okay people are asking me what i think about marrickville council and the greens. i’ll tell you but you won’t like it, you’ll use your preconceived ideas about israel and the middle east, about jews and their role in history, about the media reports your fed and about me.
anyways here’s my take.
first lets tackle the greens.
the green party lost their way in the eighties when communism collapsed. a hell of a lot of socialists and communists now had no political party to align themselves to, they were bereft of ideology as in real terms their’s had failed. so the green party, a traditionally environmental political body was swamped with new members who proceeded to take over the party from the inside. any environmentalist will inform you that israel leads the way in environmental culture, not only in greening the deserts but in solar and electric car technology. in fact it is likely to be the first country on earth to have only electric cars, they already have a system where the road itself generates electricity that is fed back into the car.
unfortunately the green party don’t care much for environmental issues anymore, their issues are the socialist ones that emanate from the united nations with whom they are in league.
this is not the stuff of conspiracy theories, (see agenda 21)
okay so that’s where i think the greens are at.
the idea about boycotting israel comes from two areas, one the idea that israel is an apartheid state and palestinians suffer from human rights abuses more than necessary while ignoring the reasons why and the other side of the issue.
without going into history, we have to start somewhere. lets start by saying that the un after the second world war relocated the jewish survivors to israel where they hoped they would be annihilated by the arabs. an the day of independence five arab nations waged a war with israel and lost. the jews were outnumbered and outgunned and won because they were not just fighting for their lives, but their race. the defeated armies were shocked and surprised at the way the war was won so quickly and decisively. as was the rest of the world. from that point on isreal has been at war, that’s 850 million of it’s arab neighbors against 6 million jews. that’s just the facts. every war the arabs started the israelis won.
land was captured and thus begins the saga of the west bank and gaza. but the terrorism never stopped and all over the world jews were targeted, even at the olympic games the team were shot, war baby. there has never been peace. suicide bombers, missiles and assassinations, the israeli army depended upon it’s internal security service the mossad to keep it’s citizens safe. israel has always had a ‘no negotiation’ policy to terrorism, unlike britain and france who paid the PLO billions to keep them away from their soil.
now in the last decade israel adopted a different approach, it knows peace is the only solution, it always has, so it gave back the west bank and gaza for peace and found itself bombarded by rockets from the land they gave back for peace. no united nations outcry, no media coverage, no demonstrations, no boycotts, no nothing really.
so if you live in israel what incentive do you have for peace. you just gave back land for peace and are faced with destruction. mmm, do the maths.
so after 5000 missiles the israelis send the tanks in, yeah now the media is interested, ohh yeah poor innocents at risk from a big military. in fact the guardian, the independent and the bbc plus various human rights campaigners all spoke about massacres and slaughters they witnessed only to be later found to be lying. look up the jenin massacre. why?
same goes for the recent goldstone report which goldstone himself recently retracted by saying he would have written it very differently if he knew now what he knew then, specifically the claim that the isreali army targeted civilians but the UN still carry on using it as a weapon against israel while ignoring the fact hamas used human shields. why?
same with the inquiry into the bbc standard of journalism known as the 'balen' report which proves the massive anti semitic anti isreal bias the bbc has when covering the middle east. the bbc spent millions of tax payers money on suppressing this report. why?
because there is another agenda at work.
anyways on it went, i‘m the first to admit the israeli pr machine is piss poor, but it dosn’t even get a look in nowadays, i mean when was the last time you saw an isreali on your television being interviewed, giving their side of the story?
it don't happen unless it’s some fruitcake settler.
the settlers are mostly american, fundamentalists, and they are a minority. the israeli army has relocated them many times to give land back for a peace it never gets, so the settlers have a valid point when it comes to staying put.
however lets look at israeli society from inside. firstly it’s truly multicultural, people from all around the world, living as jews, muslims and christians or buddhists even pagans. political diversity, sexual diversity, equality, israel had the first ever female prime minister before anyone else and for a country that was brand new that’s an achievement. i mean even albert einstein was offered the job. the arabs that live in israel have more rights and freedoms than if they lived in the arab nations, most of them are happy there. that is a fact but you will never see that on the media. it’s not what people want, they need tension to sell papers.
anyway israel is in a very unique position and no other country on earth faces the adversity it does, yet all other countries judge it. and they judge it rather harshly. and this is the issue i have.
anti semitism is a litmus test, for what it means is one group of people are judged with a different set of standards than another.
the boycott movement is fine if individuals choose to exercise their free political will, good luck but why boycott israel when all the other countries around them are much worse when it comes to human rights, why indeed.
this is where the greens have made an error, in fact they are pretty stupid because in order to boycott israel they have to, hand over their phones and telecommunications, all computers, don’t drink from the desalination plant, don’t eat any australian vegetables or fruit as it was grown with isreali irrigation technology and don’t go to a hospital for a major operation as that would have been probably the result of israeli medical innovation. the list don't stop there but i won’t bore you with the other stuff. oh one thing, they would have to give away their superannunation as a lot of it is invested in israel, which happens to be the 4th most technology advanced country on the planet.
what i am trying to say is that the greens have backed themselves into a corner here, but what they wanted to do was score a cheap point for their UN masters.
there is no doubt their stance is anti semantic, that is, anti jewish.
while i agree peace is possible through the two state solution, security is a basic necessity for both sides, 6 million jews in israel have been asking for that for 60 years and when they defend themselves they are vilified.
so boycott all you want, but try not to be a hypocrite while your doing it, but that’s asking a lot from the green socialist alliance.