The devastated family of the BBC journalist Jihad Misharawi mourned the death of his 11-month-old son Omar, killed along with his sister-in-law when an Israeli mortar shell crashed through their house as the attacks escalated on Thursday.As it happens this has been proven to be yet another lie in the campaign against Israel – UN clears Israel of charge it killed baby in Gaza. Human Rights Watch blamed Israel without the slighest amount of investigation into the incident. It now turns out that it wasn't an Israeli mortar shell at all but an errant Hamas missile.
THE sad case of Ben Zygier, the Mossad agent who committed suicide in an Israeli prison in 2010, brings to the fore the strange pathologies in Australian opinion concerning Israel.He's no doubt referring to the likes of Ruth Pollard before going on to deal with Rudd and Carr:
It also underlines how badly the Labor government has gone off course in its conception of Israel, and Israel's place in the world.
Beyond Zygier, let me offer some examples of where Labor has got it wrong on Israel and then suggest the analytical mistake at the root of these missteps. Last year in a cabinet revolt, Julia Gillard was overridden on a key UN vote. Australia was set to vote no to elevating the status of the Palestinian Authority to an observer state at the UN. Carr and Rudd opposed Gillard's position (though Rudd was not a player in this vote). Under the baleful influence of Gareth Evans, a tremendously negative force on contemporary Labor foreign policy who offers only a bureaucratic version of conventional wisdom (and conventional wisdom is often wrong), Canberra changed its vote and abstained. In its own terms, this was a very bad move. There will never be a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute until both sides compromise over an agreement. This UN move, along with many tens of millions of dollars of increased Australian aid to the Palestinians, gives them something for nothing. It helps convince the Palestinian leadership that the way to success doesn't involve compromise and negotiation. Instead the international community will do their job for them. It is a destructive syndrome. ... Israel is Australia's friend and ally. The Labor Party used to know this and care about it. Joining in the popular kicking of Israel is not a sign of moral courage, though it will win plaudits from the usual suspects at the UN and in conventional international relations think tanks.
So there you have it. Leunig is not only a nasty piece of work and a hypocrite to boot but by his own admission, he's an idiot too!
How does a country deal with failed or failing state authority on four of its borders — Gaza, South Lebanon, Syria and the Sinai Desert of Egypt — each of which is now crawling with nonstate actors nested among civilians and armed with rockets. How should Israel and its friends think about this “Israeli experience” and connect it with the ever-present question of Israeli-Palestinian peace?
The Anti-Defamation Commission, a human rights organisation, felt that it could not tolerate such inexcusable expression.Thanks to the Australian for being decent enough to open those doors.
It asked The Age for an opportunity to provide a balancing response to Leunig's cartoon after it was directly attacked in another opinion piece that saw nothing troubling about Leunig's cartoon and instead accused the Jewish community of thoughtlessness and bitterness.
The ADC was told that The Age would not publish its objections because its claims about the cartoon were unreasonable.
So Leunig's "First they came for the Palestinians" is OK while offering a counterpoint is unreasonable.
Leunig accuses the Jewish community of closing doors.
That is exactly what The Age did.
In case anyone has any doubts about Meshal's message, this news quote says it all: Hamas leader vows never to recognize Israel.Speaking to foreign reporters, Mr Netanyahu accused the international community of double standards, condemning settlements that have not yet been built in the West Bank while standing quiet during a historic visit to the Gaza Strip by the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal.Making his first trip to the Hamas-ruled territory at the weekend, Mr Meshal delivered a series of speeches to throngs of supporters vowing to wipe Israel off the map. The visit underscored the rising clout of Hamas and regional acceptance since its eight-day conflict with Israel last month.Mr Netanyahu also directed his anger at the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, for not speaking out."This weekend the leader of Hamas, sitting next to the Hamas leader of Gaza, a man who praised Osama Bin Laden, this weekend openly called for the destruction of Israel. Where was the outrage? Where were the UN resolutions? Where was President Abbas?" Mr Netanyahu asked.
This is the same Meshaal who last month was interviewed by CNN's Christiane Amanpour and lied:GAZA: Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed on Saturday never to recognize Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory.
“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land,” he told a sea of supporters at an open-air rally, the highlight of his three-day stay in Gaza.
“We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take.”
In the last century another leader who was also an enemy of the Jews lied to the world about his intentions. Only fools like Leunig would accept such treachery to justify their attacks on the only true democracy in the region and its people. Try ducking out of that one!In an exclusive interview with CNN’s, Christiane Amanpour, in the Egyptian Capital, Cairo, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Khaled Mashal, stated that his movement is not behind the Tel Aviv bombing that took place Wednesday, and confirmed that Hamas accepts a Palestinian State in the 1967 territory, and is willing to join the nonviolent resistance.
