THE T WORD

The Age today uses the "T" word in connection with the attack on a police academy in Pakistan - PAKISTAN ROCKED BY TERROR ATTACK ON POLICE ACADEMY.

Pakistan descended further into chaos yesterday when terrorists stormed a police academy in Lahore, killing more than 20 people and holding soldiers at bay for nine hours.

Of course, when Arab terrorists fire rockets on a daily basis at Israeli citizens, they're not terrorists at all according to the Age and when Arab terrorists try to destroy a mall filled with Israelis in Haifa, it doesn't even rate a mention.

YET ANOTHER LIE DEBUNKED

Click for Video from Honest Reporting

THE AGE PALESTINE LOBBY KICKS AN OWN GOAL

Last week the Palestine Lobby was working overtime in the Melbourne Age bringing readers a daily dose of allegations of war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers during the recent Gaza War. In the main, the allegations came in the form of shoddy unsubstantiated fairy tales from various sources, many anonymous and many others with axes to grind against the Jewish State. We've seen in recent Blank Pages of the Age posts how some have already been debunked and how others are unlikely to stand the test of solid investigation.

But the stories came on a daily basis - even the ones that had been repeated before ad infinitum. The Palestine Lobby has found a comfortable home at Fairfax where it can push its anti-Israeli line as hard as it can while, at the same time, airbrushing out of existence any sniff of negativity about their own cause. So last week, when Arab terrorists aligned to Hizbullah attempted to commit mass murder of Israelis in Haifa, there was not a word about it in the Melbourne Age.

But there was a sweet story in last Friday's edition on Page 10 "Musical interlude helps to soothe hearts in torn land" by Isabel Kershner of the New York Times. The story appeared originally in that newspaper under the title - Holon Journal Palestinians Serenade Survivors in Israel. It came as a wonderful counterbalance to the stories of the claimed dirty deeds carried out by those nasty Israeli soldiers.

The problem is that whilst the orchestra did perform for Holocaust survivors in Holon Israel, the story behind the story is something different altogether. The truth is that Palestinian authorities were rather miffed at the idea of their youth playing for Holocaust survivors in Israel and have disbanded the orchestra - Palestinian youth orchestra disbanded over concert for Holocaust survivors.

The fact that Palestinian polticians could spoil such a beautiful thing as this youth orchestra and mar such a good deed for victims of the Holocaust and the reasons for them doing so, is not deemed newsworthy by the Palestine Lobby in the Age is proof that such a lobby exists.

But the contents of the blank pages have revealed this as a fact a long time ago.

NEW YORK TIMES TELLS THE OTHER SIDE - NOW THE AGE?

The New York Times has now run a follow-up article on reports of the alleged IDF Gaza atrocities which, while far from perfect, corrects and rebuts many of the false charges that spread from Ha'aretz to news outlets around the world - Israel Disputes Soldiers' Accounts of Gaza Abuses.

According to Camera, the article, which was on the Times website on Friday, was published in the Saturday paper (which has the lowest circulation of the week) on page four, not on page one above the fold like the Times' first article on the subject.

Still the article admits that the alleged killing by an Israeli sniper of the mother and her two daughters was an "urban myth" that almost certainly did not occur, and quotes Israeli soldiers including, as we had suggested, Yishai Goldflam, on how they tried to avoid harming innocent Palestinians and their property.

The article also quotes an Israeli academic who has studied the impact of the growing proportion of religious soldiers in the IDF and the influence of rabbis on the conduct of these soldiers. According to the professor the rabbis have had a moderating impact on the soldiers, contradicting claims in the Times (A Religious War in Israel's Army) and elsewhere that rabbis had called for a religious or "holy war" against the Arabs and specificaly in Gaza.

On the negative side, editors chose to use with the article an inflamatory photo of a dead cow and a destroyed building, together with a rather deceptive caption that was not in accord with the thrust of the article:

Destruction near Gaza City in mid-January. "I'm not saying that nothing bad happened," said one Israeli colonel who described efforts to avoid harming civilians.

In sum, while the story had some serious flaws, and was marred by the photo/caption choice, overall it was a positive effort that helps to start correcting the record.

The Age has used articles by Ethan Bronner in the past. I don't believe there's much of a possibility that it will publish this one but the dead cow is a better than 50:50 chance!

THE UNRWA SPOKESMAN AND THE BBC BIGOT

In the past Tom Gross has outlined the concoctions of UNRWA which resulted in the defamation of Israel and physical attacks on Jews in many places around the world. These false reports in the media, including those in our local broadsheet, led to anti-Israel riots and attacks on Jews in all six continents of the world. It is important to understand how these false reports arose in light of the campaign being run by the Palestine Lobby and supported in sections of the media - REVEALED: UNRWA SPOKESMAN WHO LIED ABOUT ISRAEL PREVIOUSLY WORKED AT THE BBC WITH JEREMY BOWEN

... UNRWA has now admitted that their claim that Israel shelled a school in Gaza in January and killed 32 Palestinian civilians is completely false. The shell in question, it turns out, was in response to Palestinian mortar fire at civilians in Israel and killed nine Palestinian adults, none of whom were in the school. Seven of those killed were armed operatives and two were civilians.

The sensational and false claims of UNRWA led to headlines around the world such as "UN accuses Israel of herding 110 Palestinians into a house then shelling it, leaving 30 dead" (London Daily Mail Online UK, Jan 9 2009 11:59AM GMT).

Gross reports that Chris Gunness, the UNWRA spokesman who went on several different international TV networks in January to accuse Israel of "war crimes" on account of the supposed school incident, is in fact a former BBC journalist and a close colleague of the BBC's notoriously anti-Israel Chief Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Bowen.

In a diary article which Jeremy Bowen posted on BBC online, he states:

“I just broke off writing for a couple of minutes to take a call from Chris Gunness, who is the spokesman for Unrwa, the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees.

“He was ringing to say that Unrwa wanted an investigation into whether Israel has committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Civilians are protected by the laws of war.

“I have known Chris for years, as he used to be a BBC foreign correspondent. He wanted to make sure that we knew he was using the phrase for the first time. He said that the attack this morning on a UN school in Gaza looked as if it was a war crime.”

Tom Gross continues:

In three occasions in the past when I have criticized the BBC, the BBC online editors have then subtly changed their website so as to delete the part I criticized without letting readers know it had ever been there in the first place.

For the record, at the end of this dispatch, I attach Jeremy Bowen’s full diary entry (in which he makes the remarks above), together with two biographies of Chris Gunness. Gunness worked for the BBC for 23 years in senior editorial positions in both television and radio.

So it turns out that the UNWRA spokesman condemning Israel for “war crimes” that in fact never happened, is a former BBC World Service correspondent and producer who is a close friend of the current BBC Chief Middle East Correspondent who helped spread these allegations. Can it be that the false claims about Israel coming from two august institutions, the BBC and UNWRA, are in the hands of two friends who might just have a world view not sympathetic to Israel?

The BBC World Service and UNRWA are both funded by the British government. UNRWA receives huge amounts of money from many other countries too. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced it would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the considerable funds it has already supplied UNRWA, an organization accused of allowing the promotion of suicide bombing and martyrdom to be taught at the schools it pays for and administers.

Gross asks "is this the BBC's idea of a correction?

In January, Jews in Britain suffered a level of anti-Semitic attacks on a level not seen since the 1930s. This can be attributed to at least in part by the inflammatory and false coverage of Israel by the BBC and other British media.

The BBC has finally added a small footnote correction to the end of one of its stories that falsely claimed Israel shelled a school in Gaza.

The BBC wrote that “40 Palestinian civilians sheltering at the Fakhura school in Jabaliya” had been killed by Israel, and also broadcast that false statement on countless occasions on its multitude of domestic and international radio and television networks. BBC radio broadcasts in dozens of languages around the world.

Below is the BBC’s small correction, which they placed at the foot of one of their online stories, a correction that fails to state that nine Palestinians died, not 40; that none were at the school; that seven of the nine killed were militants; and that Israel had not fired first but was responding to rocket fire by those militants at towns and villages in Israel.

And a BBC UPDATE update in which the Beeb (unlike the Melbourne Age) admits its mistake at the (almost) truthful end of its item - 'Stray mortar' hit UN Gaza school

BBC Update: In February 2009, the United Nations said that a clerical error had led it to report that Israeli mortars had struck a UN-run school in Jabaliya, Gaza, on 6 January killing about 40 people. Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Jerusalem, said that the Israeli Defense Force mortars fell in the street near the compound, and not on the compound itself. He said that the UN “would like to clarify that the shelling and all of the fatalities took place outside and not inside the school”.

Tom Gross disputes that it really was a clerical error -

CLERICAL ERROR? - I don't think so

Honest Reporting has released an analysis of the BBC's systemic bias against Israel in itsd reporting of the Gaza War.

Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor, kept a running diary of the conflict. In one entry, poignantly titled "Tears of a Mother," Bowen publicizes another shocking claim:

Zeinat said the Israeli troops had herded several families from the al-Samouni clan into one of the houses.

She said soldiers came in and asked for the house owner. Her husband, Atiya, put up his hand.

A soldier shot him through the head at point blank range.

Then the soldiers sprayed the room with gunfire, she says. Her four-year-son was killed.

Yet where were the follow-up investigations to these claims? What evidence besides one person's word does Bowen have to support this horrific charge?

An Internet search of the woman whom Bowen interviewed (Zeinat Abdullah al-Samouni) shows that the only other places (besides the BBC) these charges are repeated is on anti-Israel blogs. It is strange that an alleged cold blooded murder carried out in front of multiple witnesses would receive no other mainstream coverage other than an account in Bowen's diary.

The Palestinians have a well-documented record of using the media to disseminate propaganda. (See HonestReporting's "The Big Lies" presentation). With this in mind, the BBC should have been even more careful to fact check such claims before publishing them.

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/The_BBC_During_the_Gaza_War_Biased_Coverage_of_the_Conflict.asp

Bowen has boasted about the accounts coming from the Palestinian side. In his Middle East Diary entry for January 15, he reported that:

The fact that there are good Palestinian journalists in Gaza means that accurate and trustworthy accounts of what is happening are getting out.

On what is he basing his opinion that the accounts are accurate and trustworthy? With so many Palestinian claims being investigated and later dismissed, it seems he is vouching for something over which he has no knowledge. As the BBC's top Middle East reporter, he has a professional responsibility to be objective and not simply accept narratives without corroborating evidence.

A STORY THE AGE PALESTINE LOBBY WON'T LET YOU READ

SOLDIERS TELL OF ASSISTING PALESTINIANS

FRUITCAKE CITY

The Australian gets it right - MEET THE UN'S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE TO FRUITCAKE CITY.

The Australian reported yesterday on the activities of Richard Falk, UN expert on Palestinian territories and 9/11

IN a report presented yesterday at the UN Human Rights Council, (Richard) Falk, the UN expert on the Palestinian territories, called for a probe to assess if the Israeli forces could differentiate between civilian and military targets in Gaza. "If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful, and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law," he said.

Richard Falk in The Journal, November 9, 2008:

GIVEN the dark cloud of doubt that lingers over the official 9/11 narrative, why was the issue not even discussed during the many months of presidential campaigning? As far as I can tell, the real explanation is a widely shared fear of what sinister forces might lay beneath the unturned stones of a full investigation of 9/11. Ever since the assassinations in the 1960s of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, there has been waged a powerful campaign against conspiracy theory that has made anyone who dares question the official story to be branded as a kook or some kind of unhinged troublemaker. The persisting inability to resolve this controversy about 9/11 subtly taints the legitimacy of the American government. It can only be removed by a willingness, however belated, to reconstruct the truth of that day, and to reveal the story behind its prolonged suppression.

David Aaronovitch in The Times online, April 15, 2008:

IN my library of conspiriana are several books by the American theologian David Ray Griffin, intellectual guru of the "Bush blew up the twin towers movement". In a chapter written by Falk for Griffin's 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, the UN expert-official opines that part of the evidence that there was conspiracy is the very fact that so many people say there wasn't. Or, in intellectualese: "Momentous suspicious events bearing on the legitimacy of the process of governance in the US have been consistently shielded from mainstream inquiry by being reinscribed as the wild fantasies of 'conspiracy theorists' ... the management of suspicion is itself suspicious." As you can see, because I believe Falk, like Griffin, has taken leave of what remained of his senses, this column is now itself part of the sinister plot. I believe in the UN, but we all must stop regarding it as though it was some kind of moral arbiter, doing right in a world of wrong. Because, unfortunately, the term UN expert means neither good nor expert. It can mean warped and stupid.

Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton on Fox News, July 15, 2008:

I THINK (Falk's beliefs are) fruitcake city, but among many delegations to the UN it's probably the conventional wisdom.

Falk is the nutcase the Melbourne Age cites as "UN expert" when he condemns Israel. His novel interpretation of international law as highlighted in the first quote above demonstrates the extent of his sheer stupidity. The interpretation in question only applies to Israel; others have every right to defend themselves against terrorists using civilians as human shields. The Palestinian cheerleaders at the Age also carry the same lack of insight and understanding of international law.

THE AGE REPEATS ITSELF AGAIN - # 31

Another day, another shonky Age expose on Israel's alleged illegal use of white phosphorous in its recent Gaza campaign.

Remember those earlier allegations?

The ones that the Age has reproduced on at least half a dozen occasions over the past two months? The same identical claims that have been made by the usual suspects and refuted by bodies like the Red Cross. The ones that made by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas viewpoints, reported on by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas views and published by newspaper editors carrying out pro Palestinian/Hamas agendas.

It's like Groundhog Day again today!

In accordance with Wilbur's law, the truthful part of today's Age effort (lifted from the Guardian no less) comes near the end -

The Israel Defence Forces yesterday said its investigation into the use of white phosphorous was still under way, but insisted its use of what it called 155-millimetre "smoke shells" was legal.

"Based on the findings at this stage, it is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law," it said.

"These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless."

Which leads to the question, how many times can a newspaper present the same story as news before its readers realise the newspaper is nothing more than a pithy propaganda sheet running a sinister agenda, namely to demonise one country and one people ahead of next month's Durban 2 hatefest which just happens to co-incide with Adolph Hitler's 120th birthday?

THE AGE REPEATS ITSELF AGAIN - # 30

Another day, another shonky Age expose on Israel's alleged illegal use of white phosphorous in its recent Gaza campaign.

Remember those earlier allegations?

The ones that the Age has reproduced on at least half a dozen occasions over the past two months? The same identical claims that have been made by the usual suspects and refuted by bodies like the Red Cross. The ones that made by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas viewpoints, reported on by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas views and published by newspaper editors carrying out pro Palestinian/Hamas agendas.

It's like Groundhog Day again today!

In accordance with Wilbur's law, the truthful part of today's Age effort (lifted from the Guardian no less) comes near the end -

The Israel Defence Forces yesterday said its investigation into the use of white phosphorous was still under way, but insisted its use of what it called 155-millimetre "smoke shells" was legal.

"Based on the findings at this stage, it is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law," it said.

"These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless."

Which leads to the question, how many times can a newspaper present the same story as news before its readers realise the newspaper is nothing more than a pithy propaganda sheet running a sinister agenda, namely to demonise one country and one people ahead of next month's Durban 2 hatefest which just happens to co-incide with Adolph Hitler's 120th birthday?

THE AGE REPEATS ITSELF AGAIN - # 29

Another day, another shonky Age expose on Israel's alleged illegal use of white phosphorous in its recent Gaza campaign.

Remember those earlier allegations?

The ones that the Age has reproduced on at least half a dozen occasions over the past two months? The same identical claims that have been made by the usual suspects and refuted by bodies like the Red Cross. The ones that made by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas viewpoints, reported on by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas views and published by newspaper editors carrying out pro Palestinian/Hamas agendas.

It's like Groundhog Day again today!

In accordance with Wilbur's law, the truthful part of today's Age effort (lifted from the Guardian no less) comes near the end -

The Israel Defence Forces yesterday said its investigation into the use of white phosphorous was still under way, but insisted its use of what it called 155-millimetre "smoke shells" was legal.

"Based on the findings at this stage, it is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law," it said.

"These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless."

Which leads to the question, how many times can a newspaper present the same story as news before its readers realise the newspaper is nothing more than a pithy propaganda sheet running a sinister agenda, namely to demonise one country and one people ahead of next month's Durban 2 hatefest which just happens to co-incide with Adolph Hitler's 120th birthday?

THE AGE REPEATS ITSELF AGAIN - # 28

Another day, another shonky Age expose on Israel's alleged illegal use of white phosphorous in its recent Gaza campaign.

Remember those earlier allegations?

The ones that the Age has reproduced on at least half a dozen occasions over the past two months? The same identical claims that have been made by the usual suspects and refuted by bodies like the Red Cross. The ones that made by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas viewpoints, reported on by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas views and published by newspaper editors carrying out pro Palestinian/Hamas agendas.

It's like Groundhog Day again today!

In accordance with Wilbur's law, the truthful part of today's Age effort (lifted from the Guardian no less) comes near the end -

The Israel Defence Forces yesterday said its investigation into the use of white phosphorous was still under way, but insisted its use of what it called 155-millimetre "smoke shells" was legal.

"Based on the findings at this stage, it is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law," it said.

"These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless."

Which leads to the question, how many times can a newspaper present the same story as news before its readers realise the newspaper is nothing more than a pithy propaganda sheet running a sinister agenda, namely to demonise one country and one people ahead of next month's Durban 2 hatefest which just happens to co-incide with Adolph Hitler's 120th birthday?

THE AGE REPEATS ITSELF AGAIN - # 27

Another day, another shonky Age expose on Israel's alleged illegal use of white phosphorous in its recent Gaza campaign.

Remember those earlier allegations?

The ones that the Age has reproduced on at least half a dozen occasions over the past two months? The same identical claims that have been made by the usual suspects and refuted by bodies like the Red Cross. The ones that made by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas viewpoints, reported on by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas views and published by newspaper editors carrying out pro Palestinian/Hamas agendas.

It's like Groundhog Day again today!

In accordance with Wilbur's law, the truthful part of today's Age effort (lifted from the Guardian no less) comes near the end -

The Israel Defence Forces yesterday said its investigation into the use of white phosphorous was still under way, but insisted its use of what it called 155-millimetre "smoke shells" was legal.

"Based on the findings at this stage, it is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law," it said.

"These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless."

Which leads to the question, how many times can a newspaper present the same story as news before its readers realise the newspaper is nothing more than a pithy propaganda sheet running a sinister agenda, namely to demonise one country and one people ahead of next month's Durban 2 hatefest which just happens to co-incide with Adolph Hitler's 120th birthday?

THE AGE REPEATS ITSELF AGAIN - # 26

Another day, another shonky Age expose on Israel's alleged illegal use of white phosphorous in its recent Gaza campaign.

Remember those earlier allegations?

The ones that the Age has reproduced on at least half a dozen occasions over the past two months? The same identical claims that have been made by the usual suspects and refuted by bodies like the Red Cross. The ones that made by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas viewpoints, reported on by people holding partisan pro Palestinian/Hamas views and published by newspaper editors carrying out pro Palestinian/Hamas agendas.

It's like Groundhog Day again today!

In accordance with Wilbur's law, the truthful part of today's Age effort (lifted from the Guardian no less) comes near the end -

The Israel Defence Forces yesterday said its investigation into the use of white phosphorous was still under way, but insisted its use of what it called 155-millimetre "smoke shells" was legal.

"Based on the findings at this stage, it is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law," it said.

"These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless."

Which leads to the question, how many times can a newspaper present the same story as news before its readers realise the newspaper is nothing more than a pithy propaganda sheet running a sinister agenda, namely to demonise one country and one people ahead of next month's Durban 2 hatefest which just happens to co-incide with Adolph Hitler's 120th birthday?

THE MEDIA'S WANTON KILLING OF THE TRUTH

Alex Safian of Camera informs us that the brigade commander of the unit linked to alleged "wanton killings" in Gaza launched his own investigation after hearing of the charges, speaking with actual eyewitnesses, "all of whom said that the alleged killings did not took place."

Remember, the original stories upon which the allegations were based were based not only on hearsay but, in one instance, on the "testimony" of a soldier who wasn't even in Gaza.

The brigade commander’s findings were reported in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, in a story titled IDF Investigation Refutes the Testimonies About Gaza Killings. According to the story (translation by CAMERA):

Two central incidents that came up in the testimony, which Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military academy presented to Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi, focus on one infantry brigade. The brigade’s commander today will present to Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Gaza division, the findings of his personal investigation about the matter which he undertook in the last few days, and after approval, he will present his findings to the head of the Southern Command, Major General Yoav Gallant.

Regarding the incident in which it was claimed that a sniper fired at a Palestinian woman and her two daughters, the brigade commander’s investigation cites the sniper: “I saw the woman and her daughters and I shot warning shots. The section commander came up to the roof and shouted at me, ?Why did you shoot at them.’ I explained that I did not shoot at them, but I fired warning shots.”

Officers from the brigade surmise that fighters that stayed in the bottom floor of the Palestinian house thought that he hit them, and from here the rumor that a sniper killed a mother and her two daughters spread.

The other alleged incident, the killing by a sniper of an elderly woman, also seems not to have taken place:

Regarding the second incident, in which it was claimed that soldiers went up to the roof to entertain themselves with firing and killed an elderly Palestinian woman, the brigade commander investigation found that there was no such incident.

Safian suggests that those newspapers that "gave these stories great play despite a clear lack of evidence, should be composing forthright corrections – preferably to be run on the front page."

Don't hold your breath Alex!

A CLASS ACT

Now, I thought IAJV Obersturmbanführer Antony Loewenstein was intellectually and factually challenged but after reading this article on the IAJV website from one of his underlings Michael Brull, I reckon young Ant's a frigging genius by comparison:-

EDWARD EINFELD

I should like to take a break from issues related to the pro-Israel lobby in this blog, to address something I've found enormously distasteful.

There has long been enormous media coverage of the Edward Einfeld case, gleeful reporting of his lying, and self-righteous proclamations of the need for him to suffer for his crime and so on. I find the desire to see him publically lynched and humiliated quite repugnant.

Freddy Brull concludes:-

I should also say, it should be considered distressing that the leading Jewish organisations are not willing to rally to his defence. Why have they abandoned one of the Jewish community's most decent and admirable figures? I expect that in 40 years, the Jewish community will reclaim him as one of their brave figures fighting for social justice, just as today it proudly claims Spigelman's role in the freedom rides.

It's a good thing the Jewish community hasn't abandoned Edward's second cousin Marcus, otherwise there would be hell to pay from George Brull.

USEFUL IDIOTS EXPOSED

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, slams the useful idiots who believe there is anything to be gained from dialogue with the likes of former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami will speak at La Trobe University's Centre for Dialogue tomorrow - Khatami is just Ahmadinejad with a silver tongue [the article's in the Australian of course!]

Those who want honest and meaningful dialogue tomorrow night would be better off sitting between a Carlton and a Richmond supporter at the MCG.

THE GUARDIAN (AND THE AGE) GO TO PALLYWOOD

The Melbourne Age continues its Intifada against the Jewish State today (courtesy of the Palestine Lobby) by reproducing a recent London Guardian report from Clancy Chassay and Julian Borger - WAR CRIMES CHARGES MOUNT AGAINST ISRAEL.

Melanie Phillips has already given this work of journalistic bias in the extreme a decent Fisking in THE GUARDIAN GOES TO PALLYWOOD. Of the allegations of Israeli war crimes she writes:

It presents these allegations as facts. It does so even though they are only allegations, unsupported by any evidence whatever. It does so even though the allegations are made by people with a proven track record of systematic lying to journalists and fabrication of stories and images. It does so even though such people either support Hamas or are controlled and schooled by Hamas to tell lies under pain of torture or death.

It does so without providing any verifiable information – full names, dates, specifics. It does so without making any mention of the extraordinary lengths to which the Israel Defence Force went in trying to avoid civilian casualties, by leafleting targeted houses to warn the inhabitants to get out and even calling them on their mobile phones to urge them to do so. It does so without acknowledging the fact that it was Hamas which used Gazan civilians as human shields – indeed, it dismisses this in a sentence by stating that Amnesty and Human Rights Watch found ‘no evidence’ that it had done so.

And the damning conclusion:

In similar vein, no mention at all in the Guardian of the enormous bomb planted in a shopping mall in Haifa last Saturday evening – 100 kg of explosives packed with ball bearings -- which, had it not been defused, would most likely have killed hundreds of people.

Truly, the Guardian is an evil newspaper.

As is the Age for its continuing campaign against Israel.

THE AGE HELPS SPREAD THE LIES

It's almost a month since The Australian Newspaper did the decent thing and apologised for the media slanders published in newspapers like the Melbourne Age over the Gaza School Blood Libel wherein it was alleged that Israel targeted that school is Gaza where 42 civilians were supposed to have died - THE AUSTRALIAN'S RETRACTION FOR THE AGE and ISRAEL DISPUTES CIVILIAN TOLL NEAR UN SCHOOL.

The Age has never retracted those allegations made on 7 January, 2009, nor has it apologised for misleading its readers.

Worse still, the Age is publishing articles that in part repeat the claim in the blood libel insofar as it relates to the false claim of the number of civilain dead which was actually three and not 42 - Israel to probe soldier abuse claims.

Rights groups have accused Israel of using disproportionate force and failing to protect civilians. Cases they cite include the use of white phosphorus ammunition and shelling near a UN school that killed 42 people seeking sanctuary there. White phosphorus can be employed legitimately in battle, but rights groups say its use over populated areas can indiscriminately burn civilians and constitutes a war crime.

The Age has been crying wolf with false and unsubstantiated claims of alleged Israeli war crimes ever since the conflict began and it simply can't help itself. One piece in today's Age claims United Nations offical Richard Falk is an expert on Palestine ISRAELI WAR CRIME LIKELY, SAYS UN . Falk managed to get his job at the United Nations because of his credentials as an Israel basher and was refused entry into Israel at the time of Gaza War because he linked Israel with the Nazis. In the Alice in Wonderland world of the U.N. that's fine but shame on the Age for its failure to reveal that fact in this story.

Of course, when the allegations made against the Jewish State are finally refuted, you won't read about that in the Age.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH

Look alikes Josef Fritzl, George Galloway and Ismail Haniyeh. They make such a fine trio!

BACK TO FRONT

I've taken to reading all items in the Melbourne Age that touch on any aspect of the Israel/Arab conflict from back to front.

It all started when I began to notice that when the Age published letters from readers about the conflict, almost invariably the anti-Israel letters would appear first. We all know the old story about first impressions lasting the longest but does this mean I'm paranoid and that this is really an accidental phenomenon or is there an agenda at the Age to place Israel on the defensive at all times?

I almost settled for the paranoia angle before I realised it's the same with most items of news from the region, particularly those which bring up allegations of wrong doing on the Israeli side.

When we read stories of unsubstantiated allegations against the Jewish State made by Palestinians or dissident Israelis, the true Israeli version is often buried deep within the article and usually at the end. More often than not, as is the case of most media beat ups, the best that can be elicited from the Israeli side is a promise that the matter will be investigated and we already know that when the investigation proves the story to be a fabrication or a significant stretch of the truth, there is no withdrawal or apology - just silence (or even worse, allowing the lie to be repeated over and over).

That's why I read yesterday's Koutsoukis article about allegations in Haaretz newspaper of misconduct by Israeli soldiers during the recent Gaza War - Civilians 'gunned down in Gaza war' from the back to the front starting with these lines:

According to Major Gur Rosenblat, a reservist who commanded more than 100 men during the war in Gaza, the accounts were nothing more than rumours and had no basis in fact.

"I was there. I fought in Gaza and I am telling you that I have no idea, no idea, what these other soldiers are talking about," Major Rosenblat said. "It's not even close to the things I saw when I was there."

As with every accusation of human rights abuses by Israel during the conflict with Hamas the allegations made at the beginning of the article are serious and warrant investigation. In this instance, there have been strong denials from the IDF soldiers who took part in the January offensive - IDF soldiers rebut claims of immoral conduct in Gaza. Notwithstanding this, the fact that the allegations were permitted to be published in an Israeli newspaper and then openly discussed within that country is evidence of the strength of Israel's democracy.

Unfortunately, there is no similar openness within Palestinian society today and, as a consequence, newspapers like the Age spend little of their time and space covering the overt criminality of the Palestinian terror groups whose raison d'être is to inflict pain and death on the neighbouring Israelis - and this includes the elected Hamas which governs Gaza and the PA's Fatah forces in the West Bank. Sadly, the Age and many other media organs simply chose to ignore real human rights abuses on their side while speculating upon possible breaches on the Israeli side.

This extends even to situations where the possibility of those breaches being proven is remote and that is why I had to read Koutsoukis' piece from back to front. I was already aware of reports were questionable at best:

Channel 2 TV Army correspondent Roni Daniel stated at 6:30 PM this evening, that he personally tracked down one of the soldiers interviewed for the Haaretz article. Apparently the soldier's testimony to Haaretz wasn't based on anything he personally saw or witnessed, rather based on rumors and hearsay he heard (and the soldier wasn't even in Gaza!)

Truth is rarely important to Haaretz, as long as it can bash the IDF, Israel, settlers, religious Jews, or anyone not agreeing with them. As a result of their propaganda article, the entire planet picked up on their "expose" and the poison keeps propagating around the world.

- The Muqata

My conclusion therefore is that if you want to find the truth in many of these reports you will only find them at the end and not the beginning and that's why I prefer to start there.

On the subject of Israel's soldiers, Herb Keinan of the Jerusalem Post has it nailed in The crucial morality of the IDF's cause

The beauty of Herb's article is that you can start reading it anywhere you like!

FORGIVE ME

Forgive me but I didn't quite get it when Rev Lance Lawton wrote in a letter published in today's Melbourne Age in relation to the proposed visit by former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami that ..."[P]rincipled stands such as that advocated by the JCCV, by which community leaders have declined even to meet with others of doubtful repute, have, with all respect, delivered little of the peace we all desperately seek.

"Perhaps it's time to try respectful listening and open conversation, despite the doubts. It worked a treat for Jesus; it might just work for one of His servants."

Funny, but I thought the Jew Jesus died in his early 30's at the hands of colonial Roman tyrants with who dialogue was impossible. And that was after attempts to appease the Romans failed miserably.

Forgive me but they tried appeasement with Hitler. That didn't quite work either and millions of Jews, Romas, homosexuals and communists died anyway.

And Rev Lawton; if you spoke till you were blue in the face with the folk in Iran's little puppet movements - Hamas and Hizbullah - you would soon understand from their own language that they will never sway from their declared aim of destroying Israel, killing Jews and setting up an Islamic Caliphate in most parts of this planet.

So forgive me Rev Lawton but I'd prefer to pass on your suggestion - it's just plain dumb.

ANSWERING THE PUZZLE OF GAZA

The Galloways, the Halpers and the Loewensteins believe that Hamas, the supposed elected government of the Palestinina people is a principled movement. Yvonne Green recently visited Gaza and viewed the handiwork of Hamas. She tells a different story - Puzzled in Gaza.

I'm a poet, an English Jew and a frequent visitor to Israel. Deeply disturbed by the reports of wanton slaughter and destruction during Operation Cast Lead, I felt I had to see for myself. I flew to Tel Aviv and on Wednesday, January 28, using my press card to cross the Erez checkpoint, I walked across the border into Gaza where I was met by my guide, a Palestinian journalist. He asked if I wanted to meet with Hamas officials. I explained that I'd come to bear witness to the damage and civilian suffering, not to talk politics.

What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas' infrastructure. Does UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticize the surgical destruction of the explosives cache in the Imad Akhel Mosque, of the National Forces compound, of the Shi Jaya police station, of the Ministry of Prisoners? The Gazans I met weren't mourning the police state. Neither were they radicalized. As Hamas blackshirts menaced the street corners, I witnessed how passersby ignored them.

THERE WERE empty beds at Shifa Hospital and a threatening atmosphere. Hamas is reduced to wielding its unchallengeable authority from extensive air raid shelters which, together with the hospital, were built by Israel 30 years ago. Terrorized Gazans used doublespeak when they told me most of the alleged 5,500 wounded were being treated in Egypt and Jordan. They want it known that the figure is a lie, and showed me that the wounded weren't in Gaza. No evidence exists of their presence in foreign hospitals, or of how they might have gotten there.

And if the apologists for Hamas can't answer for its lies and the mistreatment of its own people, they certainly can't explain why a supposedly "principled" movement would threaten to murder the only Jew left in Gaza - GILAD SHALIT MAY SUFFER THE SAME FATE AS RON ARAD

The answer to Yvonne Green's puzzle could well be that given in today's Australian Newspaper by Nonie Darwish, who grew up in Gaza City and Cairo - PALESTINE VICTIM OF ARAB BETRAYAL.

This policy of forcing a Palestinian identity on these people for eternity and condemning them to a miserable life in a refugee camp was designed to perpetuate and exacerbate the Palestinian refugee crisis.

THE FIXERS

Honest Reporting highlights the insidious way in which Palestinian "fixers" have infiltrated the so-called "foreign press" in Israel with the aim of influencing and distorting the news from the region - Exposed: How Palestinian Fixers Manipulate their Media Bosses

While one refers to the "foreign press" in Israel, most employees are local Israelis or Palestinians who are hired for their language skills, access and local knowledge. Sometimes it isn't enough just to monitor only the news stories and critique the media. The hiring practices of the media organizations can also impact significantly on what news is reported and how decisions are made as to the information reaching Western audiences.

It isn't only the personal attitudes or potential bias of a journalist influencing the final article or television report. Other media professionals can also have a major bearing on the construction and direction of a story.

Palestinian translators and fixers may be necessary but those with a political agenda can be selective with the information they feed the journalist or, at worst, mistranslate the words of the interview subjects. Writing on the influence of Palestinian organizations on foreign news reporting, the JCPA's Dan Diker noted:

According to senior foreign news sources based in Jerusalem, the vast majority of Palestinian fixers - often close friends of Palestinian employees of Jerusalem-based foreign news agencies - are ideologically motivated by the Palestinian cause, and actively encourage journalists to report exclusively on the "evils" of the Israeli occupation, rather than on the lack of democratic freedoms or human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza.

ANTI-ZIONISM IS HATE

The Los Angeles Times ran two Op Ed articles on Zionism on 15 March 2009. One by Ben Ehrenreich entitled "ZIONISM IS THE PROBLEM" in which the writer opined that the "Zionist ideal of a Jewish state is keeping Israelis and Palestinians from living in peace". His tendentious argument smacks of ignorance of what really makes Israelis tick and is symptomatic of a line of thinking totally divorced from the reality of Israel's vibrant society that plagues the thinking of many of Israel's critics.

In the second Op Ed, Judea Pearl concludes that ANTI-ZIONISM IS HATE and puts forward a strong argument supporting his view that anti-Zionism is "more dangerous than anti-Semitism, threatening lives and peace in the Middle East."

Anti-Zionism rejects the very notion that Jews are a nation -- a collective bonded by a common history -- and, accordingly, denies Jews the right to self-determination in their historical birthplace. It seeks the dismantling of the Jewish nation-state: Israel.

Anti-Zionism earns its discriminatory character by denying the Jewish people what it grants to other historically bonded collectives (e.g. French, Spanish, Palestinians), namely, the right to nationhood, self-determination and legitimate coexistence with other indigenous claimants.

Anti-Semitism rejects Jews as equal members of the human race; anti-Zionism rejects Israel as an equal member in the family of nations.

FOOTNOTE: Not surpringly, Antony Loewenstein's blog highlights the Ehrenreich piece but completely ignores the Pearl article. When an observer attempted to place a comment on the blog bringing attention to the Pearl article, Loewenstein who wails at every opportunity about having his voice muzzled by the Jewish lobby, characteristically scrubbed the message in the moderation process.

Like most of his friends in the Israel basher war camp, the atheist Loewenstein, who claims to be Jewish but denies Jews the rights which other naturally have, continues to heap praise on Hamas and the Islamic Jihadistas who preach the total destruction of Israel and genocide against Jews. After you've made an attempt to figure thaat one out, you will see why he and his ilk remain perfect examples of the ill wind the Jewish people are facing today.

HARRY POTTER - A PROUD MEMBER OF THE JEWISH LOBBY

Who would have thought?

Harry Potter - a member of the international Zionist conspiracy and a member of the Jewish lobby.

Free Hogwarts!

Rudd must shun UN anti-Semitism

Nick Dyrenfurth in today's Australian makes a good case as to why Australia should shun the Durban hate circus.

The Oz Cut and Paste section also quotes a report from the weekend by Jason Koutsoukis in the Fairfax papers on the torture of Palestinians that mostly goes unreported:

In 2007, the death toll of Palestinians killed by Fatah or Hamas exceeded for the first time the number of Palestinians killed in clashes with the Israeli occupation forces," said Hamdi Shaqqura from the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. According to figures cited by Shaqqura, 394 Palestinians were killed in clashes with the Israeli military and security forces in 2007, but at least 500 were killed by forces aligned with either Fatah or Hamas. Shaqqura said, "We are talking mostly about barbaric acts of revenge and retaliation. Human rights abuses are witnessed every day here.

Ironically, Fairfax which itself is very good at ensuring that Hamas abuses against Israelis goes unreported, is more open when it comes to Palestinian on Palestinian deaths. A pity that we heard nothing from the Age's Jerusalem Bureau chief when Hamas TV used Farfur the Mouse and a succeeding menagerie of animals and insects to inspire Palestinian kiddies to devote their lives to murdering Jews.

Cut and Paste also cites Jonathan Schanzer in the The Jerusalem Post, March 12, on Jimmy Carter's latest book, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land:

Carter wrongly states that Hamas seeks to "remove Israel from the Holy Land using violence if necessary". Actually, if Carter had bothered to read the Hamas charter, he would know that Hamas sees jihad as an imperative to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic Palestine. For Hamas there is no "if necessary". War with Israel is its raison d'etre.

Carter, who visited the Hamas terrorist organisation against the expressed wishes of the State Department, also asserts that Hamas accepts Fatah faction leader Mahmoud Abbas as "spokesman for all Palestinians". Carter somehow missed the civil war raging between Hamas and Fatah. Indeed, Hamas executed a brutally violent coup against Abbas's faction in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Like many Hamas apologists (and a good few have been referred to on the Blank Pages in the past few) Carter can't even lie straight in bed.

CRIKEY'S DELUSIONAL HYPOCRITE

They're a funny lot over at Crikey, the internet news outlet that chortles on about telling you "what they won't". You can tell that by their choice of person to write an article about the decision by the Australian Jewish News to refuse to accept an advertisement about Israel bashing propagandist Professor Jeff Halper's lecture tour of Australia. Even if you didn't expect a neutral observer to report on the facts, the choice of Antony Loewenstein would have come as a surprise (Loewenstein's IAJV sidekick Dr Peter Slezak is actually hosting one of Halper's lectures at UNSW later this month). The result, of course, was a lamentable effort drowning in its own sheer stupidity - The peace activist the Jewish News rejects.

The joke however, is on Crikey and the pathetic Loewenstein whose ignorance about Israel was put on exhibition a few years ago when he wrote a poorly researched book "My Israel Question" which was in fact nothing more than a lamentable encyclopaedia of ignorance about the Israel/Arab conflict. I could write a book on the errors contained in that dreary tome but just one example is the map of Israel which portrays the Galilee region of northern Israel as part of Lebanon (possibly wishful thinking on Loewenstein's and sloppy editing by Melbourne University Press and Louise Adler but a barrel of laughs, especially if you hail from that part of the world).

Still, we don't expect much from someone who once called Israeli political leader and Prime Ministerial hopeful Tzipi Livni as a "he" when any Jew worth their salt would know Tzipi was definitely a "she".

But back to Antony's Crikey piece. Unsurprisingly, his gripe is all about censorship but he doesn't appear particularly concerned about all forms of censorship - it's only when those who support Israel exercise their right to exclude detractors including those who are simply out and out charlatans like Halper.

But you won’t be reading about his Sydney events in the Australian Jewish News (AJN). The publisher has refused to run ads by Jews Against the Occupation (JAO) that simply inform people of Halper’s schedule. The group was given no reason for the decision except that the publisher had instructed the paper not to allow the ads to appear. Crikey has seen the ad and it only contains titles and locations of the lectures and contact phone numbers.

...

This latest example of censorship follows a long history of the mainstream Jewish establishment being fearful over honestly debating Israel/Palestine (something we’ve seen over the last days in the US over the forced resignation of Israel critic Charles W Freeman from the post of Chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

Loewenstein was delighted that the Sydney Morning Herald agreed with him - With friends like these (see the second editorial which is replete with hypocrisy given this is a Fairfax newspaper - and on Chas Freeman see Melanie Phillips for the real reasons why the execrable Freeman doesn't occupy any high office at this time)

Loewenstein doesn't have a problem with the censorship applied by the publisher of the Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald when it routinely omits to mention the excesses of Hamas and Hizbullah as it has done over the years or when it simply refuses to cover stories debunking earlier erroneous reports in its publications such as the false allegations of Israeli war crimes as part of the Gaza School scandal. That form of censorship is kosher with Loewenstein.

But if you wanted an insight into Loewenstein's sick pathology, take this disturbingly inane piece of drivel with which he concluded his rant -

... the AJN ran a piece last week by novelist Alan Gold, arguing against the UN’s upcoming anti-racism conference, Durban II: "And now that the storm clouds are gathering over Geneva, we can only look on in horror, and feel as our parents or grandparents must have felt in 1933."

Memo to the AJN: Hitler died in 1945.

The problem for Crikey is that when it selects someone to prattle on about the subject of censorship, then it isn't wise to settle on a Loewenstein who has a penchant for censorship himself. He is well known for often censoring comments made on his own blog with which he does not agree.

This morning, a colleague posted a comment on his blog on the subject Jews insulate themselves from reality. He drew attention to the fact that while he agreed that people should have the opportunity to hear what Halper had to say, they equally "deserved to know that he has been accused of pushing a deceptive and misleading agenda and distorting the truth." He then posted the following four references from Camera to support that very point:

JEFF HALPER DISTORTS INTERNATIONAL LAW

SABEEL’S RHETORIC QUESTIONED BY JEWISH PEACE ACTIVISTS

THE PROFESSOR'S TRUTH DEMOLITION

TRUTH DEMOLITION IN AN ANTI-ISRAEL ROAD SHOW

So Halper is not only a liar but he has often invoked the repugnant blood libel of Israelis-as-Nazis.

During the Sabeel conference at Old South Church in October, Halper said that while the Israeli public supports a two-state solution, successive Israeli governments have misled the Israeli public into thinking there is no political solution and no one to negotiate with on the Palestinian side of the conflict.

They don’t believe that peace is possible. The Israeli government has done the same thing that the Bush Administration is trying to do – mystify the conflict, to depoliticize it so that there’s no solution – the problem is them. [Applause.] And if the problem is them, then of course to put it in very harsh terms then of course the only solution is the Final Solution. [Emphasis added.]

The media of course has the right to print (or not to print) whatever it chooses. In this case, the publisher of the Australian Jewish News exercised his right not to accept an advertisement for a newspaper whose readership is made up largely of Holocaust survivors and their descendants who would find Halper's lies, misrepresentations and false connection of Israel with Nazism as totally repugnant.

Naturally, Loewenstein who has lately thrown in his lot with the Holocaust minimisers wouldn't understand this. His hypocrisy in censoring views presented as comment on his own website and then criticising others for it is breathtaking and demonstrates why he has become an object of disdain among the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community. Even some of his former friends who signed onto his IAJV statement think he's a lost cause.

As for Crikey, the joke's on you blokes. By selecting Loewenstein, you ensured that any opposing view on the matter would be ... well, er censored.

Time to invoke Shylock in defence of Israel

Eric Lee is the editor of LabourStart. His brilliant piece - Time to invoke Shylock in defence of Israel can be found in the Jewish Chronicle and is recommended reading at a time when the likes of Israel bashing propagandists such as Jeff Halper tour this country with agendas that even include helping the most rabid members of his pro Palestinian audiences avoid being labelled antiSemites by toning down their racist language while keeping to the same dreadful message of hatred.

The questioner will speak softly. Their face will show real concern, even pain. And what you 'll hear is not an accusation, but a real question, because the person is genuinely confused.

They will say something like this: I've been watching the scenes from Gaza on TV. I 've seen small children standing in front of the ruins of their homes. I 've seen parents weeping over the loss of their children. And I cannot understand how you can see all this and still support Israel.

Obviously when these words come from some propagandist for Hamas they are designed to deceive. But sometimes its a genuine question and deserves a fair answer. When it happens, I find the whole room full of people disappears before my eyes and I focus directly on the person who spoke.

I pause for a moment, not for effect, but to think through what is probably the most important answer I will have to give in an evening full of difficult questions and more difficult answers.

What I need to explain to this person is not so much the tactics and strategy of the Israeli army, or the history of the conflict — I have other chances to do this — but something far more difficult, something that is at the heart of the problem. I need to convince them, first and foremost, that we Jews are actually human.

Eric Lee shows how.

Failed bridge builder

Philip Mendes tells on the ABC site of his attempts to build bridges and how doctrinaire anti Zionists whose aim is to put an end to the Jewish State rather than achieve peace frustrated those efforts - Failed bridge building

Mendes' story is yet another instance of why the words "peace activist" simply do not apply to the likes of John Docker, Ned Curthoys and visiting anti Israel hatemonger Jeff Halper.

What it's all about

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit clearly demonstrates that it's not only Israel and some western countries that concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions - Egypt FM: Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran cooperate to provoke conflict.

HAMAS WINDFALL (AND THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE TO SAY THANKS)

Dr. writes in the Huffington Post that the bail out by world donors by giving $5.2 billion in aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) will "do little to bring real change in the condition of the Palestinian refugees or security in the Middle East. Instead of rebuilding the 'shelters' in the refugee camps as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has done for decades, this huge sum of money should go to build new communities, industry and a civilian infrastructure for a viable Palestinian state," - Misery Pays

FAY"S MORAL CONFUSION

Yesterday's Age carried a letter written by Fay Waddington agreeing with calls for a boycott of Israel

A moral platform

WHAT a great story about our Prime Minister's activist nephew and his artwork condemning Veolia for its involvement in building a light rail system in Jerusalem (The Sunday Age, 8/3).

He is certainly on the right track, if you pardon the pun. That company has already lost a large contract in Sweden due to public outcry over the same issue. May it be the first of many.

There is a growing worldwide campaign to boycott, divest and sanction any individual or company that deals with Israel while it continues to build on land stolen from Palestinians. Get on board.

Fay Waddington, Wooloowin, Qld

This immoral letter (replete with the usual tripe about "land stolen from Palestinians" received this excellent response in today's edition:

It should not be a difficult choice at all

SADLY one is no longer shocked by anti-Israel statements and actions or demands, such as that of Fay Waddington's for a campaign of boycotts and sanctions again Israel (Letters, 9/3). Anti-Zionism has become so widespread and politically correct and it is often so divorced from political and historic reality that one suspects that it masks even more dangerous and more ancient hatreds.

Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East. If Waddington wishes to sheet home blame for the recent conflict in Gaza, she would be better to direct her ire towards Hamas, a violent terrorist organisation that has made no secret of its commitment to destroy Israel.

So we have to ask, should we boycott Israel, a legitimate democratic state, in favour of a Taliban-style terrorist organisation? One would hope that the answer is obvious.

Dr Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills

GEORGE GALLOWAY STONED

Everybody must get stoned. So goes the song and art imitated life this week when a caravan of antisemites including British MP George Galloway Jew hating Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley went through El-Arish, a small town around 28 miles from the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, they got the treatment from the locals - GEORGE GALLOWAY STONED IN EGYPT.

"It's an absolute disgrace," Ridley complained. She who has no problem when her friends in Palestine throw rocks and stones at Jews.

"Vandals also wrote dirty words and anti-Hamas slogans. Several people in the convoy were injured in the attack."

Fancy that, "anti-Hamas slogans". Slogans against a movement that openly advocates genocide against the Jewish people.

"The trip also ran into controversy when it was disclosed last month that three men, who police sources alleged were preparing to use the convoy as cover to leave the country and carry out terror attacks abroad, were arrested by police."

No surprise there.

Of course, the Egyptian border crossing to which this convoy was headed is closed most of the time but one wonders why Hamas and friends don't fire rockets in the direction of Egyptian towns as it does to the Iraelis.

The answer is that like the fuglies in the convoy, they're a bunch of common garden variety racists.

NEW CRIMES

In January, Jew haters were permitted to freely march through Melbourne's streets bearing banners with swastickas and chanting "gas the Jews" in front of snoozing cops and a media which, like Sargeant Schulz, knew nothing and reported nothing about them.

The scene was duplicated in cities around the western world where rampaging mobs damaged property and intimidated bystanders ostensibly in the cause of peace but in reality in support of a Hamas which bit off more than it could chew by taking on the Israelis. The baying crowds cared naught for the fact that their demonstration was in aid of a fascist bunch of thugs and that the "facts" used to support their attacks on the Jewish state were nothing more than propaganda and outright lies spread by loyal and obedient Palestinian "reporters", many in the employ of Hamas, aided and abetted by sympathetic UN apparatchiks whose dissembling in favour of terrorists who used innocent Gazans as human shields was nothing short of shameful.

Will the world now put an end to this farce and take steps to put an end to the one of its oldest and most destructive hatreds? Not if the build up to Durban II with its antisemitic first draft is any indication and certainly not if the UN moves to single out as criminal the criticism of Muslims are ratified.

I commend the following for reading on these two subjects which might appear unrelated but are, in fact, part of the same problem:

ANTI-SEMITISM IS NOW A CREATURE OF THE LEFT

PUSH TO CRIMINALISE CRITICISM OF ISLAM

MONEY FOR GAZA

Yaakov Kirschen of Dry Bones has nailed it with this masterpiece "MONEY FOR GAZA".

I suspect however, that the donors know what they're doing and where their money is going and people who should know agree that there is no way to be certain that aid is being used as intended.

"Please write this: no one can give donors that assurance. Why? Because the system is in a state of total disrepair." - Palestinian minister admits aid millions lost.

These are the words of Fatah's Salam Fayyad, Palestine Authority PM who has just resigned in order to appease Hamas.

THE SCIENCE OF POGROMS

The Palestinian propaganda machine has infiltrated many well meaning organisations that once served useful purposes but are swiftly becoming meaningless. Its takeover of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International has turned each of these former human rights organisations into a sham. We know now of the farces called Durban I and Durban II that were supposed to deal with the serious problem of racism the world over and which became a vehicle to single out one people and to hide abuses the world over.

The machine has also taken over and smothered scientific organisations and is using them to spread lies against Israel's defensive war against terror. Melanie Phillips explains how in Science Pogrom Week.

Of course, the Melbourne Age couldn't resist helping cause with a story on claims in Lancet that Palestinian kids are suffering because of the actions of the Israelis. Never mind the fact that under the Israeli occupation, infant mortality rates improved and that the real problems started when Arafat unleashed an intifada in response to Israeli efforts to end the said occupation and never mind that Hamas uses these children as human shields while carrying out terrorist activities including attacks on Israeli schools and kindergartens.

Naturally, there are no concerns from the Age or Lancet about those children who have been traumatised for years by indiscriminate rocket fire from Palestinian terrorists.

THE BLUR OF SLOGANS

The narrative of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours has, in recent years, been hijacked by evil people who distort events and facts and seek to paint the Jewish State as some sort of monster "apartheid state".

When next you hear or read of such accusations, think of this piece from an Israeli Arab, Ishmael Khaldi, who is deputy consul general of Israel for the Pacific Northwest - LOST IN THE BLUR OF SLOGANS.

The writer responds to those who use the emotion charged word "Apartheid" in connection with Israel -

* You are part of the problem, not part of the solution

* You deny Israel the fundamental right of every society to defend itself

* Your criticism is willfully hypocritical

* You are betraying the moderate Muslims and Jews who are working to achieve peace.

Naturally, the apartheid narrative completely ignores the racism of Israel's neighbourning states and the Palestine Authority but you can't expect much from hypocrites who find themselves lost in the blur of their own rhetoric and who need to hide their ignorance behind pitiful slogans.

IDIOT OF THE WEEK

A letter in the Australian Newspaper from Judy Bamberger of O'Connor, ACT

I HAVE just returned from three fabulous weeks training and consulting in Pakistan. I was welcomed and embraced by all, looked after and treated royally my entire visit.

It’s the Pakistani people who suffer most from these horrific attacks. They die; they’re wounded. They lose face internationally. Our governments encourage us to be afraid and “reconsider travel”; we stay away, hurting Pakistan’s economy. We lose an opportunity to dispel myths and fears—our own, theirs. And we let the criminal, fanatical lunatics win.

I return to Pakistan for work in several months. I look forward to it with all my heart.

Judy Bamberger
O’Connor, ACT

This is a familiar story from a signatory to the declaration of Independent Australian Jewish Voices only this time the background scenery is different. This from one who has written many letters in past years in various Australian newspapers about the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours and who always focuses on perceived wrongs by the Israelis and routinely ignores crimes against humanity committed by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists against their own people and against Israelis. Who, in respect of that conflict, is happy to let the criminal, fanatical lunatics win.

WE NEED TO TALK TO THEM

Just as soon as we discover the identity of those behind the slaughter in Lahore, we need to have a dialogue with them.

We need to discover the root causes of their grievances and we need to do something to alleviate them so that we can understand why they wanted to murder the entire Sri Lankan cricket team.

We have to shower them with money. Billions of dollars to convince them not to attack innocent sportspersons or tourists or, in the case of Mumbai, a Jew or two.

We need to talk to them.

DURBAN'S END

The Obama administration has decided not to attend the Durban Review Conference (aka antiJewish hatefest) scheduled to open in Geneva on April 21.

Gerald Steinberg who is executive director of NGO Monitor and chairs the Political Science Department at Bar-Ilan University argues that this is a "very significant step toward ending the obsessive 'soft-power attacks' against Israel and restoring the moral foundations of human rights." - The limits of engagement.

The Americans clearly understand that non-participation in this useless programme which has been hijacked by the racists themselves, is the "only moral option".

It is to be hoped that Australia and freedom loving nations around the world follow suit.

THE NECESSARY WAR AGAINST HAMAS

The revered Israeli author A.B Yehoshua has been a leading voice for over 25 years in Israel's 'Peace Now' movement, and the Israeli centre-left. He is admired internationally for expressing the 'conscience' of Israel, together with Amos Oz and David Grossman. His views on Israel's war against Hamas are of high interest and here is what he said in an interview published in the Jerusalem Report magazine on 16 February 2009 (see www.jrep.com) - [thanks to Beyond Images]

In the interview he criticises Israel for using excessive firepower. But he also says the following:

On the moral responsibility to defend Israeli citizens ...

This war was necessary. A million Israeli people can't be under the constant threat of rocket fire. It was a type of insanity, an impossible situation that was paralysing Israel. I believe any other country would have acted the same way we did out of a moral responsibility to defend its people from rocket fire...

On Hamas sabotage of the opportunity presented by Israel's pullout from Gaza ...

When Israel left Gaza in 2005, the Palestinians could have built, developed, and lived in peace. Then Israelis might have said "It's worth leaving Judea and Samaria ['the West Bank'] even without an agreement if this is the scenario we can expect". But what did Hamas do? With their rocket fire, they sabotaged everything for their brothers in the West Bank...

On Hamas torpedoing Israeli territorial withdrawals from the West Bank ...

Hamas have torpedoed peace. Hamas has caused Israelis to think two or three times about returning the West Bank...