WHICH ONE IS REALLY LOST?

Is it Ben from the television series "Lost" or is it the fellow who critics allege produced a book about Israel that had the first print recalled because one of its maps placed Lebanon somewhere between Haifa and Tel Aviv?

FAIRFAX ANTI ISRAEL LOBBY AT WORK TODAY

Just a day or two after the news broke (but not in the Age) of the disgraceful assault on Israel by boycotting British journalists, The Melbourne Age today brought out its big guns in its own war on Israel.

In the first instance, it published an article by a Reuters journalist on billionaire George Soros' attack on the American Jewish lobby in the New York Review of Books (Soros takes Israeli lobby in Washington to task). Apart from this story being old hat (it broke in the U.S.A more than three weeks ago so why is it news here now?), it fails to mention that the basis of Soros' attack (some shoddy work by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt entitled "The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy") was demolished utterly by respected Israeli historian Benny Morris in a piece published in The New Republic THE IGNORANCE AT THE HEART OF AN INNUENDO. And Now For Some Facts. Morris' article was published almost a year ago but the Age still hasn't caught up with it; nor should we expect it to do so in the near future.

Secondly, Ed O'Loughlin is back doing what he knows best. Turning a bad news story about the behaviour of some Palestinians into a not so subtle attack on Israelis. His story, Journalist death unconfirmed in Gaza, about kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston is full of his usual syrup about the work of Palestinian security forces and those nice Palestinian journalists searching for the missing journo and isolates them from the nasties who claim to have kidnapped and killed him.

And just to make a point about who O'Loughlin believes the real bad guys in this whole scenario are, he throws in this line:-

"No foreign journalist or aid worker has been harmed by Palestinian militants since the uprising against Israel that began in October 2000, although several have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces."

Well, we won't mention that since October 2000 O'Loughlin's "Palestinian militants" have killed over 1,000 civilians inside Israel including overseas visitors and workers in cold blood by various methods ranging from suicide bomings, shootings and stabbing attacks including the disembowelling of pregnant mothers in front of their children.

We won't mention that most of the "several" O'Loughlin refers to were not deliberately killed or wounded by Israeli soldiers but died while putting themselves in harm's way and were caught in the line of fire while the Israeli soldiers were defending their own citizens from attacks by Ed's "militants".

And we certainly won't mention that among the aid workers that O'Loughlin writes about were people like Rachael Corrie who went to the region after being recruited by the Palestinian Solidarity Movement and its cover group the International Solidarity Movement to act as "human shields" for Palestinian terrorism. The ISM claims to be working for "peace" but it also openly boasts that it supports Palestinian armed struggle against Israel - which means it supports the ongoing war against Israel's civilian population and the Jewish State.

Just like certain journalists we know.

And that's a day's work for Ed O'Loughlin and the folks at the Melbourne Age.

THE PIMPLE ON THE FACE OF BRITISH JOURNALISM

The National Union of Journalists in Britain has this week removed any doubt we might have had about the integrity of their profession and its capacity to deliver truthful reporting of news to its readership with a vote to boycott Israel.

Throwing the full book of accusations at Israel the British journalists' annual delegates meeting not only called for a boycott and sanctions but showed gross ignorance of the facts on the ground by condemning what they described as last year's "savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel" (never mind that Hizbullah captured, killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers and fired missiles at Israeli towns beforehand) the "slaughter of civilians by Israeli troops in Gaza and the IDF’s continued attacks inside Lebanon following the defeat of its army by Hezbollah" (they sound more like a bunch of juvenile and demented cheerleaders than serious writers to me) and called for the end of Israeli aggression in Gaza and other occupied territories.

The absurdity of these allegations is enough to tell us how little the journalists who put forward the motion and the 66 who voted in favour really know what is happening in the Middle East and it follows that their writing simply cannot be trusted.

Let us not forget that it was the British media that told the "Jenin massacre" lie and has been in the business of distorting the news from this region since Yasser Arafat launched his war on Israel in 2000. As I said in my introduction, this motion has simply put beyond doubt what we already knew about them and the very partisan agenda they have in relation to this conflict.

The only slaughter of Palestinians that is taking place at the moment is self-inflicted – at the time of writing 174 Palestinians have been killed this year by fellow Palestinians in warfare between various armed factions and clans, most of it in Gaza where Israel ended its occupation almost two years ago.

The delegates who voted in favour of these motions have brought dishnour on themselves and are no doubt being sneered at by the kidnappers of the only British journalist who had the guts to continue living in Gaza - BBC correspondent Alan Johnston. His kidnappers are among the very terrorists who these British journalists are defending and supporting with their shameful motions.

So let them carry out their pitiful and useless boycott of Israeli goods. Let them switch off their mobile phones, turn off their computers, stop taking their medication and their acne creams (all invented or perfected by Israeli ingenuity). Let them dim their light globes and walk around in darkness because the events of the past few weeks have proven once and for all that the sun has well and truly set on their empire.

WHY WOULD A JEW WANT TO PLAY FOR WEST HAM?

I've always wondered about this question and now the Guardian has answered it in this article.

"West Ham United yesterday denied claims of mistreating their two Israeli players, Yossi Benayoun and Yaniv Katan, who did not take part in the team's training camp in Dubai last week."

Imagine the outcry if two Arab players from Arsenal were left out of a touring party to Israel for the same reason.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT LEBANON, HIZBULLAH, SYRIA AND IRAN

There was a time when people in Israel spoke of Lebanon as a potential peace partner. They used to say that as soon as one Arab country made peace then Lebanon would follow suit.

However, that was before the country was poisoned by its own internal hatreds, by the presence of the PLO and later by Hizbullah. Today, Lebanon is a nation ravaged by civil wars and external wars, the occupation by foreign forces particularly those of Syria and through Hizbullah by by foreign forces particularly those of Syria and through Hizbullah by Iran.

Syria's hand has been behind so much of the decay experienced by Lebanon's civil society - the assassinations, the threats and blackmail of a beleagured government and the arming of Hizbullah along with the Iranians. Of couse the Syrians have destabilised much more of the Middle East than just Lebanon in the same way that Iran which fights proxy wars on Lebanese soil against Israel through Hizbullah has done throughout the region and beyond.

The world has allowed Syria and Iran to get away unchalleneged with far too much for so long that it's reached the point of no return with these two rogue states. The icing on the cake came this week when both Syria and Iran were elected to the U.N. Disarmament Commission in a move that must surely soon see the ringing of the death knell for the entire United Nations Organization.

This is the reward you get in a corrupt world for what you do to your co-religionists and to your neighbours. For these two to be entrusted with disarmament is only to encourage further the damage that both Syria and Iran are inflicting on the people of their region. They threaten Israel with their bombs real and imagined but they have been responsible for killing the people of Lebanon and trampling on their rights for a long period of time.

Last year, journalist Noah Pollak toured war ravaged Lebanon. He has given a fascinating insight into this country in an Azure magazine article as to how the country has been split. Writing about Lebanon, he says,

"For thirty years it was a nation in name only, existing unhappily as a Syrian vassal. In March 2005, the pressures unleashed by the Cedar Revolution drove out official Syrian dominance and inspired a new era of liberal democratic dreams. During my visit this past December, as in the months before and after, Lebanon was roiled by this new political reality–and by the old Lebanese reality, of a nation without a majority religion or ethnicity, a focal point of foreign patronage, a place where Christians, Sunni, Shia, Druze, and the various ethno-religious factions contained within them, perpetually assemble themselves, atomize, and reform in a turbulent competition for supremacy."

Pollack adds that "… there is a Lebanon that exists in the distance, too far away to see from Israel's northern border, and too difficult to discern through the opaque and fevered people camped in the South. It is the Lebanon of the Christians, the moderate Sunnis, and the Druze, the Lebanon that earned Beirut the moniker of the Paris of the Middle East. This Lebanon looks West for inspiration and support, not East, and sustains a loathing for Hezbollah (and the Palestinians) that rivals Israel's. This is the Lebanon of East and West Beirut, of outstanding restaurants, nightlife, beaches, tourism, and Mediterranean joie de vivre. These Lebanese share two vital things with Israel: An aspiration to live in a liberal, democratic society, and a fervent wish to rid their nation of the Islamic extremists who are the perpetual cause of bloodshed, instability, and warfare. Israel and Lebanon, in this regard, are more similar to each other than either of them is to any other nation in the region. In the 1980s, a Lebanese Christian leader declared that 'the Western world should either defend us, or change its name.' Israel is a member in high standing of the Western world, and should not exempt itself from sympathizing with such pleas."

Pollack proceeds to lay bare many of the myths that the Hizbullah propaganda machine successfully established through its sucessful wartime public relations campaign aided by sympathetic lackeys in the Western media.

"Southern Lebanon is not uniformly Shia. It is scattered with a few enduring Christian villages, one of which, named Ain Ebel, sits near Bint Jbeil, and is a Hezbollah-free zone. This town is spread across the northern-facing slope of one of the area’s many smooth, undulating hillsides, and from the top of this hill, where a few houses stand, the Israeli border is easily visible in the distance below. Many of the houses in the town, especially the ones closest to the hilltop, were badly damaged by Israeli bombardment during the war, seemingly confirming the charge that Israel had targeted civilians, or at least that the Israel Defense Forces attacked Lebanon indiscriminately. But that is not the reality of Ain Ebel: Israel did not lay siege to the town–Hezbollah did, and the manner in which it went about doing so should clarify the true cynical brilliance of Hezbollah's asymmetric tactics.

"The residents of Ain Ebel, in several different interviews, explained to us that at the outset of the war, Hezbollah transported a number of rocket launchers into the village and set them up for use as close to civilian houses as possible. Meanwhile, Israel was dropping leaflets over most of southern Lebanon urging civilians to evacuate (many of these leaflets were still visible, blown into countryside ditches and brambles). When the air campaign started, Hezbollah blocked the roads leading out of Ain Ebel, preventing civilians from fleeing, and on one occasion even opened fire on a caravan of evacuees, forcing them to return to their homes. With many of its residents trapped in the town, Hezbollah ignored the abundant open spaces in Ain Ebel, and fired rockets instead from within meters of civilian houses, drawing Israeli fire onto the village. As we surveyed Ain Ebel’s houses, many in varying states of reconstruction, I had to grudgingly admire this clever way of waging war against modern Western armies, when the combination of our precision munitions, a media that treats Western militaries with skepticism, and the expectation of morally perfect warfare have made civilian casualties one of the most dominant points of contention in warfare.

"From Hezbollah's perspective, premeditating the creation of civilian casualties makes perfect sense: It ensures the highest possible rate of return for the Katyusha rocket, insofar as it is turned into a weapon that can be used to kill both Lebanese and Israelis. More importantly, I realized, it accomplished something stunning in that it allowed an inferior power to use its adversary's superior weaponry to carry out its own battlefield strategy. In Ain Ebel and elsewhere, Hezbollah was in effect aiming Israeli firepower, directing its missiles and artillery onto Hezbollah’s preferred targets–houses, hospitals, apartment buildings, anywhere civilians could be found–knowing that Israel would be punished by the ensuing international outrage. Scenes of civilian death and destruction are irresistible for the Western image media, and the course of the summer war was affected perhaps like none before it by the manner in which the spectacle of dead Lebanese galvanized anti-Israel actors. Many people refer to Hezbollah's tactic as the use of 'human shields,' but this gets it exactly backward: It implies that Hezbollah was trying to protect its assets by using civilians to deter an Israeli attack. In fact, Hezbollah was trying to provoke Israeli bombardment so that both human lives and infrastructure would be destroyed, and the Party of God could enjoy the resulting moral absolution. In this way, Hezbollah achieved its greatest victory in the war, which was its ability to transform the narrative of the conflict from one in which Israel was defending itself from attack by a terrorist organization to one in which Israel was barbarically laying waste to civilian Lebanon."

I wonder from where Hizbullah got this tactic?

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PALESTINE - PART 1

ABC radio has now released the transcript to the segment on Hamas from Monday's edition of FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT. However, I'm somewhat perplexed about the ABC's use of terminology.

The item is entitled, "HAMAS URGED TO RENOUNCE TERRORISM" but presenter Elizabeth Jackson describes Hamas as a "Palestinian militant group".

Doesn't Hamas use terror like suicide bombings, rocket attacks on civilian areas and other cold-blooded methods of killing like suicide bombings, rocket attacks on civilian areas and other cold-blooded methods of killing as a tactic to terrorise the Israelis (not to mention the atricites it commits against its own people)? Here's a recent example of Hamas' modus operandi -ISRAEL SAYS HAMAS PLANNED TEL AVIV TRUCK BOMBING.

The article from Agence France Presse gives us a pointer that might help Ms. Jackson and the ABC out of the militant/terrorist bind.

"Although the Islamist movement - the main party in a Palestinian unity government - has largely abided by a November ceasefire agreement with Israel, its armed wing has been involved in a growing number of attacks against Israeli targets in recent weeks, including the shooting of a civilian along the Gaza Strip border." (note: there's no mention here of the continued use of quassam rockets fired across the border into Israeli towns and villages aimed at its civilians)

Get that?

According to the AFP, the political wing of Hamas, which was elected to govern the Palestinians a year ago, has "largely abided" by the so called November ceasefire. They're not the terrorists and they don't break cease fire agreements - its the armed wing of the organisation that does that. Hamas takes no responsibility - they're just militants - not terrorists!

Thanks to the ABC's David Hardaker the FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT report tells us a little more about Hamas and the way it exploits Palestinian children - some as young in age as four - for its sinister and obscene terrorist ends. His story tells of how the Hamas television station in Gaza featured the young children of a female suicide bomber apparently glorifying their mother's deadly attack on Israeli soldiers. Jackson says in her introduction that this "broadcast comes as Hamas ministers in the Palestinian Government face international pressure to explicitly renounce the use of terror against Israel."

Hamas, of course, routinely refuses to renounce the use of terror and its apologists routinely continue to obfuscate about the reasons.

"HARDAKER: The international community will demand from Hamas that they condemn suicide bombing, that when you see something like that on the television, Hamas television, it's not condemning it. Do you condemn this kind of action?

"WASFI KABAHA: Well, we are against terrorism. Palestinian people, all Palestinian people, are against terrorism. But never ask the Palestinian people not to defend themselves.Why you are asking us to do something that asking the Israeli side actually to explain their activities against the Palestinian people? "

The truth is something different altogether to Kabaha's pathetic explanation. It can be found in the Hamas Charter Article 7.

We need to talk about that further, don't we?

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS

Bradley Burston wrote in Ha'aretz recently about the silence among many on the left of politics when it comes to Muslim atrocities and Muslim victims.

"We were taught to sniff out, publicize, and condemn every instance of racism, violence, injustice, and humiliation practiced by Israeli Jews against Palestinian Muslims. And that was as it should be.

"But we were also taught that it was racist to impose our Western values on the acts of Muslims, even, or especially, when it came to the most extreme of Muslims.

"We can, with facility, therefore, comprehend all Muslim atrocities against Muslims in Iraq as the direct, understandable, and legitimate response to the American-British occupation.

"We were taught wrong.

"We can understand terrorism in Bali, in London, in the Twin Towers, as an outgrowth of anger over American expansionism and Israeli military repression.

"We were taught wrong.

"There are, of course, many Jews whose selective blindness works in the other direction, condemning Muslims at every opportunity, as though that made wrongdoing by Jews eminently forgivable and forgettable. As though we are somehow made moral by the moral failings of our neighbors.

"This is what we should have been taught: Violations of human rights are violations of human rights, regardless of the cultural background of the perpetrator, regardless of the background of the victim.

"This is what we should have retained: One way to demonstrate compassion for victims is to stop showing sensitivity to their tormentors. Even if both are Muslims. Because it's our business to cry out. Because the victims are human beings. Because villains deserve to be denounced."

KIDNAPPED

The BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston is the only Western news correspondent based in Gaza and he's missing, abducted four weeks ago and feared kidnapped.

Today's Australian Newspaper editorialises that the "kidnapping of journalists is an abhorrent practice, representing a war against free speech."

Although the editorial is entitled "KIDNAPPING HOPE", I see nothing in it to bring hope to anyone, let alone Alan Johnston. It opines that this kidnapping and the PA government’s "lack of authority only go to highlight the disintegration of order in the Palestinian territory, where more than 100 people have been killed since last year's elections. The state has slumped into a shambolic hotbed of lawlessness, where armed gangs feud over family, factional and territorial disputes. The fight between Fatah and Hamas, with its various militias and assassinations and targeted killings, has created a civil war as brutal as anything outside Baghdad. Johnston's kidnapping has only raised the stakes further for the Hamas-led Government's legitimacy."

That isn't even half of the story of life today under a Hamas-led government.

Yesterday, on CORRESPONDENTS REPORT, our own ABC radio highlighted the extent to which Hamas abuses its own children, some as young as 4 years, by encouraging them to view suicide bombers as "martyrs". The glorification of cold-blooded murderers in this fashion is just another version of kidnapping Palestinian style.

When the minds of young children are stolen and the party elected to govern the Palestinians is the agency that is sowing the seeds of hatred in its people even at a young age, then what chance is there for peace and reconciliation between Jew and Arab in the region?

It is time to talk about Palestine!

[FOOTNOTE: The Australian editorial refers to more than 100 people killed since last year's elections. I have been reminded that the figure is well in excess of that. According to Elder of Ziyon who keeps a tally of such things, the number is 163 just this calendar year - a number far in excess of the number of Palestinians killed in IDF operations against Palestinian terrorists (or "militants" if you like).]

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT EGYPT

Last week the Australian Newspaper published a piece by Lynne Segal, an Australian academic based in the U.K. Segal is also a member of the Independent Jewish Voices and her piece, entitled "WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT ISRAEL", is typical of the IAV/IAJV mould - written as if nobody has ever previously discussed Israel critically either within or without mainstream Jewish communities.

There are as many holes in Ms. Segal's argument as you can find in a reasonably sized piece of Swiss cheese and most of them would be fairly obvious to readers of the Blank Pages. Here's a little taste of her of her logic:-

"We also know that Israel has been responsible for the most continual and extreme elimination of human rights in its occupied territories for the past 40 years." (How do we know that?)

"This includes not only brutal policies of collective punishment, arbitrary arrests and accidental shootings, but also routinely undermining Palestinians' right to free movement, water, education or even access to sources of livelihood within what are their own their own territories."

So even accidental shootings form part of Israel's deliberate policies designed to punish the Palestinian people. I've now heard everything! (Reminder: Please carry out some research into whether Ms. Segal's ancestors came from Chelm)

True to form, Segal's highly selective presentation condemning alleged Israeli human rights violations, almost completely omits to mention that the Palestinians themselves might have been routinely responsible for violating the rights of their Israeli neighbours as well as of their own kind for many years.

Segal does condemn in a general way some unmentioned Palestinian "atrocities" (thankfully she doesn't attempt to do an Yvonne Ridley by attempting to rationalise and justify suicide bombings) but she ignores the rather obvious connection between those atrocities and the necessity on Israel's part to defend itself which has resulted in the setting up of those nasty checkpoints and has caused it to construct the security barrier which has been so successful in reducing attacks on Israeli citizens.

The Israeli side of the story is ignored not only by Segal but also by virtually all of the other IAV's whether British, Australian or from Kazakhstan for that matter (to be fair however, Borat himself prefers to concentrate on the "Jews as wood lice" theory).

By all means then, we need to talk about Israel, but it's clear that we need to talk about Palestine as well - and indeed, that's exactly what I will be doing very soon.

In the meantime and in view of the season of the year, I'd like to set the tone for my forthcoming discussion on the narratives of Israel and her neighbours by going back a little in time to look at another people's narrative - that of the Egyptians - in this piece about some long standing Israeli human rights violations. (I swear this story was not written by Lynne Segal)

HOME TRUTHS ABOUT HIZBULLAH

It’s not my usual practice to quote Lebanon’s Daily Star but staff writer Michael Young got a few things right in WHEN A DILETTANTE TAKES ON HIZBULLAH.

Responding to the visit to Syria of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Young berates the Democrat for her comment that "the road to solving Lebanon's problems passes through Damascus." He reminds her that her statement will only harm efforts to ensure that Syria ends its meddling in Lebanese affairs and will thereby strengthen Hizbullah's position in that beleagured country.

Young adds that in 2000 Hizbullah "lost much of its reason to exist as a military force when the Israelis withdrew from Southern Lebanon. The manufacturing of the Shebaa Farms pretext, thanks to the diligent efforts of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, bought Hizbullah an extension, a handy fig leaf allowing it to keep its weapons. Last summer, however, the party's initiation of a war devastating to Lebanon, followed by its efforts to lead a coup against the majority, demolished any lingering cross-sectarian support that Hizbullah had enjoyed.

"Hizbullah's weapons are no longer regarded as weapons of resistance by most Lebanese, but as weapons of sectarian discord."

Young concludes:-

"For years, pundits and analysts have spoken of Hizbullah's 'integration into Lebanese society. ' Their underlying premise was that the party somehow desired this. Optimists pointed to Hizbullah's participation in successive parliamentary elections as an example of its willingness to 'assimilate.' The naivete deployed was remarkable. It rarely occurred to the experts that Hizbullah did not start as, nor truly is, a social services organization. It is an Iranian-financed military and security enterprise overseeing a vast and competent patronage system designed to win Shiite backing, allowing Hizbullah to retain its weapons. It never occurred to the experts that Hizbullah's objective in participating in the political system was not to jettison its military identity, but rather to safeguard it within the confines of Lebanese institutions it could thereafter influence."

INDEPENDENT MUSLIM VOICES

Yvonne Ridley, an unrepentant anti-Semite and apologist for Islamist terrorism around the world, will be a speaker at the first annual Australian Islamic Conference in Melbourne this weekend.

This is the conference to which controversial figure, Sheik Bilal Philips, was headed before immigration officials barred his entry into Australia. Philips has been linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York. A second sheik from Saudia Arabia was also banned fom entering Australia because he failed to provide sufficient information as to why he should be allowed into the country. In their absence, Ridley now takes star billing at the conference.

According to Wikipedia Ridley, a convert to Islam after being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan, holds a view on the Palestine/Israel conflict, which is "pretty much in line with that of Hamas." According to Ridley, Israel is "that disgusting little watchdog of America that is festering in the Middle East".

Ridley is a member of the Respect Party, an unbelievably misnamed British political party headed by George Galloway. She claims that the Respect Party "is a Zionist-free party… if there was any Zionism in the Respect Party they would be hunted down and kicked out. We have no time for Zionists", while both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties are "riddled with Zionists."

Of course, this begs the question as to why any self-respecting Zionist would want to be a member of a party that harbours such racist ratbags.

Ridley once defended Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's campaign of violence in Iraq and Jordan and described the victims of the November 2005 Amman bombings (60 dead and 115 injured - many of them guests at a wedding party) in Jordan as "Iraqi collaborators."

Meanwhile, at home, she urged Muslims in Britain to refuse to co-operate with the police investigating terrorist activities.

To really understand how loathsome an individual Ridley has become since her conversion to Islam, here’s more from Wikipedia: -

"After the Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev (architect of the Moscow theater hostage crisis and the Beslan school massacre) was killed, Ridley wrote a column stating that Basayev had become a 'shaheed', that is, a martyr whose place in Paradise is assured. She went on to refer to Basayev as leader of 'an admirable struggle to bring independence to Chechnya'. In response to objections that Basayev's actions killed many civilians, Ridley stated that he 'resorted to targeting Russian civilians in the latter years of his struggle to try and bring the plight of the Chechen struggle to the wider world,' and blamed the majority of civilian casualties on Russian troops sent in to rescue the hostages, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

So, speaking the truth is not Ridley's strongest suit.

Australian Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke has asked how a person who praised Basayev as a martyr and urged Muslims in Britain not to co-operate with police, and who has described suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations", could pass the character test required for a visa into the country. He urges the government to kick her out of the country.

I agree Australia could easily do without Ridley but to throw her out of the country would be to turn her into a cause celebre among certain groups here. She would almost certainly be regarded as "a martyr" while the focus would be taken away from the objectionable views she espouses. The intolerance, hatred and lack of respect for others inherent in her message would be whitewashed in the controversy, thereby severely limiting the prospects of any debate on her offensive ideas.

Rather than deport her, Ridley and her extremist views should be exposed to critical scrutiny for only in this way can we understand not only their inherent danger to our society but how counterproductive they are to the very people she claims to support. An example of the latter proposition is that she sings from the same song book as the Islamists who control the Palestine Authority and whose stated aims are to destroy the Jewish State and kill Jews - which is one of the main reasons why the attainment of peace between Israel and Palestine is proving so elusive.

Such positions are well documented and widely understood in the Middle East but they are all too easily brushed aside in general discussions on this subject while in the Jewish community, the tiny minority of so-called "independent voices" who speak out against Israel would rather leave them tidily brushed under the carpet out of sight and out of mind.

LET MY PEOPLE GO!

Noam Schalit, father of kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit, spoke out on Friday at a rally held to show empathy for the three kidnapped IDF soldiers held by Hamas and and Hizbullah.

Mr. Schalit, who is standing up bravely under the pressure of his son's kidnapping, is critical "of a system that failed to internalize lessons of the past," "UDI, ELDAD & GILAD ARE NOT FREE MEN" and he makes a valid point; perhaps the system hasn't done enough or has proved inadequate in securing Gilad's release.

One wonders however, whether the lessons of the past are of much use when dealing with Hamas and Hizbullah and their friends. What we have here are ruthless kidnappers representing organisations that show disdain for the norms of human decency. International laws and standards relating to captured prisoners do not apply with Hamas and Hizbullah; there are no visits from the Red Cross and not even a sign as to whether any of the three are alive.

The international community is virtually of no help despite a U.N resolution which called for their release; you won't find articles in your local newspaper about the plight of the captives and their families or even any criticism of the methods of their captors. There are very few voices of support and comfort out there to help guide them home.

Recent negotiations have brought a ray of hope for Gilad's release but these appear to have stalled as a result of internal divisions within Hamas. Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper revealed yesterday that the group holding him "are hard-liners who oppose the Mecca agreement, which formed the basis for the Palestinian national unity government."

Incidentally, to understand the depths of the Hamas pathology one need go no further than the Ha'aretz article quoted above which concludes with the revelation that "the 7-year-old son of a Hamas operative was killed yesterday in the Gaza Strip when a hand grenade went off inside the family home." The frustration continues for all men and women of decency who dream that one day all of the people of the region can live in freedom and in peace.

The Jewish Agency and the Keren Maor Foundation, also known as Amutat Habanim, which represents the families of the abducted soldiers have had prepared a special Seder prayer to be recited tomorrow night for those who celebrate the Jewish Festival of Pessach.

"He who redeems prisoners shall save them from captivity and take them out of slavery to freedom, and from oppression to redemption, and from darkness to light, and He shall heal them fully in soul and body, and grant them strength, happiness and joy, so they shall be strong, healthy and content."

There are other captives in the region who are also suffering at this very time. We should add to our prayers BBC reporter Alan Johnston, missing in Gaza, and the 15 British sailors languishing in Tehran. May they also be freed and brought to safety and back soon to their family and friends.

GIVING OXYGEN TO A HOLOCAUST FALSIFIER

The Australian Broadcasting Commission produces a rather innocuous radio programme on religion known as The Religion Report, normally hosted by one Stephen Crittenden. Well, it was innocuous enough until recently when it moved out of the area of religion and into the political arena by covering the issue of anti Zionism – originally because of the controversy relating to the introduction of the British Independent Jewish Voices and it's little brother counterpart in Australia - the IAJV.

So far, three programmes on the topic have been aired and you can judge for yourself as to the content and the way in which Crittenden deals with his interviewees. My one comment is that I noticed a marked change from a hard hitting interviewing style when Crittenden engaged the pro-zionist Professor Alvin Rosenfeld to his totally fairy floss treatment of Holocaust abuser Leni Brenner.

The transcripts are here, here and here.

I understand that the ABC has received a substantial amount of correspondence about the way these programmes have been presented and the following transcript of a letter sent by Mr Manny Waks, Executive OfficerB'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, which came across my desk yesterday is reprinted here in full:-

Mr. David Busch
Executive Producer for Religion (RADIO)
ABC Radio National
Brisbane
GPO Box 9994
Brisbane 4001
Email: busch.david@...

Dear Sir,

Re: Complaint regarding "The Religion Report" on Radio National

I am writing to you after receiving a deluge of intensely angry calls from both Jewish and non-Jewish individuals alike concerning the Religion Report of March 21, 2007. It featured gross misrepresentations, innuendo, and odious assertions by the well-known Marxist anti-Zionist, Lennie Brenner.

A reading of the manuscript of the program by any fair-minded person would, without doubt, fully confirm the validity of these listeners' concerns.

For three consecutive weeks of programming, your station has featured the subject of Jews and Israel under the guise of discussing religion but really focussed on the politically-motivated questioning of the legitimacy of Israel, raising questions about the possible abiding prejudice of the presenter and his team, and the ABC itself.

Specifically, why were extreme Left wing criticisms of Israel, which are designed to undermine its legitimacy, permitted under the guise of religion? Why was Brenner asked to answer these questions when has no expertise or authority on the topic of religion? And moreover, knowing full well the interviewee's biased claims, why wasn’t there a credible historian in place to challenge them? Indeed, the programme's promotional rhetoric undoubtedly was designed to achieve maximum negative titillation by linking Zionism with Nazism. To quote:

"Which Israeli Prime Minister in his youth was a member of an organisation that offered to collaborate with the Nazis at the height of WW2 because of their shared racial ideology of blood and soil? This question is answered…etc."

The programme itself carried on in this style without question, and without demur from the presenter suggesting his total acceptance of the views being presented. A further example of this is when Brenner provides so-called statistics that are unascribed to any credible authority as when he claims "the average Jew in America first off, resents Israel because it’s an orthodox Jewish state".

Brenner goes on to assert (again without backing his claims with any credible source) that "(the American Jews) see America's ties to Israel as creating problems from America, and wars for America and so on, and as American they don't feel why America should have to go to Israel's defence".

Your interviewer Crittenden, instead of attempting to clarify these so-called "facts" accepts them blindly and responds: "OK".

Brenner's notions have been used extensively and equally by the ideological Left and ultra-Right in their denunciations of the legitimacy of Israel and her right to exist. Any programmer on top of his game would not only have known this but would have related this fact during the course of the interview. Indeed Mr. Crittenden could have logged onto the ABC's own website athttp://www.abc.net.au/compass/explore/anti.htm, titled "the Sacred Site" to glean this information about Mr. Brenner. There, Brenner’s book is lauded on the extremist sites that promote hatred. Not to alert the listener to this smacks of professional negligence on behalf of Crittenden.

Had the interviewer done his homework, he may also have pointed out facts about Arab-Nazi collaboration, or explained the facts surrounding the Soviet Union inspired push to have Zionism linked with Nazism, or even perhaps the traditional ideological Left’s objections to Judaism, then Zionism, on the basis both were "forces for reaction".

The B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission's (ADC) disquiet is less with Brenner whose outlook is well-known. Rather, it is with the ABC and its presenter who has allowed such propaganda under the heading of religion to go to air unchallenged.

Yours sincerely

Mr Manny Waks
Executive Officer

B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission

The ABC’s own Code of Conduct requires it to "demonstrate a diversity of principal relevant perspectives when it deals with matters of contention." TRR has now covered the topic of "Anti-Zionism and antisemitism" on three occasions, and anti-Zionist views have twice been highlighted.

Will the ABC now allow a speaker to present a rebuttal of Brenner’s views and will that speaker be afforded the same respect and opportunity to present his case as was given to Brenner? Perhaps the opportunity could be given to someone like Michael Ezra to discuss The Abuse of Holocaust Memory or would that prospect be too embarrasing for the programme's presenter to stomach?

HOUSE ARREST PALESTINE STYLE

I don't generally have much sympathy for the settlers of Hebron and nor do I think it's a smart thing for a Palestinian to sell his or her house to a settler. However this story from Ha'aretz is simply mind-boggling.

"JORDAN, PA ARREST 2 PALESTINIANS FOR SELLING HEBRON HOUSE TO JEWS"

"The Palestinian Authority and Jordan earlier this week arrested two Palestinians suspected of selling a house in Hebron to settlers who have been occupying it since March 19.

"One of the suspects is being held in Jordan, and the other in Jericho. PA laws call for a death sentence for anyone found guilty of selling land to Jews."

So even if an Anthony Loewenstein wanted to buy an allotment in Hebron in order that he could cosy up to some of his Palestinian friends, the vendor of the land would face execution for doing business with a Jew.

I'm waiting with bated breath to read about this in the Melbourne Age which somehow missed the Palestinian sewer disaster story. However, I don't believe that a newspaper with a true social conscience and a disdain for intolerance would ever pass up the opportunity to expose the naked racism inherent in this particular law.

Surely?

THE SHIT

This is a human tragedy of epic proportions [Flood of sewage in Gaza Strip village kills at least five people]

It’s about more than the five Palestinian dead, the ten (or even more) Palestinians missing feared dead, the twenty-five Palestinians injured or the hundreds of Palestinians who have lost their homes and are now even more than ever susceptible to disease and hunger.

It's about the entire Palestinian tragedy. It's about a people whose leadership doesn't really represent their true aspirations and one that is sorely lacking in the ability to face reality and to seek peace with its neighbour.

The devastated Gaza Strip village of Umm Nasser is just one of the sites from which barrages of quassam missiles has been launched in recent years across the border and directly at neighbouring Israeli towns. From time to time, the Israelis fired back so it was said that that it wasn't safe to take the necessary steps to reinforce weak walls and sewerage tanks.

We all know that's only half the story; that things would be different if the quassams stopped and the PA, now controlled by a "unity" government actually kept to its well documented commitments to the international community and to its own people - commitments that if honoured would go a long way to help in bringing peace to the region.

"The Israel Defense Forces offered humanitarian assistance to help clean up the spill. There was no word on whether the offer had been accepted."

The time is right for the leaders of the Palestinian people to accept this offer of help; who knows where this might lead them?

It might even get them and the entire region out of the shit!

[Postscript 29 March 2007 - There are three daily newspapers available in Melbourne and two of them picked up the story today. The third is the Melbourne Age and true to form it covered the Saudi "peace" ultimatum and also had a small piece about the removal of settlers from an abandoned West Bank settlement. Apparently, the Age just couldn't bring itself to publish a story about the incompetence (bordering on corruption) of the PA or of Israel's neighbourly offer of assistance in a time of tragedy proving that even blank pages can produce an awful smell.]

BBC COVER UP

BBC PAYS £200,000 TO 'COVER UP REPORT ON ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS'

The news is not surprising and nor would it surprise if the BBC continues to deny until the cows come home that its reports are, in fact, biased against Israel.

The BBC should come clean because its bias is so obvious that it borders on the comedic.

We all remember Orla Guerin's performance when she reported in banshee-like tones from a shattered Southern Lebanon after last year's war, spitting out her bile against the Israelis and ignoring entirely the role of Hizbullah as the catalyst for the violence.

Contrast that to a gun battle witnessed by the BBC's Nick Thorpe at Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital last December. Thorpe's voice never changed from a bored monotone as he described the carnage when Fatah gunfire at a Hamas position inside the building left one member of the Hamas executive force dead and several others injured. He could easily have been discussing the duchess' tea party as he droned on without even raising an eyebrow about the fact that this was all going on in a hospital.

Imagine how differently the BBC would treat a like incident where Israeli soldiers might be concerned? The IDF in a Palestinian hospital? Oy vey!

I can only give my pity to those who live in Britain and who pay for this disgusting "service".

A PALESTINIAN CHILD DIES AND THE WORLD YAWNS

WHY?

Because the Palestinian child in question - a 4 year old - died in the cross fire of a battle battle between supporters of Hamas and Fatah.

With those nasty Zionists nowhere to be seen and therefore no Jews in the area to blame, most of the world's media have decided to give the story a miss.

UN SHAME PERSISTS

Everybody knows by now that the new United Nations Human Rights Council is a sham that exists for the major purpose of singling out Israel and Israel alone among all of the world's nations for alleged human rights violations. The Chicago Sun Times has addressed this very issue in an editorial Despite new name, U.N. rights panel still a disgrace.

The editorial points to the hypocrisy of the UNHRC which recently rejected a report on last year's fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon because it listed violations by the latter as well as the former. The Council so fixated on the evils of Israel that it seems impotent to act on any other issue - certainly not the ongoing genocide in Sudan.

The new UN chief Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is embarrassed and says he's concerned about the disproportional attention to Israel's alleged violations but the editorial rightly concludes that "until he says he's worried about the disproportional attention to Israel, period, while the council neglects human rights outrages around the globe, it's only a beginning. This council is a disgrace."

TO THOSE WHO HATE!

The author is anonymous to my knowledge and it's probably a bit of an oldie but I like of an oldie but I like it ...

The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year.

Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:

The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.

The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.

The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

The technology for the AOL Instant MessengerICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.

Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, U. S.

Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U. S.
Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.

The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.

Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.

When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.

Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)

Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.

Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer .

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

Israel's Givun Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders.

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnoseheart's mechanical operations through a
sophisticated system of sensors.

Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as
well.

A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.

An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth.

.... AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO ENGLAND ONCE SAID :

"ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY."

And to those who hate like that French Ambassador, I say criticise to your heart's content but if you think it's a shitty little country and has no right to exist then show some integrity, throw away your mobile phones, shut down your computers and stop treating your acne!

OH BLAST!!!

Does anybody really care when Palestinians set up weapons factories in the middle of densely populated residential areas, thereby placing innocent civilians in harm's way?

Not really, if you use as a guide, the reaction to this item from a Palestinian news agency - EXPLOSION IN ASH-SHATI REFUGEE CAMP KILLS ONE ISLAMIC JIHAD MEMBER, INJURES FIVE OTHERS.

"One Palestinian activist from the Al-Quds brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, was killed and five others wounded in an explosion in a house in Ash-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

"The explosion took place at noon on Monday and destroyed the house of the Hessi family. Palestinian medical sources said that Ala'a Hessi, 26, was killed in the explosion and five others were injured.

"The Islamic Jihad movement is in mourning for Hessi and confirmed that he was one of its members."

The reaction was of course - deafening silence.

And that silence from those who usually shriek long, hard and loud with concern about the welfare and safety of the residents of these refugee camps when the IDF moves in to prevent attacks on Israeli citizens gives away their real agenda.

You don't have to be Einstein to work it out!

DIFFERING OPINIONS

Melinda Jones has produced a very accurate summation in today's Australian on the brouhaha surrounding the IAJV manifesto - DIFFERING OPINIONS ARE NOT EXCLUDED .

"In many ways the content of the petition sits comfortably with the mainstream of the Jewish community that is being challenged. The importance of free speech, the duty to treat all people with dignity and respect and the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict are values."

In other words, the IAJV petition is not, on itself, the issue.

"Mainstream organisations are constantly seeking access to unaffiliated Jews, but they are often hard to find, or don't want to be found. Engaging these people and giving them a voice can only enhance the Jewish community."

So what's the problem with the petition?

"It is wrong, as a matter of fact, that any Jew is actively excluded from the organised community."

Further...

"It is also wrong, as a matter of fact, that there is any attempt to silence alternative voices. It is true that we now have only one Jewish weekly paper - the Australian Jewish News - and that this is relatively conservative. However, the voices of many of the signatories (including the most vitriolic) are regularly published in its pages."

Then of course there is the problem surrounding Israel's security issues, Palestinian incitement and the responsibility of the Palestinians - matters which one IAJV person described as "a given". Judging by the written words of some of the signatories, these issues are anything but a given, except that the IAJV doesn't consider them worthy of discussion or debate in the context of its statement of principles.

"It is ironic that the authors of the petition want to simultaneously promote free speech and limit the views with which they don't agree. They cannot have it both ways."

Unfortunately, they are used to having it both ways. Many of them had the same gripe years ago with the Ashrawi affair when they (and the ineptitude of the then leaders of various Jewish community groups) managed to shift the focus of attention away from the real issue which was the question of whether Ashrawi was a worthy recipient of a peace prize.

This time around, the IAJV has failed to stifle the debate within the Jewish community which has rightly and roundly condemned the hypocrisy of some of its more prominent talking heads.

THE [UN]BEARABLE HEAVINESS OF UN SHAME

Those who might have held high hopes for things to change for the better under the United Nation's new management following Kofi Annan’s departure from the Secretary-Generalship, had better think twice.

The UN remains its usual hypocritical, corrupt and racist self.

This week a team of UN investigators accused Sudan's government of "orchestrating and participating" in crimes in Darfur that include murder, mass rape and kidnap and they urged the UN Human Rights Council to step in urgently - REPORT CONDEMNS SUDAN OVER DARFUR .

During the four-year Darfur conflict, at least 200,000 people are estimated to have died with millions more displaced. The team's leader called the response so far "pathetic" and I have news for them – it will remain pathetic for a long, long time because Arab governments that abuse human rights and Arab militias that directly target and attack civilians are a protected species in the eyes of the United Nations. Nothing will happen and the Darfur genocide will continue.

The UN will, of course, continue to harangue the Jewish State of Israel – even for non-existent offences.

Remember the controversial Israeli Antiquities Authority excavation near the Temple Mount that raised the hackles of Muslims everywhere and saw violent Arab rioting in Jerusalem last month?

UNESCO has now issued a report that the excavation was "being done with complete transparency, and in no way damages the Temple Mount." UNESCO: DIG NOT HARMING TEMPLE MOUNT.

But that's not the end of it.

Although the dig is not causing any damage, the UN is calling on Israel to suspend the dig to allow for international observation. In other words, where Israel is involved and found to be in the right, you must show even-handedness, don't you?

Not a word however, about illegal digging being carried out directly under the Temple Mount by the Muslim Wafq.

Meanwhile, how do you think that the UN is faring over the implementation of the cease-fire from last year’s war? PERETZ TELLS UN: LEBANON CEASE-FIRE STILL NOT FULLY IMPLEMENTED.

Laughable?

No there’s worse to come from the UN.

The "Special Raporteur" on Palestine to the UN Human Rights Council is an unrepentant Israel bashing anti-Semite named John Dugard. Enabling this person to report on any matter relating to Israel is akin to placing lunatics in charge of an asylum.

South Africa’s Business Daily recently gave credence to this lunatic's latest report which accuses Israel of practicing Apartheid - APARTHEID PARALLEL REAFFIRMED IN PALESTINIAN REPORT.

Unfortunately, the Business Daily's political editor who wrote this article, didn't allow for a right of reply and made no pretence of being even handed on the issue in her story.

So, just for the record, here is a link to Anne Bayefsky's brilliant rebuttal JEWS SEEK RACIAL DOMINATION!

"A newly released United Nations report epitomizes the foul anti-Semitism which has overtaken the U.N. human-rights machinery. In language reminiscent of Nazi Germany, John Dugard, the U.N.’s "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967," has announced that Jews seeks racial domination."

The great travesty is that as long as this nonsense continues, the real victims of human rights abuses throughout the world, will never receive justice. Not from the United Nations.

Bayefsky concludes:

"Why should Sudan stop genocide? It's waiting for the Jews to repent or the Jewishness of Israel to be terminated. Why should Zimbabwe stop murdering and starving its own people, white and black? Why should China grant anybody freedom of speech? Why should Saudi Arabia let women out of the house alone or into any driver's seat? Why should Egypt stop the mutilation of the genitals of the majority of its married female population? They're all waiting for a solution to the Jewish state problem.

"American tax dollars were used to pay for the Dugard report and its dissemination worldwide by the U.N. Isn't it about time the tap was turned off?"

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE BORN JEWISH

Irena Sendler wasn't born Jewish; in fact, she was never Jewish at all.

In spite of this, she showed great courage and humanity in saving nearly 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis by organising a ring of 20 Poles to smuggle them out of the Warsaw Ghetto in baskets and ambulances.

Irena Sendler is a real human and I salute her and the brave Poles who worked with her to save the children. Their human kindness is greatly appreciated by this son of two of those who survived one of the darkest hours of history.

Read the remarkable story here.

SHAMEFUL RUSSIA

Is there a more unprincipled bunch of thugs in this world than those who lead Russia?

Today's Australian carries the story of how the Russians have announced the postponment of the opening of Iran's first nuclear power plant.

The Russian action is not out of concern for the fact that Iran's leadership is likely to use its nuclear power to manufacture nuclear weapons or that its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust and has a stated aim of destroying Israel.

No, it's all about money.

The Russians claim the Iranians have paid only a fraction of the $US25 million ($31.8 million) a month needed to cover construction costs. So, not long after the Iranians cough up the cash (and they inevitably will), the Bushehr nuclear plant will open.

Whilst it will still move at full speed towards nuclear capacity, Iran will ignore the growing economic crisis within the country; inflation is growing, the stock market's falling and unemployment is rising at the same time.

Meanwhile, international diplomacy to prevent the Iranians from building nuclear weapons will continue to move at a snail's pace because, for most of the world - particularly the Russians - it's a case of business as usual.

THE MEDIA WEAPON

I commend this excellent piece of research from Marvin Kalb of Harvard University on The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict.

"If we are to collect lessons from this war, one of them would have to be that a closed society can control the image and the message that it wishes to convey to the rest of the world far more effectively than can an open society, especially one engaged in an existential struggle for survival. An open society becomes the victim of its own openness. During the war, no Hezbollah secrets were disclosed, but in Israel secrets were leaked, rumors spread like wildfire, leaders felt obliged to issue hortatory appeals often based on incomplete knowledge, and journalists were driven by the fire of competition to publish and broadcast unsubstantiated information. A closed society conveys the impression of order and discipline; an open society, buffeted by the crosswinds of reality and rumor, criticism and revelation, conveys the impression of disorder, chaos and uncertainty, but this impression can be misleading."

On a similar subject, Honest Reporting has called on Robert Fisk to retract his blood libel that Israel used uranium-based weapons in southern Lebanon during last summer's war now that even the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission can't find any evidence to support his outrageous allegation.

It takes an honest man to admit a mistake so should I be holding my breath waiting for Fisk's retraction?

I ROBOT

An Israeli weapons manufacturer has produced a new, smart robot (above) that "can fight its way down dark alleys, through caves and over rubble, seeking out bombs and booby traps along the way and warning human foot soldiers of enemies and danger ahead."

Ironically, the manufacturer’s first order came from an Australian group which plans to use it to combat an opposition group of robots who recently signed on to the Independent Australian Jewish Voices manifesto promoted by prominent Jewish luminaries Antony (I believe that Israel's right to exist must be recognized) Loewenstein, Peter (I'm no longer a nobody because I got a death threat) Slezak, Louise (I wasn’t born a Jew basher) Adler, Sol (I cringe at the swastika but still march under it) Salbe and Avigail (One State) Abarbanel.

The IAJV people complain that they are constantly vilified and intimidated by their opponents and their views are stifled within the Jewish community (even though some of the signatories are among the most prolifically published letter writers in the Australian Jewish News).

Strangely enough, like robots, they remain eerily close to silent when someone with Hamas-like views attacks them. This letter was published in the Age earlier this week:-

Just more of the same

WHILE it's all very nice to read about this new group, Independent Jewish Australian Voices, aiming to open up debate within the Jewish community, in the broader context this is pretty much more of the same. What is really needed is prominent voices in the wider community arguing the real Palestinian cause — which means putting the case against the legitimacy of Israel, rather than just supporting the kind of two-state cop-out that Antony Loewenstein and his comrades still cling to. Then we might have a genuine public debate about Palestine and — who knows? — maybe one day even some genuine justice for the Palestinians.

Jason Foster, Windsor

To my knowledge, the best any IAJV person could do with this sort of vilification was a response from a signatory Steve Brook:-

"No, Mr. Foster (The Age, 7 March) the state of Israel is entirely legitimate, and its existence is not open to question. It is attitudes like yours that have helped create the fortress mentality which governs so much of the posturing over the Israel-Palestine question. The chief sin committed by those who signed the IJAV statement, and I am among them, is that they broke ranks with those who have a my-country-right-or-wrong attitude to Israel. For the latter, IJAV is washing dirty linen in public, and this, while unpreventable, is impermissible."

Get it?

Brook’s reponse to the Foster attack is to weakly re-iterate that the state of Israel is "entirely legitimate and its existence is not open to question" and that's all!

The rest of his response is to parrot the standard IAJV line about breaking ranks with those "those who have a my-country-right-or-wrong attitude to Israel".

Which is not right either.

In fact the IAJV is breaking ranks with the majority of Jews in the Australian community who openly debate a multitude of issues concerning Israel, Palestine and Zionism – often critically. The problem is that the IAJV people simply refuse to recognise this as a fact and then continue to whine on about alleged "freedom of speech" issues. This "my-country-right-or-wrong" business is a total furphy.

And talk about playing the victim!

Mr. Brook and Larry Stillman's views are regularly published in the Australian Jewish News letters column. Stillman is another who wrote to the Age this week to present his gripe on the issue.

The Age didn't publish the Brook response but it did print a letter from one of his co-signatories who certainly broke ranks with many of the others on the two state issue:-

Why this Jew signed

I AM a former citizen of Israel and a signatory of the Independent Australian Jewish Voices petition. I have been an activist for Palestinian rights and an outspoken supporter of a one-state solution. The mainstream Australian Jewish community has been working hard to silence such anti-Zionist views. I signed the petition as an expression of protest against this attitude — not because I am a supporter of a two-state solution.

Avigail Abarbanel, Canberra

As you can see, the IAJV is becoming a rabble. Abarbanel has signed as an anti-Zionist while other signatories insist that they would not have joined this group if they thought IAJV was arguing for a position that was "against the Jewish State" and they believed that "Israel has no right to exist". Certainly, that's the case with Abarbanel and, as for Loewenstein - well, I'll let him do the talking:-

"Jews against Jews

As a Jew who doesn't believe in the concept of a Jewish state - a fundamentally undemocratic and colonialist idea from a bygone era - reception to such ideas within the Jewish community is usually vitriolic, bigoted, racist and downright pathetic.

Australian Jews, generally speaking, are incapable of hearing the true reality of their beloved homeland and its barbaric actions."

I think we're getting the picture now and so are some of the signatories who have begun to realise that they've been callously manipulated. This is what one of them says:-

"Why I have withdrawn my signature from the Slezak petition

When this petition came around I signed it because I thought it was all about affirming even-handed and fair values in the Middle East, but on listening to the ABC PM programme tonight, I have come to the conclusion that is actually a bit of a tanty by a few people who would manage to feel aggrieved and excluded for purely personal reasons in any society.

I must say I haven't heard the 'self-hating Jew' furphy applied to anyone for decades but apparently some nostalgic individuals are still furiously shadow boxing with this bogey.

A moment's thought locates the idea of the 'Self-Hating Jew' in a 20th century modernist psychoanalytic tradition that is in every other respect dead in the water.

So let's not waste any more energy arguing over something that is hurtful, unprovable, and unfalsifiable.

It's a creation of pure panic and we should stop bandying it around and hurting each other.

If you have signed this petition as I did in the false belief that you are doing something for ME Peace.

I suggest you withdraw and join the original 'Jewish Voices for a Just Peace' which has been going for years, does not rely on 'celebrity signatures' and has dedicated people like Lyndall Katz and Donna Sife in it whose record in concrete peace-making between Jews Christians and Moslems is unquestionable.

What a relief to hear Donna's voice on the radio bringing some balm and balance to this painful debate.

You can withdraw your signature at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/remove_me.html?key=610949694/e7584c35116bae91659cd86a64c4fea9/796861076 (possibly this will point you to my signature, so if thats the case, apologies - keep looking) I am now ready to sign Michael Danby's petition which seems much more practical, even-handed, and rooted in a the real world, instead of in the pious waffle of the Slezak petition, if only someone will tell me where to sign it."

Judy"

The link to Judy's letter is here and it also gets you to the Danby petition, which I fully endorse.

I congratulate Judy for coming to the realisation that you don't have to be a robot to hold a truly independent and responsible view on Israel and Palestine and in particular for recognising that the IAJV letter is nothing more than "pious waffle".

TIME TO SIGN UP

As it's the time of year for people to sign on for a cause, here's one I endorse:-

Please Sign the Petition for Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury

Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury is on trial for his life for advocating dialogue with Israel and fighting Islamist extremism. His trial keeps dragging on amidst ominous signs that the government seriously intends to prosecute him.

A Petition to Government of Bangladesh to Free and Drop All Charges of Sedition Against Muslim Journalist Salah Choudhury

To: Government of Bangladesh,

We, the undersigned scholars and other individuals of good will, petition the Government of Bangladesh to drop all charges against Muslim journalist Salah Choudhury. We understand that he faces charges under the Bangladesh Penal Code of "sedition, treason, blasphemy and espionage," which are punishable by death.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is editor of the Bangladeshi tabloid The Weekly Blitz.A practicing Muslim, Choudhury wrote about the rise of Islamist extremists in Bangladesh and has written articles against anti-Israeli and Judeophobic attitudes in Muslim-majority countries. He also urged Bangladesh-Israel relations and real interfaith understanding based on religious equality.

PEN USA gave him their Freedom to Write Award in 2005 in recognition of his commitment towards courageous journalism and confronting extreme adversities.[4]

The American Jewish Committee presented its Moral Courage Award to him in May 2006, but the Bangladesh government prevented him from visiting the United States to receive the honor.

Choudhury is facing these charges for taking strong public and professional stands against the radical Islamists who are quietly taking over the world's third largest Muslim-majority country, against the oppression of religious minorities and others there, and for positive relations between Muslims and Jews. His one formal violation of Bangladesh regulations was his attempt to visit Israel in 2003 to attend a conference of the Hebrew Writers' Association. The applicable act allows Bangladeshis to travel to all countries in the world except Israel. The penalty for such violation is a 500 Taka (less than $8). On November 29, he was taken into police custody and, as he tells it, blindfolded, beaten and interrogated for 10 days in an attempt to extract a confession that he was spying for Israel. He spent the next 17 months in solitary confinement, and was denied medical treatment for his glaucoma. Only after an international campaign and the personal intervention of U.S.

Congressman Mark Kirk did the Bangladesh government release Choudhury on bail. At the same time, the Bangladesh government promised to drop all charges against him after admitn July, a mob stormed the premises of Choudhury's tabloid and beat him, fracturing his ankle.

Congressman Mark Kirk did the Bangladesh government release Choudhury on bail. At the same time, the Bangladesh government promised to drop all charges against him after admitting that there was no substance to them.

In July, a mob stormed the premises of Choudhury's tabloid and beat him, fracturing his ankle.

In September, a judge affiliated with a radical faction ordered the case continued, in spite of the government's reluctance to prosecute, proclaiming that "by praising Christians and Jews," Choudhury had "hurt the sentiments of Muslims." The United States, European Union, and other democratic nations have sent observer to his trial. Government witnesses have refused to show in court, the court has violated Bangla Deshi legal procedure, and the prosecution has yet to provide a scintilla of credible evidence to support the capital charge. The new government in Dhaka has promised several American officials and others that they will have the case dropped. Yet, on February 28, 2007, the radical judge brazenly ordered the trial to proceed.

Resolutions in support of Choudhury and demands that the charges be dropped have been passed in the European and Australian Parliaments. A similar resolution passed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously and is scheduled to come before the full House this month where it is expected to pass without opposition. Noted international Human Rights attorney, whose clients have included Nelson Mandela and Andrei Sakharov, has identified eight violations on Bangladesh's own law in Choudhury's prosecution. The only way to restore the integrity of Bangladesh is to end this persecution now. In the name of justice, freedom of speech, freedom of passage and of human rights, we join with governments, human rights advocates and other scholars worldwide and ask that this injustice be immediately halted and that all charges against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury be dropped.

We urge each of you who sign this petition and even those of you who don't to circulate it amongst your colleagues and friends to help us reach 10,000 names by April 1, 2007. Thank you from Scholars for Peace in the Middle East www.spme.net

Sincerely, The Undersigned

As an added security measure for signers of this petition to reduce the need to void anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic remarks that have been posted, as well as reducing the number of fraudulent signature postings, the authors might consider necessary to verify the authenticity of signatures. Unfortunately there are significant numbers of individuals who would like to sabotage the credibility and impact of this important precedent-setting petition. If you have any questions, please contact, Dr. Edward S. Beck, (mailto:scholarsforpeace@aol.com) President, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. Thank you for your understanding, support and patience.

Compare what is happening to Choudhury with the whining and bleating of some signatories to the statements of principle of the British Independent Jewish Voices and its Australian counterpart who go on and on and on about alleged victimization and intimidation from anyone who wants to debate with them or criticise the way they go about things.

This courageous man is really suffering in a Bangla Deshi prison because he advocates between Israelis and the Palestinians while that precious Jewish princess Louise Adler is offended and suffering because someone has made the statement about her that she was "born Jewish".

How very rude of them!

EUROVISION 451

In the society created by Ray Bradbury in his novel Fahrenheit 451 most books are banned and critical thought is suppressed. The job of the central character is to act as a fireman or book burner; the novel is named for the temperature at which paper catches fire and burns.

According to Wikipedia the novel "reflects several major concerns of the time of its writing: what Bradbury has called 'the thought-destroying force' of censorship in the 1950s, the book-burnings in Nazi Germany starting in 1933, Stalin's suppression of authors and books in the Soviet Union, and the horrible consequences of an explosion of a nuclear weapon. 'I meant all kinds of tyrannies anywhere in the world at any time, right, left, or middle', Bradbury has said."

Today the book burners are in charge of the Eurovision Song Contest and they are readying to follow suit - Israel's Eurovision entry faces ban.

Kjell Ekholm, an organiser of the contest, has indicated that one particular entry, "Push the Button", might be banned because of its 'inappropriate' political message.

And what’s 'inappropriate' about the message of the song sung in English, French and Hebrew by the Israeli group Teapacks?

It seems that the lyrics of this song which refer to "demonic" and "crazy rulers", and which uses the words "he's gonna blow us up to … kingdom come" refer indirectly to Iran's nuclear ambitions and to its maniac leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The band members however, have denied that the song is about Iran.

But even if it was about Iran, is there anything inappropriate about a contemporary protest song warning about the dangers of what Bradbury called "the horrible consequences of the explosion of a nuclear weapon"? Is this the only song entered in the competition's fifty-two year history of popular and folk songs that addresses issues critical to the existence modern society?

Was last year's winner, the monster rock group Lordi - ironically from Ekholm's native Finland - and whose lyrics said: "On the day of Rockoning/It's who dares, wins/You will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings" any more appropriate?

One wonders if the fireman, would be reacting differently if the entry came from Bosnia and Herzegovina or perhaps from Lithuania which provided last year's sixth placegetter, a song called "We Are the Winners" and described in one place as "the seminal protest song"?

WORTHLESS PLEDGES

April Fool's Day is still a month away but that hasn't stopped Hamas terrorist leader in exile Khalid Mish'al from pulling the wool over the eyes of Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister on his visit to Moscow to garner support for an end to sanctions against the Palestinian Government so that his thugs can continue on with their job of murdering Israels while remaining well fed and well paid thanks to international handouts.

Mish'al made to the FM that Hamas would "end missile attacks and violence against
Israel."

Well, maybe!

After all, another lie from a Palestinian political figure means babkes these days when they have friends across the world rewriting history, inventing imaginary massacres, falsify the peaceful intentions of the Israeli people and generally finding excuses as to why they shouldn't observe the international community's reasonable requirements to move the stalled peace process forward.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, another five quassam rockets were fired at Israeli towns today.

SAUDI APARTHEID

This is an image you won't see in most of our media. It comes from Saudi Arabia where three French travelers were killed by gunmen earlier in the week (apparently they took the wrong road). This is the country that is the source of significant funds that go to the Carter Centre and which allow Jimmy Carter to write falsified accounts labelling Israel as an apartheid state when it really isn't (a fact which Carter himself acknowledges).

PALESTINIAN CEASEFIRE WATCH

They're at it again!

Of course, somewhere along the line Israel will be blamed for this and the casualty scoreboard will allege that the deaths were caused by the Jews.