BACKLASH: Greens in crisis lash "these Jews"

The NSW Greens are in a deeply troubled funk, caused by the enormous community backlash against their hateful and disgusting boycott of Israel, a policy calculated at undermining the Jewish state, with Senator-Elect Lee Rhiannon bizarrely reflecting that the Greens need to promote the policy even more (!) in an amusing friendly-fire article by Antony Loewenstein, whose record of Israel bashing is probably only exceeded by Hamas.

“Low-blow” as he is cordially known reveals not only that the Greens party is considering attempting to silence its many critics in high-priced defamation (and has singled out News Ltd’s Andrew Bolt and Penbo) action but also the deep hatred of Jamie Parker at “these Jews.” As we will see, it’s a disturbing rant.

RIGHT SAID FRED
The Reverend Fred Nile MLC clearly has a wry sense of humour about their pain. Members of the VEXNEWS Investigations Unit embedded in the NSW Parliament report that Nile has the misfortune of having his parliamentary office immediately adjacent to those of the Greens MPs. He has made it clear where he stands by proudly displaying this week in his office window a flag of the State of Israel. Love his work.

BOO HOO
His former upper-house colleague Lee Rhiannon is crying into her chai latte about the whole thing, sharing with New Matilda’s readers her angst about why the wheels fell of the Greens power-lust bid for lower-house representation:

NSW Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon acknowledged to New Matilda that the Greens could have explained BDS better both internally and externally: “Months before the election we needed to explain why the Greens backed BDS and we needed to work closer with our allies on BDS; academics, the Arab community and social justice movements in Sydney and Melbourne. Collectively we didn’t do enough to amplify support for BDS and show that this is part of an international movement.”

Ominously, the Senator-Elect speaks of working with “the Arab community” to promote a boycott on Israel. This deplorable plot to encourage, exploit and promote hostility between Australian Jews and those of Arab descent to rescue the Greens party from a political nightmare is ugly enough, but what’s worse is the deep ignorance it shows. We know plenty of Arabs – Lebanese Christians and many others besides – who are appalled not just by the idea of boycotting Israel but also by those few foul fanatics who fling filth at the Jewish state.

We also think it’s very telling Rhiannon constantly refers to the digusting and contemptible boycott of Jewish commerce by an empty-sounding apparently harmless acronym, “BDS”.

No mention of the boycott word, the divestment word or the sanctions word. No mention of its effects on real people and a real country whose own survival since 1949 has been nothing short of miraculous.

THE POLICY THAT DAREN’T SPEAK ITS NAME
Just “BDS”, they call it.

Rhiannon doesn’t mention the words because it’s a scandalous policy. Too embarrassing and shameful to spell out. A throwback to the darkest days in the history of the world.

If Israel’s defenders can win in Balmain and Marrickville, they can win anywhere.

Is that VEXNEWS hyperbole you know so well? Not at all. The Greens “BDS” policy – of boycotts, divestment and sanctions for the Jewish state – is calculated at doing nothing less than undermining the viability of Israel, imperilling the lives of six million Jews in Israel. Boycotts of Israeli exports, bans on investment in Israel, other sanctions designed to shut the country down could not have any other effect or be designed to have any other effect.

A VICTORY FOR DECENCY
That this policy was so emphatically rejected by the lefty communities of Balmain and Marrickville is a tremendous source of encouragement to those who sometimes think Israel is fighting a losing PR battle it can never win, judged by standards no country could ever meet, cursed by UN politics so heavily weighted in favour of the world’s worst and most odious regimes.

If Israel’s defenders can win in Balmain and Marrickville, they can win anywhere.

SPLITTING IN TWO
And beyond Rhiannon, the Greens are splitting apart on the issue, as Loewenstein reported:

Just retired Greens MLC Ian Cohen told New Matilda that he thinks it (the Greens policy of boycotting Israel) was a major factor, a position he’s held, with various degrees of consistency, for some time. He’s opposed to BDS, believes it unfairly targets Israel and ignores other gross human rights abuses across the world: “Many pro-Israel people worried about the lack of consistency and this included Greens members. Nothing was said about dictatorships in the Arab world from the Greens … I believe there is a huge scope for criticism of Israeli behaviour against the Palestinian people but BDS for the Greens was an old style, in the trenches method of pushing a campaign. It wasn’t properly assessed how it would affect the NSW election campaign. The Jewish community outrage had a significant impact on our candidates.”

You bet it did. And it will continue to do so.

THE EVIL EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
It gets better. Despite attacking developers for silencing community activism by using defamation writs, the Greens party has a high-priced critic-silencing programme ready to roll:

The Greens are now examining possible legal action against writers who have potentially defamed members as anti-Semitic .(News Limited’s Andrew Bolt is one of the worst offenders.)

Bring. It. On.

We really hope they do. In case we hadn’t said it clearly enough in the past: if you push anti-Semitic, racist policies calculated to undermine the viability of the Jewish state then you are an anti-Semite. Fiona Byrne did this. Fiona Byrne, therefore, is an anti-Semite and is unfit for public office of any kind. Our message to Fiona Byrne (for the sake of judicial clarity): Suck it up, racist.

We’d gladly defend a defamation claim on any of this, any time, any place. Singling out Israel with insanely unfair criticism is racist. Judging the Jewish state by impossible standards that couldn’t be applied to any other nation is racist. It is anti-Semitism. A boycott is just a practical implementation of anti-Semitism and racism.

Our position on legal threats is the same as it ever was: we will stand up to any bully from billionaires down to the gutter. Too many Greens and extreme-leftists are willing to check their free-speech-enthusiasm at the door when it comes to attacking their own foes. Their humbug is limitless. They are bullies who when confronted squeal and carry on like stuck pigs.

THE BULLY FROM BALMAIN (OR HOW HORNY GOAT WEED MADE JAMIE LIMP)
And lest there be any doubt the Greens are bullies, consider the foul musings of bitter and twisted dud candidate in Balmain Jamie Parker. The real reason for Parker’s dismal result (he ran third) was his involvement in a shonky vitamin company that promoted Horny Goat Weed but he’s blaming the Jews, according to Loewenstein:

When the Murdoch press editor David Penberthy wrote that, “[Fiona] Byrne’s been busy advocating a polite modern rendering of Kristallnacht in the Inner West”, Parker hoped progressive Jews he knew would condemn the offensive comparison. They did not. “These Jews provide cover for extreme actions if they occur. If there’s a sniff of you being critical of Israel, such Jews will attack you and cut you loose.” BDS simply made many Jewish people unreasonable and extremely upset, Jews told Parker.

Parker says that the reaction of the Zionist lobby and local Jewish community during the election has revealed that they are willing to allow smears and violent actions against the Greens. Parker, who has spent years working on collaborative projects between local Jews and Palestinians, is now fed up with what he sees as Jewish silence. Local Jewish leaders have contacted him since Saturday to try and repair the damage but they still refuse to apologise for aggressive Jewish behaviour.

Consider the chilling words attributed by New Matilda to Jamie Parker:

“These Jews”…

“Jews will attack you and cut you loose”

“Zionist lobby”

“fed up with what he sees as Jewish silence”

“they (the Jews) still refuse to apologise for aggressive Jewish behaviour”

SELF-CRITICISM LACKING
Parker’s misplaced anger should be re-directed from the Jewish people and back towards his own misconduct in spruiking Horny Goat Weed.

It’s a big call to say someone is unfit for public office. It’s not something we say lightly.

When the Greens have elected representatives like Lee Rhiannon and failed candidates like anti-Semite Fiona Byrne and Jamie Parker whose anger at “these Jews” is about as disturbing as anything you’d hear in a Ku Klux Klan meeting, they are flirting with the dark side of politics that hates Jews, judges the Jewish state by unique standards and implements policies designed to undermine Israel’s viability and therefore endanger the lives of millions. If you dare, go to the neo-Nazi Stormfront online forum website and see how keen they are about boycotts of Israel. It’s scary stuff. They hope that BDS will achieve what countless Arab armies have failed to do: defeat Israel once and for all and drive its citizens into the sea.

Re-badging Israel-hating policies with a Greens party triangle doesn’t change a thing. Concern for the plight of Palestinians must never be manifested in undermining Israel’s security or viability. If the lefty inner-city communities of Balmain and Marrickville can understand this, there’s hope.

Our disparagement of the extreme-left Greens party can be considerable. But it’s never been more justified than in this case. They are staring into a political abyss of their own choosing.

THURSDAY 3PM UPDATE: Another twist in this sordid saga comes as sources close to Jamie Parker reveal to VEXNEWS that he disputes the quotes attributed to him by “journalist” Antony Loewenstein. “Low-blow” does have a reputation for misquoting or quote-fabricating so we might have to give Parker the benefit of the doubt unless the “journalist” can produce a recording. With friends like Loewenstein, Parker probably doesn’t need any more enemies. Interestingly though Parker has not publicly distanced himself from the hate-speech attributed to him by his left-wing friends.