Gary Marsh NowOnBlueSkySocial🇵🇸

Outside Tony Blinken’s home on his final night as Secretary of State, a fitting send off

#Xodus today's the day

Some questions 🧵 Does Australia ACTUALLY have an anti-Semitism problem? If so, can this problem be solved by throwing money at it? If yes, how much money is required? If no, why throw money at it at all?

Anthony Blinken poses in front of his lifetime career achievements

The term ‘antisemitism’ is being weaponised and stripped of meaning – and that’s incredibly dangerous | Rachel Shabi 'Israel uses it to silence critics of its Gaza war while the right uses it to attack opponents. Meanwhile, the issue itself goes unaddressed' '..Over a year into Israel’s assault on Gaza, which some experts have described as a genocide, accusations of antisemitism raised to counter criticism of Israel have gone into overdrive. Such claims have been made against protesters crying out for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza and against the UN and aid agencies warning of a humanitarian catastrophe. They have been levelled at global news channels and the international court of justice; against actors, artists, pop stars and even British-Jewish film-makers. So sweepingly and speech-chillingly are such claims made by Israel’s diehard defenders that the very term “antisemitism” is losing its meaning..' 'Meanwhile, the far right is taking advantage of the political crisis brought about by Israel’s world-changing war, alternately using actual antisemitism and a pretence of caring about antisemitism to advance its bigoted ideology..' '..While researching my new book on the subject, several people I spoke to told me they were afraid to even ask about antisemitism, for fear that this might itself be construed as antisemitism. This is another clear sign, if any other were needed, that something has gone badly wrong in the way we talk about the issue.' 'Then there is the grim hypocrisy of our political conversation on antisemitism, which remains hyperfocused on the left. While media cycles spin out over whether the chanting of long-used Palestinian slogans constitutes antisemitism, examples of anti-Palestinian hatred from supporters of Israel get waved along. This is not just about the silencing of voices protesting against Israel’s carnage in Gaza – although that is bad enough. If antisemitism is so blatantly wielded as a political weapon, it creates the impression of a fundamental unseriousness about the subject. Dedicating endless column inches to campus protests over Gaza is shifting the spotlight, not just away from the devastation in the Palestinian strip, but away from the dangerous antisemitism coming from the far right.' theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

One week to go until the #Xodus. Leave this hellsite behind on January 20th and join us on Bluesky.

Leaving this platform for the less toxic BlueSky. Inauguration Day seems an appropriate day to exit. Who's coming with me?

want your chance to bribe, sorry I mean give a "gift" to a politician? well your on luck. I have secured a lobbying pass for Canberra and on November 4 I will be roaming the halls schmoozing politicians. Got to punterspolitics.com #australia #auspol

We’re seeing the state capture of political parties by fossil fuel companies. They’re putting short term profits ahead of protecting the people and places we love. We need the moral courage to end this and legislate a duty of care to young people. smh.com.au/environment/cl…

'History will one day judge the abandonment of the Palestinian people and the intellectual (and geopolitical) swindle that is the colonization of the land of Palestine. I sincerely don’t know how humanity will recover from the terrible times we are living through. “Yallah Gaza” just wants to bear witness to the resilience of a people who are disappearing before our very eyes—with the complicity of the West and a large number of Arab countries.' palestinechronicle.com/yallah-gaza-ro…

***Gaza Death Toll*** ‘A new study published in The Lancet estimates Gaza’s death toll at 64,260 in the first 9 months of the war, 41% higher than official figures, highlighting the devastating impact of the ongoing genocide.’ Of course it’s higher. The official death death toll was of identified bodies reported by hospitals and morgues. It is a woefully inadequate number for the deaths we were and are seeing, and the institutions reporting deaths have largely been blown away. Here is the sensible methodology used given the circumstances: palestinechronicle.com/gazas-true-dea…

Gideon Levy and Alex Levar: 'A clip of a soldier tormenting a young man with Down syndrome, found on the phone of a human rights activist and mother of seven, led to her arrest and abuse. In separate incidents, her son's coat was seized because of its color, and her daughter was ordered to remove her bra at a checkpoint. Such is the life in Hebron.' 'Several times a day, every Palestinian who lives in the area occupied by Hebron's settlers passes through the roadblocks that chop up the city. Every such passage involves an inspection of their phone by soldiers. The Palestinians already know that they should erase anything that might incense the troops, but Jabbar kept the video of the abuse – and it condemned her to her own abuse by the soldiers.' 'Some 280 Palestinian families who have nowhere else to go still live in the Jaber neighborhood. Only cars belonging to Jews are allowed there; even Palestinian ambulances are prohibited from entering. Is there anywhere else in the whole world like this?' 'Since the war broke out in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the heavy hand here has been even harsher. During the first four months, Palestinian residents of H-2 were imprisoned in their homes nearly all day long. Purchasing food and medicine was permitted during only one hour a day; because the army and the settlers prevented the three local shops from opening, many residents were unable to obtain provisions even then. There were also homes where the army installed coils of barbed wire at doorsteps to prevent residents from exiting. After four months, going out was permitted but only during daylight hours. At night there is no exit, even in emergencies. After 5 P.M., no one dares step outside..' From the Comments: 'Horrible society. This affects the entire culture. I regret moving here. 'It's unbelievable. Palestinians are suffering the worst injustice. Not only their land is illegally occupied, their life has become hell.' Israeli Troops Arrested and Abused a Palestinian Human Rights Activist. The Pretext? A Video Found on Her Phone haaretz.com/israel-news/tw…

There are just two days to have your say on the future of 1.5 million hectares of Victoria's forests, previously flagged for timber harvesting. We need everyone who wants to protect biodiversity to complete these short forms and/or map surveys now: engage.vic.gov.au/the-future-of-…

Australian's are unaware that our country is at war. Using stealth, our government has committed our military to actions against the Yemeni Houthis.

How’s this for ‘distressing and threatening hate speech’? Where is the condemnation from the Israeli Lobby in Australia and all over the west? Why hasn’t this Israeli Minister’s X account been suspended for threatening a terrorist assassination, when X permanently suspends accounts for innocuous posts with zero explanation other than the automated response ‘for violating X Rules’.