Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Monday 18 February 2013

Tough Talk From A Cobber, & Busting The "Apartheid State" Obscenity (video)

"With events that have taken place in recent times, one can only come to the conclusion that Israel is a democracy gone insane," lamented an exasperated Australian friend of Israel this past week.

"I don’t know what the answer is. We see the spectacle of an Arab member of the Knesset who participated in the Gaza flotilla a few years ago who, after having been stripped of her Knesset membership for an act of treason, applied to the Supreme Court and had her membership reinstated. We see in Israel, supposedly Zionist organisations siding with Arabs and other motley groups trying to lay claim over parts of the Negev. All in the name of political correctness, we see Israeli children being taught the Palestinian propaganda narrative of the birth of Israel – Al Nakba (the catastrophe). We see an Israeli professor in Beersheba make the claim that Israeli soldiers are racists because there has never been a case of rape against Arab women. Excavations are proceeding relentlessly under the Temple Mount by the Islamic Waqf (whom Israel put in charge after the 1967 war).

This holiest of Jewish sites is an archaeological treasure trove that should be excavated with a toothbrush but is being bulldozed by the Waqf to rid the area of any remnants of a Jewish presence during the first and second temple periods. Who knows what has already been lost forever. There is no doubt that Arabs are constructing a massive Mosque under the Temple Mount in order to lay claim to the area. The Israeli electoral system is a shambles and is in need of a first past the post electoral reform where winner takes all.

We have the disgraceful scenario where Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid has the audacity and sheer disrespect to state that if his conditions for coalition participation are not met “In a year and a half, I’ll replace him (Netanyahu) as Prime minister”. Going by past performance, everyone in the newly formed coalition will babble on about his own agenda and speak on issues that are not in their portfolio. It is time for all to shut up and speak only if authorised.

How many times have we seen cabinet ministers bag and denigrate their Prime Minister on the world stage at every opportunity? They can’t even be united in the face of an existential threat!

Finally we have the spectacle of Sudanese being aided and abetted by Egypt to make their way through the desert and actually allowed to cross the border into Israel where they are given food, water and shelter but where the deportation issue is always challenged by some group or another. The Egyptians are obviously trying various ways of bringing Israel to its knees. Making sure that approximately 100,000 illiterate Sudanese flood into Israel is one way to go about it. For Israel to have fallen for this trap is another example of stupidity passing for policy.

One of the greatest tragedies of all is the pathetic “Hasbara” efforts by Israel.

It has a worldwide platform, but its spokespeople have no idea how to counter the propaganda. When it comes to Hasbara, Israel is like a ship without a rudder adrift on the sea. Hasbara has to come from representatives of the Israeli Government and right now they hardly speak with one voice on anything and when and if they ever do, it is ineffectual. For once I’d love to see an Israeli Govt. spokesman start by saying to the PA in particular and the world at large: “How dare you issue such blatant lies, now here are the facts.” One way or another, Israel better get its act together pretty quickly."

Meanwhile, ahead of "Israel Apartheid Week," here's a man who's challenging blatant lies, and presenting the facts.  More power to Dennis Prager:

6 comments:

  1. This (h/t Shirlee) will interest you, TL:
    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/if_you_need_this_much_security_for_criticising_islam/#commentsmore

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is interesting on the Andrew Bolt blog above, is the fact that out of a total of 107 comments, only 1 has no issues with Islam!!

    Form your own opinion on it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh dear!
    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4799159/Anjem-Choudary-urges-fanatics-to-scrounge-for-holy-war.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Umm, there's an irony here. It's called democracy, which involves freedom of speech and action, providing it doesn't infringe perfectly reasonable laws designed to protect everyone's right to speak and act.

    I had a disagreement with Anne (at http://anneinpt.wordpress.com/) a couple of months back about exactly this female Israeli Arab MK. I asserted that if she couldn't be brought to trial on charges of treason (i.e., in legal, not popular, terms), then she was free to stand for election, however distasteful this was for many, if not most, Israelis. That's the price to be paid for Israel's particular form of parliamentary democracy.

    A different form of election would have different results.

    I also noted in that discussion that in the UK the unlovely George Galloway had been sacked as an MP for Labour because he called for the deaths of British troops in Iraq. That was within the terms of the system: his local and national political party sacked him. End of story.

    There was talk of charging him with sedition (a fairly ancient crime, now off the statute book in the UK, but was a version of treason), but fortunately, reason prevailed and he wasn't martyred, merely elected elsewhere for a new party. Unfortunately.

    He's many things. So far, antisemitic isn't one of them. I'm less sure about that Israeli-Arab MK. But that's a problem for `israel, not the rest of us.

    We may not like the political system we have, but be wary of the alternatives and remember Churchill's aphorism: "democracy is the worst system in the world...except fpr all the others".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Interesting post - thanks for your insights, Brian.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.