OUT TO LUNCH
As I predicted in last week’s column, the war in Ukraine has hardly warranted a mention in the world’s press this past week. And Afghanistan chose a particularly bad time to experience a series of earthquakes which have claimed thousands of lives and left many homeless.
That is the fickle nature of the news cycle I’m afraid although the BBC did manage to make mention of Madonna’s Celebration World tour which opened at the O2 Arena in London.
Other than that it has been a continuous bombardment of ever worsening news from Israel and Gaza culminating with the forced evacuation of some two million residents of Gaza City who have been ‘advised’ to trek south before the Israeli Defence Force destroys their neighbourhood and hunts down Hamas.___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Quite where they are supposed to trek to and how they are supposed to survive isn’t entirely clear. It isn’t as though there are refugee camps waiting to welcome them with bedding, food and clothing. There is a line from H G Wells’s ‘War of the Worlds’ that came to mind last week describing the panic after the Martians had landed and attacked Earth. It seemed horribly apposite in the circumstances:
“This was no disciplined march. It was a stampede – a stampede gigantic and terrible – without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation, of the massacre of mankind”.
Not surprisingly there have been pro Palestinian demonstrations around the world since the barbaric Hamas invasion. For many people the horrific and gory details of the terrorist attack, particularly on the music festivalgoers, has been conveniently glossed over with the BBC refusing to label Hamas as a terrorist organisation rather preferring to refer to them as ‘freedom fighters’.
This despite the UK government (who technically own the BBC) standing behind Israel and officially regarding Hamas as terrorists. With that level of propaganda is it any wonder that the majority of people at these pro-Palestine demos regard Israel as the baddie?
Probably the vilest demo post the invasion was held outside the Sydney Opera House last week. The opera house had been lit in the colours of the Israeli flag which prompted the assembled mob to start chanting “F**k the Jews, Gas the Jews”.
As far as I am aware no arrests were made but this will hardly go down as one of Australia’s finest moments. Where, though, did this crowd of terrorist supporting Aussies come from I asked a friend in Oz? All part of the migrant programme over the past decade apparently and clearly they are able to wield sufficient power as to be untouchable by the New South Wales police who would hate to be labelled Islamaphobe or racist.
The anti-Semitism swiftly spread to other parts of the world with similar chants and a Kosher restaurant vandalised in north London as well as Free Palestine graffiti scrawled on buildings in Jewish areas. Extra police were called in for a massive demonstration in London a few days ago and some Jewish schools were closed as a precaution. But there’s no doubt that anti Jewish sentiment is being encouraged, particularly on social media pages. Britain is now on high alert after fears of a terrorist attack following a call from an ex Hamas leader for a ‘day of Jihad’.
Since the Metropolitan Police in London have spent the past few years painting their patrol cars in LGBTQIA+ pride colours and cautioning people who don’t believe a woman can have a penis for ‘hate speech’ one wonders how they will cope with this new challenge.
Now, according to a Reuters report, Iran have officially entered the fray with the promise to back Hezbollah attacks on Israel if Israel continue to flatten Gaza. Since the two sides are so diametrically opposed in every respect it doesn’t seem as though peace talks are likely to happen any time soon since there is absolutely no common ground.
However, while the war in the Middle East escalates and US warships make their way across the Mediterranean Sea the real worry is what is likely to happen in many of the European capitals. The Hamas terror attack has acted as a catalyst for anti-Semites (many of them migrant guests in their countries of adoption) to attack Western values and the entire capitalist hegemony, something that will delight those that want to destroy the dominance of the West and replace it with the sort of autocracy favoured by countries like Iran and China.
By unequivocally backing Israel “not just today, not just tomorrow, but always” (Rishi Sunak) the UK has nailed its colours to the mast and there’s absolutely no wiggle room left. So if the hostilities escalate, as it seems that they may well do, the UK and other European countries may be drawn into a conflict that they can ill afford, either militarily or financially.
However, the greatest fears in European countries with a significant Jewish population is bound to be the increased threat of terror attacks from the sort of people who still believe that there are twenty virgins waiting for them should they die in valiant battle. In many ways that is far worse than officially being at war because the enemy is within and the time of attack is impossible to anticipate. The level of hatred we have witnessed over the past ten days suggests that there are dark days ahead.
It might be a good time to be stuck down here on the southern tip of Africa. Predictably, the ANC have come out strongly in favour of Palestine with the rather flimsy excuse that, having lived under apartheid (the gift that keeps on giving), they know exactly what it must be like to be crowded into Gaza and told what to do by Zionists.
A picture was posted on social media by Frogboiler over the weekend of the ANC national executive members gathered for a group photo wearing the back and white chequered apparel associated with Hamas terrorism. It’s not as if the average Gazan goes about his daily business dressed up as Yasser Arafat.
Tony Leon, the former leader of the Democratic Alliance and a former serving diplomat posted this on X (Twitter) :
“ Murdering Jews on your agenda Cyril and babies and children courtesy of your Hamas friends – you are shameless. @CyrilRamaphosa I just wonder how the SA Jews who you’ve got inspanned to save your govt – Gore, Kingston, Mennel etc relate to this photo”
I doubt whether Pres Frogboiler will have lost much sleep over Tony Leon’s tweet if indeed he even saw it. As we have learnt over the years in South Africa all white people are considered surplus to requirements which is why our cadre run state owned enterprises are in such a mess.
Banning qualified white people from the workplace or from starting businesses has long been central to ANC strategy and that doesn’t just mean Jews. The EFF strategy is even more direct; whites are to be slaughtered when the time is right. Unlike those poor souls in Israel who were massacred in a brutal surprise attack we can’t claim we haven’t been warned. But that, after all, is what ‘frog-boiling’ is all about.
******
I was suspended yet again from Twitter (now absurdly known as ‘X’) last week for breaking the strict Twitter rules. It was only a twelve hour suspension but I was given a stern warning that if I persisted with my triggering and hateful tweets I would be banned for life.
Normally a ban comes as a result of a group of blue haired harridans with multiple body piercings rushing off to report you for something you have tweeted that they don’t like. It was different this time though. I was suspended as soon as I pressed ‘post’ on my tweet so I must assume that old Musky has upgraded his algorithms and they can now pry on my keystroke entries and ban me even before I’ve had a chance to offend somebody. It’s impressive surveillance worthy of the Chinese Communist Party.
I’d advise those of a nervous disposition to stop reading now because I would like to explain my appalling behaviour in the hope of forgiveness.
A friend of mine who is a superb cartoonist had posted a tweet with a photograph of Vincent Van Gogh’s self portrait. It’s not his best painting and my friend was wondering how on earth he became so famous. I replied to him that if you chop your ear off you may also stand a chance of immortality.
I immediately received an e-mail telling me that ‘after careful consideration’ it had been decided that I had broken the Twitter rules by advocating violent self harm. I was tempted to send a message to tell them to eff off and get a life but there’s no way you can reply to these humourless twerps.
My cartoonist friend hadn’t even had the opportunity to read my tweet and if he had I very much doubt that he would have chopped his left ear off since he would have had nothing to hang his designer sunglasses on.
Oddly enough, in the same week that I was suspended for allegedly advocating self mutilation others were advocating violence against Jews with no repercussions. Funny old world isn’t it?
