obvious point: "It is inconceivable that three young men carry out an operation to run over the occupation soldiers in a car. One driver would be enough."

As it happens, we've seen this scenario before - in the Israeli film Foxtrot (2018), where troops manning a checkpoint shoot up a Palestinian car, killing those inside, and bury the vehicle with the bodies still inside as a cover-up.

Electronic Intifada's Maureen Clare Murphy provides the following context in her report of the incident:

"The Israeli newspaper Haaretz also noted: 'Veteran security figures who have been keeping watch on the West Bank for years can't recall a case of using a car to deliberately ram into people when there was more than one person inside the vehicle.' The paper added: 'Car ramming attacks generally involve one person, who may have acted on momentary impulse.' Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinian vehicles in which more than one person was traveling in what Israel said were alleged attacks over the past few years, killing a brother in a car with his sister and a teenager travelling with his fiancee. Last year, Israeli forces and armed civilians killed 15 Palestinian assailants or alleged assailants in the West Bank." (Two Palestinians killed in alleged attack, 4/3/19)

But those details would be a bridge too far for Murdoch's Australian.

'A Call for Help from a Population in Despair'

When you hear Australia's shambolic Christian Zionist prime minister Scott Morrison prating that "[t]he UN General Assembly is now the place where Israel is bullied and where anti-Semitism is cloaked in the language of human rights... This year the Human Rights Council passed 6 motions condemning Israel compared to a total of 14 across the rest of the world" (70th Anniversary of Australia's formal diplomatic relationship with the State of Israel, aph.gov.au, 19/2/19), consider it a salutary reminder of just how vital and necessary is the work of the UNGA in general, and the HRC in particular, in documenting and calling out the serial crimes of the apartheid state. Crimes such as those outlined in this press release from The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Gaza protests, for example:

"The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory today presented its findings. The report focuses on the demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, referred to as the 'Great March of Return and the Breaking of the Siege'.

"The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity, and must be immediately investigated by Israel,' said the Chair of the Commission, Santiago Canton of Argentina.

"The Commission was mandated by the Human Rights Council in May 2018 to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in the context of the large-scale protests that began in Gaza on 30 March 2018. The Commission comprises Santiago Canton of Argentina (Chair), Sara Hossain of Bangladesh and Betty Murungi of Kenya.

"More than 6,000 unarmed demonstrators were shot by military snipers, week after week at the protest sites by the separation fence.

"The Commission investigated every killing at the designated demonstration sites by the Gaza separation fence on official protest days. The investigation covered the period from the start of the protests until 31 December 2018. 189 Palestinians were killed during the demonstrations inside this period. The Commission found that Israeli Security Forces killed 183 of these protesters with live ammunition. Thirty-five of these fatalities were children, while three were clearly marked paramedics, and two were clearly marked journalists.

"According to the the Commission's data analysis, the Israeli Security Forces injured 6,106 with live ammunition at the protest sites during the period. Another 3,098 Palestinians were injured by bullet fragmentation, rubber-coated metal bullets or by hits from tear gas canisters. Four Israeli soldiers were injured at the demonstrations. One Israeli soldier was killed on a protest day but outside the protest sites.

"'There can be no justification for killing and injuring journalists, medics, and persons who pose no imminent threat of death or serious injury to those around them. Particularly alarming is the targeting of children and persons with disabilities,' said Sarah Hossain. 'Many young persons' lives have been altered forever. 122 people have had a limb amputated since 30 March last year. Twenty of these amputees are children.'

"The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities knowing they were clearly recognizable as such.

"Unless undertaken lawfully in self-defence, intentionally shooting a civilian not directly participating in hostilities is a war crime. The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that individual members of the Israeli Security Forces, in the course of their response to the demonstrations, killed and injured civilians who were neither directly participating in hostilities, nor posing an imminent threat. These serious human rights and humanitarian law violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.

"The Commission took note of the Israeli claim that the protests by the separation fence masked 'terror activities' by Palestinian armed groups. The Commission found however that the demonstrations were civilian in nature, with clearly stated political aims. Despite some acts of significant violence, the Commission found that the demonstrations did not constitute combat or military campaigns.

"The applicable legal framework was thus based in international human rights law. This assessment did not change even though the Commission's investigation revealed that some demonstrators were members of organized armed groups. Others were members of political parties. International human rights law prohibits the use of force based solely on a person's actual or alleged affiliation to any group, rather than their conduct.

"The Commission found that some members of the Higher National Committee organising the protests, which includes Hamas representatives, encouraged or defended demonstators' use of indiscriminate incendiary kites and balloons, causing fear among civilians and significant damage to property in southern Israel. The Commission concluded that Hamas, as the de facto authority in Gaza, failed to prevent these acts.

"The Commission conducted 325 interviews with victims, witnesses and sources, and gathered more than 8,000 documents. An integral part of the investigation was comprehensive analysis of social media, and of vast amounts of audio-visual material showing incidents, including drone footage.

"The Commission was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to focus on accountability and identify those responsible for violations and alleged international crimes.

"'The Commission will place the relevant information in a confidential file to be handed over to the High Commissioner of Human Rights, to provide access to this information to national and international justice mechanisms. The International Criminal Court is already concerned with this situation,' said Betty Murungi. [...]

"'The onus is now on Israel to investigate every protest-related killing and injury, promptly, impartially and independently in accordance with international standards, to determine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed, with a view to holding accountable those found responsible,' said Santiago Canton... 'The Commission finds that these protests were a call for help from a population in despair', Santiago Canton reminded. 'Not only Israel but also the de facto authorities led by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have responsibilities towards them. The Commission calls on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, and on all three duty bearers to comply with their responsibilities and improve the living situation in Gaza.'

"The Israeli authorities did not respond to repeated requests by the Commission for information and access to Israel and to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

"A fuller report, containing detailed factual and contextual information and legal analysis will be published and presented to the Human Rights Council on 18 March 2019 in Geneva." (No justification for Israel to shoot protesters with live ammunition, 28/2/19)

Gol & Giv's Chocolates

Guess who's footing the bill for unpaid Max Brenner employees?

"He [David Tozer] said it was likely payment to the employees, who are estimated to be owed a combined $5.8 million, will come from the government's General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme." (Max Brenner buyers plan Asia push, Sydney Morning Herald, 19/10/18)

That's right, the Australian taxpayer. Nice one, Max...

But wait, what's this?

"The sale of collapsed chocolate cafe chain Max Brenner to investment firm Tozer & Co will not go ahead, according to liquidator BDO." (Max Brenner sale fails at the 11th hour, Sydney Morning Herald, 20/10/18)

Poor, sad Max. He's lost his mojo.

Hey, I've got an idea!

Why can't the IDF's Golani and Givati Brigades, out of sheer gratitude at Max's many years of "sweetening their special moments," take 50% pay cuts for as long as it takes to get Max back on his feet and rebrand him? Something more in keeping with the muscular, head-kicking spirit of his country of origin? Something more Zionist in other words. And what could be more Zionist than the Golani and Givati brigades?

My humble suggestion:

Gol & Giv's Chocolates.

Slogan: We put fire in your belly... or maybe your head.

Palestinians especially catered for...

Max Brenner Goes Bust

Here's some heartening news:

"Upmarket chocolate and cafe chain Max Brenner's Australian business has gone into voluntary administration, citing rising costs and sluggish retail trade." (Chocolate chain Max Brenner collapses, Patrick Hatch, Sydney Morning Herald, 3/10/18)

What the Herald, of course, neglects to mention is that Max Brenner is a subsidiary of Israel's Strauss Group, a donor of "care packages" to Israel's Golani and Givati brigade commandos to "sweeten their special moments." (See my 25/5/13 post Why Boycott Max Brenner.)

The snipers currently deployed to gun down unarmed Palestinian demonstrators on the Gaza border come from these brigades. Don't even ask about those "special moments."

The Great March of Return

"Israeli forces have killed 7 Palestinians, two of them children, and shot more than 90 others in one of the bloodiest days of a six-month protest movement along the frontier, the Gaza health ministry said." (Two children among seven people shot dead by Israel, say officials, Oliver Holmes, theguardian.com, 30/9/18)

"... one of the bloodiest days of a six-month protest... "

Think about that. Six months! 180 people dead so far. Thousands more maimed and wounded. And why? Because they simply want to exercise their inalienable right as refugees to return home.

If anyone can point me to a more sustained and heroic display of bodies-on-the-line under fire, I'd like to know about it.

Then there are their serial killers.

If anyone can point me to a more sustained, more mechanical response to unarmed protesters than that of Israel's snipers, I'd like to hear about it.

And while I'm at it, if anyone can point me to a more sustained silence on the subject of what have been weekly massacres of defenceless civilians in Gaza than that displayed by the Australian msm....

Foxtrot? Tommyrot!

How depressing are those book/film reviews in the msm which, inadvertently or otherwise, distort and cover up the reality of Israel's war crimes. (Of course, it goes without saying that Israeli books/films are virtually the only ones to make it into the msm.)

The latest specimen is Paul Byrnes' review of Israeli 'war' film Foxtrot for the Sydney Morning Herald. Herewith my gripes and grumblings:

"If a film makes war seem fun, you can pretty much know the director has never been near one. Samuel Maoz is an exception. He served in the Israeli Defence Force in 1982 during the Israeli occupation in Lebanon. It's clear that it was a shattering experience." (Painful portrait of war's deep scars, 21/6/18)

Yes, Paul, "a shattering experience" it was - particularly for the over 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians who got it in the neck (not to mention the more than 30,000 wounded) when Maoz and his mates blitzkriegged into Lebanon at the time. But we don't want to talk about the real victims here, do we, Paul?

"His first feature film, Lebanon, recreated the life of a tank crew on active duty. The whole film was set inside the tank, which was both technically daring and completely terrifying."

C'mon, Paul, seriously now, where else would you set an Israeli film? Except perhaps in a cockpit, or in the space immediately behind the sights of a rifle.

"Foxtrot is a different kind of movie, but just as scarifying. It steps back to dramatise what it's like for the family of an Israeli soldier when they receive news that he has been killed. That's the first act."

But emphatically not what's it's like for the family of a Palestinian blown away by an Israeli soldier.

"The second act takes place in the desert, where a group of young IDF soldiers man a lonely checkpoint."

Just a minute, Paul. You mean there's still some desert left in Israel - after over 100 years of making the desert bloom? Or are we talking about the Sahara or the Gobi here? Is that where Israel's borders are now? But seriously, the whole fucking point of your Israeli checkpoint is that it's set up with only one purpose in mind - to mess with the lives of occupied Palestinians (as in 'how many checkpoints does a Palestinian have to negotiate to get from occupied Bethlehem to occupied Jerusalem?'). Do you get my drift, Paul? Your Israeli checkpoint needs PEOPLE. Ergo, there is NO SUCH THING as "a lonely checkpoint," OK?

"A third act returns to the family, now in post-traumatic disarray."

Hey, Paul, was part of their "post-traumatic disarray" having their home demolished? Oh wait... that only happens to Palestinian families.

"Foxtrot has been hugely controversial in Israel... The right in Israel objected to the film's depiction of Israeli soldiers covering up evidence of a killing."

Noooo! The most moral army in world, lying? You're kidding me. I simply don't believe it.

"One of the soldiers is Jonathan... In one of the film's most surreal moments, Jonathan dances with his rifle as if it's a woman... making his comrades laugh... He's just a kid, horsing around, trying to entertain his pals and relieve some tension; he's also a bulwark, a defender of the nation."

Oh no, Paul. He's neither "bulwark," nor "defender of the nation." He's an OCCUPIER, pure and simple. Strewth, is it really that hard?

Apparently so. Paul Byrnes has given Tommyrot 4 stars.

Serial Killers, Serial Liars

Gaza's Great March of Return began on March 30 this year. Israeli snipers shot 773 Palestinians with live fire that day. On March 31, the Israeli army boasted in a tweet:

"Yesterday we saw 30,000 people; we arrived prepared and with precise reinforcements. Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed."

That tweet was soon deleted, but not before Israeli human rights organisation Btselem captured it.

Now, it seems, the army that knows where every bullet landed is at a complete loss to account for the bullet that took the life of Razan an-Najjar:

"While the investigation into the killing of 21-year-old Palestinian nurse Razan Najjar by Israeli troops last week continues, the military has already offered a brief preliminary statement Tuesday, saying that no shots were 'deliberately or directly aimed towards her.' Yet the 21-year-old volunteer medic was shot in the back while trying to reach wounded protesters."  (Israeli army claims slain Gaza medic wasn't shot deliberately, Jason Ditz, antiwar.com, 5/6/18)

Our Debt to Israel

Italy had its Oriana Fallaci, Britain's got its Melanie Phillips, and, not to be outdone, Australia's got... Jennifer Oriel:

"Thank God for Israel. If it weren't for the Jews, the UN would have to battle despots, communists and Islamists." (Say goodbye to a UN that attacks the free world, The Australian, 9/1/17)

How lucky are we, who live in the "free world," to have "the Jews" battling "despots, communists and Islamists" on our behalf?

How fortunate that these Israeli brave hearts should do what they do, solely for our benefit, solely to protect us from the gathering Forces of Darkness... out there... in the night.

How fortunate, too, that we have Jennifer Oriel to remind us of their sacrifice. Because, without it, how could we possibly sleep at night?

So what exactly is it that they do?

Gideon Levy tells us:

"What do you call a regime that every night drags people from their beds? How would you label mass detentions without a warrant? How would you define brutal home searches in the dead of night, some of which have no purpose except as training exercises? What should we call such acts, which the army, the border Police and the Shin Bet security service carry out nightly? What should we call the state in whose name they act - a democracy, the only one in the Middle East? Do you recall dark regimes, think of Latin American juntas, are shocked by Turkey? Welcome to Israel's occupation of the West bank, night after night, just a short drive from your home.

"Each morning, in its Twitter account, the IDF describes its misdeeds of the previous night with a touch of pride: 'During the night our forces arrested wanted men who are suspected of popular terror activities and violent disturbances. They were handed over to the security forces for interrogation.' Wanted men, popular terror, disturbances - the language is polished yet stilted, with childish Hebrew acronyms that seem to conceal a secret. The wording is formulaic, without naming or otherwise disclosing the humanity of the detainees. The army is like a nighttime hunter who each morning displays his nightly catch. Last week there was a night with 23 arrests, 14 the previous week, 10 and 11 in the weeks before that. There is no night without such abductions. Who are they? What did they do? Who cares? They are all part of the 'popular terror' movement, all of them now in the hands of the security services.

"Sometimes, there's a special treat: 'Last night our forces sealed off an apartment and a warehouse in Nablus, which had served for the preparation of terror explosive devices.' Explosive devices? An apartment, a warehouse? By what authority? Nablus is in Area A, supposedly controlled by the Palestinians, but who cares about such trifles? Occasionally there is money involved. 'During the operations of the Etzion Territorial Brigade, our sources seized thousands of shekels that were used to finance terror. These were transferred to the security services.' Sometimes it borders on the grotesque: 'The forces of the Ephraim Territorial Brigade also arrested a person suspected of violent and disorderly conduct in which he climbed onto an army vehicle two months ago. He was sent for interrogation by security forces.' He climbed on a vehicle? Should we laugh, or cry?

"To anyone familiar with the nature of these operations, there is nothing funny about them. They are stomach-turning. Hundreds of thousands of people live in constant terror: children who wet their beds, parents who are afraid to even close an eye. The soldiers blow up the doors of the homes and invade. Before you can even understand what is happening there are dozens of armed men, their faces sometimes covered, in your home, in your bedroom, in your children's bedrooms, in the bathroom. This is how the nightmare begins, the search and the arrests, with neither an explanation nor a court order.

"Sometimes the occupants are pulled out of their home and into the street, without being allowed to get dressed. Occasionally a father is beaten in front of his children. Frequently belongings are broken. All accompanied by bullying and humiliation. Tear gas is often sprayed at the neighbors, outside. These are traumatic experiences for any human being. There is no Palestinian who has not experienced it. There is no Israeli who can imagine it. I once spent a night in the Jenin refugee camp. When soldiers approached the home I was staying in, I almost died of fright. In the end they did not come in, but I will never forget those moments of terror. That's only the beginning of the nightmare. Then the 'wanted person' is taken, handcuffed and blindfolded, for an interrogation whose end is difficult to predict. It will go on for weeks and it will involve humiliation and torture, sometimes without any foundation. Nearly one million Palestinians have been arrested in this manner in the course of the occupation. Nearly one million.

"The Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported last week, based on a United Nations report, that between October 4 and October 17 there were 178 such nighttime raids, around 14 each night. This, in a time of relative calm, apart from the lone-wolf attacks that no raid can prevent. A girl who seeks to die won't be arrested at night. The nighttime terror may actually drive others to another desperate attack.

"Every night, while you were sleeping. And afterward there are more Israelis who dare to claim - out of ignorance or chutzpah - that the occupation is over, or at least that discussing it bores them." (Good morning from the Israeli army's Twitter account, Haaretz, 6/11/16)

So next time you go to bed for a good night's sleep, spare a thought for those on the front line, in far-away Israel, who are making it all possible. Thank God for Israel! And bless you, Jennifer.

Elor Azaria: Gun Zionism in Action

Despite the efforts of Zionist propagandists to con the gullible into believing that Israel is all about inclusion, pluralism, democracy, sweetness and light, the fact of the matter is that almost from its inception the Zionist movement set out, in the words of one of its founding fathers, Chaim Weizmann, to establish in Palestine a state that was "as Jewish as England was English."

The problem was that, at the time (1919), Palestine was 90% Arab. For the Zionists to achieve their goal of a 'Jewish' state, therefore, the Arab inhabitants would have to go. As the rate of Jewish immigration into Palestine was insufficient to outstrip the natural increase of the Arab population, the only option for the Zionists was to reach for the gun and drive the Arab majority out, a solution duly implemented in 1948. What British historian David Hirst refers to as 'gun Zionism' was therefore integral to the success of the Zionist project. And, as long as Palestinian Arabs are still to be found in Palestine, desperately clinging on to this or that remnant of their historic homeland, gun Zionists will have work to do.

Which is why the current case of Israeli soldier/death squad thug Elor Azaria is nothing new. As Israeli activist and author, Neve Gordon explains:

"It is no coincidence that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who was then followed by a slew of ministers and Knesset members - has called for a presidential pardon for Israeli soldier Elor Azaria. Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed Yusri al-Sharif as he lay wounded on the ground. This striking mobilisation to exonerate Azaria, which cuts across party lines and includes MKs from Labor, should actually come as no surprise, since the desired pardon is not really about absolving one lone murderer, but rather an effort to vindicate Israel's 50-year occupation. Consciously or unconsciously, each and every government official calling for such absolution understands that Azaria is in no way an aberration of Israel's colonial project, but rather a clear symptom of its very structure.

"The bystanders are testimony to the structure's effect. The video released by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem first depicts al-Sharif lying on the ground, wounded, as scores of soldiers and settlers stand near his body chatting, talking on the phone and taking pictures. Several medics are at the scene, but they, too, are oblivious to the injured Palestinian. Indeed, one of these medics is the killer. Following the execution, not one of the bystanders appears surprised; no one grabs Azaria and pushes him away from the scene, no one runs to al-Sharif to see if he can be resuscitated; rather, the bystanders simply continue to chat. The laid-back everydayness of those standing just metres away from an execution can certainly be understood as a manifestation of what Hannah Arendt has called 'the banality of evil'. Yet, it also profoundly captures something crucial about the structure of Israel's colonial project.

"Azaria is a soldier in the Kfir Brigade. This brigade, as John Brown recently exposed [972mag.com], has been responsible for killing many Palestinians, among them Mustafa Tamimi who was shot in the head with a long-range tear gas canister during a weekly demonstration in his village, Nabi Salah. The soldier who killed Tamimi in 2011 was sitting in a military jeep 5 metres from Tamimi when he aimed and fired his gun. Two months ago, four other soldiers from the same brigade were indicted for electrocuting a Palestinian; evidence emerged that they had taken pictures of him as he begged for his life. Two other soldiers were charged with beating Palestinian children, sticking an electric heat blower in the face of one of them. John Brown cites yet another confession made by a soldier from the same brigade: 'We would go on a patrol, and if we even saw a child looking at us in a not nice way - he would receive a slap on the spot. On one of these patrols, some threw stones at us. We caught one of the children who we knew saw the stone-thrower. We beat him so bad until he was willing to identify the thrower. We then took [the 14-year-old stone thrower] from his bed outside. We pointed to some holes in the ground while we stuck the barrels of our rifles in his mouth and said to him: 'Do you want to die here? Just choose a place where you want to be buried'.'

"Azaria, in other words, is not a rotten apple. Rather, his actions must be understood as part and parcel of the larger structure that constitutes and shapes Israel's colonial project. Azaria was merely unlucky because he was caught executing a Palestinian on video. Indeed, large parts of the Israeli public realise this and therefore do not perceive Azaria as an outlier, which helps explain the widespread report he has garnered. Thus, it would be a grave mistake to conclude, as the Israeli press has done, that the politicians are simply pandering to the mob. Netanyahu recognises that Azaria is a cog in the machine, as does Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and it is for this reason that they are calling upon the president to pardon him. They also know that if Azaria is handed down a 20-year sentence, the structure that produces the likes of Azaria and the everyday taken-for-granted violence needed to sustain Israel's colonial endeavour could well be challenged from within.

"However, it is also crucial not to lose sight of what they are consciously supporting. For Azaria and those who were standing by him on the Hebron streets, as well as for all of his fans - citizens and politicians alike - Palestinians like Yusri al-Sharif are never victims or fully human beings; they are prey. Thus, they can not only be legitimately hunted, but killing them is never a crime, and more often than not, it is not even considered a misdemeanor." (Azaria exposed the reality of Israel's colonial project, al-jazeera.com, 5/1/17)

I would go even further. Not only is killing Palestinians not a crime in Israel; it is what Zionism, properly, gun Zionism, is all about. For gun Zionists, Azaria is a patriot.

You Wouldn't Read About It

Hm...

"Australia's eight most active environmental groups with tax-exempt status pulled in $83 million last year and received almost three quarters of a billion dollars in the past decade... The use of tax-exempt charity status to fund environmental challenges to developments through the courts and public campaigns has become a major concern within the government, the Australian Taxation Office as well as in the US. Environmental groups and US-based billion-dollar foundations have used charity status to help fund their actions, funnelling funds to groups without tax exemptions and hiding donors." (Green groups' $685m windfall over decade, Joe Kelly/Dennis Shanahan, The Australian, 1/11/16)

Uh-huh... so environmental groups who are trying to prevent Australia being raped, pillaged and plundered by assorted corporate rapists, pillagers and plunderers need to be stopped. And who are they? I hear you ask.

The guilty-as-hell are all there in The Australian as follows: Greenpeace, WWF Australia, Friends of the Earth Australia, The Sunrise Project, Lock the Gate Alliance, 350 Australia, ACF and the Wilderness Society.

But wait, where's the tax-exempt 'environmental charity', JNF Environmental Association of Australia Inc?* Why aren't they on the Murdoch hitlist?

Well, if I may hazard a guess, it's probably because they're off doing sterling work... in Israel. 

For example:

"An upgraded clubhouse for lone soldiers who have immigrated to Israel without their parents has been established in Raanana with the support of JNF Australia and the Bolot family of Sydney, Auckland and London." (Bolot family supports lone soldier clubhouse, jwire.com.au, 9/3/16)

Or maybe they're hosting hot Israeli generals at their Gala Dinners who talk about cool things like the 1976 "Entebbe rescue operation" and how it "symbolises the best of the IDF, its courage, its values and its integrity." (Mofaz addresses JNF Gala Dinner, jwire.com.au, 12/9/16)

[*See my 21/5/15 post The Last 'Australian Environmental Charity' Left Standing?]

Just Another Palestinian Anne Frank

"The father of a 12-year-old boy on the run for a week from Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank has told Middle East Eye that he fears his son will be killed if caught. Ramzi Abu Ajamia has been in hiding for the past 7 nights, the boy's father, Nasir Abu Ajamia, said from their family home in Bethlehem's Dheisha refugee camp. Israeli forces first showed up at the family's home on 24 March, raiding the house and detaining Ramzi's older brother.

"Ramzi said he had no idea why Israel was seeking to detain him. He says he attended protests against Israeli occupation, where rocks were thrown. 'I don't go to the clashes outside of the camp, but when soldiers come to us inside the camp, yeah I go out with the other boys - but that's it - only when they come to us,' he said, speaking to MEE during a furtive visit to the family home. 'I can't explain why they want me, other than it's my turn. Tomorrow it will be another kid's [turn].'

"Nasir said: 'The soldiers have been to the house 3 times now, the first time they took my 16-year-old.' At the time, 12-year-old Ramzi was not at home. 'They beat his brother bad and afterward Ramzi saw the blood on the street and heard about how bad his brother had been hit, so he's too frightened to let himself be arrested.' Nasir said the Israeli soldiers had asked where Ramzi was on 3 subsequent visits to the house.

"While Nasir has urged his son to stay home and allow Israeli soldiers to take him in for questioning, Ramzi has refused. Instead, Ramzi said, he plans to dodge the apparent arrest order for as long as possible. His father fears the situation risks escalation by the day. 'I'm scared that they will kill him if they find him now. I know it happens, after coming to arrest someone 3 times and not finding them, they aim to kill them when they do,' the father said." (From Palestinian 12-year-old on run from Israeli forces, Sheren Khalel Abed al Qaisi, middleeasteye.net, 31/3/16)

Ain't She Sweet...

See her swagger down the street (finger on trigger)
Now I ask you very confidentially,
Ain't she sweet?

Ain't she ice?
Look her over once or twice.
Now I ask you very confidentially,
Ain't she ice?

Cast an eye in her direction.
Me oh my, ain't she perfection?

- with apologies to Ager and Yellen

"Ms [Sharren] Haskell, 31, was last month sworn in as a representative for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, fulfilling a political ambition that had flourished since her return to Israel three years ago. Ms Haskell spent almost 7 years living in Sydney, which she proudly calls her 'second home'. For a time she was even an Australian citizen, but Israel demands foreign citizenships be forfeited upon entering the Knesset... Ms Haskell said she had been impressed by Australian values. 'Respect the environment, respect other people, tolerance - you know, it gave me a different perspective about cultural things'... She has vowed not to be an invisible backbencher, and to use her international experience through her position on the Knesset's influential foreign affairs committee. She also wants to help broaden Israel's relations with Australia, which will be strengthened in the next month or so as the finishing touches are put on the first working holiday visa scheme." (From Bondi vet to Israel's 'snake pit', Jacob Atkins, The Australian, 5/10/15)

"As to peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, Haskell said she trusted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act according to political dynamics in the Middle East as well as Israel's security needs.'We have nothing to talk about now with the Palestinians,' she added. When they stop the violence, the stone-throwing, stop encouraging terrorism and calling terrorists 'martyrs', then maybe we can sit down and discuss." (Meet Likud's newest MK Sharren Haskell, israelnationalnews.com, 7/9/15)

"When she was inducted into the Israel Defense Forces, she decided to join a combat unit... Haskell says her years in the IDF at the height of the second intifada - including the terrorist acts, Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank and the fragile truce, were all instrumental in shaping her worldview. 'You stand at checkpoints, detain people, catch suspects, attend demolitions of terrorist houses, police demonstrations, and you just keep getting beat up. All the time." (How Likud's youngest MK went from the Peace Camp to the Right, Hilo Glazer, haaretz.com, 29/9/15)

"When it comes to political positions, she now speaks fluent 'Netanyahu-ese' ('How can you negotiate with someone who doesn't recognize you?': 'Here we condemn and there they name city squares after muderers.') She talks of feeling a special affinity with the West Bank, which began with her military service and is now only deepening." (ibid)

Great! So here's the lovely Ms Haskell, who has/had at least two homes (Australia and Israel), who is a card-carrying member of the Netanyahu Gang, and who has told the OCCUPIED Palestinians (who have only one home - providing it's not demolished or stolen by Israeli settlers), to STFU! and accept their lot, now planning to flood Australia with radicalised backpacking thugs* who've just completed their military 'service', including some who have been involved in the smoting of Palestinians hip, thigh**, and anywhere else they can put in a bullet or a boot.

Sweet indeed...

[*See my 19/5/15 post Fugly Israelis; **See my last post.]

Zionism: A Bullet to the Brain

Zionism is deadly, not just to those who stand in its way, but also to its true believers. A Zionist upbringing/education/brainwashing, absent any seed of mental rebellion or spontaneous recovery on the part of the indoctrinated, is the equivalent of having your brains blown out - at point blank range.

Think I'm stretching it? Not a bit:

"Yesterday I published a post about a video that showed Israeli plainclothes undercover soldiers restraining a Palestinian youth at a West Bank demonstration and shooting him in the leg at point blank range. The youth was clutching a small stone, but was otherwise unhurt. These undercover agents are called 'mistarevim' in Hebrew (meaning disguised as an Arab)... According to reports from several sources... journalists witnessed a group of mistarevim infiltrating a demonstration in the West Bank and then suddenly producing handguns, which they shot directly at Palestinian protesters.

"At one point two of the undercover troops grab one of the young Palestinian men and restrain him, while a third presses the barrel of his handgun to his thigh and pulls the trigger. The 'pop' of the weapon is audible. Uniformed soldiers punch and kick the wounded youth and then drag him away [...]

"An astonishing number of people looked at all this evidence and refused to believe what they saw. And they were upset with the messenger, too. Yesterday +972 editor Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man and I were inundated with testy emails and social media messages from people who demanded additional evidence proving the undercover agent had really pulled the trigger and shot the boy.

"The multiple witnesses, the videos and the photographs were not enough. Some claimed they did not hear the gun being discharged. Others claimed they saw the Palestinian youth walking after he'd supposedly been shot, which proved that the undercover officer had not really pulled the trigger. On Facebook, there were long threads of comments claiming the video was fabricated, a 'Pallywood' production [...]

"So now I have Jewish friends asking me nervously what they should think. They want to believe these practices are rare and are committed by outliers who act in contravention of established procedure. but that it not the case I tell them. It's not easy for them, because most Jews cherish the idea that Israel is somehow better, or that Jews wouldn't do things like that. Too many American Jews have outsourced their identity to Israel, and now they are not sure what to do with the creeping existential crisis." (When people can't believe their eyes, it's usually ideology, Lisa Goldman, 972mag.com, 9/10/15)

The Trouble With Colonel Kemp

I've just been reading the report Investigation into potential breaches of University Codes of Conduct, posted on Sydney University's website, sydney.edu.au/news. I find it a disturbing document with grave implications for universities once renowned as havens for free speech and dissent.

In it we learn that Sydney University is threatening "disciplinary action" against a group of pro-Palestine student protesters, who disrupted a lecture last month by visiting British apologist for Israeli war crimes Colonel Richard Kemp, and pro-Palestine academic Jake Lynch, who sought to challenge the aggressive actions of security staff towards the students whilst fending off the unwanted attentions of a "semi-retired English literature lecturer and sometime stand-up comedienne Diane Barkas, 73," to quote the Australian's description of this enraged, water-hurling, camera-grabbing harpy. (See Woman denies kicking BDS guru in groin, Ean Higgins, 15/4/15).

The threat comes in response to complaints over the incident(s) submitted to the university's vice-chancellor Michael Spence by 386 individuals - only 34 of whom had actually been present at the lecture - as part of an "investigation" into the matter. (See my 18/3/15 post Anatomy of a Beat-Up.)

While we are not party to the names of the 352 "other staff, students and members of the public" who lodged those complaints, or to their content, it is safe to assume that the vast majority are the result of yet another (*sigh*) Israel lobby campaign of confected outrage targeting supporters of Palestine on campus, and, in particular, Professor Lynch, a prominent advocate of boycotting institutional ties between Sydney University and Israeli universities, a brave and principled stance that saw him hauled up before Sydney's Federal Court by the Mossad-connected, Israeli lawfare outfit Shurat HaDin last year.

It'd be most interesting to know whether some of these 'complaints' contained threats of some kind, along the lines of those described in my 26/8/14 post How Zionists Enforce the Party Line on Israel.

Central to the "investigation" are "potential breaches of University's Codes of Conduct," which "require all staff, students and affiliates to be tolerant, honest, respectful and ethical at all times."

Even to the likes of Kemp, it seems, who must be enjoying the progress of the witch-hunt, sorry investigation, immensely, seeing that "the university will send correspondence to Dr Kemp and other initial complainants present at the lecture providing them with an update."

Far from retiring (after also helping out with NSW's United Israel Appeal) to lick wounds supposedly inflicted by an intolerant, dishonest, disrespectful and unethical "BDS guru" and his student minions, Kemp will be appearing at a Shurat HaDin talkfest in Israel in May, Towards a New Law of War Conference.

Apparently, the glorious Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are finding that the Hague and Geneva Conventions, as presently constituted, are cramping their style and hence in dire need of a makeover.

It seems (I'm quoting the conference blurbs here) that "democratic armies" are pretty pissed that "large portions of the Western public and world media have come to assume that any civilian casualties are unacceptable and unlawful," and that the "Rules of Engagement in conflicts such as Afghanistan, Syria, South Lebanon and Gaza are too restrictive and irrelevant to safeguard military forces pursuing legitimate objectives in a terrorist war." (israellawcenter.org)

My fave sentence from these blurbs is this from Panel 5: "[Targeted killings] is an issue that demonstrates the influence of the Israel Defense Forces' position in shaping international law."

The influence of the Israel Defense Forces' position in shaping international law???!!!

That, my dears, is the nightmare vision to which Kemp would be a party. I wonder what Sydney University's Codes of Conduct, with their call for tolerance, honesty, respect and ethics, have to say about such matters.

In Good Company

"The deaths on July 20 of two Americans serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) provided an opening for critics of Israel to compare them to the foreign fighters of the Islamic State... Similar complaints have already called for other governments to criminalize volunteering for Israel to create equivalence to the prosecution of would-be jihadi Islamists. The IDF reports 4,600 foreign 'Lone Soldiers' currently serving, over one-third of whom are American (it is unclear how many hold dual citizenship). Are IDF Lone Soldiers comparable to al-Qaeda-inspired jihadis or the volunteer brigades who joined the Spanish Civil War?" ('Foreign Fighters' for Israel, David Malet, The Washington Post, 22/7/14)

How about both?

As author Christopher Othen reminds us in Franco's International Brigades: Adventurers, Fascists, and Christian Crusaders in the Spanish Civil War (2008):

"Foreign volunteers fought on behalf of General Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War for a right-wing cause whose aim was to smash democracy. These assorted adventurers, fascists, and Catholic crusaders were on the winning side, but their role has remained strangely hidden until now. Men from Portugal and Morocco signed on for money and adventure. General Eoin O'Duffy organised 7000 Irishmen in a modern crusade; 500 Catholic Frenchmen fought in the 'Jeanne D'Arc' unit; and 30 British volunteers, including aristocrats and working-class fascists, also took up arms. Romanian Iron Guard extremists died at Majadahonda and an Indian volunteer fought in the fascist militia. There were Russians, Americans, Finns, Belgians, Greeks, Cubans and many more. Goose-stepping alongside the volunteers were fascist conscripts from Germany and Italy, in training for the next world war."

A Question for Coach Tony

Coach Tony uses 2GB (G'Day, Bogans!) to announce his version of 'Australia: Love It or Leave It':

"Don't migrate to Australia unless you want to join 'Team Australia' Tony Abbott has declared, ahead of his meetings with Muslim leaders this week... 'My position is that everyone has got to be on Team Australia. Everyone has got to put this country, its interests, its values and its people first, and you don't migrate to this country unless you want to join our team'." (Tony Abbott says new migrants must be on 'Team Australia' as he steps up war on home-grown jihadists, Jennifer Rajca, news.com.au, 18/8/14)

Breathe in... breathe out... breathe in.... breathe out...

But when pep-talking Australian Muslim leaders it's all hush hush: "The PM's office invited only multicultural media to the press conference before the meeting..." (Onus of proof unreasonable, Muslim heads tell Abbott, David Wroe/Daisy Dumas, Sydney Morning Herald, 19/8/14)

Keysar Trad, a meeting attendee, is quoted by the Herald as saying that "leaders had also asked why dual Australian nationals fighting with the IDF were not being targeted." (ibid)

Surely, we're entitled to know how Coach Tony fielded that one?