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Australia Tag

In the wake of the "there've been more mass shootings than days in the year" hysteria, Australia's former deputy prime minister, Tim Fischer, is pushing for "better travel warnings" for Australian travelers to the U. S. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
"Three hundred and fifty two mass shootings in the USA so far this year but about 80 a day you don't hear about," Mr Fischer told ABC News on Thursday. "All [are] unacceptable because the US is not stepping up on the public policy reform front. But have we not reached the stage where the Smart Traveller advice of [the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] needs to be muscled up?" Mr Fischer said a person is 15 times more likely to be shot dead in the US than in Australia and that travel advice should reflect this, as it does for Mexico.

After the shooting in Oregon this weekend, an angry Obama took to the airwaves and insisted that he would openly politicize gun control. The president cited Australia, a country with extremely strict gun control as a model. Would you believe bad guys can get guns even there? FOX News reports:
At least 2 dead in shooting outside police building in Australia, reports say At least two people are dead after a shooting outside a police headquarters in Australia on Friday, according to published reports. The Daily Telegraph Australia reports a lone gunman shot and killed a police IT expert outside New South Wales state Police headquarters in the Parramatta section of western Sydney The gunman was subsequently shot and killed by police, according to the newspaper. Police confirmed that a major operation was taking place between Hassall Street and Charles Street near the police headquarters. They advised the public to avoid the area. Sky News Australia helicopter footage spotted bodies covered in sheets near the police building.

This week saw the election of Malcolm Turnbull as the new Prime Minister of Australia, after having defeated the sitting Prime Minister Tony Abbott as head of Australia’s conservative ‘Liberal Party’. Some commentators in the United States have, erroneously, compared Turnbull’s ascension to power to that of Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders. But this could not be further from reality, with the two on stratospheric polar opposite ends of the political spectrum. Although Turnbull comes from the ‘Liberal Party of Australia’, like in Canada, it is the local conservative party, with the emphasis being here on ‘classic liberalism’ and conservative traditions. Whereas Sanders maybe be on the far-left in terms of both domestic and foreign policy issues, in Australia, Turnbull is considered a ‘moderate conservative’. Although Turnbull supports issues like gay marriage, climate change and social welfare, he is staunchly conservative on matters of foreign policy, economy and governance. He firmly believes in the free-market economy, private enterprise and free trade (including being a major proponent of Australia’s current negotiations for a free trade agreement with China), as well as lower taxes, reduced public spending and smaller governments. In other words, he is a ‘fiscal conservative’ in the truest sense of the word.

Anti-Semitism is becoming a pervasive, worldwide problem hinged on anti-Israel attitudes. Australia has seen numerous anti-Israel protests and an increase in anti-Semitic incidents.  A Rabbi visiting from Israel was recently attacked.  Some of the Australian media have engaged in anti-Semitic tropes. In the Bondi area of Sydney, a group of religious Jews recently was attacked: The latest attack was on a school bus used by a Jewish school, from The Daily Telegraph - Australia:

We wrote about how Australia just made an enormous contribution to the Middle East peace process by refusing to refer to East Jerusalem as "occupied" territory. Australia is historically and legally correct.  "East" Jerusalem was illegally seized and occupied by Jordan during Israel's War of Independence, and the Jewish residents ethnically cleansed.  Its recapture by Israel was simply returning the territory to its rightful owner. The reason that Australia's announcement was important, I wrote, was:
Because the history of Middle East peace negotiations is the refusal to speak the truth to the Palestinians, and instead, to cower at false claims of illegal occupation and Apartheid. Such diplomatic cowering, evidenced by John Kerry’s futile shuttle diplomacy, simply encourages even more unreasonable and unrealistic Palestinian demands. If peace ever is to be achieved, it will be when the Palestinians accept that they can get no more from international boycotts and pressure than they can get through direct negotiations and meaningful concessions. The Australian announcement brought that moment a little closer.
True to form, Palestinian Authority through one of its most senior leaders and negotiators is calling for the Muslim world to reevaluate ties to Australia, as reported by The Times of Israel, PA to seek wider Arab reprisal against Australia:

Australia has announced that it no longer will refer to East Jerusalem as "occupied" territory. This is an enormous and important contribution to Middle East peace, as it corrects the false narrative that Israel's recapturing of territory illegally occupied by Jordan from 1948-1967 is not justifiably part of Israel. For the historical and legal background of why Israel's recapture of East Jerusalem and other territories is not illegal under international law, see Prof. Eugene Kontorovich's recent article at Commentary Magazine, Crimea, International Law, and the West Bank, as well as his lecture, The Legal Case for Israel. The Times of Israel reports, Australia drops ‘occupied’ label from East Jerusalem:
The Australian government will not refer to East Jerusalem as “occupied, territory” the government said in a statement on Thursday, in what one legislator called a “massive shift” in foreign policy Attorney General George Brandis explained Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s position that using the word “occupied” was judgmental and does not contribute to the dialogue about the contested area, the Australian Associated Press reported.
The move came, in part, as an Australian reaction to the verbal abuse Palestinians heap on anyone who supports Israel (been to a campus lately?):
Australia’s decision to stop referring to East Jerusalem as “occupied” territory and to adopt additional similar steps that will likely please Israel and anger the Palestinians came as a retaliatory measure against Palestinian officials who in recent months repeatedly and ferociously attacked Canberra’s Middle East policies in public, The Times of Israel has learned “The Australian government is irritated by how the Palestinians have chosen to pursue their disagreements with us in public,” a senior Australian source told The Times of Israel Thursday. “This is the kind of behavior you’d expect from the leaders of a student union but not from a government-in-waiting.”
As expected, the Palestinians heaped even more abuse on the Australians:

down under, these tweets were posted. From a blog you should check out, Cattalaxy Files ("Australia's leading libertarian and centre-right blog"), which one of our commenters frequents. Be sure to click on embedded links. On guns: In the unarmed country the man with the illegal weapon rules bit.ly/NQfAtZ— CatallaxyFiles (@CatallaxyFiles)...