Andrew L. Urban
I had my flabber gasted this past week as one talking head after another called on Sydney’s pent-up protesters against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s impending visit to Australia to do the decent thing, and refrain from protest as a mark of respect for the victims. It was like a Monty Python skit, but serious. At first I sat with my mouth agape but it went on for so long I had to stop the gape.
In statements to the media, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, urged would-be protesters to “show restraint” and recognize the “solemn nature” of Herzog’s engagement with the Bondi community. This was positioned as a call for decency in light of the recent tragedy.
Is this peak naive, I wondered? The crowds who thrilled at the massacre of Jews and celebrated anti-Israel sentiments were being asked (are still being asked) to kindly show respect for the dead … the dead they were happy to see lamented by their families and buried. What? What? Que?
Do they know what they were saying? Can they be so unaware? And I’m referring to high profile people sympathetic to Jews, like Andrew Bolt, and many more. These protesters know nothing of decency, obviously. They are hate-driven mobs of bigotry on legs.
The oddly discordant pleas to the despicable protesters should have been replaced with disgust and condemnation.