The Sickle Sceptre Sway

So stow your gods and idols
wherever you make your bed,
listen to the theatre,
the voices in your head.

This article is the extant poem further below, but a few words and banter I wish to land, given the rapidly emerging inflammatory rhetoric among the highly selective anti-immigrant Islamophobic opposition, those particularly who should know better despite their plutocratic privileges, before you get to it. It is largely the poem I leave you with to savour.

Isaac Herzog (the hunter with his sickle) has left the stage at least for now, but left his hubris, hate and hostility behind. His visit exposed the lengths our politicians and leaders will go to shamelessly defend, condone and neglect the cause of genocide. Here in NSW Chris Minns (Minnzi – you too can be accommodated) celebrated his visit at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Sydney in Darling Harbour, and spoke with hubris and fanfare at the ‘Evening of Light and Solidarity’ hosted by the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) – ‘Light’… would that be the flash of ‘blinding light that tears life from limb to limb apart’, personally signed by the President of Israel himself with every good wish to the children of Palestine in the afterlife.

This Minnzi boasted at the very same time, while the people of NSW were hunted down in their thousands by his pack of treacherous hounds outside Sydney Town Hall, and we saw how they pulled people from the peaceful crowd, laid in their fisty cuffs and beat them up, defenceless on the ground. Young and old, people of all walks of life, religion, ethnicity and culture, but one thing they had in common, their horror and discontent of genocide and their right to say so. And we heard how Minnzi and the NSW Police Commissioner chose to demonise and kettle the people of NSW, and I hope you will remember this moment at the next election State or Federal. As Queen Victoria looked down from above (I see the GIF), I wonder what bemusement she (the crown) might have had about that, but then the Royals have troubles of their own, as well they should.

Now we have the slaughter of words over the ‘ISIS brides’ with all the vengeance Israel can muster in a far off land, with little regard to fact, truth, substance, morality, civic responsibility or situation – judgement by the mob, rally the gutless mainstream media, including that brainless hard right Parliamentary mobster, Angus Taylor (mobster will do), his new wind ensemble and bandwagon of cowboys (one or two cowgirls left, I see scowling gnasher Cash is back), and all who’ve swapped their skirts for strides. Sadly their mouths continue to ring out like spitting camels from their sanctimonious misogynist harem, conflating ISIS with HAMAS, Syria and Iraq with Gaza, and with no regard to relevant timelines and purpose – the usual one-sided Islamophobic diatribe, deaf and blind to the Nazi-Zionism (a sort of strange oxymoron but it is what it is), sadly indistinguishable from mainstream Judaism (least to them), another conflation continues.

Let’s not bother about who, why or how these families got there, let’s just demonise and judge them with this terrible reckless language ‘ISIS brides’, as if they had served active duty with or even remotely connected with HAMAS – we all know how it’s meant to read, little ones included, what a horrible malicious defammatory narrative. We are being manipulated once again with narcissistic language, propaganda and contempt for truth, and the infamous members of the Opposition are crawling out of the woodwork like the evil worms they are, spitting and scowling their venom. It sounds to me Albo has already made up his mind which side of the fence to bark and save his own skin, rather than approach this with reason, sensibility, coherence and statesmanship. But then he has Minnzi and the ZFA et al snapping at his ankles too, now Herzog’s gone, only his shadow remains.

So, Albo (gentle hound and leader of your pack) – forgive me my metaphor, as humble jester and protagonist on stage, for I have a question just for you. Last week you said, ‘My mother would have said if you make your bed, you lie in it’ deploying this populist cliché to the ABC about these trapped women and children associated with ISIS. And here is my question, I hope you are listening or one of your advisors might bring this to your attention.

Mount Scopus Memorial College have been fielding recruits from Melbourne, Australia to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) for a good number of years. The Israel Hayom boasted this relationship in September 2015. Australian citizens serving in an overseas militia, not merely captive ‘wives of ISIS’, but ‘active duty soldiers of Zion’, with the hand of God on the trigger, who lives or dies, in the slaughter and genocide in Gaza. My question, will you apply this executive and constitutional ruling and ban on all Australian citizens and any who are not, who have seen active service, especially in the IDF during their murderous campaign, from returning to or entering Australia with the same public vigour and moral rectitude you have afforded and judged these women and children, who left our shores for Syria between 2014-2019… not Gaza, and long before the current Israeli-Palestine conflict? Are you not conflating the present states of mind and play, and decrying double standards, for what or whose advantage? And if they do return or already have, will they too be prosecuted under the same laws in Australia that govern us all, or will they receive special Israeli-Zionist immunity, courtesy of Netanyahu and Herzog, perpetrators of genocide?

What also disturbs me is the familiarity of Israel Hayom, their manner and degree of influence they have in Australia, and particularly Mount Scopus Memorial College, Melbourne – an Australian religious private school, their religious and political mission, notwithstanding what we already know of the ZFA stranglehold in Minnzi’s NSW.

Israel Hayom, ‘Israel Today’ is a widely circulated, free Hebrew-language daily newspaper in Israel, founded in 2007 by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson – Known for its right-wing, conservative, and pro-Netanyahu editorial stance, it is often referred to as the ‘Bibiton’. The 2015 headline (yes they’ve had many years since to tighten the screws), ‘G’day Israel: IDF’s Australian soldiers share aliyah stories’ – IDF’s Australian soldiers… I see, I get it, we are one unbeknown to me. So proud you boast of what will become ‘the IDF murderers of little children in their tens of thousands’, how on Earth do you spin that one!

Mount Scopus Memorial College is an independent, Modern Orthodox Jewish, co-educational day school in Melbourne, Victoria (another ‘Israel in Australia’ just like the badging of the Israeli embassy – and quite deliberate). Founded in 1949 to serve Holocaust survivors’ families, it has grown into one of the world’s leading Jewish day schools. Education is framed within a Modern Orthodox and Zionist philosophy. Programs include the Year 10 Ulpan, where students spend 5–9 weeks in Israel. Sounds impressive doesn’t it, until you recognise the hubris and intent. And is this College receiving public funds to conduct its unholy war and anti-Australian heretical privileged private and military education?

So not only are we supporting Israeli military components and hardware, but soldiers as well through Australia’s private sector companies and institutions (a trojan horse) sponsored, invested and coordinated by a foreign power.

Is this not, are these not more clear examples of ‘Israel in Australia’, ZFA, the new Menorah sculpture on Bondi Beach, and rather like those merged twins badges the NSW Police force wear on their lapel – flags of Israel and Australia united, joined at the hip. Since when did this carry more weight than just our own and appropriate Aboriginal memorabilia? Where are our joint Aboriginal educational and public institutions? Follow the money, the lobby, the power, the foreign intrusion in our domestic affairs. Does this not say more about why Australia is struggling in the matter of social cohesion and inclusion?

Our sovereignty is so very broken, our resolve weak, our politicians blind (anything but mute), our multicultural brand compromised, a sham, our moral integrity and identity clearly in full flight, and hard right complain and squeal about the Islamic diaspora.

I leave the sickle and the sceptre at your feet, and observe which way the discourse and discontent will sway – to the left, to the right, to the convenience and authority of the few or what is the right thing to do… without hounds snapping at our feet, legislating, coercing with executive orders or kettling us into side streets, barricaded arcades and dead ends.

And here’s my poem with its historical and theatrical spotlight:

The Sickle Sceptre Sway

 

Be grateful for
what we’re given,
but for you who had little
and everything taken away.

 

***

 

Stow away your gods and idols,
your anger and dismay,
listen to the theatre,
the actors in our play.
If nothing ever taught us
history never wrote,
if nothing ever touched your heart
a mindful word of note; and I..
I beg leave of your indifference
lest stubborn lips our ears deceive –
in God we slay.

 

I lived forever in nobody’s
land in the Levant between
continents, East and West,
Africa to Europe. Natives from
the dawn of Holocene, child
of Jericho, city of palms,
land of milk and honey from
Jordan’s river to the sea.
I had the breath of life
to shake hands with a God
who never knew me.

 

I came out of slavery,
out of the bowels of Egypt,
trickery, fear and famine,
across the seas from the
wilderness of Sinai. ‘Thou shalt
not kill, steal, bare false witness,
covet thy neighbour’s house’.
I built a golden calf, stormed
and slaughtered in my path
to shake the hand of God
and God chose me.

 

Children of Noah, Canaanites,
Mycenaeans; subjugated
by one man’s curse on his family
and all who follow. David, heroic
slayer of pagans, Solomon’s hubris,
right of the chosen people to bless
a mother’s womb and carve every
other child in two, enslave their
neighbour, covet their home –
‘Shake hands with God’ for neither
did Man choose one such as I.

 

Children of Abraham, sacrifice
and treachery, brother on brother
sold into slavery. Kings of Israel
and Judah fallen on their
pious sword of ancient times;
Assyria, Babylon, Persia,
Greece which long since trod
the shores of Palestine; and Herod
of Judea shook heads with Rome
to commit the son of God
and still God chose me.

 

I lived forever in nobody’s
land throughout Byzantine,
Muslim and Crusader’s rule.
Through the Ottoman, great wars
and interregnum, two thousand
years passed over this fratricidal
birth of Israel. None ever asked,
declared to dream land
of common antiquity and ancestry,
made to share the hand of God –
no-man’s land for me.

 

I came not to listen
or make peace, not to grieve
or comfort, for diplomacy
or compassion. I came to
spread my breed of fear, hate,
spy and mockery, discord in your
streets, to silence discontent
in far-off lands. I did
not come in good faith
to shake the hand of God
as God spared us!

 

Horrors of war and genocide
governments ignore,
snipers in their mounted lair
slice and cut us down.
‘You are a jealous God of vengeance
in their image scream and wage’.
Bullets on their mortal course,
angels of death their sickle
sceptres sway – ‘Take this hand
my child’, the blinding light that
tears life from limb-to-limb apart.

 

We come with word of God,
my friend, tales of promised
land, milk and honey.
We speak of holocaust, of peace
and truth, freedom from
those devils of prejudice,
horror and carnage..
And we choose a pit of
rattle snakes signed in venom
to shake our neighbour’s hand
when God has turned their back.

 

Where was God in Palestine,
God for all mankind?
Where was the book of peace that
no-man or woman wrote and held
the lamp; no inconspicuous myth,
virtualities and testaments?
You come not to our table
to sup with us,
to resolve the gift of life –
but poison the world
with your fear and blinding light.

 

So stow your gods and idols
wherever you bury your dead,
listen to the theatre,
the ghost inside your head.
Breathe not your love of children
in curses of despair,
nor just to clothe and feed them
on words of terror and prayer;
but mark this mournful day
where mindful sceptre sway –

In God’s hands if you must
and God is far from here.

23 February 2026
Barddylbach
Blue Mountains
Australia

Author note: An epic or theatrical poem of twelve stanzas: 1st commences with short proverb, 2nd and 12th are the Jester with his prologue and apologetic soliloquy to audience, 3rd to 10th alternate in their historical and sociopolitical voice in reference to Palestine and Israel (Zion) juxtaposed four times each, and 11th is the voice of humanity. The original version annotated these stanzas with J, P, Z and H (as in a symbolic mini play), depicted in the AllPoetry version, which you can click to from the pen name at foot of poem. There is a prequel or invitation to the stage from the previous article 9 February (day one of the State visit) ‘Ghosts of Albanese‘ in the sonnet ‘Apology for Invitation and Discontent’ and a sestet (6 line fragment of this poem) echoing the hidden purpose of Isaac Herzog’s State visit to Australia.

The article 8 February ‘Shades of Terra Nullius, Curious Invitations, Investigations and Genocide‘ deals with the insanity of the State Invitation and Visit. The first article in this series on 6 February was ‘Black Fog – If We Can’t Think for Ourselves: Must We Muzzle and Bastardise Tertiary Education and Our Public Institutions?‘

Some historical notes of interest

Jericho, city state dating back to 9,000 BCE (beginning of the Holocene epoch) – Wikipedia

Where Did the Red Sea Crossing Take Place? Patterns of Evidence – Christopher Eames, 12 May 2021, Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology

Palestine (land of the ancient Canaanites and Phoenicians, long before the kingdoms of Judah and Israel) is situated at a continental crossroads, ruled by various empires since antiquity to the modern era, a treading ground for Nile and Mesopotamian armies and merchants from Egypt, Greece, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Rome to China, India, Ottoman and British Empires – Wikipedia

Noah – Wikipedia

Genesis flood narrative – Wikipedia

Yes, Noah’s Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth (1800-2400BCE) – Reports of the National Center for Science Education, Vol 29:No. 5, September-October 2009

Black Sea deluge hypothesis (6,000-8,000 years ago) – Wikipedia

Outburst Floods: Since Last Ice Age (Late Pleistocene period: 120,000-12,000 years ago) – Wikipedia

Abraham’s family tree – Wikipedia

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