The Leftards - The Cult of Ziontology

Vocalizing angst

Way back in 2024 I made it known I was a big fan of the Illawarra punk band The Leftards when I did a blog listing a lot of their gigs, film clips and posters - a kind of visual history, without having to actually speak to any of the members of the band! I even obtain one of their t-shirts, and wear it proudly to this day. Unfortunately, I had only ever experienced part of a single live gig. That was one sunny afternoon back in the day (late 2010s?) at the Port Kembla Servo, when, whilst waiting for somebody nearby - I can't recall who or where - I stood behind a wire fence and looked on as this band in the distance, with a shoeless guitarist who I knew from the local Nippers club, performed a couple of songs. They reminded me of the Ramones - short, fast, to the point, no bullshit. Coming forward a couple of years later to 2024, as a former Leftist politician with the Greens I was asked by the singer Ronnie van Dyk if I could make a couple of emotive statements around the subject of Israel's treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the Left Bank. He was writing a kind of anti-Israel song and I was happy to oblige. At the time I was very critical of what was happening in the Middle East, and enmeshed in a Leftist bubble which evolved into the Free Palestine movement. I therefore had no trouble in vilifying Israel, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and Jews in general (of course I wasn't anti-Semitic!). I therefore emoted verbally on the issue. The recording eventuated into a scene straight out of Lost in Translation, with me the Bill Murray character and, after an initial anemic take, maestro Ronnie v.D. requesting a second take - with more INTENSITY! Okay ..... A couple of months later the band released a song called The Cult of Ziontology and I heard my voice at the end talking about things such as cultural holocaust. The following is a link to the song, as released on 26 March 2026 on the Bread and Circuses EP.

<a href="https://leftards.bandcamp.com/album/bread-and-circuses">Bread and Circuses by The Leftards</a>

The lyrics are reproduced below, in all their punkish glory and rhythm.

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Words

The Cult of Ziontology (J. van Dyk 2024)

No justification

For crimes that you’ve done

Child killing cowards

IDF scum

Try to gaslight the world

But we’re not that dumb

You shameless bastards

IDF scum

Massacres on the Gaza strip

West Bank’s in the death cult grip

The evil empire’s fascist tide

75 years of Apartheid

Unhinged ideology

Murder for supremacy

Endless slaughter, Rape and torture

I’m horrified

Bombed and maimed, buried alive

we’re paralysed!

Bibi’s on the rampage

Cheered on by the elite

The whole world fucking hates you

You far-righteousness freak

Occupation, manipulation

Theft of land and identity

‘Zionist Joe’ and the EU maiden

The psychopathic von der Leyen

They shoot, they accuse, steal and lie

in 20 second reels of genocide

They want that oil

they want that land

Billions of dollars changing hands

The tentacles have spread worldwide

The evil empire’s genocide

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The turning worm

Fast forward to 7 October 2025. I had just told a friend that it was important to remember that HAMAS was the legitimate government of Gaza and therefore deserved respect. I hated Benji (not the puppy dog) and the IDF and believed that Israelis were genocidal maniacs; I believed in the Free Palestine movement..... and then something happened. I began to wonder why the Middle East problem had not been solved; I heard about Muslim violence on the streets of Sydney; I wondered what this thing called Islam was, as I was raised a Catholic and had taken on aspects of Buddhist since 2000. I knew nothing about Islam because I had never need to. So to answer the questions swirling around in my head I did two things: (1) I began to develop a blog entitled The Muslim Brotherhood in Australia, and (2) I read the Qur'an, from back to front. OMG! By the end of November everything had changed. I began to understand the Middle East issue; I realised that the Arab attacks, massacres and wars against the Jews and Israel were not political - they were religious! I was now an Islamophobe, and on 14 December the Bondi Beach massacre took place. Fuck! My fear of Islam was no long irrational - it was real, and I was not alone.

It was not that I was moved to give Israel a free pass in any of this - far from it. However, I had flipped the coin, and in doing some deep research into Islamic ideology, a lot of the Middle East problems were revealed to me. I saw that since the time of Muhammed in 622AD, Islam had been carrying out a genocide campaign - a jihad - against the Jews of the world, and especially those in the Middle East. This so-called religion of peace was actually a social and political ideology. The names of the groups carrying out terrorist attacks and fighting the wars revealed this: Hezbollah = Party of God; HAMAS = Islamic Resistance Movement; Islamic Republic of Iran; Islamic Jihad; al-Qaeda = the foundation [of global jihad / terrorism].

The hatred of Jews as prescribed in the Qur'an continued through more than fourteen centuries to the present day, and HAMAS was the primary perpetrators of it in the case of the Palestinian territories. This did not excuse Israel and the IDF for what they had done; but it did reveal to me that they were far from the only bad players in this global conflict. HAMAS and affiliates were guided by the Muslim Brotherhood who, since its formation in 1928 had actively implemented the dictates of the Qur'an and Shariah law in pursuit of world domination and the complete destruction of the state of Israel. Islamic terrorism, and genocidal actions against Jews, Christians, Hindus and other non-believers ("Infidels") were carried out by Muslims according to these core Islamic beliefs.

In truth, I now saw much of what Israel had done as self defence, pre-emptive protection of its people, and revenge. I never wanted to be an anti-Semite, and I felt that with the knowledge I now had I could better understand what was happening in the Middle East and see that the blame was spread amongst many players, and definitely not simply the Jews, the IDF or Benji, supported by the United States. As Zionism was the movement behind the creation of a nation state for Jewish people, who were in fact indigenous to the Middle East over thousands of years, I no longer supported anti-Zionism. The middle way was best, in my revised view, and to have a better understanding of the true facts of history was a relief.

The Cult of Ziontology stands as a genuine statement of what many in the Left of the West felt in regard to Israel and the Palestinian territories at the height of the Free Palestine movement in 2024, following on the HAMAS invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023. It was a reality; it actually reflected what I felt; and it will forever remain so. Times change, people change, and hopefully one day there will be peace in the Middle East.

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PS: The Cult of Ziontology is a track on the final record release by The Leftards - the Bread and Circuses EP. Calling it a day after a decade performing around Australia, their final gig at a Thirroul pub in May 2026 marks the end of an era for this Australian self-styled SUPERGROUP.

Long live The Leftards (2017 - 2026)

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References / Links

The Leftards, Bread and Circuses, Bandcamp, 26 March 2026, duration: 13.28 minutes.

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Last updated: 28 March 2026

Michael Organ, Australia

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The Leftards - The Cult of Ziontology

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