Massacre Inc.

"America is about to enter a presidential election year... The candidates will inevitably differ on various domestic issues - health care, abortion, gay marriage, taxes, education, immigration - and spirited debates are certain to erupt on a host of foreign policy questions as well... Yet on one subject, we can be equally confident that the candidates will speak with one voice. In 2008, as in previous election years, serious candidates for the highest office in the land will go to considerable lengths to express their deep personal commitment to one country - Israel - as well as their determination to maintain unyielding US support for the Jewish state."

So begins the introduction to Mearsheimer & Walt's 2007 classic, The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy. 

As in the US, so too, unfortunately, in Australia. Here is merely the most recent example:

"The House of Representatives rose in unison on Tuesday in support of a motion calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to observe a minute of silence at the London Games for the 11 Israeli victims of the Munich massacre [of 1972]. The move comes less than a month after an open letter from The Australian Jewish News beseeching the IOC to hold a memorial at the 2012 Games attracted a raft of high-profile signatories, including Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott." (Parliament rises for Munich, 29/6/12) 

Nothing like a shared ignorance, sycophancy, and crying need for campaign funds to unite Lib and Lab. And nothing like our Israel lobby (and its parliamentary operatives, Paul Fletcher (Lib), Josh Frydenberg (Lib), Mike Kelly (Lab), and Michael Danby (Lab), who moved the above bi-partisan motion) to pull a stunt like this on behalf of a state whose very road to statehood was paved with the massacres of Palestinians and other Arabs, and whose history ever since has been studded with them.

I merely recall the one which followed, within mere days, the Munich massacre:

"When Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics of 1972, Syria bore the brunt of Israel's eye-for-eye reprisals. It was, of course, more like 20 eyes for one. For at least 200 people, many of them women and children, and possibly as many as 500, died in simultaneous air attacks on nine separate targets. The Phantoms and Skyhawks swooped on the suburban Damascus resort of al-Hama; the bombs fell indiscriminately on Palestinians in their hillside dwellings and on Syrians, in their cars or strolling by the river Barada on their weekend outing. Survivors recounted how they were machine-gunned as they ran for cover." (The Gun & The Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East, David Hirst, 1977, p 251)

But don't ever expect any of our parliamentary sheep to stand up for these people.

To inject a little perspective here, allow me to adapt the words of Edward John Eyre (written in 1845) about the internecine warfare which arose when European settlers invaded Aboriginal Australia in the 19th century: Could blood answer blood, perhaps for every drop of Israeli's shed by Palestinian natives, a torrent of theirs, by Israeli hands, would crimson the earth. (See my 12/6/08 post Pemulwuy in Palestine.)

Here We Go Again!

The latest batch of Australian polliewaffles recruited for processing in Israel:

"A delegation of 6 federal Coalition MPs travelled to Israel this week. Their program includes meeting Israeli political figures, visits to a range of facilities and locations, and briefings from experts on military, social and economic aspects of modern Israel. It is the third visit for Bradfield MP Paul Fletcher*, who previously visited Israel in 1986 as part of a student delegation and then again in 1999 in an Australian trade mission. Fletcher said he was pleased to have the opportunity to deepen his knowledge of Israel. 'I will be fascinated to see how Israel has changed since I was last there', he said. 'There is much to learn from Israel, including its remarkable economic success in developing and commercialising technology - in fields as diverse as satellite and radio communications, irrigation, desalination and biotechnology. Naturally our group will also be interested to learn more about Israel's security challenges and the prospects for a lasting peace in the Middle East'. Other participants are Tasmanian senator David Bushby**; Paterson MP and shadow minister for regional development and tourism Bob Baldwin; South Australian senator David Fawcett; Brisbane MP and shadow parliamentary secretary for international development assistance and shadow parliamentary secretary for citizenship and settlement Teresa Gambaro***; and Cowan MP Luke Simpkins****. The visit has been hosted by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council." (MPs visit the Holy Land, The Australian Jewish News, 3/2/12)

Just the sort of intelligent, free-thinking, eyes-wide-open sceptics Israel needs to win over to its side:

*Fletcher: "'The Rudd Government's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat is a gross overreaction' Paul Fletcher MP, Federal Member for Bradfield said today. 'The state of Israel is the only genuine multiparty democracy in the Middle East. The ties of friendship and of shared values, between Australia and Israel, are longstanding. Even if we are disappointed with a friend - as we naturally would be if the allegations that Israeli security agencies forged Australian passports proved to be correct - there are more appropriate ways to express that disappointment. We should never forget that Israel must fight every day for its survival. Many countries in its region are hostile towards it. Some have openly stated their desire to see Israel destroyed'." (Expulsion of Israeli diplomat a gross overreaction, Press Release, paulfletcher.com.au, 25/5/10);

**Bushby was the bozo who meowed while Penny Wong was speaking in parliament in June last year;

***Gambaro was the boza who opined recently that migrants needed to be taught to use deodorant and to form a queue. As Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2006 she asserted that only "recognition throughout the Middle East of Israel's right to exist" can bring about a "lasting solution to the conflict." (Perspective, abc.net.au, 11/12/06);

**** Simpkins: "A WA Liberal MP has claimed Australians are unknowingly being converted to Islam by eating halal meat... Mr Simpkins said that Mohammed the prophet of Islam had talked of how the religion could be expanded around the world by getting people to eat halal meat. He reportedly said, 'The non-believers will become Muslims when, amongst other things, they eat the meat that we have slaughtered'. This is one of the key apects to converting non-believers to Islam', Mr Simpkins said. The petition tabled by Mr Simpkins had been organised by the Barnabas Fund, an organisation that supports Christians living in Muslim countries." (Halal meat converting Aussies: MP, Nick Butterly, The West Australian, 25/11/11)

[NB: For a full list of Australian rambammings, see my 30/3/09 post I've been to Israel too.]