ASSOCIATED PRESS CALLS HANNIBAL LECHTER A NICE GUY

They do it with smoke and mirrors in the media these days and, if Karin Laub of Associated Press continues to be employed as a journalist with Associated Press, it won't be long before we're treated to a lovely puff piece describing Hannibal Lechter (pictured above) as "a wonderful human being".

That's my reaction after reading the contemptible drivel she produced about would be mass murderer of Jews, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Hamas' Haniyeh a popular politician.

It's enough to make me puke!

A MATTER OF HONOUR

Hamda Abu-Ghanem from Ramle was murdered by her brother in a typical "honour killing," meant to remove some perceived stain on the family's reputation.

Hamda was the eighth Abu-Ghanem woman in the extended family to be murdered in "honour killings" in the last six and a half years. The murderers are rarely convicted because of the shame involved within the family but the women of this family are speaking up about these outrages [read here].

The abominable practice of "honour killing" is widespread throught the Middle East but we rarely hear the voices of the group targetted by such conduct and the subject matter is taboo in much of the media in the Arab world.

It's time for the protests of these brave women to be heard not only in Israel but throughout the world!

RESPONSE TO THE MELBOURNE AGE

This is a story that I have taken from the Maan News a Palestinian news site (with thanks to the blogger elderofziyon) -

Birzeit graduate works on Tel Aviv light railway plan

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Issa Al-Zananiri, 25, is an engineering graduate of Birzeit University near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Originally from the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Hanina, Al-Zananiri applied after completing his undergraduate degree to study a Masters in Engineering at the Israeli 'Technion' Institute of Technology in Haifa.

At Technion, Al-Zananiri found himself under the supervision of a professor who had lost his father in an armed operation against an Israeli bus in Egypt in 1990. Issa only discovered the truth about the supervisor, Yoram Shifton, while preparing for his interview for acceptance on Tecnhion's higher education program.

Issa told the Israeli newspaper 'Yedioth Ahranoth', "I arrived at the interview with many fears interacting inside me but I only found in my supervisor cooperation and help, far from any aggressive atmosphere."

When Zananiri arrived at the "Technion" institute, he did not know Hebrew and so he began studying it from home, making use of dictionaries, the internet and television.

As Zananiri's family home is on the West Bank side of the wall that runs through the suburb of Beit Hanina, Issa also greatly relied on the help of his supervisor to obtain the necessary permit to enter Israel for his Masters. Shifton stood by him until he graduated and then helped him obtain a job in the company "BGL1", which specializes in public transportation planning and is responsible for the planning of the proposed light railway in Tel Aviv in Israel.

Issa said, "They accepted me to work with them without hesitation because of the recommendation of my higher studies' supervising professor".

Issa describes himself as a Palestinian who, during his studies at Birzeit University, opposed the bombing operations and even the throwing of stones at Israeli cars. He said that he is grateful for being absorbed into the Israeli community. He currently lives in an apartment with his brother in Haifa and works in Tel Aviv in the planning team of the city's trains.

The re-publication of this article is my response to the editor and staff at the Melbourne Age which continues to publish blood libels against the Jewish State in both articles and, in particular, in letters to the editor which falsely accuse Israel of being involved in "apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing" of its Arab population.

The Age knows that these claims are palpably false and yet exercises its discretion to publish such lies as one which appeared in today's edition. Michael Danby has pointed out in his critique of the peanut farmer's recent book ... "there are 1.4 million Arabs living in Israel, where they enjoy full political rights – there are 13 Arabs in the Knesset, one in the current cabinet, and one on the Supreme Court bench." The Palestinian population has doubled since 1988. So is this apartheid and is this ethnic cleansing?

The Age also does a good job of shielding Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas, which was elected to lead the Palestinians a year ago, from the accusation that their stated aims include not just destroying the Jewish State but killing Jews. I know this because I have received copies of letters to the editor which it saw fit not to publish.

Here's an example:-

"Ed O'Loughlin's chilling report on the stranglehold that Hamas has apparently taken over Gaza (The Age, 9/2) does not make good reading for those who hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hamas not only refuses to recognise Israel and to eschew violence, its charter makes it clear that its avowed aims are destroying the Jewish State and "killing the Jews". The ascendancy of such an organisation therefore makes the prospect of any peaceful and just solution for both sides a distant prospect."

The Age doesn't see fit to publish letters like this but gives us weekly servings of porkie pies from correspondents like Colin Sheppard of Essendon who today repeated the "ethnic cleansing blood libel" and then suggested that Israel runs the Palestinian refugee camps. That's another lie because the United Nations runs those refugee camps and they continue to exist to this day only because they are a useful propaganda tool for ignoramuses like Sheppard.

If Israeli apartheid really existed would a Palestinian newsagency ever be able to write a story like that of Issa Al-Zananiri?

GUARDIAN OF THE TRUTH?

The Guardian has given Hamas political bureau head Khalid Mish'al a voice to enable him to make the claim in Our unity can now pave the way for peace and justice, that the recent accord between Hamas and Fatah "gives the west the chance to break with its policy of blackmail and recognise Palestinian rights".

Mish'al brazenly tells us this lie in English when invited to write for a sympathetic newspaper - sympathetic to a Palestinian cause and sypathetic to the victimhood of Palestinian people, many of who live in dire conditions of poverty. Sympathetic to a people portrayed as an underdog.

So what's this "blackmail" story all about?

The "policy of blackmail" to which Mish'al refers is the Quartet's requirement that donor aid handouts to the Palestine Authority under Hamas be limited to humanitarian aid only until the PA renounces terrorism, recognises Israel and honours previous agreements made between Israel and the Palestinians.

Hamas continues to make it clear that it has no intention of accepting those requirements.

In short, what Mish'al wants is an end to a policy of "blackmail" that would allow a resumption of aid to the Palestinians while at the same time allowing Hamas to retain the right to blow up innocent civilians on buses, in schools, universities, cafes, shopping malls and discos and to fire missiles at Israeli homes - a right which many of his supporters even in the west accept as legitimate because the Palestinians are under "occupation".

Those supporters include correspondents on the Guardian's "comment is free" page who compound Mish'al's lies with some whoppers of their own - and the justification for it always boils down to Israel's so-called oppressive "occupation".

That's precious because there is no other group in the Middle East that has worked harder to perpetuate the "occupation" more than Hamas (and perhaps Islamic Jihad) which has always done its level best to head off all chances of peace with its own brand of violence including suicide bombings and other lethal attacks on Israeli civilians. Of course, none other than Mr. Khalid Mish'al has always been on hand to co-ordinate and direct the proceedings!

And just in case you're might be wondering what "occupation" means to people like Mish'al, here's what the man himself told Agence France Presse on April 18, 2004:-

"You must understand: liberation of the territories from the occupation is only one phase.... We do not distinguish between Palestine of 1948 and Palestine of 1967. Palestine is everything."

So you must understand that Mish'al means that ending "the occupation" means ending the Jewish State. That is why Hamas has resisted all efforts to bring about peace between Israel and the Pleastinians.

On top of that, Hamas isn't content just to put an end to the Jewish State. Its Charter invokes the serously anti-Jewish Czarist forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and advocates the killing of Jews. One level headed reader responding to the Mish'al's Guardian article describes it as "one of the most hateful and f***ing insane pieces of crap ever written."

This all shows that sometimes, you need to read between the lines when terrorist leaders write purporting to seek peace and justice for their people, because in this case, what Mish'al really means is that the objective is to destroy another people in the process.

SILENCE OF THE IMAMS

While Israelis are violently condemned by Muslims for carrying out digging works 100 metres away from the Al Aksa Mosque and pilloried in some parts of the media for doing so even thouh they are causing no damage at all, the Islamic authorities responsible for the area of Solomon's Stables and the Golden Gate along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount have permitted destructive activities of Jewish antiquities to take place on the site.

But there hasn't been a word of condemnation from anybody in the Muslim world about the digging that's been going on right under the Temple Mount for several years now.

So, in view of the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to let a Turkish team inspect the Israeli construction site near the Temple Mount compound, might it not be an opportune time for the Wafq to permit them to inspect what's been happening inside the site and under their watch?

APPLYING THE GAG

Emanuele Ottolenghi, who lectures Israel studies at Oxford University has written a compelling expose in The Guardian on the old/new debate about Jewish support for Israel generated by the British Independent Voices group and emulated by others in different parts of the world including Australia.

"Anyone who knows the Jewish world knows that such debates occur inside the Board of Deputies, synagogues and the Jewish press. Jews routinely debate Israel and other issues in any forum they wish, Jewish and non-Jewish. When Jews do not like available fora, they create new ones, as Klug & Co just did. Nobody stops them from getting their message across. Klug's argument appeared in the Guardian, not in an underground Samisdatz publication. Many of the IJV's signatories hold prominent positions, they are intellectuals who regularly ejnoy free and unfettered access to the public sphere. Their arguments about the Middle East are mainstream in European societies.

"So what's at stake here? The issue is not free speech, but representation. For better or worse, the British Board of Deputies in the UK, as well as other umbrella Jewish bodies across Europe are representative because, like PM Ehud Olmert and the government of Israel and unlike Klug & Co, they are elected."

Ottolenghi makes the point that "Anglo-Jewry is roughly 300,000 strong and Klug's troops are about 150". There is no reason to assume that the Loewenstein copy cat group would attract a higher proportion here in Australia and this probably explains why these people usually don't seek election or popular approval but rather chose to incessantly whine about their voices being stifled when that is not the case at all.

THEY SHOOT COLLABORATORS DON'T THEY?

In Palestine, gunmen belonging to Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party have executed a Palestinian man who allegedly foiled a suicide attack inside Israel.

In Lebanon, three people have been killed and about 20 wounded in two bomb blasts near the Christian mountain town of Bikfaya, north of Beirut.

In Irak, the toll from the combined force of three car bombs in Baghdad stands at more than 80 dead and almost 200 wounded.

In Algeria, seven bombs exploded east of Algiers killing six people in apparently coordinated attacks by suspected Islamic militants.

These are four stories from a world filled with violence but one of them is certain to be ignored by the Western media tomorrow.

I’ll let you guess which one makes the blank pages!

MENDING BRIDGES

Three years ago, a ramp which provides access to the Temple Mount's Mugrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem collapsed during a freak snowstorm. It was replaced by a temporary wooden structure and you can see from the picture above just how the ramp looks today.

Given the urgent need for repair, the Israelis drew up plans to remove this dangerous eyesore with a permanent replacement and the plans were duly approved a couple of weeks ago.

By law, any construction work in the Old City must be preceded by a salvage dig. Although, this dig is taking place in the Jewish Quarter, outside the Temple Mount, and in co-ordination with the Islamic Wakq, the Jordanian government and all other relevant authorities, some Muslims in the region have accused it of being part of an Israeli plan to undermine and destroy the Temple Mount.

This claim was made despite the fact that there is no expert evidence to suggest that the dig will do anything of the sort and despite the fact that, for years, Muslim authorities have been carrying out digs of their own inside the Temple Mount compound which they control.

And of course, despite the fact that Israeli law about construction in the Old City specifically states that the "Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings towards those places."

Inevitably, as often happens when Israelis innocently attempt to mend bridges between them and their Palestinian neighbours, the issue has become a platform for a propaganda campaign of hatred.

A consequence of this pervasive campaign has been the standard outpouring of rage in the Muslim world with some Muslims resorting to violence, threats and intimidation against Jewish interests unless the digging stops.

I agree that the digging should stop and, for the time being, Israel should forget about mending this bridge.

Instead, it should allocate the money it would have otherwise spent on repairing the structure in order to help feed its own poor and needy citizens.

In return, I expect the grateful Muslim world to chip in some dollars to repair and restore Jewish religious sites like Joseph's Tomb which was destroyed by rampaging mobs in the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Nablus in 2003.

After that, everyone in the region can start trying to again mend and build bridges.

A COURAGEOUS MUSLIM ENTERS THE OPEN DEBATE

In stark contrast to the Melbourne Age whose "journalists" spent this week variously moonlighting as mouthpieces for Hamas, PR managers for a small minority of rabidly anti-Zionists in Jewish communities and experts in the art of bridge repairs, the Australian Newspaper continues to show its class with some balanced reporting on the Middle East conflict.

Yesterday, in addition to its usually balanced coverage on the Hamas/Fatah "unity" government, the Australian published an excellent opinion piece from self-styled Muslim refusenik Irshad Manji which debunks the senseless claims made by Jimmy Carter in his latest effort of promoting his Saudi paymasters - the book entitled "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" (readers to this blog would be well aware that Carter's rant is #1 on the Islamic Jihad best seller list).

Manji argues very persuasively in "Modern Israel is a far cry from old South Africa" that it is absurd to apply the term to Israel, "one of the most progressive states in the world".

So-called "thinkers" like Carter and others like Antony Loewenstein, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt claim that they want open debate on the subject.

What have they to say to this?

"Of course, certain Israeli politicians have spewed venom at Palestinians, as have some Arab leaders towards Jews, but Israel is far more complex - and diverse - than slogans about the occupation would suggest. In a state practising apartheid, would Arab Muslim legislators wield veto power over anything? At only 20 per cent of the population, would Arabs even be eligible for election if they squirmed under the thumb of apartheid? Would an apartheid state extend voting rights to women and the poor in local elections, which Israel did for the first time in the history of Palestinian Arabs?"

Manji concludes with this statement:-

"The better question might be: who's willing to hear what they don't want to hear? That's the test of whether a country is more than black or white."

Indeed, that's what it's all about - we can hear and to read both sides in the Australian but the Melbourne Age hides a great deal of what we need to hear and read in its blank pages.

Which suits the likes of Carter, Mearsheimer, Walt and Loewenstein right down to a tee.

PRETTY PLEASE

According to the Reuters caption attached to the above photograph you're looking at masked Palestinian militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades asking a shop keeper in Hebron to close his store as part of a general strike to protest against Israeli excavations near the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. I understand most of the shop keepers of Hebron obliged on account of the polite manner in which the request was made because as, you can see, the guys at the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades are such nice folks!

THE FEAR OF BEING CALLED 'ANTI-SEMITIC'

The response to yesterday's beat up in the Melbourne Age was predictable.

As if on cue Dora McPhee wrote the following letter to the editor and it was duly published:-

The fear of being called 'anti-Semitic'

WHILE Andra Jackson's report on debate on Israel/Palestine in the Jewish community ( The Age, 7/2) indicates the stringent self-censorship that has occurred within that community, it fails to talk about the problem of criticism of Israel being a taboo subject in the wider community because people are fearful of being called anti-Semitic or of inciting anti-Semitism.

This has been an enormous problem in the Australian community: it has meant the Palestinian narrative of the injustice of their dispossession has barely been discussed. Because the media are complicit with this, the reporting of Israel's many human rights violations rarely get the coverage they should, that would make people sit up and think something very wrong is going on.

Dora McPhee, Melbourne

Poor Dora!

It seems that her concerns about being labelled an "anti-Semite" might just have been raised a little when she reviewed the contents of her previous correspondence to the same newspaper just nine days ago.

On the 31st January 2007 the Age published a letter written by Ms. McPhee (if that is indeed her name) in which Dora blamed Israel for the fact that Hamas and Fatah were firing at each other in Gaza (it's strange that people living in what is supposedly an "open air prison" can have access to so much firepower) and while she was at it, she decided to try her hand at some vilification as well by claiming that the Israelis were guilty of theft, that they coralled the Palestinians by policies of apartheid and that they committed "ethnic cleansing".

If she's right (and she's not) the Israelis have carried out this policy of ethnic cleansing so ineptly that they've allowed the Palestinian population to double in 25 years. That is a remarkable achievement and surely one that will hold pride of place forever in the Guinness Book of Records!

Now seriously, how does one conduct an open debate on a subject like Israel, Zionism and Palestine with idiots like Dora McPhee who, in all probability, really believe the drivel they come up with is properly categorised as "criticism of Israel" when it's clearly far more than that?

How can people maintain continuously that the Palestinians and their claims to dispossession are never discussed or that it's taboo to mention the subject when it's in your face in the media on almost a daily basis?

If you google the words "Palestinians"and "dispossession" or "Palestinians" and "human rights" you will come up with hundreds of thousands of entries. If you consult your back issues of the Age you will find an abundance of articles and letters discussing the subject.

So, is debate really being stifled because of anti-Semitism?

Yes it is, but not from those who support Israel.

I thank Daniel Lewis for this reference to a website Peace with Realism which notes:-

Ironically, the charge of anti-Semitism is now being used not so much to stifle criticism of Israel but to silence Israel's defenders. I read several newspapers every day, and I cannot recently recall anyone charging a critic of Israel with anti-Semitism unless that criticism actually was blatantly one-sided or based on a clear and demonstrable distortion of the facts. What I do read about and hear quite often are critics of Israel complaining that every time they open their mouths somebody is calling them an anti-Semite.

Also of interest on the subject of open debate on the Middle East, Melanie Phillips Diary has an entry today entitled Jews for Genocide in which she exercises her democratic right to criticise that collection of congenital Israel-bashers who have formed a small group calling themselves "Independent Jewish Voices".

Earlier this week Melanie was involved in a debate with an IJV (possibly on the subject of why there's no open debate on the Middle East?) which was a darn sight better than what jurist Alan Dershowitz got from addle brained former President and peanut farmer Jimmy Carter who won't debate his despicable book with anyone who has different views to those which he holds.

BEAT UP

Today's Melbourne Age contains a story that's a classic beat up.

It's about an alleged "breakaway" group from Australia's mainstream Jewish organisations which supposedly aims to encouraging 'open debate' within the Jewish community on the Middle East [New bid for 'open debate' on Israel].

The group being set up by Sydney author Antony Loewenstein is inspired by a British group of about 100 Jews (among a community of several hundreds of thousands) who recently set up the Independent Jewish Voices aimed at "challenging the dominance of Britain's long-established main Jewish organization" and opening debate over the conflict in the Middle East.

The article showcases Loewenstein's claim that there is no 'open debate' in Australia's Jewish community over Israel, Zionism and Palestine.

I don't know if there is a need in Britain for debate over the conflict in the Middle East but it is downright disingenous of Loewenstein to suggest that debate on the issue is stifled within the Australian Jewish community and further, it was poor journalism to present the story in the way in which it was written.

The most accurate part of the story can be found at the end when Jewish Community Council of Victoria President Anton Bloch is quoted -

"The reality is that there are diverse views in the community on different approaches to how Israel ought to defend itself within the underlying view that Israel has a right to defend itself."

The JCCV is the roof body of Jewish community organisations and includes the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (whose executive member Harold Zwier is quoted in the article) which is often critical of Israel's actions and policies.

The only Jewish community newspaper, the Australian Jewish News often publishes articles that question Israel's policies and its letters to the editor is full of lively debate on the subject.

The AJDS and other groups like Jews for a Just Peace and a handful of individuals like Loewenstein have been around for years consistently pushing the "no open debate" message.

Their voices have not been stifled and there has been ample debate within the community on the issue, debate which continues to this day. Their problem however, is that their views lack credibility. Further, their numbers are so small that they can conduct their meetings in a telephone booth.

While it might irk them that the great majority of the Jewish community rightly stands by its Israeli brothers and sisters in the face of attacks from Hamas, Fatah, Hizbullah and the Iranians who all want to "kill the Jews" (and that means Loewenstein is their target as much as I am), they are most welcome to conduct this debate on the issue anywhere and any time.

In the meantime, the Melbourne Age, which refused to cover the controversial Vorcheimer anti Semitism case last year, continues to treat the Australian Jewish community and its own readers with contempt by legitimising this very small group on the outermost fringes of Jewish society in this country.

JIHAD JIMMY A HIT WITH ISLAMIC JIHAD

Jihad Jimmy Carter - The hero of Islamic Jihad.

NO APOLOGY

Terry Lane, the accident-prone Sunday Age columnist, America-hater and Israel-basher is back from leave today writing about an apology.

The apology is the one properly given by Canadian PM Stephen Harper to Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen wrongly suspected of terrorism and taken by the Americans to the Palestine Branch Prison in Damascus where he was imprisoned and tortured for 10 months. In his column, Lane whines about our Prime Minister declaring "that ours is the greatest nation on earth" and ends with the question why does the US use the "the torture services of one corner of the 'axis of evil' to do its dirty work?"

A good question and very much standard line and length for Lane although he might have disappointed some of his readership by failing to take a swipe at Israel on this occasion.

He might also have asked another obvious question – why did the Syrians name one of their gaols "the Palestine Branch" – but that's another story.

The thing that was noticeably missing from today's effort however, was an apology from Lane for once again misleading his readers in the last of his pieces before taking his break.

You see, Lane was caught short committing another gaffe when he took newly elected ALP leader Kevin Rudd to task for having the temerity to continue to support the Australia-US alliance. He has had three weeks in which to compose an apology for the error and one wondered whether he might ask his readers for their forgiveness for such lack of professionalism. One can wonder all day about whether pigs can fly too!

Lane's most famous blunder came last year when he was taken in by a fake video recorded by fictitious US soldier Jesse Macbeth who had allegedly claimed to have been an American soldier in Iraq. Lane offered his resignation and followed that up with a rather self-serving and weak-kneed piece by way of explanation or more correctly justification [NO EXCUSES, I WAS TAKEN IN BY A FRAUD].

Of course, that part of the headline referring to "no excuses" was a bit of a sham but, in any event, the Sunday Age (predictably) didn't accept the resignation and Lane lived to push his various agendas another day. The result is that Lane can continue to embarrass his newspaper with further lame-brained efforts.

But Lane's latest gaffe pales when it comes to the ignorance he displays about his favourite whipping boy – Israel. He never misses an opportunity to stick the boots into Israel and l won’t bore you with his complete record.

When the Israelis defended themselves against the murder and kidnapping of its soldiers to the accompaniment of lethal cross border missile attacks from Hizbullah last July, Lane knew who to blame for what happened next.

According to Lane, the Israelis should have behaved as Australia did during the Bali bombing attacks – i.e. they should have copped it on the chin. Never mind that the Bali bombings were terrorist actions committed exclusively on Indonesian soil and the home country immediatley stepped in to detect and prosecute the perpetrators. In Lane's eyes, the two situations were sort of similar and that was enough for him. Even with deadly missiles raining down on its citizens, the Jews weren't allowed to defend themselves.

During the course of his pre-leave article, Lane couldn't help taking a dig at the Americans for "[U]ncritically backing Israel in its colonial expansion and thereby exacerbating the single greatest cause of anti-Western hostility in the Middle East?"

Really?

What Israeli colonial expansion?

Does that mean Israel's settlement policy in Gaza and the West Bank where the so-called "expansion" has become a contraction following its 2005 evacuation of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza (leaving it 'Judenrein' as required by the Palestinians) and four others in the West Bank?

Has Lane not caught up with the fact that the Israeli people elected their current government less than a year ago on a platform of disengaging from the West Bank either by agreement with the Palestinians and failing that, unilaterally?

That's some "colonial expansion" policy, isn't it?

But really, if Lane wants to read about colonial expansion (and "fascism" and "apartheid" and indeed all of the standard undergraduate catchcries he's become accustomed to over the years) then I would refer him to the Articles of the Hamas Charter and to the constitutions of the other Palestinian armed groups.

Getting back to Lane's claim that the US "unconditionally backed" Israel's so-called "colonial expansion" in the disputed territories, can someone answer this question: did Lane research this matter in the same way that he looked into the accuracy of the Jesse Macbeth story or the claim that "rangers at the world-famous Grand Canyon were banned from answering questions about the age of the park ‘because the truth will upset Bush's fundamentalist supporters'." ?

Possibly not because the truth about the US and Israel's settlement policies is that every adminstration starting with that of LBJ, through to those of Carter (soon to become Lane's favourite author I suspect), Reagan, Clinton and both Bushes have indeed been critical of those policies. [read here]

Lane once admitted to being guilty of the "unforgivable sin … of failing to check the facts".

You can judge for yourself and decide if he's done it again but my bet is that this time there will be no apology.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

"What's happening here in Palestine is good only for Israel, but what can we do?" asks a Hamas supporter in today's Melbourne Age article Hope gone, Palestinians turn on each other (the belated article on the broken ceasefire is the product of an anonymous author).

(Meanwhile, Ed's safely out of the way and back in TA or Jerusalem writing about the sleaze in Israeli politics)

What can the Palestinians do?

They can stop asking such stupid questions and stop dreaming of destroying a neighbouring state for starters.

They can stop playing the propaganda blame game against Israel and start doing positive things for their people.

They can start learning lessons from their past failures.

The Palestinians could have built a decent civil society in Gaza when the Israelis left the entire Gaza Strip in 2005. Instead they did nothing to prevent (indeed both Fatah and then Hamas encouraged) the firing of rockets at Israeli towns and villages across the border.

They could have used the vast international funds available to them to develop their economy instead of to smuggle tons of arms to continue the fight against the Jews.

They could have left intact the hothouses bought for them by well wishers to start an economy that would have gainfully employed large numbers. Instead they destroyed them and left the area bare and desolate.

They could have lived up to and honoured their obligations under the Road Map they signed in 2003 - allegedly "without reservations". They could have kept their written promise to disarm and arrest terrorists and to end incitement against Israelis instead of repudiating it before the ink had dried.

To the dismay of most of the world, they did nothing other than continued on with their futile "armed struggle" - a viscious and hateful campaign of propaganda aided and abetted by their media friends who helped put them where they are now - with hope gone.

The media buddies like O'Loughlin still don't get it.

The big O recently ended an article on the situation before the last farcical ceasefire laying the blame for Hamas' failure to revive the Palestinian economy on Israel - "Israeli closures of Gaza and West Bank checkpoints have left it unable to implement promised economic and administrative reforms." [here] In all probability, he really believes this to be true.

But O'Loughlin has never produced any evidence whatsoever that Hamas had any real intention when elected of reviving the Palestinian economy either in the West Bank or in Gaza or whether Hamas even tried. Where were the plans, where were the policies?

After all, the Israeli closures of Gaza and the West Bank checkpoints haven't prevented the Palestinians from building up the arms and weaponry that we see on our television screens paraded around Palestinian streets by Hamas and Fatah goons. They haven't prevented the production of the Quassam rockets fired daily at Israeli homes across the border from now unoccupied territory into areas that were never "occupied".

So what's stopping the Palestinians from developing a decent civil society?

Perhaps it's the fact is that Hamas has one simple, discrete platform and that's contained in its Charter ("Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it"). And the same can be said of the other armed terrorist groups.

Ed would do well to read the Charter one day if he wants to discover why, at present, the Palestinian people have no hope.

GEORGE ORWELL AND PALESTINIAN CEASEFIRES

Sub-editors at various newsagencies around the world are having a field day trying to dream up headlines to describe the sagging ceasefire put in place between warring Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah.

The Guardian - as always good for a laugh - has this one:-

CEASE-FIRE HOLDING IN GAZA, MORE OR LESS

Here are a few more:-

The Toronto Sun - KILLING OPENS GAZA TRUCE

The Scotsman - PALESTINIAN TRUCE, BUT KILLING GOES ON

Reuters - PALESTINIAN TRUCE HOLDS DESPITE ATTACKS

USA Today - HAMAS, FATAH DECLARE NEW CEASE-FIRE; FIGHTING CONTINUES

Some classic British understatement from the BBC - MIDEAST PRESS SCEPTICAL OF PALESTINIAN TRUCE

Even Israel's Ha'aretz can't help getting in on the act:-

GAZA TRUCE NEAR COLLAPSE AS SIX KILLED IN CLASHES

The story is about how six Palestinians were killed and at least 65 were wounded (including two children) yesterday during renewed clashes in the central Gaza Strip between armed Hamas and Fatah militants.

One wonders how many people have to be killed in clashes before a truce has really collapsed rather than being "near collapse"?

How different would the above headlines and the stories have been had two Palestinian children died in fighting between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli troops during the course of a ceasefire?

And the Melbourne Age's Ed O'Loughlin - is he in the thick of things inside Gaza with some on the spot reporting from deep inside some refugee camp or is he still sipping pina coladas in an Eilat Hotel?

So where the hell is Ed?

THE OTHER CHEEK

I know very little about blogger Andrew Landeryou of The Other Cheek but he has Ed O'Loughlin of the Melbourne Age well worked out. This is what he has written about O'Loughlin's most recent attempt at belting the victim (remember O'Loughlin's article was ostensibly about the murder by a suicide bomber of three innocent civilians in a bakery in Eilat, a southern Israeli resort town):

LIES, DAMNED LIES AND FAIRFAXISTA STATISTICS

Beefy Fairfaxista Ed O'Loughlin (allegedly found roaming free in Belgian Congo and domesticated by Fairfax Media) has been kicking Israel again, this time through the use of statistics presented without any context or background.

It's a nice trick. An oldie but a goodie, the OC Propaganda Department frequently embraces the technique on occasion. A writer on a par with Steven Lewis, Mark Twain once wrote that there are "lies, damned lies and statistics."

Honest Reporting which reviews the world media for dishonest, biased and selective reporting about the Middle East was scathing about O'Loughlin.

FROM SUNNY EILAT COMES THE DARKNESS OF FAIRFAX DECEIT

And his recent report exemplified the Twain doctrine, filed from the resort town of Eilat in Israel where no doubt he forced down multiple cocktails in luxury with fellow scribes while bemoaning the shocking plight of the Palestinian people, he wrote:

"Yesterday's attack ends a long period of quiet within Israel.

"According to the Israeli human rights group B'tselem, killings of Israeli citizens in the occupied territories and Israel reached a low of 23 last year, including six soldiers. In the same period the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces rose to 660, B'tselem found, half of them non-combatants and 141 of these minors."

Why was that? Why have Palestinian terrorists slipped below the Osama bin Laden Killing Spree Index Worldwide Terror Benchmark?

It'd be that pesky Israeli security fence, the one the Left would love to present as a symbol of repression. Unlike their Berlin Wall which kept people from escaping socialist tyranny, the security fence is designed to keep killers out.

And it's working. Big time. Read more and curse those who misrepresent the wall as "apartheid", a disgusting insult to the victims of apartheid in South Africa. Checking international borders is not unique to Israel, it's just when the Jews do it. Jew haters like to paint it as some expression of Neo Nazi totalitarianism. It'd be hippy-great to live in a world without Customs or passports or whatever but that day is a long way off. Countries that are in the terrorist's crosshairs, like Israel, the United States, Australia, anywhere where civilisation prevails, are entitled and obliged to protect themselves and their people.

ARE YOU A RACIST OR DO YOU JUST HATE JEWS?

The right to self-defence is widely accepted although in Israel's case too frequently questioned including by those who would be horrified to be told they're anti-semites. Look in the mirror a little closer lefties. Is your hatred of America driving you into the arms of a double standard about Israel that can only be explained in a race-hate context.

Dora McPhee probably doesn't think she hates Jews but she certainly is dripping with venom about the Jewish state. Her letter published today in the left-wing press:

Turning Palestinian against Palestinian

READING Ed O'Loughlin's report "Palestinian unity hopes collapse in violence" ( The Age, 9/1), it is no wonder Palestinians are starting to turn on each other. (OC1: I'll make a wild prediction. It's must be Israel's fault right?)

In fact, it is extraordinary that for their nigh-on-60-year struggle for a just solution to their dispossession they have managed to avoid descending into civil war (OC: Yes they've been so united while shooting each other for decades) despite suffering an extraordinarily unjust dispossession of their land, nearly 40 years of Israel's military occupation of the remaining 22 per cent and a continued theft of their land while they are corralled by Israel's apartheid policies. (OC: Must invite her in to do a consultancy on invective)

All the while, they have seen how the West, led by the US, has colluded with Israel in its further dispossession and "ethnic cleansing" of what remains of Palestine. (OC: She calls it Palestine, presumably supports a two-state solution, and yet thinks Israel imposes "apartheid" by checking the borders of the "two nations". Logic is rarely allowed to get in the way of a good story at The Aged)

But finally the Israel-US coalition has found a way to make the Palestinians turn on each other (OC: JK Rowling move over) by arming and funding Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party while punishing the whole population with a crippling boycott that has strangled the Hamas-led Government they dared to vote in. (OC: Nice to see she's even bought into the Palestinian faction fight herself. Are the Jews also to blame for her divisive rhetoric?)

This must surely be a cynical exercise in creating the landscape for a civil war. It will not bring peace to Israel, but it will buy it more time to create more facts on the ground with its ethnic restructuring of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. (OC: The last sentence did not translate well from the original German)

Dora McPhee, Melbourne

Lieutenant Dan of the OC Investigations Unit (pushing for promotion to Field Marshal with recent efforts) pointed out this unpleasant material and makes the compelling point:

Yes, reading O'Louglin's bile probably WOULD leave "no wonder". However, it would also leave one with the impression that EVERYTHING in the world is Israel's fault, including (but not limited to) Palestinians killing each other, Shea and sunni Muslims killing each other, Janjaweed Arabs Killing Africans in Darfur, Lebanese Muslims Killing their fellow Christians in Lebanon and more than 20 worldwide conflicts from Thailand to Chechyna invloving Muslims with not a Jew nor American in sight (but let's blame them anyway).

Game on.

Here's some more foood for thought on the same subject matter from an ICJS subscriber:-

O'Loughlin wasted no time in turning the story of a suicide bombing murder of three Israelis into a story about the deaths of Palestinians during the course of an asymmetrical war being waged mainly against Israeli civilians.

In that regard, whilst the death of non-combatants is regrettable, O'Loughlin presents a scenario whereby it's Israel that is totally to blame for the deaths of the non-combatants.

What he conveniently omits to divulge to his readers is that there is considerable doubt as to non-combatant numbers (most terrorists wear civilian clothing and therefore are often wrongly classified as non-combatants) and then there's the issue of terrorists putting non-combatants in harm's way because they operate in breach of humanitarian laws from civilian areas. That makes the terrorists responsible for all of the deaths - there's no need to distinguish whether they are combatants or not.

Unfortunately, the shameful way in which O'Loughlin reports on the conflict makes it almost respectable for the Dora McPhees of the world to spread their bile and froth at the mouth about alleged Israeli injustices against the Palestinians as she did in yesterday's letter to the Age. The letters editor of the Age surely has sufficient knowledge about the Middle East to know that Ms. McPhee's letter was nothing more than a piece of vile agitprop with little factual foundation. That he/she allowed such crap to be published in the first place, tells us a lot about the dark place that he/she and this once great newspaper now inhabits

I think these sum up how contemptible The Age has become in its coverage of the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbours.

"KISS, MAKE UP, KILL THE JEWS"

Ha'aretz opinion writer Bradley Burston has it right on the button when he assesses the latest suicide murder by a Palestinian terrorist in Eilat in When Jihad says 'Kiss, make up, and kill the Jews'.

"Let this much be said: Israel has never devised - not in Dimona, not in underground RAFAEL plants - a weapon against the Palestinian national movement that is anywhere near as effective as the Palestinian's own suicide bomber.

Let the comments fly in, from bottomlessly self-congratulatory supporters of Palestinian statehood in Australia, New Zealand, Berkeley, from all those places where white people like yourselves exterminated indigenous populations with impunity. And stole the land on which your condo was built.

I support a Palestinian state no less than you. But if you spin your impassioned defenses of suicide bombing as a necessary tactic - a natural tactic - a natural response, you'll be spinning that line, and waiting for an independent Palestine, for much longer than any Palestinian should ever have to wait."

I will add only this. When Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum praises the suicide bombing and calls this legitmate resistance against "occupation" he is lying if you think he means occupation only of lands captured by Israel in 1967. The Hamas Charter makes it very clear that its resistance is against the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

WARNING: The talkback section contains the product of enough ranting to fill an asylum and I'm talking about extremists on both sides. It's worth visiting only in order to obtain an insight into perhaps why peace in this region is so difficult to achieve.

INTIFADA LIES

Over the past six or so years since the Palestinians launched the so-called "second intifada" there have been numerous claims from the Israeli side that terrorists were using mosques, hospitals and even schools as bases for attacks on Israelis.

The media is usually sceptical of such claims so it's interesting to note the words of Associated Press Reporter Ibrahim Barzak in Hamas-Fatah violence continues; 20 dead:-

"Before dawn Saturday, Hamas gunmen fired mortars at the Abbas-allied Preventive Security Service headquarters and at the home of the force's chief, Rashid Abu Shbak, officials said.

In fighting around the compound on Friday, six Hamas gunmen were killed and a seventh died Saturday of wounds sustained in that battle, said Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha.

He accused Fatah loyalists of storming a mosque near the security headquarters and executing a senior Hamas activist inside while he was reading the Quran, the Muslim holy book. On Saturday, blood stains were still visible on the mosque's carpet and the bathroom tiles.

Fatah denied it had stormed the mosque, but said Hamas gunmen had used the mosque as a base for attacking the security headquarters."

PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS KILLING EACH OTHER

One of the bloodiest days of fighting between rival Palestinian terror factions Hamas and Fatah has culminated in fourteen deaths in the West Bank and Gaza as fighting reached new heights in deadly gunfire.

A two year old boy was killed when caught in the crossfire. With no Israelis in the immediate vicinity to blame for the death, Hamas and Fatah officials "accused each other of firing the deadly shot" [read here].

Indeed, despite the loss of life by at least one innocent Palestinian civilian, the absence of any Israelis anywhere near the scene of the fighting appears to have diminished the newsworthiness of the whole story to the outside world.

PERSECUTING PALESTINIANS

The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reports from Bethlehem that a "number of Christian families have finally decided to break their silence and talk openly about what they describe as Muslim persecution of the Christian minority in this city."

Despite the headline "Bethlehem Christians claim persecution", Abu Toameh's story is unlikely to make it into Australian newspapers like the Melbourne Age. Could it be that the wrong people are doing the persecuting?

And on the subject of persecution that's going on unnoticed, it seems that Irak's Palestinian population is suffering badly at the hands of the thugs in Muqtada al Sadr's mainly Shiite Mahdi Militia. Since the Coalition of the Willing's invasion in 2003 hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Irak and yesterday Palestinian sources reported that 27 Palestinian refugees were kidnapped in several areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad on Tuesday morning.

It seems they some folks in Baghdad don't like the mainly Sunni Palestinians. They suspect some of them of being involved with other foreign insurgents who have bombed Shiite population centres and buildings including mosques and resent them because of alleged favourable treatment received under Saddam Hussein.

Although the cause of the Palestinians in Irak has been taken up by human rights organisations, their story doesn't rate in the western media which tends to focus more on the fact that the whole of Irak has become a quagmire for George W. Bush and his dwindling band of allies.

The reason for the lack of interest by the media?

Could it be that the wrong people are doing the persecuting?

HOW TO BECOME A TERRORIST

This bizarre tale gives us an insight into the very simple criteria which Associated Press uses to determine who is a terrorist [read here].

The Palestininian Arab, who converted to Judaism, is an Israeli Jew now facing charges of conspiring to carry out a terror attack.

His brother, who remained a Moslem, is described as a "militant".

ANOTHER SHEIKDOWN!

Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali isn't the only Muslim cleric with Australian connections who has a big mouth and racist tendencies.

Sydney's most influential radical Muslim cleric, Sheik Feiz Mohammed, has been caught on film calling Jews pigs and urging children to die for Allah [Jews are pigs, says Muslim cleric].

The Sheik who is now based in Lebanon (possibly out of necessity) has a DVD out that positively spews out hatred and calls on his devoted followers to die for the Muslim cause.

The DVD is doing great business in Britain where the likes of Feiz Mohammed are generally welcomed and embraced by such people as London mayor Ken Livingstone and Respect Party MP George Galloway.

Why am I not surprised?

THE ARAB LOBBY [IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT PEANUT OIL]

There's been a lot written and a lot more said about the so-called "Israel Lobby" but it's about time the world focussed on what the Arab Lobby is doing and what it's buying these days.

The world's best known criminal lawyer, Alan M. Dershowitz has exposed America's worst ever President Jimmy Carter in Ex-President for Sale.

"It now turns out that Jimmy Carter--who is accusing the Jews of buying the silence of the media and politicians regarding criticism of Israel--has been bought and paid for by Arab money."

Poor old peanut farmer Jimmy refuses to debate the issues raised in his extended rant against Israel disingenuously entitled "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid".

No wonder!

THE ILLUSIONISTS?

The trick is to convince the world that Hamas is not an intransigent organisation that refuses to recognise Israel and is therefore worthy of gaining the world's respect.

Here's how it's done:

In today's Melbourne Age there's a report from Conal Urquhart taken from The Guardian and Reuters headed "New line on Israel from Hamas chief".

It starts this way:

"HAMAS accepts the existence of the state of Israel but will not officially recognise it until the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, according to the exiled Hamas leader in Damascus, Khaled Meshaal.

"In an interview, Mr. Meshaal softened his anti-Israel rhetoric, suggesting that Hamas does not seek the destruction of Israel as written in its charter. He said that Israel is a 'reality' and 'there will remain a state called Israel — this is a matter of fact". He added: 'The problem is not that there is an entity called Israel. The problem is that the Palestinian state is non-existent'."

Was this a breakthrough in Hamas thinking or was it part of a Hamas PR campaign aimed at softening the international funding embargo that will be lifted only when the Hamas-led Palestinian government renounces violence and recognises Israel and all previous agreements made between the Jewish State and the Palestine Authority?

Well, it didn't take long for Hamas to reveal its true position. A Hamas government spokesperson Ghazi Hamad told Ha'aretz that what Meshaal really meant was, "Israel exists - and that's a fact" but "there was no change in our stance that Hamas does not recognize Israel."

Salah Bardawil, head of Hamas's parliamentary faction, said he checked Meshaal and it seems that his words were twisted and distorted.

"He didn't speak about any recognition of Israel, only a cease-fire with Israel," Bardawil said.

As for that controversial part of Hamas Charter 7 that calls for the killing of Jews ... well, nobody from Hamas or its apologists around the world wants to go there at all.

The fact remains that Hamas is still bent on making Israel disappear and thankfully, no amount of fancy work with smoke, mirrors or the help of the Guardian, Reuters and the Melbourne Age for that matter will help it achieve this aim.

POSTSCRIPT: THE MAHMOUD ABBAS ILLUSION

When you compare Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with the folks at Hamas, lately he has come across as a veritable peacenik.

The Americans and the Europeans have been running around telling us about his peaceful intentions and only recently Abbas scored lots of weapons to arm his boys and help them keep the peace among the warring factions in Gaza and the West Bank.

Now the peaceloving Abbas is calling on Palestinians to refrain from internal fighting and to direct their guns only against Israeli 'occupation' (read here).

This is a double Palestinian illusion. The first is the one that deals with Abbas the peacenik and the second is about the 'occupation'.

In a former life Abbas was the Palestinian Prime Minister who signed on to the Road Map to Peace without any reservations in June 2003. A month or so later he was ready to repudiate that agreement by saying he wasn't in a strong enough position to disarm terrorist groups.

These days the trick is hard to perform when you advocate that your armed groups should use their arms against Israelis.

Hamas and Fatah may have been getting some guidance recently from Australian Grand Mufti Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali. The Sheik been visiting the Egyptians and is advising them of the magical ways in which he promotes the cause of peace and co-existence in Australia. Some people believe him as much as they do Meshaal, Abbas and co.

THE PALESTINIAN PURSE

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Daily Alert of 8 January 2007 contains this aticle from the Hebrew version of Maariv (5 jan 06) by Ben-Dror Yamini

"What Did the Palestinians Do with Their 'Marshall Plan'?

The Palestinians have bought themselves a place of honor on the list of unfortunates in the world. A well-oiled public relations campaign has turned them into a nation of victims. Misery pays. One of the countries hated by the Palestinians the most, the United States, has since 1993 helped them more than any other nation in the world, according to World Bank figures.

From 1994 to 2004, the U.S. provided the Palestinians with $1.3 billion, the EU $1.1 billion, and Japan $530 million. In addition to direct aid, the U.S. is also the largest contributor to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

In 1992, the Palestinian per capita GDP was $2,683 per person. If there had not been terror, the Palestinian economy could have grown during the 1990s into one of the leaders in the Middle East. The money was used for three major purposes: perpetuation of the refugees as victims, purchase of weapons and explosives, and corruption. Opportunities to achieve independence and prosperity were rejected for the ultimate goal: the removal of Israel from the map.

In relation to their numbers, the Palestinians have received more aid than provided by the Marshall Plan after World War II. Since the Oslo agreements, the Palestinians in the territories have received $5.5 billion, or $1,300 per person. By comparison, in the Marshall plan, each European enjoyed only $273 (in today's numbers). Above all, the guilt lies with those who gave these huge sums without having the Palestinians undergo a period of recovery from their futile dreams of the destruction of Israel. The result is, primarily, the continued destruction of Palestinian society."

JIMMY CARTER IS A LIAR, A RACIST AND A BASTARD

Well, that statement is probably not accurate but I'm taking the lead from the man himself by giving my short review of his recent book what might well be a totally misleading title.

One of America's most inept Presidents (and there have been a few), Jimmy Carter, has written a new book for which he (or one of his advisers) decided to bestow the title "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid".

I got the impression that he was making an attempt in the book to discuss Israeli policies and the Israeli security barrier but with Carter you can never be sure.

Although, the title might suggest to some that Israel (or perhaps Palestine?) is an apartheid state, he makes it clear deep into this rambling and error filled rant that "the driving purpose for the forced separation of the two peoples is unlike that in South Africa -- not racism, but the acquisition of land."

This, of itself, is already a concession that Israel is not an apartheid state and that book title is therefore as misleading as most of the arguments which Carter presents.

And that's before the fact that Israel's security barrier was established not to grab land but to stop Palestinian suicide bombers from killing Israelis (irrespective of whether those Israelis be Jewish, Arab or anyone else who happens to be around).

And that's before the fact that 20% of Israel's population is Arab and has equal rights to representation in Israel's Knesset, in its courts and social service systems

And that's before the fact that the covenants and the charters of the various armed Palestinian groups arrayed against Israel clearly state that their aims are to destroy the Jewish state and to kill Jews and before the fact that these groups have demanded that Gaza and the West Bank are made "Judenrein".

In short, Jimmy's book is garbage.

Even if he isn't a liar or a racist or a bastard, he certainly is a coward who won't debate his ideas with eminent American jurist Alan Dershowitz (read here).

"When Larry King referred to my review several times to challenge Carter, Carter first said I hadn't read the book and then blustered, 'You know, I think it's a waste of my time and yours to quote professor Dershowitz. He's so obviously biased, Larry, and it's not worth my time to waste it on commenting on him.' (He never did answer King's questions.)"

Like many apologists for the Israel bashing cause, Carter would prefer to discuss and debate his views only with those who he considers not to be biased i.e. those with whose views he agrees.

In this manner, the truth must be left for those who read the blank pages.

THE GLORY OF SPORT

Q: How far away is peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours?

A: In running terms, further than the distance of the longest Olympic footrace if the attitude of the tiny but oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain is any guide.

Last week, Kenyan born runner Mushir Salem Jawher won Israel's Tiberias Marathon and after the race he spoke of how "people should live together in harmony."

For this, he was stripped of his Bahraini citizenship (read here).

Jawher, has for the time being escaped the fate of Bangla Deshi Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper, who was arrested last year on sedition charges for his alleged association with Israel and his criticism of the spread of Islamist militancy in Bangladesh. The maximum penalty for this offence is death or 30 year’s imprisonment. Choudhury is still awaiting trial (read here).

Unfortunately, even in this sports mad country, we won't be reading much in our newspapers about either Jawher, or Choudhury. Apparently, their stories pale into insignificance next to the obsession the media has for the injustices that have been heaped upon Saddam Hussein and David Hicks.

EN GHADA

Ghada Karmi, a research fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, writes for the Guardian and is an occasional interviewee on BBC World News where she generally blathers on endlessly about the evils of the Israelis or the Americans.

In her latest Guardian article, which was reprinted in the Melbourne Age as Humiliation at the end of a rope, she claims to be shocked at Saddam Hussein's execution and asks "what was the executioner's hurry?"

To her mind, part of the reason was to stop Saddam "revealing secrets about the West's past enthusiasm in supporting and arming his regime. Hence he was tried on the relatively minor charge of killing 148 people in the village of Dujail..."

Could anybody possibly believe that such tripe can emanate from a so-called academic?

The claim that the West supported and armed Saddam while he was waging his war on Iran, which incidentally claimed hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides, is not new and is definitely not a secret. It has been repeated often and it it isn't accurate and wouldn't worry or embarrass America or Britain one iota. The fact is that while Saddam gained a small measure of support from the U.S.A, he was principally armed at the time by the Russians and the French and we know that they had nothing to do with America's war in Irak - in fact they did their level best to prevent it.

And Ghada might believe by her standards that the killing of 148 Kurds was small peanuts but she should tell that to the relatives of those who Saddam and his henchmen murdered, gassed, bombed, tortured, maimed and otherwise harmed during his reign as the Iraki dictator.

Of course, such matters are always peanuts for the pathological advocates of the cause of Palestinian terror in the British media.

For them, the victims of suicide bombings and Quassam rocket attacks are also relatively minor matters to be conveniently airbrushed out of any discussion on the situation in this part of the world.

AFTER KOFI - THE MAN IN THE MOON

Here we go again!

According to Ban Ki-Moon, the new secretary-general of the United Nations, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is at the core of solving all the problems in the Middle East (read here).

It's comforting to know that Sunni insurgents in Irak will stop blowing up Shi'ites and vice versa just as soon as the Israelis and the Palestinians can kiss and make friends.

Likewise, Arab women will be free from honour killings, the Sudanese government and the militias it supports will put an end to their genocidal killing in Darfur and Hizbullah will stop blowing up anyone who disagrees with it in Lebanon.

And pigs will fly over the moon.

PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS IN AUSTRALIA 30 YEARS AGO

Today's Melbourne Age reveals that 30 years ago Palestinian Terrorists plotted the assassination of Bob Hawke for his pre-Israel sympathies Terrorists plotted Hawke assassination: ASIO.

In the mid '70's ASIO identified Palestinian terrorists planning to kill the then ACTU leader Hawke, the Israeli ambassador and prominent Jewish figures including Isi Leibler and Sam Lipski.

ASIO also said there was "evidence that Palestinian terrorists had a continuing operational interest in Australia and a small number of individuals in the local Palestinian-Arab community might be prepared to provide auxiliary support for a terrorist attack."

Anyone who might have witnessed recent anti-Israel demonstrations, with their attendant anti-Jewish hatred and Nazi symbolism, would be left in no doubt that the threat has not subsided over the past thirty years.

UNSILENT

Jerusalem Post Editor David Horovitz discusses A Terrible Silence. He quotes former Canadian Justice Minister and Attorney General, Irwin Cotler:-

"On no occasion has the UN acted to prevent a genocide. Regrettably, we've had genocide again and again. Either action has come too late or there has been no intervention at all.

"Darfur is a genocide in the making. The media is still using the 2002 figure of 200,000 dead. Actually, 450,000 have already died. The media is still reporting 2.5 million displaced people. It's 4 million according to the UN's former humanitarian aid coordinator. There are mass atrocities - mass rape, forced expulsions, the bombing and burning of villages. In 2005, the UN passed a resolution banning Sudanese offensive flights. It has not been enforced. In August, the Security Council mandated the establishment of a multi-national protection force. It has not been established.

"In Darfur, the world knows and it is not acting. In Rwanda, the world knew and didn't act and 800,000 people were killed."

And then we have Iran and Hizbullah ... and on that note we say goodbye today to Kofi Annan.

A WAR CRIMINAL IS DEAD

The brutal murderer responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths was hanged this morning.

Saddam Hussein, the demented animal who perpetrated atrocities, who murdered, gassed, maimed, raped, tortured and brutalised his own people and his neighbours, who fired scud missiles at Tel Aviv and Haifa, who paid the families of suicide bombers to console them in their grief, who wanted nuclear weapons and who planned genocide, is dead.

Saddam has long ago been replaced by others with the same brand of hatred in their hearts - some of them met recently in Iran. The prime target this time was the Jews of Israel but everyone, everywhere is under threat from these people and their evil plans.

Sadly therefore, the world is not a safer place today for the departure of the Butcher of Baghdad.

HELLO

HIZBULLAH PAYING FOR KASSAM ATTACKS

THE REAL BETHLEHEM

Here's a link to an article on the website of Judy Lash Balint which, contrary to what some of you might have read in your local newspaper about the situation in Bethlehem, is an honest eyewitness acoount:-

Letter from Bethlehem: Christmas 2006

WHAT DO PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS FEAR?

The Melbourne Age published an opinion piece by a Palestinian Christian Abe Ata today. Entitled "Christians are vanishing from the land of their origin" it expresses the author's concern at the declining number of Christians living under the Palestine Authority rule.

The author blames the Israelis for this as much as Hamas or the Palestine Authority. There's no mention of the fact that after the formation of the Hamas government, a fatwa was issued against the YMCA in the West Bank town of Qalqilya. Unknown gunmen set fire to the building in September. No mention of the violent attacks against Christian holy sites in the PA territories in recent years including a grenade attack on the oldest church in Gaza and the burning to the ground of a 170-year-old church in Tulkarm. No mention of Hamas' failure to honour a promise of funding for the City of Bethlehem's Christmas celebrations.

No money?

Of course not.

Hamas is using what money it can smuggle into its coffers to build up its weapons supplies, to pay its own bureaucrats and to develop its worldwide propaganda network. The Palestinian PR machine even managed to convince the Archbishop of Canterbury to scapegoat Israel for the appalling situation of Christians under PA rule - even when no evidence exists to support such claims. The truth lies more closely in views expressed by Tony Pearce, Pastor of The Bridge Christian Fellowship as quoted by Melanie Phillips in her Diary. Responding to Rowan Williams' attack on Israel he wrote:-

"Dear Dr. Williams,

I have read the article in ‘The Tablet’ in which you speak about people leaving Bethlehem in large numbers and then ask the question: ‘I would like to know how much it matters to the Israeli Government to have Christian communities in the Holy Land. Are they an embarrassment or are they part of a solution? That’s a question.’

No doubt the Israelis have already given you their answer, perhaps informing you that the Christian Arab population within the pre 1967 borders of Israel has grown from approximately 34,000 in 1948 to nearly 130,000 in 2005. Ironically this is the only part of the Middle East where the Christian population is growing.

You should really have asked the Palestinian Authority how much it matters to them that there are Christian communities in their territory. The main reason for the departure of Christians from PA administered territories is the religious persecution, murder and land grabs which stems from the increased Islamisation of the region. This is the result of the PA adopting Muslim religious law in the territories in contrast to Israel which safeguards the religious freedom on its citizens.

You have nothing to say about the likes of George Rabie, featured in a recent article in the Mail on Sunday who is a taxi driver from Bethlehem and was beaten up by Muslims using his cab when they discovered he is a Christian. He said 'Every day, I experience discrimination. It is a type of racism. We are a minority so we are an easier target. Many extremists from the villages are coming into Bethlehem.'

Nor have you championed the cause of those who have been subjected to forced marriages of Christian women to Muslim men, received death threats for distributing the Bible to willing Muslims, or been intimidated into wearing traditional ultra-modest Islamic clothing. Nor have you written about the churches which have been firebombed by Muslim extremists protesting against the remarks of the Pope (most recently in Nablus, Tubas, and Gaza). Nor about the situation in which Christian Arabs have found their land expropriated by Muslims or been forced to pay bribes to win the freedom of family members jailed on trumped-up charges.
All of this is the main reason why Christian Arabs have been selling or abandoning homes and businesses, seeking to escape the chaos and corruption of the PA and move to Israel, Europe, South America, North America, or wherever they can get a visa.

Why do you have nothing to say about any of this in The Tablet or other public media? Of course you do not need to answer. We all know. No one in public life dares to make any comment even mildly critical of Islamic behaviour. On the other hand Israeli Jews are an easy target. In this way we in the west are already submitting to Islamic demands and behaving like ‘dhimmi’ citizens subject to the rule of the mosque. I find this utterly shameful and a betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ."

He’s right.

Israelis are an easy target, aren't they?

It's always Israel and it's always the "occupation".

The perfect excuse for everything.

But why are Palestinian Christians leaving PA areas in preference for Israel and why do the Christians of Bethlehem fear Moslem terror (read it here - you won’t find it in tomorrow’s Melbourne Age)?

IMAGINE

Just imagine if your town came under constant missile attacks every day.

Sderot in southern Israel has been that way for more than fifteen months. That is, since Israel left Gaza by removing every single Jew and every Israeli settlement from this part of Palestinian territory. Israel left Gaza judenrein and ended its occupation over 1.4 million Palestinians. In return, the residents of Sderot have received an average of three "gifts" from their Palestinian neighbours every day.

This is the text of an address given by Noam Bedein at IDC Media Conference in Herzlia, Israel on 19 December 2006.

We are all aware of the reality in the southern part of Israel.

Ben Gurion’s vision in the Negev has been under lethal attack of more than 5,500 missile attacks over the past six years, with more than 1200 in the past fifteen months.

That is an average of three missile attacks a day…28 missile attacks have occurred since the "cease fire".

Yet with such staggering statistics, no public office is relating to the human side of this tragedy.

Children grow up with sirens as a part of their life.

When you hear the siren "Tseva Adom", you understand that you’ve got 15 seconds to take cover.

Yet we have revealed that there are over 8,000 citizens of the Western Negev, have no sheltered room to run to.

When you go into the office of the head of security in Sderot, you see a map of Sderot on the wall. You see dots on the map, with the head of security saying that he stopped putting dots 2 years ago, because you wouldn’t notice the map.

The conclusion: there is no street, neighborhood, community or family, which has not experienced the trauma of a missile exploding near by.

I’ve experienced it myself during a Friday night service in the synagogue.

I shall never forget the sight of the fathers not knowing which child to grab first to protect.

Only 6 psychologists work in Sderot. Half of the kindergartens aren’t protected.

Can any one imagine what’s it like to send a child to an un protected classroom?

Basically, it’s like playing Russian roulette.

Unfortunately, people in Israel, especially in the Israeli media, show an interest only when there is blood, under the principle of "only when it Bleeds it Leads".

The human tragedy, the anxiety, the trauma- that is not being shown, that is not being reported, that remains a secret to the media – especially during what is described by the government as a "ceasefire".

This is where our new information center comes in.

Its purpose is to show the human face, behind the cold media statistics and the "weather report" style of telling about a few missiles falling from the sky and nobody really being injured.

Our goal is to create awareness in Israel and in the world opinion, of what people are going through.

During my first six weeks in Sderot, I met with community workers such as: social workers, the head psychiatrist, the heads of the parents association. the security officers, the teachers, the families of victims, and the different projects that work with the community.

The task at hand was to put all this together, to liaison between reporters and groups that come to Sderot and to show them the human side of it, in an informal way and on a personal level, as a Sderot resident.

We've managed to host several groups, including The American Jewish Congress and AFSI, and most recently escorted American talk show host Gordon Liddy, who broadcast his radio show with 6 million listeners as the guest of our center in Sderot.

And we have been publishing timely investigative pieces in the Jerusalem Post, Israel National News and Israel Insider, while providing news reports for English Radio of Kol Yisrael and Shalom USA in Baltimore.

Our articles about the lack of protection for of the schools in Sderot reached important Jews in London, who confronted the Israeli ambassador in London with the letter that our agency had received from the Prime Minister’s advisor that the government was simply not going to add more protection for the schools.

That process produced a change in policy and a government decision to indeed allocate the necessary funds to protect all of the schools. in SderotPresently, our information center is working on an investigative piece about the Israel Tax Authority and their local representatives known as MAS RECUSH, in which we are investigating how and why people don't get their homes and stores repaired for long periods of time, and how the government tries to wait until people take money out of pockets that they do not have to cover the costs themselves until the Israel Tax Authority finally comes through with help.

Our center looks forward to take part in building a trauma center.

We were pleased to receive an offer from an architect from Tennessee who wants to volunteer his time in the design of the Trauma center, after reading our article about what the children in the Kindergartens go through these days.

Our center looks forward to bringing more volunteers from outside of Sderot.

My sister, who acts as a clown therapist, bringing a bus full of clowns to Sderot.

Our Center looks forward to recruiting help from the "Ayaliem project".

Students at the Sapir College who are now building Yeshuvim in the Negev.

And, most importantly, our center looks forward to being the only physical representative for the foreign press in the Negev, with the ability to function in seven languages.

At this moment, our center is getting ready for the next round of death and destruction.

We are ready to film with our video as the missiles fall, to interview the people who are affected, to place our material on our new web-site, only three weeks old and with more than 2000 people who have scrolled through the web-site.

Our information center runs as a private company, with a small borrowed computer.

Our center needs help to acquire state of the art computer equipment, to get a van to show reporters around, to cover expenses for volunteers and to hire staff.

We will do this by forming a membership support organization, by raising funds through a non profit organization in the US, and by selling shares in our small corporation.

On a personal note, after returning after a 13 months of travel by my self in the Far East, and coming home, it seemed like people had given up, that people had convinced themselves that they do not have the powers to do any thing about their situation.

Yes, it's so easy to just care only about ourselves, our own careers, and our families.

We have to wake up, and to understand that even we, the simple people can make a difference in this reality.

I may be a little "pisher", as my Grandmother called me once.

I know, however, that it is possible to make even the smallest change.

It's not even a question of believing or not.

It's a fact.

THE BIG LIE

The Big Lie About the Middle East

There are at least a million big lies about the Middle East.

Lisa Beyer exposes one of them in Time Magazine.

"To promote the canard that the troubles of the Arab world are rooted in the Palestinians' misfortune does great harm. It encourages the Arabs to continue to avoid addressing their colossal societal and political ills by hiding behind their Great Excuse: it's all Israel's fault. Certainly, Israel has at times been an obnoxious neighbor, but God help the Arab leaders, propagandists and apologists if a day ever comes when the Arab-Israeli mess is unraveled. One wonders how they would then explain why in Egypt 4 of every 10 people are illiterate; Saudi Arabian Shi'ites (not to mention women) are second-class citizens; 11% of Syrians live below subsistence level; and Jordan's King can unilaterally dissolve Parliament, as he did in 2001. Or why no Middle Eastern government but Israel's and to some extent Lebanon's tolerates freedom of assembly or speech, or democratic institutions like a robust press or civic organizations with independence and clout--let alone unfettered competitive elections."

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Former Ku Klux Klan leaders, Holocaust deniers, whacky Jewish ant-Zionists, Iranian fascists and an assortment of wierd hangers on - all of them gathering in Tehran to vent their hateful philosophies.

HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE SPARKS OUTRAGE

The problem of course is that this disgusting little group not only advocates that the Holocaust was nowhere near as bad as it is painted in the history books but they make it very clear that their aim is to see Israel "wiped off the map".

And they have the support of the usual suspects on the far left with who they make strange bedfellows indeed.

CIVILIAN BATTLEGROUND

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal editorial asks the question "Whose War Crimes?" and discusses the latest evidence about how terrorists used civilians in Lebanon and manipulated parts of the media to further their murderous cause.

The editorial discusses the modus operandi of the Islamists who "seek to use the restraint of Western powers against them. They shoot at our civilians from the safety of their own civilian enclaves that they know we are reluctant to attack. Then if by chance their civilians are killed, they call in CNN and al-Jazeera cameras and wait for the likes of Mr. Roth [Executive Director of Human Rights Watch] to denounce America or Israel for war crimes."

The real war criminals are being aided and abeted by their supporters in the media who chose to remain silent in the face of the overwhelming evidence that groups like Hizbullah and Hamas put innocent civilians at risk by deliberately deploying their forces in cities, towns and often private homes.

You can see some of the evidence including interviews with captured Hizbullah terrorists, captured Hizbullah documents, onsite and aerial photography and other first-hand evidence on the American Jewish Congress website.

LET'S TALK TO EACH OTHER

According to Associated Press Writer Ali Akbar Dareini, the Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh is in Tehran outlining his Hamas-led government's policies with respect to its neighbour Israel.

Haniyeh told a crowd at an Iranian mosque at Friday prayers that Hamas will -

(a) never recognize Israel,

(b) will fight for Jerusalem, and

(c) will resist U.S. pressure to moderate.

Of course, Hanyieh won't change the Hamas Charter either. That's the document that invokes the anti-Semitic forgery the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and calls on followers to kill the Jews.

And on that basis, it's time for the United Nations to pressure Israel into commencing peace talks with Haniyeh's government.

ISRAEL AND ITS CRITICS

This New York Times article by Greg Myre Offering Video, Israel Answers Critics on War confirms that Israel has all the evidence necessary to prove what it was saying all along during the July/August war with Hizbullah; that the terrorist organisation "systematically fired from civilian neighborhoods in southern Lebanon and took cover in those areas to shield itself from attack."

Clearly, one would now expect the story to be picked up by the local media here in Australia, particularly by the Melbourne Age which did such a marvellous hatchet job on the Israelis through its on-the-spot reporter Ed O'Loughlin who heard no evil, saw no evil and spoke no evil about the Hizbullah fighters.

Here's an excerpt from Myre's article:-

"Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese Army general, said of the Israeli allegations, 'Of course there are hidden invisible tunnels, bunkers of missile launchers, bunkers of explosive charges amongst civilians.'

He added: 'You cannot separate the southern society from Hezbollah, because Hezbollah is the society and the society is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is holding this society together through its political, military and economic services. It is providing the welfare for the south.'

Asked whether Hezbollah should be seen as responsible for the deaths of Lebanese civilians in the war, he replied: 'Of course Hezbollah is responsible. But these people are ready to sacrifice their lives for Hezbollah. If you tell them, Your relative died, they will tell you No, he was a martyr. The party’s military preparations from 2000 till 2006 took place in their areas. They were of course done with complete secrecy, but in accordance with the civilians."

Nice, but someone forgot to inform Ed about all this ...

MORE ON THAT CULTURE OF VIOLENCE

Evelyn Gordon debunks what is fast becoming a hoary old chestnut about the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict being the pre-requisite to solving all the problems of the Muslim world in A CULTURE OF VIOLENCE.

Just last week, Sunni insurgents butchered 160 Shia in Baghdad but the likes of Kofi Annan, Henry Kissinger and Tony Blair would have us believe that the passion of the murderers were inflamed by their perception of injustices to Palestinians. Same goes for Arab Muslims who are committing genocide against blacks in Sudan or for those who slaughtered innocents on trains in Mumbai or in the bars of Bali.

It's all gibberish spoken in the furtherance of apologising for that culture of violence.