THE BLANK PAGES OF THE AGE

LETTER OF THE DAY

2012-01-30T17:33:00.000+11:00

Today's Australian.

More questions raised about that Greens Senator

CHRISTIAN Kerr highlights Senator Lee Rhiannon's communist past including her support for the Soviet Union at at time of "heightened persecution of Soviet Jews" ("Secret past of Greens senator", 28-29/1).

The Soviet anti-Semitic campaign included allegations that Zionism was a tool of Western imperialism and Jewish capitalism, that Zionists had collaborated with the Nazis to perpetrate the Holocaust and that Zionism was a racist philosophy.

Rhiannon's support for the Soviet regime during this period poses questions about the motivation behind her support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

Philip Mendes, Kew, Vic

Worth keeping a secret

2012-01-29T07:47:00.000+11:00

Christian Kerr exposes Green's Senator Lee Rhiannon's secret past, her connections a man identified as a KGB agent and the influence of the former communist hard left within the Greens Party in the Weekend Australian - Secret past of Greens senator Lee Rhiannon

Rhiannon is known for her radical stance against Israel and her involvement in the racist BDS movement, a stance embraced by many of her fellow Watermelon Green travellers.

I wonder how many of those who voted for the Greens at the last election were aware of who they were electing?

More from the propaganda factory

2012-01-28T14:07:00.007+11:00

I was rather bemused to discover on reading this in our local pro-Palestinian propaganda sheet, Al Age - No stone left unpunished.

Having lost their dignity and their moral compass the Al Age editors have really sunk to a new low with this rehash of a previously published and discredited story.

Do they really think that their readership are such mindless cretins as to swallow the proposition that when Palestinian children fling petrol bombs at Israeli soldiers or settlers, this is not a serious offence? That you have to get into the real heavy form of assault and murder before an offence becomes serious?

Try throwing a petrol bomb in the middle of Federation Square this afternoon* and sit back and wait to see whether the public thinks it's a serious offence?

Of course that's not all that's fishy in this Al Age article. When one reads this piece from AIJAC - When propaganda masquerades as fact one can easily understand exactly why this is so and why its credibility on matters Middle Eastern plumbs new depths with every day.

* I don't recommend this by the way.

KOSMINSKY'S KON

2012-01-27T18:32:00.001+11:00

Supporters of Peter Kosminsky's disgraceful series The Promise like to point to the fact that the writer is Jewish and many of the actors are Jews and Israeli; therefore the script must be kosher.

Well, not really.

Not according to cast memmbers - The Promise: Even the extras felt ashamed

Israelis Yehudit and Chaim Collins who worked as extras on the film say they were told by an agency that the scenes were for a film set in the 1940s, called Homeland.

Mrs Collins says that Kosminsky "exploited every known antisemitic cliché in this admittedly extremely well-made, and therefore convincing, work of fiction."

Kosminsky:

"We've shown the final film in Israel to show to the cast and crew and they loved it. They knew what they were working on."

There are enough lies on the final version so what's wrong with one more?

HIZBULLAH TO THE WORLD: "GET STUFFED"

2012-01-26T07:15:00.003+11:00

"For the UN secretary general the military capacity of Hezbollah is not acceptable - for Israel, as for any other nation faced by a similar terrorist threat, it is intolerable." - Moshe Arens in Haaretz - Better late than never.

Hezbollah's leader Hasan Nassrallah's response to Mr. Ban Ki-moon:

"We are pleased by your concern. We want you, the U.S. and Israel to be concerned ... Hezbollah will not relinquish its weapons."

Now piss off Ki-moon and stop bothering Hizbullah. They're too busy building up weapons and murdering Syrian opponents of Assad's regime (Syrian regime 'importing snipers' for protests) to be bothered with you.

The celebration of imperialist lackeydom

2012-01-25T07:44:00.001+11:00

Colonialism and imperialism used to be the scourge of any self-respecting leftist but thanks to Peter Kosminsky's "The Promise" it has made a stunning comeback in these circles.

Suddenly, the word of British soldiers who took part in the British occupation is taken as the gospel truth while those who fought to remove them from their land are thieves, murderers and liars. The old system has been thrown over its head.

Well, not exactly because the new system only applies when there are Jews involved.

Absent the Jews and guerilla warfare against the imperialist enemy and its lackeys is, um, well ... still kosher.

But terrorism, as evidenced by the small group of nasty Jews in their war against the British and by the modern day Israelis who have the utter gall to resist suicide bombers and missile attacks on their civilians is bad. In every other conflict, we will find an excuse for it because one man's terrorism is another man's fish.

That's why The Promise can't be taken seriously - because if the basic premise is that those murdering Jews lost the hearts and minds of the British troops back in the mandate days because of the behaviour of the Irgun and Stern Gang then what does it say about Islamist terror today that's evident in dozens of different parts of the globe and responsible for so much death and destruction today? Look at Iraq, the Phillipines, Afghanistan, Thailand, Syria and Nigeria - it's everywhere!

However, in the eyes of those who subscribe to the Kosminsky world view, that sort of violence only deserves our condemnation if the perpetrators are circumcised*.

* ladies, please forgive my non-pc ways but it's a different world today and my mind's been blown after hearing the latest rendition of the Internationale from the local muezzin.

TIME THE IMPEDIMENT?

2012-01-24T06:21:00.003+11:00

You would have thought that a student of Jewish History could spell "Anti-Semitism" but not Sara Dowse, an apologist for The Promise, the British series run by SBS late last year.

A letter from Dowse to Michael Ebeid of SBS gets a run on the website of Australians for Palestine. In it, she tries to justify the screening of the series and attacks the comprehensive complaint from Mr Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry about the recent SBS screening of the series. She claims to be "a student of Jewish history and the British Mandate period in particular" and reckons that she found it to be "an amazingly fair-minded fictional portrayal of an immensely complex set of events".

Naturally, as with virtually every critic of Jewish community stand, she fails to go into any specifics. Apparently, she's been thinking about it but "time has been the only impediment".

I would suggest to Dowse that time isn't the only impediment as she goes on to add:

"I’ve been surprised not to hear of negative comment about ‘The Promise’ until now, given that the knee-jerk response to anything remotely critical of Israel or the Jewish partisans in the lead-up to its establishment is to slap on the label of Anti-Semiticism."

One wonders what world she's been living in and really ... if she's such an expert on the subject she professes to be so knowledgeable about, why she can't address one of the many examples of the Wertheim complaint and debate about it and then perhaps, tell us what "Anti-Semiticism" means.

Persiflage or Propaganda - one side now

2012-01-23T09:27:00.003+11:00

A couple of days ago I referred to a deceitful piece of propaganda dressed up as news in the Melbourne Age about the Palestinian Speed Sisters who drive at speeds of 200 km/h in the shadows of the oppression of the occupation.

The Australian's Cut and Paste has identified the same story calling it "Persiflage or propaganda?"

I'll settle for both.

I'm still wondering if the Palestine Bureau chief of the Age ever bothers to look at the other side. For instance, here's an interesting piece from The Jerusalem Post - Israel and the Palestinian Arabs – The last six months (Part 1).

"... just last week we read that Israeli doctors are treating the wife of the mastermind of the Munich massacre. Abu Daoud’s terrorist gang murdered 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972. Today, his wife is being cared for at Tel Aviv’s Assuta Hospital. Her three daughters from Ramallah, Jordan and Syria have even been granted visas to visit her."

Perfect for the Blank Pages of the Age.

CONDEMNATION OF ONGOING HUMAN RIGHTS REPRESSION IN GAZA, EXPRESSES SOLIDARITY WITH RIGHTS ACTIVIST ASSAULTED

2012-01-22T07:54:00.001+11:00

The International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians (Chairperson Fiamma Nirenstein MP) has issued a condemnation of ongoing human rights repression in Gaza.

Rome — "As chairperson of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians I would like to express the solidarity of our organization with Mahmoud Abu Rahma, a human and civil rights activist, who has been recently stabbed in Gaza, as reported by Al-Mezan, a Gaza-based NGO that employs Mr. Abu Rahma.

The attack is allegedly connected to the release of an article written by Abu Rahma in December, in which he sharply criticized the Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, as well as Gazan and West Bank leadership, for repeated human and civil rights violations, banning the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, and the use of torture and illegal detentions, which resulted in the death of several individuals. In his article, Abu Rahma also condemned the unfortunate common practice by terrorist groups to act in "densely-populated areas", displaying a "continuous negligence of the resistance groups who show little or no care for people's life and well being".

The abuse of human rights in Gaza has steadily increased since Hamas’ coup in 2007. Political opponents, women, homosexuals, religious minorities are reported to be under a growing threat. There has also been mounting intolerance toward Gaza's small Shiite minority, which has lately experienced harassment and mass arrests while celebrating a Shiite holiday.

The International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, an organization committed to uphold the principles of democracy, further the cause of human rights and promote the rule of law, firmly condemns the ongoing repression in Gaza. We praise the courage of Mahmoud Abu Rahma and we call on the international community to open its eyes and act to shine a light on Gaza’s human rights situation, first and foremost by supporting political objectors, so that their exposure will not be vain".

The tragedy is that most of the world doesn't know or care about the likes of Mahmoud Abu Rahma. He should have been a racing driver.

It's just not right for them to put our suicide bombers in jail!

2012-01-21T23:24:00.007+11:00

The Palestinian Speed Sisters: Racing for unthruth, injustice and the Palestine Authority way!

It looks as though the Age Palestine Bureau newbie, Ruth Pollard, is following office policy to never miss an opportunity to remind readers about the Israeli occupation complete with road blocks and check points designed to make life difficult for the Palestinians. Every activity the Palestinians undertake today - even their sports - must be dictated by that same old tired story of oppression by those nasty, sadistic Jews who, for no reason at all, make life difficult for these charming people who want nothing more in their lives than to love their fellow humans. Pollard's effort today is a good example - Palestinian women take the fast track to freedom.

In a story about a few Palestinian chicks who like racing cars, Pollard doesn't hold back in letting her dumb readership know about Israel's military occupation which allegedly "permeates every part of Palestinian life, enforced by a network of checkpoints staffed by heavily armed soldiers, many of them fresh out of school".

I say "dumb", because almost every article published nowadays in this newspaper about the conflict between Israel and the Arabs always seems to boil down to that single point while the other side of the conflict is routinely ignored. If anyone can be convinced that the current situation has been brought about by one side only and that the Palestinians are blameless in this tragic scenario, then that person is a dumb fool.

And I reckon the Age thinks that there are enough dumb fools among its readership to think that it can get away with consigning any negative story about the Palestinians and their supporters directly into the blank pages that nobody is allowed to read.

We are rarely informed about the reasons why the occupation continues to this very day - how the dysfunctional Palestinian leadership has refused to negotiate on countless Israeli peace offers, how divided they are and how Hamas in Gaza preaches genocide against its Jewish neighbours and how the corrupt and duplicitous Palestine Authority does the same but only unofficially. The fact remains that right now in officially sanctioned PA media the hate and bigotry against the Jews is there for everyone to see - unless you're like the Age and you don't want to see and you don't want your readers to know about it. That's why news about such real news like the call by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein for the killing of Jews on PA television is off Pollard's radar, not to mention the constant threats of violence against Jews and the regular missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets where school busses are attacked and infants get their throats slit while in bed.

So what we're left with is a puff piece story about a few Palestinian chicks who like driving fast - so fast that when one of them drove at 200km/h on a highway in Israel she was busted by the cops (read: occupation regime) who took away her licence. Now, the bastards will only let her "drive her modified black 328i BMW on the track, or at the practice area in the shadow of Ofer prison in Betunia, where so many Palestinians have been tried before military courts and jailed."

You have to love the way Pollard managed to weave the propaganda about Palestinians being tried before military courts and jailed into a tale about a driver who risks the lives of other road users by going at double the speed limit. Never mind that Pollard neglects to provide examples of why some of these people were tried and jailed in the first place?

Oh, and she must have forgotten the quote,

"It's just not right for them to put our suicide bombers in jail!"

If the occupation is bad and so oppressive, why are the Israelis allowing these women to race in Israel's formula-three competition in Eilat which is part of the Jewish State and not "occupied territory"?

The Speed Sisters recently went to Britain and one told Pollard how beautiful London was with her "long dark curls spilling over the impossibly cool Ferrari jacket she picked up on the trip." That's a fantastic line for a laugh especially when you think about how they would go about speeding cars and wearing that racy gear in Gaza, the home of fundamentalists in Hamas?

While in London she probably turned on the television to view The Promise and thought she was back home watching the racist anti-Semitic revisionist history the PA puts on. The only difference is that the folks back home aren't as dumb as the Age thinks its readership is - although they're still embarrassed because they know it's all lies and garbage.

Meanwhile, in Gaza the disgusting treatment of women, gays and religious minorities under Hamas goes on unabated without being reported here, but who cares? Not Al Age.

So, all we're left with is the comment of one of those Palestinian blokes who boasts that in "Saudi Arabia, women are prevented from driving - here in Palestine we have women who drive race cars."

They've been letting women drive cars in Israel since it's inception - is that good?

The Front Page of Today's Age ...

2012-01-18T07:15:00.005+11:00

... doesn't contain articles such as these to provide readers with some context -

Firstly, free speech as expressed in areas controlled by the Palestine Authority whose representative was quoted on the front page of yesterday's Age as supporting racist stereotyping against Jews. This is from Palwatch.

Then, there's this article from Haaretz about how the other mob from Gaza treat fellow Muslims - Hamas brutally assaults Shiite worshippers in Gaza.

It's strange how a newspaper can omit to publish such stories from the region but never misses a beat when it comes to highlighting the poor behaviour of a small sect of Jews in Israel (except that it fails to mention their anti Zionist leanings).

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2012-01-16T09:26:00.000+11:00

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrating the life of the great American civil rights leader who was assassinated in April, 1968.

Ten days before his assassination, Dr. King said:

"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs. Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security, and that security must be a reality."

IT FIGURES

2012-01-15T09:16:00.000+11:00

ISRAEL IN FIGURES

THE ECAJ COMPLAINT ABOUT THE PROMISE

2012-01-13T13:37:00.005+11:00

There is a debate raging about the ECAJ complaint about the SBS series The Promise.

The complaint is set out here.

Regretably, we are already seeing attacks on the Jews for simply making of the complaint and to the everlasting shame, some of those doing so claim to be Jewish themselves.

However, I don't expect any critique on the substance of the ECAJ complaint from these people. I doubt they are aware of or understand the history of the conflict and they certainly don't care about the deception and the outright lies perpetrated by this propaganda piece thinly disguised in the veil of a work of fiction.

Here's a sample from the complaint:-

The Jewish narrative is either falsified or simply not told. For example, there is no mention at all of:-

the history of Palestinian Arabs attacking Jews before 1948, including the 1886 attack on Petah Tikva, attacks against Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall in 1911, murders of Jews in 1912, riots and deadly pogroms against Jews in 1920, 1921 and 1929, the Hebron Massacre in 1929, the years of Arab terror between 1936 and 1939 and atrocities committed by Palestinians against Jews in the period 1946-8;

the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel for more than 3,000 years, including the existence over many centuries of the independent and at times sovereign States of Israel and Judah, all of which is attested to by an abundance of archaeological and documentary evidence;

the fact that the Hebrew language and culture of the Jewish people is a Semitic language and culture which is indigenous to the land of Israel;

the fact that there were five waves of mass Jewish immigration into the country between 1881 and 1939 and that the Jewish immigrants established the institutions of statehood and civil society and a viable economy well prior to the Holocaust and World War II;

the fact that the international community, as early as 1920, recognised the legitimacy of the Jewish people’s aspirations to reconstitute their national home in Israel and obligated Britain, as the Mandatory power, to “facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes”.

I have no confidence whatsoever in the ability of the SBS which, after all made the decision to air the series without allowing a discussion on the historic inaccuracy that undermines its validity. It is far too conflicted to make a fair and considered appraisal of the complaint even when one ignores the internal political pressure within its ranks.

Now let's be clear about this. Israel's detractors will not allow a discussion of the inconvenient points made above. They will seek to airbrush them out of existence and attempt to shut down any debate on the substance while, at the same time cry foul that this is an issue of free speech and that the Jews are the ones attempting to censor the work of their critics.

Try that when there's an issue of racist stereotyping against anyone else and see where it gets you.

ARAB SPRING SPRUNG

2012-01-12T06:19:00.000+11:00

At the same time that the likes of the Melbourne Age bury their heads in the sand and remain in denial about the effects of the so-called Arab Spring on the Middle East, the Australian's Greg Sheridan in Territorial compromise loses ground in Arab Spring explains that the peace process remains diabolically perilous.

Ultimately, Israel won't make a peace deal unless it believes a Palestinian government can govern its territory effectively, provide law and order there and prevent attacks on Israel from Palestinian territory. That is inconceivable today and all the trends of the Arab Spring make it ever more unlikely.

That is not to say it is worthless to have a peace process. The two sides need to be talking. Not only that, I have become convinced it is vital for the Palestinians to have a political horizon, a political road, an acknowledgment that everyone accepts that they should have a state eventually.

PALESTINIANS SCREWING JEWS

2012-01-11T11:14:00.001+11:00

I'm thinking of sending this to SBS to help them understand how offensive it can be when you start stereotyping people.

HAMAS LEADER WARNS PA ABOUT PURSUING PEACE

2012-01-10T21:19:00.000+11:00

You would think this to be an important piece of news about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians but you are not likely to read about this in the mainstream press in this country.

Strangely enough, when the current round of talks blow up, we'll know all about it and we know who will get the blame in the local Arabist rag.

Hamas leader warns PA against pursuing peace with Israel instead of Palestinian unity

AGE LETTERS WHITEOUT

2012-01-09T06:39:00.001+11:00

The Arabist Al Age published the following letter in yesterday's edition:

Voluntary segregation

IN RESPONSE to the article ''Faith in equality a must'' (Comment, 2/1), the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in January 2011 that it is illegal to enforce gender separation on public buses, but the ruling allowed that the buses in question could run temporarily on the basis that any segregation must be voluntary.

Sharyn Mittelman, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, South Melbourne

If you think it doesnt make sense, you might be right. I wonder how much content the letters editor airbrushed out of existence to achieve that outcome and why on earth it was deemed necessary to mangle such a letter in the first place?

The Promise and its ludicrous brainwashed prejudice

2012-01-08T11:25:00.001+11:00

This brilliant piece was written some time ago by Howard Jacobson about the SBS series The Promise - Ludicrous, brainwashed prejudice

Forget Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is old hat. The new strategy – it showed its hand in Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children, and surfaced again in Channel 4's recent series The Promise – is to depict the Holocaust in all its horror in order that Jews can be charged ("You, of all people") with failing to live up to it. By this logic the Holocaust becomes an educational experience from which Jews were ethically obliged to graduate summa cum laude, Israel being the proof that they didn't. "Jews know more than anyone that killing civilians is wrong," resounds an unmistakably authorial voice in The Promise. Thus are Jews doubly damned: to the Holocaust itself and to the moral wasteland of having found no humanising redemption in its horrors.

It matters not a jot to me that the writer/director of The Promise is a Jew. Jews succumbing to the age-old view of them and reviling what's Jewish in themselves has a long history. Peter Kosminsky would have it that his series is about Israel, not
Jews, but in The Promise Israel becomes paradigmatic of the Jews' refusal to be
improved by affliction.

In a morally intelligent world – that's to say one in which, for starters, Jews are not judged more harshly than their fellows for having been despatched to concentration camps – The Promise would be seen for the ludicrous piece of brainwashed prejudice it is. Ofcom's rejection of complaints about the drama's partiality and inaccuracy was to be expected. You can't expect a body as intellectually unsophisticated as Ofcom to adjudicate between claims of dramatic truth and truth of any other sort. And for that
reason it should never have been appealed to. That said, its finding that The Promise was "serious television drama, not presented as a historical and faithful re-creation", is a poor shot at making sense of anything. You can't brush aside historical re-creation in a work of historical re-creation, nor can you assert a thing is "serious television" when its seriousness is what's in question. A work isn't serious by virtue of its thinking it is. Wherein lies the seriousness, one is entitled to ask, when the drama creaks with the bad faith of a made-up mind.

BOMBED!

2012-01-07T14:12:00.001+11:00

According to today's Australian newspaper, a suicide bomb attack ripped through central Damascus last night, killing at least 25 people and wounding 46.

Suicide blast kills 25 in Syria

Two weeks ago, 44 people were killed in a similar attack.

It's not big news when a couple dozen Arabs get murdered by other Arabs rather than Jews so don't expect the story to get much prominence elsewhere.

The Lament of the Age

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000+11:00

J-wire contributor Raffe Gold lambasts anti-zionist Anthony Loewenstein over his latest piece of nonsensical blogging in The Lament Over Loewenstein but, as worthy as his criticism might be, the real problem is with the opinion piece which Loewenstein quotes and which appeared in both the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald on 2 January, 2012.

Loewenstein is, after all, a proven ignoramous but one expects a lot more from the Fairfax press than a piece which totally misrepresents the recent events in Israel involving a minority group of religious fanatics and their disgraceful attitude towards women in public.

As Gold points out, most of the groups involved, such as the Netura Karta are vehemently ant-zionist but it's doubtful whether anything in Al Age or SMH would alert its readers to the fact that such despicable people are on the same side as Loewenstein and many of the apologists for Islamism who regularly write opinion pieces for the Fairfax organisation.

BROKEN PROMISE

2012-01-05T09:36:00.002+11:00

I haven't said anything yet about the series "The Promise" recently shown on SBS because I recorded it (for home use only) and only finished watching it yesterday.

I will have more to say on this highly fictionalised account which will no doubt be used by the anti-Israel crowd and Jew bashing fraudsters for years to come and almost certainly disingenuously passed off as evenly remotely authentic by those who love to twist and distort the history of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs.

In the meantime, I have a question for my readers. My VCR ran out of tape five minutes early so I missed the ending.

Did the Grand Mufti win the Nobel Peace Prize in the final scene or did they award it posthumously to Hitler that year?

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE IDF

2012-01-01T00:01:00.002+11:00

Hat tip: elderof ziyon

ANOTHER FINKLER'S CHRISTMAS

2011-12-28T07:28:00.002+11:00

Anti-Israel propagandists rely heavily on Finkler family members – Jews who are Jewish in name only but who gleefully use any means of guild and deception to rub shit in the Jewish State’s face.

I mentioned one of them a few days ago but the Palestinian cause needs more than a ham actress who enjoys farting in public. The cause is so desperate that it actually dug up a fellow who masqueraded as a Jew but really isn’t. Back in July, Ha'aretz published a column by a would-be flotilla participant, Gabriel Matthew Schivone - A Moment before boarding the next flotilla but the trouble is that Schivone is no angel but is, in fact, like most Finklers - a liar. He’s not a Jew at all - Would-Be Flotilla Participant Poses as Jew in Ha'aretz.

Still, he's such an anal person that I just had to include him in the Finkler crowd. After all, while Islamists like the ones who might have benefitted from Schiavone's flotilla (had it not been such a flop) are wreaking havoc and killing people across the world in places like Nigeria and Irak, at least he can enjoying his Christmas the way all Finklers do - by blowing wind.

THE FINKLER FAMILY CELEBRATE XMAS

2011-12-25T10:05:00.002+11:00

It's Xmas day and what better way to celebrate it with the dirtbag members of the Finkler family.

Here's one about a nice Jewish girl who once accepted a role in the Australians for Palestine antisemitic production of Seven Jewish Children -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLUUjCy9OZs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XgRETUkIjXw

Very funny, good for a laugh and it tells us a lot about this piece of ...

Truth crushed again in the Melbourne Age

2011-12-24T08:33:00.003+11:00

At this time of year, regular as clockwork, comes a piece in the Melbourne Age, often concocted by someone from the London Guardian that is full of the usual bias against Israel and which tells some real whoppers about settlements, walls and restriction of movement in and around the birthplace of Jesus.

This year is no exception. We were served up with the usual tripe from Al Guardian's Phoebe Greenwood with the usual one-sided story that exaggerates every aspect of a narrative told from one side only - complete with the views of an Israeli anti-government Peace Now activist but no true mainstream Israeli perspective - Christmas spirit crushed in besieged Bethlehem

Greenwood's opening gambit demonstrates how problematic it is when a reporter engages in producing propaganda for one side in a conflict.

Quoting a local parish priest Greenwood tells her readers that "if Joseph and Mary were making their way to Bethlehem today, the Christmas story would be a little different."

"The couple would struggle to get into the city, let alone find a place to stay.

''If Jesus were to come this year, Bethlehem would be closed.''

Since Joseph and Mary were Jewish, I would say there's a fair chance that if they were heading to Bethlehem today, they might not only struggle to get into the town; they might struggle to survive the experience.

But a minor little fact like that wouldn't deter the Age or get in the way of their sordid storytelling.

Elsewhere in the same newspaper there was a little puff piece that glancingly covers a very real issue for Christians, not only in Bethlehem but throughout the Middle East where they form a minority in Muslim areas. Things are different in Israel where Christianity is thriving but Al Guardian and Al Age won't deliver that story to you at any time soon.

Bethlehem itself once had a Christian majority but its population is dwindling rapidly. The situation is such that one day, nobody living in the place will care about those three Jews, Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus. I wonder what the folks at Fairfax will have to say about that!

INTELLIGENCE RETURNS TO THE AGE

2011-12-21T06:42:00.004+11:00

According to the Melbourne Age these seven people have been identified as Israeli spies who assassinated the Hamas thug in Dubai last year.

It really must have hurt them to publish this but, for what it's worth, here it is: - Israeli relations warm as intelligence returns.

As with most things this newspaper publishes about Israel these days, Daniel Flitton's piece is riddled with speculation.

The claim that Hamas mass murderer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was simply "an agent and weapons dealer" is clearly risible.

Funnier still, is the extraordinary statement that "Investigators identified more than 20 members of a suspected Mossad team on cameras inside the Dubai hotel where Mabhouh's body was discovered."

Names please, Mr. Flitton?

PALESTINIANS DECLARE WAR ON ISRAEL

2011-12-20T08:08:00.000+11:00

... and the world ignores it all.

Fatah declares 'war' on normalization with Israel

Now imagine how Al Age would carry on if Israel's major parties announced something like this?

40 BUTCHERED BY ASSAD IN SYRIA BUT WHERE'S THE AGE

2011-12-18T11:15:00.000+11:00

No McGeough either ... and some of the victims are children.

Shame.

Only in Israel

2011-12-14T15:00:00.001+11:00

"Only in Israel" By Israeli humorist, Efraim Kishon

Israel is a country surrounded on all sides by enemies, but the people's headaches are caused by the neighbors upstairs.

Israel is the only country in the world where the coffee is already so good that Starbucks went bankrupt trying to break into the local market.

Israel is one of the few places in the world where the sun sets into the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel is the only country in the world whose soldiers eat three sets of salads a day, none of which contain any lettuce (which is not really a food), and where olives ARE a food and even a main course in a meal, rather than something one tosses into a martini.

Israel is the only country in the world where one is unlikely to dig a cellar without hitting ancient archaeological artifacts.

Israel is the only country in the world where the leading writers in the country take buses.

Israel is the only country in the world where the graffiti is in Hebrew.

Israel is the only country in the world that has a National Book Week, during which almost everyone attends a book fair and buys books.

Israel is a country where the same drivers who cuss you and flip you the bird will immediately pull over and offer you all forms of help if you look like you need it.

Israel is the only country in the world with bus drivers and taxi drivers who read Spinoza and Maimonides.

Israel is the only country in the world where no one cares what rules say when an important goal can be achieved by bending them.

Israel is the only country in the world where reservists are bossed around and commanded by officers,male and female, younger than their own children.

Israel is the only country in the world where "small talk" consists of loud, angry debate over politics and religion.

Israel is the only country in the world where the ultra-Orthodox Jews beat up the police and not the other way around.

Israel is the only country in the world where inviting someone "out for a drink" means drinking cola, coffee or tea.

Israel is the only country in the world where bank robbers kiss the mezuzahas when they leave with their loot.

Israel is one of the few countries in the world that truly likes and admires the United States.

Israel is the only country in the world that introduces applications of high-tech gadgets and devices, such as printers in banks that print out your statement on demand, years ahead of the United States and decades ahead of Europe.

Israel is the only country in the world where everyone on a flight gets to know one another before the plane lands. In many cases, they also get to know the pilot and all about his health or marital problems.

Israel is the only country in the world where no one has a foreign accent because everyone has a foreign accent.

Israel is the only country in the world where people cuss using dirty words in Russian or Arabic because Hebrew has never developed them.

Israel is the only country in the world where patients visiting physicians end up giving the doctor advice.

Israel is the only country in the world where everyone strikes up conversations while waiting in lines.

Israel is the only country in the world where people call an attache case a "James Bond" and the "@" sign is called a "strudel".

Israel is the only country in the world where there is the most mysterious and mystical calm ambience in the streets on Yom Kippur, which cannot be explained unless you have experienced it. Sunsets in Jerusalem are gorgeous every evening.

Israel is the only country in the world where people read English, write Hebrew, and joke in Yiddish.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS

2011-12-12T11:56:00.005+11:00

This brilliant cartoon which sums up the truth about the United Nations comes from Henry.

ANOTHER CASE OF DISHONEST REPORTING

2011-12-07T09:38:00.000+11:00

Today, the Melbourne Age publishes an article from the Guardian's Harriett Sherwood entitled Israel to move 'illegal' camps.

Written in typical Guardian and Al Age style the article does little else but to regurgitate UN propaganda against Israel.

The AGe even published after Sherwood's piece was skewered by CiF Watch - Harriet Sherwood’s report on Bedouin copy-pastes UNRWA anti-Israel propaganda.

What would you expect from the Age with its bevy of foreign correspondents whose main aim is ... ?

WORLD GONE MAD

2011-12-06T07:16:00.001+11:00

Lebanon has filed a complaint to the United Nations over Israel's artillery response to its retaliation to Katyusha rockets fired into Israel late last month claiming it to a violation of UNSC Res. 1701 and of international law - Lebanon files UN complaint against Israel.

That's the resolution that the United Nations has failed routinely to enforce against the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah since it was passed after the Second Lebanon War.

It's things such as these that turn the United Nations and international law into bullshit.

SUICIDAL PASSION

2011-11-26T12:28:00.000+11:00

Interesting article from Ruth R. Wisse - The Suicidal Passion Who is damaged more by anti-Semitism — Jews, or those who organize politics against them?

... and while you're at it ...

2011-11-18T06:08:00.000+11:00

Fairfax four facing probe by MPs

THE GREENS AGAIN

2011-11-11T15:11:00.000+11:00

Greens' boycott a disgrace, says judge

MORE IDIOT WINDS

2011-11-07T15:19:00.000+11:00

I don't quite get this.

A boatload of Free Gaza flotillistas with nothing on board but a few unwashed individuals arrive in waters off Gaza and are intercepted by the IDF and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Whilst they are there, their terrorist friends from Gaza fire missiles indiscriminately in the direction of Ashdod.

Go figure?

UNESCO

2011-11-03T12:02:00.002+11:00

Now that Palestine has been welcomed into UNESCO I suppose the Palestine Authority will replace its racist Jew hating school text books with something a little more appropriate.

Something foul this way comes

2011-10-28T08:55:00.003+11:00

The inaptly named Australians for Palestine continue on their self-defeating campaign to trash the Palestinian brand -
Stooping to use people who call themselves Jews but support a campaign that is intended to wipe out the Jewish State is as low as you can get.

These people are causing more harm to the Palestinians that to any Israeli.

A FATHER'S DELIGHT

2011-10-19T08:12:00.001+11:00

Kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held hostage for more than five years by the democratically elected Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and released in return for more than a thousand prisoners, is welcomed home by his father Noam.

This is the story of the conflict.

Other sons are no doubt being hugged by fathers but they were also swearing to try to commit further violence against their Jewish neighbours. Shalit's message was that he hoped for peace.

GILAD SHALIT IS COMING HOME

2011-10-12T07:22:00.000+11:00

It appears that Hamas has struck a deal with Israel for the release of its soldier Gilad Shalit who was abducted five years ago.

In return for Shalit, an undisclosed number of Palestinians will be set free.

The release of Gilad Shalit is a human rights victory of the highest order.

There will be no celebrations of his release from the fax human rights activists who have been silent these five years while Gilad Shalit was kept in captivity by the evil regime that rules the Palestinian people of Gaza and which denied their prisoner even the most basic of human rights.

There will be no pronouncements by these so called activists about the disproportionality between the value of one Jewish life as against the value of possibly a thousand Palestinians for they are nothing but rank hypocrites.

Still, the most important thing is that Gilad Shalit will soon be free and back with his family and his people.

DURBAN WATCH

2011-10-07T07:17:00.000+11:00

DURBAN WATCH

Dershowitz at his best.

MALCOLM FRASER AND HIS LOVER AFFAIR WITH HAMAS

2011-10-04T10:35:00.003+11:00

Here's that old smoothie Malcolm Fraser who bludgeoned democracy in Australia many years ago, doing the same for the people of the Middle East with his continuing love affair for the genocidal thugs of Hamas - It's now time for the West to recognise Palestinian statehood.

We're not sure whether he kept his pants on while writing this.

LET'S GIVE TERRORSTINE STATEHOOD

2011-10-03T16:36:00.001+11:00

MEMRI: Fatah Central Committee Member Abbas Zaki Calls Netanyahu and Obama "Scumbags" and Says: "The Greater Goal Cannot Be Accomplished in One Go"

In their own words:

Abbas Zaki: The settlement should be based upon the borders of June 4, 1967. When we say that the settlement should be based upon these borders, President [Abbas] understands, we understand, and everybody knows that the greater goal cannot be accomplished in one go.

If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, evacuates the 650,000 settlers, and dismantles the wall – what will become of Israel? It will come to an end.

[...]
Who is nervous, upset, and angry now? Netanyahu, Lieberman, and Obama... All those scumbags. Why even get into this? We should be happy to see Israel upset.

[...]
If we say that we want to wipe Israel out... C'mon, it's too difficult. It's not [acceptable] policy to say so. Don't say these things to the world. Keep it to yourself.

I want the resolutions that everybody agrees upon. I say to the world, to the Quartet, and to America: You promised, and you turned out to be liars.

[...]

A QUESTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS SUPPORTERS

2011-10-01T07:48:00.002+10:00

Robert L. Bernstein, the chairman of the group Advancing Human Rights and founding chairman emeritus of Human Rights Watch, asks in the Washington Post ""http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Human rights groups, which could be highlighting the crimes of Arab dictatorships against Israel and each other, have instead chosen to focus primarily on Israel. They continually discount the extraordinary steps Israel takes to protect civilians on both sides — steps approved by military experts, such as using pamphlets, phone calls and even noise bombs to scare people away from a location before a bombing — while whitewashing Hamas’s desire to eliminate a whole country as just bluster and meaningless words. One would think that, of all organizations in the world, human rights groups would particularly believe that words matter. Words inform intent and influence action. Words and actions need to be taken seriously, especially when they are sponsored by governments.

The real obstacle to long-term peace is the endless and overwhelming words of hate and incitement to genocide effectively spread to Arabs and Palestinians. One example is the textbooks given to millions of children in Saudi Arabia, distributed in the Arab world and beyond, that label Jews “monkeys and pigs.” This continues to foment discord, radicalism and violence.

The absence of criticism by the United Nations and human rights groups is more than just a lack of judgment and fairness. It is proof that the Arab Spring has yet to thaw the old thinking that has stymied progress toward peace for far too long. There will be no peace between Israel and the Arabs while hatred and incitement to genocide continue. Sixty years of spewing hate won’t be undone in a day. Human rights groups should be leading this battle — not ignoring it.

Much the same could be said of certain segments of the media which despatch any news of such hatred and incitement directly into their blank pages.

PROOF ...

2011-09-29T14:46:00.000+10:00

... that we have at least one idiot sitting in the Senate

Ben Fordham interviews Green’s Senator Lee Rhiannon on …

http://www.2gb.com/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=9951

Getting It Right

2011-09-28T10:16:00.002+10:00

The Palestinian propaganda machine has worked overtime recently with the objective of legitimising the claim of the Jewish people to their homeland. The most effect weapon of the propagandists is the lie. Many lies are told Goebells style about both the past and the present to willingly believing audiences by the machine and its supporters distorting history as well as current events. The Mavi Marmara lie is one example where we've seen truth and facts distorted by the propagandists and their supporters who do their handiwork in a variety of places including the media and social networks.

Here's an example from Kenneth Lasson in the Baltimore Jewish Times:

Getting It Right

It's not easy to fight hypocrisy and fraud anywhere, much less the Middle Eastern variety.

Several months ago, a Facebook group called "Freedom Will Come to Palestine" published a photograph that appeared to depict an Israeli soldier with his foot on the body of a prone Palestinian girl, a rifle aimed at her head. Readers were urged to "share this photo and let the world see what is really happening."

Although scarcely covered by the international media, the picture predictably provoked a storm of Internet reaction, mostly vituperative responses condemning Israel. Among the milder ones: "I hope the Israelis rot in hell!"

A small Israeli news organization called Tazpit noted that the rifle was a Kalashnikov AK47 assault rifle — not the standard issue M16 and M4 of the Israel Defense Forces. Careful scrutiny disclosed that the soldier's outfit was not an authentic IDF uniform. In short, the photo was a fraud of the kind often perpetrated by the Palestinians — not unlike the infamous al-Dura hoax (the staged "killing" of a young Arab boy caught in "Israeli crossfire" provocatively telecast around the world).

Facebook enables yet another incarnation of the Palestinians' Big Lie Machine to spread incitement against the "ruthless and oppressive Israeli occupiers." Hundreds of pro-Palestinian groups use the social networks so readily accessible in cyberspace to spread false information and encourage violent responses to alleged Israeli "aggression."

Tazpit seeks to combat such fabricated images. Its founder, a young IDF veteran named Amotz Eyal, was originally motivated by the international media's unfair reporting on Israel and what he saw as unfair coverage by the left-wing Israeli press. His group has some 60 volunteers, equipped with still and video cameras, who stand ready to document reporting they consider patently biased against the Jewish state and expose it by distributing more factual accounts to newspapers and websites.

They also make effective use of YouTube to disseminate footage of everything from environmental infractions and life-threatening traffic violations on West Bank roads to more outrageous offenses — such as their video evidence that Arab olive trees claimed to have been cut down by settlers were in fact purposefully destroyed by Palestinians.

Tazpit is but the latest in a line of committed, underfunded grassroots groups combating Palestinian propaganda, which is supported by millions of petro-dollars and abetted by biased international media. Others are Americans for a Safe Israel, a political support group for the Jewish communities of Judea, Samaria and the Golan; Stand With Us, aimed largely at campus advocacy; and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, aimed at promoting "honest fact-based and civil discourse" on Israeli issues.

Better organized but still grossly outspent are the American-based Middle East media monitors CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) and Honest Reporting, which monitors the media for what it perceives as bias against Israel.

All are devoted to getting the facts right, lending a bit of balance to the world's perception of Israel's rightful place in the world of nations.

Kenneth Lasson, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, is a regular contributor to the Baltimore Jewish Times.
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/opinion/jt/op_ed/getting_it_right1

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas must stop deluding himself

2011-09-26T08:06:00.000+10:00

Today's Australian Editorial - - says it all about what is happening with the Palestinian pursuit for independent statehood.

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Abbas is not the only one prone to delusion. All those who are baying for the creation of a Palestinian State in the absence of peace talks which Abbas is doing his best to avoid are causing inestimable damage to the cause of peace in the region.

Given the lessons of history, Mr Netanyahu can hardly be expected to exercise anything other than the utmost caution. Hamas, which only recently reconciled with Mr Abbas's Fatah movement, doesn't recognise Israel's right to exist. It's hell-bent on its destruction. It has rained down thousands of rockets on Israel. It opposes Mr Abbas's statehood bid, declaring the battle for the liberation of all Palestinian land the first priority. It is willing Mr Abbas to fail so it can capitalise on the Palestinian disillusionment to follow.

TURKS SEIZE SYRIAN SHIP?

2011-09-24T18:30:00.002+10:00

There's a Walkely in the waiting for an enterprising, creative journalist (preferabley from the Fairfax organisation) who can take this story and milk it for all it's worth.

Breaking news from Turkey is that PM Erdogan has seized a Syrian-flagged ship and will intercept any arms shipments headed to Syria - Turkey seizes Syrian ship, announces arms embargo

Speaking to reporters in New York late on Friday where he attended the UN General Assembly, Erdogan said Turkey had stopped a Syrian-flagged ship in Marmara, according to state-run Anatolia News Agency. It did not indicate whether the ship was stopped in the Sea of Marmara or the port of Marmara.

Erdogan did not say when the ship was seized or whether any weapons were found aboard.

"We have already made a decision to stop and prevent any vehicle carrying any type of weapon to Syria. We told them our decision as well as shared it with neighboring countries," Anatolia quoted Erdogan as saying.

This is the same Erdogan who was recent pilloried in the Palmer Report for knowingly allowing IHH terrorists to board the ill fated 2010 Gaza flotilla to confront the Israelis and prevent them from conducting their own embargo on arms suppliers who threatened Israeli citizens.

Erdogan has one law when fellow Muslims are being murdered and a different one altogether when people are targeted because they live in a Jewish State.

AGE OP EDS

2011-09-23T15:38:00.000+10:00

From Gerard Henderson' Media wAtch (apparently)

I heard a good joke about The Age recently.

What is the difference between the Age’s op-ed page and the crossword?

ANSWER: You need clues to know what’s in the crossword.

OBAMA AND ABBAS - TWO VERY DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

2011-09-22T12:18:00.002+10:00

With thanks to elderofziyon who notes the crucial differences bewteen the viewpoints of Obama and Abbas:

Bigoted, Dangerous and Shameful

2011-09-21T11:57:00.000+10:00

The annual freakshow of bigoted, dangerous and shameful haters were out and about tonight outside Crown Casino. Around fifty or so of these feral losers showed their true colours when they chanted slogans such as "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea" which means they support the racist movement to deny the Jewish people and the Jewish people alone of the right to self-determination. This is a catchcry for those extremists in Palestinian society who not only advocate the denial of and the destruction of Israel but also the genocide of its Jewish inhabitants. Their hatred was palpable as they hissed, screamed and frothed at their mouths resembling the Nazi rallies of the 1930s which seems to be their inspiration.

The irony is that they were demonstrating at a function organised by the Jewish National Fund at which representatives of the nation's two main parties were among the thousand guests who heard a keynote speaker describe how the embattled nation and its people are thriving despite the racist boycotts and the constant warlike threats of their neighbours.

Ironically, the nation's lesser third party which to its shame tolerates, and in some cases supports, the bigoted BDS campaign would no doubt be green with envy to know that Israel is the world's only nation that boasts more trees today than a century ago and that the JNF is a major contributor to a sustantial number of environmental initiatives that are improving the lives of not only Israelis but of its Palestinian neighbours.

At the end of the evening, there was not one demonstrator to be seen. The freaks had gone home to hate another day.

The UN's tragic failure

2011-09-20T18:56:00.000+10:00

This Jerusalem Post Editoria looks at the UN's tragic failure

Today, perhaps more than ever before in history, there is a desperate need for an objective, responsible international body capable of peacefully arbitrating conflicts, enforcing human rights and mitigating the more negative forces of globalization.

The United Nations no longer fills the bill. Rather it panders to the racism of many of its corrupt consituents in the General Assembly where "about 20 anti-Israel resolutions are adopted each year, as opposed to just five or six against other countries."

We live in dark times where irresponsible terrorists are feted and bankrupt regimes are acclaimed at the expense of democracies.

With its automatic majority of human rights violators who condemn the Jewish State and champion the cause of its corrupt leaders, the United Nations is about to throw the Palestinian people under a bus by giving succor to the hatreds of their disgraceful leadership.

THE BLAME GAME

2011-09-19T19:11:00.000+10:00

No Apologies: Israel Isn’t to Blame for Its Growing Isolation

If only Israel had apologized to Turkey for killing nine of its nationals on last year’s Gaza flotilla, so the argument goes, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan would not be threatening now to send warships against the Israeli coast. If only Israel had apologized to Egypt for the accidental killing of six of their soldiers when Israeli helicopters entered Egyptian territory in pursuit of terrorists last August, an Egyptian mob wouldn’t have ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo, as Egyptian leaders refused to take calls from desperate Israeli leaders. And if only Israel had stopped building in settlements and offered the Palestinians a fair solution, they would not now be turning to the U.N. to substitute an imposed solution for the negotiating process.

This convergence of blame comes at a time of spiritual vulnerability for Jews. This is, after all, our season of contrition. As we approach Rosh Hashanah, the process of self-examination intensifies. And as Jewish tradition emphasizes, the basis for penitence is apology. Before seeking forgiveness from God, we are to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt, even inadvertently.

MAHMOUD ABBAS - IN HIS OWN WORDS

2011-09-17T12:29:00.001+10:00

Does this man act or talk as if he desires peace?

ARAB SPRING SPRINGS A LEAK

2011-09-16T12:11:00.000+10:00

The BBCNEWS site tells an everyday tale of anti-Semitism in Cairo which does not bode well for the future of the region.

Relieved that a seemingly random assault was over, I was appalled by the apology offered by one of my assailants. "Sorry," he said contritely, offering his hand, "we thought you were a Jew."

Shaking his head in disbelief on hearing the news, an Egyptian friend sympathised:

"That's stupid, you are obviously not a Jew."

The chilling implication I was left with was that, had I been Jewish, the assault would have apparently been justified.

Nice of the Beeb to even mention the story in this context. I know of one local news outlet that wouldn't touch this.

Nice pay if you can get it.

2011-09-15T23:32:00.003+10:00

The man pictured is Abdel Bari Atwan, editor in chief of pan-Arab daily Al Quds al Arabi who often appears on the BBC and CNN.

According to elderof ziyon, Atwan has been a big supporter of terror attacks on Israel.

From Wikipedia:

Speaking about Iran's nuclear capability in an interview on Lebanese television in June 2007, Atwan stated, "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."In March 2008, Atwan said that the Mercaz HaRav shooting, in which a Palestinian gunmen killed eight students (aged 15 to 26), "was justified." He added that the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva is responsible for "hatching Israeli extremists and fundamentalists" and that the celebrations in Gaza following the attack symbolized "the courage of the Palestinian nation."Atwan described the the attacks on Israelis in Eilat as correcting "the course of the Arab revolutions and refocused them on the most dangerous disease, namely the Israeli tyranny. This disease is the cause of all the defects that have afflicted the region for the past 65 years."

According to The Elder, Arabic media has been reporting that the new Libyan government has released documents showing that Atwan, as well as Jordanian Al-Dostour reporter Khairy Mansour, were being paid by Gaddafi a sum of $3000 every month. Atwan vehemently denies it and is threatening to sue everyone who makes these accusations.

Good to know if you ever come across this scumbucket on your television screen.

PALESTINE AUTHORITY DEMANDS APARTHEID

2011-09-14T20:39:00.000+10:00

Haaretz Headline:

THE PEACE PROCESS - A VIDEO

2011-09-13T19:25:00.000+10:00

LATEST LATMA FUN

2011-09-11T23:45:00.000+10:00

TALKING TURKEY

2011-09-08T07:54:00.001+10:00

Yaacov Kirschen from Dry Bones Blog brings us another fantastic piece - this time on Turkey and its duplicitous leadership which is trying to bully its way to a fight with the Israelis.

It's a fight he won't win.

A Scottish Professor responds to the haters

2011-09-06T05:13:00.001+10:00

A Scottish professor responds to campus boycott. The Edinburgh Student's Association made a motion to boycott all things Israeli since they claim Israel is under an apartheid regime. Dr. Denis Maceoin (a non-Jew) is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs. Here is his letter to those students.

Dr. Denis MacEoin is a senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly.

TO: The Committee Edinburgh University Student Association.

May I be permitted to say a few words to members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain's great Middle East experts in their day.

I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University. Naturally, I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field. I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote.

I am shocked for a simple reason: there is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to visit Israel to see for themselves. Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that those members of EUSA who voted for this motion are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel,
and that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby.

Being anti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I'm not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel. I'm speaking of a hatred that permits itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a "Nazi" state. In what sense is this true, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nuremberg Laws? The Final Solution? None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel, precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for.

It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When? No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt it deserves. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is as basic a way to subvert historical fact as anything I can think of.

Likewise apartheid. For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled how things were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a weekend in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous the claim is.

That a body of university students actually fell for this and voted on it is a sad comment on the state of modern education. The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country's 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha'is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world center; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan and elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; the holy places of all religions are protected under a specific Israeli law. Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population).

In Iran, the Bahai's (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why aren't your members boycotting Iran? Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa. They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews - something no blacks were able to do in South Africa.

Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. On the same wards, in the same operating theatres.

In Israel, women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid. Gay men and women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays often escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home.

It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel and say nothing about countries like Iran, where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief.

Intelligent students thinking it's better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?

University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak.

I do not object to well-documented criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens.

Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that protects the Bahai's.... Need I go on?

The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott. I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask for some speakers. Listen to more than one side. Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students, and that is to protect them from one-sided argument.

They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930's (which, sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it?

Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense. I have given you some of the evidence. It's up to you to find out more.

Yours sincerely,
Denis MacEoin

A RARE VOICE OF SANITY IN THE AGE

2011-09-04T04:57:00.001+10:00

From Stephen Pollard - Whiff of Weimar on a summer night at the Proms

Now watch out for letters from the apologists.

STEALING WATER ... STEALING THE TRUTH

2011-09-02T04:55:00.000+10:00

The devastating truth about water and Palestinian statehood

The stubborn refusal to work with Israel on mutual interests like improvement of the water infrastructure, and the way the PA subsequently uses that lack of improvement to demonize Israel, prove that the PA is not interested in the two-state solution, or peace.

Who's "Right-Wing?"

2011-09-01T07:31:00.001+10:00

This excellent article by Barry Rubin comes from the MIDDLE EAST REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (MERIA) JOURNAL #3

Who's "Right-Wing?" by Barry Rubin

An AFP dispatch about the firing of Larry Derfner has been published widely throughout the world. It mentions correctly that I defended Derfner's right to free speech and said he should not have been fired.

There are two points in the article, however, I would like to challenge. First, is the description of me as "right-wing" and found it surprising that I defended Derfner.

I reject that entirely. There is more of a choice in politics today--I hope--than being either "left-wing" or "right-wing." As I have repeatedly made clear, I am more accurately described as a traditional liberal in American terminology and as a moderate social democrat in European or Israeli terminology. Since I was a parliamentary candidate in the last Israeli election of a social democratic party that might be some clue as to my political views.

By redefining everyone as extreme, the common ground of democracy is being destroyed. I judge each issue on its merits rather than on a preconceived ideological framework. Moreover, the defense of democracy, civil liberties, free speech, and judging someone's work on the basis of merit are important ideas to fight for. Political life should not be reduced to a battle between two extremes that ignore fair play in the search for victory.

Have we reached the point that it is shocking for someone to echo the famous statement that I might not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it (in this case, without being fired)? Is it surprising that someone actually agrees with the idea that an open democratic debate is the best solution for a society and opposes all of the various forms of "hate speech" thought crimes?

Because, you see, the founders of the United States were completely correct in understanding that once someone is able to set the boundaries of free speech--with the exception of speech intended directly to lead to criminal action - they can define it any way they want? Even laws defining "Holocaust denial" as a crime are pernicious and, as we have seen, were the opening wedge for far greater denials of free speech.

As for Israel today, a "right-winger" might be someone glad to hold onto control over territory. But most of the center and moderate left, though preferring a two-state solution, knows very well from experience that holding control over the territories in the framework of the 1973 and later agreements between Israel and the Palestinians is a necessity. That isn't "right-wing" that is sanity.

Finally, the AFP dispatch went out of its way to disagree with my point that in practice Palestinian-populated territory is not under Israeli occupation except for east Jerusalem and 20 percent of Hebron - both by agreement with the Palestinian Authority, by the way. The AFP says that international law interpretations say that everything--including the Gaza Strip--is "under occupation."

What this means in the context of the Derfner discussion is that a Palestinian can dwell completely within a Palestinian-ruled territory and be governed in every aspect of life by Palestinian authorities, and then kill Israeli civilians on the basis that he is suffering from a horrible Israeli occupation. This is absurd but then that's par for the course regarding Western news coverage of these issues.

Of course, the AFP had no space for my critique of Derfner's argument: that giving independence would not end the "right to kill Israelis" claim. But then they don't want their readers to know that the problem keeping this conflict going is not the lack of a Palestinian state but the existence of Israel.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal.

A PALESTINIAN STATE

2011-08-31T08:26:00.000+10:00

I received this opinion piece via the email but don't know its author's name.

There is only one reason why the Palestinians are going to the United Nations in September hoping for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State by the General Assembly.

It is because they are not willing to pay the one price demanded by Israel and the democratic world in negotiations.

And that price is the agreement that the State of Israel can exist and can do so in its current guise – as the Homeland of the Jewish People.

That is what is missing from the Palestinian resolution.

So called obstacles such as settlements, borders, Jerusalem etc are not the core issues at all.

Nor is the existence of a Palestinian State.

The core issue is whether the Palestinians and their supporters can tolerate a Jewish presence, of any size, in their midst.

The consistent policy of the Zionist Leadership has been “2 States for 2 Peoples”.

On the 29th of November 1947 that is in fact what the UN agreed upon in Resolution 181 – “A Jewish State and an Arab State”.

As we know, the Jewish People accepted this and the Arab People rejected it.

This has been the pattern ever since – post 1967 in August in Khartoum; Oslo in 1993; Camp David in 2000; Annapolis under Olmert; and times in between – our acceptance and their rejection.

And most importantly for those who continue to bury their heads in the sand both on the “ultra left” and “ultra right” – this is the public and repeated and sincere policy of the Netanyahu Government.

Six Israeli Prime Ministers (including Netanyahu) have offered the Palestinians a State, in return for the one real red line Israel has – no Palestinian Right of Return.

As the realisation has dawned on almost everyone, that the Palestinians mean something different from us when we each say “2 State Solution”, we have begun to emphasise that they need to recognise Israel as a Jewish State.

For clarity.

And to avoid the continuing Palestinian double speak to the world and perhaps especially, to their own people.

President Abbas’ stated aim is a Palestinian State where no Jews will be able to reside, alongside a State called Israel to which some 4.5 million claimed Palestinians will have the right to return and which will then be a supposed democratic Bi National State.

This is a reality that should be accepted by those within our community and those people who profess to be friends of Israel generally, when they attempt to lay blame for why no resolution of the conflict has yet occurred.

The constant belabouring of moral equivalence and of blame equivalence is erroneous and counterproductive. And it is doing exactly what it is designed to do – pushing our own youth away and depressing those who remain.

The Palestinians are continuing their strategy of trying to get what they want piece by piece, without ceding a single thing.

It is beyond time now for the world to finally tell the Palestinians et al a truth they have been avoiding for Israel’s entire existence and at the same time, lying to their own people about.

The Jewish State is here to stay.

This UN move is a tactic designed to avoid that truth.

TAXI HIJACK RAMPAGE IN TEL AVIV

2011-08-30T07:49:00.003+10:00

Today's Melbourne Age tells the story of a Nablus man who hijacked a taxi, ran over two policemen and stabbed six people outside a Tel Aviv nightclub early yesterday -
Taxi hijacker on rampage

The cab hit two policemen and the taxi driver was among the six stabbed by the assailant before he was subdued and taken into custody.

The report then goes on to provide a rendition of the old style Age scoreboard of death reminiscent of the Ed O'Loughlin days:-

Eight Israelis were killed on August 18 in attacks near the resort city of Eilat. The bloodshed led to an escalation in the Gaza Strip, where at least 24 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes, and one Israeli died from a Gaza-launched rocket attack.

True, but it only tells half the story.

The Israeli victims were all non combatants - attacked by terrorists who inflitrated into the country or by missiles fired at civilians.

The Palestinian victims included combatants - terrorist leaders and those killed while planning more attacks - or human shields placed in harm's way by the terrorists.

Pity this reporter decided not to put the figures in their right context.

DAY AFTER DAY

2011-08-29T07:44:00.000+10:00

Day after day missiles are fired from Gaza into Israel aimed at civilian targets. Some of them are Grad rockets capable of doing major damage. A rocket recently fired by Palestinian terrorists contained phosphorus. Israel's new Iron Dome defensive system has intercepted some of the deadly missiles.

Day after day there is silence in the media about these Palestinian attacks. Why are such war crimes ignored?

GILAD SHALIT

2011-08-28T08:17:00.001+10:00

There are many reasons why international recognition should not be given unilaterally to a Palestinian State next month.

One of them is the fact that one of the partners in the so-called Palestinian "Unity Government" is Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation and perpetrator of multiple crimes against humanity.

Hamas holds Gilad Shalit, who turns 25 years of age today, captive without any of the internationally accepted rights accorded to captured soldiers.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on Gilad Shalit. May he be released as soon as is humanly possible.

"Gilad Shalit (Hebrew: גלעד שליט‎, born 28 August 1986) is an Israeli and French national and an IDF soldier who was attacked and kidnapped from Israel on 25 June 2006 by Hamas militants* in a cross-border raid. Shalit was captured near the Kerem Shalom crossing (in Israel), and has been held as a hostage at an unknown location in the Gaza Strip by Hamas and deprived of all International Red Cross visits since his abduction.

"Hamas has refused requests from the International Committee of the Red Cross to allow the ICRC to visit Shalit, and claims that any such visit could betray the location where Shalit is being held captive. Multiple human rights organizations have stated that the terms and conditions of Shalit's confinement are contrary to international humanitarian law. To date, the only contact between Shalit and the outside world since his capture has been three letters, an audio tape, and a DVD that Israel received in return for releasing 20 female Palestinian prisoners."

* for some reason it seems that Wikipedia deigns to describe Shalit's captors as "militants" yet the circumstances of his captivity clearly show them to be nothing other than barbarians and terrorists. Such is the stupidity of a world that bends over backwards to appear evenhanded.

Swastikas in the City

2011-08-27T08:20:00.002+10:00

The Sydney Daily Telegraph carries this story by John Masanauskas - Parents blasted after daughter carried swastika placard

The offensive placard above was paraded at a city rally in 2009 to protest against Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission chairman John Searle said police needed better training so they could take swift action under racial vilification laws.

It is believed the issue was raised with the equal opportunity commission but no formal complaint was made because the culprits could not be identified.

Indeed not.

The Peace Team

2011-08-26T06:50:00.003+10:00

The mixed Israel-Palestine Peace Team is in town competing in the AFL's International Cup competition.

Please listen as two members of the contingent were interviewed yesterday on Melbourne radio station SEN:

Saji and Nimrod Part One

Saji and Nimrod Part Two

Turkish newspaper says Why Golda Meir was Right

2011-08-25T21:03:00.001+10:00

An article in a Turkish Newspaper, Hurriyet - Turkey, tells why Why Golda Meir was right.

It has been more than two and a half years since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Israel's President Shimon Peres, "You (Jews) know well how to kill." In this holy month of Ramadan full of blood on Muslim territories, let's try to identify who are the ones who know well how to kill.

As the Syrian death count clicks every day to come close to 2,000, the Turkish-Kurdish death count does not stop, already over 40,000 since 1984. Only during this Ramadan, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK's, death toll has reached 50 in this Muslim Kurds vs. Muslim Turks war. This excludes the PKK casualties in Turkey and in northern Iraq due to Turkish military retaliation since they are seldom accurately reported.

But a simple, strictly Middle East research will reveal one million deaths in the all-Muslim Ira! n-Iraq war; 300,000 Muslim minorities killed by Saddam Hussein; 80,000 Iranians killed during the Islamic revolution; 25,000 deaths in 1970-71, the days of Black September, by the Jordanian government in its fight against the Palestinians; and 20,000 Islamists killed in 1982 by the elder al-Assad in Hama.

Muslim Arab deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict are estimated at 46,000 including 11,000 during Israel's war of independence. That makes 0.05 percent of all deaths in all conflicts, or 0.4 percent of all Arab deaths in the Middle East conflicts.

Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel, had a perfectly realistic point when she said that peace in the Middle East would only be possible "when Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

Australian man faces indictment for anti-Semitic letter

2011-08-24T08:27:00.000+10:00

This article about a Sydney man accused in the District Court of New South Wales of sending letters to families of soldies who died in Afghanistan appeared in the Jerusalem Post - Australian man faces indictment for anti-Semitic letter.

In one instance, Man Haron Monis described a Jewish soldier who had killed a civilian as a "dirty animal" in a letter to politicians and the Jewish community. "Some Jews who blame Hitler for violations of human rights are not much better than him," he added.

I suppose it's a local matter and not worthy of mention in the Age.

Not even in the blank pages ...

AUSTRALIA SHUNS HATEFEST

2011-08-23T16:26:00.000+10:00

ALP sources confirm that Prime Minister Gillard announced that Australia will not be sending any representatives to the Durban III Conference (aka racist anti-semitic hatefest).

LETTER OF THE WEEK

2011-08-22T10:53:00.000+10:00

From today's Australian ...

Risking shame

WHILE it's understandable that the Gillard government is keen to do all in its power to glean support at the UN for Australia's campaign to be admitted to the Security Council ("Canberra torn between racism conference and UN ambitions", 19/8), the question of whether Australia should attend the Durban III conference is a no-brainer.

To give credence to the most xenophobic, racist, anti-Semitic alliance on the planet by attending their conference would be to Australia's shame, Security Council membership notwithstanding.

Anne Robards, Tura Beach, NSW

THE SAME OLD GAME

2011-08-21T12:48:00.000+10:00

I turn my back for a few days and the Palestinian terrorist groups and their mentors are playing the same old game.

It starts with a murderous attack on innocent civilians such as the one at the end of last week in Southern Israel. The Israelis strike back at terrorist targets and that's followed by a hundred rocket attacks by terrorists at civilian targets inside Israel.

Hamas says "it's not us - try Islamic Jihad", Israel strikes at the terrorists including those caught in the act of launching rockets and Mahmoud Abbas complains and asks for an Arab League meeting to take action against Israel. No expressions of sorrow for the deaths caused by his own people and those in his so-called "unity government".

Then there are the apologists for the terrorists and their enablers, people like the flotilla and flytilla idiots and the BDS racists who condemn the Israelis and ignore Palestinian barbarism.

Business as usual.

INTERMISSION

2011-08-12T15:39:00.000+10:00

Taking a break for a couple of weeks ... back soon

THE AGE TRAVELS

2011-08-10T09:16:00.003+10:00

What a surprise.

An Age travel writer goes to Israel expecting military checkpoints and religious fanaticism but instead discovers a land where culture, nightlife and the beach often take precedence over piety and politics - A holy bunch of hedonists.

He also found sights like the one above.

And if he went to Gaza, he wouldn't find Aushwitz either but rather a third world area that also has beaches, restaurants, hotels and country clubs.

The problem must lie with the contorted and unreal picture painted by political correspondents with an agenda because, for years, the real Israel and the real Palestine have been hidden away in the blank pages.

IT'S ALL A RIOT AT FAIRFAX

2011-08-09T05:08:00.000+10:00

Israeli's demonstrate peacefully in their streets and the Sydney Morning Herald trumpets that Protests put unflattering spotlight on Israel.

I wonder what tomorrow's Fairfax headlines are going to say about the spotlight that has been suddenly thrust on England after the current rioting and mayhem?

Less than unflattering?

Consumer watchdog asked to investigate Israel boycott

2011-08-08T15:30:00.000+10:00

I wonder if something will become of this?

The Victorian Government has asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate a campaign targeting businesses with links to Israel - Consumer watchdog asked to investigate Israel boycott

Fogel Family Murderer Found Guilty

2011-08-06T06:20:00.000+10:00

The vicious murder of the Fogel family played itself out in Court last week with the conviction of a Palestinian man Hakim Awad - Fogel murders: Israeli court convicts Palestinian man.

The BBC does a good job here of masking some of the underlying issues involved in the grissly murders such as incitement to violence in official Palestinian media and the fact that, in the case of these murder, President Mahmoud Abbas actually blamed Thai workers for the atrocity.

The BBC concludes:-

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called those behind the killings "immoral and inhuman".

There are almost 500,000 settlers living on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Settlements are regarded as illegal under international law although Israel disputes this.

No mention of incitement and Thais but the Beeb couldn't resist the temptation to mention the settlements as part of the story of a cold blooded racist murder.

The Palestinians' Imaginary State

2011-08-05T11:26:00.000+10:00

Steven J. Rosen is the director of the Washington Project of the Middle East Forum.

He asks in The Palestinians' Imaginary State published in Foreign Policy whether Palestine really qualifies for Statehood?

According to the prevailing legal standard, the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, a "state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government; and d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states." Both the Hamas-controlled Palestinian entity in Gaza and the rival Fatah-governed Palestinian entity in the West Bank can be said to meet all four of these criteria of the law of statehood. The one on which the United Nations will vote does not.

INDEPENDENCE FOR KURDISTAN

2011-08-04T11:40:00.000+10:00

The Kurdish people are far more numerous than the Palestinians and are being oppressed by Arab rulers.

Opinion writer Guy Bechor raises the The Kurdish connection

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was described here as the Middle East’s ruler. Commentators spoke at length about “the Ottoman empire’s revival” and used similar superlatives that are largely disconnected from reality. After Turkey was kicked out of Europe and realized it has no chance to be accepted by the European Union, Ankara was also rejected by the Arabs (with the exception of the PLO, which has been left without a patron.) Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab elements made it clear to the Turks that they are unwanted in the Middle East. The only option left for Turkey in our region is, again, Israel.

Rather than securing Mideastern hegemony, Turkey itself may fall apart. This is the case after the Kurdish leadership in the country declared on July 15 the establishment of a democratic Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey, with its capital in Diyarbakir.

THE EEEEVIL ZIONISTS

2011-08-03T23:53:00.000+10:00

According to a lawyer at Mubarak's trial, the Zionists replaced Hosni M with a lookalike after he actually died in 2004.

Who's on trial then?

11.32 Surreal moment as a lawyer calls out that Mubarak died in 2004, and that this court appearance is a conspiracy on the part of America and Israel. He is calling for a DNA test to prove that it's the real Mubarak and not a lookalike.

Various lawyers ranting at the judge, who wearily asks one: "What does what you're saying have to do with the trial?"

Hosni Mubarak trial: as it happened

Sheesh ...

Understanding UN Bias Against Israel

2011-08-02T05:07:00.000+10:00

FLAGS

2011-08-01T06:28:00.000+10:00

Michael Walzer writes in Dissent on the Israeli left's involvement in what some might want to call "peace marches" with Palestinians but the impression is that they will one day have to ask themselves what on earth were they really marching for - FLAGS

2011-07-31T14:37:00.001+10:00

Latest news from Twitter:

Hama residents say Syrian tanks storming the city: "Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing th... http://bit.ly/nPweHL

... more yawning from the world's media ... and more thugs disturbing customers outside a Jewish owned chocolate shop.

A BELLYFUL

2011-07-30T06:17:00.001+10:00

When Lebanese belly dancer Johanna Fakhry danced with Israeli heavy-metal band Orphaned Land last month at the Hellfest music festival in Clisson, France the pot was well and truly stirred.

Their countries are at war but the performers don't mind singing and dancing around their national flags - LEBANON, ISRAEL: Belly dancer and metal band rock the boat.

Hizbullah won't be pleased.

Syria - 1,634 people dead, 26,000 arrested (12,617 still in detention) and 3,000 missing

2011-07-29T12:14:00.000+10:00

Almost 3,000 missing in Syria crackdown, NGO says and today the thugs are back in Melbourne's streets picketing a chocolate shop because it's owned by Jews.

Go figure?

10 Unknown West Bank Facts

2011-07-28T05:43:00.000+10:00

Hat tip: Israellycool

Just deranged

2011-07-27T08:43:00.000+10:00

Anders Behring Breivik was a deranged individual who committed mass murder in Norway. The evidence is that he was not a fundamentalist Christian. Nor did he want to fight Jihadists. He was no Zionist and no lover of Jews.

Just deranged.

THE TRUE OBSTACLE TO PEACE

2011-07-26T08:02:00.001+10:00

No kidding!

TURKEY AND APOLOGIES

2011-07-25T08:09:00.004+10:00

Turkey's Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan keeps on insisting that his country will not "normalize" relations with Israel until the Jewish State issues an apology for the deaths of nine Turks terrorists who attacked IDF soldiers with iron bars, knives and slingshots as they scaled down from helicopters during the takeover of the Mavi Marmara in May 2010.

That's normal?

The hypocritical bastard wants an apology from Israelis for defending themselves while his country still maintains its silence almost a century after it committed genocide against the Armenians.

The Israelis should rightly tell Erdogan to go to hell!

Karma's such a bitch

2011-07-24T11:35:00.006+10:00

Following on from yesterday's posting but on perhaps a more serious note, this from The Daily Telegraph - Israel: The start up nation taking on Silicon Valley.

The more work Israel's detractors do on their boycotts and other pathetic stunts, the better things get for Israel. Those organisations which over the past decade divested their fund accounts from Israeli companies or firms that worked with Israel have lost small fortunes for their members. Some were virtually wiped out by the GFC, yet Israel business thrives.

Karma's such a bitch.

START-UP NATION

2011-07-23T12:44:00.004+10:00

I have just finished reading a remarkable book by geopolitical experts Dan Senor and Saul Singer entitled "Start-Up Nation". The book describes how a country of 7.1 million people, surrounded by hostile neighbours, many of them bent on its destruction has been able to rise above the adversity to foster a unique combination of innovative and entrepreneurial intensity.

The discovery of vast quantities of off shore natural gas and the potential of its shale oil reserves will only serve to strengthen the Jewish State while many other nation states are drowning in deep seas of debt.

Against this backdrop, it's an absolute tragedy that the leadership of the Palestinian people are so fueled by blind hatred of their Israeli neighbours that they are unwilling to accept them for what they are and to sit down and make peace for themselves and, more importantly, for their future generations.

Moreover, they have fallen into the traps set for them by the world's extremists of the hard right and the hard left who are so obsessed with the idea of a Jewish State that they need to sink in their own sewers of outrage per medium of the BDS, the flotillas, the flytillas and other assorted meshuganeh pursuits.

One observer, a Mr. Sultan Knish, has come up with a brilliant way in which the start-up nation can boost its tourism industry even further by taking advantage of these outraged protesters who have oodles of money to spend on indulging their hatreds and prefer to do so rather than to spend it on truly poor and needy people wherever they are on the face of this earth - Outraged Protest Tours - The Tourism Package for Leftists Who Hate Israel.

Knish believes that this is the way to deal with the great unwashed and outraged whose mission it is to intrude into the country with the sole purpose of deligitimising the state and dehumanising the population:

Rather than profiling them and giving them the heave ho at the airport, why not develop special tourism packages catering to their needs. Happily one company, Outraged Protest Tours is already on it.

By the first quarter of 2012, Outraged Protest Tours expects to be able to offer angry entitled brats a choice of three tour packages in Israel.

Love your work Mr. Knish!

How not to have a Palestinian State

2011-07-22T08:00:00.000+10:00

How Not to Have a Palestinian State - Jose Maria Aznar (Ynet News)

The unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, and its international recognition, would be a huge mistake. A peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is essential, but it can only be achieved through honest negotiations - not by any party imposing a unilateral decision.

A Palestinian government in which Hamas is a member will make negotiations, much less a peace agreement, impossible: no negotiation or agreement is possible when one side is committed to the other's destruction.

There is no historical, institutional or legal basis on which to recognize a Palestinian state today, except as a kind of "virtual state," which exists in some fashion in the imaginations of various parties but which has no tether to reality. In the West Bank, Palestinians crucially depend on Israeli cooperation to function.

There cannot be two states, living in peace side by side, unless Palestinians accept that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and the Israelis accept that the Palestinian state will be the state for the Palestinian people. Absent that basis, no genuine progress will be made.
It is time for the international community, starting with the UN, to say that the time for game-playing and wishful thinking is past. We urge the Palestinians to see that the only way they can have their own state is through an agreement with the Israelis. No other options should be supported by the international community.

The writer is former prime minister of Spain.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

2011-07-21T07:11:00.001+10:00

Yesterday, I mentioned the faked photograph that accompanied an Op Ed in the Melbourne Age by Palestinian advocate Randa Abdel-fattah entitled "Freedom and dignity are basic rights for all, even Palestinians"

It would appear that the same piece of propaganda has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald which today published this excellent response:-

"Israel a home for both Jews and Arabs"

Randa Abdel-Fattah portrays Israel as a place which uses ''laws, weapons and propaganda … to safeguard the 'purity' of a Jewish-only state'' (''Freedom and dignity are basic rights for all, even Palestinians'', July 7). The reality is very different.

Some 77 per cent of Israel's total population is Jewish. The other 23 per cent are Palestinian Arabs, Bedouin, Druze and other groups. All of them are fully fledged citizens with the same voting rights as Jews. There are Arab members of the Israeli Parliament and Arab judges in Israeli courts.

Jews and Arabs use the same public transport, eat in the same restaurants, attend the same hospitals, share the same beaches, shop at the same malls, play in the same sports teams, attend the same universities and work together in many occupations.

True, there is still serious discrimination against minority groups in Israel, especially in employment, government spending and access to services. Serious racial discrimination exists everywhere, including Australia. But that does not mean Australia is a state based on racial purity.

The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza seek the establishment of a specifically Palestinian state and many of them (and not just Hamas) have said they want it to be a specifically Arab and Muslim state which will exclude Jews.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the simplistic ''goodies versus baddies'' contest some people make it out to be. It's about the real world struggle of two nations, each of which is determined to live in freedom, independence and security.

Peter Wertheim executive director, Executive Council of Australian Jewry

THE AGE USES FAKE PHOTO IN PALESTINIAN NARRATIVE STORY

2011-07-20T09:48:00.002+10:00

The photograph accompanying today's OpEd from Palestinian advocate Randa Abdel-fattah entitled "Freedom and dignity are basic rights for all, even Palestinians" was FAKED to give a false impression of prisoners behind bars. Honest Reporting exposed this fraud in December 2010 - Shattered Lens: Part 3 – Putting Palestinians Behind Bars.

Once you know this, please feel free to make what you will of Ms. Abdel-fattah's opinions but know also that for all of her talk about the security measures taken by the IDF, there is not a single mention of suicide bombings or other violence against Israeli civilians perpetrated by Palestinian terror groups which leads to the necessity for taking those security measures, including the security fence.Not to mention the declared intention of those groups to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Of course, to the Palestinian supremacists who think their basic rights override all others in the region whether they be Jews in Israel, Syrian dissidents or the bulk of Lebanon's population living under Hizbullah's jackboots, it's fair to misrepresent the situation of their own children in this disgraceful manner.

NO BOUNDS TO EVIL

2011-07-19T06:30:00.001+10:00

Today's Australian editorial argues that the villainy of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad knows no bounds - Hezbollah armed by evil Assad.

Just when it seemed reasonable to assume the dictator in Damascus had his hands full in ruthlessly suppressing the democratic aspirations of his blighted people, it has been disclosed his regime is accelerating weapons supplies -- including missiles that bring Israel, Jordan and Turkey within range -- to Hezbollah terrorists in neighbouring Lebanon.

Unsurprisingly, Iran's thumbprints are all over shipments that make Hezbollah's the most powerful non-state military force in the world. The Shia group's new arsenal includes Scud missiles with a range of 700km.

So who supports this murderer and his regime?

Well, these flotillistas do - they're organising a flotilla to support Assad - Lebanese women travel to Syria to support Assad.

Now we know why the flyllistas don't bother flying into Damascus to support the butcher. They're on his side.

Hamas’s useful Americans

2011-07-18T08:50:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, I referred to reports of an organisation that is standing up for Israeli victims of terror by issuing legal proceedings against those who support the terror groups.

Today, one of that organisation's founders writes in the Jerusalem Post about Hamas’s useful Americans.

The terrorist enablers are not just Americans. We have our home grown variety too and the work of the Israel Law Center is invaluable in countering those who would enable murderous terrorism and stall hopes of peace in the region.