During August, I had a poll running on this website in which I invited visitors to vote for the name they thought best suited to the small nation-state in the Middle East commonly known as ‘Israel’ since its inception in 1948.

Here are the results:

I didn’t ‘push’ the poll by actively urging people to vote. That invites the Hasbara crowd to fly-by in a rage, like a swarm of angry wasps. So I just let nature take its course.

Now, I’ll admit to some bias. I consider this website is visited by a selection of the smartest people on earth. My dog (rumoured to have an IQ of 250+) assures me most material here is crafted, like fabulous tropical flowers, to attract the most discriminating pollinators.

Therefore I shall take heed of this poll-of-the-well-informed and follow the popular will. Personally, I voted for ‘Rothchildistan’ – but in hindsight the democratic process has yet again come up trumps.

What acronym should I use for the ‘Jewish Apartheid State in Palestine’? Is it JASP – or JASIP? Should that be put to the vote as well?

Nelson Mandela was released long ago: FREE MARWAN BARGHOUTI!

On a more serious note, the vote that’s really needed to sort this tangle is the vote that’s never allowed to happen: that’s a one-vote, one-value poll of all people associated with the land of Palestine in recent times, whether by birth, direct descent or immigration.

It’s often said – and probably true – that Australia has become more secular over the last couple of generations. Yet while the influence of Church Christianity may have waned – that doesn’t say much about Australians’ changing beliefs on social issues.

Scott Steel’s well-researched blog Pollytics.com carries a very informative article entitled: Our Changing Views on the Death Penalty.

Scott summaries the results of a recently-published opinion poll by Roy Morgan Research: Australians say penalty for murder should be Imprisonment (64%) rather than the Death Penalty (23%)

Changing views on the death penalty in Australia since 1947

Roy Morgan has been conducting the same poll within Australia since 1947. Scott has turned the results of polling over the last sixty years – presented in tabular form by Roy Morgan Research – into graphs that show the long term trends very clearly.

The results of more questions related to this topic – and other graphs displaying comparable trends – are available in the Pollytics.com article.

It’s a fascinating piece of research.

I have an antipathy to institutionalized murder and find these results a welcome indication that support for more humane polices continues to grow.

While our political elites have been seduced and cajoled into supporting the war mongering, liberty-restricting policies of Australia’s misguided ‘allies’, Australians as a whole are much less keen on violent solutions to complex problems.

‘Israel’ is such a democracy it’s about time the whole world gets the opportunity to vote on its name.

Palestine wiped off the map

This never occurred in 1948 – a regrettable oversight that can now be corrected.

If you have additional suggestions, please post comments below

Keep them clean! (I don’t mean ‘ethnically clean‘)

_____________________

 Loading ...

In the last week, two significant elections were held in the middle east. In both cases, high voter turnout was reported

Education Minister Bahiya al-Hariri and Prime Minister Siniora celebrate victory in the Lebanese election

The Lebanon went to the polls just over a week ago to elect a new Parliament. Interest centered on whether a Hizbollah-backed alliance (known as the 8th March Coalition) would win more seats than the ruling, more pro-western coalition of parties known as the 14th March Coalition. In the event, it failed to make the headway anticipated by some western observers.

The losing side immediately accepted the results of the election and pledged support for the next government. The western mainstream media, needless to say, gloated. It was smiles all round on the BBC, CNN and FOX.

Last Friday came the Presidential election in Iran. In this case, there was considerable anticipation within the western mass media that the current President might be defeated by a candidate perceived as more liberal and pro-western.

In this case, the west’s favoured candidate lost – rather decisively. Immediately the call went out protesting the election result. At the time of writing, it’s reported that the USA has yet to recognize the result; as usual, the Australian Government is following America’s ‘lead’. Vice President Biden is, however, quoted as saying that the USA will still negotiate with the Iranian Government. That’s patronizing, when you think about it – but it could be worse.

This man advocates compulsory government censorship of the World Wide Web.

Do you want governments to decide what material YOU can view on the web, in the privacy of your home?

See the Opinion Poll to the right. It will be open until mid-March 2009.

Dr Clive Hamilton. Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University

Cyclones: more predictable than politics?

One of the most irritating things about a lot of websites dealing with the grim issues covered by this blog, is the bland certainty that many authors express in their writings.

It’s quite a widespread human trait to insist on being right (explicitly or implicitly), by no means confined to discussions about Zionism, global warming or any other topic. Some people are like that about the weather. I probably do it myself from time to time.

In any event, I’ll take this opportunity to admit that there are many things I don’t know with certainty. One of them is how Barak Obama’s Presidency will pan out. I tend towards the more optimistic side on that, but keep an open mind.

I installed an opinion poll module on this blog in mid-January, a few days before Obama’s memorable inauguration. At the time, the Gaza horror was at its height. I asked questions that tried to tease out whether people were more or less pessimistic about his ability to chart a fairer course in America’s middile east policy.

Convinced? Or not?

It’s an important topic and there’s been plenty of commentary about this, in the mainstream media as well as in the blogosphere.