… and I don’t need to tell you what he does next
16 Oct 2023
Greens leader Adam Bandt last week fired off a series of tweets about peace in the Middle East.
It all started well enough. And then, well, just see for yourself …
The Green-in-cheif began promisingly.
“We cannot allow the movement for justice and peace to be compromised by hate.”
Ok. Fair call. No-one likes hate.
Then he tweeted …
“I condemn any move to weaponise this moment of immense suffering to advance an agenda of bigotry.”
When you won’t denounce an organisation that beheads babies for fear of appearing a “bigot”, you might as well just pack up and go home.
But whatever. That’s not the part I wanted to draw your attention to.
Check out his concluding tweet …
“For there to be a lasting peace there must be an end to the State of Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. End the occupation.”
Right.
So Bandt condemns his opponents “weaponising of this moment to advance agendas of bigotry”, while in the very next breath weaponising the moment to advance his agenda of bigotry.
It’s a clever sleight of hand. Denounce bigotry right before you say something bigoted so no-one notices that you just did the bigoted thing.
Which brings us to yesterday, the first sitting day of Parliament since war broke out in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moved a motion of support for Israel. Well, of course, he would. And of course you’d support it. Wouldn’t you?
Israeli civilians, remember, were ruthlessly attacked by Islamic jihadists just nine days ago, many of them as they slept in their beds.
The question of whether or not to condemn baby killing terrorists is a no-brainer, so I’m tempted to say it was set up for the Greens leader to get right.
But Bandt couldn’t bring himself to condemn terrorists without seeking to amend the motion so as to include condemnation of Israel for war crimes “that will likely be committed” when they launch a ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza later this week.
Bandt hates Israel so much be wanted to condemn them for war crimes in advance of any war crimes actually being committed!
The amendment, supported by a couple of Teal MPs no less, failed.
When it came time to vote, Bandt and the Greens voted against the motion supporting Israel.
The motion still passed, but not before Adam Bandt who is dead set against any “weaponising of this moment to advance agendas of bigotry” had weaponised a moment of support for Israel to advance his agenda of anti-Jew bigotry.
The photo above will live in infamy. Four Greens sitting apart from the rest of our political class, refusing to back a motion supporting Israel at the very moment Israeli hostages were still being held by Hamas!
The motion passed 131-4. Adam Bandt, Max Chandler-Mather, Stephen Bates and Elizabeth Watson-Brown were the four who voted against it.
Nelle's journey 