Can Australians really believe Anthony Albanese when he occasionally and reluctantly speaks out against anti-semitism? Opposition leader Peter Dutton has been clear and unequivocal in his full-throated condemnation of the tidal wave of anti-semitism currently staining the West. Albanese, on the other hand, struggles to even mention it.
Even when he does, he reeks of political opportunism and cowardly moral equivalence.
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have united to condemn and politically isolate the Greens, accusing the minor party of exploiting the unfolding conflict in Gaza to fuel division and undermine social cohesion amid growing concerns for the safety of MPs and their staff.
This follows just a day after news broke that Albanese has been effectively locked out of his electoral office since January by ‘pro-Palestine’ demonstrators. Albanese is also facing a heavy threat to his own seat of Grayndler from the Greens. One can be forgiven for suspecting that his motivation is less heartfelt revulsion at anti-semitism than a political turf war.
Especially when he parrots this sort of gutless moral equivalence:
“There is no place for anti-semitism, prejudice of any sort, Islamophobia, in our communities, at our universities or outside of electoral offices.”
This is the standard, ‘yeah, but, no, but, yeah, but…’ dodging of too many politicians. Anti-semitic incidents – at least, reported ones – outnumber so-called ‘Islamophobic’ ones by many times over. Did anyone march on the Sydney Opera House chanting ‘Gas the Muslims’? Are there weekly demonstrations in every city attacking Muslims? Has anyone spread a ‘Muslim list’ of the personal details of hundreds of Australian Muslims? Are Muslim schools sprayed with graffiti saying ‘Muslims die’? Are Muslims beaten up in the streets by Jewish mobs? Have Australian Jews kidnapped and tortured anyone for ‘working with Muslims’?
Anyone who feels the necessity to tack “…and Islamophobia” automatically undermines any claims to sincerely opposing anti-semitism.
To his credit, Peter Dutton isn’t one of them.
“We’re seeing now the offices of elected members of parliament being targeted with red paint, with vile messages of hate and discrimination and anti-semitism, and it should be condemned,” the Opposition Leader said. “And the Greens should condemn it instead of condoning it.
“After October 7, when 1200 people were slaughtered by a terrorist organisation, to this day, people are still held in a tunnel network, women and children are still held by the terrorist organisation […]
Mr Dutton said the world “should stand together to condemn the actions of anti-semitism”. “We stand as one in this chamber – or we should stand as one – to make sure that we condemn the unacceptable levels of anti-semitism that we see playing out on our streets. It has no place, and we will take every action we need, as a chamber, to make sure that we condemn those acts of anti-semitism in our country.”
If only Albanese could summon the simple moral fibre for such straight talk.
Dutton also pointed the finger squarely at the worst culprits.
“But as we know, the Greens political party didn’t wait for advice or evidence or a security briefing; they were out there condemning the Israelis immediately and without hesitation […]
“The Greens political party today is properly and rightly condemned.”
The only problem is that it’s not just the Greens. There’s plenty in Labor’s ranks who are just as guilty. Some are condemned by their own words, like Labor’s Fatima Payman, who bellows the “River to the Sea” genocide chant, or Anne Aly, who bragged about her father’s role in the Arab states’ wars of extermination against Israel.
Others are condemned by their silence and equivocation, especially those Labor MPs with seats in the Muslim heartland of Western Sydney.
Even the Liberals have their odious useless idiots – few less idiotic than the fatuous Bridget Archer.
The united showing against the Greens came as Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer and more than a dozen crossbenchers from both houses signed a letter to Mr Albanese warning the independence of the International Criminal Court was being undermined.
“We are disturbed by and strongly condemn any threats or efforts to undermine the independence and impartiality of the ICC,” the letter said.
The Australian
What “independence and impartiality of the ICC”? As these cretins should know, the ICC is a corrupt body established with the connivance of avowed anti-semites, and structured explicitly as a bludgeon against Israel.
If anyone doubted Labor’s complete absence of sincerity in tackling anti-semitism, what they did next is the giveaway.
The government has shut down a parliamentary debate on a Coalition push to establish a judicial inquiry into anti-semitism on university campuses after NSW Liberal MP Julian Leeser attempted to suspend standing orders on Thursday morning to bring on a vote.
Mr Leeser said a Commission of inquiry with Royal Commission powers led by a current or former judge to investigate anti-semitism on university campuses – both before and after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas – was needed before the commencement of the second semester.
Like the vile Australian Human Rights Commission, which refused to condemn Hamas let alone hold a standalone inquiry into anti-semitism, Labor is trying to pretend that anti-semitism isn’t a particular concern.
“Unfortunately, the government’s plan is not to have a stand-alone judicial inquiry to deal with anti-Semitism on campus but to have a general anti-racism inquiry running for two years dealing with racism against First Nations peoples, anti-semitism and Islamophobia,” [Leeser] said […]
Listing instances of anti-semitism, Mr Leeser said Jewish students had been spat on and taunted with swastikas; the office of Jewish staff members had been urinated on; academics had denied that rapes on October 7 occurred; university leaders had failed to deal properly with anti-semitism and vice-chancellors had suggested hate-fuelled protests were “just the price Jewish students have to pay for free speech.”
The Australian
And Albanese refuses to even admit there’s a specific problem, let alone do anything about it.
