LETTER OF THE WEEK

This one was published in today's Age!

ONE-SIDED VIEW

MICHAEL Stevens (Letters, 12/5) laments the exit of Ed O'Loughlin for the loss of clear-sighted and courageous analysis of the terrible situation in Israel/Palestine. I wonder if Mr Stevens and I have been reading the same paper.

Consistently Mr O'Loughlin's articles portrayed Palestinian deaths in the course of fighting Israel. No doubt the death of any innocent civilian is a horrific event and should be condemned. However, he never really managed to give the complete picture of why these events occurred.

His work often rode on the strong inference that Israel, as a more powerful adversary in this conflict, was the aggressor and responsible for cruelly punishing Palestinians in Gaza, thus perpetuating the misery of the war.

In my view, it is poor journalism to not also refer the plight of the Palestinians to the actions of successive generations of Palestinian political leaders, who have failed to get past a blind determination to destroy Israel completely. As much as any Israeli tank this political failure oppresses Palestinians.

Jason Fink, Chadstone

Jason, I respectfully suggest that you have both been reading the same newspaper but, unlike Mr. Stevens, you know exactly what was left in the blank pages!