samizdat

So many supposedly socially conscious people remaining silent about these constant attacks on a minority community in Australia, 2025.

Right now there is a serious anti semitic incident in Australia on a daily basis. Life for Jews in Australia is subtly and not so subtly different to life for other Australians. Our schools are protected by armed guards and barbed wire, when any Jewish community org holds an event it withholds the address until a few hours before the event and the event is manned by volunteer security guards, Jews have been doxxed and subject to vile harassment for being Jewish, community members are in a state of siege and fear. We are a community of 120,000 that was largely established from the ashes of the Holocaust 80 years ago. That includes my family; my mum survived the Holocaust and arrived in Australia with the tiny remnants of a large extended family in the late 1940’s. We have given a lot to Australia as a community and received much in return. Our contribution includes two heads of State, a High Court Chief Justice, Australia’s greatest soldier and a Federal Treasurer as well as many others who have transformed the country in the arts, law, business and the community sector. Social cohesion in Australia is at an all time low and a tiny community making up 0.5% of the Australian population is in the firing line. It is completely legitimate to hold varying views on the war that has taken place between Israel and Hamas and the other Iranian proxies. It is not legitimate to glorify savage attacks on civilians and it’s certainly not legitimate to take the hatreds from the Middle East and create a climate of fear for the Jewish community in Australia. There have been some remarkable displays of support for the Jewish community from a wide cross section of Australians. To those who have sat on the sidelines to date we need your solidarity and explicit support. These actions by anti semites are not acceptable in Australia. And to those who are going to reply with “what about the people of Gaza”, my heart breaks for innocent civilians that have suffered in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East.

RIP David lynch - the purest exponent I’ve ever seen of personal expression via film and television

@AllanLichtman Gee you must feel pretty good about your confident predictions and shittalking

Join Allan Lichtman LIVE NOW for our election night coverage: youtube.com/live/sT5Aqj2dU… . Share this post on your social media.

@MaryKostakidis So do you believe you get to decide who gets to be part of the left? Bizarre!

***Highly Recommended *** 'I’m a professor of history. OK, I’m an activist and so on. But everything I do is so open. I’m an open book, you know. It’s not as if I’m involved in any clandestine activity. All they had to do was open my YouTube or read one of my 20 books. That’s why I think it was just an intimidation, just, “Think twice whether you want to go through this again.”' 'There was there was a funny moment when one of the Homeland Security Officers wanted to tell me what he thought were the historical roots of the conflict and I said, “Stop! I’m not telling you how to run the security of the United States. Don’t teach me about history. That would be the final indignity.”' '..The gap between civil society, including the global North and even the United States, the gap between what position people think everybody should take towards the genocide, on the one hand, and the policies the governments are pursuing, on the other hand, the gap is so wide and so illogical. That the only way to narrow it is by force and intimidation.' 'It’s not a moment of Epiphany, where you wake up and suddenly you are on the other side of the Rubicon. It takes time. But there is a moment where you feel that you know enough and you understand enough and you have heard enough to challenge fundamentally the narrative of your own society, of your own state..' '..it’s like they live on another planet, you know, not understanding that this “left” that they’re talking about has been trying to tell them for more than two or three decades, “You cannot be a Zionist, a leftist Zionist, just as you cannot be a progressive ethnic cleanser.” And you cannot be a leftist genocider, and you cannot be a socialist occupier. What matters is that you are an occupier, an ethnic cleanser or a genocider, that’s what matters. And if you are one of those things then you’re not part of the left.' '..I think one of the reasons the Arab regimes don’t want a democratic, secular state in Palestine is exactly their realisation that such a state can have an immense influence on the future of their own regimes.' Exposing and opposing Zionism: A conversation with Ilan Pappé countercurrents.org/2024/08/exposi…

You must be the worst father in the world.

@BarnsGreg @NSWJBD Why would anyone protest “arabs”? You are creating a false equivalence because you have no rational arguments to support protesting a synagogue

@NSWJBD Nonsense If it was an anti Arab protest outside a Mosque you would be silent. Perhaps spend your time calling for #genocide in #Gaza by #Israel to end

Today, another line was crossed when Sydney’s oldest synagogue - The Great Synagogue - was vandalised. The Synagogue has continuously operated in its current location since 1878 as a testament to the vibrancy of Jewish life in Sydney and Australia. Over the past nine months, however, its services have been regularly disrupted to accommodate often incendiary protests in its immediate vicinity. Now The Great Synagogue itself has come under attack. Let’s be clear - targeting a synagogue is pure, unadulterated antisemitism which is intended to have a chilling and intimidating effect on members of the Synagogue and the Jewish community more broadly. Despicable conduct such as this is completely antithetical to our Australian way of life. Places of worship are sacred and should be places of safety, refuge and comfort. This is truly outrageous behaviour and we are appalled. Enough is surely enough. If you have so far remained silent, now is the time to speak up.

@BarnsGreg @AlexRyvchin @aus_jewishnews Why protest outside a synagogue if your concern is with Israel?

@AlexRyvchin @aus_jewishnews Wrong. Just as people protest outside churches they must be allowed out the front of this place of worship. You don't own the pavement. #SupportPalestine

The Great Synagogue in Sydney is where Jewish families, mine included, have since 1878 gathered to celebrate marriages and bar mitzvahs, to mark our holy days and recite the mourner’s prayer. It is not an embassy. It is a synagogue. To target its congregants in this way is an obscene and racist act which again shows us what the anti-Israel movement is all about - intimidating and denigrating Jews. Making them feel marginalised. Undermining their security and freedom to be who they are. We as a society cannot stand for it.

@MsUtopia @RandaAFattah @Melbchief @theage That would be an entirely true thing to say if he does not receive a response.

@RandaAFattah @Melbchief @theage I bet he writes, " we reached out to Ms Fattah, but as of the date of publication, have not had a response."

This is an email (also sent as a text message) I received yesterday from Chip Le Grand @Melbchief, Chief Reporter at @theage. It is another example of the ongoing media attacks against me and attempts to defame me. The lack of professional integrity and defamatory insinuations are scandalous.     I’m sharing to expose the loaded questions, the unethical line of questioning, the blatant story angle calculated to stitch me up as a “Holocaust denier”, the obvious hit job masquerading as journalism that will be published tomorrow. This is the pattern of anti-Palestinian racism that has become so normalised that the Chief Reporter of one of Australia’s major mastheads feels entitled to call me, slip into my email and send me a text message to then casually put an outrageous and disingenuous line of questioning to me.   In an environment where the truth of Palestinian existence and rights is routinely and daily denied, where the Israeli government openly lies about its crimes and obstructs an independent UN investigation into its claims, where the “evidence” relied upon in the NYT article has been questioned and debunked and the reporters who wrote it discredited, it seems Palestinians are not entitled to demand evidence from Israelis without being accused of perpetuating “the ancient anti-semitic trope that Jews are liars”.   File this as yet another example of how mainstream media perpetuates anti-Palestinian racism and launders Israeli propaganda and lies.

Stop what you’re doing and listen to the despicable remarks of @Greens MP @jennyleong , in which she accuses Jews of having “tentacles” which they use to try and influence power. Leong has plumbed new and dangerous depths by using one of the oldest and darkest antisemitic tropes to accuse Jews of covertly manipulating civic life. She has outrageously suggested that there is a sinister or evil purpose associated with Jews undertaking the most normal of activities – interacting with other Australians. Her comments echo antisemitic propaganda throughout the ages, including Nazi propaganda, that Jews were conspiring to control the world. It is not only concerning that Leong – an elected official – believes this sinister and unfounded conspiracy but that she has no shame in spreading it. It is also striking that no other attendee at the event called out her hateful rhetoric. All decent people need to call out and condemn Leong’s dangerous and divisive rhetoric. It has no place anywhere, but especially not in modern Australia in 2024

@saadmohseni Interesting. Jews are “special interests” who are “wealthy and powerful” but Palestinian-Americans are not “special interests”?

“I’m not going to run against the only Palestinian-American in Congress just because some special interests don’t like her,” Mr. Harper said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. He also criticized “the Israel lobby” and “a broken political and campaign finance system that’s tilted towards the wealthy and powerful.”

Senate Candidate in Michigan Says He Was Offered $20 Million to Challenge Tlaib @NYTimes nytimes.com/2023/11/22/us/…

@rachelrwithers @AlexWodak I am disgusted that you are giving oxygen to this horrible antisemite.

UN Special Rapporteur for Palestinian Human Rights Francesca Albanese has some strong words for the Australian media:

I’ve heard a lot of people complain recently that they can’t criticize Israel without being accused of being an antisemite. In fact, it’s very easy to criticize Israel without being called an antisemite, I do it all the time. Here's a helpful guide: 🔷 If you advocate for an “Intifada”, which means a violent uprising against the Jews in their homeland – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say Israel is “Occupying Gaza” without knowing that Israel forcefully removed all 9,000 of its residents from Gaza in 2005, and since then the only Jews living in Gaza have been 229 hostages that Hamas kidnapped - you’re an antisemite 🔷 If you chant from the “River to the Sea”, meaning the elimination of the sovereign state of Israel and home to its 9 million residents – you’re an antisemite 🔷 If you think indiscriminate violence against civilians by a bloodthirsty mob is a form of "resistance" – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say there is “ethnic cleansing” without understanding that Israel does everything to minimize civilian casualties including pleading with the local population to evacuate before an attack - you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say there is “genocide” without saying that if Hamas lay down it’s weapons today there would be peace, but if Israel does the same it will be eliminated - you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say “Free Palestine” without acknowledging the Palestinians refusal to in fact “free Palestine” themselves by signing all the offers Israel offered it over the years asking for only peace in return – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say Israel is a “white supremacist” country despite more than half of Israeli jews being from Arab and north African countries – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say Israel is a “settler colonialist” state, despite Jews being indigenous to the land and Israel being a sovereign country for 75 years – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say indiscriminate violence against civilians by a bloodthirsty mob is a form of resistance – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you call Israel an Apartheid country without acknowledging that Arab-Israelis have equal rights and freedom of religion in Israel, and are freer here than in any other Mid East country – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you refuse to acknowledge the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and instead call it “the situation” or “the tensions in the Middle East” – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you oppose Israel because you stand with Muslims, but never made a peep about hundreds of thousands killed in Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Iran etc. – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you stand with Palestinians, but don’t demand rights for Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon where they have none -- you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you refuse to believe the IDF, but think Hamas is a legitimate source of information – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you believe everything Hamas says, except their charter where they say they want to kill all Jews - you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say murdering 1,400 men, women and children and kidnapping 229 is a response to Netanyahu being “right wing” – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If your response to a massacre is to call for a "ceasefire" instead of the immediate release of the hostages and dismantlement of the perpetrators - you may not be an antisemite, but you're really dumb. 🔷 If you say Israel attacks indiscriminately, and not in precise airstrikes against Hamas targets that happen to be purposly placed in schools, hospitals, and mosques – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say Israel attacks just to “punish” Palestinians, and not in order to prevent more harm to Israelis from stockpiled weapons and terrorists – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If the only Israeli perspective you are willing to listen to are a few fringe Israeli academics or artists who hate their country – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you “stand firmly” against antisemitism when the perptrator is someone from across the political divide, but mix words over Palestinians massacring Jews in Israel – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you oppose “victim blaming” but feel the need to put horrors of October 7th “in context” whenever they are mentioned – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you’ve ever said “believe all women” but demand to see autopsies before believing women were raped in front of their friends’ eyes – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you’ve ever proudly declared that “hate has no home here” but don’t speak up against harassment of your Jewish friends– you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you support indigenous people yet don’t care that Jews have had a steady presence in the land of Israel for thousands of years - you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you're an LGBTQ+ ally…I can’t even do this one, it’s too stupid. 🔷 If you’re more concerned with exactly how many babies were beheaded instead of why the babies lost their heads – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say people are brainwashed by watching Fox News, but that Palestinians who are fed a steady diet of Jihad-glorification and Jew-hatred in their textbooks and children’s shows are freethinking freedom fighters – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say Gaza was “stolen” from a country called “Palestine” and not won in battle against Egypt, who controlled Gaza until 1967 when they tried to destroy Israel – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say Arab terrorism against Jews is solely a response to settlements, meaning it only began in 1967 when Israel won a war against Jordan (West Bank) and Egypt (Gaza) after they tried to destroy Israel – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say there was a sovereign country called “Palestine” with a president and a flag before 1948 instead of the British Mandate of Palestine – you’re an antisemite (and also ignorant). 🔷 If you say poor living conditions and lack of food in Gaza are the fault of Israel and don't mention Hamas spends billions of foreign aid dollars on weapons I you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say Israel cuts off electricity to Gaza, without acknowledging that Israel itself provides the electricity in the first place, and that Hamas repurposes virtually all the electricity and fuel for terrorism – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you blame Israel for Gaza running out water, but not Hamas who ruins the water infastructure and takes the water pipes and repurposes them as rocket launchers – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you compare the bloodlust of Hamas, an elected government that controls Gaza, to a few fringe extremists who exist in Israel like they do in every society – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you are afraid to call out Hamas terrorism because you think it’s offensive to Muslims – you’re an antisemite, and also racist. 🔷 If you don’t call out Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza through which they could send relief and take all the refugees, but refuse to - you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you call to “end the blockade” without acknowledging that the blockade is only on 2nd use materials, and is a response to the smuggling of weapons aimed at Israel into Gaza – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you compare death tolls like they’re basketball scores without acknowledging that Hamas is the source, and that they use their own people as human shields, preventing them from leaving dangerous areas despite the IDF warning them to - you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you worry about Palestinian refugees but not about tens of thousands of Israeli refugees from the north and south who have had to evacuate their homes because of Hamas & Hezbollah – you’re an antisemite. 🔷 If you say you’re not an antisemite but merely an antizionist, meaning you oppose the mere existence of a safe haven for the Jews in their ancestral homeland alongside it’s neighbors - well, you get the idea. If that doesn’t help – know also that you are also hurting Palestinian chances for afree and independent state. You are actively pushing for war and fighting from the comfort of your home, instead of peace and co-existence. How does that feel?

Lychee season in Vietnam. Insanely delicious and addictive.

Lack of results in NV senate race super frustrating.

CO3 looking v interesting

GA senate almost certainly going to runoff with 77% counted

I generally avoid party~political tweets, but I can’t ignore this. As a parent of a disabled child, the proposition that my child is any less of a blessing than other children is grossly offensive. abc.net.au/news/2022-04-2…

@lucastestro This is great! I was just talking about MK+A the other day and wondering where my MK T-shirt has got to.

Over on my Insta, I’ve been making a blackout poem on every page of a Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen novel I found in a secondhand bookstore. But I’m really happy with my 3 from the last 3 days, so thought I’d share them here.

@lucastestro That’s crap. Let’s find a day for you to visit SAB if you’d like.

Packing for an early start on my ONE SOLITARY DAY AWAY this holidays and I just got a Covid ping. This is the most broken I’ve felt since this shitshow began.