"The Most Dangerous Group in Islam's History"

Here's a video that the BBC's inadequate "Middle East editor" Jeremy Bowen, and fellow Beeboid Paul Danahar, with their fuzzy conception of the Muslim Brotherhood, might like to watch and inwardly digest.

It shows an interview that Syrian intellectual Hashem Saleh gave on 19 April this year on Sky News Arabia TV (Abu Dhabi), in which he maintains that the Muslim Brotherhood, is "the most dangerous group" in Islam's history, the "mother" of other radical groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.   He argues that the biggest problem facing Arabs and Muslims is a "theological problem" and that Arab civilization must abandon the Muslim Brotherhood and its ideology so that it can "rise anew."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzCAQJWWs6g

A Memri.org video

Meanwhile, from The Clarion Project:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6_QK7LbhVw

Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist, explains the dangers in breeding child soldiers and why ISIS is successful in doing so. https://kidsthemovie.com/

Talking of the BBC, check out Hadar Saleh's exposé of the Corporation's recent despicably biased (against Israel) offerings on Newsbeat, intended for young adults. 

Oh, and for hypocrisy, check out this Twitter thread, regarding recently deceased former Aussie prime minister Bob Hawke, a man who was serially unfaithful to and ultimately left his long-suffering wife Hazel, mother of his five children (one deceased in infancy, one aborted in order to convenience his career), who "cavorted" with topless go-go dancers and used the obnoxious c**t word.

Now just imagine how Jezza, Mike and the lefties would react had that been Donald Trump!

An Australian Trade Union Chief Speaks Up for Israel against the BDS Movement

In a speech on Sunday to the annual conference of the Zionist Federation of Australia, held  in Melbourne, the young Vice-President of the Australian Council of Trades Unions (ACTU), Paul Howes, who is also National Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, has made an admirable, forceful attack on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (hat tip: Matt Pryor, over at Thejc.com blogs). I’m reminded of how staunchly supportive of Israel the ACTU has been – Bob Hawke, ACTU President from 1969-80 and Prime Minister of Australia from 1983-91, was one of the firmest friends Israel has had in Australian public life, and so is politician Simon Crean, ACTU Vice-President from 1981-85 and President from 1985-91, who resigned to go into federal politics and led the Australian Labor Party from 2001-3.

Here’s most of Paul Howes’s speech, reproduced courtesy of J-Wire:

'I can’t see how any unionist can back the international BDS movement.Now I know there has been a lot of talk in the media, both here and abroad, about trade unions backing the BDS movement.But let’s take a step back from the headlines. Take an overview of the global situation.The reality is that despite the headlines most of the trade union movement in Australia, and across the globe, has not backed BDS.The bulk of the international trade union movement, and in particular unions in countries like the USA, Germany and Austria, are rock-solid in their support for Israel.Let’s remember just a few months ago,in Vancouver, Canada, the World Congress of the global union movement, the International Trade Union Confederation – the ITUC – stared down attempts to label Israel an apartheid state.The international trade union movement delivered a stinging rebuff to advocates of the campaign to boycott Israel. In an even-handed response – this was supported by both the Palestinian and Israeli trade unions – the World Congress praised the landmark agreement between the Histadrut and the PGFTU on the rights of Palestinian workers.The ITUC – now led by my former ACTU colleague Sharan Burrow – of course played a key role in delivering that Palestinian-Israeli agreement. The ITUC Congress statement declared: “This agreement and other actions to promote decent work and end discrimination is crucial to building the basis for just and equitable economic development.”

Most importantly – in a stunning blow to BDS activists in some unions – the Israeli national trade union centre, the Histadrut, was honoured by the global trade union movement.Its leader, Ofer Eini, was elevated to the ITUC’s 25 member Executive Board, as well as its General Council.Mr. Eini was also elected as one of the global union groups Vice Presidents.And now we are seeing a range of new, admittedly small at the moment, initiatives by global unions in different industrial sectors supporting co-operation in defence of workers’ rights in Palestine and Israel.None of this means there are not real threats; that the social movement traditions of the union movement will not be turned against Israel using the language of the international BDS movement.ut the majority of unions are with Israel. We should use this majority to maintain support for a peace process which delivers security to Israel and justice to the Palestinians.

I know later this month there will be a conference here in Melbourne to build the BDS movement in Australia – and especially to create strategies to get Australian unions backing BDS. We have to be clear-eyed about this conference. I’ve looked through the speakers list. There is not one person of significance in the Australian union movement speaking here. There is not one person from the 50-plus ACTU Executive speaking here. That should give you an indication of the status and importance of the Melbourne meeting, at least as far as Australian unions are concerned. But yes we do have to be keep a watching brief if we are to stop that movement gaining strength in Australia. We must know our arguments against the international BDSers. The BDS movement likes to compare themselves to the boycott campaign against apartheid South Africa. We have to explain to people why the two are just not comparable. The South African boycott apartheid movement was home grown, it originated in South Africa and was run and controlled by Nelson Mandela and his ANC and the peak South African trade union organization COSATU.  Australian unions played a major role in backing the South African boycott. Nelson Mandela travelled to Australia soon after his release and told a union rally here in Melbourne that he specifically wanted to thank the ACTU, and its affiliates, for their work. Most importantly we must explain that the BDS movement, as it relates to the Palestinian struggle, is not really a home-grown initiative.

Today’s international anti-Israel boycott movement is largely an initiative imposed on the Palestinian body politic by outside agitators who run so-called solidarity groups. These solidarity groups have little or no institutional connections or support from within the Territories – especially not the West Bank. The person credited for founding this international BDS Movement, Omar Barghouti, was born in Qatar, grew up in Egypt and moved only relatively recently to Ramallah.  Omar Barghouti is actually now a post-graduate student in Israel at Tel Aviv University. He is due to complete his PhD this year I believe.  When Israeli students at the university raised a petition to protest his presence on campus, and demand he be expelled, the university authorities rejected the petition and announced they would not expel him.  They were not going to boycott Mr. Barghouti because of his ideas – even though Omar Barghouti himself promotes and supports an academic boycott of Israeli universities.  When Omar Barghouti was asked about this irony he told the media “my studies at Tel Aviv University are a personal matter and I have no interest in commenting.” 

My Palestinian acquaintances have pointed out to me a number of times that, unfortunately, the Palestinian Diaspora are by far bigger agitators for the BDS cause than the people who actually live in the Territories. My Palestinian acquaintances also point out that there always has been a difference, a disconnect, between the Palestinians in the Territories, and those in the Diaspora.  The Palestinian Diaspora is less willing to compromise, more willing to keep the fight going, because they don’t have to actually live the oppressive life suffered by those in the Territories.

Living comfortably in Australia, Canada, USA, UK or Europe these Diaspora activists are happy to fight to the last blood of Palestinians who actually have to live under the Occupation. ( Now some of my Jewish friends say that this ‘ hard-line’ anti-compromise phenomena is sometimes also reflected in the Jewish Diaspora – but in their view it is not the dominant trend, as it seems to be in the Palestinian Diaspora.) It is interesting to note that that all three featured Palestinian speakers at the upcoming Melbourne International BDS conference, whose names I have seen – Rafeef Ziadah; Samah Sabawi and Yousef Alreemawi – all live in the Palestinian Diaspora. It is easy to promote the international anti-Israel BDS cause if you don’t have to live through the practicalities of the day-to-day lives of the workers in the Territories. It is easy to oppose the compromises that both sides will have to make to achieve security, justice and peace. Now even if you have only a passing knowledge of Palestinian politics you will know that the Palestinians who actually live in the Territories are only just now – and ever so slowly – backing a limited boycott campaign. The Palestinian Authority talks about a boycott against the West Bank settlements – not Green Line Israel. On the other hand the solidarity groups stress an international BDS against all of Israel. No differentiation at all between Green Line Israel and the West Bank.

If you read closely, between the lines, you will also see that the PA, and its instrumentalities, place many, many qualifications, and adjectives, in front of their boycott statements because they are aware of the pain it will cause their own people. The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions – who are also late, and in my view reluctant, boycott backers – have been at pains to limit their calls to a boycott only of goods produced by companies which operate in the West Bank. The PGFTU have said they only want the BDS implemented by the Palestinian Authority if alternative jobs can be found for the thousands of Palestinians who daily work in the Israeli West Bank settlements. The PGFTU has been explicit in their rejection of any call for a general BDS, or one that extends to companies which operate only in Green Line Israel and not the West Bank. The leader of the PGFTU, Shaher Saed, is respected around the globe for his street smarts. People tell me that he is a realistic, pragmatic trade unionist – who knows when to compromise to achieve a deal. Now in my view they’re the types of trade union leaders who best succeed in representing workers. The reality is that after the peace process is finally settled Israelis and Palestinians, in a region which is a third of the size of Tasmania, will have to learn to live together, work together. 

From the Land of Oz - A Tale of Two Malcolms

If you've ever been to the London borough of Tower Hamlets - not the most heimishe of locations nowadays - you may have noticed a large exterior wall clock dedicated to the memory of Minnie Lansbury, who died in 1922 aged 31.  Born to Jewish parents surnamed Glassman, Minnie was a suffragette and popular civic leader, renowned for her compassion for the neighbourhood's poor.  She was the daughter-in-law of George Lansbury, the famous Labour Party leader.  Her widower remarried, and became the father of celebrated actress Angela Lansbury.

     Malcolm Turnbull, the urbane Oxford-educated barrister/merchant banker who led Australia's Liberal Party (the Aussie equivalent of the British Conservative Party) from 2008-9, is the son of Angela Lansbury's cousin Coral, and like his forebear George Lansbury he is something of a philosemite.  He is certainly one of the best friends that Israel has in the antipodes, and the other evening he proved his credentials yet again when during the current federal election campaign he and his two rival candidates for the parliamentary seat of Wentworth in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (which he has represented since 2004) addressed the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies. A video of all three speeches can be viewed here
http://vimeo.com/13499830 and there is a a synopsis of them here
http://www.jwire.com.au/news/wentworth-candidates-address-board-of-deputies-plenum/10541

Turnbull's unequivocal warmth towards Israel and his profound grasp of the harsh realities that Israel confronts contrasts sharply with the woeful stance of his octogenarian namesake and fellow Liberal Malcolm Fraser, who was prime minister of Australia from 1975-83.  The supercilious Oxford-educated scion of the squattocracy and of a mother of Jewish descent, Una Woolf, Fraser is widely remembered for three things: the controversial manner of his appointment to office, the much-mocked pronouncement that "life wasn't meant to be easy", and the mysterious loss of his trousers in a seedy hotel in Memphis in 1986 when he was chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group.  While prime minister he was a hard-headed rightwinger, and in 1975 his Cabinet learned of a plot by Palestinian terrorists to assassinate three prominent Aussie champions of Israel - future Labour prime minister Bob Hawke, communal leader Isi Leibler, and journalist Sam Lipski.  Fraser was perceived as friendly to Israel.

Subsequently, however, Fraser - evidently determined to be an elder statesman of international import - reinvented himself as an extreme small-l liberal and a self-righteous exponent of "human rights", founding the organisation Australians All.  He sounded off to the embarrassment of his Liberal Party successors, undermining them, especially the estimable and staunchly pro-Israel John Howard.  He loftily dismissed widespread public fears of large-scale Muslim immigration, made light of the threat from radical Islam, called for Israel to negotiate with Hamas (thereby earning the soubriquet "Mad Mal of Hamastan"), and rounded on "the Jewish lobby" - yes, he used that very phrase - when Zionist leaders pointed to the flaws in his arguments and questioned the wisdom of his views. He flounced out of the Liberal Party in 2009, condemning its conservatism. Early this year he was quick off the mark to urge the then prime minister Kevin Rudd to expel Israeli diplomats from Canberra in reprisal for the use of four Australian passports by the team believed to be responsible for the assassination in Dubai of the Hamas arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Perhaps the kindest thing to be said about Malcolm Fraser is that he should have had the grace and good sense years ago to button his lips and fade quietly into one of those spectacular antipodean sunsets.