“Accusing Dutton of “weaponising” anti-Semitism is the government’s pitiful and transparent attempt to shield from criticism its breathtaking moral failure.” Truer words have never been spoken. Thank you Julie for your moral clarity!!
Wong has made it clear that she will do as little as politically palatable to assist and defend Australian Jews from hatred and worse. It also seems pretty plain that she is anti-Zionist and will do the bare minimum to assist Israel in its continuing fight for existence. I'm not sure I would go so far as to label her antisemitic but whether she is or not makes no odds when assessing her performance as foreign minister, which has been poor.
As to the Labor government's continuing wholesale importation of Muslim potential voters, the Australian electorate would do well to consider closely the similar tactics employed by the UK Labour government and what that is doing to social cohesion in that nation. I fear for the state of this country if we get another four years of Labour. I don't necessarily endorse the Liberals as being much better on a range of issues but at least they appear prepared to halt the near uncontrolled immigration policies of Labor. Make no mistake, Labor sees a large increase in our Muslim population as a means to hold onto power indefinitely.
If its any comfort Julie, I'm not Jewish, but I am also wondering if my children have a future in this country. Not that I am getting any unwanted scapegoating attention myself, but I just find a country that is happy to embrace irrational scapegoating, and happy to gloss over overt terrorism and equate that with anti-colonial 'justice' of some horrifying sort, not the Australia I grew up in. I feel alien in my own country and want to go... home.
I have been letting this article - and the related podcast interview - percolate in my brain overnight...
There is quite a lot of ground covered in another excellent analysis piece.
The easy stuff - Dutton and the Liberal party (I hesitate to say the Coalition because I am not sure that any Nationals MPs have had anything to say on the matter of keeping the Jewish community safe) may have talked the talk, but their actions give lie to walking the walk. For example, attacking Josh Burns and the disgraceful silencing of Mark Dreyfus' speech.
Such actions show that the Liberal Party remain more concerned with scoring political points than with genuinely keeping Jewish Australians safe and respecting prominent members of the Jewish community. Thus, they could certainly be accused of "weaponizing anti-semitism".
As for Labour, I will not be lectured to by a bunch of ideologically-driven yet ineffective pen pushers as to when it is alright and not alright to complain about the rise of Jew-hate on their watch!
Which brings me to my final observation. Using the term "anti-semitism" is engaging with weasel words. What we are seeing in a rise in "Judenhass" - Jew Hate.
So the phrase "weaponising anti-semitism" is two weasel words strung together to mean not very much. (Presumably, that's why politicians love deploying it so much.)
However, if one was to re-frame it as "is this particular stated concern about rising Jew-hate being aired to achieve an outcome? Or being aired to score a political point?" then it will sort out the "weaponizing" from the genuine responses to petitions from an unsettled minority community who are looking to leadership for assistance.
There is much to think about here with this article, Julie. I have noticed a fall in reports of antisemitic attacks since the political heat and polarisation increased. I wonder if some of the antisemitic perpetrators are concerned there now may be too much sympathy for Australian Jews, in some areas of the media and politics, and this could affect the outcome of the imminent election. Dutton may well show zero tolerance for antisemitism if he is elected....in some quarters that may never do!!
Calling out antisemitism is not “weaponising antisemitism” to silence some other oppressed identity or to silence some other political agenda. Calling out antisemitism is to end antisemitism. Because
“Accusing Dutton of “weaponising” anti-Semitism is the government’s pitiful and transparent attempt to shield from criticism its breathtaking moral failure.” Truer words have never been spoken. Thank you Julie for your moral clarity!!
Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. A tactic of bullies and abusers.
So in order to stop "weaponising antisemitism", Jews need to stop their complaining, or the Opposition must stop defending them?
Wong has made it clear that she will do as little as politically palatable to assist and defend Australian Jews from hatred and worse. It also seems pretty plain that she is anti-Zionist and will do the bare minimum to assist Israel in its continuing fight for existence. I'm not sure I would go so far as to label her antisemitic but whether she is or not makes no odds when assessing her performance as foreign minister, which has been poor.
As to the Labor government's continuing wholesale importation of Muslim potential voters, the Australian electorate would do well to consider closely the similar tactics employed by the UK Labour government and what that is doing to social cohesion in that nation. I fear for the state of this country if we get another four years of Labour. I don't necessarily endorse the Liberals as being much better on a range of issues but at least they appear prepared to halt the near uncontrolled immigration policies of Labor. Make no mistake, Labor sees a large increase in our Muslim population as a means to hold onto power indefinitely.
If its any comfort Julie, I'm not Jewish, but I am also wondering if my children have a future in this country. Not that I am getting any unwanted scapegoating attention myself, but I just find a country that is happy to embrace irrational scapegoating, and happy to gloss over overt terrorism and equate that with anti-colonial 'justice' of some horrifying sort, not the Australia I grew up in. I feel alien in my own country and want to go... home.
I have been letting this article - and the related podcast interview - percolate in my brain overnight...
There is quite a lot of ground covered in another excellent analysis piece.
The easy stuff - Dutton and the Liberal party (I hesitate to say the Coalition because I am not sure that any Nationals MPs have had anything to say on the matter of keeping the Jewish community safe) may have talked the talk, but their actions give lie to walking the walk. For example, attacking Josh Burns and the disgraceful silencing of Mark Dreyfus' speech.
Such actions show that the Liberal Party remain more concerned with scoring political points than with genuinely keeping Jewish Australians safe and respecting prominent members of the Jewish community. Thus, they could certainly be accused of "weaponizing anti-semitism".
As for Labour, I will not be lectured to by a bunch of ideologically-driven yet ineffective pen pushers as to when it is alright and not alright to complain about the rise of Jew-hate on their watch!
Which brings me to my final observation. Using the term "anti-semitism" is engaging with weasel words. What we are seeing in a rise in "Judenhass" - Jew Hate.
So the phrase "weaponising anti-semitism" is two weasel words strung together to mean not very much. (Presumably, that's why politicians love deploying it so much.)
However, if one was to re-frame it as "is this particular stated concern about rising Jew-hate being aired to achieve an outcome? Or being aired to score a political point?" then it will sort out the "weaponizing" from the genuine responses to petitions from an unsettled minority community who are looking to leadership for assistance.
I'm glad to see this morning that the second nurse has been charged. I hope they are made an example of, but I know this is expecting too much!
There is much to think about here with this article, Julie. I have noticed a fall in reports of antisemitic attacks since the political heat and polarisation increased. I wonder if some of the antisemitic perpetrators are concerned there now may be too much sympathy for Australian Jews, in some areas of the media and politics, and this could affect the outcome of the imminent election. Dutton may well show zero tolerance for antisemitism if he is elected....in some quarters that may never do!!
Calling out antisemitism is not “weaponising antisemitism” to silence some other oppressed identity or to silence some other political agenda. Calling out antisemitism is to end antisemitism. Because
Antisemitism
Is
The
Weapon.
Brilliant as per usual Julie
Excellent article as usual