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)
co-founder in 2002 of the infamous Codepink organisation
recently wrote an as-a-Jew pro-BDS piece in The Guardian that has been replicated elsewhere. Here, for instance, with Ms Benjamin looking rather demure in the accompanying photo:
A rather different look by her at this anti-Ahava protest:
And a very different look indeed from her mullah-pleasing apparel at an Israel-bashing conference in Teheran:
Being an inveterate Israel-basher and BDS activist herself, the Welsh Greens' deputy leader Pippa Bartolotti has shared the article to her Facebook page with, inter alia, the following introduction:
Incidentally Bartolotti's still unmoved by requests to remove this obscenity from her Facebook post that attracted some 470 comments, many from angry "Zionists":
Her response to such a request (a response that at least has the merit of enabling us to remind ourselves of what slime many Greens are made of):
I've been down with flu, and have hardly felt like blogging or anything else, but now I've finally looked at the following video that Ian told me about a few days ago, I can only regret not having been able to do so before. By now most readers will perhaps have seen this delicious take-down by a familiar pro-Israel young Londoner of Iraqi background of anti-Israel lefties' sheer hypocrisy in demonising the only true democracy in the Middle East.
The sourpuss look on the faces of the female anti-Israel UK Greens as he starts to speak is a tonic in itself, although the sound of female cackling is certainly not funny, given the point he's making.
These females should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
And now, from the anti-Israel foot soldiers of the Australian Greens' Party, the sound of much fury on social media regarding the pro-Israel stance, reiterated in an an interview with the Australian Jewish News, of the party's new leader, Richard Di Natale [pictured]:
'.... Di Natale reiterated his support for a two-state solution.
“That’s my view, it’s the party’s position, it’s a view I’ve always held,” he said.
“Most people who have followed this issue and care about it would acknowledge that there really isn’t any other alternative.”
Asked whether Abbas should recognise Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, Di Natale replied: “Of course. How can you have a two-state solution when you refuse to acknowledge the right of one state to exist? It’s patently nonsense.”
He also reaffirmed the Australian Greens’ rejection of the anti-Israel Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, in spite of the fact that Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon supports it.
“It’s just not the party’s position,” he said. “Some time ago we made a very clear statement that we didn’t believe that this was a pathway to peace.” ....'
And that's not all that's put the haters' noses out of joint. For example, there's this:
'Di Natale also expressed admiration for Israel’s advances in environmental technology, particularly in the field of water-saving.
“Israelis are at the forefront of innovative technologies around that. Why wouldn’t we be learning from some of the new technologies that the Israelis have developed?” he asked. “If only Australia took a leaf out of their book.” ....'
As for anti-Israel Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, during Britain's recent general election, she was willing the safe return at the polls in Brighton of Caroline Lucas, the former leader of the UK Greens and the party's first MP, with a similar record of fierce hostility to Israel, phoning Lucas's campaign office with encouraging messages. She got her wish, but fellow Sydneysider, the singularly inept and uncharismatic present leader Natalie Bennett, was of course soundly trounced at the UK polls.
One more item that surface during my flu-induced stupor, None too cogent comments regarding Western pro-Palestinian feeling by the egregious Jon Snow of Britain's Channel 4. He claims that people in the West are anti-Israel because Israel because Israelis are seen as fellow white men behaving badly.
But he of course too readily dismisses the antisemitic factor, fails to acknowledge the bad behaviour on the Palestinian side, forgets that at least half the Israel Jewish population are of non-Ashkenazi background, and does not take into consideration the fact that many Western supporters of Israel rest that support on the fact that the Israelis' values are European values. What we should surely be asking is why so many Western Israel-haters (including the warped women in the above video) are dedicated to the weakening if not the destruction of a nation whose values are Western ones.
And, fresh off the smorgasbord, the latest piece of Israel-bashing by British anti-Israel campaigner (or should that be "anti-Israel professional?") Ben White:
What's Ben's obsession with Israel about? it might be asked.
She made a real fool of herself, and showed how viscerally, battily antisemitic she is, in explaining that the logo for the 2012 Olympics was a conspiracy by "Jewry" and "the world Zionist predator". With input from the Freemasons, apparently.
'Born in 1946, Michèle Mainwaring was a beauty queen – Miss Newcastle [NSW], 1968 – who went on to marry, in 1970, an Australian psychiatrist of Russian background, she controversially styling herself Countess Griaznoff on the basis of a disputed title in his family, before making a brief marriage in 1991 to the Australian financier Sir Frank Renouf, nearly thirty years her senior, with whom she set up home in London, where she continues to be based.
As Lady Renouf, she has become notorious for her support of and personal friendship with some of the big beasts of the Holocaust denial movement including Germar Rudolf and Ernst Zündel ... the Frenchman Robert Faurisson ... Australian Holocaust denier Frederick Toben – as well as Bishop Richard Williamson and the Holocaust minimiser – he denies that he’s a denier altogether – David Irving....
In 2005, during his trial in Vienna for Holocaust denial, which she attended, Lady Renouf organised financial support for Irving's family, maintained his website, and called for "so-called Holocaust victims" to be "exhumed to see whether they died from typhoid or gas" ...
She’s described Judaism as a "repugnant and hate-filled religion" and travelled to Teheran in 2006 for the "International Conference - Holocaust Review: A Global Vision", where she reportedly declared that Judaism possesses a "dangerously misanthropic tendency" and a "fundamentally anti-gentile narcissism", and that “the anti-gentile nature of Judaism” causes antisemitism....
Lady Renouf is obsessed with the bizarre notion that Birobidjan – the Jewish autonomous oblast in the far east of the Soviet Union, that Stalin dreamed up, is the true destination of the Jews; she wants the Israelis to up sticks and relocate there....'
Photo: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
She was wallowing in the cesspool of Jew-hatred again, a few days ago, at a gathering of Holocaust Deniers in a London Hotel.
To quote the perspicacious Douglas Murray:
'[The] Mail on Sunday had an interesting account of a meeting in London of
Nazis, neo-Nazis, British National Party types and anti-Semites of
various other hues. The paper infiltrated the meeting and exposed what
was said - which is a very good service and deserves praise.
.... But I confess to feeling
fairly unbothered by such a gathering where the best they can do in
terms of personnel is to find an admirer of Hitler from Spain, a retired
schoolteacher wearing a British Union of Fascists lapel badge and
carrying a book by Oswald Mosley and the absurd ‘Lady’ Michele Renouf, a
former ‘hand model’ whose brain has never been what I suppose her hands
once were.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Pedro Varela, the Spanish man, gave a speech about ‘the children of darkness’, during which:
‘He also appeared to call for a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses,
saying: “In the Middle Ages, the Jews had all the gold in the world but
they were living in the ghettos. They still have the gold of the world
and are the masters of it…”’
Barrister Mr Jonathan Arkush, vice-president of the British Board of Deputies, the man who so successfully interceded with the Anglican authorities following January's despicable 9/11 Facebook post by Stephen Sizer, and who deserves to win the forthcoming presidential election at the Board, says, reports the Mail,
'The material from this white supremacist group makes ugly reading,’ said barrister Jonathan Arkush, vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
On the face of it, their proceedings should be investigated to ascertain whether criminal offences have been committed, including incitement to racial hatred.’
That's understandable, and in keeping with Mr Arkush's robust leadership style.
Nevertheless, it's hard not to agree with Douglas Murray when he suggests when we consider the real danger to Jews and Jewish interests the pathetic little group of Holocaust Denying nutjobs palse into insignificance when compared to Natalie Bennett (incidentally, like Lady Renouf a native of New South Wales, and her UK Greens):
'Natalie Bennett, the Green party’s Australian-born leader, has confirmed her stance. Bennett has told the Jewish Chronicle that she not only supports an economic boycott of Israel but a cultural boycott too. This presumably means that Bennett believes British citizens should not listen, for instance, to a performance by a Jewish pianist who has been born in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.
Or visit an exhibition by a painter from Israel or receive medical assistance from a Jewish surgeon who has migrated (aren’t the Green Party in favour of open borders?) to the historic homeland of the Jewish people seventy years after the creation of the State of Israel.
I suppose that for the time being Bennett would still allow us to hear a Jewish pianist so long as the said pianist had not asserted their right to go to live in the world’s one and only Jewish state. But it is striking that the only type of migrant Bennett thinks we should boycott and disdain are Jewish migrants.'
I think it's time I trotted out this Australian newspaper headline again. It's from the Sydney-based Hebrew Standard, and I think the year is 1946.
A reasonable view to hold in the immediate wake of the Shoah.
But, alas, it what Conor Cruise O'Brien called "a very light sleeper" was only slumbering after all.
More Israel-bashing from the UK Greens' leader Natalie Bennett, an export to the Motherland from sunny Sydney (sorry about that, but at least she's not so articulate as previous leader Caroline Lucas):
And more from one of her party's electoral candidates:
'Tanya Williams, the Green candidate for Twickenham, South West London, made the remarks during an Amnesty International hustings on Tuesday.
According to the news website SW Londoner, she said: “It needs to be pointed out that they [Israel] are a racist state and an apartheid state.”
“South Africa got its act together after decades of campaigning and I hope Israel may eventually too. I think it is time to stand up to the myth that Israel and Palestine are both equal participants in this conflict.”
Two Israel-bashing as-a-Jews discuss Greens tactics
She also allegedly urged the UK government to end political and economic trade ties with Israel. “I personally think we need to stop supporting Israel, whether that’s trading arms with them, or politically, or treating them like a beacon of democracy in the Middle East which they are not,” she said.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has now called on the Green Party to condemn Williams for her “inflammatory” comments, “which attacked the only democracy in the region,” according to one member.
Board Vice President Alex Brummer told SW Londoner: “The comments on the Middle East from the Green Party candidate in Twickenham are wholly unacceptable.
“They are based on falsehoods, ignorance and sheer prejudice against Israel and its supporters.
“Remarks like this can only fuel antagonism against the British Jewish community at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise.” '
Natalie's going to be answering questions live on Facebook on Tuesday (details below); maybe friends of Israel want to be there and (so to speak) tickle the lady up a bit.
'An initiative by Germany’s neo-Nazi NPD party last year in a state parliament to demarcate Israeli products came to light this month and closely resembles the recent Green Party bill that would label Israeli products from settlements.
The revelation last week that an anti-Israel bill from the mainstream left-liberal Green Party in the Federal Bundestag mirrors, in key provisions, the language of a far-right party stirred criticism from Israeli and German experts on modern anti-Semitism.'
He quotes NGO Monitor head Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University as saying:
"This alliance between the Greens and the far Right to promote blatant double standards is a huge stain on Germany’s moral standing. Duplicitous product labeling is the thin wedge of the BDS [Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment] movement, and central to the Durban strategy of political warfare and demonization that targets Israel."
And he quotes Dr Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal’s Jerusalem office, thus:
"The fact that a mainstream German party initiates such a measure is a sad reflection of the distorted view of Middle East politics so common in recent years in the political discourse regarding Israel in certain circles of the Federal Republic. In that respect we see an unfortunate growing erosion of the traditional German support for the Jewish state which is part of a dangerous tendency in elements of German society and certain intellectual circles to extricate Germany from its moral obligations in the wake of the Holocaust. The initiative by the Green Party to have all products produced in the disputed territories is clearly short-sighted and counterproductive and will not help bring Israelis and Palestinians any closer to real and lasting peace."
Meanwhile, Sydney academic Professor Jake Lynch and his supporters have been cautioned that their proposed severance of links with Israeli institutions of higher learning contravenes Australian anti-discrimination legislation:
'According to NSW Solicitor Andrew Hamilton
of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) movement has been recognized as anti-Semitic by leading
authorities such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United
States, and in a report recently released by the Simon Wiesenthal
Center.
In the letters Hamilton pointed out that the
Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 made it "unlawful for a person to do
any act involving a distinction, exclusion, restriction of preference
based on race... national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or
effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise, on an equal footing, of any human right or fundamental freedom
in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of
public life."
Hamilton also warned that any
"successful" boycott of Israel was illegal under the Competition and
Consumer Act of 2010 if they damage the businesses they target, and that
as a result parties could be investigated by the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission and face legal action for damages....
Lynch [et al] seek to impose restriction on those
having Israeli and Jewish national, racial or ethnic origins, whether
these are goods, services , persons and organizations. The participants
of the BDS movement clearly seek to violate freedoms guaranteed by
federal law," Hamilton said.'
Recently, in a four-way contest, Caroline Lucas MP was replaced by former Guardian journalist Natalie Bennett, originally from Melbourne, as leader of the UK Greens.
Among the other contenders for the leadership was the Welsh Greens' leader Pippa Bartolotti, well-known as an anti-Israel activist and flotilla alumna (on the candidates see the post and comments here).
Indeed, as seen also in Australia and elsewhere, bashing Israel is, it seems, in the Green Party's very DNA.
Successful candidate Ms Bennett is soon due to speak at this conference (along with some familiar Israel-demonisers) on a nuclear-free Middle East.
Of Ms Lucas, who has long exemplified the Greens' antipathy towards Israel, the Zionist Federation's Jonathan Hoffman writes:
'SodaStream has opened a shop in Brighton. SodaStream enables people to make their own carbonated soft drinks at home. It is thus the epitome of an environmentally friendly – or ‘green’ - company since it obviates the need for drinks in plastic bottles to be bought from the shops. In fact the company – which is present in 43 countries around the world with over 6 million active users – estimates that it saves the planet from the waste of 1 billion plastic bottles every day as well as saving millions of barrels of oil needed to make them.
Brighton’s MP is Caroline Lucas of the Green Party. You’d have thought she would welcome SodaStream to Brighton with open arms. Not only is a multinational choosing to invest in her constituency but its product conforms completely to the environmental agenda of her Party.
You’d have thought she’d welcome it … but you’d be wrong. Sodastream has a plant in Area C of the Disputed Territories and Ms Lucas says she
“supports the right of my constituents and others to … peacefully demonstrate against companies which operate out of illegal Israeli settlements.”
Ms Lucas should get her facts right. Under the Oslo Accords Area C is mostly under Israeli security and civil control pending a final settlement and Israeli companies are free to open plants there. The West Bank never belonged to any sovereign ruler after the British withdrew from Mandatory Palestine; before that it was part of the Ottoman Empire. Israel’s ‘borders’ are merely the ceasefire lines from its victory in 1948 against the Arab armies that tried unsuccessfully to exterminate it at birth. There is nothing ‘illegal’ about the settlements, a position supported by the US government for one. Indeed if settlements were ‘illegal’ then products manufactured there would not be allowed to be imported into the UK.
In fact Ms Lucas ties herself in knots in her statement because she says that
“I don’t support calls for the Ecostream store to close”.
But as she well knows, that is PRECISELY what the BDS mob wants – they even stand in the doorway of the shop to harangue potential customers.
If Ms Lucas is sincere about wanting the shop to stay open then she needs to come to the weekly BDS demonstrations and help to ensure that access to the shop is not blocked. And to talk to the police in Brighton to encourage them to move the BDS mob away from the shop (as the Met police did at Ahava).
If she doesn’t do both of these things then the electors of Brighton Pavilion – where she has a slim 1252 majority - can conclude that her antipathy to Israel trumps her enthusiasm for Green issues and can reasonably ask how ‘Green’ Ms Lucas REALLY is.'
"In the Tweed and Byron Shires there are a lot of Greens," a pro-Israel activist not unfamiliar to readers of comments on my blog observed elsewhere some time ago.
"They are everywhere. They are like blowflies at a Barcaldine barbeque."
Remarked another:
"It’s a well known fact that the ferals of Byron Bay are the worst example of the loony left Greens in the country. "
And so it is that the New South Wales beach resort of Byron Bay will soon, thanks to Byron Friends of Palestine, find itself hosting an anti-Israel hate-fest in the form of a BDS Conference, addressed by Palestinian writer Samah Sabawi, Omar Barghouti via video link, and a local councillor (who lists his hobbies as "indoctrination" of his young granddaughter) representing the Greens.
Explains the blurb, in part:
"The inaugural Byron Bay BDS Conference is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the formal adoption of the Geneva conventions on Sunday 12th August 2012.
This conference is a not for profit event aimed at promoting awareness of the moral justification for Palestinian civil society’s call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel due to her government’s continued breach of international law, covenants and UN resolutions....
This conference is intended also to provide a platform for members of our local community to engage in a question and answer session which will include Tom Tabart as a representative of the Greens. The Australian political climate, its relationship to Palestinian aspirations and Australian government policy regarding Palestinian sovereignty are all subjects that can be explored and discussed. It is hoped that much of the truth about this conflict and the potential of the non-violent methods chosen to end it will become more apparent by the end of this session.
Despite a carefully contrived atmosphere of Islamophobia in the mainstream media we must pause to consider the cultural and scientific gifts to the West from the Arab world: Music, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, sacred geometry, ceramics, weaving and architecture and not least the preservation and revival of ancient Greek philosophy suppressed in the West for centuries.
With that cultural element in mind, the conference will come to a close with a spoken word poetry reading by Samah Sabawi followed by a solo set of music by world renowned Palestinian/australian musician Phil Monsour who recently returned from a tour of Europe and the UK."
What part of the message in this picture don't the Israel-demonising Left understand? More pertinently, why don't they wish to understand it?
Last week an assemblage of usual suspects demonstrated outside a breakfast briefing in Sydney by Israeli defence expert and Jerusalem Post correspondent Yaakov Katz, who is in New South Wales at the invitation of the state Jewish Board of Deputies and United Israel Appeal, speaking to local leaders on the topic “The threat from Iran and other Middle East affairs”.
As reported on that veritable den of mischievous anti-Western (and of course, being home to so many ultra-feminist apologists for Islam, contradictory) ratbaggery, the Aussie Green/Left site:
"On the street outside, activists from the Sydney Peace Foundation, the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine (CJPP), Stop the War Coalition Sydney[,] and Resistance spoke to passersby about why Israel’s war plans should be opposed."
New South Wales Labor opposition leader John Robertson was among those present.
Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees from the Sydney Peace Foundation inveighed against the “Israeli militarist state” for “preparing a preemptive attack on Iran” by “sending its emissaries to the West to rally support for what would be an illegal and immoral attack leading to thousands of civilian deaths”....'
Other speakers (see above link for details) spoke in similar terms, despite the existential threat that Israel faces from the prospect of the regime of the mad mullahs acquiring The Bomb.
Speakers included Marrickville Greens Councillor Cathy Peters, who led the vanguard of Marrickville's odious BDS initiative last year, and Greens ex-MLC Sylvia Hale, no stranger to regular readers of this blog owing to her flotilla/flytilla activities. She also spoke to the on-the-spot reporter for Ahmadinejad's propaganda channel, Press TV.
The Sydney Global March on Jerusalem event commenced on Friday evening in Newtown, with harassment of the Max Brenner franchise there. I have not seen any video footage so far. [Update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqPG5aO4tU "This video is private. Sorry about that."]
Meanwhile, a new initiative has commenced, with Tony Benn, John Pilger, and Desmond Tutu among the sponsors. (Hat tip: reader Shirlee)
Clearly, O'Dwyer is Golden, while Silence is Green.
For what a magnificent speech by Australian legislator Kelly O'Dwyer, Liberal member for Higgins, in yesterday's debate in the House of Representatives concerning Human Rights (or rather, the lack of them) in Iran.
All praise to to her for highlighting so ably and comprehensively the unconscionable hypocrisy of the Greens:
"In Australia during this time one must ask the questions 'Who stands conspicuously quiet? Who stands silent while these human rights are abused?' .... It is ... the Greens, those people who suggest that they are the champions of human rights and the keepers of the moral chalice, those professed keepers of all that is right and ethical. Where, I ask you, is Senator Brown in condemning these actions? Where is Senator Hanson-Young on her soapbox demanding justice? Where is the member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, in this chamber supporting this motion? Where are the Greens protests in the streets? Most importantly, given all that we have learned about the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions scheme that grew from the Greens' local council movement in Marrickville, where are the calls for the boycotts of Iranian companies or even of Syrian ones, to be truly consistent? No, all that is simply reserved for Israel.
Interestingly, the Greens also profess to be strong champions of human rights, particularly for those who are homosexual. Yet it is the country of Israel, the only democracy in the region, that legislates rights for women and homosexuals. In fact, in a recent poll conducted by GayCities.com in conjunction with American Airlines, Tel Aviv was rated the best gay travel destination of 2011. Yet here the Greens condemn Israel and not Iran.
Could you imagine if the Prime Minister of Israel had prayed for the ‘annihilation’ of the Palestinians? How many motions would the Greens have moved by now? How many press releases, demonstrations and media conferences would they have called? I conducted a search on the Greens' website. I typed ‘Iran’ into their search feature, 23 results were returned and in those results there was not one mention—not one, single, solitary mention—of the atrocities that have taken place, of the abhorrent preachings of the President of Iran or of the blatant human rights abuses posed against ethnic minorities, women and homosexuals. However, if you type in ‘Israel’ you will find pages and pages and pages—in particular pages as to how you can be involved as well in the BDS movement. This is a truly sad state of affairs and it is of great concern in particular to me that the Greens do not stand with us in this chamber against such violence against human rights workers, women’s rights activists, journalists and government opponents.
The Greens seem to quote the UN when it suits them and ignore them when it does not conform to their agenda. And make no mistake: the Greens' agenda on Israel is well and truly on show. It is incumbent upon all of us who, at times, take our freedoms for granted to stand up for those who do not share the same freedoms. I call on all members of this parliament, including the Greens - including Senator Bob Brown - to support this motion and to highlight the atrocities and depravity of the Iranian government and to stand up for the fact that these depravities must come to an end. For too long we have turned a blind eye to the signs that have been staring us in the face, and we must not accept what is unacceptable. I call on the Greens to stand with us in this chamber and support the human rights that are being abused in Iran and to make a very strong and public statement about it.”
Those remarks came at the end of her speech, which began by condemning "the abhorrent and repugnant human rights abuses that are currently occurring in the so-called Republic of Iran" and after she bemoaned the dashed expectations of the so-called Arab Spring:
"We did not want Israel to continue to stand as the lone beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Alas, on the ground, the Arab Spring has not matched the anticipation. For all of the hopes that we had, the people of Iran, Syria, Libya and Bahrain have been met with bullets,aggression and brutality...."
She then focused on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, before launching that well-deserved attack on the Greens:
"One needs only look at a number of his public statements to discover the depths of this so-called leader’s depravity. On the state of Israel he has stated that it ‘must be wiped off the map’ and that ‘with God’s grace this regime will be annihilated and Palestinians and other regional nations will be rid of its bad omen’.
On the Holocaust he has said:
“Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail … we don’t accept this claim.”
He went on to say:
“They, Germans or Europeans, have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets.”
On Zionists - read Jews - he has said:
“The Zionists and their protectors are the most detested people in all of humanity, and the hatred is increasing every day.”
And he has said:
“The world powers established these filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the nations in the region like a wild beast.”
Finally, on the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel’s independence, he said:
“Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken.”
Any one of these statements on its own warrants immediate condemnation, yet this despicable vitriol is left unchallenged and has been left unchallenged too often and for too long. It is only now that the world is starting to take notice of Iran. It is only after the tragic loss of life that the world is paying Iran the attention it should have paid many years before.
Words of a tyrant lead to deeds of a tyrant. It should come as no surprise that the owner of such vile words could be a perpetrator of such vile acts. The only question that remains is: how many people must continue to die before the international community stands against such repression?"
It seems (Hat tip: reader Shirlee, who sent me this link) that, officially, the Greens in New South Wales have abandoned their commitment to the BDS campaign against Israel that cost Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne her seat in the state election earlier this year. In May a working group was set up by the party to review the policy, and yesterday's vote on the issue, at a State Council meeting closed to the media, saw the party decide on its recommendations.
At the meeting every Greens group in the state apparently voted to abandon BDS as an official plank in their policy. But, like the fanatical Israel-bashers that so many of them unfortunately are (the honourable exceptions include Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham, who is on record as deploring the frequent pickerting of Jewish-owned Max Brenner), they voted to recognise support for BDS as a legitimate stance, and denied that it is antisemitic.
The ratbag leftwing party also reportedly reiterqted that the Australian government should cease military links with Israel.
Senator Lee Rhiannon, the legislator with a far-left pedigree who has been a driving force behind the Greens' odious BDS campaign, has been reported as saying after yesterday's vote:
"The resolution recognises the legitimacy of the BDS as a political tactic and also recognises that there is a diversity of views in the community and the Greens. While there have been a variety of views among Greens members on BDS there was strong and united commitment to continue our work for Palestinian human rights. The review rejected and condemned false accusations of anti-Semitism."
The party's demonisation of Israel (even to blaming Israel for the plight of the "refugees) and adoption of BDS can be clearly seen in this pep talk to the faithful in May by former state legislator and flotilla/flytilla alumna Sylvia Hale, who like the rest of the Greens seems wilfully blind to Israel's admirable record on environmental matters, as well as, so far as I can judge, contrastingly silent regarding most of the genuine atrocities occurring elsewhere in the world (including heinous encroachments on the rights of women):
Here's footage of Sydney man Michael Coleman (who appears to have a predilection for sailing by boat to Hamastan-on-Sea and getting himself arrested by the Israeli authorities) and his supporters among the Greens and BDSers (those terms are fairly synonymous, of course) whingeing about Israel and Israeli policy.
And despite the excesses of the truly abominable Iranian regime, the people who are so quick to put the boot into democratic Israel seemingly have no qualms about doing so on Press TV. That's the mouthpiece of a regime which permits outrages of this sort against women (funny, eh, how all those avowed feminists among the Greens/BDSers don't appear to condemn such atrocities against their own gender), which has condemned to death a Christian minister, and which has doubtless sanctioned the antisemitic film - hardcore Judeophobia, this - that you can see an excerpt from here.
And here's a picket that took place on 10 November, following news of the intrepid sailor lad's release - castigating the Australian government for its inaction over the matter. This footage is not by Press TV, but despite the odious nature of the Iranian regime one of the speakers has appeared on Press TV in the very recent past.
On their website, Friends of Israel Western Australia have provided copious extracts from a robust denunciation of the BDS Movement in general and Lee Rhiannon and the Greens Party in particular during a debate that took place in rhe Australian Senate yesterday regarding the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's regrettable ruling that the BDS campaign does not conflict with Commonwealth of Australia law http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/09/bds-demos-not-in-breach-of-australian.html
You can read far more courtesy of the Friends of Israel Western Australia, but here's the flavour:
Senator ABETZ (Tasmania—Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (17:00): I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the response from the ACCC....
The response of the chairman of the ACCC to the Senate motion concerning the anti-Israel BDS campaign against Max Brenner chocolate cafes is, to say the least, disappointing. I also note that this motion was opposed by Greens senators. Since Greens leader Senator Bob Brown took his alleged robust line against Senator Rhiannon's support for the boycott divestment and sanctions campaign, BDS, in the March New South Wales election, Senator Rhiannon has repeatedly needled him on this issue.
After the backlash against the Greens at the March New South Wales election, particularly in the seat of Marrickville, Senator Bob Brown lambasted Senator-elect Rhiannon. Senator-elect Rhiannon's first reaction had been to suggest that the Greens should have done more to explain this issue....
When you are voting for the Greens, you are voting for a party with racist views....
That should make people who think they are doing the right thing by voting green think twice when they vote for a green environmental party. The Greens do not want to do the right thing. The Greens want to intimidate Jewish businesses. This is 1939 revisited.
Senator BOSWELL (Queensland) (17:08): It was very disappointing to get a letter today from the trade practices commissioner, Mr Sims, saying that he wanted to do a Pontius Pilate on a particular motion that the Senate had carried. In that letter the chairman said: 'We are not going to investigate this because it is unlikely to have had the effect of causing substantial loss or damage to the business of Max Brenner such as to constitute a contravention of section 45D of the act. Relevant here are the infrequent nature of the protests, their limited duration and the consequent difficulty in apportioning the revenue impact of this activity versus other factors.' He then goes on to allude to the Victoria Police as doing the job for us anyhow. I do not accept that.
I think Mr Sims is only a new boy in the role of trade practices commissioner. He should take more seriously a resolution of this Senate when it is backed by people representing 90 per cent of the population of Australia. Sure, the Greens do not support it. But the Liberals support it, the Nationals support it, Labor support it and the Independents support it. They all supported the motion that I moved on 18 August.
Mr Sims simply says, 'It does not do the things that it should do.' Let me point out to Mr Sims that last week in Sydney there was another demonstration, another picket, another boycott and more intimidation of a Jewish confectionary shop. No-one in Australia wants to go down that path. We have been there before, as Senator Abetz said. It sends shivers down people's spines that we could even contemplate doing it. Yet the trade practices commission turns its back and will not investigate it.
I have maintained an interest in the ACCC and the Trade Practices Act. Since the prosecutions of unionists in the seventies for secondary boycotts, it has been clear that section 45D applies where there is a real chance or possibility that boycotting conduct will, if pursued, cause loss or damage that is more than trivial, minimal, insubstantial or novel.
It concerns me very much that in its media release the ACCC exonerates the BDS campaign.... I can remember a group of dairy farmers wanting to get together to negotiate on a price with the manufacturers, and they were barred. This was a group of innocent dairy farmers who just wanted to sit down and talk about prices. The ACCC came down on them like a tonne of bricks and said, 'Not on.' I had to seek an exemption. It is going back some time now, but that cost a fair bit of money. If the ACCC can do that to dairy farmers, surely it can get off its tail and try to do something that will stop these boycotts. This is completely unsatisfactory.
There should be no excuses for Mr Sims. He should use the same criteria as he does for secondary boycotts by unions and other businesses that seek to meet and have discussions—but apparently we have a separate set of standards. Mr Sims says: 'Don't worry about it. Victoria Police will do it.' Sure, Victoria Police might do it and they should do it and they have done it—and good luck to them. They have done it efficiently and effectively, but we expect that sort of reaction from the ACCC and we are not getting it, and we should get it. I say to Mr Sims: 'People in this parliament do not casually pass resolutions for you to ignore. When a resolution passes this parliament, it has the support of all senators other than the Greens. It represents about 90 per cent of the population, who want you, the ACCC, to take some action.' I have moved another motion today. It will be the fourth that I have moved.
Senator IAN MACDONALD (Queensland) (17:19): I also am concerned about the response from the commissioner. I would have hoped that the commissioner might have placed some great weight on the fact that the resolution to which he was responding was in fact a practically unanimous resolution of the Senate.
I also want to reinforce Senator Abetz and Boswell's view that boycotts of Jewish businesses are repugnant to any democratically minded Australian. I acknowledge that a feature of the Australian democracy, in our easygoing way, is that people are free, within certain very confined grounds, to say anything and to participate in demonstrations and strikes. That is the way we back the perceptions, understandings and a view of history—as Senator Abetz mentioned. These are not subjective comments; this is the history. In Germany in the 1930s through to the 1940s, and to a lesser extent in some other European countries, action was taken against businesses solely on the basis that the owners of those businesses happened to be Jewish.
I cannot quote but I know enough about German history during the 1930s to know that both Hitler and Goebbels would have had reasons which they would explain to the public of Germany as to why the activity in Germany at the time was not being dealt with in a way in which Australians and most freedom-loving people around the world would have responded. I know enough of Goebbels's history to say that he would have given an explanation and if you wanted to believe it you could easily have done so.
The incident to which Senator Boswell referred and which he has been passionate about for some time involves the boycott of a business on the sole basis, as I understand it, that it is Jewish. At a cursory glance, maybe it does make a point about some incident that is happening overseas. But here it is the sort of explanation that Goebbels would have given. He would have given it glibly and cleverly, as most propagandists do.
In Australia at this stage of our history, or at any stage, we do not want to allow our country to be involved in any sorts of boycotts that impact on people's businesses, their livelihoods and their ability to act freely because they happen to be Jewish people....
