ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BLOOD LIBEL

Islamic and Arab leaders in Australia are fast developing a penchant for making the most horrendously racist statements about Jews and Israel.

And they are getting away with it - both in the broader community and within their own constituencies.

Last month, it was Australian Arabic Council chairman Roland Jabbour who was quoted in Melbourne Age in support of Hizbullah's Al Manar television channel which broadcasts programmes that describes Jews as "the offspring of apes and pigs" and advocates their annihilation. He told Barney Zwartz of the Age [Jam 'terror TV' broadcasts, says group] that "he would not call Jews the offspring of apes and pigs, but that in the context of 'the crimes of the state of Israel' it was reasonable for al-Manar to do so and to portray Israeli rabbis as killing Christian children to use their blood in Passover meals."

Jabbour made a pathetic and unconvincing attempt to back track on his comments but kept his foot firmly planted in his mouth as an outraged Jewish community group's Anti-Defamation Commission sought sympathetic ears throughout the wider community and among Islamic, Arab and Palestinian groups.

It got very little response from them - not even a critical op ed from supposed moderates like Waleed Aly and Maher Mughrabi who usually have something to say about racism and intolerance in the coverage of issues relevant to the people from this region.

Now joining Jabour and the widely discredited Sheik Hilaly whose racist and misogynist views are now well known (and fortunately condemned by most in this country) is Australian Federation of Islamic Councils President Ikebal Patel who couldn't resist the temptation to draw on Israel as the cause for the problems in far away Afghanistan when asked to comment on the Special Forces Australian soldier who was critically injured in an ambush by the Taliban - Wounded soldier flown to Europe:

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel issued a statement expressing sympathy for the wounded soldiers and their families. He said he was concerned about developments in Afghanistan and the increasing numbers of military and civilian deaths.

And he questioned the continuation of the war and linked the Taliban campaign to the situation in Israel and Palestine.

"There must be a better way to deal with terrorism than by means of war," Mr Patel said. "We must address the many underlying causes of terrorism and violence, such as the 60-year-old injustices and suffering of Palestinian people at the hands of a brutal Israeli regime."

Right.

Apart from the fact that this statement fairly drips with insincerity (Patel's point was to vilify Israel and there's absolutely not a skerrick of sympathy in him for the wounded Aussie soldier), the claim inverts the historical truth of this conflict so that the terrorist becomes the victim and not the instigator and aggressor of violence in the region.

Apologists like Patel simply ignore the fact that the violence and the terror in Israel/Palestine historically stems from attacks on Jews in the 1920's and '30's starting with the horrific massacre of the Jews of Hebron in 1929.

Further, to suggest that the motivation for the Taliban's terrorism in Afghanistan is related at all to the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs ignores the history of the current jihadist campaign. Is Patel really suggesting that Hamas and Hizbullah are no different to Al Qaeda, Iraq's Baath Party, and the Iranian regime?

Meanwhile, the silence of the so-called moderate Arabs in the face of these overt racist comments remains deafening.

It has been a major disappointment that the Arab community has generally failed to embrace the concept of the Peace Team - a group of 13 Palestinians and 13 Israelis competing in the AFL's International Football Championships that end today in Melbourne. The rabid opposition by some of the local Palestinian groups to the concept of Israelis and Palestinians - Jews, Muslims and Christians - playing together in one sporting team to promote peace and reconciliation is not only a tragedy but an indication of how hopeless a task it is to achieve peace in the region.

The silence of Australian Arabs in the face of these developments is another source of despair for the prospects of peace because that silence also seems to be reflected among most Arabs and Palestinians everywhere.