The handbag hit squad fails to show respect

CURRENT and past world leaders and senior diplomats have paid generous compliments to foreign minister Julie Bishop for the tireless work she put in to win unanimous backing for the UN resolution calling for “full and unrestricted access” to the MH17 crash site.

Driven by an extremely determined Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Bishop began working just hours after the aircraft was shot down early last Thursday (AEST), flying from Adelaide to Brisbane to Sydney to Washington (via Tokyo) to be in New York when the UN Security Council voted on Australia’s resolution at the UN at 3pm New York time Monday, a scant four days later. Initial responses to the tragedy from US President Barack Obama and leaders of the EU nations were tepid, to say the least. But Abbott’s forthright declarations and Bishop’s advocacy on the international stage were speedily recognised and echoed by the Dutch, who lost 193 people in the disaster, the most of any country, then by the British and the Malaysians. Bishop, in particular, has been acclaimed by foreign ministers and diplomats she worked with to ensure the support of all 15 members of the UN Security Council for the Australian resolution. After a weekend’s stonewalling from Russia, their objection came down to the phrase “shooting down” which was changed to “downing”, a semantic point Australia could live with to get its resolution through. First the Chinese, who have the power of veto but who had been waiting to see what Russia would accept, agreed to support the resolution, then the Russians signed up as well. Netherlands foreign minister Frans Timmermans made it clear Australia’s leadership and Bishop’s direction were crucial to the success of the UN move. “I want to start by wholeheartedly thanking Australia for taking the initiative with this resolution, and especially the personal commitment from Julie Bishop that has made this possible,” he said after the vote. “Without her perseverance we would not be standing here today with this resolution adopted by the Security Council.” And though the resolution is under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, and not Chapter VII, and is non-binding, former US president Bill Clinton told a Melbourne audience he was proud to be in Australia when Bishop secured the UN resolution and Abbott said the council’s unanimous support for Australia’s resolution was a tribute to Bishop, “who called it for Australia” and “for the world”. Remarkably, or perhaps not, neither the Australian government, nor Abbott nor Bishop have received anything resembling praise from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, or his deputy, currently the Acting Opposition Leader, Tanya Plibersek. Given Plibersek’s paid-up membership of Emily’s List, which purports to support women in politics (except if they reflect mainstream values) and women generally (as long as they vote Left-of-centre), her churlish refusal to acknowledge a significant achievement by an Australian woman reflects a meagre capacity to pay a compliment, even when demonstrably earned. When asked whether she supported Abbott’s response on behalf of Australia to the heartbreaking disaster, she replied: “I think emotions have run very high. We know now at least 37 Australian citizens and permanent residents have lost their lives. It’s a very emotional time for our country. It is important that we establish a proper investigation now so that those who are responsible can face the consequences of their actions.” Nothing doing there. She was as truculent when asked on Tuesday if Abbott and Bishop “deserve an enormous amount of credit for this, not only getting a UN resolution through in only a matter of days but also taking a very strong stand very early on this matter?” “Look,” she said, “I think it shows that organisations like the Security Council can, when they’re operating well, be very effective. ‘I think that it’s very important that this (Australian) resolution has been supported unanimously. “It is important that Australia has taken a leadership role in doing that because of course we have had a significant number of citizens and permanent residents affected.” The closest thing to praise that either Plibersek or Shorten offered was a line in a press release issued after the UN victory. It said: “The opposition continues to offer its full support to the government.” Crass, isn’t it? The deciding moment may well have been during Bishop’s personal engagement with Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, when she produced copies of our newspaper with pictures of the three Maslin children Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin, who were killed with their grandfather Nick Norris. Tears welled in Churkin’s eyes and he choked up. This is Bishop’s moment as foreign minister. Plibersek is the opposition’s shadow foreign minister. She has a long way to go before she even catches Bishop’s dust. Where Bishop builds, Plibersek destroys. Where Bishop seeks consensus, Plibersek sows dissent — in the Middle East and with our nearest neighbour Indonesia. Plibersek’s ill-mannered refusal to give any credit to Julie Bishop, another woman, or indeed, Tony Abbott, is symptomatic of her boorish approach to politics and goes a long way toward explaining why so many Australians have been repelled by the performance of Labor’s handbag hit squad. WEIRD JIHADIST WORLD OF WHACKOS AND DUMMIES MONTY Python has met militant terrorism in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul. The lethal whackos, some Australian, who follow the deadly Koranic creed have now demanded that the faces of mannequins be covered up in line with the teaching that prohibits exhibition of the human form. The insistence that plastic dummies wear veils may sound like the decree of a lunatic force but the same extremists issued an ultimatum last Saturday demanding all non-Muslims either convert to Islam, pay the “jizya” or protection tax non-Muslims must pay in order to live in an Islamic state as second-class citizens, or die by the sword. Not surprisingly, the road out of Mosul has been jammed with families exiting ever since. Most have left their homes and businesses with only what they can carry in their hands or on their backs. Whatever valuables they have, jewellery, cash, have been stolen. One of the most ancient Christian communities has been destroyed, its artefacts and relics, some more than 1600 years old, desecrated. Crosses have come in for special treatment. Individuals have been tortured and murdered in the most gruesome medieval fashion. Pleas to the UN to treat this extraordinary act as a crime against humanity have fallen on deaf ears. The Mosul outrage is but one of many such events taking place across the Middle East and Africa, where numerous Islamist terrorist groups like the Islamic State, Boko Haram and al-Shabab plunder and murder. Sure, not all Muslims are terrorists but if there was a single major Christian terrorist group which exhibited any of the psychopathic tendencies demonstrated by these jihadis, the pulpits would be thronged by hand-wringing clerics eager to apologise and condemn those responsible. Across the West, there has been a tacit acceptance of the blatant anti-Semitism which excites many in the Muslim world, few voices have been raised against the attacks on Christians, especially those formerly of Mosul. In the salons of the elite, it is fashionable to boast of being agnostic or atheistic. It really doesn’t matter. To a deranged Islamist, a nonbeliever is just a target, be they Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist or agnostic.