All this to flog ancient Troy's tome?
They were all at it, though the early weekend headline story was a merciful 3 minutes ...
‘I wouldn’t do it’: Governor-General’s Kerr verdict
In an interview conducted in the study at Government House where Gough Whitlam was dismissed, Sam Mostyn reflected on the constitutional crisis 50 years ago and the resilience of institutions.
Troy Bramston
Ancient Troy again, for a full, unnerving 18 minutes ...
An hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, account of John Kerr’s dramatic dismissal of Gough Whitlam and installation of Malcolm Fraser as prime minister 50 years ago.
Troy Bramston
The clue?
This is an edited extract from Troy Bramston’s new book, Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New (HarperCollins).
Nah, thanks, but no thanks, not really, but at least there's no need to buy the book now ...
"Ned" rambled for an unholy 11 minutes ...
From Whitlam to Albanese: the remaking of Australian politics
Labor’s journey from Whitlam’s humiliation to Albanese’s record majority reveals the most dramatic reversal in our political history.
Paul Kelly
"Ned's" outing was full of astonishing insights...
Whitlam’s failures are not Albanese’s
Really? Do the Everest climb for that sort of revelation?
Over on the extreme far right, there was even more ...
The Ughmann joined in, another five minutes of torture ...
His ‘crash through or crash’ leadership not only reformed Labor, it embedded left-wing ideals and a centralising regulatory culture that reshaped Australian governance.
Chris Uhlmann
On the upside, it took the unreformed seminarian's mind off climate science denialism?
Was it only a profound sense of irony that led garrulous Gemma to feature with ...
What will it take to bring down the walls and return to being risk-takers and innovators?
By Gemma Tognini
Columnist
Just to prove the monstrous madness of the reptiles this day, gormless Gemma proved how up to date her thinking was ... by mangling Dorothea Mackellar's c. 1908 poem and citing an event in the bible commonly dated to late 15th century BC, though no trace of this Jericho remains ...
Once we were a nation known as risk-takers and innovators. I absolutely believe that is still wired into the Aussie DNA, but we are contending with a pervasive, close-minded, almost bunker mentality.
The sunburnt country has become the subsidy country, a land of sweeping reliance on government funding. Of rugged, mountainous resistance to new ideas. Of droughts of courage, initiative and ideas. Resistance to change that comes in like a flood. Can the metaphorical walls of Fortress Australia fall like those in the biblical story of Jericho? In that story the Israelites marched in silence around the walls for seven days. Not a word was spoken. Based on that, it would seem that drowning out the noise is the first step to take.
The pond immediately drowned out shouty Gemma ...
The pond doesn't know about fortress Australia, but when it comes to fortress hive mind lizard Oz, it's a fount of outdated scribbling obsessed with long ago events, either in the service of flogging a book or dwelling in a biblical fantasy land.
Well, the pond has outlined and linked to the resources, and yet again there's no sign of the bromancer, nor any of the reptiles focussing on King Donald and the slide of the disunited states into authoritarian anarchy.
This viral snap will have to do all that work ...
Talk about being in the right place at the right time to catch a framing which evokes memories of Rembrandt Van Rijn in its elegant capturing of metaphorical poses ...
And now the pond, righteous in its offerings, can turn to other matters, with the Brown-out starting that other conversation, the goodly, bigly chance of the lettuce winning ...
The header: Liberals’ vague aim to exit death spiral over net zero, Liberal MPs have exposed deep divisions over dumping the party’s net-zero target as a senior senator publicly declares Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is ‘losing support’.
The caption for a Susssan looking startled by a lettuce hovering into view: Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is expected to axe the 2050 net-zero target. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
The Brown-out offered a full 5 minutes of agonising ...
Key allies of Ms Ley say a compromise with the moderates was being considered under the plan to dump net zero, which would see the Coalition go to the next election vowing to maintain an “aspiration” under Paris to hit net zero while refusing to tie it to any date and having no domestic policies to hit the goal.
This would allow city-based MPs to argue the Coalition is technically committed to net zero even if the term is junked from Ms Ley’s policy platform.
But this is being resisted by top conservatives, who are pushing for the Coalition to have medium-term emissions pledges under the international agreement without any long-term net-zero goal.
Could it be a reptile story without a snap of terrifying whale-killing windmills, and some toad from the deep north? Former Queensland premier Campbell Newman says net zero is a path to “economic destruction”. Mr Newman told Sky News host Steve Price that it will deliver a “lower standard of living”. “To fewer jobs in this country.”
The pond has no idea where they dig up this Noddy, this Voldemort, this "can't do" Campbell, but it's yet another reminder of why the pond never watches Sky Noise down under...
After that irrelevance, the tale of woe continued ...
Ahead of a crucial meeting between Liberal MPs next Wednesday to finalise the party’s position on net zero, Victorian senator Sarah Henderson put leadership tensions on the radar after claiming Ms Ley was losing the support of the party room.
“I can’t sit here and pretend everything is OK; it’s not OK,” Ms Henderson told Sky News on Friday. “I do believe she is losing support because of what’s happened since she became leader.”
Conservative MPs played down the prospect of a leadership change this year, but told The Australian it was only a matter of time before she was challenged.
”She is in the death spiral … it is coming but not now,” one Liberal MP said. “We want to avoid the suggestion that we didn’t give her an opportunity.”
Another MP said: “Most people think she won’t make it to the election but she needs more time.”
Elbows up, lettuce, stay strong, as the reptiles introduced the alternative, the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way, Angus Taylor is considered the most likely alternative as Liberal Party leader. Picture: Martin Ollman
No wonder Labor apparatchiks are dreaming of a thousand year Reich, though they should remember what happened to the last one ... and let's not forget the pastie Hastie ...
Liberal MPs including opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan, moderate senator Jane Hume and conservative MP Tony Pasin on Friday denied Ms Ley’s leadership was under threat.
Mr Hastie said he was more focused on his campaign against net zero than on the leadership of the Liberal Party.
“Until we sort that out, it doesn’t matter who leads the party – we’re not in the fight,” Mr Hastie told 2GB radio.
“Our focus has to be getting cheaper power prices for Australian families, businesses and industry. If we don’t do that, our country is just going to keep going backwards.”
Mr Pasin told Sky News he believed the term “net zero” would be dumped.
“I, for one, am perfectly comfortable with us maintaining a commitment to Paris, but I can’t commit to net zero,” Mr Pasin said.
Thick as a Pasin brick, here have a rustic chatting with Danica, Nationals MP Michael McCormack says the Coalition needs to “make the call” on net zero and hope the moderates “find some common ground”. “People need to know where the Liberals stand … get on with it,” Mr McCormack told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio. “Time is of the essence. “Get on with prosecuting this government and their bad agenda for Australia.”
Okay, it's only a screen cap, but think of the brain cells saved ...
“Our energy policy will be predicated on two fundamentals: that we have a stable, reliable grid to provide affordable energy to households and businesses and that we do play our part internationally in reducing emissions,” she said.
When asked if her days were numbered as leader given Senator Henderson’s comments, Ms Ley said she was “not going to comment on commentary”.
“Every one of my team is absolutely united behind the focus that we have right now, which is to hold this Labor government to account for an energy policy that is destructive of households, businesses and indeed harming the economy,” Ms Ley said.
Go lettuce, Senator Dave Sharma removes himself from the spotlight at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra on Friday. Picture: Martin Ollman
The reptiles helped with the notion that, while climate change never sleeps and is already on the way to wrecking the planet, the best strategy by far is to stick head in sand, thereby avoiding sun burn ...
The report of the Paris-based group led by former Liberal finance minister Mathias Cormann found Australia was one of only 30 nations with a legally binding net-zero pledge, while momentum was slowing globally on taking action on climate change.
“Global climate action expanded by just 1 per cent in 2024 – confirming a slowdown in progress observed since 2021,” Mr Cormann wrote in the forward of the Climate Action Monitor report.
“This loss of momentum can no longer be attributed solely to disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic or economic shocks.”
The momentum against net zero within the Liberals shifted early in the week when factional powerbrokers Alex Hawke and James McGrath joined leading conservatives Mr Taylor, James Paterson and Michaelia Cash in opposing the target in a leadership meeting.
The meeting was hours after the Nationals partyroom unanimously agreed to oppose any net-zero goal, leaving top Liberals concerned about adopting a position that was too hard to reconcile with the junior Coalition party.
The lesser Leeser made the cut, Julian Leeser in Canberra on Friday. Picture: Martin Ollman
Now to explain the difference between carbon neutrality and net zero ...think neutered ...
While a senior MP has described net zero as “dead, buried and cremated”, opposition frontbenchers are divided over whether the Coalition should retain a goal to carbon neutrality under the Paris agreement.
The Australian understands the Liberals are likely to back including coal and gas in the Capacity Investment Scheme as part of a plan to make the underwriting program “technology neutral”.
The party is also expected to water down and rebrand the safeguard mechanism, while vowing to repeal the Climate Change Act that enshrines net-zero by 2050 in law.
Susssan made a final appearance, Sussan Ley says she won't "comment on commentary" as the Opposition Leader brushed off concerns over her leadership amid growing pressure over divisions regarding net zero policy. Ms Ley attempted to bat away mounting speculation her leadership is under threat, after Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson declared she "could not support things the way they are" and the leader was "losing support" within the party. Ms Ley said she is proud of her team and said a meeting to discuss net zero policy will be held next Wednesday.
It all bodes well for the pond's plunge on the lettuce ...
There is also significant support for the Nationals policy of tying medium-term emissions-reduction ambitions to the average abatement achieved by OECD nations. The Nationals policy would lead to Australia aiming to lower emissions by 30 to 40 per cent of 2005 levels by 2035, about half of Labor’s 62 to 70 per cent target.
The Liberals are opposed to the Nationals’ proposal to revive Tony Abbott’s Emissions Reduction Fund, which paid businesses to reduce their carbon output.
With moderate MPs arguing staying in Paris would effectively tie Australia to a net-zero ambition, Nationals senator Matt Canavan said this was not the case. “The Paris agreement does not impose a net-zero requirement on any nation,” he said. “What it says is that the signatories should aim for a global result of net zero. Because it is expressed as an aim, it is not actually a legal, binding obligation on any party or country.”
The dog botherer was also in the same turf, though being woofy, it'll be hard to get him to stay focussed ...
The caption for Susssan looking downcast: Sussan Ley is facing a leadership backlash over the party's net-zero climate policy. But the job of the Liberal Party is to ignore the politicking, social media fashions and ideology.
The dog botherer immediately got distracted ...
The dilemma is far deeper and wider – so consequential we see it even in New York City, where the home of Wall Street has just elected an aggressive, inexperienced and openly socialist new mayor.
If Zohran Mamdani’s divisive, dead-end politics can make it in the Big Apple, they might make it anywhere.
Fuelled by the mind-shrinking algorithms of social media, we have become societies of forgetfulness. History and its lessons are unremembered. A populace with unprecedented access to all the information and wisdom of millennia chooses digital flim-flam instead. We run with the meme of the moment.
Winston Churchill said: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to its pants on.” Now a lie is shared globally in milliseconds and before anyone has a chance for rebuttal it becomes accepted wisdom.
It was becoming one of those general Ginsbergian dog bothering howl of pain, all set off by New Yoikers, The home of Wall Street has just elected democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. Picture: Alejandro Granadillo/AP
That sighting was enough to set the dog botherer right off, and remind the hive mind that they were deep in the usual work of the Australian Daily Zionist News ...
Hence New Yorkers can vote for a hard-left populist promising state-run supermarkets, free transport, free childcare and higher taxes on the rich. Anyone with a pre-Instagram memory knows this is all too good to be true and will end in tears.
We suffer in the same way here. Social media ignorance filters into the mainstream, especially through the green-left media.
Paradoxically, the information age sees misinformation and straight-up lies embedded like never before. Half the world, for instance, makes the hateful and absurd allegation of “genocide” against Israel, tellingly dropped after the peace deal revealed a Gazan reality that could not sustain the lie. We regularly hear unsubstantiated claims that natural disasters in our land of “droughts and flooding rains” are the work of climate change. Politicians and activists tell us that fiddling with Australia’s 1 per cent (and shrinking) share of global emissions will change the weather.
Not Dorothea Mackellar again!
A fortress of wretched poetry references, as a new threat sauntered into view, Senator Lidia Thorpe at the march for Palestine held in Melbourne CBD. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling
The dog botherer was no on a familiar roll, ranting away, the odd bit of foam flecking the nose ...
Juvenile slogans from the anarchist left, once scoffed at by an informed electorate, are amplified and normalised. If you doubt this trend, let me remind you that the senator for Victoria, Lidia Thorpe, last month threatened to “burn down Parliament House” in support of Palestinians, Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi blamed Australia for disastrous floods in her native Pakistan and another Greens senator, David Shoebridge, described Mamdani’s campaign as an “inspiration”.
It is in this political fantasy world that the opposition and Ley must cast a new mainstay on climate and energy. It seems a diabolic challenge, but I would recommend a simple and old-fashioned approach: Ignore the spin and stick to facts and logic.
How low did the Australian Daily Zionist News go?
Think Godwin's Law, German troops lead Jewish civilians from the Warsaw ghetto to their execution during WWII. An example of ‘misinformation and straight-up lies embedded like never before’ is the genocide charge against Israel, believed by many in the world.
On with the howling, into the wilderness of despair ...
So it is that Ley and the Liberals must approach net zero. Forget trying to placate the gallery or other interest groups, or tailoring policy to presumed demographics according to opinion polls.
Weigh the options, costs and benefits, and advocate the best policy. This will not be racing ahead of the world in a renewables-plus-storage experiment. The right policies will be vindicated because the wrong policies will fail. Chasing the zeitgeist is endless folly.
When Abbott became opposition leader in 2009 and promised to block Rudd’s Orwellian-titled carbon pollution reduction scheme, the Canberra scribes foretold the end of the Liberal Party. They “will face humiliation at the polls”, said Laurie Oakes, and confront “electoral oblivion” according to Peter Hartcher – yet the Coalition all but won the 2010 election and romped home in 2013.
Little more than a decade later, it is all unlearned as the same media organisations, sometimes the same journalists, predict the same reckoning they falsely forecast back then. This is either obtuse or wishful thinking.
Oh the poor boy, still brooding, still yearning for a little onion munching, as Susssan made a familiar appearance, Sussan Ley says she won't "comment on commentary" as the Opposition Leader brushed off concerns over her leadership amid growing pressure over divisions regarding net zero policy. Ms Ley attempted to bat away mounting speculation her leadership is under threat, after Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson declared she "could not support things the way they are" and the leader was "losing support" within the party. Ms Ley said she is proud of her team and said a meeting to discuss net zero policy will be held next Wednesday.
And then it was done, and the pond did enjoy drinking the dog botherer's tears, though they were a little too salty ...
Tellingly, most of the commentary and even the partisan barbs are focused on politicking. Critics seem unconcerned that slowing Australia’s emissions cuts will lead to more droughts, floods or fires.
Even Climate 200 founder and teal svengali Simon Holmes a Court sticks to politics over the environment. In these pages on Thursday, he wrote: “The lesson from the past two elections should be blindingly obvious: Australians will not back a Coalition that refuses to take climate change seriously.”
Nice of him to worry about the fortunes of his political foes but surely Holmes a Court remembers the Coalition supported net zero by 2050 at the past two elections. Besides, shouldn’t he be more worried about the planet?
This obsession with politics over the environment gives the critics’ game away. For all their alarmism and deceitful claims about Australian policy improving the climate, they know the science says that whatever Australia does will not alter the climate.
If it did, they would be attacking the Coalition for contemplating an act that will swamp our coastal suburbs and cook our farmland. Revealingly, they stick to politics because that is their game – not science or economics but ideology.
The job of the Liberal Party is to ignore the politicking, social media fashions and ideology.
Stick to the facts and offer a rational approach for national prosperity and security.
Oh yes, the way forward ... endless, mindless prosperity, with marble bathrooms, gold gilt toilets and a great taste in ballrooms and cars...
And so to a special bonus.
It's nine minutes, so long the reptiles deemed it needed sub-headings, but who could resist Cameron asking questions ...
The caption for a wisely uncredited, truly pathetic collage: Zorhan Mamdani is not a Palestinian but has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause all his life, having co-founded a chapter of the Students for Justice for Palestine at college.
The pond won't interrupt much, the point here, a bit like supping on dog botherer tears, is the pleasure to be derived from watching a reptile writhe on a Mamdani stake ...
The crushing victory by the 34-year-old Muslim democratic socialist has launched a plethora of predictions from political pundits about what it means for the Democrats, for Donald Trump and for New York.
But for America’s Jewish community, the questions raised by Mamdani’s victory are deeply personal. For some, there is disbelief that New York City, with 1.3 million Jews – the second largest Jewish population of any city behind Tel Aviv – has elected a mayor who believes Israel is a genocidal state that does not have the right to exist.
Mamdani has accused Israel of committing apartheid as well as genocide in Gaza and has been reluctant to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada”. He is not a Palestinian but has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause all his life, having co-founded a chapter of the Students for Justice for Palestine at college.
Many Jews fear his victory will turbocharge the anti-Israel American left and will further fuel the surge in anti-Semitism that has brought a raft of violent attacks including the murder of two young employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Why did Jews vote for Mamdani?
Yet exit polls in New York on election day indicated that no less than 33 per cent of Jewish voters – one in three – cast their ballot for a Muslim who doesn’t believe Israel should exist.
For America’s Jewish community, this is the bigger story of Mamdani’s victory. The war in Gaza increasingly has led a younger generation of Jews, especially in progressive cities such as New York, to question and to criticise Israel in a manner that once would have seemed unthinkable. Within many Jewish families, parents and their children now hold very different views about Gaza and about Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
Of course, Jews in the US, like elsewhere in the world, populate all sides of the political spectrum. In New York, exit polls suggest that roughly two-thirds of Jews cast their vote for Mamdani’s pro-Israel opponent Andrew Cuomo.
But the US Jewish community is broadly seen as more politically liberal than most – including Australia – with seven in 10 Jews in the US traditionally voting Democrat.
As such, the Democrats traditionally have stood side-by-side with Republicans in their fervent support of Israel.
Just to reassure the hive mind, the reptiles slipped in a reminder that readers were still safe in the Australian Zionist Daily News ... A man goes about his day in the Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Williamsburg in New York City. Picture: Getty Images
It's an Islamic conspiracy ... the hordes are gathering at the walls of Jericho, or some such ...
But Democrat voters overall, including many Jewish Democrats, have been increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s coalition government over its actions in Gaza. It is a notable shift that almost certainly will transform the Democratic Party’s future approach to Israel. If a Democrat succeeds Trump in the White House, it could have direct implications for US-Israel relations and Middle East policy more broadly.
How many Muslims live in New York?
The sizeable number of Jewish voters who cast their ballot for Mamdani in New York did not sway his election. New York also is home to the nation’s largest Muslim population, about 1.5 million, which would have voted for him overwhelmingly, quite apart from his popularity with the broader electorate.
But the exit polls in New York, which showed one-third of Jews backed Mamdani, reflect a new-found willingness from these Jewish voters to tolerate those such as Mamdani who are openly critical of Israel.
Of course, for many of these voters Israel was not on the ballot. A lot of the Jews who cast their ballot for Mamdani no doubt did so because of his manifesto of tax the rich and help the poor, rather than because of anything to do with Israel. But it speaks volumes that they did not particularly care that their mayor-elect did not believe their spiritual homeland had a right to exist.
Even The Times of Israel couldn't pin that last charge on him...
During the long mayoral primary campaign, Mamdani repeatedly said that Israel has a right to exist, though he has not said it has a right to exist as a Jewish state. He usually qualifies the statement by adding that Israel is flouting its responsibilities under international law, based on its treatment of Palestinians.
He has been asked if Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. As he stated at the town hall with the UJA-Federation, he feels it should exist “with equal rights for all.”
He later said on a local Fox channel’s morning show: “I’m not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else.” He echoed those comments many times subsequently on the campaign trail.
Well yes, in many parts of the world there's a disavowal of theocracy and an attempt to separate church from state, though it's been failing in recent times in the disunited states.
But when it comes to smearing, the reptiles just love their theocracies... Supporters celebrate Zohran Mamdani’s win during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater this week. Picture: AFP
So to quoting King Donald ...
Yet polls suggest many US Jews have moved largely in tandem with the American public – and public opinion in many Western nations including Australia – to become steadily more critical of Israel as the civilian death toll in Gaza has grown. A Washington Post poll of Jews in the US conducted in September, before the ceasefire and the release of the hostages, revealed American Jews had become sharply critical of Israel’s conduct of the war.
It found 61 per cent believed Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza while four in 10 believed Israel was guilty of genocide. Even so, American Jews still overwhelmingly blame Hamas, with 94 per cent saying Hamas had committed war crimes against Israelis.
The same poll also revealed a growing generational divide, with 56 per cent of American Jews saying they were emotionally attached to Israel, but this dropped to just 36 per cent among those aged 18 to 34. These younger Jews are also far likelier than older Jewish Americans to say Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza – a demographic trend reflected in the broader non-Jewish community.
Jewish Democrats’ shift away from Israel
However, polls show that this year white, college-educated older Jewish Democrats also have moved in large numbers to distance themselves from Israel.
As such, the divide between Jewish Democrats and Jewish Republicans is starker than ever, with more than eight in 10 Jewish Republicans supporting Israel’s military actions in Gaza, compared with roughly three in 10 Democrats. The drift in support for Israel among many Jews is reinforced even more within the broader Democratic Party.
A New York Times poll in September found the sympathies of Democrat voters, which were evenly split between Israel (34 per cent) and Palestinians (31 per cent) two years ago, are now sharply lopsided, with 54 per cent saying they sympathised more with Palestinians compared with just 13 per cent for Israel.
A reminder of the elected fiend, incarnate, and his terrifying companion, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, right, and his wife Rama Duwaji.
Then came more meditations on the wilful destruction of Gaza ...
When all Americans – including Republican voters – are polled, the country is evenly split with 34 per cent saying they side with Israel and 35 per cent with the Palestinians. However, this is a significant shift from the days after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, when 47 per cent sided with Israel and just 20 per cent with Palestinians.
This drift from Israel has frustrated and alienated senior traditional Democrats who believe their party should stick side-by-side with Israel as it once did.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New Yorker and the most senior Jewish politician in the US, has pointedly refused to endorse Mamdani.
“Senator Schumer has had to balance the energy that Mamdani has inspired with young voters with the reticence older voters and the business community have felt toward the mayor-elect, with Israel being another complicating factor,” Ben Tulchin, a Democratic pollster who worked for New York mayor Eric Adams’s 2021 campaign was quoted as saying.
Leading house Democrat Hakeem Jeffries held off endorsing Mamdani until last month and says he does not see him as the future of the party.
“(Mamdani) will have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in anti-Semitism,” Jeffries says.
What do America’s rabbis make of it?
Concerns about what the rise of Mamdani means for anti-Semitism in the US prompted more than 1000 rabbis, cantors and rabbinical students from around the country to sign a petition last month to oppose “rising anti-Zionism and its political normalisation”.
“As rabbis from across the United States committed to the security and prosperity of the Jewish people, we are writing in our personal capacities to declare that we cannot remain silent in the face of rising anti-Zionism and its political normalisation throughout our nation,” the petition said. “When public figures like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani refuse to condemn violent slogans, deny Israel’s legitimacy, and accuse the Jewish state of genocide, they, in the words of New York Board of Rabbis president Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, ‘Delegitimise the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility toward Judaism and Jews’.”
Mamdani’s victory has made him a target for Trump, who derides him as “my little communist mayor” and predicts his win will lead to social and economic disaster in New York. But Trump will also use Mamdani’s win to contrast the President’s “unwavering” support for Israel with that of Mamdani and the Democratic Party.
It is ironic, given that American Jews overwhelmingly support the Democrats, that Trump, a Republican, has done more to help Israel and Middle East peace than any other American.
Trump’s peace plan has resulted in the release of all 20 remaining living hostages from Gaza and has led to a ceasefire that, although tenuous, continues to hold and raise hopes that the war in Gaza is over.
Here's where the fluff gathering and navel gazing gets beyond the valley of the incestuous, with the dog botherer turning up again to talk with Lord Downer ... Former foreign minister Alexander Downer says socialism has never made any “economic sense”. Mr Downer told Sky News host Chris Kenny that socialism has been tried for hundreds of years in all “parts of the world”. “And every time it’s been tried, it ended in tears. “So, expect New York to push back eventually against this socialist experiment.”
Meanwhile, Uncle Leon lines up for a trillion dollar pay out, and Lord Downer nods and smiles approvingly ...
A conference of America’s leading Jewish Republicans in Las Vegas this week lurched from what the Times of Israel called “jubilation over a tenuous ceasefire in the Middle East into a clarion call to stem the spread of anti-Jewish voices within the party”.
Conservative American Jews have been horrified by the anti-Israel attitudes of some prominent MAGA identities. These include conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson, who welcomed Nick Fuentes, a far-right Holocaust denier with anti-Semitic views, on to his podcast last week and refused to vigorously challenge him.
“We are at this point in what I consider sort of the early stages of an undeclared civil war within the Republican Party, as it relates to Israel, and anti-Semitism and the Jewish community,” Republican Jewish Coalition leader Matthew Brooks said.
Reactions in Israel to Mamdani’s victory in New York have ranged from horror to a quiet resignation.
“The Big Apple has fallen,” said Avigdor Liberman, the leader of a right-wing opposition party and former foreign minister. He urged “New York Jews who want to survive” to emigrate “to where they belong – the land of Israel”.
Why did he win?
Amichai Chikli, a right-wing Israeli minister whose portfolio includes the Jewish diaspora and combating anti-Semitism, claimed Mamdani was “someone whose positions are not far removed from the jihadist fanatics who murdered 3000 of (New York’s) people” in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
“New York is walking with open eyes into the abyss into which London has plunged,” he said in reference to London’s Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan.
David Horovitz, the founding editor of The Times of Israel, had more thoughtful observations, writing: “There’s an argument to be made that Zohran Mamdani’s decisive victory in the New York mayoral elections is all about local issues, and that his hostility to Israel is largely irrelevant.
“Some (New York Jews) doubtless chose Mamdani in part because they endorse his strategic delegitimisation of an Israel to which they were never connected or from which they are increasingly alienated. But others, who are troubled by his stance on Israel, backed him nonetheless because they are more preoccupied with the day-to-day problems of the city they live in, and believe he will do a better job of alleviating them than (Mamdani’s opponent) Andrew Cuomo would.
Actually the pond would prefer to quote Haaretz ...
And again ...
In fact, it's actually good for Israel that the world stops ignoring its deranged behavior and starts demanding accountability for its actions. Only international pressure on the government has succeeded in bringing about the return of hostages and halting the war, and only such pressure can save us from the abyss toward which it's driving us.
Zohran Mamdani is not dangerous to Israel; he's dangerous to the lie Israel tells itself. And the truth is, without freedom and security for everyone, there will be no good life for either side – only more death, more destruction, and more news broadcasts scaring us with imaginary threats so we won't have to face reality.
And so on, as Cameron wrapped up ...
It remains to be seen whether he is willing to take up that fight in the robust manner in which he promises.
There is good reason to be sceptical. For many American Jews, Mamdani’s election as mayor of the country’s most Jewish city is not only a deeply worrying development. It is also a stark illustration of how America’s Jewish diaspora is fracturing over Israel and the war in Gaza.
Cameron Stewart is a former New York correspondent for The Australian.
