Mood:
quizzicalTopic: local news
Back in the day (Feb 2003) the ALP were in the vanguard of an anti war rally and message against the Howard Coalition Government taking Australia into the Iraq war.
Today the federal Rudd Govt are silent on the atrocities in Gaza. Rather Rudd is pictured meeting with outgoing US ambassador to George W Bush in The Australian newspaper today at his Sydney residence in Kirribilli. Very cosy.
The ALP were totally absent from a big energetic rally of many thousands in the heart of Sydney last Sunday 18 January. And they hate being excluded from big serious issues of whatever flavour in the biggest city in the country in 'their' state.
They will know Sydney's multicultural society is seriously disgusted with Israel's warmongering in Gaza. They will know many in Sydney will be seriously disgusted with the ALP and PM Rudd failing to condemn the one sided slaughter of children and civilians generally, apparent targeting of many of the 53 UN facilities suffering direct hits, murder of UN staff, aid workers and ambulance drivers.
Presumably the wheels of local council approval here have been turning for a while but it does look like the ALP are throwing a bone to the constituency in this neatly packaged story below. Notice the Frank Lowy Westfield mention in the story as a major supporter of Israel. It's all in the subtext. Another seems to be don't worry, go shopping.
Who knows maybe the ALP, and even the Sydney Daily Telegraph in NSW feel guilty about their PM Rudd's failure to speak up for the starved and oppressed Palestinians after the front page story in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday. That story revealed a categorical UN report of Israel deliberately blockading and starving the 1.5 million residents of Gaza for months forcing an inevitable conflict with their elected Hamas government.
Will an alternative to Westfield shopping centres satisfy the local Sydney protesters last Sunday contemptuous of Israel and the Rudd Govt? One doubts it.
