Paul Greenwell

Occasionally have something to say (but not that often)

[John Spencer @SpencerGuard]

https://t.co/m3sP9zxj2T

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@markgkenny Israel is a democracy with equal rights for the 2m non Jewish citizens (mostly Arabs). There are 15m Jews in the world (8m in Israel). There are 2b Muslims and many religious states

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@PatsKarvelas yes, saying Israel should not exist is anti-Semitic. It is the only Jewish state, in a world where Jews have been continually expelled from other countries, including its Arab neighbours.

[John Spencer @SpencerGuard]

https://t.co/tUlkwWdI01

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

BREAKING: Senator Housakos of Canada’s Senate destroys that Trudeau government for voting at the UN against Israel.

“This vote of madness abandons Canada’s value, aligns us with the worst human rights abusers, and legitimizes a corrupt UN system.”

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@marquelawyers @noplaceforsheep @ItsBouquet Zionist refers to someone who supports the continued existence and security of Israel as a Jewish state. Being anti Zionist is saying you don't believe Israel should exist.

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@DougCameron51 @noplaceforsheep @RichardMarlesMP Hamas and Hezbollah are death cults that don't value life, they embed military installations in civilian areas using them as human shields. It is tragic that civilians are being caught up in this, but you can't leave Hamas and Hezbollah ability to attack Israel

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@noplaceforsheep Israel has only ever entered war after being attacked by its neighbours.

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

You might have heard of the recent controversy surrounding the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s cancellation of a performance by Jason Gillham.

The media portrayed him as a concerned humanitarian but I went to his Twitter and he actually advocates the “Algeria model” of expelling all Jews.

The Algerian Nationality Code of 1963 excluded non-Muslims from acquiring citizenship, allowing citizenship only to those Algerians who had Muslim fathers and paternal grandfathers. Almost all Algerian Jews were subsequently cleared out of the country.

[Michael Elgort @just_whatever]

Well, what an interesting turn

@HillelNeuer for many months reported and told @UNLazzarini that the head of teacher union of @UNRWA Fathi al Sharif is a senior Hamas commander, and Lazzarini ignored it completely

Today @IDF eliminated him and Hamas confirmed he was their member

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@TalaatSYehia @ItsBouquet Not banning flags and words, banning support for terroists

[Hillel Fuld @HilzFuld]

An incredible letter written by a non-Jewish Scottish professor to his students who voted to boycott Israel

It's a response from Dr. Denis MacEoin to the motion put forward by The Edinburgh Student's Association to boycott all things Israeli, in which they claim Israel is under an apartheid regime.

Denis is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs and was a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly. Here's his letter to the students.

TO: The Committee Edinburgh University Student Association.

May I be permitted to say a few words to members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain 's great Middle East experts in their day. I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University . Naturally, I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field. I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote.

I am shocked for a simple reason: there is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel .

That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to visit Israel to see for themselves. Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that those members of EUSA who voted for this motion are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, and that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby.

Being anti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I'm not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel . I'm speaking of a hatred that
permits itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a "Nazi" state. In what sense is
this true, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nuremberg Laws? The Final Solution? None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel , precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for.

It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When? No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt it deserves. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is as basic a way to subvert historical fact as anything I can think of.

Likewise apartheid. For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled how things were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a weekend in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous the claim is.

That a body of university students actually fell for this and voted on it is a sad comment on the state of modern education. The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country's 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha'is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world center; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan and elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; the holy places of all religions are protected under a specific Israeli law. Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population).

In Iran , the Bahai's (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why
aren't your members boycotting Iran ? Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa . They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews - something no blacks were able to do in South Africa .

Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank.

On the same wards, in the same operating theatres.

In Israel , women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid.

Gay men and women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays often escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home.

It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel and say nothing about countries like Iran , where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief.

Intelligent students thinking it's better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the
Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?

University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak.

I do not object to well-documented criticism of Israel . I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens.

Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya , Bahrain , Saudi Arabia , Yemen , and Iran . They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that
protects the Bahai's.... Need I go on?

The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott. I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side.

Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and
that is to protect them from one-sided argument.

They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930's (which, sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it?

Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense. I have given you some of the evidence.

It's up to you to find out more.

Yours sincerely,

Denis MacEoin

[Dan Senor @dansenor]

An Insider’s Account of Columbia’s Pro-Hamas Protests: Shai Davidai on Dan Senor's "Call Me Back" podcast. Full episode here: https://t.co/jsu5M44fBG

[David Frum @davidfrum]

I wrote in October about free speech after the Hamas terror attacks: https://t.co/b4FxpD0i9t

[Ritchie Torres @RitchieTorres]

Imagine being a Jewish student at Columbia University and finding yourself tormented by Anti-Israel extremists who call for October 7th to be repeated—10,000 times!

Calling for 10,000 October 7 massacres is tantamount to calling for the murder of 12 million Jews.

Does Columbia University consider that harassment?

[Mike Carlton @MikeCarlton01]

The Murdochracy: the lies, the deceit, the assault on democracy. An outstanding piece from Malcolm Turnbull and Sharan Burrow. Time for a Royal Commission !
https://t.co/SBEnm3d6Iy

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@EddyJokovich We should be a republic but I don't think we should direct elect a president, so saying we didn't elect Charles is not an argument for being a republic

[Paul Greenwell @PaulGreenwell]

@nathaliejacoby1 Yes

[David Ritter @David_Ritter]

Hey @AngusTaylorMP you look surprised by the catastrophic flooding events.
Can this be because you have been ignoring the warnings about climate change impacts?
Here's a dozen or so expert warnings about increases in storms and floods that you may have ignored...
🧵: #auspol

[the Juice Media @thejuicemedia]

The coalition has had 9 years to prepare for being knobs in opposition and treating us like we’re all idiots, and it clearly did 👌