Remarkable Australian comparative analysis supports BDS
Nov 4, 2024
A very long line has been drawn between two dots: Israel and China, across what looks like a credibility chasm, by the vocal Australian Coalition MP Barnaby Joyce. But his recent interesting Israel-China comparative analysis implicitly lends robust support to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement directed against Israel, though this may not have been intended.
Once upon a time, a legislator, who like many of us, wished others to know his views, saw a report on television describing how a crocodile had artfully leapt from a murky stream, snatched a passing man and gobbled him up for lunch. This legislator then began to warn others how this highlighted the like-endangering threat posed when one walked beside a field of dairy cattle, diligently munching grass. The cows, too, would be well-placed, you see, to jump the fence and seize you with a view to inflicting very serious harm.
Meanwhile, Jessica Wang at News online recently reported that:
Coalition firebrand Barnaby Joyce says Australia should follow the US and consider banning Chinese-made electric vehicles due to safety and privacy fears, questioning whether they could be weaponised for a “malevolent purpose”. “After the pager issue … the penny dropped for so many people that there is a capacity remotely to create massive pain, massive hurt, maybe at the least to create complete breakdown and chaos,” he told Sky News Sunday Agenda.
Comparing Israel’s recent horrifying demonstrations of high-tech wickedness in Lebanon with China’s present ability to build and export high demand goods worldwide on an unmatched scale does not compute: comparing a duck with a piano is normally not a good idea.
But Mr Joyce’s analysis surely does confirm that it is from Israel that you should never buy any sort of motor vehicle.
In fact, it follows that the sensible precaution would be to buy nothing at all from Israel in future. It would plainly be wise to boycott Israel.
It is Israel, after all, that has now proved beyond doubt how it poses a treacherous, deadly standing threat to all those it thinks may need to be taught a lesson.
Richard Cullen is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He was previously a Professor in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Contributions to Pearls and Irritations
Your contribution will fund quality independent comment and analysis in Pearls and Irritations
Contribute
