Bolt: ABC coverage of Hezbollah ‘martyr’ deaths exposes Australia’s loyalty problem
Australia has a loyalty problem, and the fault lies with politicians and woke media whose identity politics are turning us into a nation of tribes divided by race or religion.
Andrew Bolt
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Here’s a New Year’s resolution for our torn country.
Look at the death of Ali Bazzi – and how the ABC reported it – and resolve to finally junk the identity politics that helps turn Australians into terrorists.
Ali Bazzi and his family actually won the lottery when Australia let his clan become citizens.
Where else can you grow up so free, safe and comfortable?
Such a country deserves the loyalty of everyone it welcomes, yet our elites teach newcomers our history is so shameful that more than 80 councils won’t hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.
Meanwhile, our political leaders are deliberately turning us into a nation of tribes, divided by race or religion.
This poison is working, because which newcomer wouldn’t rather identify with their old and proud tribes than with the Australia they’re taught is so racist?
Which brings me back to Ali Bazzi.
Last Tuesday, Bazzi was in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, where members of Hezbollah, an Islamist terrorist group banned in Australia, have been firing rockets at Israeli towns.
Israel fired back and blew up Ali Bazzi, along with his brother Ibrahim and Ibrahim’s wife, Shorouk Hammoud, who’d recently got a visa to Australia.
Also in town was the Bazzis’ father, who rushed over to the ruins of his sons’ home.
Family friends say he was an Australian citizen, too. So many Australians, yet all in Lebanon. What is Australia: A hotel? A flag of convenience?
The ABC’s first online report on the Bazzi brothers’ deaths would have made readers angry with Israel for apparently killing Muslim civilians indiscriminately.
Written by Nabil Al-Nashar, an ABC reporter who describes himself on his Twitter handle as “a Gypo (Egyptian) in Aus” living on “Darug country”, it tells how Ali Bazzi “moved to Lebanon to get married a few years ago”, while Ibrahim followed “to visit his wife Shorouk Hammoud, who recently acquired an Australian visa”.
Hmm. These Australians still look for wives in Lebanon instead?
Mind you, it seems Ali Bazzi had bloodier business in Lebanon than bride-hunting.
Some 90 minutes after the ABC claimed Israel killed two lovesick Australian brothers, Hezbollah announced Ali Bazzi was actually a Hezbollah “martyr”, and published a picture of him in combat fatigues.
Both brothers and Shorouk Hammoud were then paraded in coffins draped with Hezbollah flags. Uniformed Hezbollah terrorists kissed Ali’s coffin.
Oops. Al-Nashar, the ABC reporter, eight hours later conceded, er, yes, Ali Bazzi was reportedly with Hezbollah, but insisted there was “no evidence” his brother was, too.
How would he know? I even wonder how keen Al-Nashar is to find out, given his Twitter feed is full of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian posts, just like the social media accounts of ABC political reporter Chantelle Al-Khouri, who says she’s on “Ngunnawal Country”, and hijab-wearing digital media reporter Amal Wehbe, who identifies as “Palestinian” on her ABC TikTok account.
Tribal loyalties now seem king even for ABC reporters.
Al-Nasher even tweeted recently: “When you accidentally run into a group of Egyptian boys in Western Sydney and they instantly recognise you’re Egyptian, a spontaneous rendition of the national anthem naturally ensues.”
His clip shows that the anthem they sing is the Egyptian one.
On Thursday, Al-Nashar reported again on the Bazzi brothers, this time quoting a “Bazzi family spokesman” in Sydney who condemned “the attack on civilians”.
Pardon? “Civilians”?
But this “Bazzi family spokesman” also seemed confused about to which country he and the Bazzi brothers belonged.
“Our fellows in Lebanon are standing under the attack of the Israelis on daily basis,” he protested.
“This is an Australian fellow, he got killed by Israel, your allies.”
Think about that us-and-them.
Here is a Bazzi clan member in Sydney referring to “our fellows” in a terrorist haven in Lebanon, while Israelis are “your allies”.
I’m reminded of a frightening statistic from our war against the Islamic State, notorious for beheading civilians hostages, including Westerners.
More Australian Muslims signed up to fight for the Islamic State than served in the Australian Army which was fighting against it.
We have a loyalty problem, and the fault lies not just with politicians importing so many people from a clannish and Muslim culture that faces integration problems in so many Christian-majority countries.
It’s doubly mad for politicians to do this when our elites vomit over Australia’s history and traditions, and encourage new arrivals to stick with their tribes.
This identity politics must be smashed. Defeating the Voice in 2023 was just step one; 2024 must bring step two.
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Originally published as Bolt: ABC coverage of Hezbollah ‘martyr’ deaths exposes Australia’s loyalty problem
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