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)

Saturday 13 April 2019

In the ALP, Might Melissa's Malignance Mirror Mounting Malice?

She was hoping to get back into the thick of Aussie federal politics, former UNRWA lawyer and unreformed Israel-hater Melissa Parke, who when representing (2007-16) the safe Labor seat of Fremantle, Western Australia, was a junior minister in the latter stages of Kevin Rudd's government, swept from power in 2013.

In selecting the glamorous blonde to run against conservative Celia Hammond in the normally safe Liberal WA seat of Curtin, relinquished by glamorous blonde Liberal former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Labor bigwigs evidently thought her high profile meant Ms Parke had a fighting chance of wresting the seat away from the less stellar Liberal hopeful.

But it's all gone awry for Parke and her backers, because she's now quit as a candidate in order to save her embarrassed party the "distraction" caused by her loathsome antisemitic slurs on Israel, scathingly compared in today's Melbourne Herald Sun by political commentator James Campbell as "actually manag[ing] to say something new" in the "long history of slanders" of the Jewish people.

A proponent of BDS in its economic and cultural guises, who in 2017 was one of about 60 prominent Australians (including APAN's president, ex-Bishop Browning) publicly opposed to Bibi Netanyahu's visit to Australia, Parke last month told the launch of WA Labor Friends of Palestine (to quote a report in WA Today) that
'Australia should recognise a Palestinian state and likened Israel's settlements to China's island building activity in the South China Sea.
She also took aim at Israel's influence in Australian politics and said there was no doubt Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, while illegal under international law, were "a reaction to and a consequence of decades of brutal occupation".
Ms Parke, a former lawyer for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Gaza, said Australia had to break away from its "strategic dependence" on the United States and recognise Palestine as a state, which is contrary to Labor policy.
"There are already 137 nations that recognise the state of Palestine, that is more than 70 per cent of the world," she said.
"And, inshallah [Arabic for 'God willing'], Australia will join that consensus once we have a Federal Labor government.
An APAN illiterate has his say
"It's also time finally for Australia to support an end to the brutal occupation of Palestine and for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees."
In her speech to Palestinian supporters, which was held in the Perth offices of the United Voice union, Ms Parke said the discrimination experienced by Palestinians in Israel was because of a "fully fledged system of Apartheid"....
"A false narrative sold to the western world is that Israel is a beacon of western democracy and human rights."
Ms Parke said Israel "propagates the myth that it is a small country that just wants to live in peace".'
Moreover,
'WAtoday also revealed earlier this week WA Labor senator and Senate Deputy President Sue Lines told the same meeting of pro-Palestinian activists that a powerful "Israel lobby" had been influencing her party's policy on Palestine and peace in the Middle East.
Senator Lines said policy in the area had stalled because "the Israeli lobby is so powerful within the party and outside of the party".'
 The report quotes Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin as follows:
'He said Ms Parke had the "inglorious distinction" of being the first, and only, Labor MP to publicly endorse the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to force Israel to withdraw from occupied or contested territories and aims at "the complete and total isolation of the state of Israel and to dismantle the national home of the Jewish people".
"BDS was rightly condemned as a form of antisemitism by Julie Bishop, who Ms Parke is now seeking to replace as the federal member for Curtin," Mr Ryvchin said."BDS has also expressly been repudiated by the Australian Labor Party and rejected as national policy even by the Greens."It is regrettable that such an extreme and divisive figure should receive the endorsement of the Australian Labor Party, particularly at a time when it is vital to strengthen the political centre and diminish the appeal of low populism and false and polarising rhetoric."
 Parke also, as widely reported today, for instance the Sydney Morning Herald here, declared:
 "One case I remember vividly, a pregnant refugee woman was ordered at a checkpoint in Gaza to drink a bottle of bleach," she said.
"It burnt out all her throat and insides. Fortunately her baby was saved.
"Another refugee was forced to put her baby through the X-ray machine."
It is that vile canard in particular that disgusts the Herald-Sun's James Campbell, who pointedly observed that another Labor candidate, Josh Wilson, was at the meeting addressed by Parke and did not take issue with her remarks.

Campbell adds that while current federal Labor leader Bill Shorten is committed to friendship with Israel, the fears of pro-Israel Australians that, post-Shorten, the party (remember the lurking presence of Bob Carr and cobbers?) might fall into the hands of a Corbynista-type leadership remains a realistic prospect.

ScoMo for me, I think.

5 comments:

  1. I love it!: 'Ms Parke said Israel "propagates the myth that it is a small country"'

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daphne your SMH link is broken

    Bill Shorten's response
    "She has very strong views. I don't share those views"
    Wow thanks Bill
    “I wasn't there."
    JFC he is spineless and of course according to the left blood libels are now just "criticism" of Israel.
    The ALP are just like Corbyn.

    Also note that Malaysian born Penny Wong and Helena Carr would both be second class citizens in Malaysia under Article 153 of the Constitution. But Israel is an "apartheid state" on the basis of nothing.

    Full quote:
    Speaking at the a netball grounds in the NSW seat of Robertson, Mr Shorten said he did not agree with Ms Parke's views.

    “Let me say about Melissa Parke, she has done the right thing - she doesn't want to be a distraction in the campaign,” Mr Shorten said.

    “She has very strong views. I don't share those views but she felt she would become a distraction in the campaign. Melissa, like all our candidates, would prefer to see the Labor Party succeed, rather than just an individual,” Mr Shorten said.

    “I wasn't there. What we have is a candidate who is determined that her views might distraction the election and she doesn't want to do that. I respect that.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Ian. Link fixed.
      The idiocy and hypocrisy of the Left, particularly the female variety, never ceases to amaze me. Apparent antipodean supporters of a certain creed like avowed feminist Jacinta Ardern, a campaigner against (white male) domestic violence, and a comedic lesbian actress are some others who spring to mind ...

      Delete
    2. This says it all, I wonder what Salman Rushdie thinks.
      Yusuf/Cat Stevens says Jacinda Ardern is his 'hero' during emotional 1 NEWS interview
      https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/yusuf-cat-stevens-says-jacinda-ardern-his-hero-during-emotional-1-news-interview

      Delete
  3. Tamar Sternthal of the JointMedia News Service said:

    “On the news side, [ New York Times] editors
    refused to correct both the false report that a Pew survey
    found that nearly half of Israeli Jews favor expelling
    all Palestinians, as well as the completely unfounded
    claim that most of Jaffa’s Arab residents were forcibly
    expelled from their homes in 1948.”

    SOURCE:
    Anything Goes in New York Times Coverage of Israel
    by Tamar Sternthal / JointMedia News Service, 2019 April 9 www.algemeiner.com/2019/04/09/anything-goes-in-new-york-times-coverage-of-israel/

    ===================================
    On 2018 December 2, The New York Times published
    the article “The Hypocrisy of Hanukkah” by Michael
    David Lukas, which describes Hanukkah as:

    “an eight-night celebration of religious fundamentalism and violence.”

    SOURCE: The New York Times and Hanukkah
    by Jerold Auerbach, 2018 December 4
    www.algemeiner.com/2018/12/04/the-new-york-times-and-hanukkah/
    www.jns.org/opinion/american-jewrys-hanukkah-hypocrisy/

    ===================================
    It is time for Jews to say to the New York Times:
    “we’ve had enough.”

    SOURCE: J’Accuse
    by Rabbi Benjamin Blech, 2014/7/30
    www.aish.com/jw/mo/JAccuse.html

    ===================================
    Rabbi Steven Pruzansky said:

    “In the genocidal war being waged against the Jewish people,
    the New York Times is an accomplice.”

    SOURCE:
    A New Low, a blog article by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, 2015/10/29
    http://rabbipruzansky.com/2015/10/29/a-new-low/

    ===================================
    “The [New York] Times has a longstanding aversion
    to reporting straight-on demonization of the Jewish people…”

    SOURCE: ‘New York Times’ ends the year
    with an epic Israel smear
    by Andrea Levin 2019/1/1
    www.jns.org/opinion/new-york-times-ends-the-year-with-an-epic-israel-smear/

    ===================================
    QUESTION: How was the Holocaust reported
    by the New York Times during World War II?

    ANSWER:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buried_by_the_Times

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-hating_Jew

    ===================================
    New York Times Erases Israel from Map:

    http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/new-york-times-op-ed-wipe-israel-off-the-map/

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-nyt-erases-israel-from-map.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/guest-postnyt-vs-israel.html

    ===================================
    How to Convict the New York Times of Unfair Bias Against Israel:

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-how-to-convict-new-york-times.html

    ReplyDelete

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