The Leftards - The Cult of Ziontology

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Vocalizing angst

Way back in 2025 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 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 one of their live gigs, and that was one sunny afternoon back in the day 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 2025, 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 had no problem emoting verbally on the issue. It eventuating 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 produced 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. The lyrics are reproduced below.

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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..... 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. 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 was now an Islamophobe, and on 14 December the Bondi Beach massacre took place. Fuck!

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 campaign continued through to the present day, and HAMAS was the primary perpetrators of it. 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 groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood who, in turn, were following the dictates of the Qur'an and Shariah law which emerged from that. Islamic terrorism, and genocidal actions against Jews, Christians, Hindus and other non-believers ("Infidels") were carried out by Muslims according to these core beliefs. In truth, I saw much of what Israel had done as in the name of self defence, 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. As Zion was simply the rationale for the creation of a nation state for Jewish people, who were in fact indigenous to the Middle East, 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, and will forever remain so. Times 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: 27 March 2026

Michael Organ, Australia