Where the hoopoes nest

I am using the opportunity to show off one of my very few and not successful shots of a hoopoe:

For some reason hoopoe and Eurasian jay are two Israeli birds I have a difficulty to catch up with for a serious photo session. Probably due to my insufficient level of Zionism.

This opportunity was presented to me by an excellent piece ‘This includes any reference to their wildlife’ in Engage by Max Dunbar. I wouldn't spoil it by revealing the end. Just to give you the general idea: Two bent out of shape British Jooz, George Abendstern and Linda Clair (partners, as the pair is euphemistically called), severely chide (each one separately, obviously to increase the total effect) the British Communist paper Morning Star. The paper's transgression this time was using hoopoe, which is the Israeli state bird, in its daily quiz. So enjoy the article. I, meanwhile...



I, meanwhile, have looked, with kind assistance of Google, into the Abendstern/Clair duo. Of the two, Mr Abendstern (evening star in German) is the more interesting character, although not by much. There are a few other Jewish Holocaust survivors in Britain, whose personal tragedy has left an indelible trauma in their brains, and it is not a done thing to blame them for something which is not their crime.

Still, one can take exception to their shenanigans. And, after a brief look into Abendstern's relationship with the Morning Star, it appears that it is much better than may seem from that chiding letter linked above. The Morning Star even graciously added their own choice headline Israel is happy to exterminate Palestinians to the letter by Mr Abendstern where he says, between other things:

Long before the nazis coined the phrase "final solution" the zionists at their 1897 Basel conference made no secret of what they had in mind for the Palestinians.

Read the whole, it is very instructive regarding Mr Abendstern's mindset. In another letter, also headlined by the same paper: Israel is the modern settler colony, he takes another angle of attack:

Theodore Macdonald writes (M Star October 22) that "it was increasingly obvious the Jews needed a state of their own." Why? The Jews are not a nation - as the Israeli writer Schlomo Sand said in his book The Invention Of The Jewish People.

As an aside: professor Shlomo Sand, an alleged expert in French cinema and the author of the blockbuster referred by Mr Abendstern, must be proud of the use made of his great show of ignorance and vanity. But read the "settler colony" letter, it's a doozy too.

Otherwise, the intertubes don't bring a lot more about our hero. There is a good article on CST site, there is a picture from a Rochdale local site (click on it to enlarge):

Second from the left, looking like a kindly gnome, is Mr Abendstern. Tellingly, he is not totally in sync with the topic of the gathering, holding a placard that, while related to his hated Zionists, is aiming at another issue.

O du mein holder Abendstern: I sincerely wish you health and happiness till 120. But really: get a life, will you?

Adam Levick of CiF Watch has more on the same story.