"You don't simply bundle people onto trucks and drive them away. I prefer to advocate a more positive policy... to create, in effect, a condition that in a positive way will induce people to leave." Ariel Sharon, The Times, 24/8/88
"Today [Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad] says the olive tree is fundamental to Palestinians, likening attacks on them to 'terrorism'. 'The youngest olive tree here [in Turmus Ayya] is older than the oldest (Jewish) settlement', he says. 'People say we don't know who the settlers are but the settlers have an address and it is called the government of Israel'. Next to him, Robert Serry of the UN adds: 'In recent weeks in this village alone, settler extremists have destroyed hundreds of trees by poison or by knocking them down. The same story can be told by villagers in many other places. I am appalled at acts of destruction of olive trees and farmlands, desecration of mosques and violence against civilians'. The Australian drove to see dozens of small trees just opposite an illegal Jewish outpost. At the base of almost every tree are two or three drilled holes. The trees have died. At another field, much older trees have four, sometimes five, holes. So fresh is the killing the trees are only beginning to die. Liquid stains from a foul-smelling substance can still be seen. In the field above, the same story. Row after row of poisoned trees. Probably 100, all dying. Settlers say there is no evidence they are responsible, but it would be difficult for Palestinians to be doing the killing as the Israeli army permits many of them to enter their groves only twice a year - planting and harvesting time." (Olive branch out of question as Palestinians see their trees die, John Lyons, The Australian, 1/11/10)
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Dear Miranda...
Sunday Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine has just been to Israel "as a guest of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies." In Roadmap to peace heads down a dead end, she reports back.
Since Miranda has called for feedback on her report and provided her email address, MERC decided to take up her invitation and address a number of questions to her. It is my sincere hope that she will respond to these questions so that I can share her answers with my readers. (Can I just say, at this point, that I found her column last week, on the subject of men and children, and the moral panic surrounding them, eminently sensible.):
"In Israel last week, two rusty old keys... served as symbols of a conflict that appears to be without end... One key belonged to a Jewish man gassed in a Nazi death camp. It represents all that was lost by the 6 million victims of Hitler's Final Solution and is the key to understanding the great Jewish diaspora's need for a homeland... The other rusty key is a 10 metre sculpture in... Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, constructed as a memorial of what the Palestinians call 'The Catastrophe' of 1948... People in the camp carry keys to the houses their grandparents were forced to leave in 1948."
Miranda, do you believe that what the Nazis did to European Jewry excuses the Palestinians being forced out of their homes and off their lands by Zionist forces in 1948? Are you aware that the Zionist colonisation of Palestine, facilitated by the British, began in earnest decades before the Holocaust? Do you think it conceivable that the Zionist leadership in Palestine may have been more interested in exploiting the suffering of European Jews to win the numbers necessary to carve out and maintain a Jewish state in Palestine than in rescuing European Jewry? Do you know how many German Jews chose to go to Palestine in the 30s as distinct from other places such as the US? Are you aware of Zionist efforts after the war to coerce Jewish displaced persons to go to Palestine rather than other places such as the US? And, more broadly, and in line with your statement about "the great Jewish diaspora's need for a homeland", do you seriously believe that Vic Alhadeff is sufficiently at risk in Australia such that Israel needs to be maintained as an exclusive, alternative home for him while millions of Palestinian refugees, driven out in 1948, are denied the right to return to their homes and lands?
"... the Iranian backed militant group Hamas, is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state..." Why do you you choose to frame your reference to Hamas this way when (I assume) you know that Hamas was democratically elected in January 2006? And if you do insist on framing it this way, why, in the interest of objective reporting, is there no reference in your text to the US-backed right-wing Likud Party committed (according to its charter) to no Palestinian state west of the Jordan?
You quote Moche [sic] Ya'alon as saying, "In Oslo we gave and gave and gave. [But] we didn't give land for peace. We gave land for rockets."
Did this strike you as a bit of a stretch given that the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been under Israeli occupation since 1967, meaning that the Israelis have had plenty of time to get out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) if they'd really wanted to? Also, do you think perhaps that if they were ever really serious about ending the occupation, they would never have begun colonising the OPT in the first place?
Ya'alon again: "We want our allies in the West to understand - when the Palestinians are willing to recognise our right to exist, they will be ready to address our security needs."
Does this strike you as a reasonable demand from an Occupying Power? (That is, the Palestinians, who live either in Israeli-imposed exile or under Israeli occupation, have not only to recognise Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, thus conceding their inalienable right under international law to return to their homes in pre-1967 Israel, but to guarantee Israel's security needs as well.)
"Ya'alon... proposes a long-term 'performance-based process' with the Palestinians, which includes education reform to instill 'an attitude of peace and reconciliation with the Jewish people'. It is impossible to negotiate with people who have been educated 'since kindergarten to wear explosive belts'."
Did it cross your mind, as a savvy reporter, when you heard this that Ya'alon would say literally anything to hold on to the OPT?
Finally, some more general questions if you don't mind. Who paid for your trip? Were other journalists present? If so, who? Do you believe that such sponsored trips by journalists and/or politicians are ethical? What lines, if any, do you believe need to be drawn here? What preparation, by way of reading/research, did you undertake for this trip? What books on the Middlle East conflict have you read?
Looking forward to hearing from you, Miranda.
Since Miranda has called for feedback on her report and provided her email address, MERC decided to take up her invitation and address a number of questions to her. It is my sincere hope that she will respond to these questions so that I can share her answers with my readers. (Can I just say, at this point, that I found her column last week, on the subject of men and children, and the moral panic surrounding them, eminently sensible.):
"In Israel last week, two rusty old keys... served as symbols of a conflict that appears to be without end... One key belonged to a Jewish man gassed in a Nazi death camp. It represents all that was lost by the 6 million victims of Hitler's Final Solution and is the key to understanding the great Jewish diaspora's need for a homeland... The other rusty key is a 10 metre sculpture in... Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, constructed as a memorial of what the Palestinians call 'The Catastrophe' of 1948... People in the camp carry keys to the houses their grandparents were forced to leave in 1948."
Miranda, do you believe that what the Nazis did to European Jewry excuses the Palestinians being forced out of their homes and off their lands by Zionist forces in 1948? Are you aware that the Zionist colonisation of Palestine, facilitated by the British, began in earnest decades before the Holocaust? Do you think it conceivable that the Zionist leadership in Palestine may have been more interested in exploiting the suffering of European Jews to win the numbers necessary to carve out and maintain a Jewish state in Palestine than in rescuing European Jewry? Do you know how many German Jews chose to go to Palestine in the 30s as distinct from other places such as the US? Are you aware of Zionist efforts after the war to coerce Jewish displaced persons to go to Palestine rather than other places such as the US? And, more broadly, and in line with your statement about "the great Jewish diaspora's need for a homeland", do you seriously believe that Vic Alhadeff is sufficiently at risk in Australia such that Israel needs to be maintained as an exclusive, alternative home for him while millions of Palestinian refugees, driven out in 1948, are denied the right to return to their homes and lands?
"... the Iranian backed militant group Hamas, is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state..." Why do you you choose to frame your reference to Hamas this way when (I assume) you know that Hamas was democratically elected in January 2006? And if you do insist on framing it this way, why, in the interest of objective reporting, is there no reference in your text to the US-backed right-wing Likud Party committed (according to its charter) to no Palestinian state west of the Jordan?
You quote Moche [sic] Ya'alon as saying, "In Oslo we gave and gave and gave. [But] we didn't give land for peace. We gave land for rockets."
Did this strike you as a bit of a stretch given that the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been under Israeli occupation since 1967, meaning that the Israelis have had plenty of time to get out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) if they'd really wanted to? Also, do you think perhaps that if they were ever really serious about ending the occupation, they would never have begun colonising the OPT in the first place?
Ya'alon again: "We want our allies in the West to understand - when the Palestinians are willing to recognise our right to exist, they will be ready to address our security needs."
Does this strike you as a reasonable demand from an Occupying Power? (That is, the Palestinians, who live either in Israeli-imposed exile or under Israeli occupation, have not only to recognise Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, thus conceding their inalienable right under international law to return to their homes in pre-1967 Israel, but to guarantee Israel's security needs as well.)
"Ya'alon... proposes a long-term 'performance-based process' with the Palestinians, which includes education reform to instill 'an attitude of peace and reconciliation with the Jewish people'. It is impossible to negotiate with people who have been educated 'since kindergarten to wear explosive belts'."
Did it cross your mind, as a savvy reporter, when you heard this that Ya'alon would say literally anything to hold on to the OPT?
Finally, some more general questions if you don't mind. Who paid for your trip? Were other journalists present? If so, who? Do you believe that such sponsored trips by journalists and/or politicians are ethical? What lines, if any, do you believe need to be drawn here? What preparation, by way of reading/research, did you undertake for this trip? What books on the Middlle East conflict have you read?
Looking forward to hearing from you, Miranda.
Impurity of Arms
"'Purity of Arms' (Morality in Warfare) - The soldier shall make use of his weaponry and power only for the fulfillment of the mission and solely to the extent required; he will maintain his humanity even in combat. The soldier shall not employ his weaponry and power in order to harm non-combatants or prisoners of war, and shall do all he can to avoid harming their lives, body, honor and property." The Spirit of the IDF
Her Rachel Corrie Moment
(In Memory of Asma al-Mughayr*)
by Les Visible
the cross-hairs fix
across the rooftops
wind from the south -
... five knots
and leading across the space where birds
have flown
but now
in the hunter's eye
the young girl's form
moves
in laughing dance
arms gathering the laundry
she dreams
and surely she must hope
as finger tightens
upon trigger...
when it came
the explosion was
of such a force that
he came too
like Romeo's ghost upon
the imagination's palanquin of night
the bearers of the darkness
they toiled
underneath the thrust
of bullet and finger touching
the silenced heart
and
blood like a fountain
sprayed upon the sheets...
... some secret code
... that she read as
she fell dying to the roof
this -
her Rachel Corrie moment come
round at last.
[See my 6/7/10 post An Academy Award Performance]
"On my right was mounted a heavy machine gun. The gunner (normally the cook) was firing away with what I can only describe as a beatific smile on his face. He was exhilarated by the squeezing of the trigger, the hammering of the gun, and the flight of his tracers rushing out into the dark shore. It struck me then (and was confirmed by him and many others later) that squeezing the trigger - releasing a hail of bullets - gives enormous pleasure and satisfaction. These are the pleasures of combat, not in terms of the intellectual planning - of the tactical and strategic chess game - but of the primal aggression, the release, and the orgasmic discharge." (Ben Shalit, Israeli psychologist, quoted in On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War & Society, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, 1995, p 136)
Her Rachel Corrie Moment
(In Memory of Asma al-Mughayr*)
by Les Visible
the cross-hairs fix
across the rooftops
wind from the south -
... five knots
and leading across the space where birds
have flown
but now
in the hunter's eye
the young girl's form
moves
in laughing dance
arms gathering the laundry
she dreams
and surely she must hope
as finger tightens
upon trigger...
when it came
the explosion was
of such a force that
he came too
like Romeo's ghost upon
the imagination's palanquin of night
the bearers of the darkness
they toiled
underneath the thrust
of bullet and finger touching
the silenced heart
and
blood like a fountain
sprayed upon the sheets...
... some secret code
... that she read as
she fell dying to the roof
this -
her Rachel Corrie moment come
round at last.
[See my 6/7/10 post An Academy Award Performance]
"On my right was mounted a heavy machine gun. The gunner (normally the cook) was firing away with what I can only describe as a beatific smile on his face. He was exhilarated by the squeezing of the trigger, the hammering of the gun, and the flight of his tracers rushing out into the dark shore. It struck me then (and was confirmed by him and many others later) that squeezing the trigger - releasing a hail of bullets - gives enormous pleasure and satisfaction. These are the pleasures of combat, not in terms of the intellectual planning - of the tactical and strategic chess game - but of the primal aggression, the release, and the orgasmic discharge." (Ben Shalit, Israeli psychologist, quoted in On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War & Society, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, 1995, p 136)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Return to Sender
"Most people can see what is taking place on the ground in the Middle East. And they can see who needs our support. Everyone knows who's under the boot and who's got the mouthful of broken glass. The Palestinians are a prisoner nation, refugees and exiles treated as ghosts." (Here's hoping: Why I'm playing Britain's first major gig for Palestine, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, guardian.co.uk, 15/10/04)
Most people... but not a certain letters editor:
Here's what the Sydney Morning Herald's letters editor, Mike Ticher, wrote today:
"Arguments about Israel and Palestine often seem to go in parallel tunnels with no connecting passages, and that was neatly illustrated by the response to Thursday's pieces by Antony Loewenstein and Colin Rubenstein. Many argued strenuously and coherently against one or the other, but almost no one tried to draw conclusions from a synthesis or overview of the two." (Postscript)
And here's the same guy on 17 January 2009:
"As ever most letters focused on moral rights and wrongs: who did what 40 or 60 years ago, who had or had not broken international law and was or was not justified in certain actions. Those certainly should be debated, but it would make a change to have a more pragmatic debate about what might realistically work to change the situation." (Postscript) [See my 20/1/09 post The SMH: Puerile & Pusillanimous.]
Oh, what a yawn it all is! Why can't they all just get together over a few bottles of chardonnay and sort things out sensibly?
Ticher's problem is that he just doesn't get it. He hasn't the nous to see that you can't synthesise colonialism and anti-colonialism, or occupation and resistance, or injustice and justice. He thinks history is merely academic. He cannot comprehend that, in the case of the Middle East conflict, the crimes of 1948 have been repeated every day since. For that matter, he probably knows nothing of 1948, and cares even less. He hasn't got a clue about the assymetric struggle against an utterly ruthless genocidal force that the Palestinian people are condemned to wage daily, whether they like it or not. He's obviously never had his back to the wall, the knife at his throat, or the boot on his neck. Hammer and anvil - it's all the same to him.
Our problem is that Ticher's inability to grasp such elementary matters determines that, for every honest and insightful letter on the conflict on his letters page, there will be, cheek by jowl, a thoroughly dishonest diatribe from one of the usual suspects.
Is it really too much to expect the letters editor of a paper such as the Herald to do a little honest reading on the Middle East conflict - a perennial subject for letter writers - before reflexively inflicting Zioprop or his own banal comments on us?
Most people... but not a certain letters editor:
Here's what the Sydney Morning Herald's letters editor, Mike Ticher, wrote today:
"Arguments about Israel and Palestine often seem to go in parallel tunnels with no connecting passages, and that was neatly illustrated by the response to Thursday's pieces by Antony Loewenstein and Colin Rubenstein. Many argued strenuously and coherently against one or the other, but almost no one tried to draw conclusions from a synthesis or overview of the two." (Postscript)
And here's the same guy on 17 January 2009:
"As ever most letters focused on moral rights and wrongs: who did what 40 or 60 years ago, who had or had not broken international law and was or was not justified in certain actions. Those certainly should be debated, but it would make a change to have a more pragmatic debate about what might realistically work to change the situation." (Postscript) [See my 20/1/09 post The SMH: Puerile & Pusillanimous.]
Oh, what a yawn it all is! Why can't they all just get together over a few bottles of chardonnay and sort things out sensibly?
Ticher's problem is that he just doesn't get it. He hasn't the nous to see that you can't synthesise colonialism and anti-colonialism, or occupation and resistance, or injustice and justice. He thinks history is merely academic. He cannot comprehend that, in the case of the Middle East conflict, the crimes of 1948 have been repeated every day since. For that matter, he probably knows nothing of 1948, and cares even less. He hasn't got a clue about the assymetric struggle against an utterly ruthless genocidal force that the Palestinian people are condemned to wage daily, whether they like it or not. He's obviously never had his back to the wall, the knife at his throat, or the boot on his neck. Hammer and anvil - it's all the same to him.
Our problem is that Ticher's inability to grasp such elementary matters determines that, for every honest and insightful letter on the conflict on his letters page, there will be, cheek by jowl, a thoroughly dishonest diatribe from one of the usual suspects.
Is it really too much to expect the letters editor of a paper such as the Herald to do a little honest reading on the Middle East conflict - a perennial subject for letter writers - before reflexively inflicting Zioprop or his own banal comments on us?
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Herald Robs Loewenstein to Pay Rubenstein
On June 4 this year, on the occasion of Israel's Mavi Marmara massacre, the Sydney Morning Herald boldly - for the Herald that is - editorialised that "We believe that it is time for Jews of the diaspora to question Israel's actions. For too long the spectrum of Jewish opinion outside Israel has been narrowed on Middle East questions to a compulsory, unquestioning support for the Israeli government of the day, no matter what. A few brave individuals challenge this orthodoxy - to their cost." (Candour is not Israel's enemy)* [* See my 7/6/10 post The Herald Gets Bolshie.]
At the time, I fondly took this criticism for an indication that past editorial practice, which invariably involved the faux 'balancing' of any item critical of Israel (rare at best) with one taking the contrary view, always penned by a representative of one or other of the Zionist organisations that make up the Israel lobby, was about to change. Foolish me.
One of those few brave individuals referred to - anti-Zionist Jew, blogger and freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein - has, as far as I'm aware, only managed to crack the opinion pages of the Herald twice - twice! -on the issue of the Middle East conflict.
The first time was on January 5 (Gaza's suffering is Israel's shame). The second was today: Western politicians prefer to ignore Israel's inherent racism. The reference point for Loewenstein's piece was Israel's racist and discriminatory proposal to require non-Jews (mainly Palestinians) wishing to marry non-Jewish (ie Palestinian-) Israelis (and so becoming Israeli citizens) to swear an oath of loyalty to Israel as 'a Jewish & democratic state'. Loewenstein's was predictably the kind of well-researched and insightful commentary we've come to expect from him. And good on the Herald for giving space on its opinion page to one of those aforementioned few brave individuals.
Except that the Herald has inexplicably reverted to past bad practice by publishing, bang next to Loewenstein's piece, a defence of the oath by those Jews of the diaspora it had earlier criticised for their compulsory, unquestioning support for the Israeli government of the day, no matter what, a sad reminder that the Herald did not have the courage of its convictions and was still in thrall to pressure from the Israel lobby to exclude or otherwise mute such voices as Loewenstein's. On no other issue can an independent writer know, with almost complete certainty, that, in the rare instance he manages to have an opinion piece published in the ms press, it will be accompanied, like the proverbial albatross around the neck, by a putrid propaganda piece.
To pick through just 3 strands of same - Oath's emphasis on a democratic nation state is soundly based, by the executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), Colin Rubenstein:
1) "[Israel's] oath is not dissimilar to the pledge new Australians recite."
See for yourself. Here's the text of Australia's Pledge of Commitment: "From this time forward, under God (optional), I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey." For it to be in any way similar to Israel's proposed new loyalty oath, Australia's PoC would need to be expanded to democratic and Christian beliefs.
2) "Let's go back to basics. The UN's 1947 Partition Plan called explicitly for the creation of a 'Jewish state', as well as an Arab state..."
Is Rubenstein seriously suggesting here that, in partitioning Palestine, the UN had anything in mind other than that the 'Jewish' state was for those Jews actually living within its confines at the time? There is no evidence whatever that the UN was in the business of rubber-stamping the Zionist fantasy that the 'Jewish' state referred to in the partition resolution was the sole property of Jews wherever in the world they happen to reside. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that the UN intended that the then existing Jewish community in Palestine had carte blanche to turf out the non-Jewish population (comprising almost 50% of the population) residing within its borders in order to make way for the likes of Colin Rubenstein, Vic Alhadeff and Co. (See my 11/11/08 post Talking Turkey on the Two-State Solution)
3) "Many democracies have 'established' religions, including Britain..."
I'm sorry, but the acquisition of UK citizenship is not, repeat not, based on birth to a Christian, let alone a Church of England, mother. (See my 30/6/09 post Calling Italy a Christian State which covers some of this territory.)
To return to the Herald editorial, in particular the sentence, "A few brave individuals challenge this orthodoxy - to their cost." What about a brave editor doing his/her bit? And if advertising revenue is affected, blow the bloody whistle! Now wouldn't that do wonders for the Herald's relevance?
At the time, I fondly took this criticism for an indication that past editorial practice, which invariably involved the faux 'balancing' of any item critical of Israel (rare at best) with one taking the contrary view, always penned by a representative of one or other of the Zionist organisations that make up the Israel lobby, was about to change. Foolish me.
One of those few brave individuals referred to - anti-Zionist Jew, blogger and freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein - has, as far as I'm aware, only managed to crack the opinion pages of the Herald twice - twice! -on the issue of the Middle East conflict.
The first time was on January 5 (Gaza's suffering is Israel's shame). The second was today: Western politicians prefer to ignore Israel's inherent racism. The reference point for Loewenstein's piece was Israel's racist and discriminatory proposal to require non-Jews (mainly Palestinians) wishing to marry non-Jewish (ie Palestinian-) Israelis (and so becoming Israeli citizens) to swear an oath of loyalty to Israel as 'a Jewish & democratic state'. Loewenstein's was predictably the kind of well-researched and insightful commentary we've come to expect from him. And good on the Herald for giving space on its opinion page to one of those aforementioned few brave individuals.
Except that the Herald has inexplicably reverted to past bad practice by publishing, bang next to Loewenstein's piece, a defence of the oath by those Jews of the diaspora it had earlier criticised for their compulsory, unquestioning support for the Israeli government of the day, no matter what, a sad reminder that the Herald did not have the courage of its convictions and was still in thrall to pressure from the Israel lobby to exclude or otherwise mute such voices as Loewenstein's. On no other issue can an independent writer know, with almost complete certainty, that, in the rare instance he manages to have an opinion piece published in the ms press, it will be accompanied, like the proverbial albatross around the neck, by a putrid propaganda piece.
To pick through just 3 strands of same - Oath's emphasis on a democratic nation state is soundly based, by the executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), Colin Rubenstein:
1) "[Israel's] oath is not dissimilar to the pledge new Australians recite."
See for yourself. Here's the text of Australia's Pledge of Commitment: "From this time forward, under God (optional), I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey." For it to be in any way similar to Israel's proposed new loyalty oath, Australia's PoC would need to be expanded to democratic and Christian beliefs.
2) "Let's go back to basics. The UN's 1947 Partition Plan called explicitly for the creation of a 'Jewish state', as well as an Arab state..."
Is Rubenstein seriously suggesting here that, in partitioning Palestine, the UN had anything in mind other than that the 'Jewish' state was for those Jews actually living within its confines at the time? There is no evidence whatever that the UN was in the business of rubber-stamping the Zionist fantasy that the 'Jewish' state referred to in the partition resolution was the sole property of Jews wherever in the world they happen to reside. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that the UN intended that the then existing Jewish community in Palestine had carte blanche to turf out the non-Jewish population (comprising almost 50% of the population) residing within its borders in order to make way for the likes of Colin Rubenstein, Vic Alhadeff and Co. (See my 11/11/08 post Talking Turkey on the Two-State Solution)
3) "Many democracies have 'established' religions, including Britain..."
I'm sorry, but the acquisition of UK citizenship is not, repeat not, based on birth to a Christian, let alone a Church of England, mother. (See my 30/6/09 post Calling Italy a Christian State which covers some of this territory.)
To return to the Herald editorial, in particular the sentence, "A few brave individuals challenge this orthodoxy - to their cost." What about a brave editor doing his/her bit? And if advertising revenue is affected, blow the bloody whistle! Now wouldn't that do wonders for the Herald's relevance?
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Meet Australia's Future Political Leaders
Here's a little rambam* that until now had slipped under my radar, probably because, as far as I'm aware, it received zero attention in the Australian ms media. The rambammed were a gaggle of Lib-Lab student politicians whose knowledge of the Middle East conflict appears to be zero, no doubt making them ideal material for a rambamming. Their essential cluelessness, and the wide-eyed innocence with which they appear to have taken the lolly waved at them by a certain unmentionable with a jutting agenda, surely marks them out for political office in this great nation of ours. [*For a definition, see my previous post.]
The extract below comes from a Jewish National Fund (JNF) press release, Young Australian politicians visit KKL Negev water projects, published in The Jerusalem Post on August 8. My comments in square brackets bold:
"'Many Middle-Eastern experts are of the opinion that future wars in the Middle East will be caused by the region's severe water shortage, which is why the issue is so high on Israel's priority list'. Tania Levi, a KKL-JNF tourist guide, was explaining the importance of KKL-JNF's water projects to a group of young Australian politicians who were visiting Israel as part of a fact-finding mission [!] to the Middle East. Members of the group included Duncan McDonald, John Shipp, Xavier Williams, Jesse Overton-Skinner, Eloise Howse, Jesse Marshall and Joel Burnie [of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)]. The organizers of the group's trip to Israel [Obviously, AIJAC] asked that the group visit KKL-JNF sites in the Negev desert where they could see Israel's water conservation efforts firsthand and understand their geopolitical significance. This was the first time that the group had heard about KKL-JNF [!!], so Tania briefly reviewed KKL-JNF's history and described the organization's unique position in Israel, emphasizing the fact that KKK-JNF is Israel's largest and and oldest green organization [!!! Just click on the JNF tag at the bottom of this post and check this one out. If you've only time for one post, read A Certain Jewish Tree Planting Group (14/6/08)] and leads the country's water recycling efforts. The site chosen as an example of a large-scale water recycling project in the desert was the recently dedicated Arye Pools near Beersheva, which is part of the Bnei Shimon region water reclamation project and is sponsored by JNF Australia. The building of the Arye Pools was made possible thanks to a contribution of Tom and Rae Mandel, also from Australia. Tania opened a map of Israel and showed the group where the Arye Pools and the Negev desert are located: 'To get an idea of how important water is to any agreement reached between the countries of the Middle East', Tania continued, 'let's look at the peace agreement Israel signed with Jordan. One of the stipulations of that contract is that Israel must provide Jordan with nearly 75 million cubic meters of water per year. This is quite an undertaking for a country with very limited freshwater resources. In order to be able to meet this obligation, Israel through KKL-JNF, has become the world leader [!!!!] in recycling purified sewage water for agricultural purposes. Almost 70% of our sewage is recycled, freeing up precious drinking water for domestic usage'." [What a wonderful neighbour Israel is! Sewage is recycled merely to please Jordan! Did our budding apparatchiks chorus 'Awesome!'?]
I interrupt young Tania for a minute to pose a question: What is the JNF really up to in the Negev?
In a word, Judaisation: "The [Israeli] government has several reasons for developing the Negev. It wants to bring jobs to rural Israel, more evenly distribute the country's population and tip the Arab-Jewish democratic balance in the Negev and Galilee regions - where there are heavy concentrations of Israeli Arabs - more solidly in favour of Jews. This is part and parcel with how Israel's leadership envisions the Jewish state. Not only must Israel as a whole be mostly Jewish, but every major region within it should be majority Jewish too... While the Negev is roughly 60% Jewish, the Arabs who live there - most of them Bedouin - have much higher birthrates than the local Jews. The government has tried to shore up the Jewish population of the Negev by encouraging new [Jewish] immigrants to move there... The JNF is investing $600 million [Tax free? but of course!] over 10 years in a plan called Blueprint Negev to build new communities in the rural desert, improve Beersheva's infrastructure, invest in the city's hospital, university and cultural institutions, and increase employment opportunities in the area." (The Negev's 21st-century pioneers, Uriel Heilman, B'nai B'rith Magazine, Winter 2008-2009)]
To return to Tania's greenwash: "KKL-JNF has built over 220 water reservoirs throughout the country over the past few years. In any future agreement with Palestinians, water will be a major issue. Water knows no political borders. If, for example, the Palestinian city of Nablus does not treat its sewage, it flows over the green line towards the Israeli city of Netanya [Is there no end to Palestinian terrorism?]... [T]he group was fascinated by Tania's detailed presentation, and asked many questions about KKL-JNF and the water crisis. They were especially interested to hear about recycling, desalination, and the proposed Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal. Their schedule, however, was very tight, and Tania wanted to show them how recycled water made the desert bloom... [An oldie, but a goldie. For the dirt on Israel's incredible reputation as a bloomer of deserts, see my 25/11/08 post Sir Bob Wows JNFaithful at Galah Dinner.]"
Dashed pity about the kids having such a tight schedule. I'm sure that's all that prevented them from popping into Beersheva's Ben-Gurion University and hearing from academic Neve Gordon a first hand account of Israel's other method of tipping the Arab-Jewish demographic balance more solidly in favour of Jews: ethnic cleansing: "The signs of destruction [in the Bedouin village of Arakib] were immediately evident. I first noticed the chickens and geese running loose near a bulldozed house, and then saw another house and then another one, all of them in rubble. A few children were trying to find a shaded spot to hide from the scorching desert sun, while behind them a stream of black smoke rose from the burning hay. The sheep, goats and cattle were nowhere to be seen - perhaps because the police had confiscated them. Scores of Bedouin men were standing on a yellow hill, sharing their experiences from the early morning hours, while all around them uprooted olive trees lay on the ground. A whole village comprising between 40 and 45 houses had been completely razed in less than 3 hours." (Ethnic cleansing in the Israeli Negev: The razing of a Bedouin village by Israeli police show just how far the state will go to achieve its aim of Judaising the Negev region, guardian.co.uk, 28/7/10)
The extract below comes from a Jewish National Fund (JNF) press release, Young Australian politicians visit KKL Negev water projects, published in The Jerusalem Post on August 8. My comments in square brackets bold:
"'Many Middle-Eastern experts are of the opinion that future wars in the Middle East will be caused by the region's severe water shortage, which is why the issue is so high on Israel's priority list'. Tania Levi, a KKL-JNF tourist guide, was explaining the importance of KKL-JNF's water projects to a group of young Australian politicians who were visiting Israel as part of a fact-finding mission [!] to the Middle East. Members of the group included Duncan McDonald, John Shipp, Xavier Williams, Jesse Overton-Skinner, Eloise Howse, Jesse Marshall and Joel Burnie [of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)]. The organizers of the group's trip to Israel [Obviously, AIJAC] asked that the group visit KKL-JNF sites in the Negev desert where they could see Israel's water conservation efforts firsthand and understand their geopolitical significance. This was the first time that the group had heard about KKL-JNF [!!], so Tania briefly reviewed KKL-JNF's history and described the organization's unique position in Israel, emphasizing the fact that KKK-JNF is Israel's largest and and oldest green organization [!!! Just click on the JNF tag at the bottom of this post and check this one out. If you've only time for one post, read A Certain Jewish Tree Planting Group (14/6/08)] and leads the country's water recycling efforts. The site chosen as an example of a large-scale water recycling project in the desert was the recently dedicated Arye Pools near Beersheva, which is part of the Bnei Shimon region water reclamation project and is sponsored by JNF Australia. The building of the Arye Pools was made possible thanks to a contribution of Tom and Rae Mandel, also from Australia. Tania opened a map of Israel and showed the group where the Arye Pools and the Negev desert are located: 'To get an idea of how important water is to any agreement reached between the countries of the Middle East', Tania continued, 'let's look at the peace agreement Israel signed with Jordan. One of the stipulations of that contract is that Israel must provide Jordan with nearly 75 million cubic meters of water per year. This is quite an undertaking for a country with very limited freshwater resources. In order to be able to meet this obligation, Israel through KKL-JNF, has become the world leader [!!!!] in recycling purified sewage water for agricultural purposes. Almost 70% of our sewage is recycled, freeing up precious drinking water for domestic usage'." [What a wonderful neighbour Israel is! Sewage is recycled merely to please Jordan! Did our budding apparatchiks chorus 'Awesome!'?]
I interrupt young Tania for a minute to pose a question: What is the JNF really up to in the Negev?
In a word, Judaisation: "The [Israeli] government has several reasons for developing the Negev. It wants to bring jobs to rural Israel, more evenly distribute the country's population and tip the Arab-Jewish democratic balance in the Negev and Galilee regions - where there are heavy concentrations of Israeli Arabs - more solidly in favour of Jews. This is part and parcel with how Israel's leadership envisions the Jewish state. Not only must Israel as a whole be mostly Jewish, but every major region within it should be majority Jewish too... While the Negev is roughly 60% Jewish, the Arabs who live there - most of them Bedouin - have much higher birthrates than the local Jews. The government has tried to shore up the Jewish population of the Negev by encouraging new [Jewish] immigrants to move there... The JNF is investing $600 million [Tax free? but of course!] over 10 years in a plan called Blueprint Negev to build new communities in the rural desert, improve Beersheva's infrastructure, invest in the city's hospital, university and cultural institutions, and increase employment opportunities in the area." (The Negev's 21st-century pioneers, Uriel Heilman, B'nai B'rith Magazine, Winter 2008-2009)]
To return to Tania's greenwash: "KKL-JNF has built over 220 water reservoirs throughout the country over the past few years. In any future agreement with Palestinians, water will be a major issue. Water knows no political borders. If, for example, the Palestinian city of Nablus does not treat its sewage, it flows over the green line towards the Israeli city of Netanya [Is there no end to Palestinian terrorism?]... [T]he group was fascinated by Tania's detailed presentation, and asked many questions about KKL-JNF and the water crisis. They were especially interested to hear about recycling, desalination, and the proposed Dead Sea-Red Sea Canal. Their schedule, however, was very tight, and Tania wanted to show them how recycled water made the desert bloom... [An oldie, but a goldie. For the dirt on Israel's incredible reputation as a bloomer of deserts, see my 25/11/08 post Sir Bob Wows JNFaithful at Galah Dinner.]"
Dashed pity about the kids having such a tight schedule. I'm sure that's all that prevented them from popping into Beersheva's Ben-Gurion University and hearing from academic Neve Gordon a first hand account of Israel's other method of tipping the Arab-Jewish demographic balance more solidly in favour of Jews: ethnic cleansing: "The signs of destruction [in the Bedouin village of Arakib] were immediately evident. I first noticed the chickens and geese running loose near a bulldozed house, and then saw another house and then another one, all of them in rubble. A few children were trying to find a shaded spot to hide from the scorching desert sun, while behind them a stream of black smoke rose from the burning hay. The sheep, goats and cattle were nowhere to be seen - perhaps because the police had confiscated them. Scores of Bedouin men were standing on a yellow hill, sharing their experiences from the early morning hours, while all around them uprooted olive trees lay on the ground. A whole village comprising between 40 and 45 houses had been completely razed in less than 3 hours." (Ethnic cleansing in the Israeli Negev: The razing of a Bedouin village by Israeli police show just how far the state will go to achieve its aim of Judaising the Negev region, guardian.co.uk, 28/7/10)
Monday, October 25, 2010
Record Rambam
Rambam (v): To be sponsored by smooth-talking Israel lobbyists in Australia on a grooming session conducted by tough-talking PR people in Israel with a view to the sponsored adopting the missionary position for Israel when called upon in Australia. Usually said of Australian politicians, media hacks and other serviceable community misleaders.
Rambam Fellowship, Journalists Mission, Australia Israel Leadership Forum etc: Formal designations given to the process of rambamming. (From MERC's Dictionary of Zionist Discourse)
This is my 39th post on the subject of rambamming. The practice, as you'll see from the following report in today's Australian, is booming. And, take note, for the very first time, the ABC is getting in on the act. (My own comments in square brackets. Serial offenders (SO) are indicated where known. For the details see my 30/3/09 post I've been to Israel too):
"The largest ever Australian parliamentary delegation to visit Israel will travel to Jerusalem as part of a dialogue hosted by the privately funded Australia Israel Leadership Forum. Julia Gillard has given approval for 6 ministers and parliamentary secretaries to be part of the trip led by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd [SO]. They will be part of a record 17 members of the House of Representatives and Senate who will take part in the December visit. The other Labor MPs are Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Industry Minister Kim Carr, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs [In view of our voting pattern in the UN, how fascinating!] Richard Marles and MPs Michael Danby [SO. Labor's unofficial Minister for Israel] and Anthony Byrne. Bill Shorten [SO], the Assistant Treasurer, is expected to join.
"The Liberal Party plans to send 9 members and senators - deputy leader, Julie Bishop [SO], Christopher Pyne [SO], Andrew Robb [SO], George Brandis [SO], Kevin Andrews, Brett Mason [SO], Mitch Fifield [SO], Steven Ciobo and Guy Barnett [SO].
"And the ABC will break with long-held tradition and allow a journalist to attend, political editor Chris Uhlmann. AILF is the project of Melbourne property developer Albert Dadon... Mr Dadon said the record number of participants 'is testimony of the goodwill that exists between Australia and Israel'.
"Asked who was paying for the 17 MPs, Mr Dadon said: 'The general rule for parliamentarians taking part... is that they pay their own way to Israel and we take care of all expenses on the ground except for ministers, who are also paying for their expenses'.
"Five journalists are expected to attend, Uhlmann, Greg Sheridan [SO] from The Australian, Steve Lewis from News Limited, Tony Walker [author of a bio of Arafat] from The Australian Financial Review and Lenore Taylor from The Sydney Morning Herald.
"On the trip, a ceremony will be held at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum to honour William Cooper, the Aborigine who led a protest to the German consulate in Melbourne in 1938 after Kristallnacht (On November 9, 1938, the Nazis launched their first anti-Semitic attack on German Jews, to become known as the Night of the Broken Glass.) While various organisations protested after Kristallnacht, Cooper is the only known individual to have organised a demonstration*. Funding for a 'chair' dedicated to studying resistance during the Holocaust will be formalised. 'It's fitting that the study chair at Yad Vashem that will be researching the resistance against the Nazi occupation during the Holocaust be dedicated to the memory of the only man in the world who had the courage to protest and stand up against Kristallnacht', Mr Dadon said." (Record number of pollies to join tour of Israel, John Lyons) [* See my 2/8/10 post Insufficiently Righteous]
Rambam Fellowship, Journalists Mission, Australia Israel Leadership Forum etc: Formal designations given to the process of rambamming. (From MERC's Dictionary of Zionist Discourse)
This is my 39th post on the subject of rambamming. The practice, as you'll see from the following report in today's Australian, is booming. And, take note, for the very first time, the ABC is getting in on the act. (My own comments in square brackets. Serial offenders (SO) are indicated where known. For the details see my 30/3/09 post I've been to Israel too):
"The largest ever Australian parliamentary delegation to visit Israel will travel to Jerusalem as part of a dialogue hosted by the privately funded Australia Israel Leadership Forum. Julia Gillard has given approval for 6 ministers and parliamentary secretaries to be part of the trip led by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd [SO]. They will be part of a record 17 members of the House of Representatives and Senate who will take part in the December visit. The other Labor MPs are Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Industry Minister Kim Carr, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs [In view of our voting pattern in the UN, how fascinating!] Richard Marles and MPs Michael Danby [SO. Labor's unofficial Minister for Israel] and Anthony Byrne. Bill Shorten [SO], the Assistant Treasurer, is expected to join.
"The Liberal Party plans to send 9 members and senators - deputy leader, Julie Bishop [SO], Christopher Pyne [SO], Andrew Robb [SO], George Brandis [SO], Kevin Andrews, Brett Mason [SO], Mitch Fifield [SO], Steven Ciobo and Guy Barnett [SO].
"And the ABC will break with long-held tradition and allow a journalist to attend, political editor Chris Uhlmann. AILF is the project of Melbourne property developer Albert Dadon... Mr Dadon said the record number of participants 'is testimony of the goodwill that exists between Australia and Israel'.
"Asked who was paying for the 17 MPs, Mr Dadon said: 'The general rule for parliamentarians taking part... is that they pay their own way to Israel and we take care of all expenses on the ground except for ministers, who are also paying for their expenses'.
"Five journalists are expected to attend, Uhlmann, Greg Sheridan [SO] from The Australian, Steve Lewis from News Limited, Tony Walker [author of a bio of Arafat] from The Australian Financial Review and Lenore Taylor from The Sydney Morning Herald.
"On the trip, a ceremony will be held at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum to honour William Cooper, the Aborigine who led a protest to the German consulate in Melbourne in 1938 after Kristallnacht (On November 9, 1938, the Nazis launched their first anti-Semitic attack on German Jews, to become known as the Night of the Broken Glass.) While various organisations protested after Kristallnacht, Cooper is the only known individual to have organised a demonstration*. Funding for a 'chair' dedicated to studying resistance during the Holocaust will be formalised. 'It's fitting that the study chair at Yad Vashem that will be researching the resistance against the Nazi occupation during the Holocaust be dedicated to the memory of the only man in the world who had the courage to protest and stand up against Kristallnacht', Mr Dadon said." (Record number of pollies to join tour of Israel, John Lyons) [* See my 2/8/10 post Insufficiently Righteous]
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