Must Watch: The Occupation of the American Mind

Sut Jhally's film, The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel's Public Relations War in the United States, is an absolute must watch. Jhally is professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the director of other films on msm manipulation of the American mind. I received notice of his latest film with the following note attached. Having just viewed it, I fully concur - watch and share widely:

"Despite receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from those who have actually seen it, The Occupation of the American Mind has been repeatedly attacked and misrepresented by right-wing pressure groups and outright ignored by virtually all mainstream media outlets and North American film festivals. To bypass this campaign of misrepresentation and suppression, we've decided to make the film available for FREE online so that people can make up their own minds about its analysis of US media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Please watch and share widely!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmoYoiMgpWU

Ziobabbling Away

Zionist propaganda has been around for as long as perfidious Albion opened the door of poor, unsuspecting Ottoman Palestine to the Zionist hordes in 1918 and held it open for them for the next 30 years. And since then, that is since 1948, it has reached the veritable crescendo proportions we see today, with all the old propaganda tropes trotted out again and again, or merely updated for the times.

In short, there really is no excuse whatever these days for anyone with a pretense to journalistic integrity uncritically regurgitating this nonsense in the way the Sydney Morning Herald's editorialist has today. Here's the editorial's opening paragraph:

"Consider how much Israel had to celebrate on the occasion of its 70th anniversary this week. The achievements are impressive almost everywhere you look - in agriculture, science and innovation, medicine and technology and in the living standards Israel offers its citizens. Above all, Israel has created a vibrant liberal democracy in a region where autocracy and theocracy are the norm." (More pain in Gaza amid celebrations)

I'm sorry, but what half sentient being would bother reading on (and what follows is none too flash) after that?

Same Sex Marriage at Beersheba

For king & country? Nah. For the sons & daughters of Abraham, mate :

"Nearly 4,000 years ago, Abraham came to Be'er Sheba... Exactly 100 years ago, brave ANZAC soldiers liberated Beer Sheba for the sons and daughters of Abraham and opened the gateway for the Jewish people to reenter the stage of history." (Netanyahu's address at the 31/10/2017 memorial ceremony for the ANZAC troops who fought and died at Beersheba on 31/10/17, jwire.com.au)

Blood brothers, mate:

"This momentous occasion was a historic milestone in the natural kinship between our peoples."

And Bible-bashers to boot, mate:

"ANZAC soldiers... were retracing the footsteps of the heroes of the Bible... stepping on the verses of the Bible, and they knew it, and their clergy who spoke of this so movingly a moment ago, they knew it too."

Round two, mate:

"In the defeat at Gallipoli, two things were forged. One, the absolute resolve of the ANZAC forces to redeem their fallen brethren and establish this glorious victory here." 

Love at first sight, mate:

"And the second thing that was forged was the first meeting between ANZAC fighters and Jewish fighters, the first Jewish fighters who stood shoulder to shoulder with them in Gallipoli, the first Jewish fighting force in 2,000 years."

A National Home among the gum trees, mate:

"When I joined the Israeli army 50 years ago... I was given a broad hat. It was called an Australian hat... We also sat next to eucalyptus trees that came from Australia."

***

Yes, Bibi, even if they tag me a Christian Zionist, I'm going to say it: fulfilling history!!!:

"'The mad Australians', was a common description. Not so mad. Brave, heroic, turning the tide of history, making history, fulfilling history." (Turnbull's address)

Oh yes, Bibi, without the ANZACs Johnny Turk'd still be ruling the, er, your roost:

"That [taking of Beersheba] did not create the State of Israel, but enabled its creation. Had the Ottoman rule in Palestine and Syria not been overthrown by the Australians and New Zealanders, the Balfour Declaration would have been empty words."

I'm sorry, Bibi, I just can't contain myself any longer. I want to shout it from the rooftops! Izzy, Izzy, Izzy, Oi, Oi, Oi:

"But this was a step for the creation of Israel... and while those young men may not have foreseen, no doubt did not foresee the extraordinary success of the State of Israel, its foundations, its resilience, its determination, its indomitability against overwhelming odds, their spirit was the same. Like the State of Israel has done ever since, they defied history, they made history and with their courage they fulfilled history."

Turnbull & Pratt's Beersheba Duet

The Pratt Foundation-funded magazine, Beersheba: Legend of the Light Horse, that came with last Saturday's Weekend Australian, begins with two editorials, on facing pages, the first by PM Turnbull, the second by the Foundation's Anthony Pratt (son of the late Dick Pratt).

Predictably, Turnbull's is a transparently Zionist propaganda brew, which conflates, in complete defiance of the historical record, the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba (31/10/17), the Balfour Declaration (2/11/17) and the creation of the state of Israel (14/5/48):

"The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba has inspired Australians for generations The veterans of the charge re-enacted it in Charles Chauvel's 1940 movie Forty Thousand Horsemen - a confidence booster for a beleaguered nation at war. As a young boy at boarding school in the early '60s I watched it again and again - we all imagined ourselves spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory... Just weeks later, the Australians marched with General Allenby into Jerusalem, while in London the Balfour Declaration was signed, paving the way for the creation of the modern state of Israel. A century on, the city of Be'er Sheva is an oasis of technology and great practical ideas - a shining example of the best attributes of Israel and the Israeli people - ingenuity, resilience, and hard work. Today, Australia and Israel share these values. We have an unbreakable bond that is only getting stronger. As we honour the memory and sacrifice of the Anzacs of 1917, and in the years to come. Lest we forget." (Our unbreakable bond)

Apart from Turnbull's chronological confusion (the BD came before the takeover of Jerusalem), what is significant here is that in addition to his blatant fabrication of Australian and Palestinian history, he also appears to be embroidering on his own, personal history:

As Paddy Manning's biography of Turnbull, Born to Rule (2015), reveals, young Malcolm was packed off to a boarding school in 1963 at the age of 8. Curiously, in his editorial, Turnbull recounts watching Chauvel's Forty Thousand Horsemen "at boarding school in the early '60s...again and again." Now I can understand one of his teachers screening the film once, but "again and again"? WTF is going on here?

Quite apart from what repeated showings might imply about the teacher in question (some kind of obsessive military fanatic?), surely the inevitable chorus of 'Aw, sir, not again!' would deter any but the most foolhardy teacher from this practice. And as for Malcolm and his classmates imagining themselves "spurring our horses through the Ottoman fire, leaping across the trenches and onward to victory," Turnbull once disclosed that "I would struggle to find one positive memory of my time at boarding school... really it was a bleak, bleak period for me." (Manning, p 21)

As for Pratt's contribution, it reads like an echo of Turnbull's. (Or should that be the other way around?):

"Next Tuesday, October 31, 2017, Australia will mark the 100th anniversary of the victorious charge by 800 Lighthorsemen against the Turkish defences at Beersheba. The 'shock and awe' victory changed the course of Middle East history, and paved the way for Israel's establishment some three decades later. It's entirely fitting, therefore, that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will lead the Australian delegation at the Centenary commemoration services in Be'er Sheva, the modern Israeli city that has arisen around the former battleground, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin will represent Israel. In honouring the historic moment for both nations, I'd like to note that the Light Horse Centenary also has a personal significance for the Pratt family. While the Centenary's opening ceremony... is to be in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Beersheva, the concluding ceremony will happen at the Park of the Australian Soldier, just a few kilometres away in the same city. The Park, a Pratt Foundation initiative to honour Australia's military involvement in the Middle East at critical times in Israel's history,* was opened in 2008... " (A proud legacy)

The fact is that the Pratt Foundation's 'Park of the Australian Soldier' is really all about Israel. The Park is an integral part of a Zionist propaganda initiative, whereby a moment of Australian and Turkish military history has been appropriated and misrepresented as somehow uniquely enabling (and legitimising) the much later installation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

It should be obvious to all that the capture of Ottoman Beersheba by Australian forces in 1917 is being manipulated to fit the false Zionist historical narrative, primarily with a view to ensuring ongoing Australian diplomatic support for a pariah apartheid Israel in UN fora.

Turnbull, who hosted Netanyahu in Sydney earlier this year, could now, arguably, be described as the most Zionist of all Australian prime ministers, and a sycophant of the worst kind.  And the irony is that it only seems like yesterday that he was slamming opposition leader Bill Shorten (who, like Turnbull, is currently partying in Israel) in federal parliament as "the great sycophant of billionaires," and accusing him, specifically, of "sucking up to [the late] Dick Pratt." That was back in February this year.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Zionists and their fellow-travellers (think here of Turnbull/Shorten, for example) are always banging on about Israel's alleged lack of security. They discourse endlessly about its need for 'secure borders,' 'security fences,' and about 'living in a tough neighbourhood.'

All bullshit, of course, designed to mask a genocidal reality.

The simple fact of the matter is that ever since the predatory, European settler-colonial movement known as Zionism was introduced into historic Palestine by the British after World War I, it has turned the lives of its indigenous Arab population into a living hell of insecurity and fear.

When next you hear a Zionist droning on about Israel's alleged need for security, spare a thought for the utterly defenceless inhabitants of the tiny West Bank village of Umm al-Kheir:

"Spent the last two days at Umm al-Kheir, a Bedouin village in the South Hebron Hills, enjoying the wonderful hospitality, generosity, and loving kindness. This was not my first trip there. And as much as I hate to say it, as with most things in Palestine, things are so much worse than my last visit. The illegal colonial settlement of Carmel belonging to the entity called Israel surrounds the village on almost every side. Some of the tents and housing units are less than 20 feet from the 'security fence'. Housing units in the illegal settlement have increased and more are being built, with plans to take more of the land owned by the village to continue expansion.

"The villagers sit day after day waiting for the illegal occupation soldiers to come with their bulldozers to demolish more of their housing. People speak openly about their discouragement for their future but still stand steadfast, [saying] that they will not be moved or defeated. Our tent was one of those closest to the fence and for two nights we sat up most of the night while Zionists threw stones over the fence at the tent or at anything that appeared to move. The village leader says the violence is increasing all the time and fears that one of these nights something much worse than stones will be thrown. Fortunately, no one was hurt (physically) the past two nights but there was little or no sleep for us or any of the men of the village who sat up keeping an open eye and ear to try to spot the thugs doing this. The commotion would wake up many of the villagers and you could hear the crying of many frightened small children throughout the night.

"This is an every night occurrence and everyone is exhausted, all of the time, and can only catch a few hours of sleep after sunrise. Phone calls to the police of the entity called Israel Police as well as the Palestinian Authority Police are a waste of time. No one will respond to the calls for help to make the settler violence stop. Many Internationals, such as ourselves, go for a few nights (when we have the people to do so) to help with a protective presence but it doesn't stop the ever-increasing settler violence. The Bedouin are a very peaceful people and are committed to nonviolence but they are called terrorists by the Zionists and most of the Zionist-supporting governments of the world (such as the United States). More International presence is needed, and more of the world needs to know the truth." (Two nights in Umm al-Kheir: a journal, palsolidarity.org, 5/9/17)

Israel's 'Soul'

Israel's soul laid bare on a comedian's stage, says the headline of Agnes Nieuwenhuizen's review of Israeli writer David Grossman's A Horse Walks into a Bar in The Australian (12/8/17).

Opening sentence:

"Don't miss David Grossman's A Horse Walks into a Bar, a novel that offers profound insights into the soul of a nation and of one of its hapless citizens... "

So ethnocratic, apartheid states have souls? Interesting...

An Israeli Euphemism is Born

Today is the 50th anniversary of the third day of the June/Six Day War of 1967, the day Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem was OCCUPIED by the Israelis.

The urge to ANNEX NOW, of course, was overwhelming, but, with the rest of the world looking on, Israel's slavering ANNEXATIONISTS felt the need to disguise their naked, criminal intent with yet another in a long line of Zionist euphemisms.

Here's how they went about it:

"Begin proposed camouflaging the annexation [of East Jerusalem] within a law that would apply to the entire West Bank. The ministers wondered whether it might be possible to proceed without legislation, but Minister of Justice Shapira insisted on Knesset approval. The least dramatic method they came up with was to hide the legislation in three amendments to existing laws. These would be phrased in legalese, implying that they merely addressed administrative issues that applied to the entire country. The word 'annexation' did not appear, nor was the legislation listed as a proposed bill on the Knesset agenda. Rather, it was introduced for a first reading immediately before deliberation on it began. [Prime Minister] Eshkol was intentionally absent. The legislation was passed on to the appropriate committees and sent back for second and third readings and then for a vote, all in the same evening. There was 'no commotion and no rejoicing,' as Minister Gvati wrote. Almost all the Knesset members voted in favor, including Uri Avneri; only the Communists objected.

"The Foreign Ministry instructed its representatives to 'minimize' the political and historical significance of East Jerusalem's annexation, depicting the legislation as an administrative step necessary to facilitate water and power supplies, public transportation, and health and education services. Inspired by Begin, the ministry told its staff to use the phrase 'municipal integration' and avoid the term 'annexation' wherever possible." (Tom Segev, 1967: Israel, the War & the Year that Transformed the Middle East, 2007, p 434)

Is anyone out there working on a dictionary of Israeli euphemisms? I wonder.

The Emails are IN! 2

And here they are, right on time!

A big hand, folks, for Danny Samuels and Michael Jaku!

And a big hand for the Herald's letter editor (but not The Age's!), who saw fit to cast aside the letters of folks with real concerns so that these TWO Zionist propagandists could spin and obfuscate to their heart's content on the Herald's letters page.

It's all there: aggression redefined as defence; Israelis eternally trying to divest themselves of other peoples' lands (but using loopholes in UN resolutions to justify hanging on to them); Arabs who can only say no; Palestinians who are always walking away; selective facts; eternally generous Israeli offers; and mindless Palestinian terrorism.

Enjoy:

Danny Samuels, Malvern (Vic):

"Tony Walker writes that Israel's defensive war in 1967 didn't entitle it to permanently occupy the territory captured. In fact, Israel immediately offered to return most of the territory in return for peace, but the Arab League responded with its infamous 'three no's' - no recognition, no negotiation, no peace. UN Security Council 242 required Israel to withdraw from 'territories occupied', not all the territories occupied, in exchange for peace.

"When Egypt agreed to peace, Israel withdrew from the entire Sinai, more land than the rest of israel and the territories combined. Sadly, the Palestinians walked away from what was generally regarded as generous deals in 2000/1 (followed by mass terrorism) and in 2008, and when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, it received thousands of rockets for its trouble.

"If the Palestinians genuinely accept Israel's right to exist, all other issues, including the settlements (which, as even the Palestinians admit, take up less than 2% of the West Bank) can be resolved.

Michael Jacku, Double Bay:

"Tony Walker asserts that Israel trebled the size of its territory after the 1967 war. Nowhere does he mention the not insignificant fact that Israel subsequently returned the Sinai Desert and Gaza Strip which together formed, overwhelmingly, the greatest part of the captured territory, and it did so at its own peril."

The Emails are IN!

Palestine/Israel is surely the only topic UNDER THE SUN about which a journalist feels he/she has to think twice before presenting the facts.

Here's Fairfax's Tony Walker, for example, writing an opinion piece about the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, which, of course, is coming up for its 50th anniversary next month:

"On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against surrounding Arab states in retaliation for an Egyptian blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba." (Six-Day War has lasted 50 years and hostilities continue, Sydney Morning Herald, 29/5/17)

Such a statement, of course, is nothing if not unassailably factual, right?

 But, hey, since when have pro-Israel propagandists ever allowed unassailable facts to get in their way?

Which is why Walker goes to the trouble of adding:

"Anticipating criticism in the letters pages, let's assert that Israel was a victim of aggression by the Arabs led by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, that it had every right to defend itself to the best of its ability and, in the process, make use of territory gained in the conflict to negotiate a just peace."

Well, if that isn't playing the Israeli devil's advocate and then some... But here's the thing, the bottom line, if you will, as Walker so clearly points out:

"What a smashing victory in 1967 did not entitle Israel to was to be a permanent occupier of territory and its people and settlers of land seized in defiance of international law."

No matter, our defenders of the indefensible, our 1967 denialists, have already fired off their editorial vollies to the SMH and The Age, and you'll see their concoctions on the letters pages tomorrow. Enjoy!

Israel's Megaphone of Hate

One word beloved of Zionist propagandists is 'incitement', as in 'Palestinian anti-Semitic incitement'. But look who's really doing the incitement:

"Every 46 seconds an Israeli Jew publishes a racist or inciting comment against Arabs on Facebook and other social networks, a new study finds. According to the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media (7amleh), which published its Index for Racism & Incitement on Social Media last week, 60,000 active Israeli social media users published at least one racist post against Arabs in 2016. According to the study there were over 675,000 such posts in the previous year, published at a rate of one post every 46 seconds - a dangerous increase from 2015, when 280,000 racist and inciting posts were published.

"7amleh's study also focused on the correlation between remarks made by high-level government officials and the amount of inciting posts. One can see a clear increase in the number of racist posts against Arabs following every inciting remark by a member of the government. The sharpest spikes in racist posts came following remarks by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Arab citizens, following the fires that raged across Israel and the West Bank in November 2016, which leaders blamed on nationalistically-motivated arson... Another sharp increase was felt throughout the trial of Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier who was found guilty of killing an incapacitated Palestinian in Hebron early last year. [...]

"7amleh's report was a result of repeated accusations by Israeli politicians that Palestinians take part in incitement against Israel Jews on social media. These accusations led to the arrests of Palestinian activists, often when they had committed no such crime. According to 7amleh, Israel is putting pressure on companies such as Facebook and Google to reveal data on its users so as to make it easier to track and arrest them. According to human rights organizations, over 200 criminal cases have been opened against Palestinian activists who have been accused of incitement on the internet... " (Israelis post anti-Arab racism online every 46 seconds, study finds, Rami Younis, 972mag.com, 13/2/17)

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Why is it that, with regard to the Chinese-occupied Uighur homeland of East Turkestan/ Xinjiang, Western reporters have no trouble in recognising the roots of violence there and sheeting home the blame to those responsible, in this case successive Chinese governments?

For example:

"Xinjiang has for decades been blighted by outbreaks of vicious ethnic violence, a process experts believe has been exacerbated by the government's poor treatment of Uighurs, which includes draconian religious restrictions and social and economic discrimination." (China: Xi Jinping wants 'Great Wall of Steel' in violence-hit Xinjiang, Tom Phillips, the guardian.com, 11/3/17)

And yet, when it comes to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Arab homeland of Palestine/ Israel, and the periodic outbursts of violence there, most Western reporters invariably reference the Israeli claim that it is Palestinian Authority/Hamas incitement against Jews, not Israel's repressive and never-ending occupation, that is at the root of the violence.

Funny that...

Mystery Solved

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

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

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

Whether it's today in Australia:

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

Or decades ago in the UK:

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

There's your answer.

Wikipedia Warning

"Yesterday, I was checking. I can report that there has been a clear, organised effort to insert Zionist lies and fabrications into entries about the Arab-Israeli conflict on Wikipedia. Even historical matters are altered and edited, and then they cite the work of polemicists like Alan Dershowitz. It must be coming from the Israeli foreign ministry or the propaganda arm of the occupation regime in Tel Aviv." (Wikipedia entries on Arab-Israeli conflict, The Angry Arab News Service, 9/2/17)

Keep Your Eye on Beersheba

Australian journalist and historian (Beersheba: A Journey Through Australia's Forgotten War (2009)), Paul Daley, has written an interesting essay for the Guardian Australia (31/10/16) website on the coming commemoration of the fall of Beersheba to Australian troops in 1917.

The title - Beersheba: we must keep an eye on how the story is told and interpreted - indicates that Daley, for one, realises that someone out there may have an interest in misrepresenting the historical record on this one. Hm... now who could that possibly be?

He begins:

"It's 99 years today since soldiers of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade took part in what is generally regarded as the last 'great' successful cavalry charge. So in a year we can expect the Australian - and Israeli - governments to go overboard on commemorating an event that has never received the considered national attention it warrants. The story of what happened at Beersheba in Palestine (today's rather inhospitable Israeli city of Be'er Sheva) has long been eclipsed by the intensive commemoration... of other Australian military events - most notably the failed invasion of Gallipoli in 1915 and dramatic, later, Australian casualties on the European western front. But the federal government is now cashed up (with some $600m). And, so, Beersheba will get its moment." 

Now here's where he gets really interesting:

"It will pay to listen closely and to be wary about what you might hear from the Australian and Israeli governments. Israel? It didn't exist, of course, at the time of the charge, which took place in what was Ottoman Palestine. But Israel has gone to some lengths to claim what happened as something of a formative step in its establishment."

No surprises there, Paul, Israel has gone to some (nay, to extraordinary) lengths to claim all sorts of things - hence this blog which can barely keep up with them all.

Daley returns to the theme later in his piece:

"During the weeks and months I spent walking the Beersheba charge site and travelling from Gaza to Jordan, Damascus and Lebanon, tracing the mounted Australian battles, I realised how readily certain groups - not least Zionists, Christian Zionists and evangelicals, were appropriating the stories of the Australian Light Horse. I negotiated my share of eccentrics, including those dressed as light horsemen who insisted that the Australians were doing God's work in wresting Palestine from the infidel Turks so that a Jewish homeland might re-establish itself there. That the charge coincided with the British war cabinet's formulation of the Balfour Declaration - in support of a Jewish state in Palestine - is grist to the (Christian/Zionist) mythology... While some of the light horsemen did refer to the biblical names they passed through as they fought, few saw themselves as being guided by the hand of God, let alone working towards the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland. A small prelude to what we might expect next year came in 2013 with the joint release by Australia Post and Israel Post of stamps commemorating Beersheba. 'The capture of Beersheba allowed British empire forces to break the Ottoman line near Gaza and then advance into Palestine, a chain of events which eventually culminated in the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.' Some historians of the Middle East and Palestinian groups were, rightly, angry at the conflation. Beersheba, you can be certain, will be evoked next year as testimony to the 'special' Israel/Australia relationship... Well, they ain't seen nothing yet, I fear... I'll be writing a lot more here about Australians in the Middle East during world war one."

Although I have been justifiably critical of Daley's take on the contemporary Middle East (Just click on the label below), it's good to see that he has at least cottoned on to what the Zionist lobby in Australia is up to on this one. Two things in his piece, however, require correction: 1) The Sarafand (or Surafend, if you will) massacre should not be dressed up as a "less than noble act." A massacre is a massacre is a massacre; 2) Australian troops did not enter Damascus "before TE Lawrence 'of Arabia'." To begin with, the reference to Lawrence should be ditched. It was the forces of the Arab Revolt, led by the Emir Faisal, who entered Damascus first. (See my posts Daley of Damascus (13/12/11) and The Aussie Shirtfronter's Guide to History (29/7/16).)

Today's Chutzpah Chuckle

"Today [Israeli Independence Day], the people who made the desert bloom are at the forefront of making the entire world bloom." (Zeddy Lawrence, national editor, The Australian Jewish News, Yom Ha'aztmaut 2016 supplement)

Palestinian: Look out, world!

The Desperate Zionist's Last Retort:

"The problem is that on a scale of 1 to 100 of world problems you obsess about one that deserves at most a 10 while ignoring the many which are much more important in terms of human misery and urgency, such as Syria. That's the hypocrisy of your type: the only people worthy of your attention are the Palestinians. The rest? Well, who cares? You don't have any time for them, sorry. Too busy obsessing about the Palestinians." (Comment from 'Angel', mondoweiss.net, 4/6/16)

And the perfect (edited) response from mondoweiss.net's amazing Annie Robbins:

"'Angel', sometimes solving a problem requires consistent effort. You may be correct in your assessment that, on any given day, there are worse humanitarian disasters than the Palestine problem. The fact is, there will always be days like that. For example, when a tsunami occurs, more people may die on a given day than in the whole 51 days of war on Gaza.

"But when you have a long-standing problem, such as the oldest refugee problem in the world, and an entire people deprived of the rights we take for granted for generation after generation, it really makes no sense, if your goal is to solve that problem, to drop it every time another one pops up. That's just a recipe for shoving it further down the road - which is why it has persisted for so long.

"Now that's not too hard to understand, is it? Besides, we've got governments which focus their energy and resources on those other problems, at the expense of solving the Palestine problem, so it's not as though these other problems are being ignored. Our Civil Rights movement, for example, would never have happened if Americans had focused solely on the most urgent human rights disasters of the 60s, such as the Vietnam War in which many more people were dying. The fact is, then as now, we are able to multitask our activism.

"We get it. You want us to ignore your pet project: Zionism. Not going to happen. With consistent pressure we will bring about change. It may be slow going at times, but we'll get there. No sense ignoring Palestine's 68-year-old Nakba because of Syria (5 years), Yemen, Libya or wherever. There will always be other human disasters. 'Look over there!' she said.

"To sum up: the appalling truth is that, despite a plethora of international problems, Antiangel chooses to obsess over protecting one particular criminal state (which deserves no sympathy whatever), while ignoring the human misery caused by that state, as well as those other disasters, many of which, such as in Syria and Iraq, it is complicit in. That's the hypocrisy of her type, and the whole Zionist crowd: the only people worthy of her attention are the perpetrators of the longest-running case of gross human rights violations on the planet. The rest? Well, who cares? She doesn't have any time for them, sorry. Too busy obsessing about protecting Israel.

Scoop: Hasbara Levels Now at 400ppm

This is grim. MERC has just obtained important new evidence that the concentration of Zionist bulldust in the planet's intellectual atmosphere has finally reached the critical tipping point of 400ppm!

With even Australia's prime minister M'Lord Turnbull babbling on about 'smart cities', and the tell-tale Z-word 'vibrant' cropping up in his daily discourse - only yesterday, for example, in an opinion piece in the Fairfax press, he spoke of rejoicing in the "vibrant diversity of our immigrant nation"* - we are compelled to ask the terrifying question: Has the Zionisation of our intellectual climate now become irreversible?

Take a Diane Smith-Gander at the aforementioned evidence:

"Did you know that Jerusalem was the first city in the world to be completely covered by wi-fi, that Israeli scientists discovered the cause of halitosis or that Lady Gaga's shoes are designed by an Israeli? These are just a few of the little-known facts about the Jewish state featured in a video released by the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to celebrate this week's 68th anniversary of of the Declaration of Independence. Other nuggets of information include impressive statistics such as Israel having the highest number of academics per capita in the world, as well as the highest proportion of start-ups and museums. It's also revealed that Beersheva has the most chess masters per capita in the world, and that the Jewish State is one of only eight countries to have sent a satellite into space. Furthermore, Israeli women have more academic degrees than men and Israeli whiz-kids were responsible for developing the world's first anti-virus software, the technology allowing us to use WhatsApp and Messenger, as well as treatments for multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, Israel is the birthplace of the cherry tomato and Rummikub. Ranked in 11th place on the Global Happiness Index out of 196 countries, Israel was also the first country in the world to ban commercials starring underweight models." (68 facts about Israel, The Australian Jewish News, 13/5/16)

[*Our successful multicultural society is built on secure borders, Sydney Morning Herald, 20/5/16]

And When I Knock on the Door...

I love this:

"As a Palestinian, whether I live 'here' or 'there,' I live in an existential homeland. Since my childhood I have known no other. But I have not yet wanted to reconcile myself to the notion that my history should be deflected from its preordained course and that I should be robbed of my patrimony. I still consider the punishment meted out to us to be unspeakable. To be punished beyond the call of our guilt is a terrible front to our sensibility and sense of justice. To be punished with no implication of guilt is to be brought to the edge of hysteria, a clamour to prove to one's self that our account with men and their gods do not balance.

"And the accounts do not balance, and they have never balanced.

"For the Palestinian, just to explain himself, 'here' as well as 'there,' he has to exert torrential energies.

"In Long Island, I gave a talk to a predominantly Jewish audience. I speak about Palestine and the Palestinians. Mine is a narrative, not a lecture, that I deliver without cant. I am not a threatening figure. I have a beard and long hair. I have Semitic features. I am wearing a corduroy suit. I am at home in English and its nuances. When I finish, in this stark surrounding of upper middle class affluence, I know my tale has a tone, a presence, a spell and a desperate integrity to it. I know its honesty has played on the nerves with disquietening intimacy, making such immediate, such urgent claims on the intellect and on emotions. But this audience does not flinch.

"Instead, I hear this: You people have never had it so good under occupation, now you're looked after medically and educationally, and have the highest standard of living among all Arabs. Palestine was desert before the Jews went there. The 'Arab refugees' left Palestine voluntarily. If it were not for the Arab governments, you people would have been resettled a long time ago. If we granted you a separate state, you people would be at the gates of Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa.

"Yes. Yes. Yes, that is where I want to Return. Where I want to be. At the gates of Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa. And when I knock on the door, I shall be there listing every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every floor, every shadow of every olive tree that I had left behind." (Fawaz Turki, The Future of a Past: Fragments from the Palestinian Dream, Journal of Palestine Studies, Spring, 1977, p 69)

Seriously Weird Shit in Murdoch's Australian

Beyond its usual fear & smear, the Australian has carried some seriously weird shit this month. For instance, this 'opinion' piece by Peter Baldwin, billed as "a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments." Extract:

"Recently Bob Carr made a short speech at an event marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People... Extraordinary stuff, coming from one of the founders of Labor Friends of Israel 40 years ago... [not even] a scintilla of balance. All the violence is put down to Israeli villainy. The Palestinians... are treated as helpless victims, devoid of agency or moral responsibility. The Palestinian narrative is embraced wholesale, without qualification..." (Bob Carr has joined the hard-left Israel-bashers, 22/12/15)

Now what interests me here is not Baldwin's railing against Bob Carr. Bob has simply evolved on this issue. Woken up. Seen the error of his ways, partially at least. An all too rare phenomenon in a politician, but one to be applauded. Think Amazing Grace.

No, what really interests me is the phenomenon of Peter Baldwin. As in, What has possessed him to leave behind a long and comfy retirement and come out swinging for Israel in the Murdoch press? (See for example my 3/4/15 post Baldwin's Balderdash.)

Now I must confess to knowing nothing about this bloke's background. Maybe he's like Greg Sheridan. Maybe his mind simply shut down after an Auntie Poppy figure whispered in his ear at a tender age that he must never forget that the Jews are God's chosen people (See my 3/8/15 post Greg Sheridan: The Making of a Gentile Zionist).

If not, then why has he suddenly taken up the cudgels? Extraordinary stuff, indeed.

Then there's this other weird shit too. I mean, how does one explain the sudden possession, in the same week, of letter writers John Bell of Heidelberg Heights, Vic, and Peter R.Tredenick of Paddington, Qld by that most virulent strain of Jerusalem Syndrome  - Temple Mount Syndrome?

Behold:

"Palestinian sympathiser Bob Carr ignores an inconvenient fact when he claims Israel is guilty of eliminating the Arab character from the great Arab city of Jerusalem... The Temple Mount, the sacred site that is central to the Jewish religion, is located in Jerusalem and came into existence hundreds of years before the birth of Christ." (Bell, 5/12/15)

"If Muslims weren't invading every country they could, and had not taken Jerusalem by force for themselves, then rubbed salt in the wound by building the Dome of the Rock on top of the site of former holy Jewish temples, there would have been no need for the Crusades in the first place..." (Tredenick, 9/11/15)

Like I said, seriously weird shit, eh?

Innovate or Perish!

The new Zionist mantra of those who would have us leap into bed with apartheid Israel NOW, is 'Innovate or Perish!'

Well, actually, it's not that new, just another annoying variation on the old Zionist BS about 'making the desert bloom.'

Inevitably, Murdoch's Australian is the mantra's megaphone, and the voice blowing into belongs to the Australian's telecoms and technology reporter Mitchell Bingemann, winner, we are informed, of "the inaugural Australian Computer Society Excellence in IT Journalism award." (Bingemann leads the IT crowd, The Australian, 2/12/15)

The star of the show, of course, is Israel our Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy, recently returned from a rambamming in the Upstart Nation. (See my 29/10/15 post Looking for Inspiration in All the Wrong Places.)

Here are the opening lines of Bingemann's post-rambam follow-up:  
"Government officials, high-profile investors and major technology companies are urging closer ties with Israel to emulate the nation's successful track record of fostering technological innovation and creating world-class start-ups. Seek co-founder Paul Basset, who leads the James Packer-backed venture capital firm Square Peg Capital said Australia needed to follow Israel's lead in creating a sustainable ecosystem for start-ups, saying it would be the lifeblood of the nation's future economic growth... [Mr Bassat said] 'The reality is that in every city in the world people are trying to do what Israelis have achieved over the past 20-30 years. So we have to make significant steps forward just to stand still, and I don't think we should underestimate the enormity of the size of the task if we really want to build an innovative country over the next 30 years.'" (Leaders urge closer ties with innovative Israel, 25/11/15)

Oh dear, will we ever catch up?! Why am I reminded of American journalist Lincoln Steffens' praise of Stalin's Russia: "I have seen the future, and it works."

Roy pops up, of course:

"Mr Roy said the government was... working on the final details of additional deals with Israel, including an R&D co-operation agreement and a double taxation treaty that would be revealed soon."

And Telstra too! 

"Telstra... is preparing to invest people, resources and capital in Israel..."

And Ziva Eger [Eager Beaver?], chief executive of the Division for Foreign Investments and Industrial Co-operation at the Israeli Ministry of Economy, who:

"... encouraged a closer trade relationship between Israel and Australia saying the latter imports more than $US700m a year of goods from Israel but only exports about $US240m to the Middle Eastern nation."

I wonder what our Ziovotes in the UN earn us (apart from sniggers)?

And how's this more recent Ziospin from Bingemann:

"It's conventional wisdom that in the bars and diners of Los Angeles every second waiter is an actor-in-waiting - but head to a cafe in Israel and you're more likely to to be served by the next Mark Zukerberg than Mark Wahlberg. That's because the small nation state - forged from adversity, fiercely territorial, and surrounded on all sides by enemies - has established itself as one of the world's most successful technology hubs where kids dream of being engineers and computer scientists rather than movie stars and fashion icons." (Israel's young dazzled by start-up stardom, 28/11/15)

Forged from adversity: Too right! Stealing someone else's country is hard yakka, mate! Now I know it's innovation you're after, but really, you can't go past the Old Testament. After all, you try getting rid of an unwanted Arab majority to make way for a Jewish majority without a whole lot of smoting hip and thigh going on.

Fiercely territorial: Never come between a Zionist and a piece of Palestine. Don't even think about it!

Enemies on all sides: A bit dated this one. I would've thought, what with peace treaties concluded with Jordan and Egypt, and Israel's mates in the Nusrah Front keeping Asad busy, life's pretty much a bed of roses. I mean, if a country way off to the east (Iran), which doesn't have nukes, is the most you've got to worry about...

Stay tuned for more inspiring news of Mitchell, Wyatt, 'Innovate or Perish!' and the Upstart Nation we just can't live without as it comes to hand.