Looking Ahed to a Birthday

In glorious downtown Sydney today, an inglorious combination of ultra-left and Islamic foes of Israel come out to shill for Pallywood's Ahed Tamimi.

To quote an activist:

"Ahed’s birthday is on January 31 — and there will be global protests on this day to demand her release from prison."

 (Photographer: Peter Boyle for Green Left Weekly)

Ultra-left Senator Lee Rhiannon lends her notoriously Israel-demonising voice to proceedings:

 Meanwhile,  a ridiculous piece by UCIrvine professor and Israel basher Mark LeVine:

'....Not long after her arrest, the scholar Shenila Khoja-Moolji rightly asked why the world has shown such support for Malala Yousafzai, but not for Ahed. Both are young women who’ve faced incredible violence and oppression, and both share the same grit and determination. But it’s also clear that Ahed is a very different person with a different story. She’s suffered less physically, at least so far. But she also didn’t have the luxury of being “saved” by her former colonizer. Spirited away to the UK to be healed, given citizenship, given a Nobel Prize. Feted around the world as a symbol of what a Muslim women can and should be. And, of course, Malala stood up to America’s mortal enemy, the Taliban, while Ahed is fighting America’s darling, Israel. As long as there’s no understanding of how close Israel’s treatment of Palestinians mirrors the Taliban’s treatment of women – no rights, permanent confinement to ever smaller prisons, violence and murder without regard to international law or morality – there’s no chance Ahed will ever be seen in the same light as Malala....'

A well-justified piece by Israel-based human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky:

'.... Urged on by her parents, Ahed Tamimi miraculously seems to appear whenever the cameras start rolling, trying to manipulate the media and provoke Israeli soldiers to create some viral video.

This girl should be given an Oscar for “Best Actress Starring in a Fake Protest”, not lauded as a hero or symbol of resistance.

It is important to note that the Israeli soldiers were only in Nabi Saleh to stop a violent Palestinian riot following President Trump’s December 6 announcement recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In this case, the soldiers acted with the utmost restraint and professionalism. They could have easily succumbed to Ms Tamimi’s trap and arrested her on the spot.

That the Palestinians and their enablers in the international community seek to lionise Ms Tamimi only helps perpetuate this conflict by placing children in harm’s way. Israeli authorities had no option but to make it clear that assault against IDF forces will not be tolerated.

Meantime, Ms Tamimi’s father, who has played the role of “director” in his family’s ongoing PR campaign, said: “I’m proud of my daughter. She is a freedom fighter who, in the coming years, will lead the resistance to Israeli rule.”

Whatever one’s views on the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, we should all agree that children belong in school, not paraded on the battlefield.

Such cynical and blatant exploitation by the Tamimi parents constitutes gross abuse....'

Oh, and LeVine's concern for women's rights?


How about this, as an indication of young and modern thought?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=VtYyarrCk_k

David Singer: Why Di Natale Must Shred Rhiannon's Misleading Pamphlet

In the following article, entitled  "Palestine – Rhiannon Propaganda Pamphlet Threatens Greens' Political Integrity", Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer continues to focus his attention on anti-Israel propaganda  (example at left) propounded by the incorrigible Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon. 

Writes David Singer:

Australian Greens Leader Senator Richard Di Natale needs immediately to shred a misleading and deceptive pro-Palestinian pamphlet authorised and printed by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon.

The pamphlet contains two statements purportedly made by Israel’s Moshe Dayan in 1969 and Ariel Sharon in 1973.

Dayan is quoted as saying:

“We came to a region of land that was inhabited by Arabs and we set up a Jewish State … Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages” 

Dayan actually said:

“We came to a region that was inhabited by Arabs, and we set up a Jewish state. In many places, we purchased the land from Arabs and set up Jewish villages where there had once been Arab villages.” 

Dayan’s statement refutes the canard repeated in Palestinian text books and media that 

“the Zionist gangs stole Palestine”

Why Rhiannon deleted Dayan’s highly significant remarks remains unexplained.

The authenticity of Sharon’s supposed statement is shrouded in uncertainty. Michael Shaik writing in the Green Left Weekly claimed the statement was made by a British journalist boasting at Israel’s National Press Club.

Max Blumenthal writes it was made in a private chat with Winston Churchill’s grandson in 1973. On 18 July 2002 George Hishmeh  – an Arab-American journalist based in Washington  – elucidated: 

"Winston S. Churchill III, grandson of the famed British prime minister, recalled last October [11 October 2001 – Ed] at the National Press Club here a telling encounter he had had in 1973 with the hawkish Ariel Sharon, now the Israeli prime minister, about Zionist objectives. “What is to become of the Palestinians?” Churchill asked. “We’ll make a pastrami sandwich of them,” Sharon said. Churchill responded, “What?” “Yes, we’ll insert a strip of Jewish settlements in between the Palestinians, and then another strip of Jewish settlements right across the West Bank, so that in 25 years’ time, neither the United Nations nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart.”

Hishmeh identified as his source Geoffrey Aronson:

“who is recognized in the US as the preeminent American expert on the Israeli settlement movement, loves to relate this significant exchange as he did in an interview with The [Lebanon – Ed] Daily Star on two different occasions.”

Churchill recounting a 1973 private discussion in such precise detail at the Washington National Press Club twenty eight years later – is highly suspect.

Churchill never made any mention of this conversation with Sharon in his published speech at the Press Club – although he could have recalled the conversation as an aside or in some discussion with Aronson or others afterwards.

Churchill’s bombshell revelation seems to have gone unnoticed as this contemporaneous report indicates.

No other reports have been found.

I have been unable to listen to or download a copy of a tape that apparently exists and could possibly shed some light on what Churchill said.

Please help me retrieve it if you can.

Whether that tape surfaces or not, a question mark must hang over the accuracy of Sharon’s previously unpublished 1973 private remarks – only disclosed by Churchill in 2001.

Sharon and Churchill are not alive to confirm or deny what was said – yet the terms of this private conversation are quoted with unerring accuracy and entrenched as gospel in Rhiannon’s pamphlet.

Rhiannon’s continuing use of Sharon’s “statement” – compounded by her excluding part of Dayan’s statement  –  raises questions as to the propriety of the Greens using this pamphlet to garner votes in the upcoming July Federal elections.

Shredding these pamphlets has become an urgent priority.

The Greens' political integrity requires its support for the Palestinian Arabs be based on solid grounds – not shaky foundations.

David Singer: "Fiction ... Designed to Deceive & Mislead & Possibly Incite to Violence & Jew-hatred"

Entitled "Palestine – Politicians Peddling Propaganda Forfeit Credibility", here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

Image credit: J-Wire.com

 He writes:

Senator Lee Rhiannon – a member of the Greens Party holding a pivotal position in Australian politics – authorised and printed a deceptive and misleading pamphlet which was distributed at a protest rally addressed by her last Sunday in Sydney “against Israeli Apartheid and commemorating Al Nakba 68 years on.”

Image credit: J-Wire.com

The pamphlet purported to quote a statement by Israel’s then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in 1969:

“We came to a region of land that was inhabited by Arabs and we set up a Jewish State … Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages“

What Dayan actually said – which Senator Rhiannon was apparently not prepared to disclose – was:

“We came to a region that was inhabited by Arabs, and we set up a Jewish state. In many places, we purchased the land from Arabs and set up Jewish villages where there had once been Arab villages.”

God forbid that those present should learn that Jews had actually purchased land from its Arab owners. Better to maintain the canard repeated in Palestinian text books and media that

“the Zionist gangs stole Palestine”

 Moshe Aumann in his seminal work "Land ownership in Palestine 1880-1948" states that in 1948:

“8.6 per cent of the land was owned by Jews and 3.3 per cent by Israeli Arabs, while 16.9 per cent had been abandoned by Arab owners who imprudently heeded the call from neighbouring countries to "get out of the way" while the invading Arab armies made short shrift of Israel. The rest of the land—over 70 per cent—had been vested in the Mandatory Power, and accordingly reverted to the State of Israel as its legal heir. (Government of Palestine, Survey of Palestine, 1946, British Government Printer, p. 257.) The greater part of this 70 per cent consisted of the Negev, some 3,144,250 acres all told, or close to 50 per cent of the 6,580,000 acres in all of Mandatory Palestine. Known as Crown or State Lands, this was mostly uninhabited arid or semi-arid territory, inherited originally by the Mandatory Government from Turkey.  In 1948 it passed to the Government of Israel. These lands had not been owned by Arab farmers—neither under the British Mandate nor under the preceding regime.”

Senator Rhiannon has a Parliamentary staff to assist her in ensuring everything that issues in her name as a Senator is totally and completely accurate.

She has let her emotions cloud her judgement in what can only be seen as a deliberate attempt to paper over the fact that Jews bought land in Palestine they settled on.

Another pamphlet containing four maps was handed out at the rally – supposedly documenting Palestinian loss of land between 1946 and 2000.

Image credit: J-Wire.com

McGraw Hill Publishing only recently withdrew from sale and trashed unsold copies of one of its textbooks – Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World – containing those maps.

Spokesperson Catherine Mathis stated:

"As soon as we learned about the concerns with it, we placed sales of the book on hold and immediately initiated an academic review. The review determined that the map did not meet our academic standards. We have informed the authors and we are no longer selling the book. All existing inventory will be destroyed. We apologize and will refund payment to anyone who returns the book."

Senator Rhiannon is perfectly entitled to express her support for the Palestinian Arabs.

It would be encouraging to know, however, that her support is based on fact – not fiction and partisan propaganda designed to deceive and mislead and possibly incite to violence and Jew-hatred.

Senator Rhiannon has badly blotted her copybook – and credibility.

Aussie Senator Defames Israel & Adelaide Museum Allows Nakba Plaque

"The great crime of the 20th century is now the great crime of the 21st century."

That's how, according to an excellent must-read  report from J-Wire, the Israel-hating BDS-loving part-Jewish Greens Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon, the daughter of hard left parents, described the Nakba at this year's "Nakba Day" rally in Sydney.

As J-Wire noted, and as seen in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, she also authorised rally leaflets and a poster using parliamentary funds, material that denies Israel's right to exist by dating the "Occupation" to 1948.   (Read and see more at J-Wire here)

Some faces in the crowd:

Yes, it seems that all of Israel-hating human life was there.

The ludicrous "Jews Against The Occupation" also turned up, but since they'd fit inside an old-fashioned telephone booth and still have space over I haven't bothered to include them.  

I trust that Senator Rhiannon, a staunch feminist who nevertheless denounces "Islamophobia"

deplores the overt antisemitism seen among Nakba Day demonstrators such as this bozo at the rally:

I think we should be told.

Meanwhile:

 The Anti-Israel-obsessed Left is lobbying hard.

 "Nakba Day" has also seen a squalid development in Adelaide.

The Migration Museum  in that city is a South Australia state government institution that according to its website "works towards the preservation, understanding and enjoyment of South Australia’s diverse cultures. It is a place to discover the many identities of the people of South Australia through the stories of individuals and communities".

However, on Sunday 15 May political divisiveness and demonisation of Israel intruded upon the multicultural ethos, since the Museum permitted a "Nakba Day" event under the auspices of AFOPA (Australian Friends of Palestine Association) to take place for the purpose of unveiling a plaque headed "Palestine" commemorating the "Nakba, or Catastrophe" (text shown close-up below).

As I noted recently, AFOPA's patron is Adelaide barrister Mr Paul Heywood Smith, whom I mentioned here recently with regard to his writings concerning Israel.

AFOPA's thrust can be seen in such image as these:

In his speech at the unveiling Adelaide resident Dr Ibrahim Elassaad reminisced about his Palestinian Arab family's experiences (and I'm sure no one begrudges him his memories nor his feelings), but the political nature of the event at a publicly funded Museum was a propaganda exercise which enabled one-sided denunciation of Israel to go unchallenged:

"We suffered greatly as a result of our displacement. We became a stateless people.

We lived as refugees, struggling for recognition, struggling for survival and waiting for the day when we can go back home. We still wait for the day when we can go back home.

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the Al Nakba - the Catastrophe of Palestine. Today I am sad to say that the Palestinian displacement and suffering has not stopped.... The Israeli Separation Wall, which is illegal under International law and which has destroyed any possibility of a contiguous Palestinian land, continues.

And today we witness the siege of more than two million Palestinians in Gaza. Gaza stands as the world’s largest and most densely populated open air prison, with the Palestinians denied autonomy over access to their land, and denied autonomy over their sea and air space.

The list goes on.

And the intention of the Israeli Occupying powers is clear: it is to make Palestinian life so miserable so as to force the remaining Palestinians to leave....

Today we are calling for all people who believe in human rights and all governments who proclaim democracy, equal opportunity and justice to stand by the Palestinians. To help them regain their freedom; their rights and their autonomy.

We are grateful and indebted to the Australian people for their support, and we are indebted to the Migration Museum of South Australia for acknowledging us and for commemorating the suffering of the Palestinian people; and for acknowledging the contribution of the South Australian Palestinian community with this plaque...."

[Emphasis added]

Going Under Down Under: A colonel of truth

Hat tip to legendary bloodhound Ian for this one!

Whoops!

Read what the colonel read here

The following linked article's behind a paywall:

But this one, in an Aussie leftist mag, isn't:

Here it is.

And (fix bayonets!) here's  Senator Lee Rhiannon of pro-BDS infamy doing her best to defend the embattled Centre.

Senator Lee Rhiannon & Friends On European Islamophobia (video)

So, I guess they wouldn't consider this Swiss politician a William Tell for a continent:

Hat tip for Swiss video: Shirl in Oz

Mazal Tov, Michael! Aussie Parliamentarian Receives the Jerusalem Prize (videos)

Australian Jewish federal parliamentarian Michael Danby, chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade, has been a stalwart campaigner for Israel since his student days if not earlier. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1998 -  the first Jewish member for over a decade - he champions Israel vigorously.

For his staunch support of Israel,  he received, earlier this week, the Jerusalem Prize of the World Zionist Organization and the Zionist Federation.  This award, which he richly deserves,  is the highest accolade bestowed by the local Zionist movement.  Its previous recipients include former prime ministers Bob Hawke and John Howard, and former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

In the first of these fairly short videos, Yuval Rotem, Israel's Ambassador to Australia, is one of the speakers introducing Michael, and makes a short but enthusiastically received speech regarding the situation facing Israel.

In the second video Michael Danby talks passionately, and amusingly, about his support for Israel (and championship Max Brenner against the BDS mob).

He also confirms that BDS stalwart Senator Lee Rhiannon of New South Wales is of Jewish background; her mother, an unreconstructed Stalinist named Freda Brown (1919-2009), born Freda Yetta Lewis, visited Israel in the 1950s and 1960s, he says.  But Rhiannon herself is in the forefront of the campaign to impose a cultural boycott on the little Jewish State. Oy!

Rhiannon Rattled On Radio As Ben Berates BDS Bullies in Australia

Good on Aussie radio host Ben Fordham.  You can almost hear Senator Lee Rhiannon squirm as he takes her to task for her involvement with the BDS movement and her consequent support for the boycott of the Max Brenner chocolate outlets in Australia - Ben describes the behaviour of the mobs of BDS activists as bullying "hardworking Aussies going about their business, " reminds her of their reprehensible cry "Jews Kill Babies," and puts her on the spot in several delicious ways.
http://www.2gb.com/index.php?option=com_podcasting&task=view&id=40&Itemid=41

Since Rhiannon is such a fierce feminist in the Australian context, I wish next time he interviews her Ben would ask her point blank why she is happy to appear on Press TV, given the fact that women are held in such low esteem in Iran that their life is worth monetarily in compensation half of a man's and sexual relations (short of penetration) with girl babies as young as one year have been given the all-clear by a powerful ayatollah.

Meanwhile, to remind ourselves of the bully-boy behaviour of the mobs that demonstrate against Max Brenner, let's look at footage from last Christmas, when BDS fanatics marched on and into the Brenner cafe in Brisbane, which they were prevented from accessing last weekend owing to the decent people who stood firm against them:

Stranded in Greece, An Aussie Flotilla "Heroine" Greets The Folks Back Home (videos)

Who is Sylvia? What is she, that all these folk commend her?

Well, if you've followed this blog over the last ten days or so, you'll know that Sylvia Hale is a former Greens politician in New South Wales, and an incorrigible leftwing critic of Israel.

Last year Ms Hale went to Gaza, and blogged about it.  The blog contains these gems of the Israel-demoniser's art:

"Yesterday, at Hebron, it was somewhat unnerving to pass through a turnstile while a young soldier lounged a metre or so away pointing a rifle directly at you. It's not entirely fanciful to see boredom getting the better of them.

 Hebron was very interesting. The mosque contains Abraham's tomb and is very important to Muslims ....

The mosque is in the centre of the old city, surrounded by alley ways and shops.... They [the Israelis] used to hurl rocks down on to people below, but, since overhead netting was put in place, rocks and larger objects have been replaced with sand, urine and faeces. The objective is once again to dispossess Palestinians not only of their land and houses, but of their religious heritage." http://sylviahale.org.au/sylvias-blog

Last week, she and other Aussies off to join the flotilla were informed by their country's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that they would have limited Australian consular access in the event of Israel detaining them.

She was quoted on the website of the ABC (the Aussie equivalent of the BBC) as saying:

"I gather the Israelis more or less said what they were proposing to do, namely to intercept the flotilla, to force it to divert to the port of Ashdod, which would be declared a closed military zone, at which there would be no possibility of consular access.

Then participants would either be deported immediately or they would be taken to one of three prisons, at which there might be the possibility of consular access." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/30/3258024.htm

The Tahrir, aboard which Ms Hale and her fellow-Aussies want to sail to Gaza to embarrass Israel, has met a spot of trouble, as described in this report on Ahmadinejad's propaganda news channel, Press TV:

In this video Ms Hale greets the Israel-bashers back in Sydney, including Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon, another old trouper amid the Israel-bashing BDS brigade.

As always, I'm amazed at the alacrity with which women - especially women of a certain age, the generation which fought the women's liberation struggles of the 1970s - embrace the cause of those who would return the status of women to the Dark Ages.

(Which reminds me - Elder of Ziyon has an excellent piece on the little old ladies of the flotilla, complete with poster: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/06/so-why-is-israel-afraid-of-little-old.html )

Australian Comedian Austen Tayshus Takes On The Israel Bashers (video)

In  Q & A on Australian television recently, Aussie comedian Austen Tayshus (Sandy Gutman) turned serious in order to take on Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon, a prominent advocate of BDS, as well as leading Sydney journalist Paul McGeough, another inexorable Aussie critic of Israel.

The encounter was described here: http://theblankpagesoftheage.blogspot.com/2011/06/funny-man-turns-serious.html

And now, thanks to Vlad Tepes (of the well-known blog of that name), you can view it here  (hat tip: reader Shirlee, and special thanks to Vlad):

Australia's BDS Council May Face Sack

"It's unproductive. It's completely disconnected from the reality of Middle Eastern politics," Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd  says of the Greens-driven BDS obsession that now is impelling the inner Sydney  Marrickville Council to throw away all items in its possession with links to Israel. (Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

This BDS move, which conjures up distasteful images of the Nazi era and, not surprisngly, is widely seen as antisemitic (though they'd never admit to that, would they?), involves Hewlett Packard computers, Veolia waste services and Chevrolet (Holden) cars, among other products.  (See other products here: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/marrickville-council-faces-4-million-bill-for-israel-bans/story-e6freuzi-1226038733018).

The Premier of New South Wales, Barry O'Farrell, the President of the Local Government Association of NSW, Keith Rhoades, the Federal Greens leader, Bob Brown, and the founder of the Aussie Greens, Norm Sanders, have all attacked the Council's obsession, with Sanders saying exasperatedly on radio "What's all  this anti-Jewish stuff? I haven't heard one word about the environment from these people [Marrickville's self-styled Greens]."

It's time, he indicated, for the Greens to return to their core values, which are unreflected in the policy, and for the council to return to the purpose for which it exists (namely, rates, roads, and rubbish).

O'Farrell has warned Marrickville's boycott-happy mayor and aspiring politician Fiona Byrne (pictured, who's reportedly "gone to ground") that unless the council abandons the policy it may face the sack. 

It seems that the cost of boycotting Israel will be $A3.7million, and in consequence at least one Green councillor appears to be backing away from the folly.  Indeed, there's some talk of a split among them.

Meanwhile, Green senator-elect Lee Rhiannon, an old hard-left anti-Zionist trouper who grew up in a Communist household, has defiantly told Sky News: "It's not an anti-Israel position at all."

Yep, Lee. Tell that to the marines.