Exposing Idiots

A reader of the Australian, Michael Kellock, should be congratulated for his early nomination of Adrian Jackson of Middle Park, Victoria for the title of Idiot of the Year:

It's early days, but allow me to nominate Adrian Jackson's letter (Letters, 27-28/3) proposing that the AFP, the ADF and ASIS raid and search the Israeli embassy for forgery equipment as the loopiest letter of the year.

Michael Kellock, Foster, Vic

For those who didn't see the original, it's here:

BRITAIN is to be congratulated for expelling Israel's ambassador to London. Australia should now expel Israel's ambassador to Canberra. Further, the Israel embassy should be raided and searched by the AFP, the ADF and ASIS and any equipment used for criminal activity, like forging our passports, should be confiscated.

Adrian Jackson, Middle Park, Vic

I heard a claim that the noise of the Grand Prix can turn some people into imbeciles but Jackson's been there from before the running of the race began a little over a decade ago. He must have some other excuse.

The curse of Kerr's Cur

On Remembrance Day this year it will be 35 years since the then Governor-General of this country Sir John Kerr dealt a blow to democracy and the rule of law by dismissing the elected Labor Government of Gough Whitlam and installing Liberal Party leader Malcolm Fraser in its place.

Many believe that this was an outcome that resulted from connivance between Kerr and Fraser and that the government had been cheated of office by a conspiracy of Opposition, business and media interests.

Even after all of these years, it therefore comes as no surprise to read a Melbourne Age report that Fraser, who these days shills for terror group Hamas and maintains that Israel should talk to this organisation whose charter advocates its destruction, wants Australia to expel an Israeli diplomat because of the unproven allegation that the Mossad used fake Australian passports to assassinate Hamas arms and drugs dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (yet another unsubstantiated allegation) - Fraser says expel Israeli diplomats. In doing so, the man shows his contempt for the rule of law because it is by no means certain that Israel was involved in the use of the fake passports.

And while there is no proof that Israel was implicated in the use of forged passports, Fraser and the Age are silent about the only known user of fake passports in this affair Hamas man al Mabhouh himself had five of them in when found dead in his hotel room in Dubai. No mention is made of the fact that the only arrests in connection with the affair have been of three Palestinians. Nor of the fact that Fraser's mates at Hamas are so low that they even stoop to stealing money from their own banks according to Palpress (please don't hold your breath waiting for the Age to tell that story).

But let's not allow the facts to get in the way of a good ole Israel bashing story.

Indeed, let's avoid the facts altogether and let's just bludgeon the Jewish State for standing up to Hamas would be mass murderers. That seems to be Fraser's style these days.

PUTIN'S OUTBURST DISTURBS THE WORLD

Two suicide bombers blew themselves and more than thirty innocent civilians on the Moscow Metro yesterday and Vladimir Putin has come out strongly against the terrorists. He's vowing to destroy them. Sorry, Vlad, no can do. Richard Goldstone told the world that if you try that, you're likely to have committed a war crime.

On the other hand, the Russians have done that sort of thing many times. Remember the thousands of dead in Grosny?

And do you remember how the UNHRC slammed the carnage?

Good, because I don't.

HEROINE

Picture of the Week

A WORLD VISION OF HYPOCRISY

We have seen in the past week some rank hypocrisy from world leaders over the Israel/Arab conflict. Hilary Clinton addressed the 2010 AIPAC Conference and offered up a misleading comment about the PA celebration of a Fatah murderer by blaming it on Hamas.

Now, according to this article in the Australian, donors to World Vision have financed a football field that is going to be dedicated to another Fatah mass murderer - Red faces over Fatah field *

CHARITY group World Vision Australia has been embarrassed by a plan by Palestinian authorities to name a sporting complex containing an Australian-funded soccer field in the West Bank after a former militant PLO leader.

World Vision naturally denies playing a part in the choice of name for the sporting complex but a spokeswoman gives it a tick by saying that "the aim of the soccer field is to involve young people in this region of the West Bank, who are frequently dealing with psychological trauma and stress, in soccer training and competition, and in sport generally, as a positive community activity . . . There is no other facility like it."

Sure thing but why not condemn publicly the attachment of your project to a beastly murderer instead of justifying what you've done by claiming you're a dogooder. Similar soccer fields have been used in the past for training terrorists and if the hosts chose to dedicate this one a cold blooded killer it would be better to distance yourself from the whole thing and not allow yourself to be mired in the hypocrisy and lies of Palestinian hatred.

* Another article that slipped under the Fairfax radar. Where is Jason Koutsoukis whenever such a story comes up?

THIS YEAR IN JERUSALEM

Barack Obama in 2009 incanting "Next Year in Jerusalem" What's he going to say this year?

Today's Australian has a good coverage of the multiple issues involving Israel at the moment - here and here. Foreign editor Greg Sheridan superbly covers the kerfuffle over allegations of the Mossad's use of Australian passports in the totally unproven and unsubstantiated supposed hit on Hamas arms dealer and drug pusher Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and the incredible reaction of Barack Obama to the ill timed announcement by an Israeli ministry official about construction of dwelling in a Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

Sheridan exposes the fair amount of hypocrisy we are seeing in the world today. Perhaps Obama might reflect on this when he sits down at his now annual Passover seder to toast the liberation of the Jews.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh seems to have been elevated by some in Britain to sainthood. That's what happens when Palestinian Bambis confront anyone Jewish these days in the eyes of a desperate British government lagging behind at the polls and needing to pander to a population of several million Muslims and their far left rabidly antiSemitic minions.

We don't have such conditions here in Australia and, despite Kevin Rudd's fit of piqué when the passports affair first arose, he simply doesn't need to alienate the population here, many of who look upon the Israelis as being heroes for standing up to Islamist pressure tactics, lies and incitement. Most of the Western world including the US under Barack Obama is displaying a decided lack of spine in this regard.

As discussed yesterday, the outrage about Passportgate has descended to a level where certain hypocrites in the media have found the need to move to Fantasyland to support their obvious Israel bashing agendas.

Interestingly, two polls conducted in the media this week, came out decidedly in favour of Israel. Both polls were worded in such a way that they virtually implicated Israel as the guilty party in the passports scandal. Despite this, the "yes" vote for following the British lead in the ABC poll was in the low 30s - no doubt much to the chagrin of the ABC biffin who dreamt up this drivel.

PIMPS

There was a time when journalists reported the facts but that was before agenda driven propagandists took the profession into fantasyland.

Fairfax journo Paul McGeough must have delved deep into the imagination to come up with his latest effort (with Amy Goodman) – the supposedly crucial video evidence presumably withheld by Dubai's antiSemite police chief:

Well, the closed-circuit television is the key to understanding the story. And it’s quite remarkable that the Mossad seemed not to give the network of cameras around Dubai a second thought. But the team were filmed arriving individually at Dubai International Airport. The Hamas arms dealer was seen arriving. They followed him to his hotel …

But then it also becomes very chilling, because Mabhouh was in room 230, and the cameras on that level of the hotel pick up the killers going into the room, spending as long as forty-five minutes in the room. And you have to wonder why it took four would-be killers forty-five minutes to dispose of one person. And then they’re seen emerging from the room and waiting for the elevator, with two of them carrying a very—what looks like a very heavy hold-all bag.

McGeogh wouldn't have a clue really. Even if the video existed, how could he identify that these people were Mossad agents and not assassins from Mabhouh's Hamas or the opposition Fatah?

As Maurice Ostroff points out:

One of the most striking aspects was the utter failure of the much vaunted Dubai security. Strangely, all of the video clips available on the internet, show random persons at the airport, in the hotel lobby and outside the elevators. But none show incriminating shots of the culprits entering and leaving room 230, although the hotel CCTV system obviously covers the corridor and the door to his room as is patently evident from short video clips of suspects walking in the corridor past entrances to the rooms."

(Ostroff writes prolifically about Passportgate - see his open leter to David Milliband here)

Why can't McGeough tell us the names of the so-called Mossad agents? Surely, one of them must go by the name of Yossi or Uri?

On the other hand, operatives from a slick spy agency like Mossad would have noticed the CCTV cameras and it wouldn't have needed at least 27 of them to carry out the dirty deed and nor would they have been so clumsy with the passports.

So here's another scenario for your fantasyland style journalism. Maybe the Israelis didn't do it. After all, the only people arrested in respect to this are three Palestinians. Three of the assassins reportedly fled the scene via Iran - an unlikely place of refuge for the Mossad.

No, that's not McGeogh's style. No Israel bashing and it doesn't suit the agenda even if a fair and objective rendition of what's known in this case might lift the profession above the level of pimping which is where it currently wallows.

[Hat tip: Tim Blair's blog]

AIPAC POLICY CONFERENCE 2010

AIPAC POLICY CONFERENCE 2010

... and here's the transcript of the sensational Dershowitz speech.

Dershowitz at AIPAC

The world should today be standing in awe and appreciation of Israel's amazing accomplishments and contributions. No country has ever contributed so much to the world in a mere 61 years. Israel's — (applause) — Israel's medical technology exports have saved more lives per capita than exports from any other country. Israel has saved more Muslim and Arab lives than all of the Arab and Muslim countries combined. (Applause.)

Israel's high technology accomplishments exceed those of all of Europe and most of Asia. Israel has accomplished more for the environment than virtually any country in the world. Israel has taught the world how to fight wars against terrorism ethically and with concern for avoiding civilian casualties. (Applause.)

Israel — no country in the world faced with comparable threats has a better record of human rights than Israel does. And if you don't believe it, listen as you will to Richard Kemp when he describes how Israel compares to the other armies of the world facing threats from terrorists who hide among civilians.

When Justice Brennan, probably the most liberal justice to serve on the Supreme Court went to Israel he said, "If terrorism ever comes to the United States there is only one country from which the United States can learn how to balance human rights against the need to fight terrorism, and that country was Israel." Israel should be so proud and appreciative of Israel, but instead — (applause) — but instead, Israel is the only country in the world today whose legitimacy continues to be questioned, constantly questioned; constantly challenged.

It's more than ironic since no country has ever been established on a firmer foundation of law. Israel was established, after all through declarations accepted by the League of Nations, by the United Nations, by international law, yet its legitimacy remains challenged. Compare it to other countries that started with the revolutions or simply grabbing a land of other people, Israel paid for every inch of its land, paid for it by money and paid for it by the blood of its children.(Applause.)

This process of delegitimation began in earnest in 1975 when the United Nations took so much time and so much energy debating whether Zionism was racism. And do you know what else was happening in 1975 at the time the United Nations was involved in this ridiculous, bigoted debate? A million people were being murdered by genocides in Cambodia and the United Nations paid no attention to that at all. They were too busy to delegitimate and condemn Israel. And then it moved from 1975 to the Durban Conference in 2001 where the Durban strategy of delegitimation took root. What they did is they turned everything around. They accused Israel of racism, Israel of apartheid, Israel of genocide, Israel of creating a holocaust.

What it did is they inverted the entire concept of human rights and turned it against Israel. There were efforts of the result of Durban to boycott Israeli institutions, institutions of learning, institutions that are trying to cure cancer and heart disease and Parkinson's and yet efforts are made, to this day, in Nor—- Norway as we speak, in England as we speak to boycott Israeli academic institutions. You know what happened last time when they tried to boycott Israel and England? A few of us got together and put together a petition saying, "You know, if you boycott Israel, your universities, we will not speak at your universities." And we circulated a petition. We thought we'd get 400 or 500 signatures, 11,000 American academics, Nobel Prize winners, presidents of universities — (applause) — signed onto that petition.

And the message was clear, "If you try to boycott Israel it is you who will be boycotted and it is your universities that will suffer." Israel's universities are among the greatest in the world today and nobody should try to boycott its great academics and its great places of science. And then came the concept that we call "guerilla lawfare," efforts to try to delegitimate Israel by using legal tactics, legal means, using international law, using the law of humanitarian aspects, using all of it to try to turn it against Israel, divestment campaigns, distortion of human rights. When it came to Durban II, the attempt to redo it again last year we were ready and we went to Geneva and we fought back. And we won Durban II. They invited Ahmadinejad. We invited Elie Wiesel.

We said, "Who is the person who speaks for human rights here today?" (applause) One of the proudest moments — one of the proudest moments of my life was when I was arrested by the Swiss police for daring to try to confront Ahmadinejad and just ask him a simple question, "Do you deny the Holocaust? Have you ever been to Auschwitz? Which books have you read about the Holocaust?" Challenging him to debate his Holocaust denial. He denies the Holocaust while trying to bring another one upon the Jewish people of Israel and yet I was arrested for trying to confront him in a peaceful way. But at Durban the students stood up against Ahmadinejad and he was booed and people walked out on him and we won the second Durban encounter. (Applause.)

And the important message is, "We fight back. We don't take these kinds of abuses sitting down." And when Richard Goldstone — (applause) — when Richard Goldstone, through his everlasting disgrace, agreed to serve on a commission that was so one-sided, we fought back, "One-sided?" Do you know who the three people serving on the commission were? One of them, a colonel from Ireland, who before he ever served on the commission believed that Israeli soldiers had taken out Irish soldiers and killed them in cold blood and he was going to get revenge. He believed Israel had no right of self-defense. He was serving on the commission. A British woman, who before she heard a piece of evidence said Israel was guilty of war crime. She was serving on the commission.

And a Muslim woman from Pakistan said, "You have to believe Palestinians, they always tell the truth." She was serving on the commission. And then, of course to give the commission the certification of Kashrut, the Heksher, they put Richard Goldstone on the commission to sign on as the token court Jew so that when people argued with the contents of the Goldstone Report or tried to debate him, as I tried to debate him his answer was, "No. I'm a Jew. My daughter lives in Israel. I must be correct. You can't question me, because I'm a Jew."

An argument ad hominem and at which had nothing to do with the demerits of the Goldstone Report, which got everything backwards. And we now have videotaped evidence showing everything that Goldstone said was wrong. Israel tried desperately to avoid civilian casualties while Hamas — (applause) — fired — while Hamas fired from behind civilian shields. The point is that delegitimation efforts, until now, have been limited primarily to the United Nations and European countries. It has never ever succeeded in the United States.

Why? Because in the United States, thanks to AIPAC and thanks to the fact that we have tremendous support among Congress people and among the people of the United States Israel is known to be America's great friend and Israel gets high ratings every time their public opinion polls and that's why every effort to delegitimate in the United States up to now has failed. But I want to tell you about a new effort that's just beginning and that has the potential to succeed if we don't fight back. The newest threat, the newest attempt to import delegitimation into the United States comes from people, like Walt and Mearsheimer who wrote a book which gets it all backwards.

Walt and Mearsheimer, obviously says a lot of good things in some ways about AIPAC. They think you're the most powerful organization in the world, you control what the United States does. What they fail to understand is that the reason AIPAC is strong and may you go from strength to strength and increase your strength is because Americans support Israel and because Americans support Israel, Congresspeople support Israel.

There is a lobby in Washington that has no public support, which is very powerful that Walt and Mearsheimer could've written about. It's called the Saudi lobby — no public support, great influence and power. That's a paradox. It's not paradox to the democracy that a law before a group that's completely popular and supported by the American public should have some influence in Washington. And then comes Jimmy Carter in an attempt to delegitimate Israel by using that word, apartheid. Jimmy Carter, a man who wouldn't use the word genocide what was going on in Darfur, because he says, "You have to be careful about how you use language," uses the word apartheid to describe Israel's only democracy.

But now the most recent argument and the most serious argument ever made against Israel in modern times is one that's recently been all over the Internet, namely that Israeli actions endanger American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's all over the Internet and it's creeping into the mainstream media. Headlines, "Israel, a danger to U.S. troops." CNN, Rick Sanchez, "This is starting to get dangerous for us, Biden purportedly told Netanyahu, 'What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops,' [inaudible].

United States tells Israel, "You are undermining America, endangering troops." "Israel is empowering Al-Qaeda, Petraeus warns." "Petraeus, Israel's intransigence could cost American lives." Variations of this false and dangerous argument have now been picked up by Joe Klein in Time Magazine, Roger Cowen in the New York Times, Walt and Mearsheimer, Brzezinski and others. Both Vice President Biden and General Petraeus have apparently disavowed this argument, though their statements continued to be cited in support of its conclusion.

Whatever the source the argument has taken on, unfortunately a life of its own and is being used in an effort to bring the delegitimacy campaign to the United States of America. It is the most dangerous argument ever put forward in the ongoing campaign against Israel, because its goal is directly to reduce support for Israel among mainstream Americans, who like every one of us in this room support our American troops fighting abroad. (Applause.)

It is an ironic and insidious argument, primarily because the pillar of Israel's policy with regard to the United States troops is that Israel never wants to endanger our troops. That's why it never asks the United States soldiers to fight for Israel as many of allies, in fact, do by seeking the scapegoat Israel for the deaths of American troops at the hands of Islamic terrorists. This argument has become a powerful weapon in the campaign to demonize and delegitimate Israel in the minds of mainstream Americans. Most of all, it is an entirely false argument factually, entirely false. There is absolutely no relationship between Israel's actions and the safety of American troops, none. Consider the year 2000-2001, what was Israel doing in 2000-2001 in — in November, December, January?

They were offering peace to the Palestinians at Camp David and Taba. They were offering the Palestinians estate on 100 percent of the Gaza, 97 percent of the West Bank, a divided Jerusalem, $35 billion reparation package. What was going on during those months? Osama Bin Laden was planning the destruction of the World Trade Center.

No relationship between Israeli actions and hatred and actions by Islamic extremists against the United States. In 2005, Israel leaves Gaza, leaves Gaza — unilaterally leaves Gaza. That's exactly what everybody has been asking for and at the same time there was a slight increase against American troops in Iraq. During Operation Cast Lead and the Jerusalem building recently announcement there's been no significant escalation of violence against American troops in Iraq. There is no relationship. It's made up out of whole cloth. I challenge those who are offering this argument, put up or shut up. Prove your point or stop making these bigoted arguments. (Applause.) They are wrong. And think — think of the implications — think of the implications of this argument. The implications of this argument are the delegitimation of Israel in the minds of Americans. Why? Because for Muslim extremists it's not what America does. It's not what Israel does. It's what Israel is. It's what America is.

Islamic extremists cannot accept the concept of a secular democracy, a democracy that grants equal rights to women, equal rights to all. It's what they are that they hate, not what we do. That's why it's an important part of the delegitimation campaign, Israel cannot do anything that would satisfy the Islamic extremists to threaten the United States troops. There's nothing Israel could do. If Israel made peace tomorrow unilaterally giving up all of its rights it would have no impact whatsoever. As long as Israel exists that is the grievance of Islamic extremists and Israel is not going to stop existing to satisfy Islamic extremists. (Applause.)

Nor can the United States — nor can the United States do anything to stop Islamic extremists from threatening Americans unless it were to pull out all of its troops in the Middle East, which it's not going to do. The point is there's nothing that Israel or the United States can do to stop these Islamic extremists. There is something, however, the Palestinian authority can do, by stopping the daily incitements against the United States from extremists. Just go on Memri.org. Just watch it on a daily basis on PA television, that's the incitement that puts American troops in danger, by stopping teaching its children to hate us, by stopping the naming of public squares in the West Bank after murderers of Americans and the murderers of Israeli children and civilians.

This square is being named after a murderer who killed an American woman and who killed many Israelis. When you do that and you say that you're naming the square in order to encourage your children to follow in the path of that murderer you're inciting violence against American troops and against American citizens. So let us focus on those who hate America and those who incite terrorism against our troops rather than on a brave nation that loves America, that helps it militarily and with intelligence and that never asks the United States for troops to protect it. I want to mention just two propositions that I ask anybody who makes the case against Israel to dispute, two simple propositions.

Number one, if Israel's enemies were to lay down their arms, stop terrorism and stop firing rockets there would be peace. Does anybody dispute that? Number two, if Israel were to lay down its arms there would be genocide. That is the reality. That's the truth and those two statements must be kept in mind.

And then I want to talk just very briefly about three lessons of the Holocaust that I know I've learned in my friendship with Elie Wiesel. The first lesson is that morality without military power is not enough. We had morality on our side during the Second World War, but we didn't have the ability to defend the Jewish community. Thank God for Israel. Thank God for its military. Thank God for the ability that we now have to defend our morality.(applause)The second lesson — the second lesson is that military power without morality is dangerous. That's why the Israeli military learns lessons and ethics. That's why it has the concept of holiness of arms. That's why it has professors helping to shape ethical policies for the military. And the third one, and perhaps the most important one that Israel and all of us must keep in mind when dealing with Iran is that you must always believe the threats of your enemies more than the promises of your friends. (Applause.)

And that's why Israel must be totally self-reliant. And so — and so in closing, I want to thank you for showing support for this great embattled nation. I want to tell you that the United States- Israel alliance is good for America. It's good for Israel, it's good for democracy, it's good for human rights, it's good for peace; it's good for the world. And may the relationship between these two great democracies continue to go from strength to strength. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

A Clinton Moment

Fatah did not dedicate that square in Ramallah to Dalal al Mughrabi - Hamas did, according to Hilary Clinton.

No, it didn't!

Read this from Melanie Phillips - Moral blindness - and truth and justice betrayed

And if you need proof, here's a take from a Palestinian and definitely anti-Israel viewpoint - Exposed: At AIPAC, Hillary blamed Hamas for Dalal Mughrabi Square incident actually done by US-funded Palestinian Authority.

Obama is covering for a corrupt, inept and murderous Fatah which it thinks will deliver peace for the Palestinians and get his Arab client states off his back. He's even sending his lieutenants to lie to the Jews about it.

THE JOKE

There's a joke going around about Barack Obama's new even handed Middle East policies finally managing to achieve something.

He's still hated by the Arabs (even more so). Now he's hated by the Israelis as well.

US must end the hypocrisy against Israel

This San Francisco Examiner editorial almost says it all about Barack Obama's recent attacks on Israel - US must end the hypocrisy against Israel.

If history is any guide, Obama has just lit a powder keg and must be held responsible for any violence which ensues as a result of his stance.

DIRTIER DUBAI DEEDS

These days nobody ever listens to Phillip Adams and, until somebody brought to my attention his article Dirty Deeds in The Weekend Australian shilling for Hamas and berating Israel over its alleged assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh back in January, I thought he had been put to pasture.

Well, after reading this rubbish, perhaps he should be. Obviously, Adams isn't getting all of the news and, in pronouncing Israel guilty of sins based on the edicts and judgement of Dubai's antiSemitic police chief, he's come to a "Jews poisoned the wells" conclusion.

Israel shouldn't be doing dirty deeds such as killing mass murderers like Hamas arms and drug dealing al-Mabhouh. It should be talking to them. And how does one commence negotiations with the likes of Abdallah Jarbu, the Hamas Deputy Minister of Religious Endowments who says "Jews Are Bacteria" -

You can forgive Adams for not knowing about Jarbu's statement because the likes of such statements made daily in the Hamas and Palestine Authority media are rarely covered in his own Australian newspaper and never in the Fairfax press (why not?) but for Adams to pretend that he doesn't know about the Nazi like Hams Charter is too much of a stretch.

This means his deeds are much dirtier than the dark deeds he accuses Israel of doing on the say so of Dubai's antiSemitic police chief.

DIRTY DUBAI

I found this in the Sydney Morning Herald (but not yet in the Age and possibly never there given its stance on events that occurred there in January) - Dirty or clean, cash keeps rolling into Dubai.

The Dubai police chief, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has been sharply critical of Israel in general and Mossad in particular, releasing many minutes of security camera footage to support his case. Australia and other western nations, including Ireland and Britain, followed suit.

But General Dahi has chosen to leave hidden at least as much as he has revealed. The autopsy report has not been made public, and neither has the crucial footage from the corridor that shows how the killers entered Mr Mabhouh's room.

Nor has any indication been given of what the Hamas leader charged with organising the flow of weapons from Iran to the Gaza Strip was doing in Dubai - also on a fake passport and with no security - and where he went between 4pm on January 19, after checking in to his hotel, and 8.24pm, when he returned.

Who had he come to meet? Why would he meet Iranians here and not in Iran, or in Syria where he lived? Mabhouh's is not the only startling death. Sulim Yamadayev, an opponent of the Chechen President, Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot dead in the car park of an expensive hotel complex in Dubai last April. Dubai police accused Mr Kadyrov's first cousin Adam Delimkhanov of organising the assassination.

The plot thickens every day but some things must be kept hiddenfrom the public.

SIGNS OF INTELLIGENCE ON EARTH

Oh well, after a week in which the leader of the free world pilloried an ally for making a stupid and ill timed announcement about construction of housing units in its capital city, yet ignored some much else of what's going on in that particular region (like the murder of a farm worker and the celebration of a mass murderer by the other sides), it's time to find out if there are any real signs of intelligence on earth.

A USEFUL ANALYSIS

"THE Australia-Israel relationship, normally a byword for geostrategic stability and enduring human warmth, has had some stormy passages lately, writes Greg Sheridan in today's Australian. What follows is a useful analysis of the current situation following Passportgate and Israel's recent announcement of 1,600 new housing units to be built in East Jerusalem.

Read it here - There's scope, and hope, for closer ties with Israel.

WHAT GOLDSTONE MISSED - PART TWO

Actually, Goldstone and his crew didn't miss this at all. They just looked away - Hamas used kids as human shields, hospitals as launch pads

New research report finds medical facilities served as command centers during Gaza op; 100 mosques used for military purposes; police incorporated into group's military wing.

This is a staggering indictment not only on Hamas, the Goldstone Mission, the UNHRC but on all of the politicians, journalists and NGO's who have looked the other way whenever it was sought to highlight the record of the Islamist movement in the context of Israel's Operation Cast Lead.

If your newspaper ignores this story, ask the editor "why?"

WHAT GOLDSTONE MISSED - PART ONE

He missed this!

For Israel's Arabs It Is Not Apartheid

An excellent rebuttal from Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh against those in the propaganda business whose labours merely succeed in delaying and distancing the prospects of peace in the region - For Israel's Arabs It Is Not Apartheid

An Arab member of the Knesset who goes all the way to the US and Canada to tell university students and professors that Israel is an apartheid state is not only a hypocrite and a liar, but is also causing huge damage to the interests of his own Arab voters and constituents.

If Israel were an apartheid state, what is this Arab doing in the Knesset?

THE DAY I DIED - BRITAIN AND ANTI-SEMITISM

This is very disturbing stuff - The day I died

Hope it helps you all to understand the underlying racist mindset of the British.

Vexed

I'm not a big fan of the personal attack style of writing but in the case of this article in VEXNEWS (The ugly face of Palestinian errorism unmasked) it appears well and truly justified. The person in question is an habitual Israel basher whose anti-Semitism is clear and unambiguous.

Well done Andrew Landeryou.

DRY ...

Kirschen does it brilliantly again (as if these barbarians need an excuse to launch suicide attacks at American troops.

How it was done!

HMMMM

Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper reports here that three Iranians have been caught at an airport in the Seychelles trying to use stolen Israeli passports (Hat tip: Elder of Ziyon).

This sort of fits in with the Dubai Police Chief's announcement a few weeks back that three of Hamas gun procurer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's killers fled to Iran after the execution.

It doesn't fit in with the accusation put out by Dubai's Police Chief that Israel is producing dozens of fake passports so I guess the news will remain for the time being in the blank pages.

ISRAEL AND THE HOLOCAUST

World renownerd expert of the Holocaust Yehudah Bauer speaks about ISRAEL AND THE HOLOCAUST

Malcolm the bigot

Last month former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser weighed in on the Dubai affair and was quoted as follows in the Australian - Fraser urges Rudd to take harder line on Israel

Mr Fraser said the worries of Australia's Jewish community were twofold. There were concerns about the actual misuse of Australian passports, and the tactics and policies of the Israeli government which cast the community in a bad light, he said.

Mr Fraser said the Jewish state could no longer use the Holocaust as an excuse to justify state-sanctioned murder, and criticism of its policies should not be dismissed as anti-Semitism.

"That happened 65-66 years ago and it cannot be used any longer to prevent proper discussion of Israel's policies when those policies are counter-productive to world peace," he said. "To suggest that those who are critical are anti-Semitic -- I reject that utterly."

Now here's the problem. Nowhere in all of the discussion of the Passportgate was the Holocaust raised by any Jewish supporters of Israel before Fraser himself raised it. So Fraser took it upon himself to provide the self-serving proof that he's not a bigot. This despite the fact that he time and again openly supports recognition of the Hamas regime which invokes the Holocaust and every anti-Semitic canard in the book. I attended a debate last year at Monash University in which Fraser was a participant. He certainly wasn't arguibg there that the world should play tough with Hamas because it has a charter that advocates genocide or that it openly supports "state-sanctioned murder" against Israelis and Palestinians who oppose it.

Fraser doesn't need to raise the Holocaust but if you want proof that the man is a bigot then his words give him away. By treating the Jewish State and its citizens differently to his Palestinian friends he openly demonstrates his antiSemitism.

LET’S HAVE A REAL APARTHEID EDUCATION WEEK!

Alan M. Dershowitz responds to the nasties who follow an annual ritual of concocting fake accusations against Israel in the form of "Israel Apartheid Week". To counter this chicanery he suggests, Let’s Have a Real Apartheid Education Week.

It would be based on the universally accepted human rights principle of "the worst first." In other words, the worst forms of apartheid being practiced by Middle East nations and entities would be studied and exposed first. Then the apartheid practices of other countries would be studied in order of their seriousness and impact on vulnerable minorities.

Dershowitz nominates these countries for examination as Middle East Apartheid States:-

1. Saudi Arabia because "that tyrannical kingdom practices gender apartheid to an extreme, relegating women to an extremely low status. Indeed, a prominent Saudi Imam recently issued a fatwa declaring that anyone who advocates women working alongside men or otherwise compromises with absolute gender apartheid is subject to execution. The Saudis also practice apartheid based on sexual orientation, executing and imprisoning gay and lesbian Saudis. Finally, Saudi Arabia openly practices religious apartheid. It has special roads for 'Muslims only.'"

2. Hamas (the de facto government of the Gaza Strip) which "discriminates openly against women, gays, Christians. It permits no dissent, no free speech, and no freedom of religion."

3. Jordan, which "has a law on its books forbidding Jews from becoming citizens or owning land" and "... Despite the efforts of its progressive Queen, women are still de facto subordinate in virtually all aspects of Jordanian life."

4. Iran, whose "President has assured us that there are no gays in Iran."

Right.

5. Pakistan, where "Sikhs have been executed for refusing to convert to Islam".

6. Throughout the Middle East, where "honor killings of women are practiced, often with a wink and a nod from the religious and secular authorities."

Then there's Israel, the secular Jewish State "recognizes fully the rights of Christians and Muslims and prohibits any discrimination based on religion (except against Conservative and Reform Jews, but that’s another story!) Muslim and Christian citizens of Israel (of which there are more than a million) have the right to vote and have elected members of the Knesset, some of whom even oppose Israel’s right to exist. There is an Arab member of the Supreme Court, an Arab member of the Cabinet and numerous Israeli Arabs in important positions in businesses, universities and the cultural life of the nation. A couple of years ago I attended a concert at the Jerusalem YMCA at which Daniel Barrenboim conducted a mixed orchestra of Israeli and Palestinian musicians. There was a mixed audience of Israelis and Palestinians, and the man sitting next to me was an Israeli Arab, who is the culture minister of the State of Israel."

Like Australia, Israel is a vibrant democracy.

That's why you might be confronted this week by someone who thrusts a pamphlet under your nose containing blood libels against the one true democracy in the Middle East that doesn't practice Apartheid claiming it's all part of "Israel Apartheid Week". Your daily newspaper might publish an opinion piece or two or a news report or even a letter to the editor highlighting say, Israel's security barrier which saves the lives of its citizens from Palestinian terrorism. One in Melbourne has already published an "Apartheid" letter. If it doesn't provide a balanced viewpoint to counter such article or if it conveniently omits to include the other viewpoint in its letters section, then it also is practising a form of Apartheid against the Jews. If it regularly offends, you could call it a pogrom.

Dershowitz quotes Congressman John Conyors, who helped found the congressional Black caucus:

[Applying the word “Apartheid” to Israel] does not serve the cause of peace, and the use of it against the Jewish people in particular, who have been victims of the worst kind of discrimination, discrimination resulting in death, is offensive and wrong.

Wrong but it won't stop the nasties!

LETTER OF THE WEEK

A little bit of reality in the Sunday Age letters section today (buried under an expected and unhinged Israel is Apartheid piece of agitprop from Mark Bradbeer):-

Armchair philosophising a total waste

WHY are Australian authorities wasting resources on finding Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's assassins (''Australia joins hunt for killers'', 28/2)? They would be far better employed using our taxes to assist Israel, the only civilised, liberal democratic state in the Middle East, in its struggle against its Islamofascist regional neighbours such as Ahmadinejad's Iran, from whom al-Mabhouh was buying weapons to murder Jewish children.

And what gives Ross Burns the right to sit in comfort and safety on the other side of the world and pontificate and moralise and split legal hairs about a country surrounded by enemies who either deny the Holocaust or are keen to repeat it? Thank goodness for Sarah Honig's exposure of the double standards in the current orgy of Israel-bashing.

The single greatest scandal of Western journalism is the fact that Israel receives more criticism than all the world's genuine abusers of human rights - communist, Islamist and other (e.g. Burma, Zimbabwe) - put together.

BILL JAMES, Bayswater

THE POGROM

Frenzied attacks on Israel such as those conducted in the Melbourne Age during the course of the past week in the wake of the assassination of the Hamas arms smuggler Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and Passportgate have not been contained to the Fairfax press alone. They been replicated in certain media outlets around the world and represent an ongoing campaign of deligitimising the Jewish State.

But the Age has gone further this week, stepping up its attacks with no less than three op eds condeming Israel and without permitting a response at all. To make matters worse, based on my information, the paper has chosen to not select for publication in its letters section, letters written to rebut some of the many errors of fact and logic contained in the work of writers Szego, Saikal and Mashni - each one of them combined with the continuing selective reporting of events from the region and some vile cartoons building to a crescendo of misinformation about Israel and a scandalous piece by its Middle East correspondent on an Israeli fruitcake whose racist book "The Invention of the Jewish People" has garnered scorn from serious scholars around the world. Would Koutsoukis ever write such a piece of fairy floss about anyone who wrote a book entitled "The Invention of the Palestinian People"?

The combined effect of the Age's propaganda campaign has meant that the media pogrom against the Jewish State is well and truly up and running. A nice build up for next week's outpouring of even more racism with Apartheid Week.

This of course, is way off beam with what's happening in the Australian street which has a better grip on reality than the Palestinists working away at the Age. The general vibe out there is that one more murdering terrorist is pushing up daisies and irrespective of whoever did it and how it was done, the world is a better off place without him. Many simply cannot understand why, in light of the hundreds of deaths caused in the region by Islamist terrorists of the ilk of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, this news outlet is so obsessed with running cover for Hamas and vilifying the one country in the region whose citizens are constantly targeted by would be mass murderers. This is going on despite the absence of proof that Israel was even involved in his death.

As I said, this is a media pogrom.

Thankfully, Fairfax doesn't have a monopoly over the news and we have the Australian newspaper which provides a balance to the unhinged nonsense being foisted on the Age readership.

Respected journalist Abraham Rabinovich presents a story that could never be written in the rival newspaper because it tells a positive story about how Mossad has managed to penetrate the inner-most workings of Hamas - Spy fears shake Hamas to the core.

There's also an exceptional opinion article by historian Andrew Roberts - Israel a victim of double standards after slaying. Roberts tears apart some truly vicious attacks on the Jewish State originally published in the Financial Times by Israel bashers who claimed, inter alia, that "colonial ambitions" and "checkpoints, barbed wire and separation walls" were "turning Israel from a democracy into an apartheid state", thereby creating a "looming global threat to the country’s legitimacy” and of how Israel's "miliitarist extroversion” over the Dubai murder demonstrated an "Israeli preference for instantly satisfying executive solutions to complex political and geopolitical problems" which would "widen the international battle-space for tit-for-tat attacks” and "encourage the perception that [Israel] is a rogue state".

In other words, the same sort of pap that the Age has been dishing up to its readers all week (including the noxious hateful cartoons of Tandberg and Leunig which wouldn't see the light of day in a decent newspaper). Here's what Roberts has to say:

All that the Dubai operation will do is remind the world that the security services of states at war – and Israel’s struggle with Hamas, Fatah and Hizbollah certainly constitutes that – occasionally employ targeted assassination as one of the weapons in their armoury, and that this in no way weakens their legitimacy. As for the "separation walls" and checkpoints that one sees in Israel, the 99 per cent drop in the number of suicide bombings since their erection justifies the policy. There is simply no parallel between apartheid South Africa – where the white minority wielded power over the black majority – and the occupied territories, taken by Israel only after it was invaded by its neighbours. To make such a link is not only inaccurate, but offensive. If Arab Israelis were deprived of civil and franchise rights, that would justify such hyperbole, but of course they have the same rights as every Jewish Israeli.

Far from having any colonial ambitions, Israel wants nothing more than to live peaceably within defensible borders. But equally it demands nothing less.

Thanks to the Australian, we can enjoy a semblance of balance in what we are told about events in this troubled region and a far superior coverage to that provided by a failing newspaper fast becoming a propaganda preaching arm for Middle Eastern terror movements that are not only a thorn in Israel's side but which, if allowed to prosper will continue to threaten the rest of the world.

UK apology over fake passports

Nazi-Gestapo chief Reinhard Heydrich. The world is in shock at the news that his British undercover assassins used fake IDs! The UK has belatedly and posthumously apologised to Adolph and the gang.

Martin Lewis reveals in Huffington Post that the United Kingdom has apologised for Using Fake IDs during a mission to kill Nazi SS Chief Heydrich.

The mission in May 1942 -- codenamed Operation Anthropoid -- took place in German-occupied Czechoslovakia (renamed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia by the Nazis). Two British-trained undercover operatives working for the UK's Special Operations Executive -- Jan Kubiš (a Czech soldier) and Jozef Gabčík (a Slovak paratrooper) -- were transported on a secret flight with other operatives to the market town of Nehvizdy near Prague in December 1941.

Given the nature of their mission -- to eliminate a vicious war-criminal who was proudly and openly committed to the annihilation of their nation -- all the members of the undercover squad were naturally given fake IDs. As was customary in such clandestine missions, they were given papers that used the names of real-life people.

The British government has now admitted that it would have been far better if SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich would have lived and continued being a leader of the Gestapo and key aide to Hitler in their mission to wipe the Jews off the map rather than causing a dozen people to have to apply for a new passport.

COP THIS

This week's assault on Israel is not only coming from the mealy mouthed media and quirky letter writers but even the AFP cops who are in Tel Aviv "investigating" Passportgate have gotten into the act - Australia cops probing Dubai passports involved in hit-and-run.

According to the report, the investigators spent the day at the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv where they planned to interview three dual nationals whose passports were forged and tied to the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.

As they left the embassy, their car, with Australian embassy license plates, struck a bicyclist and did not stop, ABC reported, adding that the woman was unhurt but wants an apology from the embassy and a new bike wheel.

One wonders why on earth aren't these blokes in Dubai where the alleged "evidence" (for want of a better word) sits in the hands of antiSemite Police Chief Tamim.

One also wonders why these blokes are in Tel Aviv anyway. After all, the Age's array of cartoonists, reporters and op ed writers have already found Israel guilty as charged. The only thing left was to follow up Julie Szego's hatchet job yesterday with a letter from an Age reader who doesn't think she went far enough:

Call for scepticism
IT IS a pity such a talented writer as Julie Szego applies her journalistic scepticism unevenly (Comment, 3/3). She correctly refuses to accept as proof circumstantial evidence presented by the Dubai police chief as to Mossad's culpability for the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. But she accepts as good coin what is said about Mabhouh.

It is not in dispute that he was a senior Hamas commander. But how could he have smuggled thousands of Iranian-made rockets into Gaza? The vast majority to have hit Israel were home-made Qassams. Had they been factory-made Iranian rockets with proper ordinances, they would have been more accurate and deadly. How could he have been involved in the use of children, or anyone else, as suicide bombers when he left the occupied territories before the first suicide bomber appeared on the scene, and spent most of 2003, one of the worst years for such bombings, in an Egyptian jail?

If Mabhouh was as important a villain to make him a legitimate target, why can't I find any reference to him in this paper before his death? Why can't I find any reference to him in the three main Hebrew dailies in Israel for the same 10-year period? Scepticism is called for in the claims of both sides.

Sol Salbe, Maidstone

Now I get it. We shouldn't accept anything written about al-Mabhouh (even his own confessions of malfeasance in numerous articles including interviews) but we must accept as proven that the Israelis were the murderers and that the Israelis used faked passports.

I can now understand exactly why the Age treats its readers as complete imbeciles because, if this correspondent, is an example, then that's exactly what they are!

Trageting Israelis and Jews

The already complex set of circumstances surrounding the death of Hamas arms procurer and self-confessed murderer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh received an added dimension with news overnight that Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan were complicit in his assassination.

According to a report in Al-Quds Al-Arabi quoted in the Jerusalem Post (Arabs may have targeted Mabhouh) Hamas official Mahmoud Nasser has said that "Jordanian and Egyptian intelligence agencies had probably tracked Mabhouh prior to his assassination" and that "there was evidence showing that Mabhouh had been targeted by moderate Arab countries because he had handled sensitive information concerning the activities of Hamas and other Islamist elements.

The news appears not to have altered the unshakeable belief of Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim that the Israelis "dunnit". He wants to issue arrest warrants against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his Mossad chief for the murder of al-Mabhouh but he has a problem. How can he get them into the country given he has issued an edict to bar the entry of Israelis into his country irrespective of whether they carry a passport from another nation. And he insists that he will develop profiling skills to recognise Israelis by "physical features and the way they speak." - Babylon & Beyond.

Worse still is the fact that when Tamim was interviewed in Arabic he showed his true colours with some openly racist remarks in the Khaleej Times (hat tip Elder of Ziyyon and Camera) - :

"He said we will train our personnel in the passport of the forms and features of the Jewish people and their names, noting that no one can hide their features of Jewishness. He asked the appropriate departments to prepare nationality and residency sessions to familiarize the staff with [Jewish] forms and names, especially since most Jews hold dual passports [with Israel.]"

He pointed out that the number of Jews, compared with the Europeans, is nothing, and even within Palestine itself."

So the man who is 99% sure that the Israelis doctored passports for use in Passportgate is a racist. That hasn't stopped the Fairfax media from accepting his so-called evidence. Today Leunig and staff writer Julie Szego joined the baying pack in the Age, both totally convinced by the racist Police Chief operating in a country that has no relations with but a lot of animosity towards Israel and the Jews.

These views are no doubt complicated now that Egypt and Jordan have also been implicated though I doubt we're going to hear much in the Fairfax Press about it or about Tamim's racist profiling. Nor will the Keystone Cops in Dubai seek to arrest Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah and there is no word from Canberra as to whether our Foreign Minister will be making a call to the Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors for a "please explain" session or whether they can throw some light on Passportgate.

THE INVERTED MORAL CODE

The irrepressible Kirschen asks a really vexing question. NATO jets attacked a convoy of cars thought to be a group of insurgents. Afghan officials say at least 21 people died in the attack, though the Afghan cabinet had reported that 27 people had been killed - all civilians. The targeted execution "could have serious diplomatic consequences for Israel" according to TIME Magazine although there is no proof that Israel was responsible. The one dead person was a known terrorist.

The first incident raised barely a yawn from anybody. The second has caused outrage.

We live in a world that has an inverted moral code.

THE AGE HITS THE RIGHT TARGET

Every once in a while the Age gets things right and the Sunday Age hit the target with some brilliant coverage of the Passport Affair on its opinion pages.

Sitting side by side were two articles - Hitting the wrong target by Sarah Honig and a rather dull, rambling little rant from Ross Burns. Burns is described in the foot note as "a former Australian ambassador" which sheepishly omits to add that his gig was to his beloved Syria (which would have partly explained to Age readers why this rather dull man leans far against the Israelis) - Hitting the wrong target - 2.

Honig's piece is heartfelt and cuts to the chase. Burns' offering is illogical and tendentious and failed to pass the readership test at the coffee lounge where I breakfasted yesterday - and that was in Fitzroy which you would think might be in the heart of the very territory where some peoples' sympathies might lie in the same place as Burns' dark heart. Not in this instance, folks!

The Sunday Age coverage made up for one of the most revoltingly filthy pieces of agitprop masquerading as cartoon work by Tandberg a day earlier in the Saturday edition. All one can now ask is - give your readership both sides please and leave the disturbed dawbings to your other propagandist Leunig who at least has a heart.