LETTERS COUNTER LIES

The Sunday Age letters editor clearly resides in a different universe to the one occupied by the mob that inhabits the paper from Monday to Saturday. Three rational letters and just one mandatory hate-filled rant from a loony tunes pathological Israel baiter.

At least this selection brings some rationality to the discourse clouded by the agenda driven propaganda we've had to endure from Fairfax over the past weeks and months.  

No parallels to be drawn

June 13, 2010

LINDA Grant (''Is this when public opinion turns against Israel?'' 6/6) has tried to draw some parallels between the voyage of the Exodus and that of the flotilla that sailed for Gaza, but no such comparisons can be made.

The passengers of the Exodus were refugees who, having narrowly escaped death in their homelands, were seeking a safe haven. The passengers of the Turkish flotilla were political activists seeking to make a stand.

The refugees aboard the Exodus had no choice; the passengers of the flotilla had the choice to dock at the port of Ashdod, submit their goods for checking, and accompany the goods to Gaza. The first ships of the flotilla submitted to this procedure and no one was hurt.

The refugees aboard the Exodus were sent back to a country that had already brutally rejected them, while the passengers of the flotilla returned to a faux-heroes welcome in Istanbul that showed the entire event to be a cynical exercise in political point-scoring.

SANDRA GILLIS, Elsternwick

 

Recognising Israel is a starting point

LINDA Grant asks whether the Gaza aid flotilla will finally tip public opinion ''against Israel and the whole Zionist project of a national home for the Jews''.

She clearly sides with Hamas, repudiating Israel's very legitimacy. Surely such recognition is a prerequisite for any meaningful negotiations.

MICHAEL MOND, Elsternwick

 

Middle ground must come first

MUCH of the media coverage of last week's Gaza flotilla raid portrayed the Israeli operation as ''botched'' and subsequently called into question Israel's role in blockading Gaza. But what exactly did the Israeli military do wrong? Lightly armed commandos boarded a ship that was attempting to breach a lawful naval blockade in the belief that they would escort the protesters into dock where their cargo could be examined and sent on to Gaza, their point being made. But the soldiers were confronted by a lynch mob intent on escalating the confrontation in order to create an international incident. It seems most of the world would only have been happy had the Israeli soldiers allowed themselves to be beaten to death.

Gaza is run by a terrorist organisation that espouses genocide of a neighbouring state as its official policy. The equation is not so complicated: if Hamas would recognise the right of Israel to exist in peace then the blockade could be lifted and none of this would be happening.

ALAN FREEDMAN, East St Kilda

 

How sympathies change

HOW times have changed since Otto Preminger made the Zionist propaganda film Exodus in 1960. Then, many admired these illegal European immigrants seeking a new home in Palestine. Now most countries either oppose or are concerned about Israeli conduct in the region since 1948.

Israeli Government propagandist Mark Regev said the Israeli naval boarding parties would continue as long as Hamas controls Gaza, but Israel has been stopping boats calling into Gaza long before Hamas was elected to power. Further, Israel's ''piracy'' in international waters is little different to the activities of Somali pirates, but where are the international navies to protect the aid flotilla boats?

Once taken illegally to Israel, the flotilla activists are jailed and forced to sign deportation orders. Bizarre behaviour, as none wanted to go to Israel in the first place.

ADRIAN JACKSON, Middle Park

"International navies" to protect Somali pirates? Of course Mr. Jackson. Just take a Bex and have a good lie down. It should be much better in the morning.