http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/bob-brown-puts-greens-left-on-notice/story-fn59niix-1226032301593

BOB Brown has moved to assert control over the Greens, carpeting hard-Left senator-elect Lee Rhiannon over her radical anti-Israel stance as he attempts to shift the party towards the political mainstream at the expense of Labor.

But as the Greens leader rejected Julia Gillard's attack on the party as extremists who do not share the values of everyday Australians, he faced a barrage of accusations that the party was being hijacked by socialist ideologues.

Former prime ministers John Howard and Bob Hawke, former NSW premier Bob Carr and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd all yesterday denounced Ms Rhiannon's renewed call for a trade ban on Israel.

Mr Carr told The Weekend Australian he was concerned that the "old conservationists in the Greens are being overtaken by the hardline leftist Greens".

That woman's views were typical of some of the horrendous elitist folks in coffee houses, that the Greens attract, who think it is the mode-du-jour to be seen to attack Israel and Jews.

It was nothing short of disgusting.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/im-no-watermelon-rhiannon/story-e6frg6nf-1226032286731

AS the child of Australian communists and a former member of the Socialist Party, Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon insists she's been unfairly tagged as a hardline left-winger or "watermelon" -- green on the outside but red inside.

She says her parents were among many Australians who became disillusioned with Moscow after Soviet tanks crushed Czechoslovakia's move towards "socialism with a human face" in 1968.

That was when the Communist Party of Australia formally split from the Russian communists.

Ms Rhiannon is the daughter of women's rights activist Freda Yetta Brown and Bill Brown, who were both CPA members.

She has insisted that her parents joined the CPA because of their deep commitment to social justice and equal rights and not for any subversive reason.

But the association was enough to have her feature in an ASIO file when she was just seven years old.

During last year's election campaign, Ms Rhiannon insisted that she would support Bob Brown's pragmatic approach to politics, and said she had no wish to lead the party.

Lee Rhiannon is by comparison with her comrades, very moderate.  Greens are mostly extremists.  This is the word of the month, "EXTREMIST", the muslims aren`t going to like this one either!

Just like I predicted - the Greens are becoming a genuine political party now and are driven more by votes than agendas. They will inevitably become more mainstream both because of, and in pursuit of popularity.

The article about this in the Australian made a compelling point about israel being the only stable democracy in the region.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 10:58am:

That woman's views were typical of some of the horrendous elitist folks in coffee houses, that the Greens attract

We don't HAVE one of those coffee houses in Daylesford, yet
But we DO have an application in with the Federal Government to have one built under the BER

freediver wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2011 at 1:42pm:

Just like I predicted - the Greens are becoming a genuine political party now and are driven more by votes than agendas. They will inevitably become more mainstream both because of, and in pursuit of popularity. The article about this in the Australian made a compelling point about israel being the only stable democracy in the region.

Whenever you post about the Greens you intelligence evaporates. they arent pursuing 'popularity'. Bob Brown is just trying to divorce himself from an anti-israell and anti-semite stance which in australia is utterly toxic. if the greens are perceived to be anti-israel they will die overnight.