SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: Robert Manne: Don't Mention The War

https://x.com/MaryKostakidis/status/2010115902826774971

Robert Manne: Don't Mention The War

'The response to the Bondi massacre has been seriously strange. It is almost a law of Australian politics that following a loss of lives—in a bushfire, a mine collapse, a shooting spree—the political weaponisation of the tragedy is forbidden, at least for a decent interval. In the case of Bondi, weaponisation occurred almost immediately, with the creation of a de facto alliance of the Coalition, the Murdoch media, and the most powerful parts of the Israel/Jewish lobby, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the Zionist Federation and so on. Almost as one, this alliance claimed that the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, bore considerable responsibility for the massacre. He had the power, they claimed, to combat the growth of antisemitism in Australia after October 7. And yet he had done almost nothing.' 'Following Bondi, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed absurdly that there was a causative connection between the massacre and the decision of the Albanese government to recognise that the only possible end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was the so-called “two state solution”. Such recognition, according to Netanyahu, rewarded Hamas for the murders on October 7. Albanese replied that his government was only doing what the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, several European countries had already done. To prove his support for Israel, he agreed to invite the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, to visit Australia. President Herzog is a head of state but also an active Israeli politician. A defender of what the Government of Israel has done in Gaza since October 7, he famously blamed the entire Gazan population for the October 7 murders, a statement that will feature in the prosecution case in all forthcoming genocide trials of Israel. I wonder how the Albanese Government plans to control the massive demonstrations that can be anticipated if Herzog visits Sydney or Melbourne. Will Albanese follow the lead of the Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, and ban protests while President Herzog is visiting Australia?' 'We already know what kinds of discussions the Israel/Jewish lobbies want to forbid. Since October 7 one part of the lobby successfully removed the Lebanese-Australian, Antoinette Lattouf, from ABC local radio in Sydney because of an accurate re-tweet about Israel’s weaponisation of starvation in Gaza. Another part of the lobby caused the author of Disciplined, an outstanding novel concerning Muslim political intellectuals in Australia, the Palestinian-Australian, Randa Abdel-Fattah, a fierce critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, to leave the Bendigo Writers’ Festival. The festival then collapsed with the walkout of some fifty performers in sympathy. Yet another group was responsible for the decision of the administration at the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Fremantle to cancel a forum where the wonderful ex-Gaza doctor, Mohammed Mustafa, “Dr Mo”, was to speak while seeking funds for a children’s hospital in Gaza. Professor Stanley, who has no role in the running of the hospital, was infuriated. There are many additional examples of this kind, the strangest of which, perhaps, was the several weeks’ suspension from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney of the eminent heart surgeon, Professor Peter MacDonald, merely because of a cynical question about Mossad he asked at a pro-Palestinian forum.' Cont 1 of 2

9:25 AM · Jan 11, 2026