IN THE DARK?

The tiresome saga of Jeff Halper's travails during his visit to Australia continues with the Sydney Morning Herald's article by the man himself - Diaspora Jewry needs to let go of idealised Israel on Friday. The article was perfectly timed to co-incide with the Jewish Festival of Passover which ensured that the majority of the letters published the following day (all from known Israel baiting letter writers) would be supportive of Halper's cause.

Halper had sufficient publicity and ample opportunity to put forward his case during his sojourn here in March but he continues to play the victim and wails about the the cancellation of a scheduled appearance before a handful of members of one Sydney synagogue and the fact that the Australian Jewish News chose not to advertise an appearance by the veteran Israel basher who has been accused of being less than forthright in his hateful disclosures about the Jewish State.

Halper did manage to get a letter published in the AJN in which he moaned about his poor treatment but failed to state that the main case he is pushing is against the two state solution and therefore anti peace. Nor did he explain why his visit was sponsored by Hamas leaning organisations such as Australians for Palestine and the Loewenstein camp which wants to see an end to Israel as a Jewish State and its replacement with the one state solution - i.e. a prescription for genocide.

The most intriguing part of Halper's little diatribe against the Jewish community was this:

Why was I invited to speak in every university in eastern Australia, yet at Monash University I was forced to hold a secret meeting with Jewish faculty in a darkened room far from the halls of intellectual discourse?

Well, one obvious answer would be that, like the Gaza farce of a year ago when Hamas feigned power shortages and held meetings during broad daylight but with curtains drawn, they could have easily opened the blinds.

Or perhaps those members of Jewish faculty wanted to keep their donors in the dark as to their own act of appeasement with an enemy of the Jewish State?