In which the pond avoids "Ned" but finds distractions with manly boys and nuking the planet, before ending up with Polonius prattling yet again about the ABC ...

 

The pond was delighted to see the warm reception given to the dog botherer on his return to familiar turf - no doubt there will be many more warm days to come, warmer and warmer - and it was a relief to avert eyes from other unfolding catastrophes...nothing like nuking the planet to keep regional wars in perspective.

But that left a Sunday dilemma. Normally the pond would torment people with an extended bout of nattering "Ned", but the pond didn't have the heart ...

The pond did read "Ned's offering" and came up with a tentative score card ...

People mentioned disapprovingly but not directly speaking with "Ned": Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong, Penny Allman-Payne

People quoted directly and approvingly and at unseemly length: Julian Lesser, Dave Sharma, (both with huge photos), and indirectly Josh Frydenberg ...

Leeser showed how to talk with sensitivity by referencing "the quisling leaders of some of our universities need to take a good long look at themselves."

In short university leaders in this country are lickspittle fellow travellers with Nazis ... and there went Godwin's Law for the day.

On the upside, it meant that the pond could get away with this one ...

Back to the score card:

Number of people from Gaza quoted, perhaps a recent refugee or someone who at least might have an intimate knowledge of events on the ground and present an alternative viewpoint to that of the Jewish lobby? 0, which is to say, nada, nihil, nothing, nobody ...

Criticisms of the Netanyahu government, or what has happened in the past decade in relation to Gaza and the West Bank? 0, which is to say, nada, nihil, nothing, not even the low fruit of settler outrages or the conversion of Gaza into an open-air prison and the practice of apartheid and ethnic cleansing and forensic displacement ...

Instead, and the pond only quotes a little, there was oodles of this sort of stuff ... purporting some kind of objectivity ...

...There is a sense of an open season on attacking Israel. More important is the inadequate response of political leadership. The so-called rhetoric of multiculturalism doesn’t work in this crisis – being even-handed all around, the ritual of ensuring criticism of anti-Semitism is linked with criticism of Islamophobia. Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have regularly adopted this approach. And there can be no objection to such statements of principle. But how does this address the situation of Australia today?

Of course, the politics are difficult. The Palestinian community is outraged by the mass civilian deaths from Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas and the Israeli community is outraged by the barbaric assault on its civilians on October 7. Wong has made a specialty of calling for restraint. And restraint is important. But this is a moral crisis and goes to the enforcement principles of Australian multiculturalism. There can be no toleration of one community engaged in intimidatory actions against another community. And this is what is happening. Pretending it is not happening is untenable and the path to stacks of trouble for the Labor Party.

Pro-Palestinian protests are completely legitimate. What is not legitimate is protesting behaviour designed to promote hate, parade anti-Semitism and promote an identity-based zero-sum cultural grievance in Australia, one community against another. The complete failure of Islamic leaders in this situation is apparent.

This raises several political questions. Is Labor reluctant to confront the unprecedented nature of the anti-Semitism now on display because it feels that will only further agitate the Muslim population? Does it maintain the political formula of being even-handed to protect the Muslim vote in ALP seats? People are asking these questions.

Leeser was keen to say there was no problem criticising the Israeli government. That government of Benjamin Netanyahu, of course, is far right-wing, has been bent on marginalising the Palestinian issue and now faces the dilemma of having to address the future political complexion of Gaza. Yet the anti-Jewish protest movement has not focused on the Netanyahu government – its focus is on the state of Israel, its alleged racism and genocide.

This movement, entrenched across Britain, the US and Australia, is heavily shaped by the ideology of identity politics that divides the world into two groups – the “white people” who are colonists and are responsible for most of the world’s evils; and the victims, the “people of colour”, the targets of racism and genocide, with the Palestinian people now the frontline of victims and Israel the frontline of oppressors in this identity ideology. 

Such flawed stereotyping might seem incredible to a rational person. But it’s not, it’s happening, it’s the ideology and language now being deployed. It’s one reason the situation is dangerous.

Leeser was keen to say there was no problem criticising the Israeli government? 

Rinse and repeat because the pond must quote itself about "Ned's" piece ...

Criticisms of the Netanyahu government, or what has happened in the past decade in relation to Gaza and the West Bank? 0, which is to say, nada, nihil, nothing, not even the low fruit of settler outrages or the conversion of Gaza into an open-air prison and the practice of apartheid and ethnic cleansing and forensic displacement ...

Routinely "Ned" confused and conflated Netanyahu with Israel and wrote off any criticism of Israel, and so the pond was a long way from home and from the points made in that letter quoted in full yesterday, in part today...

It was left to the lizard Oz editorialist to have the final word on that letter, defending the turning of the lizard Oz into a propaganda arm for Netanyahu's government and his bunch of mad fundamentalist theocrats ...

When not breaking Godwin's Law, the next best opening gambit is the old Orwellian 1984 routine ...

Meanwhile there's a handy cartoon for the reptile strategy ... silence is golden ...

Of course as the reptiles are currently acting as hired hand for the Israeli government, the pond shouldn't have expected anything better than the current lizard Oz coverage, and the justifying editorial ...

Again already with the Godwin's Law-breaking Nazi riffs... so the pond can get away with this one too ...

It was time for a change of pace, and how better to do it than to brood about manly boys in a lizard Oz EXCLUSIVE ...

The pond lives a sheltered life, and so had to confess that "neo-sexism" was a new one. 

The pond knew it lived in a post-modern, post-ironic neo-Orwellian world, and rushed off to the wiki to find the term without a hyphen, and some examples to boot ...

Here follow some examples of neosexism from a 2021 study:

Resenting identification of discrimination: ″I often feel that people have treated me better and spoken nicer to me because I was a girl, so I have a hard time taking it seriously when people think that women are so discriminated against in the Western world."

Questioning the existence of discrimination: ″Can you point to research showing that childbirth is the reason why mothers miss out on promotions?"

Presenting men as victims: "Classic. If it’s a disadvantage for women it’s the fault of society. If men, then it must be their own. Sexism thrives on the feminist wing."

Dammit, the pond still didn't understand it, but was now deeply concerned about the fate of manly boys ... is there "political incorrectness" in the house, the pond understands political incorrectness and manly stuff and boys being boys..

Oh indeed, the poor things have been de-ballsed, castrated, shorn of testicles, long ago, by Amazonians and will be left with a mother complex for life, and all because of bloody womyn out and about, and wouldn't it be better if we all followed the Taliban and put them back in their box, or at least a burqa ...

On the upside, the pond went looking for manly boy literature and stumbled across a site full of old British comics ... all you need is a basic cbr reader and you can wallow, if that's what you used to read... there's even some Bunter, for those wanting memories of that owl of the remove, Akker Dakker ...

The pond has noted before how the pond was inducted into the British empire mind set, via rags left lying around the house by manly boys...

Strange to say, when the pond talked to the uncles who'd actually been in the war, they seemed to think it a rum do, and not the best way for manly men to live their lives, providing they lived at all ...

Of course the pond was more a Harold Hare sort of person, and to this day, occasionally lets loose a "goody goody gumdrops", to be greeted with incomprehension and blank stares ...

Sadly Harold and the Fleetway magazine Jack and Jill didn't make the cut on that British free comic download site, but the pond keeps all its British empire and domestic duties training stored somewhere in the old noggin ...

Meanwhile, the pond has strayed miles away from manly boys doing manly boy things ...

Indeed, indeed, and the pond hopes that all these schools have a decent and sufficient library of manly books for manly boys doing manly boisterous things ...

It's just the sort of reading they'll need when out in the real world competing for complimentary housewives up against angry Sydney Anglicans, or even worse, not being able to find a pliant Stepford wife ...

Say what? So when it comes to Romeo and Juliet, they make a boy dress up in drag as Juliet and make hm make love to Romeo? 

Sure the pond understands that's what happened in Shakspere days, but carrying on like that now could land you in all sorts of trouble with the lizard Oz ...

But it's good that they won't be shamed about dressing in frocks. There should be more of it, and it's splendid training for the priesthood ...

Apparently there are many stuck, not just with the pond back in the 1950s, but back in Victorian days, when a cigar was a cigar ...

Moving right along, the pond was also pleased to see news that nuking the planet was moving full steam ahead ...

For starters it allowed the lizard Oz graphics department to slip in a favourite Freudian snap of phallic towers jutting into the air and sending out emissions ...

And what good news that poor old Ukraine has helped boost the price ... why, we could make a killing from the killing fields ...

Strange. No mention of SMRs? Must be an oversight, though the pond is starting to get worried about the delivery date for the one it ordered for the back yard, so much more convenient than messy solar panels and batteries ...

Of course there's a fly in the ointment ... apparently it's a tricky in the land of Oz, with the guvmint not helping in the nuking of the country ...

And he even scored a hot link to his work, and they say the reptiles don't help out with their links ...

At this point, the pond could sense a rising impatience. Had the pond, with all its distractions, completely forgotten about Polonius? 

Of course not, but the prattle was about the current mess, with Polonius's singular ability to turn every conversation to the lack of conservatives in the ABC, and so the pond slipped him way down to the bottom where he could do the reptile thing without disturbing anyone ...

Yes, it was the bloody ABC again ...

Cue an interview in The New Yorker ... (possible paywall):

Doctors Without Borders has been present in a lot of horrific conflict zones, and I’m wondering how what you’re dealing with now is similar or different from other places you have experienced?

It’s different. And yes, I have worked in conflict zones. And they’re always very nasty. But this is a particularly brutal thing because of the huge number of civilian casualties. And they can’t escape it. They can’t move. They’re told to displace down south. But are we talking about just reducing the area from forty-five kilometres to twenty kilometres in length and trying to put two million people in there, which is . . . It’s just an extraordinary situation. And no, I haven’t seen it.

They haven’t stopped bombing. They’re still bombing. They’ve got troops in there with tanks. And it’s just consistent. It’s well documented. We are seeing it all over the world in all the newspapers and television. So it’s like people know exactly what’s happening. And yet it doesn’t stop. I haven’t seen that before.

Where else have you been stationed?

I’ve been in Congo, I’ve been in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire. Gosh. Many. Do you need more?

No. There has been a lot of large-scale violence against civilians in the past two decades in many of these places. So you saying that this is still different is notable.

It’s notable in the sense that to have such a volume of people—civilians—that can’t move very easily. And they’re being bombed and shot at. And I just haven’t seen that type of violence. We are also talking about a population that’s around seventy per cent women and children. And so the figures that we’ve seen around mortality are at more than ten thousand deaths. But with the Ministry of Health now being really decimated, it’s very difficult for them even to track it. But then you know that with ten thousand deaths, that seventy per cent are probably women and children, according to the Ministry of Health. And the number of wounded is very, very high. And there’s also people under the rubble, and we can’t get them out. So the figures are just astounding.

Then back to a mind-numbingly indifferent, but profoundly righteous Polonius, still blathering about the ABC ...

Speaking of ethnic cleansing, how would you report this UN press release in October?

UN expert warns of new instance of mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, calls for immediate ceasefire

GENEVA (14 October 2023) – A UN human rights expert warned today that Palestinians are in grave danger of mass ethnic cleansing and called on the international community to urgently mediate a ceasefire between warring Hamas and Israeli occupation forces.

“The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel has reached fever pitch,” said Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.

“The United Nations and its Member States must intensify efforts to mediate an immediate ceasefire between the parties, before we reach a point of no return,” said Albanese. “The international community has the responsibility to prevent and protect populations from atrocity crimes. Accountability for international crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces and Hamas must also be immediately pursued,” she said.

Since 7 October 2023, more than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 600 children, more than 7,600 injured, and over 423,000 people have been displaced as a result of the Israeli strikes. This fate befell a population which has already experienced five major wars since 2008 in the context of an unlawful blockade imposed by Israel since 2007, which Albanese said has been widely condemned by the international community as collective punishment.

On 12 October, Israeli forces issued an order for 1.1 million Palestinians in north Gaza to move to the south within 24 hours, amidst ongoing airstrikes. The next day, Israeli forces reportedly began to enter Gaza in order to “clear” the area. Palestinians have no safe zone anywhere in Gaza, with Israel having imposed a “complete siege” on the tiny enclave, with water, food, fuel and electricity unlawfully cut off. Rafah, the only border crossing that remained partially open to the Gaza strip, was closed after damage caused by Israeli airstrikes.

“There is a grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repeat of the 1948 Nakba, and the 1967 Naksa, yet on a larger scale. The international community must do everything to stop this from happening again,” the UN expert said. She noted that Israeli public officials have openly advocated for another Nakba, the term for the events of 1947-1949 when over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and lands during the hostilities that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. The Naksa, which led to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, displaced 350,000 Palestinians.

“Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war,” the expert said. “Again, in the name of self-defence, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing.

“Any continued military operations by Israel have gone well beyond the limits of international law. The international community must stop these egregious violations of international law now, before tragic history is repeated. Time is of the essence. Palestinians and Israelis both deserve to live in peace, equality of rights, dignity and freedom,” Albanese said.

That's simple. You don't report the message, and you make sure to shoot the messenger ...

Actually it's been embraced by proponent of the Israeli government ... and there is a difference. It is possible to despise Hamas, but also to despise what Netanyahu is doing to Gaza by way of collective punishment and ethnic cleansing, and all but the lizard Oz and its acolytes seem to understand this ...

And so to end with a few cartoons, though the climate at the moment doesn't suit them ...

With all the talk of Napoleon in the air, the pond especially liked this one ...

... if only because it allowed the pond to run one of the five different versions of the painting that David did ...

Now that's how to celebrate a Corsican sociopath ...