Owen Jones on Bondi Beach weaponised

Before I get to Owen’s magisterial twenty-five minute take, let me summarise the five point response I gave yesterday, just minutes after learning of the Hanukkah murders.

One, it’s a terrorist atrocity. Two, so is the Gaza genocide whose daily war crimes must vastly exceed a dozen slain (now known to be sixteen) to make front page news in Western media. Three, I have no evidence to support a false flag thesis but can’t rule this out. Four, false flag or no, it will be seized on by a rogue state to claim that anti-Zionism = antisemitism. Five, false flag or no, it will help Western governments further erode civil rights, while also insisting that anti-Zionism = antisemitism.

I don’t blame Owen for not making my third point. I make it because Israel’s amply documented lawlessness makes it legitimate to do so, and I have little to lose. Owen by contrast has tens of thousands of followers, many of whom would run for cover at the mere mention of so appalling a possibility. ¹

Suffice that he makes most of my other points. With great aplomb.

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1. I don’t say Owen believes it may have been a false flag op, either in hard form with active Israeli involvement, or in the softer form of Israeli intelligence forewarned but allowing it to happen. I doubt his worldview as a left social democrat could make room for such a possibility.