The Hamas takeover and current events in Israel/Palestine/Hamastan are being reported very differently in the media. We've seen Ed O’Loughlin covering the creation of Hamastan in his own inimitable and jaundiced way in the Melbourne Age but it’s even worse in Britain where the BBC’s journalists (and let’s not forget that these people single out Israel for a boycott while their own country is part of an occupying force in Iraq) and various others in the British media see Israel as the villain of the piece.
While the usual suspects screech about imaginary Israeli crimes, in reality it's Israel that is giving shelter to Palestinians fleeing from the carnage of Hamastan and it's Israel that is allowing aid supplies and food into Gaza to avoid the looming disaster brought about by the Hamas putsch. The contents of this article are a sure fire candidate to be shunned by O’Loughlin et al and will ultimately find their way into the blank pages - Dichter: Israel to allow aid supplies, food into Gaza. When it comes to stories such as this which paints Israel as the good guys and the humanitarians, the Age continues to treat its readers like mushrooms and keeps them in the dark.
While the usual suspects screech about imaginary Israeli crimes, in reality it's Israel that is giving shelter to Palestinians fleeing from the carnage of Hamastan and it's Israel that is allowing aid supplies and food into Gaza to avoid the looming disaster brought about by the Hamas putsch. The contents of this article are a sure fire candidate to be shunned by O’Loughlin et al and will ultimately find their way into the blank pages - Dichter: Israel to allow aid supplies, food into Gaza. When it comes to stories such as this which paints Israel as the good guys and the humanitarians, the Age continues to treat its readers like mushrooms and keeps them in the dark.
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Has the Age placed an embargo on letters to the editor relating to the events surrounding the creation of Hamastan? I found none in recent print editions of the Age. Strange?
The Sunday version of the paper however, today published an excellent response to Terry Lane's sordid little propaganda piece from the previous week in which he virtually sought to isolate Israel as the world's only party involved with the production or use of cluster weaponry. Ronnie Braverman is this week's recipient of the Captain Obvious Trophy for the best exposure of Lane's bumbling attempts at journalism:-
IN THE WRONG LANE
Terry Lane (10/6) once again brilliantly proves the adage: why let facts get in the way of a good story? Here Lane continues in his tired crusade by focusing only on the US and Israel as the "purveyors" of cluster bombs. Some inconvenient facts (Human Rights Watch, April 2007):
■ Manufacturing states: from Lane's tirade, you would assume the US and Israel only. Actually, 34 countries manufacture cluster bombs.
■ Exporters: Lane ignores 11 countries that export them.
■ Manufacturers: Lane mentions only "Israeli military industries", but 85 companies make cluster bombs, more than half of which are in Europe.
■ Stockpiles: 75 countries possess these.
■ Use: in the past 15 years, they have been used by Yugoslavia, Russia, the Northern Alliance, Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, NATO, the US, the UK, Netherlands, Israel and Hezbollah.
Yes, cluster bombs are horrific. Yes, they (and the wars that trigger their use) should be banned. But let's have the journalistic integrity to admit that half the world still considers them appropriate, rather than pushing an agenda.
RONNIE BRAVERMAN, Elsternwick
Meanwhile, a comparative plethora of letters were written to the Australian about the Hamastan House of Horrors (and the fact that some Sydney councils are joining the Hamas party by twinning with cities associated with these gangs). Among the many letters were these:-
THE current civil war in the Palestinian territories is tragic, benefits nobody and is potentially despairing for those of us who still hope one day to see a peaceful two-state solution that will empower both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
It is also instructive that those local anti-Zionist fundamentalists who seek to impose a Greater Palestine on the Israeli people have suddenly gone silent. They deserve to be asked the following question: If the Palestinian factions can commit such atrocities against their own brothers, what on earth would they do if they ever got the chance to dominate the Israelis?
Philip Mendes
Kew, Vic
MOAMMAR Mashni accuses Imre Salusinszky of "unmitigated bias". Conveniently, Mashni failed to note his position in the advocacy group Australians for Palestine, but I’m sure he’s not biased, right?
Just this week, Hamas gunmen invaded the house of a Fatah official with mortars and grenades. Not finding him at home, they instead executed his 14-year-old son and three women inside. It must come as a tremendous relief to Palestinian activists such as Mashni that the Marrickville Council issue provides a wonderful distraction from the Palestinian bloodshed currently taking place in Gaza and Lebanon. Palestinians being tied and hurled off roofs by Palestinians, hundreds killed, shootings, riots and bombings, with not an Israeli in sight to conveniently blame. Is there really any wonder why the Palestinians’ neighbours might try to build a fence?
Daniel Lewis
Rushcutters Bay, NSW
THE fighting and bloodshed in Gaza proves that it’s the Palestinians themselves who do not want peace. Gaza has not been under occupation for more than two years and still Israel gets the blame. When will the Palestinians take responsibility for their own territory of Gaza and build rather than destroy? If Israel were to bow to the so-called "right of return" and allow in all of the refugees and their descendants from the 1948 war, it would prove to be genocide for the Israelis.
James Johnson
East Bentleigh, Vic
MOAMMAR Mashni (Letters, 15/6) refers to the moves by Leichhardt and Marrickville councils in Sydney to establish sister-city relationships with Palestinian councils run by groups proscribed as terrorists in Australia, such as Hamas, as gestures of goodwill and peace. In fact, they are highly political decisions that contribute nothing to Middle East peace, as they give legitimacy to groups that need to be either marginalised or abandon their violence and rejectionism. The councils should concentrate their energies on serving their ratepayers rather than spending funds indulging in questionable ideology.
As for Mashni’s claim that Imre Salusinszky’s article was biased, it’s not bias for a reporter to refer to a terrorist group as a terrorist group. It’s bias to avoid doing so.
Nathalie Samia
Randwick, NSW
MOAMMAR Mashni claims that "building sister-city relationships will go much farther in achieving peace than building a concrete mega-wall that divides". Well, given that Palestinians have been murdering each other ad hoc for the past few months and Hamas is now firmly established in Gaza, I guess it goes to show that they have a long way to go in building fraternal relationships.
Philip Ioannou
Paddington, NSW
AS a resident and ratepayer in Marrickville, I would like to congratulate my council on its sister-city relationship with Bethlehem. As Israel’s 10-metre high concrete wall encircles Bethlehem, cutting it off from the world, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, "It is unconscionable that Bethlehem should be allowed to die slowly from strangulation." Thank you Marrickville Council for trying to build bridges, not walls.
Jennifer Killen
St Peters, NSW
I wonder whether Desmond Tutu made those remarks about the strangulation of Bethlehem quoted by Ms. Killen in the full knowledge that under Palestine Authority rule, the Christian population has been diminishing at an alarming rate thanks to strangulation at the hands of Fatah and Hamas?
Just in case anybody is wondering what the sister city is all about, here's the Australian article about it - http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,21896625,00.html
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