"I'll Ride With You": Pam Pummels The Pollyannas

From an editorial, entitled "The lone wolf", in the current Australian Jewish News, regarding the Sydney siege:

'The fearmongers aside, the reporting of the incident was largely responsible and respectful ....

[T]he Islamophobia flowed predictably and freely [did it?].  The response to it was life affirming.

As Jews, we bemoan the failure of many to make the distinction between criticising Israel and anti-Semitism.  Our Semitic brothers face a similar malaise, with many tarring all Muslims with the "radical" brush.  On Monday [last week], the hashtag #IllRideWithYou exploded on Twitter following the Tweet: "If you reg take the #373 bus b/w Coogee/MartinPl, wear religious attire, & don't feel safe alone: I'll ride with you. @ me for schedule.  And it immediately went viral....'

All very noble of the newspaper, I'm sure, even if, by its use of the term "Semitic brothers" it omitted the many Muslims in Australia who are not of Arab origin, as well as, curiously, the female of the species who, if anecdotal evidence is to be believed, are more likely than Muslim men to experience "Islamophobia" on the streets.

Many people have said, and said rightly, that the "I'll ride with you" campaign is misplaced, insulting Australians as a whole by implying as it does that they are brutes and bigots about to declare "Open Season" on Muslims, and also placing more emphasis on the true victims of Man Haron Monis, the unfortunate hostages, by buying into the fiction that the primary victims of last week's tragic abomination are this country's Muslims.  We've seen the ABC (Oz's answer to the BBC) aiding and abetting this nonsense with its interviews with Silma Ihram (the former Frances Beaumont), who to judge by the number of times she's been featured on their programming over the years, is rather a favourite of theirs. (The Left's Muslims-as-victims mentality was being hyped by the ABC in August, with input by the same lady.)

Indeed, so incensed have some commenters within and without Australia been with the Muslim victimhood approach that there have been a number of pictorial responses in response, showing the hashtag on pictures of atrocities by Muslims such as the 7/7 London bombing.

Of course, Australian Muslims are not responsible for Monis's crimes, and most Australians fully realise it.  Muslims leaders have deplored his actions, and it's reported that no one is keen to give him a funeral.

But, as David Singer argues in the previous post, and as others have done over the past week, including The Australian's Chris Kenny, who incidentally had bought coffee at the restaurant just before the siege began, it is foolhardy and futile to present that Manis's outlook as entirely unconnected with Islamism.

As for that hashtag, Pam Hopf, an astute observer of Australian affairs, has a truly superb  article on Shirlee Finn's Jews Down Under site in which she traces the hashtag to its source and absolutely nails the hypocrisy involved.  (Hint: does the word Greens mean anything to you?)

I recommend Pam's article most heartily, and to the Pollyannas in the Australian Jewish community, including the author of the Australian Jewish News editorial cited above, I recommend it most of all.

Read it here

In NSW, The Slimy Green Stain & Stench Of Antisemitism

"This is not about the revocation of an invitation.  It's about why those who claim to be supporting Palestinian rights consistently attract the enthusiastic support of people with an explicitly racist anti-Jewish agenda."

So, reasonably, declares Peter Wertheim, executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, concerning the unconscionable flirtation of elements within the NSW Greens with the notorious German-born Australian Holocaust denier Dr Fredrick Toben (pictured, with an admirer of his, Lady Michele Renouf).

 As reported in The Australian newspaper:

'.... Dr Toben emailed Mr Shoebridge [Greens state parliamentarian and BDS crusader David Shoebridge] following an incident in March when upper house debate on a motion reporting on a study trip to Israel by a delegation of NSW parliamentarians, organised by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, was hijacked by pro-Palestinian MPs to attack Israel.

Mr Shoebridge's office emailed Dr Toben a link to his speech on March 25.

"Many, many thanks, Mark – and all the very best to David – and I do hope there will not be a bending to Jewish pressure after this courageous stance!" Dr Toben said in a return email the same day.

"Definitely not," came a response from Mr Shoebridge's office two days later. [Emphasis added here and below]

Dr Toben was invited to the "Sail with us in solidarity" fundraiser organised by the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, co-chaired by Mr Shoebridge and Labor MLC Lynda Voltz, on April 3.

"There was never any intention to invite Mr Toben to the event," Mr Shoebridge said yesterday.

"Mr Toben was inadvertently invited to the event via an automated email. Once we realised who he was – namely a Holocaust denier – we withdrew the invitation and took immediate steps to ensure that he would not be contacted in any way in the future...."

Emails between Mr Shoebridge's office and Dr Toben show it took some time for the realisation to hit.

Dr Toben asked in an email on Monday, April 8: "Do you still have a spot for me on that harbor cruise? If so, then I shall book a return flight from Adelaide to Sydney and join the cruise on 2 May."

A response came the following day. "Hi Frederick. Yes there are still spaces available. It would be good to see you there. Mark for David."

On Wednesday, April 10, though, the invitation was withdrawn. "Hi Frederick, I'm afraid we're going to have to rescind our invitation to this event. I have been informed that, based on your past actions and views, your presence will likely offend a number of guests who we work with frequently. Apologies for any inconvenience. Mark for David."....'

As reported here,  unlike certain NSW colleagues Greens Party leader Senator Christine Milne, though expressing abhorrence for Toben's views on the Holocaust, has failed to condemn the invitation, while (the part-Jewish) NSW Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, who's been prominently linked to the BDS movement, has declined to comment.

For fuller coverage be sure to see also here and here (hat tip: reader Ian)

As an Australian editorial remarks following this latest incident:

"Understandably, some conclude that Israel is only collateral damage for the BDS movement. Its real target is the Jews."

 All the more reason for us to give a "thumbs up" to this video; (hat tip: reader Shirlee)

Gaza: A Bolt From The Blue For The Greens

I see that tomorrow the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine have, for the Israel-demonising faithful and the merely gullible (at $A75 or $A100 a ticket), a dining and sailing experience on behalf of the oppressed of Gaza.

As Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt reminds us today, the mistreatment of Gazans is grim, but it is Hamas who are doing the mistreating, yet people like NSW parliamentarian David Shoebridge and his fellow-Greens are studiously ignoring such violations of human rights while saving all their excoriation for Israel:

'It’s three weeks since his arrest but Ismail Halou still has streaks of purple bruising on the soles of his feet. The 22 year-old was filling cars at his family’s petrol station in Gaza City at 5pm on April 4th when a black jeep pulled into the forecourt, plain-clothed police stepped out and ordered him into the car. He was blindfolded and driven to the nearest police station.

“I could hear the screams of people being beaten in the rooms next to me. Two men held my legs down and tied them together on a wooden board then they beat the soles of my feet with a plastic rod. They beat me for at least five minutes. I was crying and screaming with agony. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” Mr Halou recalls.

It was only after the beating that police officers set to work trying to shave off the one-inch fin of gelled hair that was the cause of his arrest…

Police in Gaza, a Palestinian coastal enclave run by Islamist faction Hamas, have arrested at least 41 men on charges of immodesty this April.

Most of them were beaten, all of them had their heads forcibly shaven. Some were shaven because their haircuts that were deemed culturally inappropriate, others because their trousers were either too low-slung or too fitted. In at least two cases, police also cut-up jeans deemed too tight.' 

Incidentally, today as well Bolt draws attention to this example of reverse racism, in an ad for a TV show host on Canada's tax-funded equivalent of the BBC. Perhaps they just want to increase the representation of non-white males on the show, in order to reflect the diversity of society and provide children with a variety of role models.  Fair enough, but hopefully that's all it is and unlike the BBC the Canadian national broadcaster will know when enough is enough: a grotesquely disproportionate degree of discrimination in favour of ethnic minorities, making presenters of "white British" identity virtually obsolete, has been evident on the BBC in kids' shows for a very long time. 

The NSW Greens Are Punished By Voters, But More Anti-Israel Bias From Australia's National Broadcaster

By NSW muralist Sergio Redegalli

Deservedly, the Greens in New South Wales have been trounced at the polls, pro-Israel state parliamentarian Walt Secord, Labor leader in the Legislative Council, commenting aptly:

"The stain of the illogical and antisemitic BDS campaign will forever linger over the Greens.

Voters across NSW rejected the Greens because they forgot about rates, rubbish and recycling and starting wasting resources on fringe matters like attacking Israel.

Across the State, the Greens had massive swings against them.

They suffered major swings in Leichhardt, Woollahra, Marrickville, Randwick, Sydney City, Byron Shire, the Blue Mountains, Lane Cove and Waverley; with some of the results reaching double digits.

Since the departure of former Greens leader Bob Brown, there has been a plunge in Green support; Bob Brown was a moderating force when compared to the hard-line faction associated with Senator Lee Rhiannon.

It is not surprising that one of the largest swings came from Woollahra at almost 12 per cent; Randwick at almost nine per cent and Waverley at almost seven per cent – as all three electorates have significant Jewish populations who would have despised the Greens’ stand on Israel and the BDS."

Read more here

Meanwhile, Radio National, a component of  the ABC (Australia's counterpart to the BBC) has been indulging in more one-sided anti-Israel propaganda, this time courtesy of NSW academic and veteran Israel-basher Dr Peter Slezak  who travelled to the West Bank and Gaza earlier this year and met, among others, members of the far left agenda-ridden Israeli NGO "Breaking The Silence"

(Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

"Like Blowflies At A Barcaldine Barbeque": BDSers Blight Byron Bay

"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."

Read more here

Below, incidentally, is how Monsour recently wowed Israel-haters in Ireland:

Aussie Leftists Rally In Sydney Against Iranian Strike By What Professor Calls the "Israeli Militarist State"

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)

Greens In NSW Take BDS Off Their Printed Menu, But Keep The Dish On Offer

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):

A Little Aussie (anti-Israel) Battler Messing About In Boats

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.

Been Seen As Mean: Greens' Spleen Against Jewish Doctor in New South Wales

Some months ago, upset by the Marrickville Council's promotion of BDS against Israel, which among other things he feared might prevent his daughter, who attends school in that inner suburb, from participating in any exchange visit to Israel, medical specialist Dr John Nemesh distributed posters in Marrickville during the New South Wales election campaign.  These criticised the BDS policy implemented by the Greens-dominated Council under Mayor Fiona Byrne (pictured; who went on to narrowly lost her seat at that election).

Spotting that the posters failed to comply with the requirement that election material must bear the name and address of the printer, the Greens, stooping to the bottom of the barrel to extract vengeance, splenetically reported him to police for the trivial omission.  A Greens councillor, Max Phillips, evidently told police that in the early hours he'd seen a number of people distributing the "illegal" posters:

"People who were putting up the signs were leaving and heading back up towards Petersham. There were three younger people and an older guy in the car. They appeared to be well-dressed 20-somethings. It occurred to me that they might be Jewish university students."

Dr Nemesh told J-Wire:

"As far as the posters are concerned, Christine Milne, the deputy head of the Federal Greens Party made the same mistake as me and neither of us was charged by the electoral commission. Yet [Councillor Phillips and another Green, Colin Charlton] filed a complaint only against me. There seems to be one rule for the Greens and one for everyone else."

This week Margaret Quinn, a magistrate in the local court at Newtown, New South Wales, dismissed the charges against Dr Nemesh, describing them as trivial, Dr Nemesh as "a very well-regarded person," and the Greens' pursuit of BDS as "fairly disgraceful".

Reports the Australian newspaper:

'Outside court, Dr Nemesh said Ms Quinn had dismissed the matter, "due to the utter ridiculousness of the charge against me, initiated by the Greens". He added: "What was not ridiculous was the manner in which the Greens conducted themselves, with hypocrisy, bullying and even racial profiling...."

 Dr Nemesh has made a complaint to police against Ms Byrne for allegedly stealing his posters, some of which accused the Greens of hypocrisy for supporting gay causes while denouncing Israel, the only country in the Middle East where gay rights are enshrined in law.'

 In welcoming the acquittal of Dr Nemesh,.Luke Foley, leader of the Opposition in the New South Wales Parliament, adds:

'How then did Dr Nemesh’s matter ever make it to court?... The police brief of evidence revealed that the two complainants were both Greens activists. One of them is Max Phillips, a Greens councillor on Marrickville Council. In other words, a public office holder from the then ruling political party in the Marrickville municipality went to Marrickville police station and sought criminal charges to be laid against Dr Nemesh. How were Marrickville police constables to act when confronted by the local governing political party heavying them to lay charges against Dr Nemesh?

The Greens regularly rail against our law and order system, always deeming it heavy-handed and always condemning tough laws. Yet they throw the book at Dr Nemesh, the son of a Holocaust survivor, for daring to object to their Israel boycott. Councillor Phillips’ witness statement describes the pursuit of Dr Nemesh by Greens activists during the election campaign. Phillips states:

■There were three younger people and an older guy in the car. They appeared to be well dressed twenty somethings. It occurred to me that they might be Jewish university students.

The Greens activists proceeded to photograph and then follow them—because they looked like Jews. This is the very racial profiling that New South Wales Greens politicians, such as Lee Rhiannon, have railed against. If one substitutes the word "Jewish" in Councillor Phillips’ statement with "Arabic", imagine the howls of outrage that would come from Greens politicians. Yet here we have a Greens public office holder tendering a statement to the police volunteering that he and his colleagues pursued political opponents on the basis that they appeared to be Jews. The statement says that they were well dressed and then leaps to the conclusion that they must be Jews. The old stereotypes still fester among a few.

Boycotting Jewish commerce is, of course, Europe’s oldest political appeal. The international campaign to impose trade and cultural boycotts serves the purpose of delegitimising the State of Israel and in doing so feeds the eliminationist narrative of Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and all those who want Israel wiped off the map, aligning itself with the putrid racism of those groups—their Holocaust denial, their promotion of anti-Semitic stereotypes and their raw sewage Nazi ideology. Boycott, divestment and sanctions activists regularly demonise Israel as an apartheid State, even though the analogy between Israel, where Arabs exercise full citizenship rights, and apartheid South Africa is specious.

I commend my parliamentary colleague Jeremy Buckingham for courageously speaking out against the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign promoted so heavily by Senator Rhiannon and her supporters inside the New South Wales Greens. Unfortunately, some within the New South Wales Greens harbour an obsessive hatred of the Jewish State of Israel. A virulent strain of anti-Semitism exists within some sections of the New South Wales Greens. I call the leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown, to intervene in his party’s New South Wales branch to purge this frantic extremism.'