HICKS, TERRORISM AND THE JEWS

At last, a human rights lawyer who actually makes sense when he talks about David Hicks.

The human rights community rightly condemned the slowness of the process that Hicks underwent after he was captured with Taliban forces and placed under United States military arrest at Guantanamo Bay in 2001. Six years of delayed justice was, even in the extraordinary circumstances of the world post 9/11, truly a case of justice denied in Hicks' case.

However, there was no reason for Hicks to become a cause célèbre as a result of what he went through during those six years including his subsequent brief imprisonment for the offence to which he confessed. We know from his own writings that he was a member of the Taliban, supported the decapitation of those who disagree with Mohammed, was involved in the firing at targets inside Kashmir from Pakistan and is a serial anti-Semite.

Supporters of Hicks claim that he accepted a plea bargain last year because it was a better and more convenient alternative to a long term battle with the American military system. On the other hand there is evidence that the process was also delayed by Hicks' own legal team, that a plea bargain could have been arranged as early as in 2003 and that his advisers and the legal teams of other Guantanamo Bay detainees were also responsible for dragging out the process with the aim of putting political pressure on George W. Bush and John Howard. Still, the trial was ultimately compared by Melbourne human rights activist Robert Richter QC to "German show trials of the 1930's" (an unfortunate reference because the Nazis would no doubt have been ecstatic about Hicks’ advocating the overthrow of "Western Jewish domination").

When he walked free from prison this week, Hicks made no substantial apology for anything and certainly stated no remorse for his support of terrorism and his rabid anti-Semitism.

Many were ready to despair at the silence of the human rights camp on these matters; especially those who said enough is enough, he has experienced too much grief already, that he is "misguided" and that we should now leave him alone. Shamefully, they all seemed prepared to forget what Hicks stood for when he made the decision to bear arms for the Taliban. We wondered where were the human rights and civil liberties of those who suffered at their hands, of Daniel Pearl and his family and of the Jews and others who have been murdered and persecuted by those with Hicks' world view?

Thankfully, George Newhouse - a genuine human rights activist - has come to the fore to provide some clarity by maintaining that Hicks won't be taken seriously until he renounces terrorism and anti-Semitism - HICKS MUST RENOUNCE TERRORISM - LAWYER.

Newhouse says Hicks needs to reassure Australians that he has changed his views on these subjects.

"Hicks' views are an insult to all Australians and he must renounce them immediately," Mr. Newhouse said.

"David Hicks claims that his plea bargain (with US military prosecutors) and the conditions of his release from Guantanamo Bay restricts him from talking about a lot of issues, but surely they do not stop him from coming forward to renounce terrorism and anti-Semitism.

"Until he does that, his words cannot be taken seriously.

"David Hicks should appreciate the fact that he has been repatriated to his homeland where he can benefit from a robust democracy, the rule of law and an independent judiciary," he said.

"David Hicks needs to reciprocate by reaffirming the basic values of our nation and the right to all Australians, including Jews, to live here and abroad in peace and safety."

Amen.

SUGAR TIME!

When next you hear or read about the suffering caused to Palestinians by the existence of Israeli checkpoints, please think about this story from Ha'aretz newspaper Chemicals used in making explosives caught at West Bank checkpoint about the apprehension of a truck at a crossing point in the West Bank carrying approximately 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate intended for use by terrorists in the Gaza Strip inside bags of sugar.

There is so much in the news today about the effects on the suffering of the Palestinian population resulting from blockades and the difficulty of moving goods at crossings, much of it anecdotal evidence taken from sympathetic reporters who appear reluctant to investigate their true circumstances. We hear very little of attempts to end violence and incitement to violence by their leaders and agreed upon with the international community that would go a long way to resolving issues of "blockades" and "checkpoints". We hear and read even less about the suffering of those on the receiving end of that violence - the Israelis who suffer daily attacks and the Palestinians of who the death toll at the hands of fellow Palestinians engaged in violent acts has just passed 600 for the calendar year - a disturbing fact that surprisingly remains unreported in the mainstream media.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why?

"The terror organizations disguised the Potassium Nitrate in sugar bags that were marked as being part of the humanitarian aid provided by the European Union," the IDF said.

"This is another example of how the terror organizations exploit the humanitarian aid that is delivered to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip with Israel's approval."

FALSE WITNESS REVISITED

Following the recent story about the Church leaders who came back to bear false witness about events in Israel/Palestine, I found an article that demonstrates the length of the garden path down which visitors to the region are often led. Some who reach the end of that garden path are wise enought to recognise the tooth fairy that features regularly in the propaganda used by Palestinians to dupe well meaning people into coming to all the wrong conclusions – COAL IN ISRAEL'S STOCKING.

"The low point for tourism to Bethlehem came in 2002. Then-Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat had turned down the peace offers forged by President Clinton during his last days in office. Arafat went on to launch a wave of suicide bombings against Israel, a terrorist assault known as the al-Aqsa Intifadah. At one point in that conflict, Palestinian terrorists took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and used the Christians inside -- including nuns and priests -- as human shields.

Yet Woodward argues that Israel "cannot blame the Christians' dire circumstances" on the Intifadah because "Muslims are suffering just as much as the tiny Christian minority." Does Woodward actually believe militant Islamists spare ordinary Muslims from suffering? Does he not know that the majority of victims of Islamist terrorism -- in Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere -- have been moderate Muslims?

Woodward also seems unaware of the extent to which Bethlehem's Christian population has declined since 1995 -- the year Arafat's Palestinian Authority took over the West Bank and Gaza as part of the Oslo Accords. Arafat quickly fired the city's Christian politicians and replaced them with his cronies.

Conceding that "Israel, of course, must protect its security," Woodward nevertheless slams Israel for doing so. He singles out the security barrier separating the Christian village of Beit Jala from the Jerusalem neighbor of Gilo. Woodward fails to mention that Palestinian snipers had used locations in Beit Jala to shoot at Israeli men, women and children in Gilo. On my first trip to Israel, in 2002, I visited Gilo. The residents had indeed erected a concrete barrier to stop the bullets. On it, they had painted a mural of Beit Jala -- to remind them of the neighbor it had become too dangerous to look upon."

Like Woodward and so many others of his ilk, it's so convenient to ignore those Palestinian snipers and the fact that their targets were innocent men, women and children going about their normal lives. More so because most of them were Jews?

EXPOSING DIRTY TRICKS MATTERS TO US

This advertisement appeared on page 20 of the Melbourne Age on Thursday 27 December 2007:-

Exposing dirty tricks matters to us

"Breaking big news is what great journalism is all about and The Age leads the way in bringing you news that matters, first."

That's "first" like bringing you the news of a statement issued on 12 December by Christian leaders in Bethlehem on 26 December ...

That's "news that matters" like bringing you the news of a Palestinian children's television programme from Hamas full of racist incitement against Jews months long after it was covered by every other notable newspaper on the face of this earth (and then only by way of a passing reference after the main Mickey Mouse lookalike character has been killed off) ...

That's "exposing dirty tricks" like the brewing Wikipedia scandal in which one of its editors protects anti-Israel journalists by censoring all references critical of them ...

If "dirty tricks" is what you want exposed, then keep your eye on the Blank Pages ...

CHRISTMAS IN PALLYWOOD

Honest Reporting has a special feature about how wire service photos demonstrate the distortions of the media - Pallywood Xmas Special.

Pallywood's producers are constantly creating stories for the foreign media as part of Palestinian efforts to blacken Israel's image. As Rod Liddle has observed, writing for the UK's Spectator magazine:

"If we - or some other TV monkeys - had not been there, it would not have happened. (Emphasis added) We were there to witness injustice; and also, if possible, exacerbate it for the benefit of the viewing public.... And when the TV crews, or the international observers are around, the Palestinians play it up for all it is worth; they know how it will go down with an international audience."

Regretably, our own local news distorter missed out on the fun - he was too busy hanging out with his friends who smuggle goods into Gaza for use by the local thugs. In fact, he was having such a good time that he missed out on this story even though it happened right under his nose - Dead and injured in the collapse of an expenditure of the Hamas in Rafah, south Gaza Strip (warning: the article is autotranslated from Arabic and is not, repeat not, a Fairfax news report).

FALSE WITNESS

Today's Melbourne Age carries a report on the gathering of "pilgrims in Bethlehem for a Christmas mass promoted by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Western powers as a chance to highlight the benefits of peacemaking." THOUSANDS OF PILGRIMS GATHER IN THE HOPE OF PEACE TO COME.

No mention there of the ethnic cleansing of Bethlehem's Christians or that in years to come they might have to provide cardboard cut outs of the Christians in attendance so as to fill up manger square at Christmas mass. Still, we all should hope and pray for peace in the region as a result of the peace process that was put in place last month at Annapolis.

The tragic side of the story is that which has been clumsily appended to the article, namely a report on a statement made by nine Australian Christian leaders who visited Israel and Palestine earlier this month. The statement was issued exactly two weeks ago but unlike most newspapers which prefer to publish fresh news, the Age doesn't appear to care if a story is as stale as last week's bread when it can report on a group of clerics who say they feel "compelled" to speak out about the suffering of Palestinians under occupation; who say that their visit showed "there were signs of hope, but obstacles imposed by Israel stood in the way of a just peace."

Obstacles?

These Christian leaders tell of what they say they saw and heard which they describe as "evidence of systematic harassment, physical and psychological oppression, widespread unemployment, poverty and economic deprivation, resulting directly or indirectly from Israeli military occupation of the West Bank." They do not say whether and what steps if any were taken to test the evidence or their conclusions (which to many observers are patently false and misleading), whether they considered the probity of their "evidence" or that it might have come from those who bear false witness either directly or by deliberate omission to assist them in reaching their conclusions. And it would not surprise if they were influenced by these Palestinian Christians from Sabeel who have a penchant for propagating anti-Israel sentiment and are considered by some as being serial liars who use antisemitic rhetoric.

The leaders add, almost by way of an afterthought (but rather significant in view of the reality of the situation in the region) that they "also heard of Israeli pain and grief resulting from terrorism, and assured both sides of their compassion and concern".

Thank the Lord for that insightful concession!

The fact that Israel is held to blame for taking security measures to protect its citizens from the terrorists is outrageous. The Age is constantly telling us that conditions for Palestinians in non occupied Gaza are much worse since Israel ended its military occupation of that territory in 2005 (and of almost half of the Palestinian population previously living under the dreadful occupation). When the occupation of Gaza came to an end there was one thing that remained constant - Palestinian terrorism and incitement against the Jews!

These leaders know full well the implications of bearing false witness against others. Yet, it seems that it did not even enter into their thoughts that perhaps the unemployment, poverty and economic deprivation which they saw might directly result from the efforts of Palestinian terrorism which seeks to prevent peace and would rather thwart all efforts to end the occupation. This is precisely because they are aware that there is no shortage of useful idiots to support such causes who know nothing of the consequences of accepting at face value those who bear false witness.

FOOTNOTE:

The President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert M Goot AM SC, issued the following statement in response to that of the Australian Church Leaders, following their recent visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank:

"The goodwill expressed by the Australian Church delegation to Israelis and Palestinians, and their prayers for a comprehensive peace, are appreciated and to be welcomed. We also welcome their condemnation of terrorism and acknowledge that people of goodwill strive for peace and justice and recognise that religion should be promoted as a force against extremism. However peace will not be achieved by directing criticisms essentially against one side only.

"In this respect it is regrettable that following their very brief visit to the region, the Church Leaders overlooked fundamental aspects of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and notably failed to mention Hamas let alone its refusal to disavow murderous attacks aimed specifically at Israeli civilians. Hamas’ Charter in calling for the violent destruction of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of the Jewish majority from the entire Holy Land, is a program for genocide. It would have been helpful if the Church Leaders could have called upon the Hamas government in Gaza to recognise Israel, repudiate terrorism and honour existing agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinians.

"Against that background, the Church Leaders’ criticisms of the measures taken by Israel to defend its citizens are one-sided and unfair. Those criticisms imply that other options are open to Israel, but the delegation has not attempted to spell out what they might be. Nor has the delegation acknowledged that Israel itself is mindful of the effect of its measures on the innocent, and has attempted to alleviate their severity.

"The restrictions on Palestinian movements which the Church Leaders criticise, have also successfully put an end to the wave of terrorist bombings that had killed and maimed thousands of Israeli civilians. If these restrictions were lifted in response to the Church Leaders’ criticisms, and the attacks on innocent Israeli civilians resumed, would the Church Leaders accept moral responsibility?

"Indeed in August 2005, when Israel withdrew all its forces and dismantled all the settlements in the Gaza Strip, within 24 hours Palestinian terror groups in Gaza began firing rockets and mortars directed at civilian population centres in Israel itself. Israel has had to take restrictive measures to protect its citizens from these armed cross-border attacks, the very measures that the delegation now appears to criticise.

"We look forward to our continuing dialogue with the Church Leaders and to learn from them precisely what viable alternatives they believe are available to Israel in the quest for a just and lasting peace for which we all hope and pray".

In other words, the message to the Church leaders in a nutshell was - "you guys are way out of your depth and demonstrating how gullible you are. Next time you go there, if someone offers you the title deeds to the Via Dellarosa, at least try to drive a hard bargain!"

A BLANK PAGE DAY

The very first obligation placed upon the Palestine Authority in the Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (aka "the Road Map") is to end terror and violence. The steps in the first phase of the Road Map were clearly set out as follows:-

"Phase I: Ending Terror And Violence, Normalizing Palestinian Life, and Building Palestinian Institutions - Present to May 2003
In Phase I, the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence according to the steps outlined below; such action should be accompanied by supportive measures undertaken by Israel. Palestinians and Israelis resume security cooperation based on the Tenet work plan to end violence, terrorism, and incitement through restructured and effective Palestinian security services. Palestinians undertake comprehensive political reform in preparation for statehood, including drafting a Palestinian constitution, and free, fair and open elections upon the basis of those measures. Israel takes all necessary steps to help normalize Palestinian life. Israel withdraws from Palestinian areas occupied from September 28, 2000 and the two sides restore the status quo that existed at that time, as security performance and cooperation progress. Israel also freezes all settlement activity, consistent with the Mitchell report."

Fast forward four and a half years later and that very first obligation remains unfulfilled. There are rockets fired across the border at Israel from Hamas controlled Gaza (which Israel ceased to occupy two years ago when it closed down 21 settlements and removed its army and its civilians from the territory) on a daily basis. Strangely enough, the Melbourne Age today carries a Reuters article - Mideast talks to resume amid disputes - that highlights areas in dispute between the Israeli and Palestinian teams as they continue peace talks focussing almost entirely on Palestinian demands and making no mention of their failure to stem the violence. But I thought that was what peace talks were all about?

Still, better a completely ill-informed and slightly biased piece from Reuters on Christmas Day than another trashy fairy tale of suffering from the birthplace of Christ from one who is better suited to the role of Hamas Information Minister than the title of "journalist".


Thankfully, we don't have to endure another such rant today and even more thankfully, there is another view about what is happening in that part of the world: about how and why Bethlehem's Christian population has dwindled from more than 85 per cent in 1948 to 12 per cent of its 60,000 inhabitants in 2006 and about the religious persecution, in the form of murders, beatings and land grabs of Christians by the town's Muslim rulers. Here is the true story of what is happening and how Muslims are driving Christians out of Bethlehem. While some media outlets choose to blame Israel (the only country in the region where the Christian population is growing) for this, the truth is found only in the blank pages.

THE CHILDRENS' PLAYGROUND

Arnold Roth's excellent blog "This Ongoing War" provides an excellent coverage of the incessant missile attacks on Israeli civilians, particularly near its border with "unoccupied" Hamas controlled Gaza. Here are some exceprts from recent days:-

20-Dec-07: Thursday morning attacks

We report these attacks though they make for repetitive reporting and don't allow for that much analysis. But what can you do? We've discovered that there are very few places anywhere in the media world where a person can learn about the endless attacks on Israel and on the Jewish communities that live here. So to this morning's update:

Two more Qassam rockets fired from north Gaza (entirely controlled by the Hamas regime) landed in open fields in southern Israel, not far from the western Negev city of Sderot. Another landed a bit earlier just south of Ashkelon. No injuries and no damage. But that's not the intention of the perpetrators. They're single-mindedly interested in any damage, any loss of life, any outcome that will express their foaming hatred of everything and everyone on our side of the fence. What does this have to do with them asserting their right to a peaceful life and creating a better, healthier society for themselves and their families? Not much. Terrorism doesn't actually have any redeeming virtues.

20-Dec-07: Attacking school-yards

Daily rocket attacks on southern Israel are a routine part of this ongoing war. The terror groups, operating right out in the open and with the full knowledge and co-operation of the 'government' in the area (meaning the Hamas regime) try their luck several times each day, as often as they can.

Very occasionally the Israeli forces eliminate them while they're in the act (about 3% of the time, and here's an example of what happens when they do) but mostly they get away with it. There's no guidance system on their primitive explosives so when they fire them off, they have no control over what's going to be hit. Sometimes it's desert sands. Sometimes it's their own houses and families. And sometimes they strike it lucky and manage to hit a house, a store, a school, a car. Their goal, as we keep writing here in this blog, is to cause harm, damage, injury, loss of life - whatever. Their strategy is as simple as that. This is why they're correctly termed terrorists.

Thursday morning, four of their mortar shells struck south of the Kissufim border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, to add to the three Qassam rockets that landed during breakfast - see our blog entry of this morning. No injuries were reported in these incidents. Then around 11 AM today (Thursday), they came perilously close to having themselves a real payday when one of their Qassam rockets crashed into Israeli territory (not disputed, not military, not 'occupied') and injured ten children in the playground of Gil Elementary School in the beleagured city of Sderot. 8 others were treated for the effects of trauma. The attack occured around 11 AM. The school's psychological and counseling team is said to be getting reinforcements right now from other schools and nearby cities.

This is the scenario Israelis constantly fear: that the thugs of Gaza, with their endless supplies of explosive materials, their constantly renewed and frenzied hatred, and their disregard for human lives whether ours, our children's or their own children's, will strike it lucky. The odds are against us. These people can and do send hundreds of rockets into our homes month after month. It's so common that almost no one outside this country pays any attention. And when they do, it's frequently to under-report the damage and losses (UPI's bulletin in the past half-hour, for instance, ignores the Israeli children injured and rushed to emergency care) or to make sickening equivalences based on body counts. "So few Israelis are dead", it's said. "What's the big deal?".

Or as Ed O'Loughlin, who writes for two of Australia's best newspapers from here, put it recently:

"Since peace talks were abandoned in 2000, 12 Israelis, including three minors, have been killed by Palestinian missiles in a deadly game of tit for tat across the border between Israel and Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians and militants, including five children in the past fortnight, have been killed by artillery, tank and air strikes, which Israel says target only terrorists."

Conveying the picture in this sadly distorted way makes O'Loughlin far from unusual among his agenda-driven peers in the scribbling profession. They too routinely ignore the 2,380+ rockets (the IDF's number - others put it higher) that have been fired into Israel's western Negev in the last six years (165 Qassams and mortar shells this month alone - an average of eight rockets or shells per day), killing 10 people and sending some 1,600 others to get treatment for shock. In other words, the context. It would be interesting to know what he makes of the fact that Honest Reporting yesterday bestowed him with its less-than-coveted Worst Moral Equivalence Award for 2007. Great work, Ed.

23-Dec-07: Sunday update

Within the last hour (it's Sunday mid-afternoon here), yet another Qassam rocket despatched from the northern Gaza Strip crashed into Israel and exploded. This time, it hit an unnamed kibbutz described by YNet as being "within the Sha’ar Hanegev regional council". That's an area that encompasses 10 kibbutzim, one moshav, one privately-owned farm and a village for immigrants – a total of 6,000 citizens. Fortunately no reports of injuries or property damage, but that's not the intention of the terrorists.

UPDATE 6:30PM Sunday: YNet says a Palestinian-Arab Qassam rocket fired this afternoon (Sunday) from the Gaza Strip landed near a factory in an industrial park south of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. The paper published the picture of a Carlsberg factory on its website (reproduced above), with a caption reading "Factory Hit". If so, this is not the first time the same plant has been hit by incoming Qassams - see this report from February 2006. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, declaring: "We fired an improved Al-Quds rocket."

UPDATE 10:30PM Sunday: JPost says the day's tally of Qassams that were fired into southern Israel by the Gazan terrorists gangs reached five with the latest landing near a building in the center of Sderot. It evidently failed to explode. This was not the intention of the terrorists.

And there you have it. A few day's snapshot from an area where almost 200,000 Israeli civilians are within rocket range of the terrorists whose leader is going around announcing a unilateral cease-fire. Whose leader can be trusted as much as ... well, a Dishonest Reporting award winner ...

IS AILING ED BEING SHUT OFF?

The Melbourne Age yesterday gave its Jerusalem Bureau office boy Ed O'Loughlin yet another opportunity to tell his recurring story of the suffering of the citizens of "blockaded" Gaza from the purely Palestinian perspective - Ailing Gaza shut off from the world.

The O’Loughlin narrative takes the familiar path in which the suffering of the Gazans is humanised to the point where they reach the heights of sainthood while the Israelis are predictably shadowy inhuman figures whose intent is inflict pain on their hapless neighbours for no apparent reason at all but some amorphous concept of "security" and with the purpose of making it difficult for his favourite boy scout group Hamas to govern its people.

There are so many holes in O'Loughlin's stories. He is journalism's smoke and mirrors man and his errors and the omissions of vital facts in those stories have been well documented here. The man has become such an embarrassment that even those who might otherwise be sympathetic to the plight of suffering kids like seven-month-old Mohamed Abu Amra who Ed uses as a prop for his latest blatant propaganda piece are often left scratching their heads in bewilderment as to why the Israelis are treating Hamas so harshly.

O'Loughlin did not win a Dishonest Reporting award for nothing!

It was inevitable that the Age would eventually come to the aid of those readers who were wondering if there was another side of the story. Naturally, that "other side" came not from the pen of O'Loughlin but from another Age journalist, Sunday Age editor Peter Fray whose recent visit to Israel was funded by the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council. How embarrasing for O'Loughlin that his own newspaper has published an insight into the conflict that he, as its Jerusalem Bureau chief, has shunned for so long?

Fray wrote a piece that was placed on the opposite side of the page to the O'Loughlin story. In it, he revealed the suffering of the residents of Sderot - Life in rocket range puts town on edge – as a result of the daily rocket attacks which deliberately target Israeli civilians across the border. His effort is not bad although it omits to mention Hamas' record of murder, suicide bombing, threats, intimidation, lies, overt racism and incitement and its raison d'etre of commiting genocide against Jews, all factors that might assist in understanding why the rest of world doesn't treat Hamas as the glorified boy scout movement that Ed would have us believe.

The good news is that it's a start - and proof that the Dishonest Reporting award so deservedly made last week to honour O'Loughlin's journalism is having an effect.

JEWS HAVE FREE SEX

In David Hicks's own words

This Australian sicko is not only celebrated in certain parts of our media but has some equally questionable Jewish friends who flock to support him. Here are some of his selected thoughts:

• Dear family I spent around three months in a muslim military training camp in the mountains. I learnt about weapons such as ballistic missiles, surface to surface and shoulder fired missiles, anti aircraft and anti-tank rockets, rapid fire heavy and light machine guns, pistols, AK47s, mines and explosives. After three months everybody leaves capable and war-ready ...

• The West is full of poison. The western society is controlled by the Jews with music, TV, houses, cars, free sex takes Muslims away from the true Islam keeps Islam week and in the third world.

• The Jews have complete financial and media control many of them are in the Australian government.

• I have met Osama bin Laden about 20 times he is a lovely brother the only reason the West call him the most wanted terrorist is because he got the money to take action.

ARAB STATE/JEWISH STATE?

The pundits were aghast when the suggestion was made that, as part of the resolution of their conflict with Israel, the Palestinians should recognise it as a "Jewish State". PA negotiator Sa'eb Erekat ridiculed the idea and indicated that it was unheard of to characterise a nation state in this way. President Abbas said something to effect that Arabs mazen even think about it. Scribes like the Age's Dishonest Reporting award winner Ed O'Loughlin sneeringly referred to the notion of an "ethnic" Jewish state as if there was something not quite kosher about it. Others used the concept to engage in some good old fashioned Jew bashing disguised for the sake of maintaining their supposed integrity and standing as "progressives" as, well ... Israel bashing.

Thanks to Elder of Ziyon - Hypocrisy, thy name is "Arab" we can examine the claim made that by definition, a Jewish state would be discriminatory against Arabs and Muslims. The Elder points out that "... if you define 'Jewish' in purely religious terms, that would mean that any state that defines itself as "Islamic" is, by definition, equally guilty of this discrimination. If you define 'Jewish' in ethnic or national terms, then any state that defines itself as 'Arab' would be equally guilty of the racism that Israel is being accused of." The Elder says it's "time to check out the official hypocrisy of Israel's critics, and note the deafening silence towards this supposed Arab and Islamic racism:

Jordan's constitution:

Article 1 The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an independent sovereign Arab State. It is indivisible and inalienable and no part of it may be ceded. The people of Jordan form a part of the Arab Nation, and its system of government is parliamentary with a hereditary monarchy.

Article 2 Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official language.

Egypt's constitution:

Art.1*: The Arab Republic of Egypt is a Socialist Democratic State based on the alliance of the working forces of the people. The Egyptian people are part of the Arab Nation and work for the realization of its comprehensive unity.

Art.2*: Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia).

Libya's constitution: .

Article 1 [Principles] Libya is an Arab, democratic, and free republic in which sovereignty is vested in the people. The Libyan people are part of the Arab nation. Their goal is total Arab unity. The Libyan territory is a part of Africa. The name of the country is the Libyan Arab Republic.

Article 2 [State Religion, Language] Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official Language. The state protects religious freedom in accordance with established customs..

Morocco's constitution:

Preamble The Kingdom of Morocco, a Muslim Sovereign State whose official language is Arabic, constitutes a part of the Great Arab Maghreb.

Article 6 [State Religion] Islam is the religion of the State which guarantees to all freedom of worship.

Yemen's constitution:

Article (1) The Republic of Yemen is an Arab, Islamic and independent sovereign state whose integrity is inviolable, and no part of which may be ceded. The people of Yemen are part of the Arab and Islamic nation.

Article (2) Islam is the religion of the state, and Arabic is its official language.

Article (3) Islamic Shari'ah is the source of all legislation.

Syria's constitution:

Article 1 [Arab Nation, Socialist Republic]

(1) The Syrian Arab Republic is a democratic, popular, socialist, and sovereign state. No part of its territory can be ceded. Syria is a member of the Union of the Arab Republics.

(2) The Syrian Arab region is a part of the Arab homeland.

(3) The people in the Syrian Arab region are a part of the Arab nation. They work and struggle to achieve the Arab nation's comprehensive unity.

Article 3 [Islam]

(1) The religion of the President of the Republic has to be Islam.

(2) Islamic jurisprudence is a main source of legislation.

Saudi Arabia's constitution:

Article 1 The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its religion; God's Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, God's prayers and peace be upon him, are its constitution, Arabic is its language and Riyadh is its capital.

Kuwait's constitution:

Article 1 Kuwait is an independent sovereign Arab State. Neither its sovereignty nor any part of its territory may be relinquished.The people of Kuwait is a part of the Arab Nation.

Article 2 The religion of the State is Islam, and the Islamic Sharia shall be a main source of legislation.

Algeria's constitution: .

Article 1 [Democracy, Republic]

Algeria is a People's Democratic Republic. It is one and indivisible.

Article 2 [State Religion]Islam is the religion of the State.

Bahrain's constitution:

Article 1 [Sovereignty, Constitutional Monarchy]

a. The Kingdom of Bahrain is a fully sovereign, independent Islamic Arab State whose population is part of the Arab nation and whose territory is part of the great Arab homeland. Its sovereignty may not be assigned or any of its territory abandoned.

Article 2 [State Religion, Shari'a, Official Language] The religion of the State is Islam. The Islamic Shari'a is a principal source for legislation. The official language is Arabic.

Oman's constitution: .

Article 1 [Sovereignty] The Sultanate of Oman is an independent, Arab, Islamic, fully sovereign state with Muscat as its capital..

Article 2 [Religion] The religion of the State is Islam and the Islamic Shariah is the basis of legislation.

Tunisia's constitution: .

Article 1 [State] Tunisia is a free State, independent and sovereign; its religion is the Islam, its language is Arabic, and its form is the Republic..

Article 2 [Arab Nation, Treaties]

(1) The Tunisian Republic constitutes part of the Great Arab Maghreb, towards whose unity it works within the framework of common interests.

Mauritania's constitution:

Preamble:...Conscious of the necessity of strengthening its ties with brother peoples, the Mauritanian people, a Muslim, African, and Arab people, proclaims that it will work for the achievement of the unity of the Greater Maghreb of the Arab Nation and of Africa and for the consolidation of peace in the world.

Title I General Provisions, Fundamental Principles

Article 1 [State Integrity, Equal Protection]

(1) Mauritania is an indivisible, democratic, and social Islamic Republic.

Iran's constitution:

Article 1 [Form of Government] The form of government of Iran is that of an Islamic Republic, endorsed by the people of Iran on the basis of their longstanding belief in the sovereignty of truth and Koranic justice, ...

Article 2 [Foundational Principles] The Islamic Republic is a system based on belief in:

1) the One God (as stated in the phrase "There is no god except Allah"), His exclusive sovereignty and right to legislate, and the necessity of submission to His commands;
2) Divine revelation and its fundamental role in setting forth the laws;.
3) the return to God in the Hereafter, and the constructive role of this belief in the course of man's ascent towards God;
4) the justice of God in creation and legislation;5) continuous leadership and perpetual guidance, and its fundamental role in ensuring the uninterrupted process of the revolution of Islam;
6) the exalted dignity and value of man, and his freedom coupled with responsibility before God; in which equity, justice, political, economic, social, and cultural independence, and national solidarity are secured by recourse to:
a) continuous leadership of the holy persons, possessing necessary qualifications, exercised on the basis of the Koran and the Sunnah, upon all of whom be peace;
b) sciences and arts and the most advanced results of human experience, together with the effort to advance them further;
c) negation of all forms of oppression, both the infliction of and the submission to it, and of dominance, both its imposition and its acceptance.

"Palestine's constitution:

ARTICLE 1.

Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation. Arab Unity is an objective which the Palestinian People shall work to achieve.

ARTICLE 41. Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.

2. The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.

Get the picture?

There's one rule for the Jewish people and their state (and one whose record of equal rights far surpasses those of any of the Arab nations) and another for the large number of Arab and Islamic states. The first is verboten and the second is perfectly aceptable. And we know exactly what that means!

AUSSIE LINK IN DISHONEST REPORTING AWARD

HONEST REPORTING has announced its annual DISHONEST REPORTER AWARDS and Fairfax buffoon Ed O’Loughlin has gained a nomination - DR AWARDS!

Poor Ed is probably livid that he didn't make it as THE Dishonest Reporter for 2007 but his nomination in the Worst Moral Equivalence category for his oversimplified background information on Qassam rockets was well deserved. However, the HR write up on his award overlooked the fact that once Ed established his ignorance over the Qassams he made a sincere effort to atone for his sins by ignoring them and their victims most of the time.

The introduction to the awards was also very informative as it covered the year’s highlights from a news perspective of the region:-

"What a year of surprises.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas talked peace in the presence of Saudi and Syrian dignitaries. BBC journalist Alan Johnston was held hostage for nearly four months. When Israel struck an unidentified Syrian facility, the only significant protest came from North Korea.

And then came Farfur, the Hamas mouse.

Who would've thought?

Of course, there were other unsurprising developments. Qassam rockets continued to fall on Sderot. This year's three unfortunate fatalities: Oshri Oz, Shirel Friedman and Chai Shalom.

Israeli MIAs Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev ended the year in captivity, as did other Israeli MIAs.

The Israel Lobby was a top selling book while The Man From Plains documented Jimmy Carter's controversial book tour."

Naturally, our hero generally steered clear of imparting information on much of the above to his readers - especially the stuff that might cause embarrassment to the Arab cause. After all, who among the readers of the Age or the Sydney Morning Herald wants to know about the preaching of race hatred in the Palestinian media or about an anti Semitic mouse that entertains Palestinian kiddies by preaching murder, violence and death to Jews?

And speaking of embarrassment, Ed has plenty of friends at Wikipedia who persist in obliterating any mention of the accusations of anti Israel bias made against him in the past. I wonder if his mates are able to censor references to his latest award?

Although O’Loughlin is not a real Aussie in that he’s actually an Irishman, his award in the Dishonest Reporting category for Worst Moral Equivalence category makes me want to break out into the special native chant reserved for the truly pathetic

Aussie Aussie Aussie oy oy oy vey!

THE STORY THAT WASN'T

Here is yet another news story that never happened (that is, if you follow the mainstream media) - ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE KILLS A TOP MILITANT IN GAZA.

"An Israeli air strike on Monday night killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander and his aide as they drove in a car through northern Gaza City, according to Islamic Jihad radio and the Israeli Army."

Two other Islamic Jihad terrorists "died with him in the car including his senior lieutenant, Jihad Daher. Six passers-by, including three children, were wounded by shrapnel, according to Palestinian medics in Gaza."

This could easily have made it out of the Blank Pages of the Age given that there were innocent Palestinian bystanders in the vicinity of the vehicle in question but the problem is that the report continues as follows:-

"The car appeared to have been filled with explosives when it was hit by an Israeli rocket."

Blast!

Sorry about that but this single line was enough to kill a whole story for reporters whose policy it is to impart a narrative in which Palestinians are always humanised beyond belief. Even those nasty common garden variety thugs and terrorists who toss their own people off tall buildings (if they're ever mentioned at all) get to be described as "militants" or "activists" involved in "resistance". Naturally, Israelis are always armed soldiers, vicious settlers or "hawkish" politicians.

In this Bizarro World Israel is solely to blame for everything. Lately the focus is on the deteriorating poverty situation of the Palestinians of Gaza due to the so-called Israel blockade of Gaza which is painted as turning the territory's entire population of peace loving, tolerant saints into victims of a bloodthirsty vampire-like tribe of neighbours (aka the Jews).

A blockade? Persecution? Oppression?

Never mind that Gaza has a sea to its east and a land border with Egypt which has also been closed for security reasons.

Never mind that Israel has uncovered video tapes showing Egyptian policemen assisting Palestinian terrorists along the Egypt-Gaza - Israel sends US videos of Egypt helping Hamas.

Never mind the missiles fired from Gaza into the Israeli town of Sderot and surrounding communities in the last six years (except as a brief aside in articles designed to depict the thugs as heroic resistance fighters) the latest of which hit a kibbutz house injuring a three-year-old boy.

Never mind the new report that reveals that more than 190,000 Israelis are within range of Qassam-type rockets in the western Negev and that an estimated 2,380 rockets have landed in that area over the past six years, half of which landed in Sderot.

Never mind, the statement of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the "responsibility for what is happening in Gaza should be put directly on the shoulders of Hamas ... It is the policies of Hamas that have led to its own isolation and by implication Gaza as well ... There have been efforts to make certain that humanitarian assistance is getting through ... Of course we're very concerned, but let's put the blame where it should be, and that's on Hamas."

Then there's Bethlehem from where we are routinely treated by some reporters - the Age's Ed O'Loughlin is one of them - to a Christmas special from the birthplace of Jesus at this time of year about the hardship and ruin suffered by the population as a result of Israel's security barrier.

Never mind the real hardship of Christians who are fleeing repressive Islamic rule in their droves and finding refuge in Israel.

Never mind the fact that the security barrier (which for most of its length is not a wall but you wouldn't know that unless you read the blank pages) has significantly reduced the number of fatalities from Palestinian terrorists on both sides.

Never mind that foreigners are less afraid to visit the Holy Land now that Israel and the Palestinians have renewed the peace process according to this International Herald Tribune report - Israel hands out sweets, smooths travel to Bethlehem for growing number of tourists.

This is the background to the story that wasn't reported in your newspaper today or yesterday. Discerning readers of the news from this embattled region need not bother these days to even expect to find news stories of their ilk in local broadsheets that treat them contemptuously as residents of a Bizarro World where everything is upside down.

But then again ... never mind.

AN INDEPENDENT JEW FOR GENOCIDE

What do you do when the world has finally come to understand the true nature of your agenda and you've lost your (independent) voice?

In your desperation, you could resort to that ultimate get out of jail free card and rant on about "Jewish money and power"?

And if you're a truly arrogant buffoon you might even think you can get away with it [NOT THE PROTOCOLS] by playing out your offensive game plan without resorting to the usual mask of describing those people as "Zionists" instead of "Jews".

I wonder how those dupes who put their names to his silly little petition feel now?

BETHLEHEM CENSORED

In what are hopefully his last days as the Fairfax Jerusalem bureau chief, Ed O'Loughlin continues to plug the line that the poor Palestinians are the only people living in the territory he's supposed to be covering for his newspaper who are suffering - Let us spray: art connoisseurs follow graffiti star Banksy to Bethlehem . The ugly wall is his target in that little effort.

That "ugly wall" is Israel's security barrier (which for most of its path isn't a wall at all but a fence) but don't even try to find an explanation in O'Loughlin's scribblings for its existence.

Why on earth would the Israelis want to spend so much time, money and effort to erect such a monstrosity?

The answer to that question is ... CENSORED

Meanwhile Palestinian terrorists continue to threaten the existence of the Jewish State and continue their barrage of rocket attacks on Israel civilian targets near the Hamas controlled territory of Gaza. Where are the stories of the suffering of the people of the Israeli town of Sderot where there have been several deaths at the hands of these murderous attackers?

The answer to that question is ... CENSORED

What of the stories and photographs of Israeli terror victims, of the tunnels used for smuggling of deadly weapons from Egypt into Gaza, of anti-Semitic cartoons and the hatred taught to Palestinian children in their schools and where are the stories of the incitement to murder Jews in the Palestinian media?

The answer to those questions are ... also CENSORED

They never made it past the censor who writes stuff about the region.

For heaven's sake, get rid of this living hell

The photograph above accompanies an article in today's Melbourne Age about a "quietly passionate urban historian", Li Ye who, for most of his adult life, has been "preserving the history of Harbin so his 15-year-old daughter may connect with the place they have both grown up in." That place is the Manchurian city of Harbin which is now home to 10 million people, but was once a village when the tsarists brought in Chinese workers and turned it into a city.

The caption that accompanies the photograph describes it as follows:

"These old apartments on North Third Avenue in the "Inferno" side of Harbin, burnt down four years ago. More than 30 residents were killed, but the fire never made it past the city's news censors. Photo: Li Ye".

In the days to come, the irony of this caption will be covered in The Blank Pages of the Age.

NEWS FROM AN ALIEN PLANET

Every day, so-called "militants" in the Gaza Strip launch rocket attacks on the Israeli city of Sderot. These attacks are rarely reported so this item from EuroNews seemingly takes on the guise of news from an alien planet in some distant solar system.

There are no hotels open in town and the news crew stayed with a private family. This, and the fact that the attacks are indiscriminate and aimed at civilian areas, possibly explains in part why certain journalists have conveniently managed to stay away from the story.

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

They kick donkeys in public and have even rigged them up with deadly explosives in order to commit mass murder but Palestinian terrorists never seem to attract the attention of animal rights activists or progressive reporters like Mr. Ed from The Age.

Now they've turned their attention to lambs - TERROR SUSPECT HIDES BOMB IN LAMB.


And still, all we hear from the activists and Mr. Ed are the sounds of silence.


For Mr. Ed's sake, I sincerely hope that horses aren't next!

GAZAN OBSCENITY

The Australian Newspaper's Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov must have had trouble keeping a straight face as he filed his latest report about the rulers of Gaza imploring the US "to bring an end to the crippling boycott of the Gaza Strip, which they have likened to the World War II siege of Warsaw's Jewish Ghetto." - Hamas asks US to free Gaza 'ghetto'.

Unfortunately however, it's no joke!

In his article Chulov quotes Hamas spokesman, Ahmed Yousef as follows,

"Our isolation is complete, confining us in a ghetto (worse than the Jewish ghettos of Warsaw) where our sewage, power and water systems have been destroyed, all normal supplies constrained and even humanitarian aid withheld. Many people have not been paid for nearly two years, over 75 per cent are unemployed and now the Israelis are threatening to cut off fuel and power and invade us once again."

The unmitigated chutzpah of this appalling liar beggars belief. Gaza has a sea border with the Mediterranean and a land border with Egypt. The extent of the isolation of Gaza is dependent upon the Hamas leadership's own actions. They can cease the incitement against Israel, the racist hatred that spews out of every media organisation in the territory and they can put an end to the daily barrages of missiles aimed from their territory into civilian areas of neighbouring Israel. Alternatively, they can shut up and accept the normal and reserved response of the Israelis.

To invoke the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto to make propaganda for this cause whose very foundation is built on a programme of genocide against the Jewish people is a complete and utter obscenity.

ISRAELIS IN MECCA

According to The Middle East News Source, "some 4,500 Muslims have departed for Mecca from their homes in Israel, a Jewish country with no diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia." - Israelis Embark on Journey to Mecca.

"Sheikh ‘Ali Bakr, 47, an imam from northern Israel who works for the Israeli Interior Ministry, has been to Saudi Arabia 24 times on pilgrimages. Bakr does not feel a contradiction in holding Israeli citizenship and attending the Hajj.

'On the contrary, I feel we're a bridge between Israel and the Arab countries. We can bring people closer together,' he says. 'Some think that Israeli Arabs are neglected and underprivileged, so we tell them that’s not the case, that we live here as equal citizens and that we fit well into the Jewish social fabric.'"

It's a nice touch for people such as these to be able to practice such an important aspect of their religious observance even if they must do so by heading for Mecca as Jordanian nationals. Perhaps one day, the spirit of Annapolis might spread to the point where the Saudis become even more enlightened and accept these people for what they really are - Israelis!

SUFFER THE ANIMALS

A Palestinian youth kicks a donkey wearing a picture of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as it is walked during a Fatah demonstration in Bureij Refugee Camp, central Gaza Strip

The young Palestinian kicking the donkey in the photgraph above encapsulates all that is wrong with Palestinian society today. He's from Fatah, the Palestinian group that's supposed to be making nice with the Israelis after Annapolis following the efforts of the U.S and E.U envoy Tony Blair but he's kicking an animal representing Bush and Blair. That's right, kicking an animal in a photograph accompanying a pathetic time wasting piece of drivel from Ed O'Loughlin about how tough life is today in Gaza thanks to those nasty Israelis who have for no apparent reason whatsover decided to blockade Gaza.

They do like terrorising animals over there don't they? This year alone we've seen the animals in the Gaza zoo, cats on a Hamas television programme and now the donkey in Bureij. There's even less respect among this crowd for the dhimmis who live on the other side of the border. We should be grateful to the Age for highlighting the part about the animals even if the subject of the kicking the Jews or firing missiles at them on a daily basis is a little too much for the sensibilities of its journalists.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

This is a Reuters photograph of a Palestinian Arab woman baking in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp. That she is living in a refugee camp is most likely due to the fact that her parents or her grandparents fled their original homes in the wake of a war started when five Arab armies entered the newly established State of Israel almost 60 years ago with the intent of creating a "momentous massacre" of its Jewish inhabitants.

Those words were used on the day that Israel declared its independence May 15, 1948 by Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, at a Cairo press conference as reported in the New York Times when he declared "jihad", a holy war. Pasha said that the Arab states rejected partition and intended to set up a "United State of Palestine." He then stated:

"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".

This woman lives in a refugee camp nearly sixty years later because the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbours has not been resolved. It is a conflict that has caused hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides but while Israel resettled its 850,000 refugees from Arab lands, the Arab refugees were mainly consigned to squalid refugee camps like the one in Khan Younis where the above picture was taken. They remain there as pawns in the ongoing war on Israel. And, as we saw both before and after last month's meeting at Annapolis when the Palestinian leadership simply refused to recognise Israel as a Jewish State, the stumbling block to the resolution of the conflict is not the "occupation" of Arab land but the very existence of a Jewish State among Arab lands. In many Arab eyes, the war remains one of extermination.

Could it be otherwise?

Israel gave up its occupation of the Gaza Strip where this Palestinian woman lives more than two years ago when it dismantled 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and removed thousands of Jewish settlers and its own army from this territory where almost half of the number of Palestinians then under Israeli occupation were living. The Israelis closed four settlements in the West Bank at the same time.

The Palestinian response was to continue the firing of missiles on a daily basis into Israeli towns and villages that border on Gaza. Some of those missiles have even targeted the not too distant Ashkelon electrical power supply station. Now, I doubt whether someone like Ed O'Loughlin of the Melbourne Age would ever describe a direct hit on such a facility by the terrorists who fire the missiles as "punishment" of innocents. The Hamas regime that controls Gaza does nothing to stop these rockets and indeed encourages such attacks on Israeli civilians and civilian targets. The attacks have included the bombing of crossings into Gaza where vital humanitarian aid including the supply of fuel into Gaza. When Hamas does this, O'Loughlin never describes such acts as "punishment". In his world, only the Jews "punish" others and make them suffer.

Which brings us back to the Reuters picture of the Palestinian woman. It was used by the Melbourne Age to accompany an article by O'Loughlin entitled, FUEL LEVELS CRITICAL IN BESIEGED GAZA. The writer tells us that Israelis and Palestinians are blaming each other for the fuel shortage in Gaza. He cites Mahmoud Daher, local chief of the World Health Organisation".

"We know some health facilities have zero stocks of fuel now and in several hospitals the situation is critical. The main pediatric hospital is critically low in fuel for generators. All transport vehicles and most ambulance travel have also come to a halt."

O'Loughlin then adds that "Palestinians blame the crisis on a decision by the Israeli cabinet in October to reduce fuel supplies to the besieged territory, officially by 15%, as punishment for militant rocket fire directed at nearby Israeli communities." The Israeli side of the argument is described as being part of a commercial dispute about payment. O'Loughlin focusses mainly on the emotive arguments of the Gazans and quotes Petroleum and Gas Stations Owners Association of Gaza vice-chairman, Mahmoud Khozander as follows:

"Two days ago the Israelis said they would improve the supply to half of our basic minimum requirement, but we refused. It's better to die quickly than to drag things out for months."

So from the Palestinian side it's always about suffering, punishment and dying. That is certainly the picture that O'Loughlin constantly paints about the Palestinians and their conflict with the Jews on the other side of the border. This is a narrative that forms part of a fantasy about the bad Israelis but, as usual, O'Loughlin never paints the whole picture, not even half of it. This story from the Jerusalem Post shows a different aspect of the story which could been given some coverage in the article but didn't merit the slightest of mentions in his eyes - PA: Hamas stealing Gaza hospitals' fuel:

"The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry on Thursday accused Hamas of robbing fuel stockpiles in two hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

"A statement published by the ministry claimed that Hamas had been stealing fuel from the European Hospital in the Strip for use in the group's operations.

"The fuel was supplied to hospitals in order to satisfy their needs, in wake of the blockade imposed on Gaza following Hamas's takeover," continued the statement.

"For three days, Hamas has been preventing Gaza fuel companies from receiving fuel allocations sent from Ramallah. According to a Palestine Press news agency report, Hamas was stealing fuel and medical supplies sent from the PA Health Ministry in Ramallah to Gaza hospitals."

The failure to cover material aspects of the full story is only part of what's wrong with the picture of the suffering Palestinian women that accompanies the O'Loughlin article. There is however, a lot more!

What really is wrong with the reportage from this journalist and his newspaper is the lack of coverage of the Israeli narrative of suffering from the conflict. There are no pictures for example, of Israeli women from the town of Sderot who live their daily lives under fear of constant bombardment from Palestinian missiles of which over 2,000 have been fired this year. The stories of their suffering are also very real; they are depicted by some other news outlets but they receive proportionally far less coverage than the self-inflicted suffering of the Palestinians. You can read about the suffering of the Israelis in this excellent blog This Ongoing War but never in the Melbourne Age which has airbrushed their narrative out of existence altogether.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PALESTINE'S CHRISTIANS

Thanks to the Palestinian Authority we need to talk about its Christian population before its numbers dwindle to very little at all. Sadly, the demise of Christian communities under PA jurisdiction is unlikely to generate much outrage or uproar in Christendom as indicated in this Jerusalem Post editorial - Christians' Plight.

The only thing that does seem to generate any outrage from some sectors of Christendom and the secular world from it emanated is that concerning the plight of the Palestinian people in general much of which is self-inflicted as a result of its pathetic leadership whose hatred of their neighbours and their desire for vengeance rather than peace continues to lead them up the garden path.

IS UNREAL

Isreal lifts Gaza blockade Israel

It's not as if the Melbourne Age hasn't had any stories about Israel before. Pity they can't spell the name of the country particularly when the Israelis are being complimented in a way for clearing a "blockade" of Palestinians trapped in the "blockaded" Gaza Strip. However, they do manage to provide the correct spelling when they publish an op ed piece about the peace efforts at Annapolis even when the authors don't accept Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state let alone a Jewish one.

Those poor old Palestinians (the Age usually gets it right spelling-wise with them) are complaining about the suffering of the citizens of Gaza as a result of the so-called "blockade" but what happens when Israel sends in fuel supplies?

They refuse delivery and then they complain about it and there's rarely ever a mention behind the reason why Israel has closed its border with Palestinian Gaza - the daily barrage of missiles aimed by the Palestinians form terrorist groups that are either part of Hamas or supported by Hamas. Not unexpected when Hamas cheerleaders write the news, provide the analysis and provide opinion pieces that come straight from fantasyland.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

This letter was written to the San Francisco Chronicle in response to an article on the issue of the so-called Palestinian Right of Return to Israel rather than to a future Palestinian State.

Hugh Macleod's "Right of Return, an unbending Faith" (SF Chron, 11/28/07) omits from his otherwise comprehensive article the simple historical fact that there is no "right of return" for the six million or more Arabs who proffer the bogus claim to be refugees from British Mandatory Palestine following the 1947-9 Israel-Arab war.

Of the c. 9,000,000 Arabs who call themselves Palestinians in the world today, less than one-third reside in refugee camps. The remaining 6,000,000 are scattered around the world in what they call the Palestinian Diaspora, living and working and raising families and successfully integrating into dozens of countries. International law is clear. The descendents of refugees who have integrated in to their host countries, have jobs, homes, families, etc. cannot claim the status of refugees. Since the original refugees, who numbered c. 750,000 in 1949, are now either dead or in their dotage, their putative 6,000,000 descendents who do not live in refugee camps are not refugees.

Moreover, contrary to the rabid claims of Arab propagandists, Israel did not cause the refugee problem; and thus Israel bears no responsibility in solving it. I document in my books "Big Lies" (Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 2005) and "History upside Down" (Encounter Press, 2007) the obvious and undeniable historical fact that Israel accepted the UN's 1947 partition resolution (UNSCR #181) and extended offers of friendship, co-existence, and peace to all of its Arab neighbors. Arab leaders rejected the UN resolution and sneered at Israel's peace offers. Armies from seven Arab countries and a host of para-military gunmen invaded with the vociferously ballyhooed intent to utterly wipe out the new state and genocide its Jews. During the course of this war of genocidal aggression against Israel, Arab leaders, including the Hajj Amin el-Husseini (the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler's ally in World War 2), encouraged or forced Arab peasants to flee. During the Rhodes armistice talks in 1949, Israel offered peace and a just resolution for the plight of these refugees. Israel's offers were turned down by every Arab state, and these states forced the refugees to remain, hostage-like, in their camps. Had the Arabs accepted the UN resolution, been willing to live in peace with Israel, or even belatedly accepted Israel's post-war offers of peace and co-existence, not only would there have been no refugee problem, but there would have been a state, almost half the size of today's Israel, for the Palestinians sixty years ago.

Therefore, the full onus of culpability for the plight of the Arabs living in refugee camps today rests exclusively upon the Arab states who caused the war and refused peaceful resolution after the war. The continued existence of the Arab refugee problem today is a function solely of Arab governments' Machiavelian exploitation of their Palestinian brethren to advance their on-going genocidal war against Israel ... no matter what the human cost.

Ignoring this reality rewards Arab leadership for its duplicity and inhumanity.

David Meir-Levi

PALESTINIAN APARTHEID

So Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reiterated his refusal on Saturday to recognize Israel as a Jewish state - Abbas reiterates refusal to recognize Jewish state.

"Historically, there are two states - Israel and Palestinian. Israel has Jews and other people, and this we are ready to recognize, but nothing else."

It may be that Abbas' hands or his tongue is tied but the pronouncement is yet another attempt by an Arab leader to deny history and deny the reality of Israel's creation as a Jewish State. He wants Jews out of the West Bank so that Palestine has Arabs and no other people and wants to dictate the demographic shape of Israel. In short, the Abbas formula is just another form of Apartheid which prompts one to ask where Bishop Tutu and Jimmy Carter are now.

ANNAPOLIS BLUES

The ink had barely dried on the agreement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the Annapolis peace meeting when Mahmoud Abbas's own PATV affirmed its claims on all of Israel. Is this what Abbas means when he says that the "moment of truth on Palestinian statehood has come"?

Thanks to Palestine Media Watch you can click here to view the video that exposes the real truth on the Palestine Media Watch Website but don't hold your breath waiting for word from some of those media "analysts" out there to offer their advice as to what concessions or compromises Israel can offer in return because this story will be buried deep inside the blank pages.