Not Today, Not Tomorrow. Israel, Australia, and Jerusalem - by Stephen M. Flatow

...Some supporters of Israel think that they have to be grateful for whatever few crumbs the world throws our way. They think the Jews will look unreasonable unless they praise that which deserves no praise. I disagree. I say that turnabout is fair play.

Stephen M. Flatow..
Algemeiner..
19 December '18..

The Australian government has decided that Israel’s capital should be torn in half, resuming the apartheid-like status that prevailed the last time the Arabs occupied part of Jerusalem.

Would the Temple Mount be in Israel’s part of Jerusalem? Nope. Judaism’s holiest site is “Palestinian,” according to the Australians.

What about the Western Wall? Not that either. It’s “occupied territory.”

How about the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, where Jews have lived since time immemorial? Off-limits to Jews.

The Mount of Olives, the world’s oldest Jewish cemetery? Not a chance.

What about other Jewish sacred sites in and around the Old City walls, such as Solomon’s Pools or the Tower of David? If Australia has its way, they will be renamed Suleiman’s Pools and the Tower of Daoud.

Australia’s decision to recognize only “western Jerusalem” as Israel’s capital is not “a step in the right direction,” as some pundits have claimed. It’s an outrageous attempt to promote the redivision of Jerusalem — to give the most Jewishly significant part of the city to the Palestinian Authority.

The Central Bus Station is not where the priests of ancient Israel led the Temple service, and the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian walkway is not where countless Jews have prayed and wept throughout the centuries for the return of the Jewish people to their land. The construction of neighborhoods to the west of the Old City began in modern times to alleviate overcrowding within the city walls.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

An affront to Australian values: A welcome reconsideration of aid to the Palestinian Arabs - by Arnold Roth

...Much like the furious reaction of a drug addict when refused further access to narcotics, the official responses of the Palestinian Arabs have not been slow to come.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
04 July '18..

A front page story ["Australia freezes aid to Palestinian Authority | Our tax won't 'Pay to Slay'"] in the July 6, 2018 edition of the Australian Jewish News (we subscribe to the electronic edition) deals with a welcome move to reconsider foreign aid funding of the Abbas PLO/Fatah regime.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said this past Monday, according to Haaretz, that she directed Australia's funding support to be stopped after she wrote to the Palestinian Authority in late May seeking assurance that Australian funding was not being misspent. "I am confident that previous Australian funding to the PA through the World Bank has been used as intended. However, I am concerned that in providing funds for this aspect of the PA's operations there is an opportunity for it to use its own budget to (fund) activities that Australia would never support," Bishop said in a statement. "Any assistance provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization to those convicted of politically motivated violence is an affront to Australian values and undermines the prospect," Bishop added. ["Australia Ends Direct Aid to Palestinian Authority Amid Fears Money Is Going to Terrorists", July 2, 2018]

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Counting Votes at the UN Human Rights Council - by Elliott Abrams

...Hat’s off to Australia, which has just joined the Human Rights Council for a 3-year term and stood with the United States. The Australians have stated their “principled opposition” to singling out Israel, and said that they would vote against all the resolutions brought under “Item 7.” Australia has similarly opposed one-sided resolutions in the General Assembly. It is shameful that the Aussies have not been joined by other democracies, but they deserve great credit for taking this stance the moment they joined the Human Rights Council.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
29 March '18..
Link: https://www.cfr.org/blog/counting-votes-un-human-rights-council

The UN Human Rights Council passed five more anti-Israel resolutions last week. This was not a great surprise, and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the Council “grossly biased against Israel.” She added that “our patience is not unlimited” and again threatened to leave the Council unless its obsession with Israel ended.

The Council (as Haley noted) passed three resolutions on Iran and two on North Korea, making the concentration on Israel particularly grotesque. Israel is the only country whose conduct must, by Council rules (the so-called Item 7), be reviewed every time the Council meets.

Still, the vote counting is interesting. One resolution called for Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights. That resolution got 25 votes, almost entirely from Muslim countries plus a few dictatorships like Cuba, Venezuela, and China. No European country voted yes. (Why Brazil, Peru, and Chile voted for it is a mystery, and when our State Department gets staffed up it might start pressuring them to change their votes.) Voting against this resolution were Australia, Belgium, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Panama, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Togo, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. Abstaining were the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, and Switzerland. Absent was Mongolia. That means that of the members of the Council, 25 voted yes but 22 did not—displaying a good lack of enthusiasm for the proposal.

The other resolutions passed by higher margins: 27 in favor or 34 or 41, with 43 voting for “The Right of the Palestinian People to Self-Determination” while only Australia and the United States voted no (with the DRC abstaining and Mongolia absent).

That any democracy should vote for that mendacious resolution is unpardonable. Those who did include Belgium, Chile, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. It includes phrases and conclusions that are simply false, such as reference to Israel’s “forcible transfer of Palestinians”—something that does not exist. It calls upon Israel to “immediately end its occupation of the Occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,” which is absurd. As those governments must know, there is no way safely to do that (safely for Israel, Jordan, or the Palestinians, considering the possibility that Hamas, with Iranian support, would take over). Nor should any decent country be speaking of the “occupation” of East Jerusalem, as if Israeli control of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem were some kind of scandal and crime.

Guardian assails Australia’s right to dissent on Jerusalem

...Additionally, Israel is the only recognized nation with a legitimate claim to the West Bank (including Jerusalem) – territory which was, for hundreds of years, until the end of World War I, the equivalent of a province in the Ottoman Empire. The territory never had any unique national standing other than as the future Jewish national homeland as stipulated by the League of Nations.

Adam Levick..
CiF Watch..
12 June '14..
h/t to international law expert, Eugene Kontorovich..

Though Guardian contributors often complain that pro-Israel forces instill a ‘enforced orthodoxy‘ over the debate about Israel in the media and in Western capitals, they suddenly lose their passion for dissent when encountering views at odds with the Palestinian narrative on the disputed territories in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Thus, shortly after the Australian Attorney General issued a statement declaring that the government would no longer refer to east Jerusalem as “occupied” – arguing that the term is “freighted with pejorative implications” – the Guardian published their predictable denunciation in the form of an op-ed by a lawyer (and anti-Israel campaigner) named Ben Saul.

Saul begins by complaining that “Australia’s new view” on Jerusalem “corrodes the international rule of law and violates Australia’s international law obligations”. He then cites international legal conclusions which purportedly back up the claim that east Jerusalem is “occupied” – including the 2004 opinion of International Court of Justice (ICJ), which he even acknowledges was only an ‘advisory’ opinion – and therefore is not binding on Israel, let alone Australia.

Further, despite their position on east Jerusalem, Australia’s policy vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has not undergone a substantive change. They merely decided to avoid using a term they believe is unhelpful in the context of efforts to reach a two state solution. As Australia’s Ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, explained (per an article by Yair Rosenberg at Tablet) in response to questions about the Attorney General’s decision, “the government’s policy hasn’t changed at all”. Sharma also noted that the Australian position is still that “final status issues as identified by Oslo—and that includes the status of Jerusalem, borders, right of return—are all amenable only to political negotiations and a political solution”.

Rosenberg summed it up thusly: In other words, Australia’s policy is not intended to endorse one side over the other, but rather to maintain neutrality and avoid prejudging the outcome of negotiations.

Later in his Guardian op-ed, Saul misrepresents a key element of the history of the city.

In the 1967 war, Israel displaced prior Jordanian control over east Jerusalem. Jordan’s claim was contested by Israel. Jordan’s claim was contested by Israel. Jordan later renounced its claim in favour of the Palestinian right of self-determination.

However, his claim that Jordan’s legal claim on east Jerusalem “was contested by Israel” is extraordinarily misleading. In fact, their annexation of east Jerusalem was universally rejected by the international community, with the lone exception of Pakistan (Great Britain accepted the annexation of the West Bank, but not east Jerusalem). Also of interest, though almost every country in the world refused to recognize Jordanian sovereignty over Jerusalem, we could find no evidence than any country officially referred to it – between 1949 and 1967 – as “occupied”.

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out!
.

Australia rejects fiction to recognise reality

...The world has been duped into the use of language that reflects fiction – not fact. Used often enough it takes on a highly damaging life of its own. Erasing such language from the international lexicon is long overdue. The world’s nations need to awaken from their fiction-induced slumber.

David Singer..
Jews Down Under..
09 June '14..
H/T Daphne Anson

Australia will no longer be referring to East Jerusalem and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) as “occupied territories”.

Attorney-General George Brandis made this clear when he read a statement to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee this week indicating the language of “occupation” was:

“judgmental”, “freighted with pejorative implications” and “neither appropriate nor useful” for the peace process.

This injection of sanity into the contribution being made by the international community to help resolve the 130-years-old Arab-Jewish conflict is long overdue and very welcome.

The use of the terms “Occupied Territories” by the European Union or “Occupied Palestinian Territories” by the United Nations has emboldened the Arab League, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to maintain their 47-year-old demand that every square metre of land captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War be returned to Arab control.

Their unyielding stance was never contemplated by Security Council Resolution 242 which acknowledged the right of Israel to exist within secure and recognised borders. It has been a major impediment to resolving the Arab-Jewish conflict – resulting in offers by Israel to cede its claims to sovereignty in more than 90 per cent of those territories being rejected by the PA in 2000/1 and 2008.

Catherine Ashton – High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy European Union/Vice-President of the European Commission – was pandering to this decades-old Arab demand when she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 30 December 2009:

“East Jerusalem is occupied territory, together with the rest of the West Bank.”

Israel’s then Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, penned an article in response in the Wall Street Journal on 30 December 2009 – pointing out:

Australian National University earns no credit with Israel-bashing seminar

...At a time when shocking atrocities are being committed in Syria against Palestinians, among many others, an academic conference ostensibly dedicated to the entirely legitimate subject of Palestinian human rights should not be focused exclusively on the West Bank. This, and the neglect of other pressing human rights issues in the Middle East, reinforce the impression that the real purpose of the conference is to polemicise against Israel.

Gerald M. Steinberg..
The Australian..
11 September '13..

The main task of a university is to pursue knowledge, free from political or religious dogmas, and ideological or other biases. It is for this reason that institutions of higher learning are granted special status and supported by public funds.

But when these values are violated, and the campus is exploited as a venue for lobbying on behalf of narrow interests, this tarnishes the reputation of the academic community, while society is deprived of benefits from the pursuit of knowledge.

Unfortunately, the conference on "Human Rights in Palestine", scheduled for the Australian National University today and tomorrow, is a blatant effort to exploit and distort the marketplace of ideas. Only a few of the advertised speakers have relevant research credentials or peer-reviewed academic publications in the field of human rights. Instead, the program is dominated by opinionated activists associated with and funded by political advocacy groups that exploit the banner of human rights.

For example, "Professor" Hanan Ashrawi, who is featured in the program, is a prominent Palestinian politician and highly visible media spokeswoman. She holds a PhD in medieval and comparative literature. She achieved notoriety in January 1991, during a US radio interview at the beginning of the Gulf War, when she referred to Saddam Hussein favourably for "standing up for Arab rights, Arab dignity, Arab pride". (Yasir Arafat and the PLO were closely allied with Saddam.) In February 1991, while the Iraqi dictator's troops were looting and burning Kuwait, she praised Saddam's "commitment to peace". And in 1996, she was among the minority of PLO officials who opposed revising the PLO Charter to remove clauses calling for Israel's destruction.

Other speakers are involved with "the Steering Committee for the Gaza Freedom March", the "Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions National Committee", and Electronic Intifada. For example, Ziyaad Lunat has referred to Israel as "the Zionist colonial implant" - not the type of language one would expect at an academic conference on human rights.

Keynote speaker Richard Falk is primarily known as a fringe "9/11 conspiracy theorist", and has been widely denounced, including by the Secretary-General of the UN, for vile comments blaming the Boston terrorist attack on "the American global domination project" and "Tel Aviv".

Encouraging Palestinian intransigence

Barry Cohen..
The Australian..
07 January '13..




IT was good of Foreign Minister Bob Carr to inform us that the Arab-Israeli conflict is a very complex issue. It's nothing of the sort.

The cause is the refusal of the Arabs to accept the resolution of the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947, that the mandated territory of Palestine be divided into two countries, one Arab, one Jewish. It passed with a vote of 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions and one absent.

While Jews celebrated, the Arabs announced they would fight to prevent it happening. They understood that they could lose 100 wars, while Israel couldn't afford to lose one. If you have doubts, read what Arab leaders have said. Jews have learnt over centuries that when anyone says that they intend to slaughter them they had better believe them.

Those with doubts should glance over the figures of those who have died during the "Arab Spring" that commenced two years ago to bring freedom and democracy to those who have no experience of it.

The following estimates were provided by the Parliamentary Library: Tunisia 338; Bahrain 114; Egypt 846; Libya 25,000-30,000; Yemen 2000; Syria 60,000-plus; and nine other countries 116. That's at least 88,414 Arabs killed by other Arabs. If you think that's a lot, ponder how many have perished in the Middle East since Israel was established in 1948. As I've written previously on this page, the "minor" conflagrations in Algeria, Sudan, Darfur, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, Jordan, Chad, Syria, Turkey and Yemen resulted in 8.5 million dead. And the number killed in the Israel-Arab conflict: 85,000! A ratio of 100 to 1.

Imagine the toll if the Arabs didn't like each other or what they would do to the Israelis if they ever got the chance.

While tens of thousands of Arabs were dying at the hands of their fellow Arabs, did anyone notice "progressives" marching through the streets protesting the slaughter? They might have if they hadn't been so involved in the loss of 161 Palestinians who died when Israel decided to stop the firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza, courtesy of Hamas.

On Australian Funding of the PFLP - Turning up the Heat

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner..
Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center..
27 August '12..

Last February Shurat HaDin revealed that the large NGO World Vision, which distributes massive amounts of Australian government aid to Gaza, has been funding a Palestinian terrorist organization's charitable front. AusAid, the Australian government's entity in charge of supervising the country's foreign aid grants, initially suspended funding to the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC), alleged by us to be an instrument for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is a designated terrorist organization in Australia and the providing of any material support to it is illegal.

After suspending funding for a month, however, AusAid, on behalf of Australia's Foreign Ministry, declared it had thoroughly investigated the matter and found no reason why it shouldn't reinstate its support for the PFLP group. AusAid, while announcing this resumption of funding, proclaimed that it decided to reinstate its support to the UAWC because it was a registered charity in Israel! We were shocked by this explanation, as we had already searched and could not find that the UAWC was listed in Israel's registry of charities. Moreover, there was overwhelming proof that there was a connection between the UAWC and PFLP. The PFLP's website stated that it established the UAWC, with the latter agreeing that the terrorist group could utilize its Gaza buildings for training. In addition, several of UAWC's executive directors are known terrorists, including its director, Bashir al Khieri, who had served time in an Israeli prison for PFLP activities. This past week, the UAWC even put out press releases complaining that Israel's security services recently raided their offices in Jericho and arrested staff members for their involvement in terrorism.

All of this is going on while AusAid continues to publicly maintain that the UAWC is not the PFLP. Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, defending AusAid, gave public assurances that no Australian taxpayer funds were being provided to the Palestinian terrorist group. After our investigation, it was conclusively determined that a tremendous fraud was being perpetrated by World Vision and AusAid against the Australian public. Above all, the organization they claim is registered in Israel is not the UAWC but a different charity with a similar sounding name - the Committee of Agricultural Works (CAW). CAW and the UAWC, which AusAid believes is one and the same, have very similar names but were founded ten years apart, all while having a totally different board of directors. One is indeed registered in Israel and the other is indeed an instrument of the PFLP.

Roth - If there's one single thing about UNRWA that we wish people understood, it's this

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
05 June '12..


A week ago, Australia signed on to a USD 90 million partnership agreement with UNRWA in support of what are termed its core programmes throughout the Middle East. The Australian commitment is for five years, and appears to be the initiative of Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

That Australia, an enlightened and fair-minded country filled with people of a similar character, is handing over large wads of donation money to that disgraceful organization is distressing. It's rare for the public sense of a major international body to be so at odds with what it actually does, what it stands for. You hope that people in government can see past this sort of thing. But too often, that's not what happens.

Bedein - Blunder Down Under: Why Did Australia Up Its UNRWA Donation By 450%

David Bedein..
Israel Behind the News..
01 June '12..

On May 28th 2012, a decision was made by the Australian government to increase its allocation to the United Nations Relief and Works agency, UNRWA, the agency that serves Palestinian Refugees and their descendants - by 450% - from $19 million to $90 million. These funds are geared for the most part to the UNRWA educational system, and should warrant careful examination, given the educational approach taught by UNRWA to half a million Palestinian Arab pupils that their purpose in life is to reclaim villages from 1948 which no longer exist.

Every aspect of Palestinian Authority education in the UNRWA refugee camps (1), is oriented around the realization of the "right of return" for Palestinian Arab refugees from the 1948 war. Yet only about 1 percent of the UNRWA residents are real refugees who fit the original UNRWA definition of “people whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Daphne Anson - "This Despicable Vitriol Is Left Unchallenged":

Aussie Parliamentarian Highlights The Greens' Moral Bankruptcy Regarding Israel and Iran

Daphne Anson..
14 February '12..

Clearly, O'Dwyer is Golden, while Silence is Green.

For what a magnificent speech by Australian legislator Kelly O'Dwyer, Liberal member for Higgins, in yesterday's debate in the House of Representatives concerning Human Rights (or rather, the lack of them) in Iran.

All praise to to her for highlighting so ably and comprehensively the unconscionable hypocrisy of the Greens:

"In Australia during this time one must ask the questions 'Who stands conspicuously quiet? Who stands silent while these human rights are abused?' .... It is ... the Greens, those people who suggest that they are the champions of human rights and the keepers of the moral chalice, those professed keepers of all that is right and ethical. Where, I ask you, is Senator Brown in condemning these actions? Where is Senator Hanson-Young on her soapbox demanding justice? Where is the member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, in this chamber supporting this motion? Where are the Greens protests in the streets? Most importantly, given all that we have learned about the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions scheme that grew from the Greens local council movement in Marrickville, where are the calls for the boycotts of Iranian companies or even of Syrian ones, to be truly consistent? No, all that is simply reserved for Israel.

Interestingly, the Greens also profess to be strong champions of human rights, particularly for those who are homosexual. Yet it is the country of Israel, the only democracy in the region, that legislates rights for women and homosexuals. In fact, in a recent poll conducted by GayCities.com in conjunction with American Airlines, Tel Aviv was rated the best gay travel destination of 2011. Yet here the Greens condemn Israel and not Iran.

Could you imagine if the Prime Minister of Israel had prayed for the ‘annihilation’ of the Palestinians? How many motions would the Greens have moved by now? How many press releases, demonstrations and media conferences would they have called? I conducted a search on the Greens website. I typed ‘Iran’ into their search feature, 23 results were returned and in those results there was not one mention—not one, single, solitary mention—of the atrocities that have taken place, of the abhorrent preachings of the President of Iran or of the blatant human rights abuses posed against ethnic minorities, women and homosexuals. However, if you type in ‘Israel’ you will find pages and pages and pages—in particular pages as to how you can be involved as well in the BDS movement. This is a truly sad state of affairs and it is of great concern in particular to me that the Greens do not stand with us in this chamber against such violence against human rights workers, women’s rights activists, journalists and government opponents.

Daphne Anson - Ha'aretz's Blunder Draws Thunder From Down Under

Daphne Anson..
24 January '12..

The leftwing Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz recently carried this highly tendentious article by Akiva Eldar about Australian Jewry and Israel. Its headline? "Israel is shaming Australian Jews"

I know for a fact that online ripostes, even by well-informed and well-respected Middle East analysts, failed to find their way onto the Comments section. Deliberate suppression on the part of a newspaper which prides itself on its own gift of free speech, no matter how critical it is of the policies of its beleagured nation? It would seem so.

But unfortunately for the newspaper, and for Eldar, the leadership of Australian Jewry is made of sterner stuff than its lily-livered counterparts in the Mother Country. There are comparatively few "trembling Israelites" in Australian Jewish circles, perhaps because such a large proportion of the Jewish community Down Under is derived from Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Ceren - Forum With Israeli Scientists “Offends Muslims”

Omri Ceren
Commentary/Contentions
26 October '11



http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/10/26/forum-israeli-scientists-muslims/#more-772169

It’s come to this:

University of Sydney scholars set to exchange ideas with visiting Israeli experts on neuroscience, tissue regeneration and other cutting-edge research areas are being warned the event will offend potential Muslim undergraduates.

Associate Professor Jake Lynch, director of the university’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, has urged his colleagues to withdraw from the research gathering, and the university administration to cancel it. Dr. Lynch has been a strong supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign designed to isolate Israel. He says he has been asked to intervene by the Campaign for Justice and Peace in Palestine….

He says most Muslim students live in the west and feel “a sense of resentment and alienation resulting from the predominance of pro-Israeli voices in Australia’s political and media discourses.”

The poor dears. They feel “resentment and alienation” from “political and media discourses,” and because of that doctors aren’t allowed to make progress on curing brain diseases. Really, there’s nothing like having the director of a “Peace and Conflict Studies” program explain why the mere presence of Israelis at a scientific conference aimed at human betterment is an affront to Muslims. And to think, some people have suggested that anti-Israel viciousness in the Ivory Tower has allowed hatred to cloud clear thinking.

Australia has managed to nurture a fairly active – albeit still very fringe – anti-Israel boycott movement. The insanity has touched the country’s mainstream parties, but it remains a broad embarrassment to normal Australians and to mainstream Australian politicians. Australian media has been complicit in fomenting anti-Israel bias – taking articles about how Israel wants genuine, not indirect peace talks and headlining them, “Israel to reject new peace talks” – but even they couldn’t stomach [former Australian Prime Minister] Rudd’s hysterical overreaction to the use of Australian passports in the al-Mabhouh hit, which included abandoning Israel to the UN’s Goldstone lynch mob.

All of which is to say, don’t expect Lynch’s call to become anything but the passing disgrace that it is. His instinctive rhetorical appeal to multicultural victimhood – nonetheless – is deeply revelatory personally and institutionally. Pathetic appeals to Muslim resentment, marshaled as pretexts for halting scientific research and medical progress. Perfect.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Daphne Anson - "Prejudiced Fanatics Who Should Look Into Their Soul": Aussie MP On The BDS Brigade

Daphne Anson
16 July '11

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/07/prejudiced-fanatics-who-should-look.html



Jewish politician Michael Danby, a well-known Labour member of the federal House of Representatives in Canberra, where he sits for Melbourne Ports, has been deeply and prominently involved in pro-Israel activism since his student days in Melbourne in the 1970s.

"These people are prejudiced fanatics who should look into their soul," Mr Danby, who chairs Australia's Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, has justifiably observed of the mob who (as videos I posted show) demonstrated raucously and bitterly outside the Max Brenner chocolate shop in central Melbourne on 1 July, when several policemen attempting to keep order were injured.

He continued:

"While 1500 people are murdered in Syria, they launch their own sad little attack on a chocolate shop because it has stores in Israel.

It’s a bit rich. Almost as rich as one of Max Brenner’s delicious Danish Toffee Hot Chocolates. I urge the good people of Melbourne to warm up over winter by savouring Max Brenner’s delicious delights.

Boycotts of – and attacks on – Jewish commerce like this belong in the darkest chapters of our history books not in the shopping centres of Melbourne in 2011."

Noting that the BDS chanted "From the River to the Sea," Hamas’s taunting warcry for an Islamic state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, Danby rightly stated.

"These people are not in favour of a Two State Solution. Hatred motivates these calls for elimination of the Jewish State."

According to a report by the antipodean J-Wire news service, he added that in the coming weeks the Labor Party will display a series of pro-Israel manifestations in line with the views of mainstream Australians, "90% of whom were sickened by the fanatics attacking police and the Israeli franchise."

Disgusted by the conduct of the BDSers choc-a-bloc with hate, Kevin Rudd, Australia's Minister For Foreign Affairs, last week joined Michael Danby for something sweet at Max Brenner's in Melbourne (they are pictured above at the entrance, Mr Danby on the left of the photo).

It seems that Mr Rudd was especially moved by an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by the well-known Australian public intellectual Dr Gerard Henderson, a conservative columnist and executive director of the Sydney Institute, who's a supporter of Israel: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/jews-know-acceptance-still-has-its-exceptions-20110711-1haka.html

According to J-Wire, Max Brenner’s management has pointed out that despite the antics of the BDSers 26 Max Brenner franchise stores operate in Australia and there are queues of people waiting to enter some of the new stores in Queensland.

Talking of Queensland, here's a bunch of "prejudiced fanatics" marching a few days ago in central Brisbane against Israel's "apartheid wall" – the security barrier that's been rather effective at protecting Israelis against attacks by homicidal maniacs with bombs strapped to their bodies. These BDSers are egged on by "Justice for Palestine" activist Kathy Newman, a Socialist Alliance candidate at several elections who's expressed solidarity with the arrested "Boycott Israel 19" of Melbourne on 1 July and has foreshadowed a protest outside Max Brenner in Brisbane next month: http://boycottisrael19.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/solidarity-from-brisbane/



Hat tip for the video: reader Shirlee

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

It Ain't 'Arf Easy Being Green ...

Daphne Anson
21 December '10

The council of Marrickville, an inner suburb of Sydney, is believed to be the first local council in the great land of Oz – just look at its size compared to that of beleaguered valiant Israel – to pledge its allegiance to the grotesque and infamous BDS movement. The Greens and Labor-dominated council has resolved, by ten votes to two, to dissolve links with organisations that support the Israeli "occupation", and to ban any academic, government, sporting or cultural exchanges with Israel. (Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

It’s reported that Greens councillor Cathy Peters, who introduced the motion at last week's meeting, said the council’s move reflects the feelings of Marrickville's multicultural community and its sister-city relationship with Bethlehem.

Comments one local person, most sensibly, of these Marrickville dhimmiwits

"When Greens and Labor have too much power on local or federal levels, biased, whacky things happen. As we have seen in various ways over the past few years. Take a look at this recent absurd move of Marrickville Council ...

(Read full "It Ain't 'Arf Easy Being Green ...")

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

The Beauty, the Beasts, and Birobidjan

Daphne Anson
16 December '10

(Daphne Anson with another amazing piece. Y.)

General Sir John Monash (1865-1931), the son of German-born parents and a civil engineer by profession, commanded Australia’s Expeditionary Forces during the First World War. The grandson of a well-known printer/publisher in Krotoszyn, Baer Loebel Monasch, and nephew by marriage to the great historian Heinrich Graetz, he was not a religious Jew – he famously joked that on Yom Kippur he fasted from breakfast until lunch – but he was a proud one, accepting the honorary presidency of the Australian Zionist Federation when the latter was formed in 1927.

So esteemed was he by his fellow-countrymen and women that during the Great Depression, when there was widespread anxiety over the leftist direction of New South Wales Premier Jack Lang and other politicians, Monash was approached to, in effect lead, a rightwing coup, and his state funeral cortège in 1931 (some months after this photo was taken, showing him at the annual Anzac Day parade) attracted the densest crowds – about 250,000 people – seen in Australia up to that time. He’s still commemorated in a variety of ways, with his name that of a university in his native Melbourne and his face on the $A100 banknote. There’s little doubt that his very presence on the national scene – in fact, his consensual status among his contemporaries as the greatest living Australian – helped to keep antisemitism disreputable and marginal.

(Read full "The Beauty, the Beasts, and Birobidjan")

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

An Australian Trade Union Chief Speaks Up for Israel against the BDS Movement

Daphne Anson
13 October '10

In a speech on Sunday to the annual conference of the Zionist Federation of Australia, held in Melbourne, the young Vice-President of the Australian Council of Trades Unions (ACTU), Paul Howes, who is also National Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, has made an admirable, forceful attack on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (hat tip: Matt Pryor, over at Thejc.com blogs). I’m reminded of how staunchly supportive of Israel the ACTU has been – Bob Hawke, ACTU President from 1969-80 and Prime Minister of Australia from 1983-91, was one of the firmest friends Israel has had in Australian public life, and so is politician Simon Crean, ACTU Vice-President from 1981-85 and President from 1985-91, who resigned to go into federal politics and led the Australian Labor Party from 2001-3.

Here’s most of Paul Howes’s speech, reproduced courtesy of J-Wire:

'I can’t see how any unionist can back the international BDS movement.Now I know there has been a lot of talk in the media, both here and abroad, about trade unions backing the BDS movement.But let’s take a step back from the headlines. Take an overview of the global situation.The reality is that despite the headlines most of the trade union movement in Australia, and across the globe, has not backed BDS.The bulk of the international trade union movement, and in particular unions in countries like the USA, Germany and Austria, are rock-solid in their support for Israel.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

An Intelligence Agency Misused Passports: OMG!

Alan M. Dershowitz
Hudson New York
02 March '10

The complaints leveled against Israel by European countries and Australia, regarding the alleged misuse of passports by the Mossad in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, ring hollow and smack of blatant hypocrisy. Whoever did kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh—whether it was the Israeli Mossad or someone else—clearly did have their agents use stolen or forged passports. Big deal.

Every good intelligence agency uses stolen and forged passports. The British have been especially adept at this means of spycraft. No country that uses fake passports in their intelligence operations has the moral authority to complain about the alleged misuse of passports in this case. The only ones that have a legitimate grievance are those individuals whose passports may have been misused without their knowledge.

I guess it’s the job of foreign ministries to complain publicly when other nations do what they themselves do secretly. Hypocrisy is, after all, the homage that vice pays to virtue. I’m reminded of the famous scene in Casablanca, when officer Renault declares, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” A croupier then approaches Renault, and hands him a roll of currency: “Your winnings, sir.”

The hypocrisy in this case seems even more blatant than usual. Is it because Israel is the alleged offender, and the world has gotten accustomed to singling out Israel for double standard condemnation?

(Read full article)
.

Jason Bourne, Call Your Office

Emanuele Ottolenghi
Contentions/Commentary
25 February '10

Another day, and another Western government chastises Israel for the use of non-Israeli passports in the assassination of Hamas terrorist mastermind Mahmoud al-Mabhou. This time it’s Australia’s turn. Australia’s PM, Kevin Rudd, was quoted as saying that

Any state that has been complicit in use or abuse of the Australian passport system, let alone for the conduct of an assassination, is treating Australia with contempt and there will therefore be action by the Australian government in response.

Clearly, one needs to believe Dubai’s police on the revelations about the forged passports. There is no smoking gun yet about Israel’s responsibility. And hopefully, Israel will keep quiet about this. As Yossi Melman indicates in today’s Haaretz, the investigation is rising to comical levels, even as the evidence against Israel is thin.

Look, anyone familiar with James Bond, Jason Bourne, and the Mission Impossible franchise knows that secret agents travel on forged passports. And even assuming Israel is responsible, what did anyone expect — a bunch of Israelis to show up at Dubai airport waving their Israeli passports? Just imagine the conversation.

UAE immigration officer: Nationality?

(Read full post)