Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: anti-Zionism

Showing posts with label anti-Zionism. Show all posts

Monday, June 20, 2022

North Carolina Democrats resolutions call for destruction of the Jewish state

A group of N.C. Jewish clergy leaders are calling out the N.C. Democratic Party for anti-Israel resolutions that were considered at the party convention held June 18 in Durham. Calling the resolutions potentially “dangerous.” the clergy members point to the party’s Platform Committee Special Report, which sets a wide range of positions that the state party takes in the upcoming year, including 2022 elections.

The North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association issued a statement on June 17 that criticized Democrats’ resolutions that said Israel violated the human rights of Palestinians, called for an investigation into the alleged killing of a Palestinian-American journalist by Israeli forces, and establishing May 15 as Nakba Remembrance Day, recognizing the destruction of Palestinian villages.

“Of the seven resolutions devoted to foreign affairs, three are focused on criticism of Israel,” said the NCJCA Steering Committee, including Rabbi Judy Schindler, Rabbi Eric Solomon (co-chairs), Rabbi Mark Cohn, Rabbi Lucy Dinner, Rabbi Andy Koren, Cantor Shira Lessek, and Rabbi Batsheva Meiri. “While some of our clergy are sympathetic to some of the claims embedded in the statements, on the main, these resolutions are not thoughtful nor balanced. In short, they contain one-sided representations of the complexities of the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict.”

The document is ridiculously anti-Israel, to the point of calling for the destruction of the Jewish state via the fictional "right of return."

It includes:

Forcible Transfer: In which Israel has removed and demolished tens of thousands of Palestinian communities and homes that it refuses to recognize, even though those communities existed there for decades, in order to maximize land available to Jewish communities; by making it exceedingly difficult to remain in certain areas, through blocking building permits and access to utilities such as water, sewage, and electricity, amounting to forcible transfer through a policy of ‘relocation.’

Creation of Separate Reserves and Ghettos: The purposeful end goal of Israeli actions such as expropriation of land and forcible transfer is the fracturing and ghettoization of Palestinian lands. While Palestinians make up about 20% of Israel proper’s population, the vast majority are restricted to only 3% of its land...

Denial of the Right to Leave and Return to Their Country, and the Right to a Nationality: ...In addition to making it difficult for Palestinians to leave Gaza and the West Bank, those wishing to return to their family lands are also faced by near-insurmountable challenges. While Israel gives any Jew, anywhere in the world, the right to immigrate to and become citizens of Israel at any time, even if they settle in occupied East Jerusalem or the West Bank, those Palestinians and their families who were either expelled from Israel in 1948 or fled from fighting in the region after that time are not granted that same right of return. Finally, by both not recognizing Palestine and holding the revocation of residency as a threat above all Palestinians, Israel denies the Palestinians a right to a national identity. By denying this right, Israel subjects all non-Israeli citizen Palestinians to a “state” in which they have no legal protections or rights, even to basic needs like food, water, and shelter, as can be seen in the actions of Israel towards these people;

The text is riddled with lies, half-truths and purposeful mixing up of different issues to give the worst impression. Here's a really egregious example accusing Israel of dropping American bombs on civilians just for fun:

WHEREAS, as Israel has shown itself to be either unwilling or unable to address these human rights violations, the United States must ensure that American resources, such as the bombs used without justification on civilian targets this past May...

This is the wholesale hijacking of the NC Democrats by the extreme Left of the party. Many Zionists are concerned about the depth acceptance of the "Squad" mentality in the mainstream of the party, items like this document cement that concern.

It will be interesting to see the reaction from Zionist Democrats to this extreme anti-Israel document.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Want to see how dishonest anti-Zionist groups are? Look at this press release!

CAIR and a bunch of other anti-Israel groups, most of them Muslim, issued this press release:

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

We, the undersigned Muslim American organizations, express our unified support for the human rights of all people, including Palestinians. We also express our unified rejection of attempts to smear and silence members of our community who advocate for Palestinian human rights.

Far too often, Muslim Americans and others come under attack for daring to call on our nation to stop supporting the Israeli government’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. ADL Director Jonathan Greenblatt’s decision to attack prominent Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian human rights activists, including college students, was only the latest example of this unacceptable pattern.

This must end. Groups like the ADL must not marginalize and slander members of our community working for human rights. As Muslim Americans, we stand united with each other in upholding justice. We also stand with the Jewish Americans, Christian Americans, Arab Americans, Palestinian Americans, African Americans, and many others who have been unfairly attacked for supporting justice for all.

The American Muslim community has vocally, collectively, and consistently stood up against all forms of hatred, including racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian racism. We have also worked closely with our friends and partners in the Jewish community and other communities to confront such threats.

That’s because our faith teaches us to support justice for all people. No matter what attacks we face, we will continue to do so–together, God willing.

There is literally nothing true in this statement.

Jonathan Greenblatt did not attack any "human rights organizations" or activists. He did not insult any Muslims as Muslims.

He said that anti-Zionism - saying that Jews have no rights to a state of their own, and such a state is inherently illegitimate - is antisemitism.

He didn't say that supporting Palestinians is antisemitic. Not one word of his speech indicated anything like that. On the contrary, he supports a Palestinian state side by side with Israel. He supports Palestinian human rights. He supports the right of protest. He supports the right to criticize Israel.

This statement didn't even include the words "anti-Zionism" because they don't want to address the actual message Greenblatt said. Instead of arguing with what Greenblatt said, they made up lies about what he said - and attacked that.

Now, that's dishonesty.

The Muslim groups' press release did say "Greenblatt also claimed that the ADL now considers any criticism of Zionism to be anti-Semitism." That is also a lie. He never said that. He never claimed that criticism of Israel or Zionism is antisemitism, because everything can be legitimately criticized. Wanting to see Israel destroyed and its adherents canceled and shunned is not "criticism."

It is hate.

In addition, the claim that these groups stand up against antisemitism is equally a lie. There are daily antisemitic attacks in Muslim and Arab media - Holocaust denial, calling Jews "sons of apes and pigs," denying Jewish history, claiming Jews are not real Jews - and not once have any of these organizations criticized fellow Muslims for antisemitism.

The press release and statement show clearly that anti-Zionist organizations are incapable of telling the truth - because the truth proves that they are bigots. They instead lie about what their critics are saying to label them.

But beyond this, they are making a slander against all Muslims themselves. Because they are claiming, in the name of all Muslims, that there is no difference between being "pro-Palestinian" and being "anti-Zionist." They are saying, in the name of all Muslims, that those who marched on Sunday saying that murdering Jewish civilians in Israel is legitimate "resistance" are merely "supportive of Palestinian rights" and not hateful supporters of terror.

If their claim is correct, then according to their own logic, all Muslims are antisemitic bigots.

But they aren't. And Zionists don't make that claim.

These self-proclaimed leaders of Muslims are the bigots. And they have no compunction about supporting terrorism against, and the ethnic cleansing of, Jews in the Middle East. But beyond that, they want you to believe that they represent all Muslims - and in doing that, they do as much to spread Islamophobia as any right wing group.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Twenty-two reasons anti-Zionists are antisemites

(from a Twitter thread last night)

1. If you are pro-Palestinian, you are actively supporting the one group that has the highest percentage of antisemites in the world (Pew poll.)

2. If you are anti-Zionist, that means you say Jews - alone among all peoples = have no right to their own homeland in their historic home.

3. Israel-haters hate context: they compare Israel with a shining ideal but have nothing to say about anyone else. Singling out the Jewish state for vitriol is antisemitism.

4. Today's anti-Zionists have something in common with Hitler - they both hated Zionism.

5. The Israel-boycott movement says Israeli Arabs are Palestinians. They only boycott Israelis - meaning, only Jews. Textbook antisemitism.

6. There is a direct historical line between the Arabs boycotting Jews in the 1920s-40s and people boycotting Israeli Jews today.

7. Anti-Israel Arab media is unrepentantly antisemitic in Arabic. If you don't call it out, you condone it.

8. College campuses with the biggest anti-Israel populations are also the most antisemitic, according to studies.

9. Be real: the only reason anti-Zionists obsess over Israel when other countries are far worse is because it is filled with Jews.

10. Obsessive Israel-hatred is more a cult than a sober opinion. The only obsession comparable to it in history is classic Jew-hatred.

11. The Khazar theory is only popular among Israel haters because it says today's Jews have no historic right to the land of Israel. It's pure antisemitism.

12. Saying that Zionists control America and/or the media is literally identical to what the Protocols of the Elders of Zion says.

13. If you create or use definitions of "apartheid" or "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing" in a way that only applies to Jews, you hate Jews.

14. The accusation of "Jewish supremacy" is directly out of the Nazi playbook.

15. Israel is a pretty remarkable country in thousands of ways. If you can't admit any of them, you aren't just a "critic of Israel." You hate Jews.

16. If you say that Jews do not have the right to pray on the Temple Mount, their holiest spot, you have a problem with Jews.

17. If you complain about "Judaization" of Jerusalem or any other important Biblical city, you have a problem with Jews.

18. If you claim to support Palestinians but don't have anything bad to say about how badly the Arab world treats Palestinians, you are just a Jew-hater.

19. If you twist Jewish ritual into anti-Israel ritual, you have a problem with Jews and Judaism.

20. Saying that you hate Nazi-style antisemitism but being okay with Soviet-style antisemitism means you support antisemitism.

21. The Palestinian nationalist movement was literally founded by someone who collaborated with Nazis because they both saw Jews as a common enemy.

22. Even the UN admits that calling for the destruction of Israel, including when the BDS movement does it, is antisemitic.

Yes, the UN.

Professor resigns from U of MN Center for Jewish Studies over its anti-Zionism and silence on antisemitism

Oren Gross is a professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School since 2002. He is an expert on international law and has published extensively.

On Tuesday, he resigned from that university's Center for Jewish Studies over its atmosphere of pervasive anti-Zionism and its indifference to the new wave of antisemitism.

"I see no place for me to remain affiliated with CJS which has turned into an echo chamber of silence and in which those, such as myself, who are unapologetic Zionists feel increasingly isolated," Dr. Gross wrote in his resignation letter.

Gross was unsparing in his critique of his progressive colleagues refusing to support Israel when it was being bombarded by thousands of rockets, or, worse, siding with Hamas. "Most of you stayed silent when Israel was attacked (again!). Some of you thought it opportune to shine your golden entry ticket to progressive circles by actually condemning the Jewish state," he charged.

Worse, he accuses his colleagues at CJS of silence in the face of new attacks against Jews worldwide. "Most of you stayed silent even when anti-Semitism and physical violence against Jews in the United States increased, this time not by individuals wearing red MAGA hats but rather the colors of the Palestinian flag," Gross continued.

Exposing how unwilling the CJS is in allowing any opinions to be stated that reject the prevailing anti-Israel orthodoxy, Gross writes, "If anything, CJS has turned into a space that rejects, institutionally, any principled position-taking in support of Israel. It is 'safe' as long as one shies away from engaging with vicious, hurtful attacks especially from within the University. "

"It is thus, with a heavy heart, that I inform you all of the decision to resign my affiliation with CJS effective immediately."

This is not only a problem at the University of Minnesota. As Professor Andrew Pessin recently wrote here, over 200 Jewish Studies academics signed a letter condemning Israel for defending itself in May.

However, Gross says that he will still be involved in Jewish studies - just not at CJS. "I shall thus seek to establish new and vigorous fora for the pursuit of Jewish and Israel studies at the University of Minnesota as well as outside its academic walls," his letter concludes.

Perhaps he is already working on establishing a inter-university Jewish Studies forum that will allow true freedom of expression, something that is increasingly rare in academia.

(h/t MtTB)

Arab hate literature of the 1950s shows the transition from blaming "Jews" to blaming "Zionists"

Here is an excerpt from the Congressional Record, June 27, 1956, part of a very lengthy testimony about the Arab boycott of Israel and of Jews.

What is especially interesting here is that the section on Arab anti-Jewish propaganda shows that there was a transition period between direct anti-Jewish statements and seeming "anti-Zionist" statements, for all intents and purposes identical. The testimony says that the change was prompted by American public relations firms retained by Arab countries.

This is an early blueprint of today's anti-Zionist propaganda, just today it is slightly better disguised.

ARAB ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

Perhaps the most vicious offense committed by Arab governments against Jewish citizens in the United States is their deliberate fomenting of domestic anti-Semitism in this country and their collaboration with and sponsorship of elements in the American hate movement.

Collaboration with American hatemongers

In carrying out its anti-Jewish campaign, the Arab Information Center has determined upon a course of intimate cooperation with professional anti-Semites in this country.

A policy statement sent by [Kameel Abdul] Rahim on October 25, 1954, from Cairo before his departure for the United States to head the center. to Dr. Omar Haliq. Arab League representative tn New York (Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatch of March 17, 1955) declared that the Arab Information Center henceforth would welcome the cooperation and assistance of professional anti-Semites in all fields and ways. Rahim emphasized that such activities were to be handled discreetly so as not to expose the center to charges of anti-Semitism or compromise its character as a cultural exchange. Rahim indicated that he intended to deal with this facet of the center's activities personally.
....
Distribution of anti-Semitic literature

The increasing voluminous literature published directly by Arab official propaganda agencies bears a comparable stamp of anti-Jewishness although, significantly, it does not usually bear any imprint identifying its source. Mort of the anti-Jewish items now being freely distributed across the country, often elaborately and handsomely printed, are published by the embassies of the Arab states and distributed by the Arab Information Center.

Generally, Arab officials obey the advice given them by American consultants to avoid heavy-handed anti-Jewish themes in their propaganda. On the other hand, the Arabs understand that the term “Zionist” and “Jew” are so closely identified in the United States by the general public that the theme of anti-Zionism can be handled adroitly to produce anti-Jewish implications, thus the continually repeated refrain concerning “the influence of the American Zionists in Washington.”

Occasionally, however, the Arab line is directed into an unmistakable excursion into overt anti-Jewish incitement. This is especially true in two pamphlets now widely in circulation, Story of Zionist Espionage in Egypt and Jewish Atrocities in the Holy Land..... These pamphlets clearly seek not only to inspire antipathy toward Israel but, in addition, to invoke a feeling of anti-Jewish prejudice and bias generally. And as a matter of fact, domestic anti-Semites in the United States already have distributed and exploited these documents for their own purposes.

The Story of Zionist Espionage In Egypt is openly anti-Jewish as well as anti-Israel...[It describes Zionism and communism this way:]

“Zionism and communism are two distinctive forces with one political objective— world domination. Both powers cooperate secretly and in public without friction since the power in the end will eventually go to Zionism.

"They will not achieve supremacy until they destroy the Islamic and Christian countries all over the world. Therefore communism helps Zionism and each in its own way completes the other: only thus will they reach their aim—Zionlist world supremacy.”

Jewish Atrocities In the Holy Land includes:

“Now we have once more to hear the horrible tale of sadistic cruelties and wanton brutalities perpetrated against an innocent population, mainly composed of women, children and old men. But this time the aggressors are those very Jews who were lately so loud tn their outcry against the Nazis.

"When reading of these atrocious acts, one unconsciously thinks of their perpetrators as being untaught savages, or barbarians of the remote past. Yet these same Jews have for centuries, by virtue of their money-amassing activities, gathered to themselves the cream of culture, and refinement of whatever country they have settled in. The wealthy, educated Jew surrounded by all the culture and art that his riches can command has long been a familiar figure in civilized society.”

An even more outrageous document, published by the World Truth League of POB 44, Jerusalem, Jordan-Arab side, is distributed widely in the United States through embassy offices of the Arab delegations to the U.N. as well as by the Arab Information Center. The sheet, composed in a sensational format, contains touched-up photographs of alleged Israeli massacres of Arab children, old men, and women. It quotes liberally from the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion to the effect that the Jews believe the gentiles are a flock of sheep and we are the wolves and you know what happens when the wolves get hold of the flock. This Jordanian leaflet maintains that Jews. not Israelis, are the unconscionable exploiters of the gentile world and they have very well proved it once again by their recent Judaic barbarities against innocent Arab shepherds. It declares that the basic material in all Jewish propaganda is composed of lies and distortion of facts as is known by now all over the world.

...
It is apparent that crude and vicious canards of this kind are not intended to be limited merely to incitement of hostility against Israel. They are designed for the larger purpose of promoting hatred toward Jews of every national allegiance throughout the world.

For those who insist that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism, this history shows that they were identical in the 1950s and everyone knew it. The accusations against Israel today mirror those in the Arab antisemitic literature of 60 years ago. Given that the accusation of antisemitism was considered toxic, the Arab world slowly replaced "Jew" with "Zionist" but the intent was the same - to foment Jew-hatred worldwide.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Balancing Act (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

My home town of Fresno, California has a tiny Jewish community. The metropolitan area of about a million people, in almost the geographical center of the state, has only about 1000 Jewish families. There are three congregations: a Reform temple with several hundred members, a much smaller Conservative shul, and a Chabad house.

I haven’t been to the US since moving back to Israel more than five years ago. But I keep in touch. So recently I noticed an announcement on the Facebook page of the Reform congregation for a talk by a Rabbi John Rosove on the subject “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, an American Zionist Perspective.” I thought that was interesting, since I, too, am a Zionist and (you can tell by my accent) will always be an American.

Rabbi Rosove went to Berkeley (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and Hebrew Union College, and is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel in Hollywood. Investigating further, I found that the talk would be about “… the destructive impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinians, Israelis and the future of Israel’s democracy.” And I noted that Rabbi Rosove is a national co-chair of the J Street Rabbinic Cabinet, and is associated with several “Reform Zionism” groups.

This is not my kind of Zionism – it demands a suicidal “two-state solution,” and wrongly analogizes our conflict with the Palestinians to the American civil rights struggle, two things that couldn’t be more different.

A word or two about J Street. It would like you think that it has a “pro-Israel, pro-peace” platform, but ever since its beginnings in 2007, it has advocated against Israel’s interests. J Street lobbied against sanctions on Iran and for the nuclear deal, refused to denounce the Goldstone Report that falsely accused Israel of war crimes, lobbied against a congressional letter criticizing Palestinian incitement, invited numerous anti-Israel speakers and BDS supporters to its national conventions, called for the US to support an anti-Israel Security Council resolution in 2014 and applauded the Obama Administration’s abstention on one in 2016. More recently, it criticized Israel’s use of force to protect its border with Gaza, and on and on and on. One would think that maybe it isn’t “pro-Israel” at all.

But nothing is more telling than the sources of J Street’s money. One of the biggest contributors to anti-Israel organizations is George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. It pledged $750,000 to J Street for its first three years. J Street lied about it until an investigative reporter exposed the facts. J Street also got contributions from sources linked to Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as a Turkish film producer, and even stranger places. Of course much of its funding does come from Jewish “useful idiots.”

Let’s assume that Rabbi Rosove is one of these. His talk is being held at Clovis Community College, next door to Fresno, and is free. But who paid Rosove’s expenses? The announcement for the talk indicates that it is sponsored by GV Wire, a local progressive news website. GV Wire is a very slick production, with a professional staff including Bill McEwen, a former Fresno Bee columnist and editorial page editor.

The “GV” in GV Wire stands for Granville Homes, one of the biggest real estate developers and homebuilders in the Fresno area. And Granville Homes is owned by the Assemi family, who came to California from Iran just before the revolution. Among the founders of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno, the Assemis are among the biggest philanthropists in the Central Valley of California. Granville has done some projects in the downtown area which have improved parts of town that many people thought were lost forever. They donate large amounts to numerous causes and organizations, especially “progressive” ones.

The publisher of GV Wire is Darius Assemi, Granville’s President and CEO. He is deeply involved in local politics, and is probably one of the most powerful people in the area. And of course, he’s no friend of Israel. He’s described Israel’s shooting terrorists climbing its border fence as a “massacre.”

So why would he bring a self-described “Zionist” speaker to the area (even if he’s as much a Zionist as I am Queen of England)?

The explanation is the reaction to Assemi’s previous speaker, Alison Weir, who appeared on September 18 (her presentation can be viewed here). Weir is viciously anti-Israel and antisemitic, to the point that even pro-BDS groups like Jewish Voice for Peace have disavowed her. Her position is that the Israel/Jewish lobby dominates the US government, causing it to act against American interests in order to help Israel oppress, exploit, and murder Palestinians, which it does in the most sadistic way possible. She asserts that US media, controlled by Jewish interests, is biased in favor of Israel, and that any criticism of Israel is derailed by accusations of antisemitism. She is a low-key, persuasive speaker, and if you don’t recognize the lies, lack of context, and distortions, she will convince you.

Weir was originally invited by the college, which canceled the event following complaints by the ADL and other Jewish organizations.

But Assemi thought that she should be heard, so he had GV Wire sponsor the event and rent the hall, absolving the college of responsibility. ADL and the others protested again, but rather than cancel the event, Assemi decided to also invite “a speaker who will explain the deadly realities in this region from the Jewish perspective.” Balance. That would be Rabbi Rosove.

So now we will get a “Jewish perspective” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Jew who says he is a Zionist, but represents an organization that is actually anti-Zionist, and is even supported financially by Israel’s enemies. And a Jewish house of worship is advertising it.

Welcome to the highest level of useful idiocy!

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Spot the difference (poster)

This seems accurate.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

These Greens Are Poisonous (Daphne Anson)

We all want to save this planet, we all want a life that’s free

So we voted for the Greens, ‘cause they stood for equality.

But as soon as they got power, it went right to their head,

Now they’re not supporting freedom, but racism instead.

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, you ain’t what you were at the start,

Greens, greens, your paint’s peeling off, revealing your racist heart.

There are human rights abuses in most countries you could name

But there’s just one tiny country that the Greens would like to blame,

A country known as Israel where citizens walk free,

Muslims, Jews and Christians – the region’s lone democracy.

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, you ain’t what you were at the start,

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, revealing your racist heart.

Israel’s fought in seven wars, not one did it start,

Rockets launched each day from Gaza still tear children’s lives apart.

But to the Greens they’re the aggressors, not entitled to their views –

How dare Israel defend itself, those stubborn bloody Jews.

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, you ain’t what you were at the start,

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, revealing your racist heart.

Sure, Israel isn’t perfect, and it’s always in the news,

But would you fare any better, standing in their shoes?

If you call a country racist, while ignoring the great wealth

Of far greater wrongs around it, you’re just racist yourself.

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, you ain’t what you were at the start,

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, revealing your racist heart.

Greens, Greens, your paint’s peeling off, you ain’t what you were, that’s for sure.

Greens, Greens we now see who you are, and we won’t vote for you anymore.

That catchy ditty entitled “Racist Heart” whose words I decided to reproduce since they don’t seem to appear all together anywhere on the internet (to hear them go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHPe04ZrVGY) is the work of a New South Wales singer-songwriter inspired by the utter hypocrisy, bigotry and double standards displayed by the New South Wales Greens in 2011 when they committed the council of Marrickville in Sydney to BDS, a mean and divisive move that outraged both Jews and non-Jews and has since been overturned.

For a party that was founded with the welfare of the environment and ecological issues in mind, the Greens in Australia, like the Greens elsewhere, have a disproportionate fixation with “Israel Palestine” and appear to have passed more “party resolutions” pertaining to that corner of the world than to any other foreign policy issue. Here’s their most recent resolution, one that allows no consideration of the pre-Six Day War 1949 ceasefire lines as they affect Israel’s security and which offers everything to the Palestinian Arabs on a platter, despite their decades-old rejectionism and with no responsibility on their part towards negotiation with Israel:

Resolution on Palestine, November 2015

That the Australian Greens National Conference:

1. Notes:

a) The state of Palestine is currently recognised by 136 states, representing 70.5% of the 193 member states and two non-member states of the United Nations;

b) The importance of recognition of the state of Palestine, alongside the state of Israel, as a contribution to securing a negotiated two state solution, based on 4 June 1967 boundaries with both states sharing Jerusalem as their capital;

2. Formally recognises the State of Palestine.

Motion passed by consensus

Since, as made clear by Greens politician Adam Bandt the other day (see below) they support the “right of return” for “Palestinian refugees” they are, quite obviously, unconscionably hostile to Israel.

Here’s a brief glimpse of their obnoxious attitude. In 2013 the New South Wales Greens, apparently spearheaded by David Shoebridge, member of the state Legislative Council and co-convenor of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, announced support for the “Gaza’s Ark” project, “which will challenge the blockade by rebuilding a boat in Gaza using Palestinian shipbuilders, load the vessel with Palestinian goods and products, and sail to international waters with both Palestinians and internationals on board,” the aim being “ to challenge the ongoing, illegal Israeli blockade and focus worldwide attention on Gaza and the complicity of the governments that support it or look the other way.” This, despite the fact that in 2011 an inquiry under UN auspices declared Israel “fully within its rights to impose [the blockade] in order to prevent the import of weapons which will be turned against it.” To the ire of the then federal Greens’ leader Senator Christine Milne when she found out, a staffer in Shoebridge’s office invited notorious German-born South Australian Holocaust denier Dr Fredrick Töben to the “Gaza’s Ark” fundraiser (a cruise around Sydney Harbour), leading Shoebridge to have the invitation withdrawn.

That same year NSW Young Greens posted on Facebook a poll that asked whether respondents believed in “the rights and sovereignty of Palestine” or supported “the creation and continuance of the state of Israel”. Although the poll was later removed owing to pressure by the then party leadership, those who administered that Facebook page remained defiant in their outlook, leading the executive director of the Executive Council for Australian Jewry to observe: “Regardless of their personal views, their activities and rhetoric have time and again been magnets for gross expressions of antisemitism, both online and in public forums. The Greens … have a choice to make … They can speak and act as a party with mainstream voter appeal, or they can pander to the radical fringe of politics.”

Federal Senator Lee Rhiannon (born Lee Brown to hard left parents, and of part-Jewish extraction through her mother) is arguably the most infamous of the anti-Israel Greens. Her attitude can be discerned in a speech she made two and a half years ago in the Senate, in which she said, inter alia:

“There is a strongly growing case for the Australian government to adopt the Greens’ policy of no military cooperation and trade with Israel. This policy change is needed to ensure that Australia no longer supports crimes committed by the Israeli government…. Jake Lynch, Director of Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, has pointed out that Israel is the only country which is guilty of the following four major transgressions. The first transgression is that it is illegally occupying foreign territory. The evidence for this is UN Security Council resolution 242 which calls on Israel to reinstate the 1967 borders. This violation is now in its 46th year. The second transgression is that Israel is the subject of well-founded allegations of war crimes, most recently the 2009 UN Goldstone Report into Operation Cast Lead. A third transgression is that it is a nuclear armed state yet has refused to admit this or join the non-proliferation treaty. This is surely one of the biggest obstacles to a peaceful and stable Middle East. The fourth transgression is that it is the subject of well-founded allegations of apartheid crimes, violating the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid….”

Last month Senator Rhiannon, as readers of David Singer’s posts on my blog will be aware, authorised Israel-demonising leaflets, including that ubiquitous set of mendacious maps and other misleading material, to be issued by her office at public expense.

Senator Christine Milne’s successor as federal Greens’ leader, Dr Richard Di Natale, was praised by Jewish communal leaders in May 2015 when, was asked in an interview with the AJN “whether Abbas should recognise Israel’s existence as a Jewish state” he 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.” The ensuing furore in his party caused Dr Di Natale to backtrack. A fortnight after the interview was published, the AJN (4 June 2015) reported:

‘Ignoring the fact that the Jewish State has existed for almost 70 years and is recognised in international law, Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale this week earned the ire of community leaders for declaring “absolutely” that he does not support the establishment of a Jewish state and does not believe it would be conducive to a two-state solution…. The backlash [from Greens regarding the answer he gave in the interview] prompted a clarification, in which his executive assistant stated that Di Natale was “concerned about the way in which his comments were reported” and that while he supports a two-state solution, “the establishment of a ‘Jewish state’ (as opposed to an ‘Israeli state’) is not conducive to that outcome”. When The AJN contacted Di Natale’s office, a spokesperson said they didn’t mean to imply there had been “an error in reporting”, explaining “it was just a misunderstanding”….

Di Natale this week reiterated his position in correspondence with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ)…. “My comments in the AJN piece were intended to reflect that view and that view alone. I have never believed that the establishment of a ‘Jewish state’ (as opposed to an ‘Israeli state’) is conducive to this outcome and I absolutely do not support that goal.” …. Labelling Di Natale’s “about turn” as “profoundly disquieting”, Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm … noted the UN and Israel’s Declaration of Independence, as well as statements by US President Barack Obama as supporting its existence as the Jewish State. He added, “Senator Di Natale’s revised position on Israel should also 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 national ethno-religious identity applies solely to a Jewish Israel, or extends to an Arab/Muslim Palestine as well?”….’

The words of the “Racist Heart” song above are so pertinent to the despicable, discriminatory attitude of the Green Party in Australia towards Israel, and even, as recent events in the state of Victoria have reminded us, towards Jews. The latest whiff of Greens’ poison has emerged during the current federal election campaign, and it involves Greens candidate Steph Hodgins-May, who is hoping to wrest the seat of Melbourne Posts from the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP’s) Michael Danby, who has represented the seat in federal Parliament in Canberra since 1998. Mr Danby, who is Jewish, is and always has been a stalwart champion of Israel, and from his university days has been instrumental in building up support for Israel among trades unionists and others on the right of the party. On 22 June Mr Danby’s two main rivals, Liberal Party candidate Owen Guest and the Greens’ Ms Hodgins-May, were due to join him in a pre-election debate on issues raised by Jewish constituents (who comprise a not insignificant proportion part of the seat’s electorate). But as a result of Ms Hodgins-May’s sudden withdrawal, the debate will be between just Danby and Guest.

The debate, to be chaired by Australian Jewish News editor-in-chief Zeddy Lawrence, was first proposed to the three candidates on 26 May, and Ms Hodgin-May’s office that same day confirmed her participation. On 30 May Mr Lawrence emailed her to inform her that the event would be co-sponsored with the AJN by Zionism Victoria. On 7 June she told an enquiring journalist on Twitter that she was unaware of the involvement of Zionism Victoria, and on 8 June her office informed the AJN by email: “At the time of Steph accepting AJN’s invitation to participate in the candidate forum, it was our understanding that it was being independently hosted by your newspaper. Since the circumstances of the forum have changed, Steph won’t be participating.” That same day she informed the paper, in two separate conversations: “I’m not comfortable participating in a forum that is co-hosted by an organisation that isn’t an independent newspaper, so that’s my reason for withdrawal” and that she felt it was not “appropriate and right to speak at an event co-organised by a politically active organisation”.

On 9 June the AJN pointed out to her that the Greens member for Melbourne and former deputy leader of the party Adam Bandt would be speaking at an Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) (see, by the way, Bandt’s response to an APAN questionnaire (https://apan.org.au/party-positions-on-the-question-of-palestine/adam-bandt-mp-greens-member-for-melbourne/). Thus cornered, she offered this excuse: “I was unaware when I accepted that it was also being co-hosted by an organisation that holds strong political views, including in relation to the United Nations. As someone who worked at the UN and holds their work in high regard, I have chosen not to participate in the now co-hosted forum.” Yet, as the AJN notes, the description a “nuisance and a sham organisation,” which Hodgins-May attributes on her website to Zionism Victoria, emanated from the Zionist Federation of Victoria.

See Bandt’s shameful response when confronted at the APAN forum with this issue by David Schulberg: (http://jmedia.online/2016/06/14/australian-palestinian-advocacy-network-event/ )

Here is Bandt’s speech at the APAN forum, where he makes clear that the Australian Greens support the “Palestinian Right of Return” (something that, if effected, would spell the end of Israel):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp81WxOOQnY

Ms Hodgins-May has behaved disgracefully, treating a section of her potential electorate with contempt. As excoriating articles in the current AJN make clear, she has caused deep offence and hurt to Jews in the constituency she hopes to represent. Not long ago she tweeted a photo of herself holding a loaf of challah on a Friday afternoon, together with appreciative comments. But elections are not won by bread and blarney and photo opportunities alone. The Greens are poisonous.

Editorialises the AJN:

“As a newspaper – albeit a Jewish, Zionist one – we don’t as a rule presume to tell our readers who to vote for. We may encourage them in a certain direction, but on the whole we present relevant information and allow them to make up their own minds. In this instance, however, we feel we have no choice. We not only opened our pages to Steph Hodgins-May, we invited her to take part in our panel. In turn, she has shown considerable disrespect towards our community. And that being the case, we would urge you not to give her your vote.”

Michael Danby goes further: “Approximately 71 per cent of Australian Jewish residents of Melbourne Ports have family in Israel. If she doesn’t want to represent our local Jewish community, or even speak to them, she cannot be their local member. Greens Leader Di Natale must sack her.” Excellent point.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.