In Australia, Claims of Bigotry, Blackballing & a Baklava

 As seen at left, and below, in very recent Tweets, Lebanese-born New South Wales Labor MP Shaoquett Moselbane is a vigorous pro-Palestinian proponent. 

In March 2013, Mr Moselmane sparked outrage when he gave, inside that chamber, what Dan Goldberg writing in Haaretz described as "a firebrand speech ... a vituperative tirade" alleging that the creation of Israel was a “corruption of justice,” that Gaza is “the world's largest open-air prison camp,” and that Israel ran “torture camps” in southern Lebanon.

Continued Goldberg:

'Moselmane also accused Israel of “massive violations of human rights,” saying: “If there was ever a group in need of protection from war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, it is the Palestinians.”

The first Muslim ever elected to the NSW parliament added this: “I salute the [Lebanese] resistance. Imagine what the response would have been in 1941 or 1942 if we had condemned resistance against Nazi Germany. Guns would have been blazing at us for not resisting Nazi Germany. In Lebanon the resistance was able to force the Israelis out.”

Moselmane was supported by fellow Labor MP Linda Voltz and by Greens MP David Shoebridge, both known for anti-Israel activism.

Afterwards, the CEO of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Aldaheff, who had sat in the gallery during the entire three-hour debate, said, according to the same report: 

“It was very disappointing to hear such outrageous slurs and baseless comments made against Israel in an Australian parliament.

Fortunately, they came from a handful of marginal MPs and were quickly and appropriately condemned by Labor and Liberal MPs.”

He described Moselmane’s comparison with Nazi Germany as “outrageous” and “beyond belief,” adding: “I would describe it as a one-off rant but a one-off rant that showed the depth of animosity from a marginal group within the parliament.”

Alhadeff ... said he was in the gallery during some of the debates about the Israel boycott in 2011.“While there were hostile critics of Israel no one ever made a comparison to the Nazis,” he told Haaretz."

 During the past week Mr Moselmane has sparked outrage again.

 Reported political editor Andrew Clennel in The Australian (14 August):

'The first Muslim MP in the NSW parliament has sparked a row overnight, refusing entry to a respected Jewish leader to a Labor Party multicultural launch.

Upper House MP Shaoquett Moselmane refused entry to Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff at the launch of the Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee launch last night saying, according to Mr Alhadeff, that he was not a Labor Party member before offering him a baklava on the way out.

The baklava was declined.

Mr Alhadeff had had an invitation to the Sussex Street event by Labor General secretary Kaila Murnain and Unions NSW chief Mark Morey.

But his invitation only came after Mr Alhadeff had questioned why Mr Moselmane had not invited him in the first place.

“While I appreciated the goodwill in receiving an invitation from Kaila Murnain and Mark Morey, it is unfortunate that Mr Moselmane would defy his party leadership and deny entry to a leader of the Jewish community,” Mr Alhadeff said.

“Given that the invitation which Mr Moselmane sent to others specifically said he hoped this new organisation would become a conduit between the multicultural community and Labor and the union movement, it made no sense to exclude the CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies when we represent the Jewish community and are an active component of multicultural NSW.”

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley said he has apologised to Mr Alhadeff for what occurred.

“He did receive a written invitation to the meeting,” Mr Foley said. “Unfortunately Mr Moselmane says there was a miscommunication. NSW Labor maintains healthy and constructive relations with Vic and other leaders of the state’s Jewish community, and that will continue.” ....'

Taking to Twitter, Mr Moselmane declared:

(The Australian is the flagship newspaper of Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorporation empire Down Under, and is the most pro-Israel of this country's broadsheets.)

But, wait, there's more!  It seems that the Jewish media outlet J-Wire, as well as the Australian Jewish News, failed to receive invitations to cover events to which they might reasonably expect to be able to cover.  Here's how the Sydney Daily Telegraph (16 August) reported the matter:

Here's Mr Moselmane's reaction:

Of the apparent snub to the Jewish community Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, no stranger to readers of this blog, comments over at J-Wire:

 'The NSW Labor Party appears to be following in the footsteps of the openly brazen Jew-hatred displayed in the UN Human Rights Council – as emulated by the British Labour Party through its leader Jeremy Corbyn.

NSW Labor party leader Luke Foley needs to deal with Moselane firmly and promptly to prevent the spread of this disease in his own backyard. If Foley allows his party to continue to be tainted by Moselane’s actions – Foley will bear the electoral consequences that must inevitably flow from his inaction.

I hope to see J Wire and the Australian Jewish News receive the same respect and recognition accorded to other ethnic media in NSW.'

Oh, and talking of NewsCorp and Jeremy Corbyn, The Australian's foreign editor Greg Sheridan has an absolute humdinger of an article about antisemitism, Corbyn and the Corbynistas today! Too bad it's behind a paywall. Catch it if you can.)

Breaking Bread The Odd Couple Way

The road to Hell, the old adage goes, is paved with good intentions.

And so it was that, some years ago, a Reform ("Progressive") rabbi here in Australia held a model seder to which members of the Muslim community were invited.

The trouble was that, in order not to offend his Muslim guests, the rabbi omitted a crucial bit of the Haggadah: the bit that goes "Next year in Jerusalem!"

Oy!

And so it was, too, more recently, that Australia's largest Reform  ("Progressive") congregation held an ecumenical concert which, as described here, included some very dodgy guests indeed.

Yes, that "little knowledge" which is "a dangerous thing" can be a trap for the naive and the unwary.

Reform Jews decry the lack of female equality in Halakhah and in Orthodox (never mind ultra-Orthodox) congregations and Batei Din (rabbinical courts).

Reform Jews support the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, perform same-sex marriages, and deride anybody who takes what might be termed a "traditional Torah-true" view of sexual relations between two men as homophobic.

So there's something I don't get about this.

I mean, it's all nice and cosy and commendable and all, but what I don't get is why Reform shuls, which profess to champion women's rights and have female rabbis (like Lord Janner's daughter herself) are swift to "break bread" with adherents of a religion which is manifestly not an equal opportunity employer when it comes to gender issues and which emphatically does not condone homosexuality.

And how (I fear the answer) do they approach the issue of Israel and Zionism?

Meanwhile, here in Oz, consternation in some quarters over this article by a Muslim captain in the Royal Australian Navy.

Perhaps it's not too hard to guess what this Australian scholar of Islam would make of it all.

 (Be sure to read this interview with the British-born American-based Muslim physician Dr Qanta Ahmed regarding Israel; it's a cracker!)

'The "Don't Give Any Oxygen" Tactic That Many Jewish Communal Leaders Use Is A Failed Tool In Combating The Delegitimisation Campaign Against Israel'

"Recent developments signal that the prospect of Europe sliding into a new Dark Age is now a horrifying reality. It is as though all the elements negating the open society have been blended into a witches’ brew to undermine Europe’s liberal cultural ethos." 

So, inter alia, observed  Isi Leibler some months ago.

"First in line to suffer are the Jews, attacked from all sides, isolated, friendless and unable to adequately defend themselves. Their greatest threat is the rabidly anti-Semitic Muslims supported by anti-Semites from the far Left. This unholy alliance of religious and secular extremists employs radical anti-Israelism as a surrogate for traditional anti-Semitism and is now a fixture at Hezbollah and anti-Israeli demonstrations, where they wave placards and shamelessly accuse Israelis of emulating Nazis....

.... In a sense, it is even worse for Jews today than during the 1930s when at least the liberals and the Left combated anti-Semitism. What is more depressing is that, as a rule, the public is even more anti-Semitic than the government and perceives Israel as the principal source of global evil – no different to the Middle Ages when the Jews were regarded as the source of all natural disasters such as plagues and famine.

Despite the hullabaloo surrounding Islamophobia, it is Jews and not Muslims who require armed guards at their schools and houses of worship. And the hate crimes, now including murder, perpetrated against Jews are infinitely more acute than those suffered by Muslim minorities. Indeed it is preponderantly Muslims who are engaged in violence against Jews.'

Jewish communal leaders of the "trembling Israelite" type are a pathetic sight, wherever they are located.  When they prefer to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the realities described above, they are a menace to the interests of those they are meant to represent.

 '....  Islamophobia is a catch-all phrase used to demonize anyone who makes a legitimate criticism of Islam or Muslims. It is not irrational to fear the murder and terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam; it is not bigoted to warn against the steady encroachment of Shari’a law or the connections between Islamic charities and terrorist money-laundering in London; it is not demonization to condemn Muslim attacks on women and girls or on freedom of speech. Yet all such opinions are damned as “Islamophobic” in order to silence them....

Anti-Semitism is the principal driver of murderous Islamic rage, not just against Jews themselves but against the Western world which Muslims believe the Jews control. It is the core not just of the war against Israel but the jihadi holy war against the West....

Surely, the religious and moral imperative for Jews is to fight the Islamic jihad against life, equality and freedom. Yet amazingly, the community leadership has made it instead a religious and moral imperative to attack those who are fighting Islamofascism....'

That is the commonsensical view of Marvellous Melanie writing here a few days ago with regard to .the Anglo-Jewish "leadership".

Unfortunately, there are Australian Jewish communal leaders of similar ilk, and compounding the felony has been the recent (22 September) much-derided failure of a Jewish federal Labor  (ALP) politician,no less a personage than former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, on the ABC's Q&A program to counter the gratuitous anti-Israel rant by a Muslim fellow-panellist in what was supposed to be a segment about ISIS.  Mr Dreyfus has defended his silence on the grounds that he did not want to give Randa Abdel-Fattah's remarks oxygen, but as one of his critics, the stalwart Michael Burd,  remarks in the correspondence columns of the current Australian Jewish News:

'.... While Israel is facing an unrelenting demonisation campaign, and while so many Greens and Labor, are not shy to publicly support the Palestinians and vilify Israel, you had the opportunity to respond to Palestinian and Muslim activists on the panel but instead remained shtum.

The "don't give any oxygen" tactic that many Jewish communal leaders use is a failed tool  In combating the delegtimisation campaign against Israel and that is one of the reasons why we are losing the battle ....'

Michael Burd concludes:

'Perhaps I am cynical but I am sure Mr Dreyfus's large Muslim constituency ... had an influence on his relectance to stand up for Israel.'

 In her above-mentioned article Melanie Phillips concedes:

"Of course it is hard for Britain’s 280,000-strong Jewish community to have confidence in the face of (at a conservative estimate) three million British Muslims."

The same, can, I suppose, be said of Australia's 120,000 Jews, outnumbered in a small amount of time by a Muslim community that hardly existed 35  years ago yet now numbers 400,000  (600,000, according to some estimates).

Indeed (hat tip: reader Ian; see the full report regarding the  Aussie ex-prime minister's remarks here):

' .... Julia Gillard has taken a swipe at Labor colleagues who place their ties to voters in some Sydney electorates above their support for Israel.

 .... Certain ALP MPs in Sydney’s western suburbs have in the past been accused of pandering to their Muslim constituents on foreign policy matters relating to Israel.

 Gillard added, “I just think for some others there’s not the strength of connection that there should be and that we would hope that there would be in the future,” she said. Gillard said visiting Israel some years ago had given her “a sense of the complexity” of tensions with its neighbours. She critiqued the failed latest round of US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying negotiations had advanced to new stages, while previous stages had not been firmly settled.

Gillard: ‘Sydney votes trump support for Israel’ ....'

In any event, as Isi Leibler has warned:

Leftist anti-Israel types rally in Perth, WA ...

'It is surely high time for Diaspora leaders to stop living in denial and get their act together. Instead of competing with each other in oozing political correctness, they should display some backbone and call a spade a spade.

We are currently witnessing the greatest revival of global anti-Semitism since the Middle Ages. This permeates all classes of society, and, ranging from academics to illiterates and European leaders who retain office despite making unabashed neo-Nazi remarks about Jews to mobs at anti-Israeli demonstrations carrying placards “gas the Jews.”

It encompasses the entire political spectrum, but is spearheaded by liberals and Muslims. Muslim radicals relate to Israel in a manner reminiscent of the Church’s medieval attitude toward the Jews. They promote popular TV programs depicting the blood of Muslim children being used for baking matzot, and have revived The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a best-seller. They certainly compare favorably with the worst Nazi Jew baiting, with imams quoting genocidal religious texts to the faithful, inciting them to murder Jews, “the descendants of apes and pigs.”

... versus "Islamophobia" and for the misogynistic burka ...

It is macabre to observe the alliance between liberals and jihadists who represent the antithesis of everything the Left purports to represent. The extremist Islamists are the most reactionary elements in the world. They reject fundamental human rights, proscribe freedom of expression and religion, promote the degradation of women and, to this day, implement barbaric laws including stoning of adulterers and homosexuals and the amputation of limbs for petty crimes. More than 50 Muslim countries deny Judaism or Christianity equal standing with Islam....

Alas, Jews who exaggerate the presence of Islamophobia become leading proponents of the campaign to sanitize and understate Islamic extremism. This is especially bizarre, given that Jews, especially in Europe, but also increasingly in the US, are facing far greater threats of violence than Muslims. It is also synagogues, rather than mosques, which are continuously being desecrated and vandalized, in many cases by Islamists....

... yesterday(Saturday) ...

There is indeed a desperate need to encourage moderate Muslims. But appeasing the extremists and groveling to Muslim bullies merely emboldens them. There is not a single instance in history in which appeasing religious fanatics of any faith has brought about progress. If we allow ourselves to be intimidated or fail to confront Islamist jihadists, they will succeed in destroying the very tenets of our civilization.

This is an area in which Jews, who have the most to lose, must surely stand up and be counted.'

Switching Religions For A Fortnight: The ABC of it

On Sunday evening the ABC showed a much hyped programme in its "Compass" series entitled "Holy Switch". Here's the blurb:

'Mobinah, a committed Muslim, switches lives with Jordane, a young Jewish woman recently returned to Australia after a year on a kibbutz in Israel. Apart from their obvious religious differences, there are strong contrasts in their communities. Mobinah's family lives in the multicultural melting pot of western Sydney, while Jordane is from the leafy, middle-class suburbs of eastern Melbourne.

Mobinah's switch sees her living with Rabbi Fred and his wife for two weeks. This gives her many opportunities to experience a diverse range of ceremonies and activities, including a wedding, a christening and preparations for Passover. She embraces the experience with an open mind and heart, although she cannot be persuaded to take off her hijab. In the end she tells us that Holy Switch has made her a better Muslim.

Jordane spends two weeks with Mobinah's extended family in their large Bonnyrigg house that also doubles as a community centre. The Halal cuisine is hot and spicy, and mealtimes with up to 15 family members around the table are an education. At coffee with Mobinah's friends, the discussion ranges across issues such as faith, sex and marriage. She soon begins to struggle with the early morning call to prayer and she misses her friends from the Netzer youth group, but the real challenge comes when she attends a fundraiser for Syrian rebels.'

Persuaded to watch the programme by an enthusiastic friend, I was left singularly unimpressed.  For this was Judaism Lite, amid a spectacle superficial.

Judaism Lite because the young Jewish woman featured, like the rabbinic household shown, is from the Progressive wing of Judaism (and kudos to the Progressives for their willingness to try to build bridges).  But had the participants been Orthodox (and I don't mean Haredi) there would have been a very different and arguably more representative view of Jewish belief and practice, certainly of traditional belief and practice, to show to the Muslim girl and her parental household (which, though the significance of this was not dwelt on, was part home, part mosque, and part Islamic centre, three characteristics rolled into one.)

I can't imagine an Orthodox young woman wearing a sleeveless top in the household of her Muslim hosts (nor would she have a nose ring, since Judaism forbids bodily mutilation), nor, on an all-girls night in which the young, hijabbed Muslim women with her spoke of their much-guarded virginity, telling them that in her Jewish circle having a couple or so sexual partners before settling down and marrying is the commonplace thing.

Thus the programme gave both viewers and Muslim participants an incorrect impression of Judaism and Jewish teaching.

A spectacle superficial because obvious questions went unasked and unanswered.  Did either young woman feel that their communities are male-centric and patriarchal?  To be honest, I very much doubt whether anybody could regard Progressive Judaism in that way (indeed, some might argue that the pendulum has swung too much the other way).  But the attitude of Islam towards women was the elephant in the room.  Did the young Jewish woman, used to egalitarianism in the Progressive synagogue, baulk at the segregation of women and their placement at the back of the mosque?

And whereas Islam is a proselytising religion (the Jewish girl, on the expiry of her fortnight in the Muslim home/mosque/Islamic centre, was presented with a Quran by the senior male host, a genial gentleman, it must be said), Judaism is not.  But a veil was tightly drawn over such things.

Alas, the programme was nothing more than a fuzzy feel-good filler.