This is Antisemitism at "The Conversation" (Part 3)
geoffff
Post Grad UQ School of History
Sorry to say that Felix Patrikeeff has not really added much to the existing body of knowledge, a lesson for any academic wanting to get a scoop article out in the heat of the moment. I agree with other comments that point to the blog of Richard Silverstein, who is much closer to the issue and the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, which sometimes dares to criticise their government.
There are many questions that arise from the Ben Zygier affair, especially ones that the Gillard government should answer to a Royal Commission. There is absolutely no reason why Australians can't hold dual citizenship and normal for any one of us to have lingering feelings for our country of origin or second home. But Israel is not a normal country, it is a contested space and it most certainly does not meet the standards of an 'exemplary democracy’ as claimed. Unfortunately, the Gillard government's partisan dealings with Israel give Australia's democracy an unhealthy flavour too.
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Let the security services continue working quietly so that we can continue to live in safety and tranquility in the State of Israel.” Everyone would agree that human security is measured by the tranquility and absence of fear and deprivation of their lives. Mossad is about maintaining and extending injustice and exclusion. They make use of people as though life was a Jason Bourne movie and human beings were expendable. I don’t want to live in a world where this assumption is normalised.
We don't know whether Zygier was coerced or joined Mossad voluntarily, we must. We don't know how the ever-cautious DFAT managed to issue him with more than one Australian passport - unless they were so instructed by ASIO. Australians should be disturbed by the very idea of someone borrowing their identity to visit another nation to commit murders. An Australian passport should ensure your safety and ensure Consular assistance – it is worthless otherwise. We need to decide very soon whether it is OK for Mossad to recruit students at Monash or any other university.
We need to extend our government's transparency, especially when they deal with other nations with different values. Secret trials without informed families and proper independent representation must not be normalised. Solitary confinement has been defined as torture and we should eliminate it from all prisons. These things are normal in Israel – especially for Palestinians.
Finally, we simply cannot accept this suspicious death as a suicide, in a suicide-proof cell. The order to kill Zygier would have come from the top, not from a low-ranking prison guard. Nor should our intelligence organisations be casual about the convenient departure of Ben Zygier, who could have exposed their connivance with Mossad. Zygier might not be a hero, but he deserved the same consideration as an Australian citizen as any one of us.
In the midst of all this, lies a very personal story. I suggest we don't forget it. How a family managed to bring their son home to Melbourne, bury him and mourn for him THREE YEARS AGO and no one in the Jewish community picking up on it, strikes me as most extraordinary. Lots of food for thought. I picked up this which reflects what I was thinking. http://ori-golan.blogspot.com.au/
Dan Benn ..."most extraordinary" it is not. That link & backlink you gave are propaganda, so bad it was funny as in Ron Ben-Yishai's "...a passionate Zionist (who) could not bear the guilt and committed suicide. He did not betray the country, he simply could not live up to his own expectations and those of his family and his surroundings. The burden became too heavy for his tormented soul." Fairy story....RBY must have been in that suicide proof cell with BZ then talking over his options & examining his soul? Did he recommend more sedatives to ease the passage?
And Ori Golan's "Secrets and Lies" assertions were frankly offensive. No thankyou, we don't "share common enemies"...don't conscript us further into the nightmares of your country's own making. Get real.
Australia is a "junior partner of the coalition of the willing" via Howard/Zionist Neocon Bush administration politics of the Israel-demanded, fake powerpointed presentation wars of invasion into Iraq & Afghanistan that the majoirty of Australian citizens were strongly opposed to. We are a compromised province of the US/Israeli Zionist empire. ASIO/ASIS would be a subservient animal to Mossad...it's obviously not yes or no, but how high, how many passports? The spinning webs are thickening & getting ever darker as usual.
At least Willy Bach has got the real issue in focus. Let's no forget that someone was incarcerated, died and was buried by family under great collusion and secrecy by TWO Governments. No good making excuses for whatever the Jews did. We don't really care. Some of us do care that the Australian government was complicit in it all and has not come clean or even gives he impression that it cares at all. Politicians! Bah, and a pox on them all. Pity some of them can't be disappeared like Ben Alon or whatever his name was,
Dan Benn
Pat Moore
Some of us do care that the Australian government was complicit in it all and has not come clean or even gives he impression that it cares at all.
Politicians! Bah, and a pox on them all. Pity some of them can't be disappeared like Ben Alon or whatever his name was,