Production of the NiCad batteries originally used in the Hasselblad 500ELX motor drive ceased a ways back, and it seemed that our beloved battery-driven Hasselblads would never whir again. But there are a number of good converters available to turn standard 9v batteries into Hassy batteries.
Elements within New South Wales’ Labor Party are pushing to ban Labor MPs from accepting subsidized trips to Israel (hat tip: Jill).
Divisions within the ALP over Middle East policy are set to flare at next month’s NSW conference over a push to ban Labor MPs, officials and Young Labor members from accepting subsidised trips to Israel.
The motion states that while Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “continues settlements, refuses a Palestinian state [and] brutally mistreats Arab residents of the West Bank”, that no ALP officer, MP or Young Labor member “accept a paid trip from the Israel Lobby”.
“To do so in the circumstances is an insult to the Australian community who support our party,” it says.
At the 2014 NSW conference, former foreign minister Bob Carr – a patron of Labor Friends of Palestine – successfully moved a motion calling on a Labor government to move towards recognition of a Palestinian state “if there is no progress to a two-state solution”.
Last year’s national conference passed a similar motion put by Right faction powerbroker and shadow finance minister Tony Burke.
Upper house Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane said he supports the push to ban the trips, but believed extending the Foley directive to officials and Young Labor is “a more feasible and balanced approach”.
“If they want to have party members travel to Israel, then they should also be taken to Palestine, to the West Bank, where it’s safe and possible to do so,” he said.
Moselmane is almost trying to sound reasonable with that last statement. But don’t be fooled. He is motivated by rabid antisemitism. From a speech of his to the NSW Parliament in 2013:
In a democratic country such as ours there are many ways in which people can express their views—the opportunities are wide open. I am a person who will not shy away from having my say. I will always say and do what is right, even in the face of trash that I have read in the Australian Israeli media. One or two reporters writing in the Murdoch press—namely the Australian—have been attacking me and denying the truth of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the killing and dehumanising of the Palestinian people. That is utter garbage. I accept the right of people to express their views, even when they are wrong, naive, ill informed, indoctrinated and blinded by the power of a political lobby group that is cancerous and malicious and seeks to deny, misinform and scaremonger. What I do take exception to is foreigners intervening in the rights of Australian politicians to speak out. Therefore, I say to the Israeli ambassador, Yuval Rotem, “Butt out and stay out. Your perceived right to bully as you do in the Middle East does not extend to the Australian political arena.”
Despite carefully not using the “J” word, we all know what tropes he is invoking when speaking of an insidious, powerful lobby group.
Jewish advocacy groups are “cancerous” and “malicious” and try to “deny, misinform and scaremonger”.
A NSW Labor politician voiced these incendiary words — the first NSW Muslim MP, in fact, Shaoquett Moselmane. He didn’t utter them in the privacy of his own home. He felt comfortable enough broadcasting this anti-semitic sentiment within the walls of the NSW Parliament. This is terrifying in itself.
The MP, who ironically decried racism in his first speech to parliament, made the remarks just two years ago, in May 2013. He was not shouted-out of the high office he holds for racist commentary. On the contrary, Labor continues to support him and Moselmane is now a vocal advocate behind a push to ban Labor MPs from visiting Israel on trips funded by Jewish organisations…
The father of the anti-Israel movement is Bob Carr, whose speeches have on at least one occasion, in July last year, elicited anti-semitic commentary from the audience, with a remark made about “the Jews” and their “3000-year fundamentalist influence.”
Tony Burke, gave a frightening speech last month to the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network in which he savaged Israel as a child-killing, water-polluting, land-stealing aggressor.
It is no wonder former Labor national president Warren Mundine had this to say about the move to ban the Israel trips:
Former Labor national president Warren Mundine has launched a blistering attack on the party, saying its move to ban sponsored trips to Israel is “verging on anti-Semitic’’ and is “sickening to watch”.
Mr Mundine admonished the party’s leadership, saying NSW Labor was at risk of becoming a fringe party over its hardline approach to the only Middle East democracy.
“We do not do this to other countries. Name another country that the Labor Party bans people from going to? There are none.
Mr Mundine said Labor MPs should remember that Israel was the only democracy in the region with a parliament of Jewish, Arab, Christian and Muslim politicians sitting within a vast region of problematic countries.
“It is almost burgeoning into this BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) system of anti-Semitism,’’ he said.
Update: On Twitter, while decrying “Islamophobia”, Moselmane tries to forment hatred against not just Israel, but Jews, quoting the likes of Iran’s Press TV.
Avichai Mandelblit says bill violates individuals' freedom of religion, Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi discusses modesty and privacy issues.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has published his review of the "Mikveh Bill," saying that it is unconstitutional and violates individuals' freedom of religion.
The bill in question was submitted by MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) and is aimed at preventing Reform groups from using public Mikvaot (ritual baths) for their conversions which do not adhere to Jewish law. The Knesset Assembly has passed the bill in its preliminary reading.
Mandelblitt claims that there is only one proper Halakhic (Jewish) law regarding public mikvaot - not listening to other customs that undermine what he calls the "core of the right to religious freedom."
In another blow to the bill, Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau published Sunday his opinion on the “Mikveh Bill,” making it clear that he will not sign any initiative that does not require the presence of a balanit (mikveh attendant) for women using the ritual baths.
Rabbi Lau noted that the assistance of a balanit should only occur upon demand, and every female immersing should be allowed a choice: “It is appropriate that the balanit will offer her assistance, and if the woman dipping does not wish so, it should not be further pressed."
“When a woman is immersing for purity reasons, it is necessary for a balanit to make sure that her entire body dipped in the water. Those who feel uncomfortable having a balanit standing over her may dip in the same way conversions are done, that is, she may wear loose and opaque clothing, or cover the mikveh waters so that only her head is sticking out. This way she can maintain her privacy and modesty,” wrote Rabbi Lau.