Biggest moments of 2011 #23 Marrickville invades Israel

Nick says:

07:24am | 01/12/11

Chong ..get a life! or go over to Palestine and make a difference.

Tom says:

08:06am | 01/12/11

TC, “A peaceful, and non violent form of action”. That’s the stupidity of your disingenuous “logic”. The Palestinians are not peaceful nor non-violent.

By your sick logic, it would be OK to have “A peaceful, and non violent form of action” in support of Chopper Read or Ivan Milat.

In fact, when the Palestinians let go of their hate and their agenda to exterminate the Jews, decent people (as opposed to yourself and Green loonies) might help them improve their lot.

Arthur says:

08:13am | 01/12/11

“I guess I have always just felt that Fiona Byrne picked on about the 57th most aggressive country in the world”

That’s got nothing to do with it…It’s the fact no issue has anything to do with her on a professional level other than doing her council job…Self important idiot who is now where she belongs….

Council staff travel to sister cities while installing parking meters because the councils broke….If we put up with this BS (which we do seem to) we deserve the governments we’ve got…

gobsmack says:

08:33am | 01/12/11

@Ant
The trouble with your analysis is that after Oslo, the settlements kept on getting built.
A bit like trying to come to an agreement with someone about how to fairly divide up a cake while the other person keeps eating from it.
The minority of Israelis who believe in Greater Israel have no interest in a final peace agreement as fixed borders would mean an end to the continous expansion of the Israeli state.
They, and the hardline palestinians (who are also a minority), are the enemies of peace.

Direct says:

08:45am | 01/12/11

The Palestinians do have their own state. It’s called Jordan.

andye says:

08:55am | 01/12/11

@Anothony - The conflict is maintained from both sides by parties who need it to further certain goals. Many of the problems from the Israel side come from the actions of the militant and hateful settlers, rather than the army. The terrorists acts from the Palestinian side were intended to keep the conflict hot and alive.

Its not just about one group here vs another group there, however. Talk to any arab Israelis and you will see they are treated like second class citizens in their own country. One guy was telling me about being made to stand in place at a train station by a soldier, waiting to be searched. After some hours his train was about to leave and he asked the soldier if he could search him soon. The soldier said to continue waiting. Once the train had pulled out the soldier told him he could go, without a search. This is after some hours standing in the one spot.

You can imagine that is Israeli citizens are treated that way in public that behind closed doors it is a different story.

SimonFromLakemba says:

09:17am | 01/12/11

@Andye

The Israelis are split into sections, you have the IDF, Hasidic and the average jews living in Tel Aviv etc.

Neitehr really get along with each other, with the Hasidic there as bad as any nut job Muslim, its mainly the Hasidic that dont want peace from the jewish population, most of the mainstream want peace from both sides.

marley says:

09:20am | 01/12/11

TChong - I actually think you missed the fundamental point of the article.  The whole BDS thing cast a very unflattering light on the political goals and judgement of the Greens - as a party more interested in politically-correct, leftish concepts, than in environmental issues, and as a party given to wasting taxpayers’ funds on meaningless gestures (a local council implementing a boycott) rather than actual deliverables (garbage collection). 

Whatever I might think about the situation in the middle east, there is no damn way I believe a local council should be involved in international affairs.

badrinath says:

09:26am | 01/12/11

The policy was dumb and offensive, but so is the apathy toward Israel. Her own people are strongly opposed to the status quo. If it is such a travesty for a lefty group to have un-thought-out policy, does the same apply for righty ideals?

Plus it is hard to deny that there is some serious international non-consideration for the Palestinians. That so many strong acts of state aggression can be pepertrated against these poeple, whilst the world discourses and ‘oh dear, dear me’s’ about the issue, is pretty disappointing.

I think it is arguable that there is a default ‘lack of reaction’ to what laws, rulings and conventions Israel breaks along the way which is quite appalling. This council rubbish did get people thinking and talking about it but most of what was said was opinionated invective.

The reason there was believed to be justification was the demographic of the local council. Which is the very point - that most demographics are not willing to speak out against the injustices the state of Israel commits. This is a rotten mark on the very lessons we have learned from the abhorrent oppression of, and genocide agains,t the Jewish people that so darkly marks the story of the people of the world.

What there should be is more equality regarding the stance of the 2 sides of this conflict and more commitment toward a fair outcome, but the most powerful player - the state of Israel - has the power to evade so much responsibility and expectation - in the way in which a rich and popular person can evade the law with the right lawyers and publicity.

Aah the joys of our world.

Richard says:

10:44am | 01/12/11

“Is it racist to criticise the Palestinians as the world’s most tiresome cry-babies, with a bogus cause and a plight that’s entirely self-inflicted? I bet it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was against the law in certain European countries. But I’m going to do it anyway, because somebody has to…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j1N1zhUm84w

Al says:

08:02am | 01/12/11

Liberty, this is very commendable. Are there any particular reasons for your boycott or is it just a generic leftist anti-Israel sentiment?

Bonestar says:

08:35am | 01/12/11

It’s called being a wanker

Jeremy says:

08:45am | 01/12/11

Why boycott Israel? They produce some of the hardest hitting Psychedelic Trance the world has to offer.

SimonFromLakemba says:

08:58am | 01/12/11

Any reason for your generic right wing pro-Israel sentiment?

Shannon says:

09:54am | 01/12/11

Israel commit war crimes.

And make amazing psytrance.

me my mo says:

10:44am | 01/12/11

Awesome stuff, Liberty! Ensure you inform your doctor this the moment you are admitted to a hospital.

andye says:

01:18pm | 01/12/11

@Jeremy - infected mushroom ftw!!

Dave Mac says:

02:16pm | 01/12/11

Bogans say “I’m not a racist but…..”

Lefties say “I’m not an anti-semite but…....”

Same diff….

andye says:

03:49pm | 01/12/11

@Dave Mac - Dave Mac makes a point about bigotry and fails to realise he is generalising about a group in a bigoted way. Nice one.

AdamC says:

12:23pm | 01/12/11

What would happen if Israel’s critics were forced to discuss the issue without flippant slogans? Would it bring on the apocalypse?

Zaf says:

03:28pm | 01/12/11

What would happen if we were to discuss Adolf Hitler without mentioning Nazism?  The question remains: why would you ask us to, AdamC?  To what end do you want to remove the term ‘Nazi’ from a discussion of Hitler?

AdamC says:

04:01pm | 01/12/11

Zaf, are you suggesting that it is impossible to discuss the Israel/Palestine conflict without flippant slogans? Or are you just looking for an excuse to demonstrate Godwin’s Law in action?

Al says:

04:08pm | 01/12/11

Zaf:

Your comparison is not valid.
Nazism was the regime under Hitler. You can’t mention one without the other.
There is no apartheid in Israel, neither good nor bad, no matter how hard you wish it to be.

Arthur says:

09:45am | 01/12/11

The best thing this country could do for the environment is get rid of the custodians of the “green” vote, the Greens.

They have very little to do with the environment and in a twist of logic therefore harm it (because they’re in the way of a real “green” party getting any political traction).

Bomb78 says:

10:06am | 01/12/11

So, if no Intel chips, they would have to run PC’s with AMD chips, right? Made by the company that this year tipped a lot of money into a R&D site in Tel Aviv? They wouldn’t have been getting new PC’s, they would have been using typewriters, pens and paper.

David C says:

10:56am | 01/12/11

and they would have to boycot Apple as well right?

marley says:

11:28am | 01/12/11

Personally, I think you could eliminate religion tomorrow and this particular conflict would continue.  It’s about land, and always has been - whose land is it, who has a right to it, who should get it back - and if you eliminate the religious rationale, you still won’t eliminate the dispute over who owns this orchard or that field, and who has a right to make the final decision.  Both sides are so entrenched that they cannot compromise - and I don’t see a Nelson Mandela type on the horizon there.

AdamC says:

12:10pm | 01/12/11

Indeed, Marley, though I would say this conflict is fundamentally ethnic, rather than being about control of land. (After all, the Palestinians didn’t mind not running things when it was the Turks, or even English, who were in charge.)

In fact, both the early Zionists and the early Palestinian terror groups were aggressively secular and socialist in philosophy. If only they knew how similar they were - so much strife could have been averted!

Just BTW, P.Darvio, have you ever thought that you may be a little bit of an, um, extreme nuttter in your views on religion?

P. Darvio says:

01:46pm | 01/12/11

Quote: Just BTW, P.Darvio, have you ever thought that you may be a little bit of an, um, extreme nuttter (sic) in your views on religion?

I’ve been watching an excellent series on a Commercial Network (I assume I can say SBS) over the last few weeks on the Bible - last weeks episode was truly inspiring - something about a talking snake, an Apple and a rib….......WOW !!!

AdamC says:

02:03pm | 01/12/11

Only because they know the IDF won’t shoot them for it.

eyes open says:

03:17pm | 01/12/11

The IDF don’t ever shoot people for throwing stones or even less? You really do live in cave AdamC.

SimonFromLakemba says:

03:32pm | 01/12/11

They’ll just run over them isntead

eyes open says:

05:41pm | 01/12/11

You might find the odd example in the over 1000 Palestinians killed in the first Itifada - for a start.

But Adam are you really that eager to play the righteous and idiotic game of the ‘people who are not involved in the suffering’ so that we bang on at each other about the bullshit references each of us find on the internet or in various gov or non-gov sources to prove that each of is right in our opinion about whether or not any IDF personel ever shot a stone throwing Palestinian.

Honestly Adam - F#ck off pal. The argument is redundant - most people with any conception of what happens in violent conflicts like this (leave aside the the shocking nature of the violence of this conflict in regards to both sides) would conceive of the fact that acts like this - to say the least - have occured. Perhaps you have some proud, great faith in the IDF, or military forces in general, perhaps you know an Israeli who said ...... perhaps you think that by reading a few articles and news reports and ‘keeping up’ with what goes on over there that you can make and actualy validate or verify, that there are not 3 IDF soldiers out there who have shot a stone throwing Palestinian. If so - good for you, I am sure you feel great about it.

Incidently, if the above is true, you represent the ignorant side of the apathy I was talking about. Therefore you no doubt will enjoy my response as some admission of defeat, if so, good for you, but this is not a competition, nor a fight, it should be an opportunity for people to think about the ‘ideas’ that are shared and have an open mind.

AdamC says:

07:59am | 02/12/11

Eyes open, I am not playing any games, nor am I particularly fussed about any implicit ‘admission of defeat’. For me, this discussion shows two things about this very assymetric war:

1) Israel’s greatest weakness is its scruples; and
2) the Palestinians’ greatest strength is their bullet-proof (and sometimes unwarranted) sense of victimhood.

eyes open says:

09:52am | 02/12/11

You are right. I guess that’s their underlying sub plot-line these days.