This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium – belated and short, as being in Victoria’s thrown my schedule out of whack. This week…

1. actor Charlie Sheen (whether he’s Jewish or not) [1a] and Christian Dior head designer John Galliano [1b] added themselves to my list of anti-Semitic racist bigots. They joined notable luminaries Mikis Theodorakis [1c] and Mel Gibson [1d]. And also 23% of Australians [1e].

2. Alan Krinsky explained why ‘Much-maligned Israel still the pick of the Middle East [2]. I suppose it never hurts to state the bleeding obvious.

3. Bernie Ecclestone suggested artificial rain to liven up Formula 1 ‘races’ [3]. Hard to tell if the little man said it with his little tongue in his little cheek. Or not.

4. Greg Baum (who I’ve previously lauded [4a], brilliantly sent up Ron Walker and the Australia F1 Grand Prix [4b]. Of course all satire contains truth.

5. Pope Benedict XVI declared that Jews bear no collective responsibility for Jesus’s death [5]. Great news. Now I’ll be able to sleep better at night.

6. in the MJA, high profile nutritionist Rosemary Stanton wrote [6a] that doctors need to exercise caution when recommending products bearing the Heart Foundation’s tick [6b]. As do consumers browsing supermarket shelves. Is the Foundation sacrificing ethics for commercial gain?

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

Mikis the bigoted racist

Zorba the Greek. It’s a famous film [1], released in 1964 when I was 17 years old. As an impressionable teenager I found the film enchanting, romantic, exotic. Especially the setting and the acting. But moreso the music. Ah, what music. It was composed by Mikis Theodorakis (pictured) [2]. Born in 1925, he wrote it when aged in his 30s. He went on to become a prolific composer of film music (including for Z and Serpico) and other music. And he became a Greek parliamentarian including a spell as a minister. A leading proponent of left/liberal politics in Greece, he was imprisoned by the Greek junta in the late 1960s. Now aged 85 he continues to speak out in favour of left/liberal causes. And of course (though it’s unclear to me why) this includes kneejerk espousal of the Palestinian cause. Truth be known Theodorakis disappeared from my radar many years ago. Until two weeks ago the Jerusalem Post reported that on a Greek TV programme he declared he was ‘anti-Israel and anti-Semitic [3]. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre called his outburst ‘obsessive anti-Jewish hatemongering’, adding that ‘such self-declared racists must be scorned and marginalized. They can no longer serve as icons for their peers or for the younger generation’. I couldn’t agree more. As I’ve written [4], it’s imperative to publicise and oppose anti-semitism at every opportunity. I don’t know if the world will think any the worse of Theodorakis now he’s outed himself as a bigoted racist. But I do.

It's myopic Frits

Would you stop bank robberies by closing down banks? And would you stop public transport fare evasion by shutting down all public transport? Of course you wouldn’t. For doing so is punishing the victim. But punishing the victim doesn’t bother Frederick (‘Frits’) Bolkestein (pictured) [1]. Bolkestein, now 77 years old, is a retired Dutch politician. He was a member of the Dutch Parliament 1977-98, in 1990-8 he was the leader of the right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) [2], and in 1999-2004 he was a Member of the European Commission. He’s known for his outspoken, right-wing views. Last week, Bolkestein was quoted in a Dutch magazine saying Jews (i.e. Jews who look like Jews) have no future in the Netherlands, so they should emigrate to the US or Israel [3]. Why? For their own safety due to the anti-Semitism of Dutch Moroccans. He added that the many Arab television channels in the Netherlands contribute to the spread of anti-Semitism. And he has no confidence in proposed measures to combat anti-Semitism. A classic case of punishing the victim, Mr Bolkestein. Which is all too easy to do if the victim’s a Jew, eh Frits. Your stance’s short-sighted appeasement. And if Holland enforces it, she’ll regret it. Big time.

P.S. Current Dutch politician (and VVD defector [4]) Geert Wilders, visiting Israel last week, responded that ‘Jews shouldn’t emigrate, anti-Semitic Moroccans should’.

Bravo, Stevo

I have some Canadian friends: there’s Mark, Maya, Marina and Mateus (who’ve visited me in Mole Creek [1]), Dieter (Maya’s father, who’s currently here [2]) and my cyberfriends Chrows25 [3] and Wordsmith [4] (whom I’m yet to meet in person). I wonder if they know that last Monday and Tuesday in the Canadian Parliamentary Buildings in Ottawa, their country hosted the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism’s [5] second annual conference [6]. I don’t know what they think of their current prime minister Stephen Harper [7], but I reckon the speech he gave to the conference [8, 9] was honest and honourable. He said that ‘when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand’. He added that though Israel is not beyond fair criticism, Canada must oppose demonisation, double standards and de-legitimisation ‘Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israel mob tell us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are in the longer term a threat to all of us’. He added that Canada did not secure a UN Security Council seat [10] due to its failure to ‘go along with this anti-Israel rhetoric’. How brave of Canada to put principle above self-interest. Bravo, Mr Harper. And bravo Canada. I salute you.

farmdoc's blog post number 456

I love England. I love the byroads, lanes, bridges, rivers, brooks, pillar boxes, signs, hedgerows, churches, forests, copses, castles, square fields, public footpaths, stiles, spires, taxis, bells, inns, piers, narrow boats, double-decker buses. I could go on. But despite all that, I’m no Anglophile – because as much as I love England, I’m no fan of her inhabitants. That’s a generalisation, of course, because I have dear English friends whom I view as family. But the bee in my bonnet’s the snootiness and condescension of a goodly proportion of the English. Also, I suspect, their latent if not overt anti-semitism. Last week the British Foreign Office announced its cancellation of export licenses for Israeli warship parts. The reason? ‘We do not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression.’ How disgustingly, obscenely, hypocritical is that. This Jerusalem Post article describes just how hypocritical is ‘Westminster’s new ‘ethical’ standards for weapons exports’. England’s a first world county that’s now ruing its past colonial adventures despite which its ruling elite’s trying valiantly to act as if nothing’s changed. That’s plainly delusional. So good riddance to...

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself…

Against the envy of less happier lands

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. [1]

farmdoc's blog post number 365

Today, in Geneva, is the opening of the Durban Review Conference (‘Durban II’) aiming to review progress and assess implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA). At the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, the DDPA was adopted by consensus – only because the US and Israel walked out to protest that Conference’s virulent anti-Semitism. Durban II’s being run by the UN Human Rights Council which in its almost three years of existence has passed 32 resolutions, 26 of them against Israel. That Libya chaired Durban II’s planning committee which includes Iran and Cuba, and that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad is keynote speaker at the Conference’s opening session (ironically on Hitler’s birthday and the eve of Yom Hashoah), speaks for itself. Also host-country Switzerland has pointedly declined to chair the Conference. Yesterday the US, Holland and Australia announced they’re not attending, and New Zealand, Germany and Poland too, thus joining Israel, Canada, Sweden and Italy who are staying away, fearing a repeat of the 2001 fiasco. (I am proud of my country’s government’s decision.) Inside the UN’s Geneva compound, the two large tents that have been erected to handle the expected large crowds, symbolise the remnant of Durban II – a circus. Whatever happens now can’t change the conclusion that the Durban process – based on demonising Israel – has now been exposed, ridiculed and perhaps defeated. So it should be a long, long time before the UN agrees to another such circus.

farmdoc's blog post number 335

Looking down this list of films directed by the 72-year-old Englishman Ken Loach (pictured), I can’t say I’ve seen many. But I can say I won’t knowingly see any more. At least until Loach stops his gratuitous, misinformed and inflammatory anti-Israel rantings. Last week he said in relation to anti-semitism: ‘If there has been a rise I am not surprised. In fact, it is perfectly understandable because Israel feeds feelings of anti-Semitism.’ And about Operation Cast Lead in Gaza: ‘When history comes to be written, I think this will be seen as one of the great crimes of the past decades because of the cold blooded massacre that we witnessed’. In 2006 Loach called for a boycott of state-sponsored Israeli cultural institutions in protest against Israel’s actions in Lebanon; and he refused an invitation to the Haifa Film Festival. This pathetic bleeding heart lefty should thank his lucky stars he lives in the UK where he has the right of free speech and the right to express his sexual preference, because should he live in a totalitarian Islamic county both those rights will be denied him, and may well cost him his life. He would do well to read this speech by Rupert Murdoch. But I reckon his mind is as closed as it is narrow. And what is Gilad Shalit thinking today, this 1000th day of his captivity in contravention of international law? I don’t know, but I am thinking of him.

farmdoc's blog post number 283

Last 13 December I wrote of anti-semitism. Exactly two weeks later, Operation Cast Lead began. During its 22 days, over 250 anti-semitic incidents were reported world-wide – including Australia – compared with 80 the year before. The Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism said a major factor was comparisons between Israel’s actions in Gaza and Nazi Germany’s during the Holocaust. Perpetrators include the Vatican’s justice and peace minister, and a high-level Norwegian diplomat. On 27 January 1945 – 64 years ago yesterday – Auschwitz, the most infamous of Nazi concentration camps, was liberated. In 2005 the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution (A/RES/60/7) designating 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and condemning unreservedly all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur. Perhaps someone should tell German-born Pope Benedict XVI who late last week welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church British bishop Richard Williamson – who was excommunicated in 1988 after being ordained without Vatican permission, and who in an interview broadcast just before the Pope’s announcement, said historical evidence ‘is hugely against six million having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler’. That’s not free speech, Pope. That’s beyond the pale.

farmdoc's blog post number 237

Anti-semitism is prejudice against, or hostility towards, Jews as a group – usually via a combination of religious, racial, cultural and ethnic biases. Though there’s been anti-semitism for thousands of years, the term itself dates from 1873, and refers only to Jews, i.e. not other semites including Arabs. Anti-semitism is endemic at a reasonably constant level, apart from times of difficulty or crisis, when it increases. Now is a time of several crises – especially financial, but also water, food, climate. So it’s unsurprising that recently anti-semitism has risen above its endemic level. According to an official report, in Australia in the past year there were a record 652 anti-Semitic incidents, almost double the average of the previous 18 months. The online media reports I read have catalogued anti-semitic activities and incidents in our community and overseas. It’s all vile and disgusting. I know Iranian President Ahmadinejad has a loose screw upstairs, but the bleeding heart anti-semitism of a Christian church beggars belief. On second thoughts, no it doesn’t. Christian anti-semitism is long-standing and entrenched, which is ironic given that Christianity professes tolerance. Anti-semitism also reaches the global level by often being flaunted at the United Nations, including this week. That’s the problem. I don’t know all the solutions, but two of them are to publicise and oppose anti-semitism at every opportunity, and ensure Israel remains strong.