Aussie Ex-Envoy To Israel Rodgers Rubbished On Pro-Palestinian Propaganda

What a silly bit of bile former Aussie ambassador (1994-97)  to Israel Peter Rodgers (now a member of the lobby group Australia Palestinian Advocacy Network) has written in today's The Australian (the reference to Gideon Levy is a laugh in itself!), calling on the Turnbull government to teach Israel some home truths!

It's not behind a paywall, as are many articles in that newspaper, so see it here

His ex-Excellency concludes:

'Late last month, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly that the Palestinians would no longer abide by the 1993 Oslo Accords. These provided the flimsy scaffold for negotiation of Palestinian statehood. What was remarkable about Abbas’s speech was that it took so many years for him to make it. Oslo’s corpse had long lain in the morgue. All Abbas did was to invite a public viewing.

With depressingly familiar hype, Netanyahu slammed Abbas’s UN speech for its alleged deceit and incitement. He urged Abbas to accept the offer “to hold direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions”. That was a good one coming from a prime minister whose own preconditions include no Palestinian state ever, who plays godfather to the settlement movement, and who has now deemed it reasonable to use live ammunition against rock-throwing Palestinians.

Australia has long been susceptible to the line that the Palestinians are not ready for statehood. The Turnbull government, with seven others (including tiny island states such as the Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu), opposed the raising of the Palestinian flag at the UN. The opposition is not much better. The ALP conference last July decided at last to discuss possible recognition of a Palestinian state if there were “no progress in the next round of the peace process”. As if there were a peace process or the faintest prospect of one.

Australian governments have often spoken proudly of their friendship with Israel.

It’s high time that friendship was put in the service of peace by telling Israel a few home truths about the Gordian knot that is ­occupation and violence.'

Among the commenters,  "Elise" gives His Excellency a well-deserved (verbal) spanking:

'It is strange that at a time when Palestinian terrorists in Israel have been murdering, maiming or trying to murder and maim as many Israelis as possible, Peter Rodgers wants to give Israelis some home truths.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/abbas-says-jews-have-filthy-feet.html

.... Mr Rodgers should stop encouraging and enabling the victim culture of Palestinians and the Palestinian cause to wipe Israel off the face of the map. If he really cared about the welfare of Palestinians he would start by giving Abbas and Hamas some home truths. Instead of blaming Israelis for everything and building up a culture of victimisation and self-harm - how about trying to build a nation state for Palestinians. How about Abbas not referring to 'dirty Jews' visiting Jerusalem sites or paying Palestinian murderers of innocent Israelis of all religions salaries. Instead how about preaching a message of peace and tolerance and using international funds to help under privileged Palestinians.  How about Abbas offering a home to just a few Palestinians from Syria into Ramallah, the capital of his Palestinian State but not that of the Palestinian State of Hamas. There is space there. How about Hamas stops murdering Fatah supporters in Gaza and stops using child labour to build terror tunnels. How about Mr Rodgers asking Abbas to account for the millions of dollars of international aid that he and Fatah members have put into their own bank accounts.

No Mr Rodgers you as a patronising racist don't get to instruct Israelis about your 'home truths' when you refuse to listen to the impassioned pleas of Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights campaigner who is begging the world to stop only caring about Palestinians when they can blame Israel for everything. While you and your ilk continue your blame game Palestinians will continue being persecuted by their leaders and by the Arab world as a whole. While you wag your finger self-righteously aid funds meant to better the lives of Palestinians will continue to line the pockets of their billionaire and mult-millionaire leaders and you my dear sir can pat yourself on the back and feel good that you are part of those who will keep Palestinians at the mercy of these haters for years to come.

And Elise in response to a detractor:

'I disagree completely with Peter Rodgers in relation to his manufactured patronising 'home truths' or that there is actually an occupation on the basis of International law. I could go into this on the basis that Gaza was controlled by Egypt and West Bank by Jordan before the Six Day War and that prior to that this was the territory of Britain and before then the Ottoman Empire. Even if you were to believe the nonsense that there was a supposed occupation - Gaza is Judenfrei and Abbas is in charge of most of the West Bank but actually needs Israeli security to ensure that he is not murdered by Hamas operatives in that area.

 The fact that some Jews are living in the West Bank is not the cause of violence or that some Israelis behave badly is not the cause of Palestinian violence. Arab violence towards Jews and the wish to murder Jews was taking place well before the existence of the State of Israel. I remind you that Abbas' favourite mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini was a Nazi supporter who during the 1920s inciting his supporters to murder Jews causing the Hebron massacre on the Jewish Sabbath. Those massacred were not new arrivals but were descendants of the Jews who lived in Israel from before the occupation by the Roman Empire.

 Fast forward today and proof positive that Jews are not the cause of Palestinian violence - look no further than areas where there are no Jews like Gaza. In Gaza Palestinians are more violent than they have ever been before not only towards Israelis in their genocidal aim to wipe all Jews off the face of the map but towards Palestinians as well and of course Egyptians who have now blocked the border between Egypt and Gaza completely.  I could write a well documented thesis about this. Of course ...  if you had read what I have said carefully you would know my views because I have referred to Palestinian victim culture, I have referred to Palestinian leadership's persecution of Palestinians, intolerance and anti-Semitism towards Jews, stealing of aid money due to Palestinian welfare and goodness gracious me I have even referred to a Palestinian human rights campaigner who says that people must stop blaming Israel and start caring about Palestinians. Of course, those supporting Rodgers would disagree because they are indeed the type of people that Bassam Eid blames for allowing the culture to continue.'

And as J-Wire reports here, the Zionist Federation's president, Dr Danny Lamm, has also put Rodgers firmly in his place, saying:

“For a self-proclaimed advocate of “home truths”, Peter Rodgers plays fast and loose with the facts  Per usual, the situation is far more complex than the simple ‘black-and-black’ narrative of Israeli immorality peddled by a semi-professional pro-Palestinian propagandist like Rodgers.

Rodgers recycles unsubstantiated third-hand media reports from anonymous sources to claim that Israel callously refused to prosecute the perpetrators of a horrific firebombing that killed a Palestinian family of four. Of course, he conveniently neglects to mention that Israel has imprisoned three suspected Jewish terrorists under administrative detention since that terrible crime.

 And I use the term ‘suspected’ deliberately because there’s a vast difference between what security agencies might think they ‘know’ and what can be proved in court under the democratic safeguards that protect us all. Would Peter Rodgers prefer for Israel to dispense with the legal niceties of presumed innocence and valid evidence that are essential features of any fair judicial system?"

Meanwhile, here's a nasty piece of antisemitism, posted by a bloke called Sam, apparently from Ramallah, who on his Facebook page describes himself as a journalist at the Palestinian American Council.   The antisemitic post has been shared by a woman called Anita Bruckner who not infrequently posts offensive items to the Facebook group Christian Friends of Palestine.

For Ms Jones-Owens see here

Another example of Sam Ghanayem's mindset:

According to reader P, who has in the past reported one or two posts of Ms Bruckner's, Facebook, having reviewed them, deems them worthy to remain.