Originating from Scottish or Irish/Gaelic myths this expression has nowadays come to signify someone who refuses to face reality and lives in a dream world.

This malady has become so pervasive especially when it involves anything to do with Israel that one can easily say it is now an endemic condition afflicting some sectors of society.

Those who harbour an almost genetic aversion to the Jewish State and Zionists are particularly prone to catching this virus. However, interestingly, it also makes its presence felt among otherwise sensible and level headed individuals. While displaying perfectly rational thinking about any other subject when it comes to Israel for some inexplicable reason all logic and rationality tend to disappear.

Political orientation is irrelevant although it does seem to infect more people on the left of the political spectrum.

All this came to mind after I read the speech given recently to the Australian Labor Party conference by a former trade union official. Described in the report as an ALP “luminary,” Michael Easson tried to explain why “a true friend of Israel is a friend of the Palestinian People.” His impassioned speech contained so many inaccuracies and assertions beloved by progressive leftists that it would be remiss to ignore them.

In the politically correct environment which smothers all factual realities, those who should be forcefully countering the lies the loudest are remarkably silent or at best reduced to muted mumbling. This reticence has inevitably led to the big lies becoming part and parcel of leftist ideologies which in turn has morphed into holy writ as promulgated by the corrupt United Nations and its ancillary bodies.

This media described “luminary” launched off by stating that “the central and tragic truth of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is that two peoples, the Jewish People and the Palestinians, have deep, centuries long historical ties to a territory no larger than half of Tasmania.” 

Well, at least he got one fact correct and that is the size of the country.

The rest is total fantasy. The fake Palestinians were only invented after 1967 and prior to that they were proud to call themselves Arabs who looked on Palestine as part of Syria or Jordan. Their so called long historical ties are a figment of recent revisionist dogmas. As for the Jews their historical ties go back much further than centuries. Obviously his knowledge of Jewish sovereignty does not stretch back several millennia. Therein resides the clue as to why and how dedicated leftists are able to spout such nonsensical claims.

It gets better however as his speech progresses.

“Both peoples want their political independence and to live in peace and freedom.”

Anything more detached from reality would be difficult to find. At no stage in the past and certainly not currently was there a burning desire by the local Arabs to live in peace and freedom. If indeed this yearning was a fact why did the Arab representatives reject the 1947 partition plan and indeed all subsequent peace proposals? The answer of course is simple but seems to have eluded the proponents of this fiction. The primary, and indeed sole aim, was and still is to eliminate any sort of Jewish independence.

Why was it that between 1948 and 1967 when Jordan illegally occupied Judea, Samaria and half of Jerusalem that the fictitious desire for independence was not realized? The answer of course is that rather than establishing a country for those who didn’t yet exist as a Palestinian people the primary aim was to destroy the Jewish nation. Why did the Arabs accept Jordanian citizenship? Very simply, they did so because the cause of so called Palestinian independence was irrelevant to them.

The imaginary desire to live in peace and freedom is yet another mirage.

First of all freedom as we know it in democracies is non existent in the Arab world. Secondly, from the massacres of Jews in 1929 until the very present day the agenda to destroy, maim and murder Jews is the primary ambition of those who now call themselves “Palestinians.”  I am writing these lines on the day that a Jewish kindergarten teacher was shot and murdered in front of her daughter as she was riding in a car. Praising her murder are Fatah and Hamas. The former is the ruling party in the PA whose patron saint is Abbas and the latter group is another murderous outfit which Abbas seeks to amalgamate with.

Do any of those spouting inanities about peace and freedom actually know what goes on in this part of the world? Are they aware of the daily outpouring of hate and incitement against Jews? Why do they support the funding of the PA and UNRWA? The PA rewards murderers of Jews and UNRWA schools are breeding grounds for the next generation of murderers.

The Labor Party speaker extolled the democratic values of Israel. He then expressed the hope that in the future Palestinians would also be able to enjoy such rights in their independent state. What sort of cloud cuckoo universe does he live in? It is this mass hallucinatory lunacy which prevails and which we ignore at our peril.

The final declaration of his speech was “terrorism must be condemned and more must be done by Hamas, the PLO and Israel to affirm this position.”

 

There you have it in a nutshell.

The equivalence between Hamas and PLO/PA sanctioned terror and the isolated acts of Israelis. Our fictional peace partners see murdering Jews as a holy objective while Israeli authorities and the overwhelming number of Israelis condemn vigilante acts. However, this fact is deliberately ignored by the media and our own self loathers. This moral balancing act so beloved of the international community is repugnant and disgusting.

The lie that Israel’s fight against terror is on the same level as that of the PA, Fatah and Hamas is swallowed entirely as can be seen from the rhetoric employed by the anti Israel brigade and promoted by no doubt well meaning but totally naïve and ignorant advocates.

The specious claims made by this Australian “luminary” to an audience of the ill informed left resulted in very little illumination and only resulted in the real situation being buried in a deep dark hole of preconceived prejudices.

Confirming that internationally sanctioned hypocrisy is alive and well and that politicians still believe they can confuse and hoodwink their constituents is the statement by Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong. She is quoted as declaring “describing half of Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory does NOT prejudge final status issues including the final status of Jerusalem. Australia has returned to a more centrist position.”

Who are you trying to fool Ms. Wong?

Jerusalem has never been the capital of any fake Arab Palestinian country. Its status as the capital of a Jewish sovereign State is uncontestable whether the UN likes it or not. By rejoining the immoral majority Australia is not moving to a centrist position. It is reaffirming an historically fraudulent and revisionist version of the facts.

Pandering to the prejudiced masses may gain you brownie points but it won’t alter the determination of most informed and committed Jews to celebrate a restored presence in the Land of their Biblical ancestors.

There is a choice to be made.

A true friend of Israel cannot at the same time embrace the murderous ideology driving those who declare themselves “Palestinians” and follow jihadist terror.

To do so, is without doubt being away with the fairies.