Nick Dyrenfurth has a bone to pick. Several, in fact. With Socialist Alternative; anti-Semitism; opposition to Zionism; and “the UN-sponsored anti-Israel hate-fest dubbed Durban II” (Rudd must shun UN anti-Semitism, The Australian, March 16, 2009).
Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative is a leftist political party, a neo-Trotskyist organisation with several hundred members, mostly University students. According to Nick, SAlt panders to anti-Semitism in its propaganda. The message on one of its posters advertising a meeting on “War: Why capitalism is to blame” at the University of Sydney during ‘O’ Week:
…was clear. Israel, the US’s proxy in the Middle East, is to blame for all the problems of the Middle East, if not the woes of the world. Get rid of Israel and we’ll all live happily ever after, presumably on a strict diet of lentils and tofu. The more serious and indeed frightening symbolism at play was the clearly racist, anti-Semitic linkage of Israel, and by association Jews, with the machinations of “evil” capitalism.
A strict diet of lentils and tofu? Er… in reality, espousal of a strict diet of lentils and tofu is understood by SAlt to be a symptom of the social disease known as ‘lifestylism’. Thus, while Nick believes that the left should offer no comfort to these crazies, and do whatever it can to isolate them, he needn’t worry about dietary restrictions.
Of course, one might argue that the SAlt crazies involved in the postering are in no serious sense part of mainstream public discourse, and that just like their mates in Europe, they simply exploit tensions in the Middle East for their own purposes. In which case, Nick is indeed “giving the largely irrelevant hatemongers of the extreme Left far too much credit. Nevertheless, as has been well-documented, anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide.”
Nick may like to consider that Australia, fortunately, has not previously been blighted by the sort of anti-Semitic activities which have had such a disastrous impact on political debate in Europe. As such, SAlt are simply provocateurs that open up legitimate debate to public ridicule. (In Europe their ranks have been riddled by police agents and fascists.)
Because of the behaviour of these provocateurs, racists and anti-Semites are having a field day.
(For the defence, see Make-believe anti-semitism: the last refuge of Zionism, John Passant, En Passant, March 17, 2009.)
Anti-Semitism/Zionism
Combating anti-Semitism is a difficult and, sadly, perhaps an eternally vigilant task. Governments can pass all the legislation they like, launch countless educative programs, but somewhere out there will lurk the anti-Semite convinced that Jews run the world and that Adolf Hitler ought to have finished them off. Yet individuals ought to take some personal responsibility.
Nick is likely correct in assessing the fortunes of The Eternal Jew Hater. However, it’s worth noting that on the far right, The Eternal Jew is competing with The Forever Muslim for first place in The Racist Stakes.
Somewhere in the middle is the Australian Protectionist Party.
On the one hand, the APP has abandoned public expressions of anti-Semitism; on the other, its webmaster, Martin Fletcher, makes no attempt to conceal his hatred and contempt for Jews, making available on his website an array of anti-Semitic propaganda, both contemporary and historical. Linking the two — the contemporary and the historical — is David Lane.
A leading figure in the modern US neo-Nazi movement, Lane died in March 2007 in a federal prison in Terre Haute at the age of 68. He was serving a 190-year sentence for racketeering, conspiracy and violating the civil rights of Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg, who was murdered in his driveway in 1984 by Lane and other members of the Bruders Schweigen, or Silent Brotherhood. The terrorist group was also known as The Order. Lane, a onetime member of the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan, was a founding member of the group and served as the getaway driver in the Berg murder.
Currently, some of Lane’s ashes are in Perth. Local nutzis are planning on holding a private ceremony to honour Lane, and to dispose of his ashes. Unfortunately for them, a dispute has emerged regarding ownership of his remains. On the one side is Victoria “Vickie” Cahill, an Irish nutzi, US resident, and a member of ‘Women for Aryan Unity’. On the other side is the Australian division of the bonehead group ‘Combat 18’ (18=AH=Adolf Hitler) and their comrade Paul Innes (‘Steelcap Boot’), the Yanqui-appointed moderator of ‘Stormfront Down Under’.
Lane & Co. were inspired by The Turner Diaries, authored by the dead nutzi Dr William Pierce. The Diaries — along with My Awakening by ex-KKK Grand Poobah David Duke, The Myth of the Six Million by David Hoggan, In Defense of Anti-Semitism by Edgar J. Steele, The International Jew by Henry Ford, Did Six Million Really Die?, The Leuchter Report by Fred Leuchter and the video game Muslim Massacre — are all available for FREE! download on Australian Protectionist Party member Martin Fletcher’s website, Down Under Newslinks. There you can also find a gallery of ‘Anti-Jew posters’ produced by Serbian fascists during WWII, and cartoons produced by Tom Metzger’s White Aryan Resistance.
Sample poster:
Sample cartoon:
Martin Fletcher:
The UN-sponsored anti-Israel hate-fest dubbed Durban II
The campaign to boycott the UN-sponsored anti-Israel hate-fest dubbed Durban II has been waged for some time now. In July last year, Anne Bayefsky wrote ‘Australia must boycott the next racist hatefest’ (Sydney Morning Herald, July 22, 2008). In December, The Australian editorialised against ‘Durban II’, characterising the 2001 conference as “a festival of anti-Semitism”. In February of this year, senior Israeli diplomat Dan Gillerman warned KRudd against sending an Australian delegation.
The campaign has been joined by a variety of figures, from professional chatterer Andrew Bolt to a vast number of amateur right-wing bloggers. Most recently, Tory Party leader Malcolm Turnbull ‘said the conference would again cast a poor light on the United Nations. “It will be an appalling example of anti-Semitism and Israel bashing, tragically under the auspices of the UN”‘; and has urged KRudd to join the governments of Israel, the United States, Canada and Italy in boycotting the event (Turnbull urges immediate Durban withdrawal, Ashley Browne, Australian Jewish News, March 13, 2009). Dyrenfurth agrees with Turnbull: “Rudd should follow the lead of the Obama administration, Canada and Italy and declare his Government’s intention to boycott the UN-sponsored anti-Israel hate-fest dubbed Durban II, planned for April 27.”
Now the EU is threatening to withdraw:
EU threatens boycott of UN racism talks
[AP]
International Herald Tribune
March 16, 2009BRUSSELS: The European Union said Monday it could boycott a U.N. conference on racism next month unless Muslim nations end attempts to strongly criticize Israel in the meeting’s final document.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the EU presidency, said EU nations were “very skeptical” over the direction of negotiations on a declaration being drafted for the so-called Durban II conference. He adds the 27-nation bloc will attempt to push for changes but “there is a strong call to withdraw” if they are not successful…
…Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said a draft backed by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference “limits itself to Israel-bashing, anti-Semitism, limiting freedom of speech and other dubious texts.”
So intense has been the criticism that Rupert Colville, Spokesperson of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, chose to issue a Press Release : Distortions plague anti-racism conference (December 12, 2008). It responds, in part, to the kinds of criticisms offered by Dyrenfurth. For example, “…the small matter of a trio of dictatorships, Libya, Iran and Cuba, leading negotiations towards a statement of principle”. Colville:
…a widely repeated allegation [is] that control of the Review Conference’s preparatory process, steered by an organizational body of 20 states, has been seized by a group of three countries, namely Libya (whose representative is the Chair), Cuba (Rapporteur/Vice Chair), and Iran (Vice-Chair). Such reports imply that these three states have an enormous amount of executive power. They do not. Chairpersons of bodies of this type fulfill an essentially functional role and are not in a position to push their own country’s agenda.
Such reports also routinely – and in some cases deliberately – omit to mention that, along with Iran and Cuba, there are 17 other Vice-Chairs including Belgium, Greece, Norway, Turkey, Armenia, Croatia, Estonia, Senegal, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The role of the Rapporteur/Vice-Chair is to oversee reports on proceedings produced by UN staff. If those reports were in any way distorted, the other Vice Chairs could – and would – intervene.
The real bone of contention, however, is criticism of Israeli state policy. Speaking of which, 38-year-old Tristan Anderson, a US citizen — goddammit — has become one of its latest beneficiaries. Anderson was critically injured on Friday, March 13, by Israeli troops during protests against Israel’s Wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin. He was hit in the forehead by a new type of high velocity, extended range teargas projectile, and has been transferred to Tel Hashomer hospital, near Tel Aviv. See: American citizen critically injured after being shot in the head by Israeli forces in Ni’lin, ISM, March 13, 2009. Note that:
In the past six months, four of Ni’lin’s residents have been shot dead during demonstrations against the wall on their land. Ahmed Mousa, 10, was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on July 29, 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira, 17, was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on August 4, 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje, 22, was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on December 28, 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje, 20, was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days later in a Ramallah hospital. ~ Anderson now breathing independently, International Middle East Media Center, March 17, 2009
On March 16, a demo in solidarity with Anderson in front of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco was attacked by police.
See also : Blasphemy! Bolt! Hate-fest! Dirka Dirka!, March 14, 2009; Israel the aggressor must accept reasonable and unbiased criticism, Antony Lowenstein, July 23, 2008; Of course hardliners don’t want to discuss the occupation, Antony Lowenstein, March 17, 2009.
Independent Australian Jewish Voices | Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign | AATW — Anarchists against the wall | International Solidarity Movement | The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice | ei: The Electronic Intifada
Nick doesn’t know what he is talking about. I can’t believe that he accused a Trotskyist group of anti-Semitism. Does he know that Trotsky was a Jew? How can a Trotskyist group be anti-Semitic? Trotskyism might be a front for the interests of the intellectuals but it is definitely not anti-Jewish. I think Nick should do more homework on the subject. I think Leon Trotsky would be rolling over in his grave if he heard that his movement is being called anti-Semitic.
How can a Trotskyist group be anti-Semitic?
PISS easy mate – just read Marx and his bf in their own words here @
http://marxwords.blogspot.com/
Parental advisories mandatory,
But how can attacking Israel and it’s policy towards the Arabs be anti-Semitic. An attack on Israel is not an attack on the Jews. I know that Israel is the land of Jews but it is still a nation state and thus people have a right to attack it for it’s treatment of the Arabs. The Israeli government is racist and hates Arabs especially the Palestinians. I have a terrible feeling that the pro-Israel mob are using the fears of fascism to attack and discredit and opposition towards what Israel is doing in the Middle East. If my thoughts are correct, then the pro-Israel mob must be exposed and denounced for it. Any usage of the Holocaust for personal or national gain is wrong and not moral.
Hey A.B.
It can be, but I’ll leave it up to you whether or not that applies in critiques of Socialist Alternative. I personally do not think it does, although I have seen them go dangerously close and lose sight of important distinctions in their propaganda.
S.Alt’s on-campus activities around Israeli foreign and domestic policies – i.e. bombing populations, deliberate impoverishment and so on – have been clumsy at times, especially when trying to ferment opposition to Zionist and pro-Zionist elements in the Hard Right of Melbourne Uni student politics by (unsuccessfully) goading sympathisers of Palestine into being proxy attackers.
I suspect this tactic continues because it highlights differences to the student Right when similarities are not appealing, and the efficacy of using Israelis and Palestinians as soccer balls from the comfort of bluestone-ringed courtyards probably doesn’t occur to any of them, Left or Right.
This might be where the charge of antisemitism comes from, but as I said, I don’t think it’s accurate.
Red Lentil and Tofu Curry
Adapted from Gourmet
1 small onion, medium diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 pound firm tofu
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt, plus extra to taste
1 tablespoons, fresh cilantro, chopped
Accompaniment suggestions: Rice, toasts or crackers, baguette or multigrain bread
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small sauce pot. Cook onion and garlic over moderate heat, stirring, until golden, about 2 minutes. Add ginger and cook for another minute. Add lentils and water and bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until lentils are soft enough to fall apart, about 20 minutes.
While lentils are boiling, rinse tofu and trim ends off. Cut tofu into 1/2-inch cubes. Gently press tofu between paper towels to remove excess moisture.
In a wok or skillet heat remaining tablespoon oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Cook cumin seeds, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tofu cubes and gently stir fry (after you first put in tofu, leave it untouched for about 2 minutes to allow it to slightly brown, then stir.) Add curry and salt. Cook for another 1 to 2 minutes, then transfer tofu mixture into the lentils. Cook curry for another 4 to 5 minutes to allow flavors to develop. Salt to taste. Remove from heat and garnish with cilantro. Serve with rice, toasts or crackers, baguette or multigrain bread.
Not all Jews are Zionists. There is a clear difference between Judaism and Zionism. Judaism is the religion of the Jews and Zionism is about Israeli nationalism that is centred around the Jewish religion. Basically, Zionism is really Jewish fundamentalism and is sometimes fascist. Jews can be fascist. In fact, some members of the Italian Fascist Party were Jews. One can easily say that Israel (which was created by Jewish fundamentalists) has acted in a fascist manner towards the Arab people. Not many Jews are fundamentalists and most of them are moderates and have respect for other people (even hardline fascists like Derrick MacThomas have admitted this). In my eyes, Zionism is just Jewish Nazism. Many Zionists believe in the extermination of the Arab people (like how the Nazis believed in the extermination of the Jews). Every socialist must expose Zionism for what it really is.
‘Australia Calling’ hosted by Derrick MacThomas…
National Socialist Movement Australia presents Australia Calling every week, to reach out to Australian patriots and stir them into action. Derrick presents a commentary on Australian news and politics of interest to white racial patriots and fellow National Socialists. The National Socialist Movement began organising in Australia in February of this year and is in the process of creating units. We are looking for men and women of courage and moral integrity, who understand the importance of family race & nation.
Darrin Hodges: “Derrick” is a lunatic who posts on SF and ANN (October 26, 2008).
A.B:
I’m not a supporter of Zionism by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s more complex then you give it credit for. Just like all nationalism is not fascism, not all Zionists are fundamentalists.
Saying things like “Israel has acted in a fascist manner” is just silly; it reduces fascism to a pejorative term and obscures the real dangers of both fascism and the ugliness of Israel’s violence against civilians. If you can easily dismiss Zionism as not being fascism, the arguments that flow on may also be dismissed. See the problem?
This isn’t rhetorical: where did you get your understanding of Israel, the Middle East and Zionism from? It’s a very strange line that I’ve not heard elsewhere quite like this. Are you in a trot group by any chance?
No, I’m an ex-Marxist-Leninist Stalinist. In fact, I am a member of the Stalinist League (which has abandoned communism). Actually, I’m now a National Socialist (Strasser Faction). My understanding of Zionism, Israel and the Middle East has been formed by years of reading newspapers, books, internet sites and talking to other people. I have compared fascism and Zionism and found some scary characteristics that they have in common. Both fascists and Zionists believe that their people are superior and that other people should suffer for the collective gain of their groups (e.g. the suffering of the Palestinians so that the Jews could gain a country of their own. Another example would be the way in which people in Germany gained wealth and that at the expense of the Jewish people). Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that all Zionists and Jews are racists or fascists. All religious fundamentalism is wrong. I understand that Zionism is a complex and difficult ideology to understand and that, like socialism, it has many different and complex factions with opposing views (like how Trotskyists and Stalinists have opposing views and hate each other).
Aussie Bonehead = Peter Watson. Peter has finished playing with Stalin, and has junked him for Strasser.
SLA Polit Bureau Resolution on the 6th Anniversary of the death of comrade Garfield Watson
•13/03/2009 • No Comments
The Stalinist League Polit Bureau commemorates the sixth anniversary of the death of our beloved comrade and friend, comrade Garfield Watson. Comrade Garfield was the beloved pet cat of comrade General Secretary Watson for more the eight years. He helped and served during the glorious socialist revolution of October 2002. Garfield was the first Chairman of the Central Committee of the Stalinist League. He was a co-founding member of the League in February 2003 but unfortunately died on the following month due to a cattle tick. In his short but rich life, comrade Garfield saw the defeat of tyranny, the triumph of free will and of self-determination against interference. The memory of the great socialist feline will live on forever and we will honour him like any great feline deserves.
Long live comrade Garfield
Long live the October 2002 revolution
Long live self-determination
Adopted by the 18th Polit Bureau meeting
“Israel lurches into fascism”
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10302.shtml
I’m not sure that one can now so easily dismiss the charge of fascism. The Abunimah piece about the direction of the Israeli government is pretty disturbing. Lieberman’s time as Foreign Minister will no doubt be spent making foreigners of the 1/5th of the Israeli population who are Arabs. He is an advocate of mass population transfer, which is incidentally, now what the two-state solution means in practice.
This is the conclusion to a great little piece by Michael Neumann from 2002…
“In short, the real scandal today is not antisemitism but the importance it is given. Israel has committed war crimes. It has implicated Jews generally in these crimes, and Jews generally have hastened to implicate themselves. This has provoked hatred against Jews. Why not? Some of this hatred is racist, some isn’t, but who cares? Why should we pay any attention to this issue at all? Is the fact that Israel’s race war has provoked bitter anger of any importance besides the war itself? Is the remote possibility that somewhere, sometime, somehow, this hatred may in theory, possibly kill some Jews of any importance besides the brutal, actual, physical persecution of Palestinians, and the hundreds of thousands of votes for Arabs to be herded into transit camps? Oh, but I forgot. Drop everything. Someone spray-painted antisemitic slogans on a synagogue.”
Check the full piece out here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann0604.html
Ah fucking hell. I just got trolled real bad.
Well played, Peter. Sorry to hear about Comrade Garfield regardless.
Peter, you might be interested in this and this. This is where the clips come from. I suspect when @ndy clicks the links he’ll be inspired to write a post about it.
I really need to give you guys a new picture for your site use. That one is like 10 years old lol.
Martin, Sep 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm:
Gotta love the 8 year old picture of me… Seriously, can’t you guys find some new info on people? You guys are getting boring…
@ndy, Sep 16th, 2008 at 1:26 pm:
Martin: You are welcome to submit a more recent photo, as well as any further info you think may be relevant. However, I happen to think that photo’s rather amusing, don’t you? Beer? Check. Music? Check. Couch? Check. What more could a man ask for?
Hello everyone what I do not understand at the current moment in time is the fact that we have “culturally unrelated” people caring for our sick and aged.
The number of Indian people caring for our most vulnerable has grown beyond proportion.
I know for a fact that currently employed at [!@#$%^&*(] Hospital, a young Australian trained doctor, is the only doctor on her ward, psychiatry… All the others are Indian trained graduates. She is in training, sent to the ward to gain the necessary and mandatory requirements of the RANZCP to join the training program. The other doctors (all Indian!) have made accusation that she isn’t pulling her wait. She stays late is offered little or no support or training.
Another Aussie graduate who was on the program, training to be a psychiatrist wound up in emergency, collapsing from fatigue and stress. He resigned and walked away from a career, why?
Why are we continually abandoning our own to make it a better place for “newcomers”. It seems the newcomers are the fucking problem.
Would you want an Indian trained fucking doctor looking after your sick brother or sister? The standard of care is slipping, they are given preferential treatment against Aussie graduates and when they get together they proceed to bully the crap out of our local kids.
Fuck off back to India!!!!!!!!!!
Cool story, bro.
Fuck off back to Europe!!!!!!
Socialist Alternative are racists. We regularly hear their (justifiable) bleating over Israel, yet alarming silence for recent, ongoing atrocities in Tibet for example – one can point to [a] myriad of countries with similar problems, but SAlt loves to castigate Israel above all.
Frankly, knowing the charters of Hezbollah and Hamas’ stance on Israel as well as the very openly stated hatred of Jews laid out in the Koran – it seems almost a no-brainer Israel would behave this way, sadly.
Um… searching SAlt online reveals 8 hits on Tibet, the most extensive of which would appear to be Diane Fielde’s article from March 2008. Further ref to events in Tibet are made by way of ‘The changing shape of struggle in China’ by David Whitehouse (July 2009) and sourced from SAlt’s US counterparts.
And that’s about it.
Searching for ‘Palestine’, on the other hand, produces almost 800 results.
So… yeah: in terms of Israel/Palestine vs. China/Tibet, there’s an overwhelming preponderance of interest in the former.
That the reasons for this are that ‘SAlt is racist’ seems questionable (to put it moar mildly than I imagine a SAlt member would).
As far as I can tell, SAlt follow a fairly orthodox line on ‘the national question’, the parameters of which were set by Lenin, and augmented by other Marxist thinkers (such as Luxemburg), in the early 20th century.
The remainder of yr comment — I’m not sure I understand, or what relevance it has to SAlt’s vociferous criticisms of Israeli state policy and Zionist ideology. On which subject, I stumbledupon a really neat-o examination of the relationship b/w Zionism and socialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century a while ago, but buggered if I can find it now.
btw., is SAlt opposed to Morocco’s ongoing occupation of Western Sahara?
In the introduction to the blog post, you accuse Socialist Alternative of being anti-Semitic. And then you call them jihadists, which is more than a little racist against Muslims. If you are to accuse SAlt of being in bed with bin Laden and co, then you should’ve called them Islamists. That is the correct term to call them.
How come then, in the post, you provide no evidence that proves their anti-Semitism? Isn’t the burden of proof meaning that you must supply evidence to prove your argument? There are no articles in which they talk down to Jews, or say rotten things about Judaism — there’s never been anything racist SAlt have ever said about Jews, and so I struggle to see how they could be anti-Semitic.
And finally, in the second half of the post, there is nothing but talk on the UN and the utterly irrelevant Protectionist Party. Talking about that stuff is all well and good if you feel you must write it, but make sure the post title corresponds aptly with the content of your writing.
G’day Mikhail,
I think you need to re-read my post.
You presented only two pieces of evidence:
1) A Socialist Alternative article discussing American imperialism in the Middle East.
Are socialists not allowed to discuss how American imperial hegemony has been ruining the lives of millions in the Middle East for the last 60 years?
2) A John Passant article — he may be a member, but what makes him represent SAlt? — in which he criticises Zionists.
Zionists, when faced with criticism of Israeli war crimes, will not be able to defend themselves based on the facts, because the facts are so revealing of the Israeli horror, and so they stand by accusations of anti-Semitism. The point is reached where Israel can literally commit any war crime it likes, and no one is allowed to criticise it without being labelled a racist.
Looking at those two piece of evidence, I am drawn to ask the question: Where is the evidence of Socialist Alternative anti-Semitism?!?
G’day Mikhail,
Because it’s now obvious that you fail to understand irony, let me be clear: in the above post, I’m not actually arguing that ‘Socialist Alternative is anti-Semitic’. If their politics are crap, in other words, it’s not because they ‘hate Jews’ (or advocate adopting a vegetarian diet — fnarr fnarr). In fact, rather than focus on his accusation, Nick Dyrenfurth’s article is used as as jumping-off point to examine the antics of those who are unashamedly anti-Semitic — such as the ‘far right thugs’ Nick mentions only in passing — and then to the topic du jour: the Durban II conference.
But to return to SAlt. First, I’m actually paraphrasing, for fun but little profit, an earlier outburst by the group’s leader, Mick Armstrong, regarding anarcholocos. Secondly, the precise purpose of citing Passant’s article was to provide an alt.opinion to that of Nick. So, no: I did not mean to imply that John represents The Last Word on SAlt on Zionism; a) if I did, I would have stated this and b) I assume that, if they are truly interested in what SAlt as a whole — or its individual members — think/s of ‘Zionism’, readers have sufficient intelligence to actually go and read their stuff.
Beyond that… I dunno. I’m not sure I could be arsed critically re-examining Nick’s article. It was published in March 2009, was the subject of disco then, and I doubt many care what I think anyway. Briefly though:
Yeah, SAlt agitprop can be crude, and to an extent this reflects it basic political perspective. But then, you rarely find instances of political sophistication on posters advertising campus political meetings; what the poster provokes Nick into thinking is obviously not necessarily what others may think (“Israel, the US’s proxy in the Middle East, is to blame for all the problems of the Middle East, if not the woes of the world. Get rid of Israel and we’ll all live happily ever after, presumably on a strict diet of lentils and tofu”) and so on; political groups churn through University students; Zionism has a complex history; Ahmadinejad indulges in self-serving rhetoric; international forums quite often invite participation from authoritarian regimes…
And so on and so on and so on.