Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Monday 15 May 2017

"A Stain on Our Nation": Kiwi columnist slams anti-Israel obsession

Eight days ago the Sunday Star Times, a Kiwi newspaper owned by the antipodean Fairfax media stable (not known for its fairness to Israel: think The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and this despicable incident) published a blood libel of a cartoon by Sharon Murdoch concerning Bibi Netanyahu and New Zealand foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee, who called notorious UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which his country shamefully co-sponsored, as "premature".


As New Zealand's Jewish newspaper Shalom.Kiwi observes:
'Fairfax media outlet, Stuff, published fake news in January 2017, which led to a stream of anti-Semitic comments on social media. Now, the most recent edition of Fairfax’s Sunday Star Times has chosen to print a vile cartoon suggesting new New Zealand Foreign Minister, Gerry Brownlee, is being controlled by a bloodthirsty Israel. It is worthy of being included in the annual Iranian-sponsored Jew-bashing cartoon contest....
Neither funny, nor clever, the cartoon draws on lowest common denominator stereotypes and anti-Semitic tropes. The schoolboy pun (“Minister Brownnose”) expressing Brownlee’s supposed obsequience to Netanyahu, while pathetic, can be overlooked. However, the grotesque suggestion that Netanyahu would order the killing of a statesman whose policies and actions he disagrees with goes beyond reasonable and responsible boundaries of political satire...
 Just like the fanciful anti-Israel polemic written by the editor of the Dominion Post, another Fairfax outlet, Murdoch’s cartoon in the Sunday Star Times has resorted to simplistic interpretations and failed to engage with the issues, preferring instead to lean on classic anti-Semitism.'
Although it seems that Brownlee's encouraging stance regarding Israel may be faltering (see Shalom.Kiwi here) it's heartening to read an op-ed in the Sunday Star Times that champions Israel.  So well done, Damien Grant, for writing, inter alia, in that paper yesterday:


"...The world's obsession with Jews in general and Israel in particular is one of the many disheartening features of modern life.
Imagine... For over 1000 years your ancestors have endured periods of mild-but-tolerable persecution followed by irregular bouts of genocidal rage.
The one thing the last millennium should have taught us is it is never safe to be a Jew....
The United Nations Security Council has dealt with 226 resolutions concerning Israel. More than six percent of the total. The UN is obsessed with Israel....
Not all criticism of Israel is unwarranted but we forget it is a liberal democracy in a sea of tyranny, terror and hatred.
 The endless preoccupation over the 700,000 Arabs displaced when Israel was created ignores the equal number of Jews who fled Arab nations. No one calls for their right to return and equally overlooked are the 1.5 million Arabs living in relative peace in Israel today, not including the occupied territories....
It was a stain on our nation that we participated in the mass-hysteria over Israel...."
Read all of Damien Grant's piece here

Meanwhile, some of the usual suspects are desperately attempting to coach other usual suspects in countering dastardly Zionist facts.

Yep, it's that desperate old Palestine was an independent nation trope being trotted out again:


Well said, this commenter:
'Palestine is a geographic term that describes a place (not a people) that has belonged to Jews, Greeks, Romans, Mamaluks, Turks, and finally Jews again.
There are Arabs who live there, and Jews who lived there. The Jews never thought of themselves as Palestinians, and until roughly 1964, neither did Arabs.
For proof, look no further than this chart showing the frequency of words or phrases that appear in their massive collection of scanned books: https://books.google.com/ng... 
As it clearly shows, "Palestinian Jew" appeared more frequently than "Palestinian Arab" until roughly 1950 (by which time the term Israeli came into favor.)
And as the chart also clearly shows, the phrase "Palestinian Arab" started a rapid ascent around 1964.
Facts are stubborn things.'

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.