EVEN THE BRITISH

When noted Israel basher Richard Falk was appointed UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories we all knew what sort of quality to expect from this man's work. Last month, Falk predictably reported that there was "reason" to conclude that Israel's massive military offensive on Gaza in December and January was a "war crime".

Now, even the British, who have been critical of Israel over its defence of its people targetted by the constant barrage of Palestinian rockets fired for years, has criticised Falk's report as "unbalanced" - Britain raps 'unbalanced' UN rights Gaza report.

In the English language, the use of the word "unbalanced" in criticising such a report means they think it's a pack of lies.

Which it is.

ISRAEL AT SIXTY-ONE

Israel celebrates its 61st Anniversary today. Every day of its existence it has lived under threat of annihilation from its neighbours and, despite being involved in what is called a "peace process" with the Palestinians the threats continue from the axis of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas and other terrorist organisations.

Today's Age explains that even Israel's so called "peace partner", the Palestine Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas refuses to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Abbas is even described as being "defiant" on that issue despite the fact that the United Nations voted in November 1947 to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State - PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT DEFIANT ON JEWISH STATE.

Moreover, as Palestine Media Watch notes, Abbas' pronouncement is more cynical than a mere act of defiance:-

"I say this clearly: I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will," he said at a preliminary conference of the Palestinian Youth Parliament in Ramallah.

At the end of the conference, Abbas was presented with a large framed map of "Palestine," covering the entire area of Israel.

Further, Abbas' Palestine Authority wants his Palestinian State to be cleared of Jews and has made it a criminal offence punishable by death for a Palestinian to sell land to Jews - PALESTINIAN FACES DEATH FOR SELLING LAND TO ISRAEL (and don't hold your breath waiting for the Age to report on this or any of the myriad of instances of PA racism and anti-Jewish sentiment within its own media).

All of this is material that should have been of interest if Durban 2 was an anti-racist conference as it purported to be but we know the truth about that, don't we?

YOM HAZIKARON

Today Israel remembers its fall - those who number in excess of 20,000 and who lost their lives in defence of the Jewish State and who were victims of terror.

Rain on a Battlefield by Yehuda Amichai

It rains on my friends' faces,
On my live friends' faces
Those who cover their heads with a blanket
And it rains on my dead friends' faces,
Those who are covered by nothing.

SLAUGHTER IN YAWN SRI LANKA

I was watching the news on BBC World at the weekend and noticed that Associated Press was reporting that the United Nations is saying that nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed 14,000 wounded over the course of the past 3 and a half months of fighting.

That exceeds the number of Palestinians, mostly armed fighters, killed in almost nine years since Arafat decided to walk away from Israel's offer of peace at Camp David in 2000 and chose armed attacks against the Jewish State and its own civilian population.

Has anyone heard from the remainder of the crew at Durban 2 as to what is being done to prevent the slaughter in Sri Lanka?

MORE FROM THE GAZA GHETTO

Another scene of suffering in Gaza thanks to Free Gaza

Same story, different perspective

There's such a thing as the rule of law in civilised communities where a person is considered innocent until proven guilty.

Here's the same story but with very different perspectives about the Gaza War taken by two different newspapers:

ISRAELI FORCES 'CAN'T CLEAR THEMSELVES'

GAZA CIVILIAN DEATHS MISHAPS: MAJOR-GENERAL DAN HAREL

It's not hard to see which newspaper lines up with civilised society and which is a cheerleader for the barbarians.

JEWS FIGHT BACK

Zvika Krieger reports that in the New Republic that Jewish and Pro-Israel groups have turned the tables on the haters and their visible presence in Geneva for Durban 2 is having an effect - Durban II Dispatch: Spoiling For a Fight This conference was supposed to be filled with anti-Semites. What happened?

To be sure, Ahmedinjejad's speech yesterday was filled with anti-Israel bile, and the Arab delegates have spent the past few hours using their seven allotted minutes at the podium in the Assembly Hall (where I am sitting right now) to lambaste the Jewish state. But unlike the accounts I've read of Durban I, where the entire conference seemed united in their hatred of Israel, I have yet to really see any anti-Israel protesters other than at a few sporadic outbreaks, or even much anti-Israel literature or posters--and definitely nothing even close to what was distributed at the 2001 conference. Any time I've seen an Arab or Iranian NGO giving an interview to the media, a group of Jews is waiting eagerly nearby to respond.

So the anti-Semites are still out there but Jews and their friends are now fighting back.

Recalling Auschwitz not enough to control Iran

This editorial from the San Francisco Examiner says it all - Recalling Auschwitz not enough to control Iran

This is not the first time the U.N., which was created to foster international law, human rights and world peace, has failed to live up to its main mission. Since Hitler's day, millions of people have been starved or slaughtered in Bosnia, Cambodia, China, Darfur, North Korea, Rwanda and other places. Yet, the U.N. is more likely to condemn military action taken to prevent or stop genocide than to actually confront blood-thirsty tyrants like Ahmadinejad who publicly threaten to unleash it.

When a member state announces plans to annihilate its neighbor, there can be only one correct response from the U.N.: total shunning by the entire international community, including ironclad economic sanctions, quickly followed by joint military action to shut down the rogue's war-making capability if necessary.

Until that happens, the U.N. will continue to be nothing more than a weak and ineffectual international body of all talk and no real action, which the current and future Hitlers of the world will be all too happy to ignore.

WHITE PHOSPHORUS AND THE AGE GOES MIA

The Jerusalem Post reports on the conclusions of the IDF Cast Lead investigation into the conduct of its soldiers during the Gaza War - IDF Cast Lead probe: White phosphorus was used legally

The IDF operated in the Gaza Strip in accordance with international law and succeeded in maintaining a high level of professionalism and morals even though it fought against an enemy that cynically uses civilians as human shields, Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel said Wednesday as the IDF publicized findings from five different probes into accusations that were raised during January's Operation Cast Lead.

An on the IDF's use of white phosphorus which became a matter of some controversy in certain circles:-

Regarding the IDF's use of white phosphorus during the operation, which drew international condemnations and accusations that Israel was perpetrating war crimes, the probe into the use of the weaponry discovered that in all cases it was used in accordance of international law. The weapon, the probe discovered, was used as a mortar shell fired by mortar squads as well as by the Navy which fired a 76 mm cannon which every few rounds also fires a white-phosphorus shell so the Navy can track where it is targeting.

In addition, the IDF fired some 3,000 155 mm artillery shells - that looked like exploding octopuses in the air - that are not white-phosphorus weapons and are used strictly in order to create smokescreens for troop movements on the ground.

The probe, conducted by artillery officer Col. Shai Alkilai, revealed that white phosphorus weapons were used strictly in open fields and not in urban centers. The weapon was also not used against terrorists in the fields but for marking and ranging when the forces tried to target Kassam rocket cells operating in the open fields.

The IDF said it knew of only one case when white phosphorus was used in its burn capacity. That incident also took place in an open field and was done in order to burn away shrubbery and uncover tunnel openings in the area. The IDF said that the use of the weapon in that incident was also done in line with international regulations.

While the IDF was not required to, on January 7, the General Staff decided to stop using white phosphorus, Alkali discovered three cases of forces that continued to use the weapon despite the order. The probe revealed that that the use of the weapon after January 7 was since the forces had yet to receive the new directive and that once they did use of the weapon was halted.

And you may ask where is the Age which highlighted several misinformed reports from Arab lobbyists criticising the use of the weapon and charging that Israel was guilty of crimes of humanity based on those lies?

Missing in action!

CARLILL VS RUNDLE ON AHMADINEJAD

Carlill vs Rundle: Ahmadinejad, Palestine and Israel
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Policy Analyst Bren Carlill writes:

It must be frustrating to be Guy Rundle. Imagine having such erudite analytical skills, but finding that the only person of influence who actually agrees with you is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a crackpot political leader who threw a note down a well (where his messiah is hiding), telling him to hurry the hell up and kill those pesky Jews.

Imagine knowing, as Rundle apparently does and somehow the rest of us don’t, that Israeli settlements are actually preventing Palestinian procreation! After citing a definition of genocide that read, "the attempt to destroy the capacity of a people to reproduce itself as a distinct entity," he claimed Israel’s settlement policy "has been a pretty good go at that."

Oh! I get it! (Blush!) He’s not talking about the capacity of Palestinians to reproduce (because that would be stupid, since they’re reproducing faster than Israelis, and faster than the surrounding -- non-occupied -- Arab populations. Indeed, it seems Israeli occupation has been a boon for Palestinian reproductive systems), but rather of their capacity to reproduce as a distinct entity.

Let’s analyse that, shall we? Are we talking about statehood? Palestinians ain’t never had a state. Not in antiquity. Not when the Turks owned what Palestinians (and Rundle) call their land (from 1516). Not when the British controlled that land (from 1916). Not when Egypt, Israel and Jordan shared that land between them (funny that there were no UN resolutions condemning Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem...), and not, since 1967, when Israel took over the job itself. You can’t reproduce something that was never produced in the first place, Mr Rundle.

Maybe he doesn’t mean statehood, but, rather, national identity? Is Rundle suggesting that Israel is genociding the Palestinians by not allowing their identity to continue? Seriously?! Does he truly believe that Palestinian identity is in danger of disappearing? The Palestinians are one of the best known identities in the world! The Palestinians have entire wings of the UN dedicated to their identity -- the only people group in the world to have that privilege. Ask the Sahrawi, long stateless and under foreign occupation, what they think about that. Oh! Never heard of them? What about the Arabs of Khuzestan? How are their attempts at national identity reproduction going? Frankly, there’s a lot of truth in the argument that if it weren’t for the fact that they’re in conflict with the Jews, no one would have even heard of the Palestinians.

Somehow Mr Rundle believes the settlements are the fault of all this (well, I’m still unsure of the fault of what, but never mind). If settlements are to blame for whatever they are to blame for, how does Rundle begin to explain away the fact that successive Israeli offers to the Palestinians (all rejected without counter-offer) have been of more and more West Bank land. It pretty much destroys the argument that Israeli "settlement expansion" is preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. What’s really preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian state is a mixture of Palestinian rejectionism, Palestinian corruption and Palestinian incompetence.

Rundle’s spray was problematic in many other areas, and space precludes me from fully debunking it (which is a shame, because doing so would be both cathartic and as easy as shooting fish in a barrel).

One more example will have to suffice. Rundle cited Ahmadinejad describing the US invasion of Iraq as racist (with which Rundle agreed). But he chose to ignore Ahmadinejad saying it was the Jews that caused America to start the war. That’s good, honest analysis you’ve got going there, Mr Rundle!

Since I’ve no idea whether or not Rundle would agree with such a racist argument, it’s worth pointing out that anyone with even the slightest knowledge of international affairs should know that pre-2003, Iraq was militarily weak, contained and stable -- meaning it was no threat whatsoever to Israel. Invading Iraq was always going to (and did) produce dangerous destabilisation, an unknown Iraqi future, and open the door to increasing Iranian regional hegemony, which would (and did) increase threats against Israel. That is why senior Israeli figures, from the prime minister down, actually advised America against entering Iraq, to no avail.

But to get to the heart of the matter; the diplomats that walked out during Ahmadinejad’s speech did not do so out of subservience to the Elders of Zion. They did so because they were participating in an anti-racist forum. To listen to someone a) being racist himself and b) hypocritically singling out one country while ignoring racism around the world (I bring to your attention Iran’s treatment of its own Khuzestani Arabs) not only goes against the point of the forum, but actually helps racists, by shielding them from scrutiny.

If Israel has racist individuals, groups or policies, these can and should be investigated. But if you (and here I mean Ahmadinejad, Rundle and a few others) only or disproportionately investigate Israel’s alleged racism while ignoring that of others, you are guilty of using double standards. Using double standards is hypocritical and, when applied to ethnic groups, racist.

CRICKEY ... GUY RUNDLE BLOWS A FUSE

Guy Rundle has written to Crikey from Berlin where, judging from his nasty piece of fantasy entitled Rundle: walking out on Ahmadinejad highlights West's hypocrisy (no link available at present) he has been celebrating the late Fuehrer's 120th birthday.

Here is a selection of his foan at the mouth rant on Ahmadinejad's keynote speech to the converted and semi-converted at Durban 2:

Well score another PR win for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in pursuit of his principal aim -- shoring up his domestic political base by keeping Iran's international relations in a state of permanent crisis.

His speech to the Durban II Conference -- already depleted by half a dozen boycotts -- had them running for the exits faster than the "The Australian Film Finance Corporation Presents" slide. The Czech Republic, that whacko group of climate change deniers and eurosceptics (or was that the last Czech govt?), isn't coming back at all, after Ahme... MA's racist, hate-filled tirade against Israel in the first session. The others who walked out include most of Europe, plus St Kitts and Nevis, who must have presumed it was something about whaling they'd been bribed to vote against.

Writing about Britain and the US:

Following World War Two, they resorted to making an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish suffering. They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. In compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive, r-cist regime in Palestine.

Well not initially. In fact the UK tried to stop Jewish immigration to the Mandate, which prompted a brutal guerrilla campaign against them, which persuaded them they were better off without the place. After that, fairly true -- Truman unilaterally recognised Israel once the uprising had hit its straps. No-one can look at the mass murder of Palestinians in 1948 and conclude it was anything other than cruel and racist:

It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defending those racist perpetrators of genocide, whilst the awakened consciences and free-minded people of the world condemn aggression, brutality and the bombardment of civilians of Gaza.

Genocide? Well according to the Raoul Lemkin definition of genocide as adopted by the UN, the term includes the attempt to destroy the capacity of a people to reproduce itself as a distinct entity, and you'd have to say the settlements policy has been a pretty good go at that:

On the Zionists:

Today, the human community is facing a kind of racism which has tarnished the image of humanity. In the beginning of the third millennium, the word Zionism personifies racism, that falsely resorts to religion and abuses religious sentiments to hide hatred.

Whether or not it was racist to begin with, one can't really deny that Zionism as is has given a license to dehumanise the Palestinian population -- actually, it's the kind of opinion you'd see in Haaretz on a fairly regular basis.

Now he admits that he's suffering paranoia while sitting in Adolph's bunker over there in Berlin:

Efforts must be made to put an end to the abuse by Zionists and their supporters of political and international means ... Governments must be encouraged and supported in the fight aimed at eradicating this barbaric racism and moving towards reforming the current international mechanisms.

You are all aware of the conspiracy of some powers and Zionist circles against the goals and objectives of this conference ... It should be recognised that boycotting such a session is a true indication of supporting the blatant example of racism.

God, you can see the diplomats thinking, as if anyone's going to believe the Zionists run everything! They'd never fall for that. So it won't be a problem if we stage a mass walk-out, on behalf of a country we don't represent. We're fighting racism after all, in the name of liberal human rights, like free speech -- so let's make it clear that the one thing that can't be discussed in unauthorised terms is Zionism and Israel.

It doesn't get any better after that but the man gets so delerious that it's a waste of time repeating the drivel about blood and matzohs and the like. I won't even waste any more space on this idiot other than to say that someone else has hit it on the head and I'll leave it to him.

WHOSE HOLOCAUST?

A campaign of incitement against Israel and the Jewish people is being waged not only in Switzerland where the Durban 2 hatefest continues despite the appearance on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day of Iran's President Ahmadinejad who delivered the keynote speech and called for the destruction of Israel but in the media as well.

Not surprisingly, the campaign is also being fought in the media and Fairfax is at the forefront of the battle. Yesterday, I noted the Sydney Morning Herald and its appeasement editorial - A WORLD IN SHAME.

The Age is tagging along with the publication today of no less than three letters containing outright lies inciting hatred against the Jewish State. These include false accusations that Israel practices apartheid and the now fashionable (among Israeli bashers) odious comparisons with the Nazi regime.

That's strange because democratic Israel gives equal rights to its minorities, all citizens can vote and there are Arabs and Jews in its Knesset which has included Arab government ministers in the past. Successive Israeli governments, including the current government of Benjamin Netanyahu have confirmed their preparedness to accept the principle of two states for two peoples. On the other hand, the Palestinians are governed by Hamas in Gaza - an organisation dedicated to the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel and by the PA in the West Bank which doesn't say it wants to murder Jews, only that its land be "judenrein" and refuses to accept Israel as a state for the Jewish people.

Today's we notice a new phenomenon among Israel bashing letter writers. They are careful to dissasociate themselves from Ahmedinejad and his Holocaust denial but, having done that, they simply repeat the lies and the vile accusations.

Yesterday, there were two letters supporting Israel published in the print edition but they mysteriously failed to materialize in its on line letters. No surprise - it is presumed that they were simply consigned to the blank pages by members of the pro Arab lobby that float around the place occasionally managing to embed the odd Michael Backman piece and ensuring that stories about this never get to see the light of day in their newspaper.

Now just to show the difference between life under real Nazis and life in Gaza, I've reproduced two photographs above. One is from a collection of photographs on the Free Gaza site showing a member of that organisation checking out supplies in a local store in Gaza. The other is of real victims of the Nazis marching to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Can you tell the difference?

The Age can't!

WHO REMAINED SEATED?

Delegates walking out on Ahmedinejad during the Durban 2 racist festival.

Shame on those who remained seated.

A WORLD IN SHAME

Shame that only 10 of the worlds nations have boycotted the United Nation's celebratins of Hitler's 120th Birthday - WALKOUT AT IRAN LEADER'S ANTI-ISRAEL TIRADE.

BUT WHILE THE SPEECH FROM THE IRANIAN LEADER, WHO HAS ALSO DESCRIBED THE NAZI HOLOCAUST AS A "MYTH", WAS SHUNNED BY WESTERN POWERS, OTHER DELEGATES STAYED TO HEAR HIM SPEAK, SOME GREETING HIS WORDS WITH APPLAUSE.

And shame on the Fairfax Sydney Morning Herald for today's nasty, horrible NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN APPEASEMENT EDITORIAL.

Much of the campaign by Israel and Jewish diaspora groups against the Durban Review has been jumping at the shadows of what might happen.

The author of this disgusting piece now has egg on his face because Ahmedinejad just jumped out of the shadows to blow the white paper of inhumanity out of the hands of the appeasers and leaving the floor in a state of surrender to the world's racists.

Human rights abuses in Libya, anyone?

HITLER'S BIRTHDAY BASH

Had he survived until today Adolph Hitler (pictured above with a friend) would have been celebrating his 120th birthday.

One of Hitler's legacies was that the United Nations was formed in order to help prevent the terrible atrocities of the Nazis from occurring again.

Sadly, the worm has turned and, despite the principled boycotts of several Western Nations including Australia, Durban 2 starts today attended by a bloc of countries that have subscribed to a model that promotes racism rather than prevents it.

Today is also Yom Hashoach when we remember the Holocaust.

We live in strange times.

AUSTRALIA TO BOYCOTT RACIST CONFERENCE

Associated Press reports that Australia will not take part in a controversial United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva this week.

AUSTRALIA TO BOYCOTT UN ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE

Canada, Israel, Italy and the United States have also indicated that they will not participate.

BAYEFSKY STATEMENT AT PREPARATORY MEETING OF DURBAN REVIEW CONFERENCE

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/04/bayefsky-statement-at-preparatory.html

April 17, 2009 United Nations, Palais des Nations, GENEVA, Switzerland

The eyes of millions of victims of racism, xenophobia and intolerance are upon YOU, the representatives of states and the United Nations. And instead of hope you have given them despair. Instead of truth you have handed them diplomatic double-talk. Instead of combating antisemitism you have handed them a reason for Jews to fear UN-driven hatemongering on a global scale.

The Durban conference – allegedly dedicated to combating racism, antisemitism and other forms of intolerance – will open April 20th on the anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler without agreement on even so much as remembering the Holocaust and the war against the Jews. Your draft words on the Holocaust – the very foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – have been narrowed to the barest mention from previous versions. And if the minor reference survives at all – it will be a testament to your interest in Jews that died 60 years ago, while tolerating and encouraging the murder of Jews in the here and now.

Furthermore, the draft before you demonizes the Jewish state of Israel and then has the audacity to pretend to care about antisemitism in a single word buried among 17 pages. Antisemitism means discrimination against the Jewish people. Since it is evident that almost none of you have the courage to say it, the face of modern antisemitism IS the UN – your – discrimination against Israel, the embodiment of the Jewish people's right to self-determination.

Over and over again we have heard a massive misinformation campaign about the content of these proceedings and the draft before you. We have heard the tale that this draft does not single out Israel, that the hate has been removed, that the fault of the antisemitism at Durban I was that of NGOs while states and the UN were blameless.

Perhaps you think that journalists and victims will not bother to read for themselves the Durban Declaration adopted by some governments. There is only one state mentioned in it – Israel. There is only one state associated with racist practices in it – Israel. And yet the very first thing that this draft before you does is to reaffirm that abomination, abomination for Jews and Arabs living in Israel's free and democratic society, and for all the victims of racism ignored therein. Lawyers call it incorporation by reference when they hope nobody reads the small print. The propaganda stops here. We have read it. We understand the game. And we decry the ugly effort to repeat the Durban agenda to isolate and defeat Israel politically, as every effort to do so militarily for decades has failed.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chair of this Preparatory Committee also told us this week that the Durban Declaration in all its aspects is a consensus text. Perhaps they are unfamiliar with the Canadian reservations made in Durban in 2001 which state categorically that the Middle East language was outside the conference's jurisdiction and not agreed. Perhaps they failed to notice that one of the world's greatest democracies, the United States, voted with its feet and walked out of the Durban I hatefest? The Durban Declaration has never represented a global consensus among free and democratic nations. When the head of the Islamic conference treats Durban as a bible, in their words, it is more accurately a defamation of religions.

This week you decided which states ought to serve in a leadership role at next week's conference. Among them are some of the world's leading practitioners of racism, not those interested in ending it. You have also decided to hand a global megaphone to the President of a state which advocates genocide and denies the Holocaust.

So in a state of shock and dismay we address ourselves not to the human rights abusers that glorify the Durban Declaration or its next incarnation, but to democracies -- and we ask: Will Germany sit on Hitler's birthday and listen to the speech of an advocate of genocide against the Jewish people and grant legitimacy to the forum which tolerates his presence? What about the United Kingdom, the birthplace of the Magna Carta? Or France that helped to ship last generation's Jews to crematoriums?

You could have fought racism. You chose instead to fight Jews. You could have promoted the universal standards against racism already in existence. You chose instead to diminish their importance in the name of alleged cultural preferences. You could have protected freedom of expression. You chose instead to undermine it by twisted concepts of incitement. You could have brought victims of racism together in a common cause. You chose instead to pit victims against each other in an ugly struggle for meagre recognition. For those democracies that remain under these circumstances you are ultimately responsible for what can only be called an appalling disservice to real victims of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance around the world.

Mugged by Leftist Anti-Semitism

Nick Cohen is not Jewish but has felt the scourge of anti-semitism. This form of anti-semitism is however, not the traditional form of racism by religious extremists and right wing fanatics. This is the insipid form of anti-semitism that comes from those who call themselves of the left but ... Mugged by Leftist Anti-Semitism.

To explain away a global phenomenon as a rational reaction to Israeli oppression, you have once again to turn the Jew into a supernatural figure whose existence is the cause of discontents throughout the earth. You have to revive anti-Semitism.

The alternative is to do what the left used to do. If you look at the list of late-20th-century leftist causes I have mentioned, you will see that the left, for all its faults and crimes, was against fascism. It used to know that the powerful used racism to distract the powerless, as they do to this day in Egypt, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, where the deployment of Jew hatred is positively tsarist. Although I know it's hard to credit, the left also used to know that the opponents of fascism, including the opponents of Saddam, had to be supported.

But the liberal left has been corrupted by defeat and doesn't know much about anything these days. Marxist-Leninism is so deep in the dustbin of history, it is composting, while social democracy is everywhere on the defensive. Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Christian fundamentalism are beating it in the struggle for working-class and peasant minds. An invigorated capitalism is threatening its European strongholds. There's an awful realisation that Tony Blair and Bill Clinton may be as good as it gets. The temptation in times of defeat is to believe in everything rather than nothing; to go along with whichever cause sounds radical, even if the radicalism on offer is the radicalism of the far right.

In 1878, George Eliot wrote that it was "difficult to find a form of bad reasoning about [Jews] which had not been heard in conversation or been admitted to the dignity of print". So it is again today. Outside the movies of Mel Gibson, Jews aren't Christ killers any longer, but they can't relax, because now they are Nazis, blood-soaked imperialists, the secret movers of neoconservatism, the root cause of every atrocity from 9/11 to 7/7.

It's not that the left as a whole is anti-Semitic, although there are racists who need confronting. Rather, it has been maddened by the direction history has taken. Deracinated and demoralised, its partisans aren't thinking hard enough about where they came from or - and more pertinently - where they are going.

PHOTO: A so-called "leftist" from Free Gaza examining the "concentration camp" at Gaza created by the nasty zionist entity or this is why those idiots are so delusional.

BBC - OUR MIDLE EAST EDITOR IS GUILTY

We've known for some time that Jeremy Bowen of the BBC is guilty of bias when it comes to the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours and now, even the BBC has pronounced him guilty.

According to Honest Reporting the "BBC Trust, which oversees complaints to the British state broadcaster, has ruled that Bowen's coverage of Israel in an article on the BBC's Web site and a radio broadcast was partially inaccurate and that aspects of the Internet article lacked impartiality."

In a piece Bowen wrote for the BBC website last June under the headline "Six days that changed the Middle East," about the Six Day War, which was criticized at the time by HonestReporting UK, Bowen referred to "Zionism's innate instinct to push out the frontier". He also wrote that Israel showed a "defiance of everyone's interpretation of international law except its own" and that its generals felt that they were dealing with "unfinished business", left over from the 1948 War of Independence. These references were deemed inaccurate or lacking impartiality by the BBC Trust:

"Readers might come away from the article thinking that the interpretation offered was the only sensible view of the war," it said. "It was not necessary for equal space to be given to the other arguments, but ... the existence of alternative theses should have been more clearly signposted."

The second finding related to a broadcast Bowen delivered on From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4 in January 2008, in which Bowen said the US government considered the Israeli town of Har Homa on the outskirts of Jerusalem as illegal.

The committee found the assertion was inadequately sourced: "The Middle East Editor had stated his professional view without qualification or explanation, and that the lack of precision in his language had rendered the statement inaccurate." It ruled the report had partially breached accuracy guidelines.

Bowen's position as BBC Middle East Editor is now completely untenable but is the BBC going to do anything about it?

Heavens no. Not even a rap over the knuckles.

That's a pity because if there were any ethics left in journalism Bowen would be looking for a new line of work. And based on the photograph of the man (see above), he would be eminently suited for a job as a used car salesperson.

HAMAS COMES OUT OF HIDING BUT ITS APOLOGIST DOESN'T ...

Fairfax journalist and recent author of a fluffy book on Hamas, Paul McGeogh had an OP Ed published in the New York Times this week on Hamas leader in exile Khalid Mishal - HAMAS COMES OUT OF HIDING. McGeogh and Mishal together make clear that Hamas has not changed its attitude towards the destruction of Israel or its own genocidal charter:

Pressed on policy changes that Hamas might make as a gesture to any new order, Mr. Mishal argued that the organization has already shifted on several key points: “Hamas has already changed — we accepted the national accords for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, and we took part in the 2006 Palestinian elections.”

On the crucial question of rewriting the Hamas charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, he was unbending: “Not a chance.” Khalid Mishal is not Yasir Arafat — he is not looking for a Nobel Peace Prize. Among the Hamas articles of faith is a belief that in renouncing violence and in recognizing Israel’s right to exist in 1993, Mr. Arafat sinned against his people.

McGeogh remains ever the apologist for this fascistic organisation and makes the extraordinary claim as a footnote to Mishal's very clear and concise comments:

(Nonetheless, others to whom he speaks have told me that Mr. Mishal has said that “when the time comes,” Hamas will make some of the moves demanded of it by the West.)

This is utter rubbish as Professor Shlomo Avineri pointed out in a letter to the editor of the NYT:

Op-Ed Contributor: Hamas Comes Out of Hiding (April 13, 2009)

In “Hamas Comes Out of Hiding” (Op-Ed, April 13), Paul McGeough writes that when he asked Khalid Mishal, the Hamas leader, if his organization would consider changing its charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction, Mr. Mishal answered, “Not a chance.”

What Mr. McGeough did not mention is that Hamas views all Jews, not just Israel or Zionism, as its enemies.

Its charter goes to some length to state that the Jews (together with the Masons) were responsible for the French and the Communist revolutions; that they instigated World War I to destroy the Ottoman caliphate; that they instigated World War II to make money out of commerce in war materials; that they control world finance and the media; and that they have established numerous secret organizations to achieve world domination.

Some of this is straight out of the anti-Semitic literature of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and some of it — especially the references to the two world wars — is the original contribution of Hamas ideologues.

No Western democracy would tolerate an organization with such views. These are the issues that have to be raised with Hamas leaders by anyone who cares for peace in the Middle East.

Shlomo Avineri
Jerusalem, April 13, 2009

CLOCKWORK GREEN

Some shocking vision of thugs at work in France:



Peaceful demonstrations are a thing of the past when it comes to supporting the Palestinian terror machine in its war against the Jews but what can one expect from hoodlums out to assist those who send rockets into kindergartens?

HALPER: THE LAST WORD

I commented recently on the storm in a teacup created by anti Israel war activist Jeff Halper whose visit was turned into a circus because his helpers followed the now well known formula of deliberately seeking publicity by daring Jewish community interests to shun their activities and then crying "foul".

How ironical of the Fairfax media to highlight Halper and friend's whining about his voice allegedly being stilled. This is the media outlet that somehow manages to refrain from reporting on the atrocities committed on a regular basis by Palestinian terror - like the axe murder of children, the use of mosques to store bombs, the firing of missiles into Israeli kindergartens and this. That sort of censorship seems to be permitted at Fairfax while, at the same time, it is a crime for a community to ignore the warped opinions of a man who is accused of lying to push his own political agenda.

I've come across an item by Bren Carlill on ABC Unleashed - From the ridiculous to the outrageous - which sums things up nicely:

First, a mainstream, pro-Israel Jewish organisation will go through statements previously made by the critic, and then, if they find faults, attack those arguments.

The Israel critic's defenders then jump up and down, claiming the Jewish community is attempting to stifle criticism of Israel. This very course of action has occurred during Halper's visit, played out on the pages of the Australian Jewish News, the Sydney Morning Herald and various angry blogs.

The claims of stifling criticism of Israel are both predictable and unfounded. Indeed, by attacking the arguments of Israel's critics, in this case Halper, the mainstream Jewish community is engaging in discussion, not stifling it. (And by not answering the Jewish community's criticisms, instead simply claiming to be the victim of a conspiracy against free speech, the Israel critic's defenders show the weakness of their central argument...)

To top it off, most of this is lost to the wider Australian community. All they see is a variant of Monty Python's Life of Brian - where members of the Judean People's Front have it out with the People's Front of Judea.

HEY MR. TALIBAN SING A SONG FOR ME

Today's Age reports on the death of a leading female Afghan politician who was shot dead after leaving a provincial council meeting in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan - TALIBAN MURDER WOMEN'S CHAMPION.

"The Taliban claimed responsibility," says Jon Boone of the Guardian reporting from Kabul.

The story is a tragic reminder of the struggle for women's rights not only in Afghanistan but in many parts of the world, particularly where Sharia Law applies.

Places such as Gaza where Hamas introduced Sharia Law in December, 2008 and where women are treated not dissimilarly to those under the Taliban. The only difference is that when a woman is harmed in Gaza for seeking to uphold her rights, it's unlikely that you'll find a report as damning as Boone's article is in the Age or any mention of it at all.

IN THE DARK?

The tiresome saga of Jeff Halper's travails during his visit to Australia continues with the Sydney Morning Herald's article by the man himself - Diaspora Jewry needs to let go of idealised Israel on Friday. The article was perfectly timed to co-incide with the Jewish Festival of Passover which ensured that the majority of the letters published the following day (all from known Israel baiting letter writers) would be supportive of Halper's cause.

Halper had sufficient publicity and ample opportunity to put forward his case during his sojourn here in March but he continues to play the victim and wails about the the cancellation of a scheduled appearance before a handful of members of one Sydney synagogue and the fact that the Australian Jewish News chose not to advertise an appearance by the veteran Israel basher who has been accused of being less than forthright in his hateful disclosures about the Jewish State.

Halper did manage to get a letter published in the AJN in which he moaned about his poor treatment but failed to state that the main case he is pushing is against the two state solution and therefore anti peace. Nor did he explain why his visit was sponsored by Hamas leaning organisations such as Australians for Palestine and the Loewenstein camp which wants to see an end to Israel as a Jewish State and its replacement with the one state solution - i.e. a prescription for genocide.

The most intriguing part of Halper's little diatribe against the Jewish community was this:

Why was I invited to speak in every university in eastern Australia, yet at Monash University I was forced to hold a secret meeting with Jewish faculty in a darkened room far from the halls of intellectual discourse?

Well, one obvious answer would be that, like the Gaza farce of a year ago when Hamas feigned power shortages and held meetings during broad daylight but with curtains drawn, they could have easily opened the blinds.

Or perhaps those members of Jewish faculty wanted to keep their donors in the dark as to their own act of appeasement with an enemy of the Jewish State?

GLORIFYING TRAITORS AND MURDERERS

The Age Insight section demonstrated yesterday exactly why this ailing newspaper is in trouble.

Rather than bring its readers some contemporary news on the Arab/Israel conflict, its editors have dredged up the tired and aged story about convicted Israeli traitor Mordechai Vanunu who, during the mid-1980s, revealed classified national secrets about his country's nuclear reactor at Dimona - A DEFIANT SPIRIT.

Naturally, in the true spirit of Faifax, Vanunu is painted as a hero in spite of the fact that his revelations resulted in the deaths of three and injuries to eight fellow workers ambushed and murdered in a PLO attack while travelling to work in 1988.

I guess the fact that Vanunu was responsible for the deaths of Israeli workers makes him a hero to those who control the content of the news stories from this region.

TIME FOR COMPROMISE?

Marty Peretz of THE NEW REPUBLIC blogs about US President Obama's comments on the necessity for "compromise" in order to put an end to the deadlock between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

When the tiresome peace processors speak of negotiations they almost always mean concessions by Israel: territorial concessions, concessions on Jerusalem, demographic concessions, symbolic concessions, economic concessions, security concessions, historic concessions, moral concessions, concessions to Palestinian pride and to Palestinian shame. There is no concession that Israel has not tried, in one way or another, to meet. And there are forces in Israel which think that too much has already been forfeited. Of course, Palestinian expectations rise with every concession from Israel.

And on compromise on the part of the Palestinians?

The question then is: what must the Palestinians give up to secure tangible possibilities for statehood?

Yes, I know that there is much that they must accomplish among their to really become a nation and have a history as a people. But, whether we gloat or weep about these deficiencies, that's not our business. There are plenty of states that rule over populations that are neither a nation nor a people. I suspect that the Palestinians won't be the last of this unfortunate formula.

But since President Obama has put the idea of reciprocity on the table he is morally obliged to begin to make a list. And so is George Mitchell and Tony Blair and the busily intrusive European Union. The idea that Israel will give up a series of strategic advantages for recognition of its flag is nonsense.

PASSOVER AND THE PARK HOTEL MASSACRE

Passover 2002

Thirty people were killed and 140 injured - 20 seriously - in a suicide bombing in the Park Hotel in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, in the midst of the Passover holiday seder with 250 guests. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

We remember.

MISLABELLING A SIGN OF HATRED

The Australian's Greg Sheridan makes a very forceful point in today's Australian - ISRAELI LEADERS MISLABELLED BY FOES.

OVER the next year or two, probably for as long as it stays in office, there will be a sustained effort to demonise the Israeli Government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The speech last week by Netanyahu's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in which he explicitly supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute but was reported as if he had said the opposite, is a case in point.

Many in the international press who have a deep seated hatred of Israel automatically resort to applying tags such as "extremist", right winger" and "hard line" when describing Israeli governments of the colour of that currently in power but then ignore the fascism and racism of democratically elected Hamas and the two faced corruption of Fatah which controls the Palestine Authority. These Palestinian parties are in fact far to the right of Liebermam's party (a member of the new Israeli governing coalition) or the Fairfax Press.

In this regard, the reporting in the Melbourne Age has been nothing short of appalling as it continues its campaign of vilifying Israel at almost every opportunity while blanking out any Palestinian sin. If there was any doubt that a Palestinian lobby operates within that newspaper to sow hatred of Israel and Jews then one needs to look no further than its disgraceful censorship of the news about the draconian behaviour of the Palestine Authority and its treatment of the conductor who arranged for her orchestra made up of Palestinian children to play music for Holocaust survivors in Israel.

As Y-Net News Op Ed contributors Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Dr. Harold Brackman so eloquently point out in THE REAL ROADBLOCKS TO PEACE:

As the international community draws up its list of demands for the Right-leaning Netanyahu government to prove "it’s serious about making peace," they should also give this one to PA President Abbas — "re-instate the Strings of Peace Orchestra." For the question of the fate of this ensemble will reveal more about the future of the Middle East than any speech or position paper.

...

Music’s potential as a universal healer is being played out, not only by Palestinian youngsters silenced in Jenin. Native American musician-composer Bill Miller is currently performing his Grammy Award-winning composition, “The Last Stand,” on tour with Israel’s Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra. The best first - and “last stand” - for true peace resides not in any grandiose road map or political photo-ops, but with people who truly seek coexistence and mutual respect. It is those still small voices that demand our protection and nurturing.

And it is those still small voices that the Age has, to its everlasting shame, completely ignored in its camaign of bloodlust against the Jewish State.

A PASSOVER STORY

This has been passed on to me.

Please enjoy!

My Seder With Brando by Louie Kemp

You might remember him as Don Vito Corleone, Stanley Kowalski or the eerie Col. Walter E. Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now,” but I remember Marlon Brando as a mensch and a personal friend of the Jewish people when they needed it most.

I got to know Marlon about 30 years ago through a mutual friend. His son, Christian, came to work for me in fisheries I owned in Alaska and Minnesota. Marlon impressed me as a dedicated parent. He would often call me up to check up on his boy with all the tenacity and loving concern of a Jewish mother: Was he eating enough? Did he get to work on time? Was he hanging out with the right people?

Christian was a great kid. He worked hard, had a good attitude and earned the respect of all his co-workers.

In the mid-1970s, when I would visit Los Angeles from my home in Minnesota, Marlon and I would get together. I was starting to become increasingly involved in my religion and he would tell me with great pride and satisfaction about his support for Israel even before it became a state. Marlon explained that in 1946, two years before Israel achieved statehood, he desperately believed that the survivors of the Holocaust deserved to have their own land where they could live free from oppression and the anti-Semitic tyranny of the outside world.

True to form, Marlon put his money where his mouth was and donated all of his proceeds from the play, “A Flag Is Born,” to the Irgun, a Zionist political group dedicated to rescuing European Jewry and the establishment of Israel as an independent sovereign nation. He continued his donations and charitable work over the entire two-year run of the play as it went from Broadway to touring destinations around the United States.

“A people that have fought so hard to survive need and deserve their own land,” he told me. “ I did all that I could and actively supported Israel’s statehood anyway I was able.”

Marlon also told me with great emotion that his success in theater and movies was largely due to the Jewish people in New York who befriended and taught him. He warmly mentioned Stella Adler, the legendary acting coach who both taught Marlon his craft and housed him with her family while he was getting on his feet as an actor. He was also especially proud of the fact that he could converse in Yiddish, having learned it while living with her family.

One of my visits to Los Angeles coincided with Passover. I was not yet Orthodox and made plans to attend a seder at a local synagogue with my sister. Marlon called me that very day and invited me out to dinner. I graciously declined, explaining that it was Passover and I was going to a seder. Marlon became audibly excited over the phone and said, “Passover — I’ve always wanted to attend a seder. Can I come with?” He had made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I told him it could be arranged and called the synagogue adding one more to our list.

A short time later, Marlon called me back and asked if he could bring a friend. I said, yes, by all means, never thinking to ask his friend’s name. I called the shul again. They were a little less patient this time and begrudgingly told me that they could squeeze one more person in, but this was absolutely the last one as they were now officially sold out.

Still later that day, I received a phone call from a childhood friend of mine who had become a well-known singer/songwriter. Being Jewish himself, and hearing I was going to a seder, he asked if he and his wife could go along. The shul was unhappy to receive my most recent request, but somehow I softened the heart of the receptionist and she agreed to let my people go — to the seder.

I will never forget the sight of our table in the synagogue, Marlon Brando was to my left and sitting next to him was his guest. This was during the height of Marlon’s involvement with Native American causes and he had brought with him noted Indian activist Dennis Banks of Wounded Knee fame. Banks was dressed in full Indian regalia: buckskin tassles on his clothes and long braids hanging down from a headband, which sported a feather. My childhood friend Bob Dylan sat to my right joined by his wife, my sister Sharon and other friends.

At first the seder progressed normally without anyone in the temple noticing anything out of the ordinary. After about 45 minutes, the rabbi figured out that ours was not your average seder table. “Mr. Brando, would you please do us the honor of reading the next passage from the haggadah,” he said. Marlon said, “It would be my pleasure.”

He smiled broadly, stood up and delivered the passage from the haggadah as if he were reading Shakespeare on Broadway. Mouths fell open and eyes focused on the speaker with an intensity any rabbi would covet. When he was done I think people actually paused, wondering if they should applaud.

Somewhat later the rabbi approached another member of our table.

“Mr. Dylan, would you do us the honor of singing us a song?” The rabbi pulled out an acoustic guitar. I thought he would politely decline. Much to my surprise Bob said yes and performed an impromptu rendition of “Blowin’ in the Wind” to the stunned shul of about 300 seder guests. The incongruity of a seder, with Marlon Brando reading the haggadah followed by a Bob Dylan serenade, would have made for a good Fellini movie. Needless to say, everyone was both shocked and thrilled by this unusual Hollywood-style Passover miracle. The entire shul came by to shake both Marlon and Bob’s hands and they actually paused and spent time with everyone.

Just a couple of years ago, Marlon called me up in Minnesota, out of the blue. We had kept in touch through the trials and tribulations he was going through with his family. “Louie Kemp,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about you. Twenty years ago you took me to a seder. I want you to know that I still think about it to this very day. In fact, I was thinking about it today and that’s why I called you.”

He continued to thank me and tell me of the special spiritual impact it had on him and how much he identified with a people freeing themselves from bondage and uniting to celebrate and remember that freedom.

He told me he was sending his three youngest children to a Jewish day school in Los Angeles. When I asked him why, he said, “Louie, don’t you know that the Jewish schools are the best?” I could almost hear him smiling over the phone.

STRANGE WORLD, SICK PEOPLE - Part Two

STRANGE WORLD, SICK PEOPLE - Part One

In case anyone harbours any illusions about democratically elected Hamas and whether it has any peaceful intentions, here's an article written by a Palestinian journalist and Hamas mouthpiece Khalid Amayreh - Hamas: We will not recognize Israel-period

Next time you read someone saying that Hamas doesn't mean what it says in its Charter, remember this article from Amayreh who is a regular poster of nasty anti Israel and anti Jewish comments at the foot of articles in Haaretz.

In the next following post you can judge for yourself whether there is any difference between Hamas and your classical, common and garden variety Jew hated. Despite this, there are people around the world and including this country who describe themselves as Jews and yet embrace Hamas and it's ideology.

Strange world, sick people.

STRINGING EVERYBODY ALONG

Honest Reporting has an item on the political agenda of former CNN employee Nidal Rafa who abused Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon at a media event, calling him a "fascist" - More Shocking Evidence of CNN's Faulty Hiring Policy.

It now appears that Rafa has acted as a stringer or a "fixer" and has a long history of Palestinian activism. That should preclude providing objective and neutral support for the foreign press and one wonders how many stories about this part of the world have been published by news outlets oblivious to the fact that the "fixer" really did "fix" the message imparted by unwitting or lazy journalists not interested in checking whether they were being told the truth.

THE AIRBRUSH SCAM

Picture: The Israeli woman who won't be airbrushed out of existence by the Blank Pages of the Age

The Age seems intent on following the U.K's Guardian newspaper all the way in its attempts at villifying and scorning the Jewish State judging by today's offering from the Sunday Age - ISRAELI PAPERS AIRBUSH WOMEN MINISTERS FROM PHOTOS.

It seems that the editorial staff of a couple of obscure Israeli ultra-orthodox newspapers deemed that printing pictures of women is "immodest" so they "simply airbrushed the offending female figures out of photographs of Benjamin Netanyahu's new cabinet" according to the Guardian's Rachel Shabi who wrote that "two female ministers within a 30-strong cabinet may not sound like a big deal".

Naturally, it's a big enough deal for the Age to make it THE story of the day from a region where this week Palestinians axed a young Israeli kid to death, where Palestinian leaders exiled the conductor of a youth orchestra because it played music for Jewish Holocaust victims and where Arab leaders (including Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas) got solidly behind the Sudanese President who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide.

That's not news in the Age which has to turn the airbrushing of women from a photo by a couple of hitherto unknown ultra Orthodox Jewish newspapers into a big ticket item.

Well go figure!

You may accuse me of being politically incorrect till you're blue in the face but I missed the Age coverage when Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli (pictured above) appeared on the cover of the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated Magazine - Israeli model Bar Refaeli lands Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover. No doubt, I will also miss the Age story one day when a pretty Gazan follows Refaeli's lead and gets executed by a Hamas firing squad for her troubles.

Predictably, Australia's own intellectually challenged Hamas loving Israel loathing Jewish Holocaust denier, Antony Loewenstein, picked up on the story in Jews with gender issues forgetting that he has shown a penchant of his own with gender issues when it comes to the subject of Israeli ministers. He once described former Kadima Minister Tzipi Livni as a "he" (she's definitely a "she") but we can forgive him for that because, in the scheme of things, it was one of his lesser gaffes!

There's a double standard too at the Age because back in 2006 when elections were held for the Palestinian Legislative Council, that newspaper did an excellent job in airbrushing out of existence the true story of Mariam Farhat, or Umm Nidal (mother of Nidal) who was elected on the Hamas ticket. Ms. Farhat was identified by the New York Times as "the mother of three Hamas supporters killed by Israelis" and added that "she bade one son goodbye in a homemade videotape before he stormed an Israeli settlement, killing five people, then being shot dead. She said later, in a much-publicized quotation, that she wished she had 100 sons to sacrifice that way. Known as the 'mother of martyrs,' she was seen in a campaign video toting a gun."

The Age did a wonderful job of airbrushing this particular female Hamas politician right out of existence. However, you can't say that the Age was discriminatory because it also managed to apply the airbrush to another candidate whose nickname (for obvious reasons) is "Hitler". Apparently, there's a lobby at the Age that doesn't want its readers to know such things about Palestinian politics.

THE PEACE PARTNER WHO ENDORSES GENOCIDE

We must also take a decisive stance of solidarity alongside fraternal Sudan and President Omar al-Bashir.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - In Defense of Genocide An Arab summit embraces the butcher of Darfur.

WHO CARES WHEN AFRICAN MUSLIMS ARE BUTCHERED?

There's a double standard out there, I'm sure.

This week, the leaders of the Arab world (a nice wholesome bunch of royal hangers on, petty dictators and one or two token democratically elected heads of state) descended on Qatar for a continuation of their interminable squabbles among each other, some chest beating about the Zionists and to show their support for Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, who is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on charges of genocide.

Marty Peretz in his New Republic blog comments:

The summiteers are not concerned about human rights in their own countries or very much, for that matter, in each others' countries. But do any of you doubt that Bashir is guilty of genocide? Do any of you doubt that hundreds of thousands (three, maybe four hundred thousand) of African Muslims have been murdered by Arab Muslim hordes deployed by Khartoum to kill, rape and pillage.

The Arabs are moved only by the plight of the Palestinians.This is true. It is, in fact, a truism, so obvious that one should be embarrassed even having to argue it. And why the plight of the Palestinians? Because their condition can be blamed on Israel and--make no mistake about it--on the Jews, the Jews the world over.

Peretz adds:

I also believe that Israel, with America and England and Australia, are probably
the most ethically constrained militaries in the world. Of one fact I am
absolutely certain: the leaders of the Arab world are welcoming a mass murderer
into their midst. And, instead of turning him over to authorities in the Hague,
they are welcoming him because he is an Arab who is killing black Africans.

The double standard?

Scour your newspaper for reports on the number of people butchered by the Sudanese and their proxies on a daily basis and look as well for reports on the number of allegations of war crimes made against Israel in the wake of its war with Hamas in Gaza. Look for the number of reports of Hamas atrocities and note the tone of the articles in newspapers such as the Melbourne Age.

Look out for follow up stories in the Age on the conductor of the Palestinian orchestra now that Palestinian officials have banished her from the West Bank because she decided to bring music to elderly survivors of Isreal's victims of genocide.

You won't find them because the Palestinian lobby censors running the media intifada against Israel over there have consigned the stories to the blank pages.

DOCTORS FOR TERROR

Dr. Yoel Abells who writes on health matters for The National Post is concerned about the use of medical publications such as Lancet to push a particular political agenda - Journals have no role in placing blame in Gaza conflict.

His sage comments also apply to the wider media which in some quarters have become apologists for Gaza's terrorist government.

THE ORCHESTRA THE AGE FORGOT

Yaakov Kirschen's comments on The Orchestra the Age forgot - THE AGE PALESTINE LOBBY KICKS AN OWN GOAL.

THE APRIL FOOL

Last week I reported on the efforts of IAJV court jester Michael Brull in providing his own inane brand of commentary on the Jewish community's reaction to the jailing of "Edward Einfeld (sic) - CLASS ACT. Brull's entry was subsequently sent into the ether when someone at the IAJV presumably discovered that he was confusing Edward Einfeld with Jerry Seinfeld or perhaps it was Marcus Einfeld.

Believe it or not, Brull's hateful rants against Israel are receiving oxygen over at The New Matilda where there's ample material to demonstrate his eminent qualifications to take out our April Fool award for 2009.

His piece when is an Anti-Semite not an Anti-Semite is too vulgar for words and is a typical example of the smoke and mirrors obfuscation we've come to expect from the IAJV crowd. The comments of one of the New Matilda contributors sum it up well:

It is not anti-Semitic to criticise Israel and i’ve never heard a mainstream Jewish leader say that it is. If it were anti-Semitic to criticise Israel than the most anti-Semitic country in the world would be Israel. However it is discriminatory to take actions out of context, hold Israel to a higher standard than other nations or to demand the dismantling of Zionism without demanding the dismantling of any other nationalist aspirations be they ethnic or religious. It is discriminatory to demand an academic or economic boycott of Israel and not call for boycotts against any of the other major human rights abusers.