Former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, speaking on Australia’s national current affairs program, 7.30, about the reason for the government of Israel refusing to declare a truce to free the hostages and for continuing the war (“if someone would have said we would still be stuck in Gaza after a year no-one would have believed it” @ 28:40) and even expanding it into the West Bank and Lebanon. The specific question Barak was responding to was whether “right wing elements within [Netanyahu’s] cabinet” ride their “successes” in the current war to continue to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank….
Oh sure. For sure they will do it. They do it even without this. They want a settlement… And if we wait for too long they might raise some idea that we had some promise from some corner of the Bible to get some part of Lebanon. They are Messianic Jewish supremacists, racists, of the worst kind. I compare them to the Proud Boys of America, those who were behind the 6 January event. So, think of the American President, who would nominate one of these leaders from the program to be secretary of treasury with certain formal roles and the other one to be in charge of national security, of homeland security. That’s crazy but that’s exactly what Netanyahu did because he needs tight control for the survival of the government. If there is even a ceasefire, in order to exchange the hostages and a ceasefire for four months, immediately it will become a day of reckoning because people will demand to establish a national investigation, a committee led by a Supreme Court judge, to find who is responsible for the worst day in our history. (@ 26 mins 55 secs)
(Of course, Barak is introduced as “having come very close to securing peace with the Palestinians” when he was Prime Minister. We are rarely reminded that the “best deal” the Palestinians were ever offered was a “state” divided into four island-regions, each surrounded by Israeli settlements or territory. The above quotation is not meant to imply agreement with every other view Barak expressed in the 7.30 interview. — No thought, of course, that there might be “a day of reckoning” to investigate responsibility for expulsions and killings of Palestinians since 1948.)
Neil Godfrey
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I have so much pent up anger over this. I read about Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott pushing this ultra Zionist line to the Australian public. I see the right wing press defending Israels actions as if it were their patriotic duty.
Then we have these Labor leaders trying to condemn Palestinians for hijacking this day. Even the Guardian published an opinion piece that tried to gas-light us into thinking that this was all a medieval blood libel against Jewish people. I cannot imagine what The Guardian journalists who have written about Palestine must have thought to see their work being denigrated?
The continual criminalisation of Palestinian sympathy continues. A concert pianist given his marching orders by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra adds to the list of people losing their jobs and artistic expression for speaking up for Palestine. Universities being made to apologise for not breaking up protests that made some Jewish students feel uncomfortable?
Our federal government tries to walk a middle path, but at times it seems that such a path is not viable. The ‘right to defend themselves’ no longer makes any sense in this context, when it now means to right to commit genocide. What about the Palestinian right to defend themselves – it is called terrorism?
Peter Dutton has made it clear that he considers support of Palestine as a criminal offence. I wonder how far he will go in this? Are the federal police already collecting evidence against us?
Yes, I am paranoid, I am getting scared for what Zion-fascism is doing to us. It is distorting our morality into some sort of perverse ideology that is blind to evil.
In all this, I would give credit to the Jewish Council of Australia who have spoken up on behalf decent Jewish Australians even if it has led to them being called ‘self-haters’ and ‘anti-semitic’. I would also give credit to the few Christian groups who spoken up against the Zionist superstition, and of course the Muslim Australians who have never stopped calling for justice for Palestine. Then there is us “Agnostic Heretics”, we must stand in solidarity with our religious brothers and sisters who seek peace!
I feel funny and nervously awkward saying this, but I wonder if there is some hope for change not too far ahead. Towards the end of that interview, Ehud Barak referred to his sensing some vibe for change in American attitude towards the state of Israel. I was reminded of the “tipping point” in public opinion as I read it in George Monbiot’s and Peter Hutchison’s new book The Invisible Doctrine where they say the “power of persuasion” is vastly over-rated and that societies change their views collectively when only around 25% of the population changes their minds:
(Excerpt From Invisible Doctrine – Kindle version)
I noticed that you did not mention the role of the media and academia, where it comes to influencing “public opinion”. I think awakened folks could easily come to terms with the inevitable truth that “those who control the flow of information, can exert a profound influence on what the public perceive”.
Now when you have the media and academia in agreement with the narrative that governments wish to promote to the populace, then is it not also a natural consequence that it is precisely that narrative that the public is most likely to accept as truth? Would this not also have a marked effect of “swinging” a fair-sized portion of the public into accepting this narrative?
This is also understood as “perception management”, which is something that virtually all political systems utilize for their own benefit and to maintain the “aura of credibility and authority”, as well as the appearance of “popularity” of the prevailing narrative.
Fortunately the media and academia do not speak with a single voice so alternative views are available. Similarly with political representatives. They are not united in countries like Australia. Even in Israel there is diversity of opinion — some say moreso than in the US — though recent censuring of Haaretz by the Netanyahu government is not welcome, of course.
At a recent pro-Palestinian rally in Brisbane where I live the focus of the march and speeches was directed at our “independent” national broadcaster, the ABC, for the terminology and framing it applied to Israel’s current destruction of Gaza. The ABC was loudly critiqued for supinely falling in with the official government line (which as a subimperial power is obedient to the US line). On the news that night the ABC did cover that demonstration but failed to hint to its audience that the main thrust of the speeches was critical of the ABC. So that is one example of the kind of thing you are speaking about.
Well,
The “two-sides” of any issue; Just as controlled.
Yo may also notice that much ado about the pro-Palestinian resistance movements is also purposed to paint them as “anti-semitic”, and violent extremists. Though there are some who willingly use such occasions as this, to engage in violent acts, this is not necessarily the rule.
What I see is the “left-leaning” media promoting this as about human rights, but also remaining silent about the violent elements within these movements, and the “right-leaning” alt-media using the violence as a means of furthering the support of “Jewish” Israel in the light of that violence, and proclaiming pro-Palestinian causes as being “anti-semitic”. So the real message that needs to be taken from all this, is lost in “the fog of war” [as in: “the war of minds”].
Either way,
It all further cements the message that “Jews/Israel are once again the victims, and those who do not support them fully – are hateful anti-semites”. – BOTH “sides” of the media and the politics end up reinforcing this corrosive message.
So, as in many cases of politics and public perception, YES – there is the appearance of two differing sides to the issues.
What is especially tragic, here in these united states of America,
Is that events like these are being used as justification for supporting the passage of additional “laws” – which will end up making any criticism and/or disagreement about the happenings of today’s Jewish power and Israel criminal! YES. Even articles like this one we are discussing, will eventually be utterly outlawed with the USA, as it may already be in other Western countries.
THERE is where my greatest angst lies: When our right to even discuss and dissect these particular issues the way we do becomes a criminal act, then NO ONE is safe!
So, there is indeed a LOT of “narrative control” going on right now, from both the so-called “left” AND the so-called “right”, be it “media”, academia, politics, or any other branch or offshoot which plays a significant role in “shaping public opinions”.
Back in the 1990s Barak said openly that had he been born a Palestinian he would have become a terrorist. Probably the most honest take I have ever heard.