Then it struck me - Take one Green Party, add Socialist Alliance (Democratic Socialist Perspective of course) and hey presto - you have the Nuclear Disarmament Party implosion (pun intended) of the 21st Century. I hope Norm is wrong but I suspect he's seen it all before.

I've not followed the specifics but one of the quotes in the article suggested that the council had enacted a ban on doing business with any firms with links with Israel. If that's the case then it's a lot more than just a criticism of Israel.

So did the council pass a motion which was critical of certain actions of the state of Israel or did they take an action which restricts the options of third parties? Is the council in the habit of passing similar motions about other states or was Israel singled out for a specific reason?

There is a big difference between expressing a criticism and using the economic power of ratepayers against third parties.

Personally I'm in the group who would rather see my local council focussed on finding ways to reduce the massive contribution they make to the cost of living in a house than taking on foreign policy activities.

R0bert

Pip,

What level of political naivety led the Greens to not seeing this coming? While there may be a few that decry the treatment of the Palestinians, after the holocaust, Israel has become integral to the Jewish psyche, and criticising Israel is like criticising someone else's children. (I.e. sure to illicit a robust defence irrespective of the child's behaviour)

Surely the first law of political survival is not to pick a fight with someone that can fight back and hurt you, unless there is a significant benefit.

Fiona Byrne is a victim of political Darwinism.

The Marrickville boycott against Israel thankfully drew degrees of attention to the plight of the Palestinians, still being killed in Gaza nightly. So it has served some purpose.

Still no interest from Ms Gillard though.

One thinks back to 1933 when the Jews commenced a boycott against Germany and German goods which culminated in World War Two.
Millions of people, including Gypsies, Jews, Communists, other ethnic groups, soldiers from all around the world suffered and died horrible deaths on battlefields, on the high seas, and in fire-bombed cities, the greatest number being in the Russias, twenty five plus million, all during a conflict that may never have happened, had International Jewry not declared economic war on Germany.

The front page of the London Daily Express of March 24, 1933 says it all: "Judea Declares War on Germany! Jews of all the World Unite! Boycott of German Goods! Mass Demonstrations!"
One of the leaders of the movement, Samuel Untermeyer, ignored pleas from Jews who lived in Germany, not to go ahead with the boycott, for obvious reasons, but on August 6, 1933, he said this on WABC, New York.
“Each of you, Jew and Gentile alike, who has not already enlisted in this sacred war should do so now. It is not sufficient that you should buy no goods made in Germany. You must refuse to deal with any merchant or shopkeeper who sells any German-made goods or who patronises German ships or shipping”.
“We will undermine the Hitler regime and bring the German people to their senses by destroying their export trade on which their very existence depends”

This first boycott eventually cost 50 million lives.

Eighty years on and the position seems to be reversed but growing daily.

The boycott message continues to grow all around the world, with or without The Greens in Australia.
We have seen in this NSW campaign all kinds of pressures from the Zionists living in our country and further exploited by groups such as NSW and Federal Labor, yet again for their political gain.

They would sell their country for a vote

Never let the facts get in the way of a good yarn. Where is the evidence that Labor ran a smear campaign agaonst the Greens?

Didn't Bob Brown acknowledge the poor strategy in the Green candidate saying she would introduce a Bill in Parliament to boycott israel if elected?

The Greens lost because Labor ran a good local campaign and because they had a talented and dedicated member.If there was a smear campaign it wasn't run by Labor.

There is a simple principle governing our relations with Israel, which seems to elude many chardonnay sippers, but which does not elude most of the voting public.

The principle is that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

As far as I know, Australians are not threatened by Israelies in any way, whereas muslim extremist suicide bombers attacking aeroplanes and cities are a constant threat to us. This is also condemned by the Geneva Convention of warfare, to the extent that suicide bombers have no rights at all under the Convention, and may be rightly shot down as vermin.

The nationality annoying Australia varies from time to time. 100 years ago it was the fenians, and the outrages performed by them generated significant outrage in Australia.

The result of all this at the moment is that Israel is our ally, and extreme muslims are the enemy.

It is not surprising that this conclusion affected the voting in Marrickville.