By MICHAEL SLOVANOS
PAUL Guerra, CEO of the Melbourne Football Club, let the cat out of the bag this week when he posted on X that he recently had the pleasure of traveling to Israel with Victoria’s smiling new golden boy, Premier Ben Carroll.
The trip was apparently paid for by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, and according to Guerra, was “brilliant”. He and Carroll learnt all about “the Israel start-up and innovation ecosystem” which he said “had so much potential for Victorian business”.
The Victorian Labor Party’s Socialist Left faction will be gnashing their teeth, but they’re smart enough to play the compromise game if it gives them a chance of winning another state election and cementing the power they crave.
Perhaps we should take note that the Australia Institute of Jewish Affairs Committee (AIJAC} officially congratulated Carroll on becoming Premier of Victoria and “wishes him every success in his new role”.
“We look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with the Victorian Government on matters of importance to the Jewish community. We also thank Jacinta Allan for her service as Premier.
“During her time in office, she maintained a strong relationship with Victoria’s Jewish community, stood firmly against antisemitism, supported important community security initiatives, and continued Victoria’s close engagement with Israel,” the AIJAC said.
But the friendly, diplomatic messaging didn’t stop there. Next up was Philip Zajac, president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, who heaped more praise on the new premier.
“Ben Carroll is well-known to many in our Jewish community. He has attended many community events, most recently last month’s Parliamentary Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations,” said Zajac.
“As Education Minister, he has led the Victorian Department of Education to take consistent and concrete steps to address antisemitism in Victorian schools. This has been done in close partnership with key Jewish educational leaders.
“The Victorian Jewish community also recalls his strong and principled response to the October 7 terror attacks in Israel and his immediate recognition that these events would deeply impact Jewish Victorians.
“The JCCV looks forward to working closely with the new Victorian Premier, and all Victorian Parliamentarians, to champion a vibrant and resilient future for our Jewish community.”
The Zionist Federation of Australia also joined the chorus of praise for Premier Carroll. We have to wonder whether Carroll’s first legislative action will be to copy the Queensland LNP and make the slogan “From the River to the Sea” illegal.
Meanwhile One Nation, which has recently passed the Albanese government in popularity polls, has announced it will run candidates in every lower house seat in Victoria for the November election, and this week announced a state leader and six new Legislative Council candidates, including a Liberal Party defector Colleen Harkinb.
Former Senate candidate and One Nation’s state president for Victoria, Warren Pickering, will lead the party at the election and will be the party’s leader and candidate for the lower house seat of Pakenham.
While One Nation’s national leader Pauline Hanson follows the pro-Israel line of Tommy Robinson and is no friend of Islamist radicals, the paranoid Jewish lobby simply does not trust anyone outside of the “respectable mainstream”.
For instance in June the Jewish Council of Australia made the outrageous accusation in its formal submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion that One Nation has cultivated relationships with “far-right networks including the National Socialist Network”.
The Jewish lobby has also produced “investigative reports” highlighting “candidate histories involving fringe views and Holocaust denialism”, which they claim “have prompted peak bodies and independent groups to demand active government measures against far-right normalization”.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) have also historically criticized One Nation’s rhetoric, lodging formal anti-discrimination complaints over material published in party outlets and condemning leaders for “undermining social cohesion”.
Given this background, the course ahead in the lead-up to the Victorian election is quite predictable: The Jewish lobby will begin to pull levers in media to cast Premier Carroll as “Labor’s miracle man”, “Victoria’s Golden Boy” and other such epithets.
And should any poll begin to reverse the disastrous figures of the former Premier Jacinta Allen, it will be shouted from the housetops if not from every TV and social media channel, radio station and newspaper.
And watch out any One Nation candidate who does not have a squeaky-clean background. Social media accounts of candidates will be mercilessly trawled for any politically incorrect comments, traffic fines or worse.
