I didn't set out to write a post about Senator Michaelia Cash, Minister for Employment & Women. All I knew about her was the Hair, the Gear, and the hots for Thatcher. There was no reason to inquire further. What I knew was bad enough. But then I read about the case of Tahira Sajid:
"Single mother and asylum seeker Tahira Sajid is battling ovarian cancer while living in abject poverty in Sydney's southeast. But that is the least of her worries. 'My claim has been refused so I have to go back to Pakistan with my daughter by the end of next month, where I will have no support or protection,' the 45-year-old said. 'I will face harm if I go back.'
"When Ms Sajid's husband was threatened by the Taliban, the couple fled with their 8-year-old daughter Malaika to Australia in 2012. Ms Sajid said that she was then pressured into agreeing to a divorce.
"'Tahira has no financial support from her ex-husband or any other relatives and has the responsibility of taking care of her daughter and school expenses,' friend Fukher Batool, who has helped out with her rent and groceries, said. The parents have lived apart in Australia on consecutive bridging visas, but with Malaika they have been refused permanent residency and will be forced back to Pakistan, unless Ms Sajid's pleas are heard by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. 'If I go back to Pakistan, my ex-husband will take Malaika away. I don't have protection from anyone or the law there,' Ms Sajid said.
"Louisa McKimm of the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre represented Ms Sajid and her daughter until their case was rejected by then assistant immigration minister Michaelia Cash, on September 18, before Senator Cash changed portfolios following the leadership spill. 'It was the saddest day of my career telling Tahira that she was refused,' Ms McKimm said.
"Less than half of Pakistan's women were literate and it was unlikely that Malaika would receive schooling if she returned because she was female, she said, which meant Australia had obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to protect her right to education...
"Tahira is not of a high class; we are dealing with a woman who is going back to Pakistan single, her parents have passed away, she doesn't have a great education and she is very weak physically from the cancer battle,' she said. After surgery and an intensive course of combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy at Westmead Hospital, the ovarian cancer has been held at bay, but Ms Sajid said she would not get follow-ups if she left Australia's well-equipped healthcare system. As for Malaika, there's no doubt what she wants. 'I don't want to go back,' she said. 'I want to stay and learn'." (Cancer least of the battle for outcast Tahira, Gina Rushton, The Australian, 12/10/15)
Shit! Rejected by... Michaelia Cash. Is the woman human, I thought?
Then I read this:
"A new agreement with Australia will allow Israelis to work Down Under, Dave Sharma, Australia's ambassador to Israel, announced on Wednesday. 'Aus just signed work and holiday visa arrangement with Israel,' Sharma tweeted. 'Young Israelis can now work + travel in Aus & vice versa.' The agreement provides for 500 work-travel visas to be awarded annually to Israelis and Australians between the ages of 18 and 30 for one another's country, Ynet reported Thursday..." (Australia & Israel sign mutual travel-work visa deal, Haaretz, 22/10/14)
As indicated, the Haaretz report didn't end there. It went on to say this:
"Criteria to receive such a visa include having done military or national service, according to Ynet..."
WTF is going on here? Kick arse in Palestine, then R&R in Australia. Bombs away in Iraq and Syria, then R&R in Israel? The mind boggles.
And then, as I stopped shaking my head and resumed reading, there it was - that bloody name. Again:
"The deal was signed between Senator Michaelia Cash, Australia's assistant minister for immigration and border protection, and Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, the Israeli ambassador to Australia."
Following which, I read this from Cash's (Iron?) maiden speech:
"As a Liberal I believe in minimal government interference and that the role of government is to create and maintain a regulatory and taxation environment conducive to allowing the private sector to get on with the job." (2/9/08)
OSFBB: Open Slather for Big Business! Cash by name, cash by nature.
Then, finally, there was this, which took me back to poor little Malaika:
"Celebrating International Day of the Girl Child with our young female leaders@girlguidesaust" (The latest Michaelia Cash tweet)
International Day of the Girl Child... just 23 days after giving Malaika and her mother the flick.
Showing posts with label Shmuel Ben-Shmuel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shmuel Ben-Shmuel. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Dross & Gold in The Weekend Australian
Conflating ISIL violence with Palestinian resistance to JSIL violence, hyping JSIL as a bastion of anti-terrorism and a bulwark of civilisation, urging Australia to adopt a more pro-JSIL 'narrative', and claiming that JSIL and Australia are made of the same stuff, takes a special kind of chutzpah, but, make no mistake, Israel's ambassador to Australia, Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, has proven equal to the task:
"At a meeting of the UNSC this week Australia brought the focus of the council on to the topic of countering terrorism. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop contended that in order to adequately address terrorism, the UN must work together to learn from, and support one another in efforts to root out the perpetrators of radical violence. I applaud this initiative of Australia's, because Israel for decades has been one of the most consistent victims of radical religiously motivated violence, but we cannot fight it alone. As Bishop remarked, radical Islamic terrorists 'are an affront to Islam. All of us, including Muslim communities themselves, must do more to negate the violent extremist narratives of terrorists and denounce radical preachers of hate in our midst'. Israel sits at the frontline of the terrorists' threat and to curtail their radical dystopia from consuming the civilised world a strong and prosperous Israel is vital. This is why free and democratic countries, like Australia, should forge a strong alternative narrative of their own, that can counter the narrative of violence stoked by militant Palestinians and Islamic State. To recognise that an attack on Israeli citizens is an attack on the same fundamental ideals upon which countries like Australia were built: this is the narrative that will demonstrate to Islamic extremists that when they attack Israel - when they desecrate peaceful faith - they attack a camaraderie of nations that will not tolerate violence as a political tool." (Terror: the enemy of Palestinian statehood, The Australian, 22/11/14)
But if Ben-Shmuel's transparent sales pitch on page 15 of The Weekend Australian was its dross, Middle East correspondent John Lyons' factual and well-researched feature on the rampant Israeli colonisation fueling Palestinian desperation was its gold, effectively nailing Ben-Shmuel's blatant hasbara:
Where the ambassador prattled on about "a grotesque theatre of violence perpetuated by a ruthless band of Palestinian extremists," and "bands of disgruntled and radicalised Palestinians [taking] matters into their own hands," Lyons wrote of "a gang of about 50 masked men [who] left Yitzhar, home to some of the most violent settlers on the West Bank, and attacked Palestinians as soldiers standing near watched on," and "armed gangs which frequently roam the West Bank destroying olive trees owned by Palestinians or attacking Palestinians physically." (Settlers fuel cycle of bloodshed)
Where Ben-Shmuel paid the obligatory lip service to "sustainable statehood for Palestinians," Lyons made no bones about the fact that the Israeli government was working to make this impossible: "While the new battle for Al-Aqsa is the immediate cause of the violence the longer-term cause is Israel's continuing expansion of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank... They are systematically eating up land which Palestinians say should be their state and are often being built on privately owned Palestinian land... Anyone who drives across the West Bank today will see a skyline dominated by Jewish settlements."
That said, I do have one quibble in relation to Lyons' report. It comes with his initial framing of the Palestine/Israel conflict as "a new round of hostility between these two ancient combatants."
This is not an ancient struggle stretching back to the mythical 'time immemorial'. It's actually no older than World War I, when the British government of the day, in an act of monumental folly, climbed into bed with Chaim Weizmann's Zionist Organisation, and duly gave birth, in November 1917, to a right little bastard known as the Balfour Declaration. And the rest, as they say, is history - with which I expect Lyons to be familiar.
"At a meeting of the UNSC this week Australia brought the focus of the council on to the topic of countering terrorism. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop contended that in order to adequately address terrorism, the UN must work together to learn from, and support one another in efforts to root out the perpetrators of radical violence. I applaud this initiative of Australia's, because Israel for decades has been one of the most consistent victims of radical religiously motivated violence, but we cannot fight it alone. As Bishop remarked, radical Islamic terrorists 'are an affront to Islam. All of us, including Muslim communities themselves, must do more to negate the violent extremist narratives of terrorists and denounce radical preachers of hate in our midst'. Israel sits at the frontline of the terrorists' threat and to curtail their radical dystopia from consuming the civilised world a strong and prosperous Israel is vital. This is why free and democratic countries, like Australia, should forge a strong alternative narrative of their own, that can counter the narrative of violence stoked by militant Palestinians and Islamic State. To recognise that an attack on Israeli citizens is an attack on the same fundamental ideals upon which countries like Australia were built: this is the narrative that will demonstrate to Islamic extremists that when they attack Israel - when they desecrate peaceful faith - they attack a camaraderie of nations that will not tolerate violence as a political tool." (Terror: the enemy of Palestinian statehood, The Australian, 22/11/14)
But if Ben-Shmuel's transparent sales pitch on page 15 of The Weekend Australian was its dross, Middle East correspondent John Lyons' factual and well-researched feature on the rampant Israeli colonisation fueling Palestinian desperation was its gold, effectively nailing Ben-Shmuel's blatant hasbara:
Where the ambassador prattled on about "a grotesque theatre of violence perpetuated by a ruthless band of Palestinian extremists," and "bands of disgruntled and radicalised Palestinians [taking] matters into their own hands," Lyons wrote of "a gang of about 50 masked men [who] left Yitzhar, home to some of the most violent settlers on the West Bank, and attacked Palestinians as soldiers standing near watched on," and "armed gangs which frequently roam the West Bank destroying olive trees owned by Palestinians or attacking Palestinians physically." (Settlers fuel cycle of bloodshed)
Where Ben-Shmuel paid the obligatory lip service to "sustainable statehood for Palestinians," Lyons made no bones about the fact that the Israeli government was working to make this impossible: "While the new battle for Al-Aqsa is the immediate cause of the violence the longer-term cause is Israel's continuing expansion of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank... They are systematically eating up land which Palestinians say should be their state and are often being built on privately owned Palestinian land... Anyone who drives across the West Bank today will see a skyline dominated by Jewish settlements."
That said, I do have one quibble in relation to Lyons' report. It comes with his initial framing of the Palestine/Israel conflict as "a new round of hostility between these two ancient combatants."
This is not an ancient struggle stretching back to the mythical 'time immemorial'. It's actually no older than World War I, when the British government of the day, in an act of monumental folly, climbed into bed with Chaim Weizmann's Zionist Organisation, and duly gave birth, in November 1917, to a right little bastard known as the Balfour Declaration. And the rest, as they say, is history - with which I expect Lyons to be familiar.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
They Can't Get No Satisfaction
Fair dinkum, there's just no satisfying the Israelis.
Back in 2002:
"Israel urged the United States... to press ahead with a military offensive against Iraq, arguing that any delay would give Saddam Hussein more time to develop weapons of mass destruction." (Sharon urges America to bring down Saddam, Anton La Guardia, telegraph.co.uk, 17/8/02)
Here it is 2014, and:
"Israel's ambassador to Australia, Shmuel Ben-Shmuel... said the 'disintegration' of Iraq and Syria - regardless of whether Iranian-backed Shiites or al-Qa'ida-inspired Sunni Muslims emerged more powerful - would pose a threat to Israel and the Jewish people." (Fear Iraq-Syria focus 'to turn West', Paul Maley & Mark Schliebs, The Australian, 27/6/14)
Back in 2002:
"Israel urged the United States... to press ahead with a military offensive against Iraq, arguing that any delay would give Saddam Hussein more time to develop weapons of mass destruction." (Sharon urges America to bring down Saddam, Anton La Guardia, telegraph.co.uk, 17/8/02)
Here it is 2014, and:
"Israel's ambassador to Australia, Shmuel Ben-Shmuel... said the 'disintegration' of Iraq and Syria - regardless of whether Iranian-backed Shiites or al-Qa'ida-inspired Sunni Muslims emerged more powerful - would pose a threat to Israel and the Jewish people." (Fear Iraq-Syria focus 'to turn West', Paul Maley & Mark Schliebs, The Australian, 27/6/14)
Sunday, June 22, 2014
The Israeli Ambassador is Outraged
Israel's peace-seeking ambassador, Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, is outraged. Outraged:
"As a parent, I'm terrified by the too-true revelations that a school-aged boy called the police in a panic to say he and his friends had been kidnapped. As an Israeli, I'm resigned to the reality that the abduction of 16-year-olds Gilad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrah is just the latest chapter from the Hamas terror playbook. Just 10 days after Hamas and Fatah signed a so-called unity deal, the fairytale is over. No longer can we continue to delude ourselves that there will be lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas aligns himself with such a murderous organisation." (Abbas has made a pact with the devil: kidnaps are but one outcome, The Australian, 20/6/14)
Murderous, eh?
Hamas must be a pretty scurvy crew then.
But doesn't that sort of go with the territory? I mean, isn't the Middle East a tough neighbourhood after all?
So I guess the question has to be: Just how far down (or is it up?) on the scale of bad is Hamas?
"In addition to having a charter that directly calls for the violent destruction of Israel, Hamas has launched more than 10,000 rockets and mortars at, and infiltrated dozens of suicide bombers into, my homeland."
My homeland! Nice touch...
"Since taking power in Gaza, thousands have perished as the result of Hamas's murderous commitment to frontier justice, cronyism and administrative indifference. In the ensuing civil war, Hamas militants threw their opponents gleefully off roofs and out of hospitals. Their children's television shows glorify martyrdom, jihad and ridding the earth of Jews; thereby instilling in an entire generation hate, fear and mistrust."
Blimey, they're practically off the scale! Fugly as...
In fact, with all of that Hamasian murder, mayhem, pillage and plunder going on inside the Gaza Strip, you've really got to wonder why the Israelis even bothered launching Operations Rainbow, Days of Penitence, Summer Rains, Autumn Clouds, Hot Winter, Cast Lead, Returning Echo, and Pillar of Defence.
No wonder the ambassador didn't mention them... after Hamas pulling such a Pol Pot on its own people, Israeli ops must come as something of a welcome diversion to the suffering masses of Gaza.
But seriously now, if only the Palestinians knew just how much Israelis such as Ben-Shmuel care about them (and, more importantly, if only they had the sense to listen to, and follow, their always sage, indeed Nobel Prize quality, advice):
"The Palestinians deserve a government that will represent their needs and aspirations, and this is not one with Hamas as a core element."
It's just as well we in Australia have the Murdoch press on hand to host such a factual, no-nonsense, yet warmly sympathetic, portrayal of Palestinian suffering under the Hamas yoke as Ben-Shmuel's. I mean, if this were Israel, we'd have to put up with the likes of self-hating, bleeding-heart party-poopers such as Avraham Burg:
"All of Palestinian society is a kidnapped society. Like many of the Israelis who performed 'significant service' in the army, many of the readers of this column, or their children, entered the home of a Palestinian family in the middle of the night by surprise, with violence, and simply took away the father, the brother or uncle, with determination and insensitivity. That is kidnapping, and it happens every day. And what about their administrative detainees? What is all this if not one big official, evil and unjust kidnapping that we all participate in and never pay the price for? That is the fate of tens of thousands of detainees and others under arrest, who stayed, or are staying, in Israel's prisons - quite a few of them for no good reason, falsely imprisoned on false pretexts. The vast majority of them have been exposed to the appendages of military justice, and none of us cares a whit. All these things have turned the topic of the prisoners into the main subject in the lives of the occupied society. There is not a single household without a detainee or prisoner." (The Palestinians: A kidnapped society, Haaretz, 18/6/14)
"As a parent, I'm terrified by the too-true revelations that a school-aged boy called the police in a panic to say he and his friends had been kidnapped. As an Israeli, I'm resigned to the reality that the abduction of 16-year-olds Gilad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrah is just the latest chapter from the Hamas terror playbook. Just 10 days after Hamas and Fatah signed a so-called unity deal, the fairytale is over. No longer can we continue to delude ourselves that there will be lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas aligns himself with such a murderous organisation." (Abbas has made a pact with the devil: kidnaps are but one outcome, The Australian, 20/6/14)
Murderous, eh?
Hamas must be a pretty scurvy crew then.
But doesn't that sort of go with the territory? I mean, isn't the Middle East a tough neighbourhood after all?
So I guess the question has to be: Just how far down (or is it up?) on the scale of bad is Hamas?
"In addition to having a charter that directly calls for the violent destruction of Israel, Hamas has launched more than 10,000 rockets and mortars at, and infiltrated dozens of suicide bombers into, my homeland."
My homeland! Nice touch...
"Since taking power in Gaza, thousands have perished as the result of Hamas's murderous commitment to frontier justice, cronyism and administrative indifference. In the ensuing civil war, Hamas militants threw their opponents gleefully off roofs and out of hospitals. Their children's television shows glorify martyrdom, jihad and ridding the earth of Jews; thereby instilling in an entire generation hate, fear and mistrust."
Blimey, they're practically off the scale! Fugly as...
In fact, with all of that Hamasian murder, mayhem, pillage and plunder going on inside the Gaza Strip, you've really got to wonder why the Israelis even bothered launching Operations Rainbow, Days of Penitence, Summer Rains, Autumn Clouds, Hot Winter, Cast Lead, Returning Echo, and Pillar of Defence.
No wonder the ambassador didn't mention them... after Hamas pulling such a Pol Pot on its own people, Israeli ops must come as something of a welcome diversion to the suffering masses of Gaza.
But seriously now, if only the Palestinians knew just how much Israelis such as Ben-Shmuel care about them (and, more importantly, if only they had the sense to listen to, and follow, their always sage, indeed Nobel Prize quality, advice):
"The Palestinians deserve a government that will represent their needs and aspirations, and this is not one with Hamas as a core element."
It's just as well we in Australia have the Murdoch press on hand to host such a factual, no-nonsense, yet warmly sympathetic, portrayal of Palestinian suffering under the Hamas yoke as Ben-Shmuel's. I mean, if this were Israel, we'd have to put up with the likes of self-hating, bleeding-heart party-poopers such as Avraham Burg:
"All of Palestinian society is a kidnapped society. Like many of the Israelis who performed 'significant service' in the army, many of the readers of this column, or their children, entered the home of a Palestinian family in the middle of the night by surprise, with violence, and simply took away the father, the brother or uncle, with determination and insensitivity. That is kidnapping, and it happens every day. And what about their administrative detainees? What is all this if not one big official, evil and unjust kidnapping that we all participate in and never pay the price for? That is the fate of tens of thousands of detainees and others under arrest, who stayed, or are staying, in Israel's prisons - quite a few of them for no good reason, falsely imprisoned on false pretexts. The vast majority of them have been exposed to the appendages of military justice, and none of us cares a whit. All these things have turned the topic of the prisoners into the main subject in the lives of the occupied society. There is not a single household without a detainee or prisoner." (The Palestinians: A kidnapped society, Haaretz, 18/6/14)
Friday, May 16, 2014
NZW Premier Miko Baird Bends the Knee
Individual NZW Premiers may come and go but the annual bending-of-the-knee ritual at Israel Independence (from what?) Day gigs is mandatory for whoever 'leads' the state of NZW.
Last year of course, it was Barry (Baruch) O'Farrell, who gushed: "If one was restricted to a single word to describe Israel it would be extraordinary." (See my posts Barry to Baruch in 60 Seconds (9/5/14) and NZW Inc. (3/5/14))
Poor Baruch had probably consumed a tad too much Grange Hermitage at the time, but then that's another story...
This year, of course, it's the shiny new Mike (Miko?) Baird who "announced that if [his government] is re-elected in March 2015, he will commit to personally leading a trade delegation to Israel during his second term in office saying 'perhaps I cannot quite say 'Next Year in Jerusalem' but I can say 'next term in Jerusalem'." (Next term in Jerusalem, jwire.com.au, 14/5/14)
Good one, Miko!
In addition to laying the organisers of the gig (the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, the Zionist Council of Australia, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and the Zionist Federation of Australia) in the proverbial aisles, Miko also revealed his talents as a vocalist, crooning that old favourite, "Australia [was] the first country to vote in favour of the 1947 UN partition which created the Jewish State." (ibid)
No Zionist gig would be complete, however, without a reference to the Dark Side. And Miko did not disappoint, muttering darkly:
"We know there are those who make it their task to whip up fear and hatred towards Israel. Even here in multicultural Australia, one of the most distasteful examples is the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which has such regrettable echoes of the past persecution of Jewish-owned businesses. The BDS campaign disgusts ordinary, decent Australians and attracts bipartisan condemnation." (Baird commits to visit Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 16/5/14)
Jeepers creepers, you could almost hear the sound of jackboots and shattering glass!
But Miko was merely the icing on Israel's birthday cake:
Among the 500 glitterati, "diplomats [34 + Israeli ambassador, Shmuel Ben-Shmuel], politicians and community, faith and business leaders," were to be found "John Robertson (Opposition Leader), David Clarke (Parliamentary Secretary), David Elliott (Parliamentary Secretary), Matt Kean (Parliamentary Secretary) and Paul Fletcher (Federal Parliamentary Secretary)." (Celebrating Israel's Independence Day, theindiansun.com.au, 15/5/14)
What particularly struck me, however, as a compulsive chronicler of such things, was this:
"Other notable people attending the celebration included Vic Alhadeff (Chairman, Community Relations Commission), Stepan Kerkyasharian (President, Anti-Discrimination Board), Dr Tim Soutphommasane (Race Discrimination Commissioner), and Tim Wilson (Human Rights Commissioner)." (ibid)
That is, almost all of the heads of all of the official, taxpayer-funded, multicultural, anti-racist, anti-discrimination, and pro-human rights bodies in Australia were gathered together in celebration of a state, founded on a monstrous act of ethnic cleansing, that has become a byword for ethno-religious exclusivism and human rights abuses.
You wouldn't read about it... at least not in the mainstream press.
Last year of course, it was Barry (Baruch) O'Farrell, who gushed: "If one was restricted to a single word to describe Israel it would be extraordinary." (See my posts Barry to Baruch in 60 Seconds (9/5/14) and NZW Inc. (3/5/14))
Poor Baruch had probably consumed a tad too much Grange Hermitage at the time, but then that's another story...
This year, of course, it's the shiny new Mike (Miko?) Baird who "announced that if [his government] is re-elected in March 2015, he will commit to personally leading a trade delegation to Israel during his second term in office saying 'perhaps I cannot quite say 'Next Year in Jerusalem' but I can say 'next term in Jerusalem'." (Next term in Jerusalem, jwire.com.au, 14/5/14)
Good one, Miko!
In addition to laying the organisers of the gig (the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, the Zionist Council of Australia, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and the Zionist Federation of Australia) in the proverbial aisles, Miko also revealed his talents as a vocalist, crooning that old favourite, "Australia [was] the first country to vote in favour of the 1947 UN partition which created the Jewish State." (ibid)
No Zionist gig would be complete, however, without a reference to the Dark Side. And Miko did not disappoint, muttering darkly:
"We know there are those who make it their task to whip up fear and hatred towards Israel. Even here in multicultural Australia, one of the most distasteful examples is the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which has such regrettable echoes of the past persecution of Jewish-owned businesses. The BDS campaign disgusts ordinary, decent Australians and attracts bipartisan condemnation." (Baird commits to visit Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 16/5/14)
Jeepers creepers, you could almost hear the sound of jackboots and shattering glass!
But Miko was merely the icing on Israel's birthday cake:
Among the 500 glitterati, "diplomats [34 + Israeli ambassador, Shmuel Ben-Shmuel], politicians and community, faith and business leaders," were to be found "John Robertson (Opposition Leader), David Clarke (Parliamentary Secretary), David Elliott (Parliamentary Secretary), Matt Kean (Parliamentary Secretary) and Paul Fletcher (Federal Parliamentary Secretary)." (Celebrating Israel's Independence Day, theindiansun.com.au, 15/5/14)
What particularly struck me, however, as a compulsive chronicler of such things, was this:
"Other notable people attending the celebration included Vic Alhadeff (Chairman, Community Relations Commission), Stepan Kerkyasharian (President, Anti-Discrimination Board), Dr Tim Soutphommasane (Race Discrimination Commissioner), and Tim Wilson (Human Rights Commissioner)." (ibid)
That is, almost all of the heads of all of the official, taxpayer-funded, multicultural, anti-racist, anti-discrimination, and pro-human rights bodies in Australia were gathered together in celebration of a state, founded on a monstrous act of ethnic cleansing, that has become a byword for ethno-religious exclusivism and human rights abuses.
You wouldn't read about it... at least not in the mainstream press.
Friday, December 20, 2013
The Adoration of the Sage
Meanwhile, raise a glass and drink in the following scene over at Melbourne's Grand Hyatt:
"A sixtieth anniversary calls for a pretty serious cocktail party, and so it was last night for law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, which marked the occasion in style at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. Among those attending from the government were Tony Abbott, Bronwyn Bishop (no party is complete without her), Kevin Andrews, Arthur Sinodinos, Mitch Fifield and the evidently omnipresent Josh Frydenberg, with Bill Shorten and Mark Dreyfus among those doing the honour for Labor. Also on deck were Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Israeli ambassador Shmuel Ben-Shmuel. And in honour of ABL partner Mark Leibler, a giant in the reconciliation movement, some of the nation's leading indigenous figures on the guest list included Noel Pearson, and Djawa and Balupalu Yunupingu from East Arnhem Land. Leibler saved some special words for his guest of honour, the PM: 'On Israel especially you have always been prepared to support what is right and correct, as distinct from what may be 'politically correct'. I thank you for that commitment. And, like me, you understand that indigenous Australians are not only the country's most disadvantaged citizens, but the most discriminated against'." (Bottoms up, Strewth, The Australian, 19/12/13)
There is really only one way to do justice to such a scene: paint it in the style of some Italian Renaissance master. Something like this perhaps:
Mark Leibler, front and centre, sits on a throne elevated above the others, as befits a sage with a direct line to that which is eternally Right & Correct. High above, shining its light down on him, is an otherworldly Star of David.
A crowned and ermine-caped Tony Abbott kneels before him kissing his ring.
Shmuel Ben-Shmuel stands off to one side, a mysterious smile wreathing his face, his kippa, halo-like, floating ethereally only millimetres above his bald head.
Frydenberg stands opposite Abbott, his eyes fixed on the PM, unable to conceal his lust for crown and ermine.
Bishop, Andrews, Sinodinos, Fifield, Shorten, Dreyfus and Doyle, locked in poses of adoration and wonder, cocktail glasses raised high, gaze up at Sage Isi.
The Indigenous trio, in the bottom right hand corner of the painting, sprawl on the ground, looking every bit as though they have just been elbowed aside and trampled by Bishop, Andrews et al in the rush to hear Sage Mark's latest Dalai Lama-style pearl of wisdom.
Captured by the painter in a scroll at the very top of the painting, said pearl reads: 'O King Tony, on Israel you have always supported what is Right and Correct, and like me, you understand the plight of indigenous Australians.'
And there, in the bottom left hand corner of the work, lie a pile of torn and bleeding Palestinian bodies.
"A sixtieth anniversary calls for a pretty serious cocktail party, and so it was last night for law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, which marked the occasion in style at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. Among those attending from the government were Tony Abbott, Bronwyn Bishop (no party is complete without her), Kevin Andrews, Arthur Sinodinos, Mitch Fifield and the evidently omnipresent Josh Frydenberg, with Bill Shorten and Mark Dreyfus among those doing the honour for Labor. Also on deck were Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Israeli ambassador Shmuel Ben-Shmuel. And in honour of ABL partner Mark Leibler, a giant in the reconciliation movement, some of the nation's leading indigenous figures on the guest list included Noel Pearson, and Djawa and Balupalu Yunupingu from East Arnhem Land. Leibler saved some special words for his guest of honour, the PM: 'On Israel especially you have always been prepared to support what is right and correct, as distinct from what may be 'politically correct'. I thank you for that commitment. And, like me, you understand that indigenous Australians are not only the country's most disadvantaged citizens, but the most discriminated against'." (Bottoms up, Strewth, The Australian, 19/12/13)
There is really only one way to do justice to such a scene: paint it in the style of some Italian Renaissance master. Something like this perhaps:
Mark Leibler, front and centre, sits on a throne elevated above the others, as befits a sage with a direct line to that which is eternally Right & Correct. High above, shining its light down on him, is an otherworldly Star of David.
A crowned and ermine-caped Tony Abbott kneels before him kissing his ring.
Shmuel Ben-Shmuel stands off to one side, a mysterious smile wreathing his face, his kippa, halo-like, floating ethereally only millimetres above his bald head.
Frydenberg stands opposite Abbott, his eyes fixed on the PM, unable to conceal his lust for crown and ermine.
Bishop, Andrews, Sinodinos, Fifield, Shorten, Dreyfus and Doyle, locked in poses of adoration and wonder, cocktail glasses raised high, gaze up at Sage Isi.
The Indigenous trio, in the bottom right hand corner of the painting, sprawl on the ground, looking every bit as though they have just been elbowed aside and trampled by Bishop, Andrews et al in the rush to hear Sage Mark's latest Dalai Lama-style pearl of wisdom.
Captured by the painter in a scroll at the very top of the painting, said pearl reads: 'O King Tony, on Israel you have always supported what is Right and Correct, and like me, you understand the plight of indigenous Australians.'
And there, in the bottom left hand corner of the work, lie a pile of torn and bleeding Palestinian bodies.
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