The letters sections of newspapers don't discriminate against idiots.
This one from Shane McCartin of North Fitzroy appeared in today's Melbourne Age:-
Time for a rethink on Israel, too
NOW that Bush, Blair and Howard are finally expressing doubts about their frolic in Iraq, have they got the honesty to re-evaluate their other Middle East policies? Will they rethink their support for Israel's ongoing destruction of Palestinian civil society and the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations of statehood?
Israel's war against the Palestinians is just as illegitimate as the invasion of Iraq. Both wars are based on lies and deceptions. They both masquerade as wars against terror when, in reality, they are just old-fashioned, outdated, greedy colonial enterprises.
Shane McCartin, North Fitzroy
McCartin believes that Israel's war against the Palestinians is "illegitimate". But if only he could persuade the Palestinians to lay down their arms and come to the negotiating table as they have promised time and again in internationally sponsored agreeements, then perhaps the Israelis might have no need to defend themselves against armed terrorists who explode themselves is buses, schools and restaurants, who fire rockets at civilian targets and who attack unarmed men, women and children. In that event, there might be no "war" for him to write letters about at all.
McCartin is no match however, for Sydneysider Herbert Freilich when it comes to sheer stupidity. This appeared in last Friday's edition of the Australian Jewish News:-
No room for abuse
ONE may or may not agree with the viewpoints expressed by Professor Tanya Reinhart (AJN 13/10), but surely the only proper response should be a rationally-expressed counter-viewpoint – not abuse as illustrated by the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission’s retort about her “outrageous and extreme comments regarding Israel” being “counterproductive to achieving a realistic solution to the conflict”.
The viewpoints Professor Reinhart expressed are not new. They are widely held by people throughout the world, by many Israelis and by many Jews in the Diaspora.
Many of the latter, not wishing to offend and risk abuse from their Jewish colleagues, are reluctant to speak out.
We Jews, including those in Israel, are not reproducing ourselves and should face the reality of decreasing numbers of children per generation, a decrease that is already occurring.
By contrast, the Palestinians and the Arab world in general are increasing exponentially per generation.
A demographic clock is ticking. Time is not on Israel’s side. A hostile population cannot be pacified indefinitely by military means. They only increase the hostility. Peace with the Palestinians and with the Arab world is essential for Israel’s long-or even medium-term future. From my reading, this is what Professor Reinhart was saying.
Herbert Freilich Sydney, NSW
Herbert, you're not a very good reader. If you were, you would acknowledge that most Jews, including the good people at B'nai Brith are very conscious of the demography issue and the need for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours. The majority of Israelis support peace with their Palestinian neighbours and earlier this year voted in a government whose policy was to withdraw from Palestinian territories preferably by negotiation but if not, unilaterally. At around about the same time, the Palestinians elected a government that doesn't even recognise Israel's right to exist.
Moreover Herbert, the words you attribute to B'nai Brith are reasonably mild as far as my abuse meter is concerned; far less abusive than the muck which Ms. Reinhardt throws at her fellow Israelis who she accuses of "ethnically cleansing" the Palestinians.
Now here is where Herbert really excells himself in the stupidity department. My undertsanding is that in every instance of "ethnic cleansing" known to mankind, the population of the group of people being ethnically cleansed diminishes dramatically. Not so the Palestinians according to Herbert.
These people are undergoing a population explosion!
Go figure?
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There's a nice response to McCartin from an Age reader in today's letters section.
Living with terror
SHANE McCartin (Letters, 23/10) may not regard Israel's battle against Hamas, Islamic Jihad and friends as part of the war on terror, but the relatives of the more than 1000 Israelis who have been killed in suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks would beg to differ.
Contrary to McCartin's claims, Israel has accepted the legitimacy of Palestinian aspirations for statehood. Sadly, every offer towards Palestinian statehood has been answered by Palestinian terrorism and now the Palestinians are governed by Hamas, a party dedicated to Israel's destruction.
Robert Friedman, Melbourne
Letters like McCartin's raise some questions about a newspaper's responsibilities when it publishes such tripe.
Do they have any obligation to ensure that what the letterwriter says is the truth?
While we're at it, when are the Mughal descendants, a small group of families, who rule the indigenous locals of Pakistan, going to give up their Islamic colonialism and go back to Delhi where they came from 60 years ago?
The British at that time gave this Delhi elite their own country to rule, along with half the Indian Army (then one of the world's biggest) to impose that rule, because they claimed they would not be safe from persecution in a Hindu majority India. 2 million died in the ensuing chaos of Partition. Millions more were displaced, but did not then sit on the border for decades claiming refugee status and demanding repatriation. Funny that.
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