Sunday, January 11, 2009

THE AGE OF THE HOAX

It seems we are entering the Age of the The Hoax. In the Middle East, we're being fed with a constant stream of hoaxes from the Pallywood studios like the mad doctor escapades, the UN school "investigation" (here's some recently released IDF vision taken from a schoolyard in Gaza on 8 January) and more while, at home, we've had the Quadrant hoax that brought the "Gotcha" revelations in our media this week.

The Age of the Hoax extended this week even into the letters section of the Age Newspaper. On Thursday, it published this piece from a Raya Rusho of Greensborough, an outlying suburb of Melbourne:

WHEN LACK OF 'BIAS' IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE

I HAVE been trying to remain unbiased for many years concerning the continued violence between the Palestinians and Israel, especially as I believe it is imperative to maintain an open mind on such heated issues.

However, I can no longer justify staying unbiased when I read and hear about unjust, inhumane and extremely unreasonable acts of violence against innocent victims who have now clearly a justified moral stance against their Israeli attackers.

I can no longer say "perhaps we should try to consider both sides of the argument". I cannot but abhor the actions of the Israeli Government.

We all now know the Palestinian plight. I only hope we can all begin to take the side of the most oppressed in this situation.

Raya Rusho, Greensborough

Unfortunately for Ms. Rusho and the Age, Vex News smelled a rat and carried out some research on the author of the letter and discovered that she was lying when she claimed to have been "unbiased" and had an "open mind" about the conflict.

A very brief Google search uncovered the fact that she is an Arab who has previously lived in Libya and Syria, an atheist architecture student at Melbourne University and, most probably, an unrepentent anti-Semite. Here's what Raya Rusho wrote on the BBC website in 2001:

"The Israelis have gained enough power and money to prey on those weaker than them. It's only a matter of time before the Jews lose that power and money and they are left to fend for themselves. With this they'll have a taste of their own medicine … "

Judge for yourself whether, nine years later when she penned her letter to the Age, she had an open mind about the conflict.

For its part, the Age which accepted the Rusho letter should now inform its readers that it was also the victim of a hoax perpetrated by someone who clearly lied about being an open minded observer of this tragic conflict.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a Moron. I implore anybody reading this to do their own google search and try reading the entire opinion by Rusho as posted on the BBC. Both attacks are on the Israeli Government, not Jewish people. Stating that Rusho is an 'unrepentant anti-semite', is extremely misleading to the readers of this article. Also further reading may lead the writer of this article to the fact that the Semitic people are the people of the entire region, including all Palestinians. Hardly an 'anti-semitic' view then to support one side of a internal conflict within the semitic community.

Wilbur Post said...

Anonymous.

Raya Rusho's antiSemitism is evident in her BBC posting of several years ago (when she was 16). She has subsequently repeated her anti-Semitic slur which stems, for your information, not prima facie from her attacks on the Israeli government but from her comment about Jews, power and money - an anti-Semitic canard that's one of the oldest hatreds going around.

This has nothing to do with what Hamas is doing to the poor Palestinians in Gaza. Her statement to the BBC is, was and always will be anti-Semitic to the very core and I call her "unrepentant" after everything else she has done, she repeated the blood libel today in a post on the Vex News site.

Finally, I don't appreciate being lectured about anti-Semitism by ignorant morons like you who doesn't even understand the nature and the hurt of anti-Semitism to its victims.

Anonymous said...

Hang on, the first part of the opinion she wrote when she was 16 was that the USA gave money and hence power to Israel. This is true. So why isn't she allowed to state a fact like that to support her argument. And anyway, i read the vex news article and her subsequent opinion and she clearly states that her opinion when she was 16 was different to now. So she may very well have since become unbiased and then now states she can no longer be unbiased due to the current situation in Israel. So what is everyone arguing about here. That she may have been ill informed 7 years ago and has since become more educated and can truly state she was, 'for many years' unbiased until now? What's wrong with that? You're all trying to argue against someone who just simply doesn't share your opinion and are fishing for any excuse, even if it is a long shot at her very past opinions, just to try to make your argument stronger. That's the very definition of bias isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Oh, and she only 'repeated the same blood libel' today in vex news because there was more to the opinion that was left out. The part about the USA being involved. She has a right to rebutt when everyone seems to be against her based on non fact. Jeez, you all need to lighten up on this girl.She's done nothing wrong.

Anonymous said...

"The Israelis have gained enough power and money to prey on those weaker than them. It's only a matter of time before the Jews lose that power and money and they are left to fend for themselves. With this they'll have a taste of their own medicine … "

You keep digging a deeper hole for her anonymous so stop defending the indefensible.

Do you deny that she repeated the canard about Jews, power and money?

What it proves is that she held her views in 2001 and still holds them today.

Was she telling the truth when she said she had an open mind until just recently when Israel struck back against Hamas?

Come now.

Wilbur Post said...

"Oh, and she only 'repeated the same blood libel' today in vex news because there was more to the opinion that was left out. The part about the USA being involved."

The part about the USA is incidental.

Fact is she represented that she was unbiased and had an open mind. Then she claimed she changed her mind and then she repeated her antisemitic statement from 7 years ago.

Give us all a break.

Her bullshit meter just broke through the ozone layer and anonymous reckons she's done nothing wrong.

A lot of idiots around here have stuffed up moral compasses.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

I will bet everything I own, that you are either Raya Rusho, or her boyfriend.

There is nothing wrong with you trying to defend her. Nothing at all.

However your choice to conceal your identity represents precisely the same intellectual dishonesty which got Raya into this mess in the first place.

Some people don't learn.