Honeyed Words Do Not a Friend of Israel Make

As is customary, Australian politicians, with at least half an eye on the ballot box, have sent greetings to the Australian Jewish community this Rosh Hashana.

The message from "socially progressive" yet burqa-compliant Senator Richard di Natale, federal leader of the incorrigible Israel-bashing pro-BDS Greens (see here and here and his own shameful backtracking on Israel's status as a Jewish state here and here), takes the entire honey chamber pot for the most sweetly sickening (and all-in-vain) vote-snivelling:

"On behalf of the Australian Greens, I would like to wish a warm Shanah Tovah to everyone welcoming in the Jewish New Year this week.

Rosh Hashanah is a time of reflection for Jewish communities across the world. Families and friends come together in diaspora communities from Melbourne to Minsk with one eye cast hopefully towards the future, and another looking back on the year that has past. It is a time for optimism, when the sweetness of your dreams for a better world for all is reflected in the sweetness of the food on your tables.

The Greens believe that our diversity is one of our nation’s greatest strengths. The proud mosaic of different cultures, faiths and ethnicities that make up our multicultural Australia is made that much richer by each of its parts. The contribution that the Jewish community has made to this tapestry is a profound one, and all out of proportion to its small size. We at the Australian Greens acknowledge and celebrate this.

It is with that history in mind that I wish you in the Jewish community a blessed Rosh Hashanah, and hope that your new year is filled with sweetness and joy.

Warm regards ..."

As one wag put it on J-Wire, "Next we will be receiving a RH greeting from Roger Waters".

Meanwhile, here's another bloke who, being entirely unprompted by the thought of maybe catching a Jewish vote or two, has proved that imitation (or at any rate advocacy of imitation) really is the sincerest form of flattery.
  
To quote from the Memri TV transcript:

'Shi'ite Iraqi cleric Salam Al-Askari delivered a sermon in which he called upon the Muslims to imitate the Jews, who had emerged from the Holocaust and managed to win the respect of the world through science. Sheikh Al-Askari said that the Jews' scientific discoveries made Europe see them as "a nation we need." The Islamic nation, on the other hand, has become the world's headache, he said. Sheikh Al-Askari posted the sermon on his YouTube channel on August 28, under the title "Don't Be Mad. Strong Words. Imitate the Jews in This." 

Salam Al-Askari: "The Jews suffered... The Nazis killed and burned them. They were brought in groups to special places, where they were gassed and they suffocated and died. The Jews were killed in droves. They wanted to emigrate but some European countries banned the Jews from entering. 'We will not accept them,' they said. They were tormented in Germany... Today, when our countries suffer, the youth emigrate to Europe. But back then, Europe shut its doors to the Jews.

In 1905, Lord Balfour... You know, Balfour from what we call the 'accursed Belfour Declaration'...  He struggled fiercely in the British Parliament to stop Jewish immigration to the U.K. He wouldn't allow the Jews to come. That was in 1905. In 1917, he was the one who founded the Zionists' state in Palestine, and handed it over to them. My brothers, we are talking about 1917 – a mere 12 years later. Within 12 years, the Jews went from being displaced to having a state. The entire European world sympathized with them, and they became the leaders of the world to this very day. What exactly happened? Let us shed some light on these pages in history. Let us benefit from the experience of others.

What happened was that the Jews put their greatest minds into science. Through science, they made the entire world kneel before them, and accept and respect the Jewish nation. How? Let me give you an example. The same Lord Balfour who banned the immigration of European Jews declared, 12 years later: 'I am Zionist to the bone.' He was asked what happened: '12 years ago you were against them.' He said: 'What Zionized me – or what turned me into a Zionist – is acetone.' Acetone is a substance used in gunpowder for cannons.

They used this substance to make rockets and win war. Britain was successful in the first and second World Wars. A Jew called Chaim Weizmann invented, or discovered, acetone, which was used in gunpowder for rockets. If not for the work of this man, they would not have won the war. Lord Balfour changed his mind: 'Wow, these Jews have brains!'

The first nuclear reactor in the U.S. was opened by a Jew. The group that made the first nuclear bomb that the U.S. used against Japan, thus winning the war... What tipped the balance in WWII in favor of the Allies were the two bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. You've all heard about this, right? This bomb that terrified the world was manufactured by Jewish minds. It was designed by the minds of Jewish physicists. Europe declared officially: 'We need the Jewish nation.'

Some years ago – I don’t know how many – a European writer wrote an article titled... Forgive me for saying this, but this is what people are saying about us. We shouldn’t always think of ourselves as kings, giants, the best people around. Look what people are saying about us. [A writer] wrote an article titled: 'What would happen if we removed the Muslims from the face of the earth?' This was a study, with references, some of them wrong, but just so that you see how far we lag behind in global civilizational progress... The conclusion of the article was that if Muslims were removed from the face of the Earth, there would be no more headaches in the world – no bombings, no bribery, no plundering, and no kidnapping....

We are two billion Muslims in the world. How many Jews are there worldwide? 17 million. 17 million... There are more people in central and southern Iraq. That is the number of the Jews in the whole world. How many Nobel prizes in the field of science have they won, and how many have we won, in the last century? We, with almost two billion Muslims have won 10 Nobel prizes in a hundred years. They number 17 million, and how many prizes have they won in the past hundred years? 200. They have won 200 prizes, 50-60 of them in physics alone. In other words, if we were to say that the physics of the 20th century is Jewish, nobody could call it an exaggeration."'

Would Brandis & pro-Burqa Bedfellows Expect An Animal To Peer Through a Grill of Mesh?

In the Australian Senate on Thursday, a bizarre-looking, frankly scary, figure with the look of a big black crow sits in the chamber, having been let in with scarcely a concern for security.

An assurance from an acquaintance  that the figure draped in what resembles a garbage bag was who she purported to be was enough to allow the figure to slip in, with no demand that she reveal her face.

The figure was, it soon transpired, indeed the controversial Senator Pauline Hanson, whose wrapping herself in a burqa stunt was performed in order to demonstrate just how lax security in the Australian Parliament is, and to request of Attorney-General George Brandis during Question Time an assurance that, given the terror threat, wearing the burqa be banned in public places in Australia.

As seen on video, George Brandis was not amused by Ms Hanson's stunt and unmoved by her request.  Not that Brandis was unmoved, mark you: his voice trembled and tears bid fair to trickle down his cheeks as he berated Ms Hanson for offending Muslims.

Not a word passed his lips about the offence the grotesque garment called the burqa gives to womankind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDf-5ygFXGk

Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt notes:

'First, Brandis — and Senators of the Left — savaged Hanson for wearing a burqa, but many voters would know these same MPs would have applauded the “courage” of a Muslim MP wearing that alienating sack.

Second, Brandis dangerously elevated the burqa as an important symbol of Islam — a “religious garment”.

Labor’s Penny Wong was as bad, praising the wearing of the burqa as a “sincere act of faith”.

That’s troubling.

Apologists used to claim the burqa was just a backward tribal thing that did not represent nice and sweet Islam at all. But now it apparently does.

Third, Brandis, voice cracking with emotion, then got to the heart of his problem with Hanson’s burqa, and this is not just troubling but alarming.

“It has been the advice of each Director-General of security … and each Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police with whom I have worked that it is vital for their intelligence and law enforcement work that they work cooperatively with the Muslim community,” he blustered.

“To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do.”

Let me translate: do not mock or criticise the burqa or more Muslims will attack us.

Sorry, but I don’t want us cowed by such threats. The burqa is an abomination, and no threats should stop me from asserting this feminist truth.

Does anyone tell gay activists to stop dressing up as nuns or Christians may blow us up?

What Brandis has in fact said is that Muslims are dangerous, and the burqa represents them.

I hope Brandis is just exaggerating the extremism of most Muslims.

But I certainly know he’s kowtowing to a radical minority who want their women bagged and hidden from view.

That is unacceptable....'

Sure is.  But I'd make an additional point regarding these politicians' motives; they're out to catch Muslim votes, and (as with these pro-Islam wets representing the churches) if women's rights, welfare and dignity have to be sacrificed in order to achieve that aim, then so be it.

Leftist hypocrisy regarding feminism and Islam can be clearly seen in many of the comments on Bolt's article.

One earnest leftist tells those who agree with Pauline Hanson on this issue that they belong in Victorian Britain.  O, how laughable (that is, if it were not so very sad!) A male apologist for that misogynistic oppressive garment the burqa telling those who oppose it that they (and not he) belong in a time and place where women (like females under Sharia today) were in subjugation to patriarchal tyranny!

Inevitably, among the champions of burqa-wearing was Greens leader Richard Di Natale, that weaselly foe of Israel, pictured below (front centre) with some buddies.

As a doctor of medicine, Di Natale cannot be ignorant of the danger to unborn babies the wearing by pregnant women of a garment that blocks out sunshine poses: he has obviously heard of rickets and its causes.  I suppose he's happy with the advice that burqa-clad women compensate by dosing themselves with milk fortified with Vitamin D.

But what about the deleterious effect on women's comfort and eyesight that accompanies being encased in a stifling sack and forced to peer at the world through a grill made of mesh.

Perhaps Senator Hanson should borrow somebody's Fluffy or Fido next time, put its head in a burqa, and watch the reaction of senators to that.

I'll wager that they'll label as cruelty to animals (and rightly so) the cruelty they are content to have women endure.

(Unless, in the case of Fido, they recall something about Muslims considering dogs unclean, of course.)

Aussie Greens See Red, Over Islamophobia "Racism"

There go the Aussie Senate's Greens this afternoon. Showing their attachment to democratic freedom of  speech by walking out on a senator's maiden speech because they don't agree with what she is saying. Yep,on the far right of the picture is Greens leader Richard di Natale,  and on the far left (seemingly unable to resist a parting peep at the cynosure of the assembly) is Lee Rhiannon.

The red-haired lady all eyes and ears are on is, of course, Pauline Hanson.  I hold no brief for her or her political views in general, but the boycott reflects more on the Greens than on her.

How about hate speech against Jews and Israel, Senator?

As reported by the Australian Associated Press:

'Pauline Hanson has declared Australia is in danger of being swamped by Muslims and is calling for a halt to all immigration.

Echoing her first speech to parliament 20 years ago when as the member for Oxley she made the same warning about Asians, Senator Hanson warned Australia would be living under Sharia law if it didn't act.

How very democratic of you, Senator Rice

Muslim neighbourhoods were suffering from an escalation in crime and decline in social cohesion, she said.

She used her first speech to parliament as a Senator on Wednesday night to call for a ban on Muslim immigration, as well as a halt to all immigration.

"We are in danger of being swamped by Muslims who bear a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own," she said.

"If we don't make changes now there will be no hope in the future.

"Have no doubt we will be living under Sharia law and treated as second-class citizens with second-class rights if we keep heading down the path with the attitude 'she'll be right mate'."

Greens senators walked out half way through her speech, with Liberal senators yelling "stunt" as the minor party left the chamber.

Senator Hanson offered to personally take to the airport anyone not willing to become Australian and give their undivided loyalty to the nation.

She declared Islam was partly a religion but had a political agenda, saying Muslims were imprisoned at almost three times the average rate and unemployed at two to three times the national average.

She warned of radicalisation on the streets and slammed political leaders for urging Australians to be tolerant, insisting more Muslims were going to fight with Islamic State than the Australian army.

"How should we tell the difference? There is no sign saying good Muslim or bad Muslim," she said..

"How many lives will be lost or destroyed trying to determine who is good or who is bad?"

She called for a ban on Muslim immigration, the burqa and construction of new mosques or Islamic schools while insisting existing ones be monitored.

All immigration should be halted until Australia cleaned up its own backyard, she said, insisting Australians were suffering from massive migrant intake....

Greens senators later took to Twitter vowing to call out Senator Hanson's "racism".

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds hit back, tweeting: "we may not all agree with what she says but in Aust she has the right to say it".

Senator Hanson joked about the walk-out in her speech.

"I can feel the Greens cringing - no they've left - at the thought that I could possibly be here for six years."'

Far better, of course, had the Greens, instead of boycotting Hanson's speech from at least the hallfway mark, remained in their place to hear all of what she had to say with a view to rebutting her points in a fair and civilised manner.  But they are too agenda- and gimmick-ridden a bunch to conduct themselves like Liberal former prime minister John Howard.

Reports the ABC:

'John Howard told Lateline that Senator Hanson was "entitled to be treated in a respectful fashion by the rest of the Parliament".

 In response to the Greens walking out, Mr Howard said: "I think that reflects poorly on them".

He told 774 ABC Melbourne earlier that it would be a mistake to generalise Ms Hanson and her supporters as bigots.

"When I was in politics I always thought it was a mistake and it was inaccurate and it was unfair to brand her supporters as racist and it remains my view, and I don't think anything is gained by those allegations," he said.

Mr Howard said the Parliament should deal with the newly elected senator on the merits of individual issues.

"When she was wrong I said so and when she wasn't wrong I didn't say anything," he said.'

Of course, despite their radicalism, despite their feminism, the Israel-bashing Greens are shtum regarding Islam's benighted practices,  lumping all criticism of Islam, even the un-Western misogyny lurking within Islamic teaching and sharia, under the "Islamophobia" veil.
 
 Just another aspect of their sheer hypocrisy, of course.

For Andrew Bolt's thoughts on the speech see here

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.

Of Spots & Leopards & Weasel Words Regarding A "Jewish State"

Following George Galloway's defeat as Respect Party MP for Bradford West at the May General Election some wag posted this image on Facebook.

And sure enough, on London Galloway has set his sights, since as most readers will know by now he's announced his candidature for the elected office of Lord Mayor, presently held by Boris Johnson, who won't be seeking a third term in 2016 since he's now an MP.

Here's an interview Gorgeous George gave a few days ago, setting out his credentials for what is already becoming a hotly contested job:

And here, parading their bile outside the Israeli Embassy last month, are some of the types who will no doubt be voting for him:

And the Gorgeous One is not the only dedicated Israel-demoniser who's thrown his hat into a leadership contest, veteran leftist MP Jeremy Corbyn having announced his ambition to become leader of the Labour Party.

Just something that caught my eye yesterday

Meanwhile, Senator Richard Di Natale, leader of the Australian Greens (remember my post here?) has moved to distance himself from what he replied to the Australian Jewish News (AJN) when its representative asked him whether Mahmoud Abbas should acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state:

“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.”

But such a furore did Di Natale's remarks unleash in the hardcore Green Left that Di Natale has backed down from his stated position, his office telling the AJN:

“In Richard’s full response to the interview question, it is clear that he is talking about a state for Israelis and a state for Palestinians.

He had no intention for his comments to be interpreted as support for establishment of a ‘Jewish state’. It’s not a phrase that he used.”

Di Natale himself told the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) this week:

'.... I have never believed that the establishment of a "Jewish state" (as opposed to an "Israeli state") is conducive to this outcome [a two-state solution] and I absolutely do not support that goal.'

 Observed Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm:

'Senator Di Natale's revised position ... should ... be assessed in the light of Articles One and Four of the Palestinian Basic Law (2003) that respectively declare "the Palestinian people are part of the Arab nation"; and "the principles of Islamic sharia shall be the principal source of legislation".

It would be useful to ask whether Senator Di Natale's objection to ethno-religious identity applies solely to a Jewish Israel, or extends to an Arab/Muslim Palestine as well?"  [My emphasis]

As the AJN's editor, Zeddy Lawrence, comments in the current issue of the paper:

"Ignoring the fact that the Jewish State has existed for almost 70 years and is recognised in international law" Di Natale has in his revised statement "not only sought to turn the clock back to before 1948 but also to before two weeks ago ..."

And Aussie Foreign Minister Julie Bishop [pictured] has condemned Di Natale's volte-face and what triggered it.

To quote from a report in The Australian newspaper:

 '.... Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has accused Greens leader Richard Di Natale of “caving in” to ­extremists after he denied ­endorsing Israel as “a Jewish state”....

Ms Bishop said she was “dis­appointed” by the episode.

“Richard Di Natale has caved in to the anti-Semitic boycott, ­divestment and sanctions activists in the green movement,” she said.... [My emphasis]

Executive Council of Australia Jewry head Peter Wertheim said the senator had “been bullied by the far-left zealots in his party into adopting a position on this issue that is intellectually and morally untenable”.

“I now look forward to the Greens withdrawing recognition from the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Islamic Republic of Iran because of the unacceptable ­ethnic and religious identifiers in the official names of these states,’’ he said.

“To lecture other countries about their identity, and to refuse to recognise and respect the way they define themselves, is a truly unique approach to international relations.” ....'

Altogether now, boys and girls, you should know this by heart (no pun intended) by now:

In Australia, BDSers Find It Ain't Easy Being Green

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.