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The Doobie Brothers performed the Art Reynolds song Jesus is Just Alright back in the early Seventies. One of the curious things about this version of the song was no members of the Doobie Brothers were devoutly Christian. The song was a lukewarm ode to a divinity they didn’t really believe in.
I have sometimes felt a similar lukewarmness about Australia. Our country was the Jesus to my Doobie Brothers. I liked it, but I probably took what I had for granted in a lukewarm fashion. No more. What we enjoy in this country constitutes something rather special. This has become even more apparent to me in recent days.
A few weeks ago, I went to London to attend the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC). I went sightseeing prior to the conference with a friend who happened to be on the same flight into London. Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Whitehall, and Trafalgar Square never disappoint. They speak to the British soul of the Anglo-Saxon Australian, reminding us of the remarkable culture that we inherit and, in many ways, carry forward Down Under.
Our ongoing journey that day took us to Embankment Station on west side of the Thames, near Charing Cross and Great Scotland Yard. As we approached the station, we found our way blocked by thousands and thousands of protestors. I hesitate to say these people were exclusively of Middle Eastern ethnicity, but it certainly appeared that way. The sight was deeply unsettling.
We found a way through the throng and fought to the station platform against a similarly constituted crowd heading up the station stairs to join the pro-Palestine gathering. Green, red, black, and white were being carried left and right. The only Anglophone people I spotted nearby were local bobbies and some (to be frank) naive sexagenarian activists distributing pro-Palestine pamphlets at the station entrance.
The feeling in the air was that of a room full of powder kegs with someone threatening to light a match. It didn’t feel like the London that Australians have in their cultural memory. It became abundantly clear that Britain is facing an existential crisis, one which it seemingly lacks the will to overcome.
After the ARC conference, I traveled to Budapest, the serene and majestic capital of the Magyars. Here, I joined my colleagues at the Danube Institute, including Quadrant regulars David Martin Jones and John O’Sullivan, along with numerous scholars from across the world.
Hungary is well-known to be a bastion of conservatism and stability. One might even say it is an ark for conservatives. It is certainly a haven for European culture, which is rapidly degrading and being overrun by outsiders.
A French friend who I dined with in Budapest suggested his country faces a similar problem to Britain. An Irishman I met said the the country he lives in, Belgium, is unrecognizable as a European country outside the suburbs of the European Union elites in Brussels. Reports from places like Sweden evidence increasing civil disorder. It is not just Britain that feels like a powder keg.
The Orbán government, which has been in power in Hungary since 2010, has been a leading light for conservatives the world over. Hungary is not perfect. Inflation is running at over 20% and has done for some time. There is, by many reports, a prevalence of low-level corruption, something of a hangover from the Soviet era that simply won’t go away, regardless of which side of politics is in power.
Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz colleagues have done one thing very admirably: they have refused to bow to the globalist pro-immigration policies emanating from Brussels and Berlin. They protect their part of the European Union’s border. They refused to be overwhelmed by uncontrolled immigration flowing from the Middle East and Africa during the 2015 migration crisis. Like Australia, Hungary decides who comes into their country and the terms by which they come.
This Fidesz policy is being vindicated before our very eyes. The contrast I saw in Budapest with London said it all. The streets were peaceful and orderly. There is a stable multiculturalism in Hungary, with people from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, along with Europeans and Jews, all dwelling together peacefully. Nevertheless, the dominant culture is Magyar, and the Hungarians are proud of their heritage.
Not once was there a significant pro-Palestine protest while I was in Budapest. This is partly because the government refused to allow any mass protest in support of Hamas or their cause. I suspect that even if one was allowed, the size would be much smaller due to the nature of Hungary’s immigration policies over the past decade.
Where does this leave Australia? Since October 7, numerous cities around the country have been host to pro-Palestine activism, with some being outright anti-Semitic and anti-Western. However, the scale of this cultural and political challenge is small in comparison to that faced by Britain. There are real problems in our country, and, as I recently argued at Quadrant Online, Australia’s immigration policy needs to adjust to the geo-strategic realities of the new world (dis)order.
Yet, our isolation is a blessing. We are far from every current conflict and flashpoint. Even a war over Taiwan would be geographically remote. Our borders are extremely hard to reach. Our bipartisan policy on illegal and uncontrolled immigration is sensible. Despite our relatively high level of legal immigration, our national character and general civic order is mostly stable.
This is not to suggest that there are no problems. There are pockets of disorder, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney. My view is that the number of international students from China poses a security threat in the medium term. But my estimation of what we enjoy in Australia has grown in the past few weeks. We have a stable political culture, with an orderly cycle of government and opposition between the major political groupings. Most of our immigrants enjoy living here and want to assimilate. We are blessed to be a peaceful, prosperous nation.
All in all, Australia is just alright with me, but not in the fashion of the Doobie Brothers. It is alright in the fashion of the alternative rock band DC Talk, who really were enthusiastic Christians when they performed Jesus is Just Alright in the mid-1990s. For DC Talk, Jesus was more than alright. I feel the same about Australia. Things aren’t perfect. But having reflected on the woes of Europe from the vantage point of the UK, and then reacquainting myself with the right-wing lifeboat of Hungary, I feel warmly about our nation.
There is plenty to be concerned about. We should fight to retain the good that we have whilst recapturing the blessings we have lost our grip on. But compared to the existential crisis that is now obviously gripping much of western Europe since the cataclysm of October 7, Australia is a haven of sanity and stability. We have much to be thankful for.
Simon P. Kennedy is the Associate Editor of Quadrant. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Danube Institute in Budapest and a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland
It is about time we started replacing the term ‘anti-Semitic’ with ‘anti-Jewish. Afterall, the Jews are the target to which the protests and hate are directed. It is, in reality, a racist term with a marshmallow coating.
The term ‘Semitic’ refers to the language base spoken by the peoples of the region, each with their own characteristic stamp on the basic Semitic language such as with Hebrew and Arabic.
Interesting that to the “hard left”, all cultures in the world other than “Western” culture, to use a broad term, are sacrosanct and must be uncritically accepted and preserved.
Our culture, on the other hand, is irredeemably evil and must be destroyed and replaced with other cultures.
Anyone who dares question this, let alone resist the destruction, is also evil and deserving of abuse, censorship and punishment.
As that sage, Joe Walsh, once said, “you can’t argue with a sick mind”.
“Dear Useful Idiots: Hamas Nazis and Other Jihadists are Using You”
That byline from an article by Christine Williams in FrontPage Magazine. An informative article with a video by Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of one of the founders of Hamas.
Read and watch to be better informed.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/dear-useful-idiots-hamas-and-other-jihadists-are-using-you/
If you come to our country fleeing islamic wars and marxist ghettos, then please bring some skill sets and attributes with you that make positive contribution to my country. If you are going to whinge and display flags of false countries and false prophets from where you came from, then shut up and and please return to your satanistic hellholes. Australia was a lucky country because at that time it did not harbour and house these extremist mental and moral disgraces which now, like unmaintained filth are parasitic throughout those stupid countries governed by a Biden like corrupted administrations.
I can’t agree with Simon’s view of Australia as it is now. The pro-Hamas/Palestine performance at the Opera House on 9 October – politely watched by NSW police – was the most shameful behaviour I can recall in the 80 years I’ve lived here.
Actually, it was hard-edged farce, I think.
Agitators were shouting “Gas the jews !” about a metre from the police line. That line, presumably under orders, did nothing but stand to give the intent of preventing excursions up the Opera House steps – no photographs or video monitoring, no arrests or move-ons. (Instead, a lone, potential victim was arrested away from the scene – so much easier).
Yet now they claim they are looking for the perpetrators but cannot find them. Lakemba 10, police 0.
Faulty Towers mockery in real life.
I hold that in general we have been too soft on Islamic protests, where children have carried signs calling for Infidels to be beheaded. That was well before the disgraceful Islamic show of Jew-hatred at the Sydney Opera House on October 9th this year. Nevertheless, in comparison to what I have seen recently during travels in Europe and the UK, the actual scale of the problem is less here. We have forged a sunny beach and BBQ life of easy relationships in this country, where the idea of a classless ‘fair go’ still predominates. We’ve also shown recently that we know where to draw the line: 60/40 voting No to the divisive racially-motivated Voice being embedded forever in our Constitution. We’ve also held true to John Howard’s proposition that we determine who comes to live in our country; something we need to revisit now in the light of the major and unwanted cultural differences displayed at the Opera House recently.
Thanks Elizabeth. Good to get your insights too. I think the situation has changed since Oct 7. We now need to look more closely at our immigration policies.
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And on what we tolerate in demonstrations. Open support for terrorist organisations on our streets should be prosecuted and stopped and very public chants of “ gas the Jews” for example on our fair streets should be a jailable offence which should be enforced.
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Otherwise we’ll lose what we have as a beautiful free, tolerant and democratic country.
“We’ve also held true to John Howard’s proposition that we determine who comes to live in our country; something we need to revisit now in the light of the major and unwanted cultural differences displayed at the Opera House recently.”
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Elizabeth, the proposition John Howard was making, I believe was only relational in intent, as such I believe is open to speculation, in light of the fact that we the Australian people have never been asked or consulted on immigration matter’s by referenda by either side of politics, except of course by the power vested in elected officialdom. When John Howard cried aloud ,”We determine who comes to live in this country and the circumstances in which they come”; I believe he wasn’t actually referring to the idiot Australian elector, but to the elected (lawful) polity of the day(yesterday ALP now Howard LP)who on my estimation were making immigration decisions that are based on taking direction from powers that lay outside the sovereign elected political sphere of this country- IMF,WEF,UN – the conglomerate of global consensus if you like. Also keep in mind the Liberal party had just taken power at that election and these words by Howard were simply signalling more of the same in regards to the international rules based order on immigration, asylum and refugees (rule of law will decide)
As Bill Hayden said,” In 200yrs we will all be brown”: There is a long term agenda on multicultural racial ( Alexandr Duggin’s blocks) not mono-cultural assimilation, who’s odious fumes emanate out of UN specifically, and pressure is bought to bear through proxies such as the World Economic Forum.
Furthermore, the United Nations is a global left wing construct and entity.
Maybe we should simply be a member and not a partner to the UN and simply go our own way.
Make no mistake, just like the ‘voice’,being a UN construct-Elizabeth, we Australians have been conned – the whole UN agenda is to diminish the power that is vested in the individual elector in independent nation states.
Sorry for the grammatical errors- you get the idea.
Thanks Simon – I appreciate getting this first hand update from Quadrant on the situation in Europe. Great work.
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Your description of the protest crowd and the atmosphere in London gives us an idea of the root cause behind why people in a free democracy come out on the streets to support the Hamas Palestinian government. The recent Dutch election result points to the same cause – immigration of people from countries holding hatreds and values incompatible with a free open democracy. The Dutch election result seems to indicate the majority of people there have had enough of that.
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The support on the streets of a free democracy is even more worrying considering Hamas is a terrorist designated organisation by the government of the country where the protests are. And of course the Hamas Palestinian government were responsible for the terrorist atrocities which broke the existing ceasefire to start this war and bring all the horrific suffering to people on both sides.
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It’s ironic that protesters are now calling for a ceasefire as Israel tries to prevent further terrorist atrocities in future – and the upper hand is being taken away from the Hamas Palestinian terrorist government.
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There were clearly no calls for a ceasefire from demonstrators immediately after the terrorist atrocities in Israel because Israel hadn’t responded then. The timing of the early demonstrations indicates they could only have been to support what had just happened in Israel. Not to support peace or call for a ceasefire.
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Arguably there’s been a tendency in The Australian newspaper here to over- emphasize the significance of the left and the woke in these demonstrations. They’re certainly an important part but arguably the main driver of these protests is people bringing hatreds and values incompatible with a free democracy from other countries. Hate can be a very powerful motivating force.
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Unless Western democracies want to see more of these ugly and divisive demonstrations or worse in future they need to look more closely where immigrants are coming from and ensuring they don’t hold values and deep seated hatreds incompatible are with a free, open and tolerant democracy.
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Arguably to place too much importance on left views and wokeness in causing these problems will deflect policy makers from the real root cause of the problems: inappropriate immigration policies for free Western democracies.
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What would your assessment be Simon?
“Arguably to place too much importance on left views and wokeness in causing these problems will deflect policy makers from the real root cause of the problems: inappropriate immigration policies for free Western democracies.”
Yes, our liberal immigration fantasies must come to an end if we are to remain a coherent, secure and prosperous country.
“For a nation to survive, it must prefer its own culture, traditions, language, history, and folkways above any other. Throughout history this preference was usually seen as innate because these aspects of civilization were understood as emanating from the character of a nation’s people, not a checklist of ideological preferences accumulated through rational discourse. By exposing every societal axiom to the cold deconstruction of the marketplace, liberalism stripped away the fundamental nature of Western nations, leaving them spiritually rootless and open to attack.”
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/checking-in-on-the-wests-slow-motion-suicide
This is a rather sad article, infused with a provincial and racial world view, and a fear or loathing of the other. Of course the majority of people protesting (often violently) are arabs. Something like 2 million Palestinians have been accepted throughout the west as refugees since the formation of Israel. When there is killing and fighting in Palestine it is not surprising that those people are motivated to protest whether it be in London or Sydney.
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In short the best response to the angst the author is describing is to say that if there were no Israel, there would be very few arabs on the streets of London they would still be in the Levant, and we would all be happy, save of course for the Jews who would continue most probably to be despised and hated in the christian countries from which they decamped to establish Israel. As to the “existential crisis now gripping much of Western Europe”, really? If the author thinks current passions are an existential crisis, he needs to reflect more the nature and strength of western culture, and its capacity to cope with conflict. That is after all why it has become the bedrock of human advancement.
Not so much ‘racial’ world view, as a world view that is cognizant of the observable differences in value-sets between cultures. Different value sets can differ by different degrees, but a value set that calls for the annihilation of another cultural group based on semi-mythical historic grievances from the 7th century seems to be incompatible with a culture that values (or pretends to value) ‘all’ cultures.
Daffy, I know I shouldn’t do this, but I can not help myself. Which culture has a value set which calls for the annihilation of another cultural group based on differences since the 7th century? Are you referring to the holocaust, the western european solution to the “Jewish problem” during WWII? I doubt you are, but you can see the danger in any culture getting on its “high horse”.
Occidental, if you don’t mind my saying so there’s an baseless false equivalence in your comment. Antisemitism has existed in down the ages, but the Nazi interregnum, with its hare-brained, crackpot racial conspiracy theories and its strutting drug-addled führer, could not conceivably be regarded as a strain of mainstream western, or indeed German, culture.
Sindri, I am always up for a debate. Well my comment to Daffy was a little tongue in cheek, but Daffy’s assertion of the desire of a cultural group (presumably arabs, possibly Muslims) to annihilate another group (presumably Jews ) is every bit as excessive and somewhat pontifical. But your comment misses the point. If the government of Germany, a core bed rock of western culture, can plan and put into practice a scheme for genocide, then, how can it not be a strain of Western Culture.
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As you rightly point out anti semitism (and every other form of prejudice and bigotry) has existed in European culture for a very long time. That it found its nadir in Nazi Germany is merely circumstance. If it was the act of merely one man or even a “crackpot” few, I could agree with you. But as we all know, not only were tens of thousands willing and active participants in the holocaust, but millions in other core western culture countries (France, Italy, Hungary, and many others) turned a blind eye to it, and co-operated. Bearing in mind that history, of what “westerners” can do, who are we (or Daffy) to start throwing around offensive accusations at arabs or Muslims.
One further point Sindri, I overlooked the word “mainstream” in your comment. Daffy didn’t allege that “annihalate(ion)” was “mainstream” nor did I allege that German policy was “mainstream”, but it is inarguable that sadly, it became part of German (western culture) if only for a short time.
Occidental, I acknowledge the willing accomplices, of course, but I would emphatically take issue with your description of the Holocaust as “the western european solution to the “Jewish problem” during WWII”. It rather cheapens the sacrifices of the huge number of “western europeans”, not to mention the millions of eastern europeans, and others, who fought and died in the struggle against the Nazis.
I certainly still think that the National Socialist claptrap was an aberration that, despite the existence of anti-semitism, finds no reflection in European culture.
Sindri, you can tell I am starved for argument. Point taken about the “western european solution” a more apt description would be “(a) western european solution”. Of course your comment raises a whole new can of worms, when you allude to the sacrifices of eastern europe. Bearing in mind that the overwhelming majority of Jews who were murdered were Polish, and that the USSR was not just complicit, but an active participant in Polands dismemberment, how much guilt should rest for the holocaust in eastern europe? I wont even bring in to that argument such gems of Russian literature like “The Protocols”. You can see why I winced when I read Daffys comment, can’t you?
Well, it’s not clear to me precisely who Daffy was referring to; you assumed in your comment that he was referring to “arabs, possibly Muslims”. In fact, Daffy referred not to a culture or race generally, but to a “value set”. Daffy can speak for himself, but I doubt he was intending to suggest that all Arabs and Muslims want to exterminate Jews. Hamas, on the other hand, do want to exterminate Jews, and they believe that their mission is scripturally based; just read the charming article 7 from their founding Charter. If that was what Daffy was referring to, it didn’t make me wince at all.
Sindri, unfortunately our discussion has become delineated by the possible, as opposed to probable, meaning of Daffy’s prose. Perhaps you are right and I misinterpreted the object of his comments.
I take your point about Stalin and the Nazi slaughter of Polish Jews. It’s one of the shining monuments to intellectual stupidity that there are still leftists who justify the Hitler-Stalin pact, on the basis that Stalin was forced into it on the basis of unremitting Western hostility to the USSR. The irony is that Nazi apologists manage to juggle Stalin’s entry into the pact with the idea that the USSR was controlled by the scheming international jew!
Surely, Occidental, you’re not blaming the presence of Israel for the exodus from Syria and North Africa? The great paradox is that birth rates are inversely related to poverty levels (look at all those babies in those Gaza hospitals); Africa is pumping out a massive surplus of young people, while Europe’s populations are stagnating. Bleeding hearts in the UK and elsewhere (even in Oz) want more “refugees” brought in, maybe as a sop to their own warped consciences, with no consideration given to the irreversible damage this will cause the local cultures and lifestyles (or perhaps they’d like to see these destroyed, as punishment for their sins?). There is no happy ending in sight . . .
pmprociv, to be honest I merely assumed that arabs protesting in London, were similar to our arab protesters, most likely from the Levant, something I still believe. If that is the case the likelihood is they were admitted as refugees, as were ours. The basis of their classification is essentially Israel and their statelessness. As Elizabeth Beare has so articulately demonstrated the Jewish population of the area has grown from 20 thousand in 1882 to maybe 3 million today. If that number comes in, a few have to leave to make room. I thought I was just stating the obvious.
This is sheer nonsense. Israel has nothing to do with 99% of Arabs and the Jews will always try to live there because it is their homeland. It is while attempting to destroy their communities there that the Arabs suffered multiple defeats, which are then strangely used as proof of Israel’s guilt.
And you fell for it.
Of course, the above about culture and our life of ease all said, we are currently heading at a furious pace to hell in the grip of another Labor-held handbasket. This week we find out that we will now throw as yet uncounted billions of borrowed dollars at the sunlit and wind-blown uplands of net zero CO2 emissions, and all within my (now reasonably short) lifetime. That is our biggest danger, that we fall into Argentinian penury and deindustrialisation, with the resultant unavoidable social division and chaos, by allowing socialism and its climate cult to cut us off at the pass from the future our soldiers fought and died for.
Welcome home, Simon.
” …. if there were no Israel, there would be very few arabs on the streets of London they would still be in the Levant, and we would all be happy, save of course for the Jews who would continue most probably to be despised and hated in the christian countries from which they decamped to establish Israel. ”
This is the most appalling piece of anti-semitic tosh I’ve ever read.
Read some history of the region you speak of and hang your head in shame.
It has been Jewish for millennia.
At the turn of the 20th century many hundreds of thousands of Jews lived there.
Elizabeth
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You can’t debate with people who hold those views. It’s a total waste of time. There’s no basis for debate.
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Likewise it’s a waste of time debating with people who came out to support the Palestinians immediately after the terrorist atrocities were perpetrated on Oct 7 and before there was any response from Israel.
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They weren’t demonstrating for a ceasefire or peace then. Israel had no responded then. The timing tells you that. They were demonstrating in support of what had just happened. Not peace.
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You’re wasting your time debating with people like that.
And it’s a waste of time debating with unapologetic nazi sympathizers who peddle revisionist history and conspiracy theories that Jews control the world. One such person has recently surfaced here. He’s a sort of frustrated gauleiter with a mock-Jewish screen name. There’s nothing to debate with these people; they should be laughed to scorn. Ironically when attacked they claim, with faux mildness and a little feigned hurt, that their right of dissent is being ignored. Just remind me, how much dissent did Hitler permit?
Elizabeth your contribution of hundreds of thousands at the turn of 20th century is new and novel information. According to Israeli scholars, at the commencement of the “first Aliyah” or return of the Jews, which began in 1882, Jews in Palestine numbered around 20,000. The arab population was estimated to be 30 to 50 times that many. But I have long ago ceased to put great store in what I read, perhaps your sources are more accurate, and should be shared with historians.
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As to describing my tosh as “ anti-semitic”, there is little point in having a semantic argument, as Julia Gillard long ago convinced me that Humpty Dumpty was right all along.
That’s intersting, because Julia Gillard never convinced me of anything; least of all her ‘misogyny’ speech.
“hundreds of thousands at the turn of 20th century is new and novel information”
Those numbers are incorrect. But even more incorrect are assumptions of Arab residency. British archives have many records that show about half of the Arab population at the end of the Mandate were recent arrivals from surounding regions for the abundant work available in Mandatory Palestine, the nerve centre of British interests and oil in the MIddle East. There’s good reason why the UN suddenly decided after numerous interviews to declare these refugees, only internally displaced within their Syrian homeland except those from afar, that these refugees are anyone who claims at least two years residency.
” …. if there were no Israel, there would be very few arabs on the streets of London they would still be in the Levant,”
The vast proportion of Muslims in London were displaced by warfare within Muslim countries among Muslims, warfare completely unrelated to conflicts with Israel. That premise that mass Middle East migration is due to the existence of Israel is one of the standard antisemitic tropes perpetuated by decades of misguiding news reports.
Let the countries with similar views take the refugees from Gaza from this latest war – a war which was caused by the breaking of the existing ceasefire by the inhuman terrorist atrocities in Israel perpetrated by the Hamas Palestinian government which was elected by the people of Gaza in UN supervised elections in 2006.
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(Whether they’d vote for Hamas now is another question however they voted for Hamas then and it hasn’t changed all that much.)
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Without those terrorist attacks and inhuman atrocities on Oct 7 there’d be no war now and none of the incredible suffering on both sides resulting from the war.
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Jew despising views and similar views are incompatible with free, open and democratic countries and will only lead to division and hatred.
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Jew-despising views are incompatible with who Australians are. People on our streets publicly chanting ” gas the Jews” and publicly supporting the Hamas Palestinian terrorist government are not the sorts of citizens Australia needs.
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People need to stand up for our peaceful and tolerant way of life or else we’ll finish up losing it.
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You simply can’t debate with people who support terrorists or accept Jew despising views as if they were the norm.
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Debating with such people achieves nothing. It’s like swimming in a sewer.
Occidental, I am always ready to stand corrected on a number, but the point remains that Jewish people have always seen Israel as their homeland (expelled by the Romans), and the hundreds of thousands number I mentioned was approached in 1914 with 94,000, enhanced by 1931 with 174,610, and by 1947 (for obvious reasons of ‘coming home’) was achieved by 630,000. By 1948 the new State of Israel had 716,700 Jewish people in it. There was, you may recall, a very hard fought physical battle by Jews for Isreal against firstly the Ottomans (who had come and coverted by the sword in the region) and then against the British. The above numberical details and others are available on this website:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-and-non-jewish-population-of-israel-palestine-1517-present
Your crude denial of the Jewish right to their homeland and your inhumanly blind dismissal of a pogrommed diaspora and its holocaust (let them put up with both, you implicitly say) is still appalling. Political partitions with population shifts and changes are always difficult and historically threaded. Once made, there is no return to the situation ante.
errata – numerical not numberical; in my response to Occidental currently awaiting moderation.
ps to my extended comment in moderation – I was actually thinking in thousands, i.e. 94,000 in 1914, not hundreds of thousands (mea culpa), although as I say, the hundreds of thousands figure was achieved by 630,000 in 1947.
For those interested, on Netflix is an Israeli TVdrama series about a Jewish family in the between-the-wars period who lived in Jerusalem. It is a fascinating insight into Jewish life and times of the period. The first episode opens with the hanging of a young Jewish boy by the Ottoman Turks who were in charge prior to the British. It is called “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem’ and provides viewpoints from within the sects of Judaism as well as on relationships between the Jews and the Arabs at that time period, and the opposition to the British, all through the prism of this family’s relationships in the Jerusalem of the day.
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For those wanting something about the more current situation, you can’t go past the various TV series of an Israeli drama called Fauda, also on Netflix. It is about the special undercover forces operating for the security of Israel, gathering intel and responding to threats (goodness knows where these sorts of crews were in the lead up to the Hamas atrocity one may wonder; asleep at the wheel?). Fauda is an Arabic word meaning chaos. This series looks with a nuanced and often sympathetic to eye to Arabs re the situation in the West Bank and Gaza while keeping Israeli security as the main game. It was apparently much watched and enjoyed in Gaza itself.
Disclaimer: I am not Jewish myself but have visited Israel in recent years, and have sought a greater understanding of the country and its history by being there, then reading more, including Montefiore’s great tome on Israel’s long and bloody Jewish history.
Thanks, may watch them when I get through Paul Apostle of Christ. Usually takes me 3 days to watch a whole film – mainly while eating/exercising.
“The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem”
It’s a really well rounded view of factions and issues. Unexpected turns that make full sense if you are well read about the period. I grew up here as an immediate post-war rugrat, one parent decended from a Polish Jewish convict of 1851, the other from a 1938 Polish refugee with one sister in Palestine since 1936. An intermediate generation was escapees from late 1800s Russian Polish havioc. Part of our Australian family are now Israelis.
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We never didn’t know about it, unlike those informed by a decade or so of rancid click-bait headlines. 75 years of watching and living it all has been supplemented by harvesting second hand bookshops for anything written from all facets, pro & con, from before about 1980 after which most publications are polemical. It’s really easy to recognise superficial views that have been formed by sensationalist headlines, marked by old antisemitic tropes, and held tight as reinforcement of someone’s view of their oen moral righteousness. Pointing out any flaws in their “facts” is taken as a slanderous view of their personal self worth.
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Why do so many subject to limited superficial information base their own personal moral value on their views of Jews, and subsequentially of Israel? Is this something deep and subtle within our western Christian culture? It might be a Jungian question – is “The Jews” a touchstone myth within the Christian west, quite aside from any real individual Jews.
The now overt alliance between the far-left socialist agitators and the much more numerous far-right “Free Palestine” groups and supporters, united against a tiny democracy fighting for its life since 1947, creates a worrying dilemma for Labor. Before, Labor Right (actually centrist in outlook) factions held the anti-Semitic left under control, and they and the Coalition had a united voice on anti-Semitism and Israel, but the shift to the left and this new alliance create new and dangerous currents. The vast majority of the rightist side of this new alliance is in Labor seats, and looking for support from the party they have been loyal to. Labor is desperate not to alienate them, hence the mealy-mouthed prevarications and umm-ing and ahh-ing issuing from various government spokespeople. If the rightists feel that Labor is too pro-Israel, hotheads may decide a new political party is a better option. It could well take a dozen Labor seats in Western Sydney.
Inclined to think, if I may say so, that you have a bit of an idealised view. As far as I know there was nothing in London quite like the chants of “fuck the jews” and “gas the jews”, immediately after the Hamas attack and before Israel had fired a shot.
Sindri
Good point.
The timing of the demonstration at the Opera House and the vicious hate filled chants of “gas the Jews” told you everything.
Israel had not responded to the inhuman terrorist atrocities by the Hamas Palestinian government then. So the demonstrations were not about peace or a ceasefire.
You can only assume – especially those who were chanting “ gas the Jews” – were supporting the terrorist atrocities which had just occurred.
Australia is still relatively ok because we are less advanced on the multicultural journey. But all political parties are seriously committed to mass migration of people of every country in the world. That way lies a nation of self-interested sub-groups that will be hostile to the other ones. This has already started seen by the increasing hostility against the majority European people. Multiculturalism is the ages great folly.
@Jesse
From the point of view of divide and rule it is the imperative of the age. The aim is the destruction of the European race, onto whose territories alone, it is being foisted. Homogenous, consciously European nations represent a constant threat to world government.Hence they must go.
There could well be an electoral backlash against political parties weak on condemning terrorism as a result of these ugly demonstrations supporting the Hamas Palestinian government.
The demonstrations may be uglier in London than here but arguably there’s still likely to be an electoral backlash following these ugly demonstrations in our cities here and the lack of consistent leadership being shown by Labor since the war began.
The Roy Morgan poll in the last week showing the Coalition ahead on two party preferred could be evidence of that already. It’s the first time the Coalition’s been ahead since the last election. They’d be consistently trailing by a comfortable margin.
That could be partly down to Labor’s weakness and inconsistency and lack of leadership regarding the war.
An example of Labor’s weakness on the issue is that Labor often insists that Israel follow the rules of war but I’ve never seen it say that the Hamas Palestinian government should be required to follow the rules of war.
We saw a very telling example of that today by Chris Bowen, Labor’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy.
He was reported in the Australian today insisting Israel follow the rules of war. But he made no mention of the Hamas Palestinian government being required to follow the rules of war.
And did that at the same time he was acknowledging the Hamas Palestinian government’s release of hostages.
Holding hostages is a flagrant violation of the rules of war by the Hamas Palestinian government. Yet no comment on that by Chris Bowen even as he acknowledges the release of hostages. Even at the same time he insists Israel follows the rules of war.
Sorry forgot my proper spacing. I’ll post a more readable version below.
There could well be a electoral backlash against political parties weak on condemning terrorism as a result of these ugly demonstrations supporting the Hamas Palestinian government.
.
The demonstrations may be uglier in London than here but arguably there’s still likely to be an electoral backlash following these ugly demonstrations in our cities here and the lack of consistent leadership being shown by Labor since the war began.
.
The latest Roy Morgan poll in the last week showing the Coalition ahead on two party preferred could be evidence of that already. It’s the first time the Coalition’s been ahead since the last election. They’d be consistently trailing by a comfortable margin.
.
An example of Labor’s weakness on the issue is that Labor often insists that Israel follow the rules of war but I’ve never seen it say that the Hamas Palestinian government should be required to follow the rules of war.
.
We saw a very telling example of that today by Chris Bowen, Labor’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy.
.
He was reported in the Australian today insisting Israel follow the rules of war. But he made no mention of the Hamas Palestinian government being required to follow the rules of war.
.
And did that at the same time he was acknowledging the Hamas Palestinian government’s release of hostages.
.
Holding hostages is a flagrant violation of the rules of war by the Hamas Palestinian government. Yet no comment on that by Chris Bowen even as he acknowledges the release of hostages. Even as he insists Israel follows the rules of war.
‘They refused to be overwhelmed by uncontrolled immigration flowing from the Middle East and Africa during the 2015 migration crisis. Like Australia, Hungary decides who comes into their country and the terms by which they come.‘
Ok, we (or rather Mr Triguboff and his ilk) are in control. But is 2% of current population per annum (600,000+) not overwhelming? From Hungary’s point of view there is no reason at all why any of these alien peoples should be accepted as citizens. The same could be said of Australia but there is no question that the tsunami of immigration since 2000 has already utterly changed the major cities with the promise of much worse to come as the post-war Australians die off, to be replaced by Chinese and Indians rather than their own grandchildren. Not all right. I don’t think you’d find too many Australian adults on a street in 1960 who would approve.
What’s Mr Triguboff got to do with immigration? He builds flats. And who are his “ilk”?
Are you related to him, by the way?
For decades Triguboff has lobbied for ever-higher immigration levels. It’s great for his flat-building business.
See:
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2020/10/harry-triguboff-demands-migrants-to-plug-property-price-bleeding/
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/05/highrise-harry-wants-more-people/
How many members does the cabal of hook-nosed Jews that control the world have, and when and where do they meet?
I’ve asked him, but haven’t got a reply yet.
Exciting, isn’t it? I’d be tempted to convert and sign up.
Australia is certainly “alright”. A recent nation formed from mixed and unpromising stock has, by the will of its people, drawn an entire continent together under a single democratic government to establish one of the most stable, prosperous, humane societies in the world – and that in the remote and poor Asia-Pacific region. Despite great trials and crises, it has never known civil war. Not without its faults, Australia shines as beacon of light in a dark part of the world and gives inspiration and hope to many millions. This is a record without historical precedent. I can well understand why those who hate our bourgeois ideals seek every opportunity to denigrate and delegitimise this nation and a recent vote showed just how resilient those ideals remain. Habitually understated, there just might be a little bit more to Australia than beer and sport.
” our national character and general civic order is generally stable” , Simon Simon, surely you jest.
Look what is happening in suburban streets, on our roads, even in our homes- ‘stable, stable !
Groups wandering around committing al manner of crime
with machetes (generally reported by police and governments as “knives” that they are unwilling to ban absolutely with mandatory penalties) AND THAT IS BEFORE we learn the type and volume of people WITHIN OUR MIDST in the la5est ‘protests’ !
Look a little deeper. I suggest we are just dragging the chain with what is occurring in the other locations you mention.
Australia no longer has a fertility rate to sustain itself. Rather than implement pro-natalist and family friendly policies, the federal government has instead decided to open the immigration floodgates, with a record 500,000+ new entrants this year alone. If current demographic trends continue, Australia in two or three decades will be an almost entirely different society. Far from being stable, I would argue that Australia’s national character as we know it is at risk of disappearing.
Sorry but like so many articles by modern academics I found this to be naive. There is a huge difference between being Australian and being an Australian citizen.
When I became an Australian citizen in 1946 (on my parents papers) I had already felt Australian in my heart and consciousness for five years.
I witnessed this strongly when returning to Australia as a paying passengeron a ship on a ship full of migrants in 1958. Many of the migrants were migrating here for the second time, having migrated on the ten pound scheme and then returned to England. Only to find they had changed (become Australian) and now feeling out of place bemoaned the requirement of 2 or 3 years before they could apply to migrate again.
We need Auustralians more than we need Australian Citizens.