SHAM

The Jerusalem Post editorial calls it the "recognition sham".

"Yasser Arafat recognized Israel's right to exist in 1988. He shook hands with Yitzhak Rabin and signed the Oslo Accords in 1993. The PLO later ostensibly amended its covenant, as Bill Clinton visited Gaza, to eliminate calls for Israel's destruction. Most recently, the Palestinians approved the road map, which again was based upon recognition of Israel's right to exist.

"So the Palestinians accept Israel's existence, right? Well, perhaps not. Now, on the eve of Annapolis, we discover that all of these claims of recognition may have been a giant sham."

The editorial refers to the statements of chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and others that the Palestinians will not recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

"The Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state suggests that all their solemn and myriad expressions of Israel's right to exist did not mean anything. They did not mean that the Palestinians accepted the Jews as a people (as Palestinians expect to be accepted), or that Israel is the legitimate expression of the Jewish people's right to self-determination."

The so-called Palestinian "moderates" are therefore "not espousing a two-state solution but a 'Greater Palestine' ideology."

"There is no way for Israelis to understand the refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state other than as a rejection of the two-state solution and the embrace of the 'strategy of stages,' whereby a Palestinian state is not an end of claims against Israel, but a down-payment toward Israel's destruction."

The "recognition sham" has prompted the Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby to follow up the question "Is Israel a Jewish State?" with this enquiry -

"If the more than 55 countries that make up the Organization of the Islamic Conference are entitled to recognition as Muslim states, and if the 22 members of the Arab League are universally accepted as Arab states, why should anyone balk at acknowledging Israel as the world's lone Jewish state?"

Jacoby concludes that the "refusal of the Palestinian Authority to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate Jewish state isn't a denial of reality; it is a sign of their determination to change that reality. Like Arab leaders going back a century, they seek not to live in peace with the Jewish state, but in place of the Jewish state. Olmert can show up at Annapolis bearing Palestinian sovereignty on a silver platter, with half of Jerusalem thrown in for good measure. He will not walk away with peace. On the contrary: He will intensify the Arab determination to replace the world's one Jewish state with its 23rd Arab state."

And therein lies the principal sham of the past century of relations between the Jews and the Arabs of the region but it is not the only one. Many others, some of them quite sophisticated and others very simple, have been foisted on the general public by the Palestinians in recent years. Their number has increased exponentially since Arafat (who also shammed his own people by stealing $3 billion from them while he was alive) launched the so-called "second intifada" on Israel in late September 2000.

The most famous of these recent shams has been the Muhammad al-Durrah affair whose final scenes are now perhaps being played out in a French courtroom. Honest Reporting has a full coverage of the events here and here while Melanie Phillips provides a brilliant commentary outlining the consequences of the filming of this incident in Gaza by public television broadcaster France 2’s Palestinian cameraman Talal Abu Rahma and the effects of the commentary by the network’s Jerusalem bureau chief Charles Enderlin, (who was not on the scene but reporting from an office) who attributed the shots that allegedly killed the youngster to Israel.

Enderlin and France2 subsequently sued writer Philippe Karsenty for suggesting their original broadcast was fraudulent and despite the public prosecutor’s recommendation that the lower court rule in Karsenty's favour, the judges argued that his allegations could not be regarded as credible because "no Israeli authority ... have ever accorded the slightest credit" to them. This astonishing conclusion is totally preposterous and Karsteny has rightly appealed the case. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israelis were silent on the matter because they felt at the time that it was “a losing proposition" to reopen the al-Durrah case, because they would be "accused of blaming the victim." In any event, the deputy commander of the IDF Spokesman's Office has subsequently written to France 2 asking for the unedited footage. Am-Shalom stressed that the IDF had 'ruled out' the notion that al-Dura was killed by Israeli fire.

Yesterday Enderlin and France2 responded to the court's order requiring the film taken by Abu Rahma to be shown. Enderlin produced 18 minutes of film although it was anticipated that 27 minutes would be shown. According to Enderlin the nine "missing" minutes were never filmed although that proposition will no doubt be hotly disputed if these commentaries from Richard Landes (who has previously seen the film) and from The Augean Stables is a guide.

As Melanie Phillips points out, The ‘killing’ of Mohammed al Durah was swallowed uncritically by the western media, despite the manifold unlikeliness and contradictions which were apparent from the start, because it accorded with the murderous prejudice against Israel which is the prism through which the Middle East conflict is habitually refracted." In other words, segments of the media have conspired with the Palestinians to undermine not only its position in the conflict but its very existence.

The shams outlined above stunningly demonstrate how certain myths can be manufactured for use in propaganda against Jews in much the same way that Joseph Goebells took the creation of blood libels to the level of art form in the 1930's and 1940's. They prove that the stumbling block to peace in the Middle East is not Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, nor its treatment of the Palestinians, the checkpoints or the security barrier which serve to protect its citizens from deadly terrorists. Nor is the problem the strength of the so-called Jewish lobby because if that were true then today's newspapers would be full of stories from the Al Dura case in France whereas there is not a single word about it in any of today's daily newspapers available in my city of Melbourne. The key is, as Jacoby states -

"It is to compel the Arab world to abandon its dream of liquidating Israel."

OH BOY

Hamas, which has developed a penchant for throwing their opponents from tall buildings and shooting at crowds of opposition supporters, has decided to soften its image somewhat by forming its own boy band.

The Protectors of the Homeland aren't exactly The Backstreet Boys but they apparently have a fair bit of attitude. Made up of members of Hamas' Gaza police force these protectors are meant to "raise [the public's] spirit through entertainment and encourage the troops" and no doubt, to dabble a bit in jihad for their government's genocidal operations.

Nice!

THE NAKED TRUTH

The ABC's Middle East correspondent David Hardaker recently presented a story on The art of Middle Eastern conspiracy theories in which he covered the resurgent theory in certain circles that "Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died not because he was a naturally ailing 75-year-old, but because he was poisoned"..

Hardaker opened the article with this statement,

"The reporter's job is to get the facts. Sounds simple enough, but try doing that in the Middle East."

What Hardaker is telling us essentially is that when you report things from this particular region then you need to beware of the bullshit factor. He concludes with the opinion that,

"Truth might be stranger than fiction, but in the end, there is one overriding lesson for reporters and for policymakers. Fiction is far more powerful than truth, especially if it is said by someone with power."

Strangely enough, Hardaker himself hasn't learned from his own writing as his recent AM report on Palestinian drug addicts will attest. In it he allowed some damning, unsubstantiated allegations of the nastiest kind to be made without challenge and our ABC aired the blood libel against Jews.

The bullshit factor even operates with Israel's own media as can be seen from this laughable item currently being run on Ha'aretz - Gazans: Palestinians detained by IDF return naked. Here we have allegations made on Israel's Channel 10 by Palestinians residing near the Kissufim crossing in the central Gaza Strip that residents taken away for lengthy questioning by IDF troops are being returned without their clothes. According to the IDF however, "all suspects are returned in their clothes with all their possessions in hand."

The witnesses don't really say that the IDF sends people back naked. They actually mention "paper clothes" that (believe it or not) somehow disappear with into thin air with the wind so Channel 10 cameras, which doesn't provide any footage of the supposedly naked returnees, can't even show us one item of this alleged paper clothing despite the fact that we are told that "dozens of such testimonies from the residents of nearby villages" have been taken.

And so we have another case whereby a reporter has failed dismally in completing the job of getting the facts in the Middle East, which makes the story one that should jump out of the blank pages any day now.

THE UPROAR!

The headline from this Ha'aretz article screams out - "At least six killed after Hamas opens fire on Arafat rally in Gaza". The article tells of how at least six people were killed and 85 wounded in the ensuing violence after "Hamas security forces opened fire Monday during a mass memorial service for the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat". The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has described the attack as a "heinous crime" but ...

Where's the outcry around the world about civilian deaths and massacres?

POSTSCRIPT: The Melbourne Age is carrying this article Eight killed in Gaza clashes attributed to "DPA". The story is a straight line and length account of events without a sign of the Jerusalem bureau chief's touch. In this piece there are no Jewish villains to be seen and Hamas is not portayed as god; to the contrary, readers will be dismayed to learn about that movement's unpopularity among Palestinians -

"A recent poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre (JMCC) in Jerusalem said that if legislative elections were held today in the Palestinian territories, Fatah would gain 40 per cent and Hamas would get 20 per cent."

How did that information get into the story?

MUTUAL RECOGNTION

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has told the Jerusalem Post that the Palestinians reject Israel's demand that the Palestinians acknowledge it as a Jewish state at the forthcoming Annapolis meeting.

"There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined," Erekat told Radio Palestine.

This attitude ignores the fact that the Jewish people constitute far more than a religion alone and highlights a fundamental problem in the process of negotiatiating peace between Israel and the Palestinians who have never accepted that the Jews are a people and are entitled to self-determination just as the Palestinians are entitled to self-determination. Without mutual recognition all peace talks are doomed to failure.

Erekat's position also exhibits more than a touch of hypocrisy and dishonesty on his part. We already know from his lies to the BBC in 2002 that thousands, well at least 500, were being massacred in Jenin that he has no qualms about making dishonest remarks to the media while keeping a straight face but Elder of Ziyon points out that the 2003 Constitution of Palestine provides as follows:

"ARTICLE 4

1. Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.

2. The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.

3. Arabic shall be the official language."

Another day, another lie for Saeb Erekat. Big deal!

The Elder has also discovered (through a translation from the Palestine Press Agency) a statement from Ahmed Abdel Rahman, advisor to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who has said that "the willingness of the Palestinians for peace does not mean relinquishing one inch of the West Bank and the city of Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip....He reiterated his assertion that Abu Ammar (Yasir Arafat) was killed because of his refusal to waive Jerusalem."

Between Erekat and Rachman there's not much room left for fair and honest dealing and a compromise between the parties at Annapolis. What are they doing there?

ISRAEL BASHERS MASS DEBATE

The Oxford Union has some interesting views on how to conduct balanced debates. Somebody with a really twisted mind over there recently decided that you can have a debate on Israel by arranging to have two speakers whose hatred of the Jewish State is about on par and still expect to be taken seriously. Alan Dershowitz took up the issue and for his trouble was on the receiving end of the usual hatred and venom from those whose understanding of freedom of expression in a democrat society is somewhat warped. He tells his story in I was censored.

PALESTINIANS GET HIGH; JEWS GET BLAMED

This week, the ABC AM programme carried a report on claims by Palestinian drug workers that a major reason for the increase in use by Palestinians is that Israeli authorities are turning a blind eye to the trafficking of drugs. They claim it's part of an effort to destroy the fabric of Palestinian life. Read the transcript here - PALESTINIANS STRUGGLE WITH SURGE IN DRUG USE.

The outrageous claims are made without substantiation. The ABC report gives considerable status to the claims made but provides no facts to support the claims or the contention that Jews are creating addiction in order to steal houses and oppress the Palestinians. The report provides no balance or scope for the Israeli authorities to counter the claims and exhibit a paucity of research on the part of ABC staff that put together this blood libel against Israel and the Jews.

The claims made by the Palestinian interviewees in the programme follow the tradition of outrageous libels against the Jewish State over the past decade such as the Mohammed Dura affair, the faked funeral after the fake "Jenin massacre", the lies of the Gaza Beach shelling and the doctored photography scandals of the Second Lebanon War. Arab propaganda attacks against the Israelis have taken on industry-like dimensions and this week the Melbourne Age announced that Hamas has plans for a Hollywood in the Gaza Strip (amazingly, one of the few stories that the Fairfax media was able to muster up from the region during the week and a rare instance of the Age making mention of another Hamas production - the Mickey Mouse lookalike called Farfour preached Islamic domination to children). The new addition to Pallywood is likely to generate lots of phoney footage for use in bedazzling the gullible types in the western media who love telling noxious fables to revise history and to feed their unquenchable thirst for Jew baiting.

But let us get back to the drug claims aired against Israel on our publicly funded ABC. A complaint made by a medical professional to the ABC cites the following blatant errors from the report: -

"Not so long ago illicit drugs were virtually unheard of in Palestinian life. Now they're freely available." However, this item from Caritas International (which is harshly critical of Israel) quotes 40 year old Talal Abu-Ahmad, a recovered addict who works at the Caritas Counselling Centre in East Jerusalem as follows: -

"When I was a boy, just 13 years old, I used to watch people taking drugs in my neighbourhood. I lived in the Old City, and there were a lot of drugs around. I was the kind of kid that was curious about everything, so I tried hashish."

Here's a reference to a 1997 conference - "PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI PEOPLE AGAINST SUBSTANCE ABUSE" So much for the spurious claim that drug taking among Palestinians is a recent phenomenon.

"DAVID HARDAKER: Hosni Shahin is in charge of the Palestinian effort to stop the spread of drugs, but the figures are defying him." Shahin's qualifications are not stated and he does not appear to be a recognised academic or representative to the UN on illicit drug use. A search through the National Library of Medicine shows no published studies by this author.

"HOSNI SHAHIN: Some of them try to sell their houses to the Jews in their own city..

DAVID HARDAKER: To get money for drugs?.

HOSNI SHAHIN: To get money for drugs. If he is ready to destroy himself, you think that he is caring to destroy his family, or his brother, or his son?"

The claim is made that "Jews" are intentionally addicting Palestinians to steal their homes (after a nifty leading question from the interviewer) but apart from Shahin's say so, there is not a single fact produced to support the claim and naturally, there is no independent evidence of the sales of property taking place. Incidentally, under Palestinian law, an Arab who sells land to Israelis is punishable by death. The interviewer was either unaware of this law or simply turned his head away from pursuing the sticky little matter of racist Palestinian legislation. A pity because it might have been of interest to some of his listeners.

"DAVID HARDAKER: The drug dealers are nearly always Israelis, sometimes working with Palestinians. The Palestinian drug workers allege that while Israeli border security is generally ferocious, when it comes to drugs it is uncharacteristically lax." But is there any evidence produced that the drug dealers are "nearly always Israelis" or that Israeli border security is relaxed for the drug dealers? Hell no!

"Head of the research, Doctor Luay Shabaneh.

LUAY SHABANEH: There is something has to be worked out with the Israeli side, at the checkpoints and at the border points, to minimise the transfer of the drugs." You would expect someone described as "head of the research" to have published some papers but there's no evidence of this at all - see U.S. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. Then again Doctor Luay Shabaneh could be head of the propaganda rather than of research

"HOSNI SHAHIN: For all occupations, all over the world, the most dangerous thing for them - the youth people. So the occupation, if he can keeps the youth calming down all the time, the occupation will be, avoid a lot of problems, they will avoid it." The occupation blamed again but not a skerrick of evidence for the proposition. The complaint to the ABC does however, cite the many academic papers jointly published by Israeli and Palestinian researchers and the many credible joint initiatives between Palestinian and Israeli authorities authorities to treat and study these problems including the following:-.

ISRAEL ANTI-DRUG AUTHORITY

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME

The shoddy research and the eagerness to present one view without allowing the other side to be heard is what one would expect from a partisan Palestinian news outlet or a dedicated Israel basher like Antony Loewenstein's blog but from our own ABC it represents eight cents worth of national shame!

IT'S A UNITED NATIONS SCHOOL!

That elementary school in the Northern Gaza town that Palestinian terrorists have been using as cover for firing missiles at Israeli civilian targets across the border is run by the United Nations!

The school is run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which oversees aid to Palestinian refugees. The UN is very disturbed about the incident and will open an investigation. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has condemned the terrorists for using the school (presumably, it's OK if these thugs use private homes for their attacks but not a UN school)!

The United Nations might be very disturbed but it still hasn't stirred the interest of journalists like Ed O'Loughlin (featured in the item below).

ED O'LOUGHLIN - RESUME

Here is the resume on Ed O'Loughlin from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -

Ed O'Loughlin is a journalist for John Fairfax Holdings, an Australian media group. His reporting appears in the Australian newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Born in Toronto in 1966, he studied liberal arts at the Trinity College, Dublin. His career began as a freelance journalist in the Belgian Congo in the Democratic Rebublic of the Congo. He began work for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, first in South Africa, based there for eight years covering Africa. Since 2002 he has been based in Jerusalem, covering news events in Israel and the Palestinian territories.His reportage has been found to be biased against Israel by Media Study Group in their paper of November 2003: An Analysis of Compliance with Journalistic Standards in The Age Newspaper's News Stories on the Arab Israeli Conflict http://www.honestreporting.com/a/specialReports.asp?p=4.

The Age profile His reportage has been found to be biased against Israel by Media Study Group in their paper of November 2003: An Analysis of Compliance with Journalistic Standards in The Age Newspaper's News Stories on the Arab Israeli Conflict http://www.honestreporting.com/a/specialReports.asp?p=4." .

NOTE: I have been informed that from time to time, the comment about Media Study Group's findings on O'Loughlin will mysteriously disappear. Thanks to Mr. Adon Emett who keeps replacing it.

WHERE'S MEL GIBSON NOW?

I know this has been around a while but in honour of the Red Sox World Series triumph, here are the American TV hoons asking WHERE'S MEL GIBSON NOW?

JEWS AND POWER

Professor Ruth R. Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, who recently wrote a book entitled "Jews and Power", asks in this excellent Washington Post Op-Ed "Are American Jews Too Powerful?" Wisse debunks those who, like John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, accuse modern Jews of having excessive clout and concludes, "in the real world, Jews have too little power and influence."

But you don't want to tell that to the enemies of the Jews including those anti-Semites who go out of their way to convince themselves and others that they really aren't but then proceed to treat Israel and the Jews differently to any other of the world's 200 nations! After all, as Wisse states, "there is nothing quite as fun - or as lucrative - as baiting Jews.”

Sadly, the usual suspects among Jews are sometimes included with the baiters; people like Chomsky, Finklestein, Pappe and our own execrable Loewenstein whose shoddily researched, "My Israel Question" fleetingly attracted some attention here among the chattering classes until even they realised that it was such a total crock.

Wisse has a response for such a phenomenon.

"I understand why some Jews and Israelis try to escape this assault through assimilation or denial, or even by joining their assailants. It's seductive to hope that by accommodating our enemies, we will be allowed to live in peace. But the strategy of accommodation that historically turned Jews into a no-fail target is the course least likely to stop ongoing acts of aggression against them. Indeed, anti-Jewish politics will end only when those who practice it accept the democratic values of religious pluralism and political choice - or are forced to pay a high enough price for flouting them."

PALESTINIAN SHOT AT CHECKPOINT

A Palestinian man was shot by security services at a checkpoint in the West Bank town of Qalqilya recently. The problem with the story is that the security services were Palestinian and the checkpoint was set up by the Palestinians.

Don't even think of stopping the presses for this one!

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

This is how Palestinian terrorists collectively punish their own people as well as their neighbours - by firing mortars from school buildings at civilian targets across the border in Israel and inviting the inevitable strong response. The video clearly shows the elementary school and the red circle tracking the terrorists as they prepare to fire the mortars. Military officials said Israeli forces withheld fire, fearing civilians would be harmed. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility but Hamas which controls Gaza did nothing to prevent the attacks or arrest the perpetrators even though they were endangering the lives of innocent civilians on both sides. Hamas has vowed to destroy the Jewish state and kill Jews everywhere.

Tragically, the media largely ignores activities such as this but you can bet that some will come out of the woodwork when Israel is forced to take measures to protect its own citizens against these atrocities, measures such as closing border crossings and curtailing supplies of power and water.

And it will only be then that we will hear complaints about the oppression of the poor Palestinians - but never in the context of the behaviour of their own leaders who are involved up their necks in such acts of sheer barbarism and the attackers will continue to be called "militants" or even "freedom fighters" by their apologists in the media.

THE NEWS FROM PALESTINE

As the PA leader and a representative of the Fatah Movement Mahmoud Abbas prepares to sit down with Israeli leaders in Annapolis, Maryland to discuss peace under the auspices of American Secretary of State Condi Rice, the Al-Aqsa brigades announces launch of a campaign to shower the Israeli towns around the Gaza Strip with hundreds of missiles every day as "the Palestinian resistance is fed up with the 'peace lie' and the news about conferences here and there" - Al-AQSA BRIGADES ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF "AUTUMN OF GAZA" MILITARY CAMPAIGN.

The news comes from a Palestinian Newsagency and not from those who organise the Palestinian media campaign in the west and therefore Australians will only find out about it if they read the blank pages.

THE LETHAL ILLUSION

Melanie Phillips writes about the Lethal Illusion in her blog in The Spectator:-

"But the rules of the game Fatah plays with Israel are quite different, and immutable:

• Palestinians cannot stop other Palestinians from attacking Israel. To do so would be betraying the cause, becoming Israel’s lackey. This applies even if the Israelis are bringing in supplies or providing jobs to Palestinians, or if the attack damages Palestinian interests. If the victims are schoolchildren or shoppers or people riding on a bus, of course, is irrelevant in this world view.

• He who is most militant is always right. Extremism equals heroism. This is one reason why Fatah has such a difficult time competing with Hamas. It cannot denounce these rivals for being too hardline and intransigent. Suicide bombers along with those who incite and manage them are role models, not misled individuals, much less evil ones.

• More violence is good and a victory if it inflicts casualties or damage on Israel. Other than ritual denunciations for the foreign media, these are matters for pride, with the implication being that they advance the cause rather than sabotage it.
  

And so on."

A REMINDER ABOUT WHAT THEY STAND FOR

This is a timely reminder from REFORM JUDAISM ONLINE for those apologists for the Hamas Movement and their supporters in Syria and Iran who want to wipe Israel and Jews off the map - including those fake Jews like Chomsky, Finklestein and the meshugganeh Neturei Carta (pictured in Tehran with infamous Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben) who enjoy snuggling up to these monsters.

PALESTINIAN SHOOTING SPREE

Last week Palestinian terrorists went on a shooting spree near the West Bank city of Ariel. The only newspaper in Australia which reported on the incident was the Australian Jewish News. The group responsible for the random shooting was not Hamas but Fatah whose leader Mahmoud Abbas will be sitting down with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to discuss a peace deal in Annapolis Maryland next month. Some four years ago, Abbas committed the Palestine Authority in writing to an unconditional dismantlement and disarming of its terror groups, a commitment that was very quickly repudiated.

The Isranet photo above shows the burnt-out wreckage of the vehicle used by the terrorists found abandoned in a Palestinian village near Nablus. Abbas has threatened that there will be more scenes of a similar nature unless he can bring his people a deal on his terms from the meeting at Annapolis. I suppose that's what Middle East peace negotiations are all about which probably explains why very few end up in the successful basket.

THE AGE AND TUTU'S FUNNY INQUISITION AGAINST THE JEWS

Guide to the Perplexed tells of the hatred and incitement against Jews emanating from Boston's Old South Church, where speakers included Desmond Tutu and a Muslim Brotherhood front man Mahdi Bray who once claimed his cheers for Hamas and Hizbullah at a rally in Washington were just "jokes".

"One of the 200 protesters outside the church on Friday afternoon carried a poster with a photoshopped image of the church sign saying: Today’s Sermon: Blame the Jews. That turns out to have been pretty accurate ...

"Fraudulent accusations against the Jewish state, based on fabricated evidence. Religious endorsement of hatred, couched in the rhetoric of social justice. False caricatures and stereotypes of an entire people. The parading of token Jews to verify everything said from the stage. Sound familiar? They used to have a word for that. But you can’t use “antisemitism” anymore. So I’ll just call it a disgrace."

True to form, the Melbourne Age published a report on Tutu's shameful oratorial effort in which he cited texts from the Hebrew Bible "to argue that the God worshiped by Jews would champion the cause of Palestinians." Tutu was obviously trying his hardest to emulate Bray's ultra-sick brand of humour but in reality neither of these would-be clowns is funny at all and nor is the journalist who covered the story in the Boston Globe or the Age editor who deemed it an appropriate story to cover in his flagging newspaper. One wonders whether they see any humour in daily attacks by Palestinian terrorists on Jewish schools and homes or in these lines from the Hamas Covenant -

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews."

In typical Fairfax fashion, the Tutu article ends with a little footnote about how Israel is about to begin reducing fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip but without including a single word about the daily missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets from Gaza that have caused this measure to be taken. Just as Tutu might urge the Jews to turn the other cheek without offering any advice to the Palestinian terrorists about their own incitement, hatred and violence towards their neighbours, the Age seems to prefer presenting the news from the region without providing any context whatsoever other than one that covers the view from the Palestinian side.

Someone asked me today whether I thought anything would be done about claims that members of Fairfax staff have been modifying Wikipedia entries to whitewash Palestinian terrorism and vilify Israel. Surely, that was another joke!

MISSING STORIES

Here is a selection of stories that have appeared in recent days in Israeli newspapers Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post that have been missed by local newspapers in Melbourne:-

WOMAN, CHILD KILLED IN GAZA HOUSE BLAST

MINISTER MAJADELE: ISRAEL IS READY TO RETURN GOLAN FOR PEACE

PALESTINIANS SET FIRE TO WEST BANK SYNAGOGUE FOR SECOND TIME

EXPERTS: SYRIA CLEARED SITE HIT BY IAF, APPARENTLY TO HIDE EVIDENCE

That's not to mention the ongoing missile attacks by Palestinian terror groups on Israeli homes, schools and places of worship on the other side of its border with Gaza, the occupation of which it ended more than two years ago.

You might well ask where, for example is the Fairfax Jerusalem Bureau chief Ed O'Loughlin who has achieved fame for highlighting allegations of brutality by Israel against Palestinians and the excesses of its occupation of the West Bank and previously Gaza (although he writes as if Israel has special responsibilities to the Gazans even whilst its own citizens are under fire)? Why has he gone missing this week?

Surely, if one has been invested with the task of providing readers with a proper coverage of the news from the region, one would regularly mention the deeds of the terrorist groups that are devoted to Israel's destruction and the killing of Jews? Why is such news routinely airbrushed out of existence along with that of the obscenity that passes for an education system for Palestinian children or the xenophobia, anti-Semitism and the violence of the power struggles among the Palestinian factions and the death that they bring to their own people?

O'Loughlin's style is reminiscent of the vampire that only comes out when it wants to draw blood; in this case when there's some dark spin that can be put out about the Jewish State - when the myth of Israeli intransigence can be pushed alongside tall tales of Arab victimhood and Palestinian innocence.

Rest assured that the fangs will come out when the Israelis and Palestinians get together next month at Annapolis in a meeting set up for the purposes of establishing peace between these two neighbours. Although PA President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that the result of Annapolis should be predetermined, that all Palestinian demands should be met and, if not, he will "cause the US political difficulties and earthquakes not only in the Palestinian territories, but among US allies throughout the world as well," we all know who will be blamed if the talks fail.

HOW THE LOBBY OPERATES IN A DEMOCRACY

The Arab Lobby, that is [and more here]!

"KILL JEWS EVERYWHERE"

The Ma'an News Agency is a Palestinian on-line newsagency that publishes up-to-the-minute news in Arabic, English, and Hebrew.

This report from Ma'an covers a press conference given on Wednesday by Abu Al-Sa'id, a prominent leader of the Popular Resistance Committees in which he urged Palestinian resistance factions, particularly the Salah Addin Brigades of the PRC, to "kill Jews everywhere without waiting for permission".

Not "Zionists" or "Israelis" but "Jews everywhere".

And those Women for Palestine have the effrontery to suggest their proposed one state solution shows magnanimity towards the Israeli Jewish community. Adolph Hitler was just so magnanimous to the Jews of Germany.

AMNESTY

Amnesty International has issued a 58 page report harshly critical of rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah for harming civilians in their deadly clashes - Amnesty slams Fatah, Hamas clashes.

"During the clashes, gunmen mounted attacks from civilian apartment buildings and hospitals and targeted rival patients in their hospital beds, the London-based organization said. Gunmen used crowded residential neighborhoods as war zones, firing mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and bullets from civilian buildings."

The behaviour described is standard operating procedure for armed Palestinian groups irrespective of whether they are fighting against their own factions or against the Israelis. The total disregard for the concern and welfare of their own people is appalling.

The difference in this case is that the Israelis can hardly be blamed for the resulting carnage and this also happens to be the reason why news of the report is likely to be confined to the blank pages.

PALESTINIAN HUMOUR

Marty Peretz writes in The New Republic about HOW PALESTINIANS BUILD CONFIDENCE.

He tells of a visit by Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to the West Bank town of Jericho to meet with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in August. Israeli security had discovered that Fatah operatives attached to the Palestinian Authority had planned to target Olmert's party for assassination. They arrested some of the principals and handed them over to the PA which last week released them. This is Palestinian confidence building in the wake of an important peace summit.

Peretz calls the Palestinian response a "tragic joke", one that can cost lives, Jewish and Arab but the humour doesn't come blacker or lower than that of a group called "Women for Palestine" which has this vicious piece of hatemongering in the Melbourne Age on-line edition yesterday under the title "Peace without justice is no peace at all".

I should preface my remarks about this item by stating that what they really mean is that peace without justice is no peace at all but in the context of the Israel/Palestine conflict the "justice" part is never meant to be applied to the Israelis at all.

The WFP are all for a single state solution which recognises neither the Jewish right to self-determination nor that of the Palestinian Arabs. Instead, they consider that both peoples will live together in one state and the fact that the Jews will ostensibly be given this privilege is regarded as a sign of "remarkable magnanimity" on the part of those who argue for this "solution".

There is absolutely no sign of anywhere of any guarantee about what might happen in such a state if any of the political groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad which are committed to the genocide against Jews everywhere might come into the ascendancy. The proponent of this wild scheme, Ghada Karmi, reportedly told an audience in Perth last week "that when her one-state solution is implemented, she expects most of the Jews to go back to Europe".

That's what these despicable women claim is a peaceful solution. In fact, it's not a peaceful solution at all but a prescription for genocide against the Jews - Palestinian humour at its best; the same sort of funny business that the PA is teaching its children on its television programmes. Unfortunately, most of us don't think it's such a joke!

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN PALESTINE OVER THE WEEKEND

While the cheerleader for the Palestinians was availing readers of the Melbourne Age with a one-sided rendition of Israel bashing propaganda about how its security is allegedly making it difficult for some Gazans to obtain urgent medical treatment in Israeli hospitals (and what other country in the world gives enemy citizens such life giving benefits?), here is a selection of the news about from the region which its Jerusalem bureau chief either didn't know about or chose to ignore (with thanks to Elder of Ziyon):-

An Islamic Jihad member was killed Sunday night by Hamas.

A man died from injuries inflicted by Hamas in September.

A six year old boy was kidnapped for ransom in the West Bank..

A second man in two days was found, tortured and shot, in Gaza. (Here are pictures of the first one, who looks like Hamas gouged his eye out.).

An 18-year old girl was abducted by Hamas.

Another body found of a 29-year old man east of Qalqiya.

This brings to 557 the number of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by each other in 2007 including 33 women and 40 children.

Are you shocked?

You would be if you read the Melbourne Age and followed its soon to depart Jerusalem bureau chief or read its letters section where an observer from Brunswick, who has swallowed his propaganda hook, line and sinker, writes today about the "persecution of Palestinians" but doesn't know or care that the persecution is largely self-inflicted. It's worth making a note about the above reports because you won't read a word about them in your local broadsheet unless you manage to find the blank pages.

THE ESSENTIAL ED O'LOUGHLIN COMPANION

The winds of change are about to blow through the Age Jerusalem bureau with the departure of the incumbent chief Ed O'Loughlin who has ensured that his reporting of events from the region will be remembered for his blatant pro-terrorist bias with today's offering - Tactics deny aid for Gaza ill.

The article raises some serious issues that must be dealt with by Israeli authorities. If the allegations made by Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch's Middle East division that "Israel is punishing sick civilians as a way to hurt Hamas," then they should be investigated and the appropriate action should be taken.

Of course, it's unfortunate that the Age rarely investigates the numerous abuses of the many Arab regimes in the region which do not have the protection of democratic processes in the way that Israel does. But that’s another story altogether!

What is equally disturbing about O'Loughlin's article is the reporter's own journalistic style and his total disregard of the human rights of the citizens of Israel which its own government are duty bound to protect.

In typical fashion, this reporter has left it to the ninth and final paragraph to provide his readers with the Israeli version, a brief statement of denial from an anonymous Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson that Hamas was "preventing Israel from opening its crossings with Gaza".

Naturally, O'Loughlin has done a good job of keeping his readers in the dark about Hamas attacks on those crossings including attacks on those bringing in humanitarian aid into Gaza.

And in the context of the coverage of Israeli security concerns about Palestinians crossing into Israel for treatment, the Age's ailing Middle East correspondent has not deigned to remind those readers about the chilling story of the horrors that Waffa Samir Ibrahim Bass could easily have perpetrated two years ago when she was granted permission to travel from Gaza to the southern Israeli city of Beersheba for medical treatment.

This NBC news item is therefore an essential companion item to O’Loughlin’s shameful reporting - PALESTINIAN PATIENT TRIED TO BLOW UP IN THE ISRAELI HOSPITAL WHERE SHE WAS TREATED.

WHAT YOU WON'T READ IN THE MELBOURNE AGE TODAY

TURKISH MAN SHOT ON EGYPT'S BORDER DIES.

The shots that killed the victim were fired by Egyptian border police and not by Israelis. Furthermore, the incident didn't occur at a checkpoint where Israeli security must search for hidden weapons that might be used by Palestinian terrorists who have in the past smuggled weaopons and human bombs into the country in order to indisciminately murder its citizens.

Incidentally, a by-product of the existence of these checkpoints is that they cause Palestinian farmers some difficulty in moving their produce around which to some media reporters is a much more important issue than the safety of innocent Jewish men, women and children.

And speaking of children, will the Melbourne Age ever reveal that the elected Palestinian leadership in Gaza is feeding its own children with propaganda aimed at perpetuating the ongoing war against Israel's citizens and thereby ensuring that the checkpoints will remain in place for a long, long time - NEW ANIMATED FILM ON HAMAS TV FOCUSES ON CHILD MARTYRDOM?

A REASONED RESPONSE

The Melbourne Age yesterday provided Op Ed space for Colin Rubenstein's reasoned response to an earlier article written by Palestinian bigot and hate monger Ghada Karmi . Read it here - THAT ROAD DOES NOT LEAD TO PEACE.

Karmi's view of "peace" is not unlike that of many others among the Palestinians who have gone before her and argued for the obliteration of any Jewish claim to any part of the former Palestinian Mandate which was partitioned into a Jewish and Arab State by a United Nations Resolution passed almost 60 years ago. That is precisely the cause of the tragedy of the Palestinians and the Israelis. Neither of the peoples need to endure more of the violence and horror which would result from Karmi's twisted vision.

UN DISCRIMINATION AGAINST JEWS

The United Nations, which was formed in the shadow of Hitler’s Holocaust against the Jews, has become a venue for blatant discrimination against the people of Israel, many of who were victims or are descendents of the victims of history's greatest crime against humanity.

Melanie Phillips reports that the UN human rights envoy for the Palestinian Territories, John Dugard (pictured above) has added to the venomous stream of poison emanating from his organisation against Israel by urging it to withdraw from the Quartet of Middle East mediators unless it addresses Palestinian human rights - The war against the Jews. He claims that the US, EU, UN and Russia are failing to protect the Palestinians. Dugard fails to mention that the protection is needed more because Palestinians are killing each other at an alarming rate this year - rather he puts the blame on Israel.

Shamefully, it is Dugard's own office that does little for the cause of the Palestinians or the prospects of reconciliation and peace between them and the Israelis that would ensure that the human rights of all peoples within the region would be properly upheld. Dugard's office is specifically designed to deal with the human rights of the Palestinian people. He has no brief to deal with the human rights of the Israeli people; particularly those living in the proximity of the border with Gaza whose homes, schools and places of work are under daily bombardment from missiles fired by terrorists on the Palestinian side.

The United Nations has no office created to afford these Israelis any human rights. They have no spokespeople other than their own at the United Nations.

Not only does Dugard therefore ignore the Israeli victims of this conflict but also the terrorists on the Palestinian side who are the true cause of the misery felt on both sides.

Perhaps Dugard is showing his frustration because he has by virtue of his organisation's shameful double standards become totally irrelevant.

Ed O'Loughlin of the Melbourne Age couldn't resist mentioning Dugard's rant as a footnote to his article on the prisoner swap between Israel and Lebanon - Israeli prisoner swap raises hope. Naturally, he mentions only Dugard's view and resists any reference to the reasons why Israel is forced to take actions to protect its citizens. The daily attacks on Israel towns like Sderot are, as usual, ignored by O'Loughlin who is soon to depart the newspaper's Jerusalem Bureau.

POISON IN THEIR HEARTS

Melanie Phillip's Diary reports on the poison at the heart of the left and tells the shocking tale of how the more radical elements of the left shamefully use or rather, grossly misuse the Holocaust "to fuel its anti-Zionism."

According to Elder of Ziyon, the Israel-bashers who are guilty of this abhorrent behaviour "like to claim that Zionists use the term "anti-semitism" as a club to crush all criticism of Israel. The problem is, of course, that the same crowd uses the claim of Zionist use of anti-semitism as a means to avoid discussing real issues.

"The word misoziony can neatly solve that problem and can help re-focus the arguments back on their fundamentally untenable bases. Pointing out misoziony can help to sharpen the debate and point out the basic irrationality of the Israel-bashers.

It is also a much more convenient term when talking about the Jimmy Carters or Walt/Mearsheimers of the world. While they claim that they are not against the existence of Israel, there is no doubt that they suffer from misoziony, uniquely blaming Israel for a large number of world problems and simultaneously absolving everyone else. It is probably not accurate to call them anti-semites but they are firmly in the misozionist camp."

LAUGHING AT THE LOBBY

Today is Simchat Torah, a day when Jews make light of things and I couldn't think of anything better to laugh at than an anti-Semite. Ahmadinejad was done by all and sundry last week so my target on this particular day is the execrable John Mearsheimer who was a scholar once upon a time.

IS 'THE ISRAEL LOBBY' A LAUGHING MATTER?

FINAL STATUS AND PEACE

Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is demanding a joint Israeli-Palestinian final status declaration to be presented to a peace conference in the United States next month.

Ami Isseroff of the Progressive Zionism and Israel Web Log has an interesting proposal for the wording of such a declaration here.

THE FIRST BLOOD LIBEL OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Seven years have passed since the Palestinians launched their violent attacks on Israel and caused thousands of deaths on both sides, and now the truth is finally coming out. The death of the young Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Dura, during an exchange of fire between IDF troops and Palestinian gunmen at the Netzarim Junction, Gaza in 2000 was a fabrication.

The blood libel was used to demonise Israel in the media and to justify the intensification of attacks on Jews during the second Palestinian intifada. The Israelis clumsily accepted responsibility initially but it has now investigated the matter fully. The story has been the subject of countless articles and some documentary films which have questioned the motives of the filmmakers from France 2 television who claimed that al-Dura was killed by IDF fire.

Several French and US journalists who have subsequently seen raw footage of the incident have indicated the shooting might have been staged by Palestinians. The footage is regarded as key evidence in a slander case in France against Philippe Karsenty, director of the media watchdog group Media-Ratings, who called the video of the incident "a hoax." Karsteny inexplicably lost the case in a lower court hearing but that decision is currently under appeal. The latest IDF investigation supports the case against France 2 and its Arab cameraman.

One awaits with interest to see how the local media will deal with this story.

A NASTY PIECE OF WORK

Here's an insight into how the mutant strain of anti-semitism operates in attempts to stain the State of Israel. This is from the selection of letters in today's Sydney Morning Herald on Ahmadinejad's public appearances in the United States -

Axis of egregiousness

The news coverage of the public reaction to the address given by Iranian President Ahmadinejad at Columbia University appears to prove two things. Fear based upon fundamentalism can generate hatred even among peoples from the most educated, wealthy and secular state on earth, and the citizens of Iran, like their compatriots in the US, have the ability to elect an absolute idiot as their leader.

B. Bates Caringbah

Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad creating a sequel to Borat and not telling anyone?

Bruce Johnson Turramurra

And the Comical Ali award goes to - wait! It's a tie between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "no gays in Iran" and Malcolm Turnbull for "when voters consider the issue of climate change, they will support us".

Carl Sparre Eastwood

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran has no homosexuals. Don't laugh. When I was hairdressing in Double Bay a few years ago one of my clients, a well-known fashionable Jewish socialite, made the same claim about Israel. Somehow her hairstyle that day didn't turn out the way she wanted.

Max Fischer Scarborough

Let's assume for a moment that Max Fischer of Scarborough really exists and that he's really telling the truth about that so-called "well-known fashionable Jewish socialite". What is Max trying to achieve by retelling this story? Is he attempting to draw a comparison between some ignorant dipstick and the President of a powerful oil rich nation who stands accused of holocaust denial, threatening genocide and violently oppressing his political opponents and minorities within his own country? Come now Max!

Whatever the case, he makes such a poor fist of a weak propaganda effort that readers of the SMH would see through that garbage.

For the record, gay people are treated far better in Israel than by any of its neighbours including Palestine under Hamas which generally gets a good run from Fairfax and its reporters. In Israel, gays may not have the approval of religious elements within its society in much the same way as in most western societies but they are generally treated well and gay bars are an accepted part of the night life in the big cities. Recent gay marches have received support of the Israeli police and many Palestinian gays seek safe haven inside Israel from the oppression of the Moslem fundamentalist groups in Gaza and the West.

Max might have given his socialite customer a bad hair day but his letter writing shows him to be an even nastier piece of work.

PLAYING IT SMARTLY

Former U.S. Ambassador Dennis Ross has written a piece in The New Republic entitled WHAT ISRAEL GAINED BY BOMBING SYRIA.

In it he argues that the Israelis played it smartly by not talking about its recent military strike against a target in northern Syria.

"In fact, had Israel taken credit for the raid, Arab states would have felt duty-bound to condemn it, Israel's resort to force, and its unilateral effort to impose its will once again."

Also smart in that it saved the Israelis some bad press from the usual suspects who normally go into critical overdrive on such news but this time they have no idea how to respond!

FREE SPEECH FOR SLEAZY HYPOCRITES

David Horovitz, writing in the Jerusalem Post, exposes the hypocrisy of Iran's Prime Minister Ahmedinejad who this week rode into New York's Columbia University on the magic carpet of free speech when all along he was the man responsible for purging awkward academics from his country's universities, closing down troublesome newspapers, and jailing a range of journalists, intellectuals and other critics.

As always, Horovitz is an excellent read - BIG LIES AND PERNICIOUS TRUTHS

UP TO THEIR ARMPITS

The Australian’s Abraham Rabinovich reports from Jerusalem that Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during its daring raid on a secret military site in Syria early this month. The Israelis followed that up by bombing the site - ISRAELIS GRAB NUKE MATERIAL.

This breaking of a news story of such major importance to the world should have received a far greater response from the major media organisations. Perhaps they simply don't believe that North Korea, Syria and Iran could possibly be up to their armpits in such a messy situation?

At least the Melbourne Age gives it a passing mention in today's editorial on the dangers of a possible war in the region fueled mainly by Syria's involvement in the assassination of anti-Syrian leaders in Lebanon. Notwithstanding this, if fighting starts my guess is that, based on the past history of the region, it will be the Israelis who receive most of the blame.

MAN OF PEACE

"Look out your window, baby, there's a scene you'd like to catch,

The band is playing 'Dixie,' a man got his hand outstretched.

Could be the Fuhrer

Could be the local priest.

You know sometimes

Satan comes as a man of peace."

- Bob Dylan (Man of Peace)

This song is for all of the warmongers of this world who hold themselves out as being men (and women) of peace: be they the Ahmedinijads, members of the International Solidarity movement, so-called "progressives" who act as apologists for Hamas and Hizbullah and for this fellow who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1939 - MAN OF PEACE.

MORE THAN ONE BAD ED IN THE AGE NEWSPAPER BASKET

Just when those who crave accurate and honest news reporting from their local daily newspaper are breathing sighs of relief at the imminent departure of one biased journalist, the Melbourne Age has come up with a shoddily produced one-sided piece of blatant anti-Israel propaganda from the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington that would even make Ed O’Loughlin blush - Judges block Gaza activist death case.

Pilkington's report is about a US federal appeals court ruling in favour of Catterpillar, the supplier of bulldozers used by the IDF in house demolitions to prevent the smuggling of deadly arms and munitions used by Palestinian terror groups to cause murder Israeli civilians. The case was brought by the parents of an activist of the International Solidarity Movement, Rachel Corrie who tragically died in 2003 when she placed herself in the path of a bulldozer, which was in the process of carrying out such a demolition. The ruling was made on long established constitutional grounds that the prosecution of the claim involved the court in entering the political sphere, which was beyond its power. Pilkington highlights that part of the ruling that concludes from a practical point of view that a finding in favour of the Plaintiffs case could not be made 'without implicitly questioning, and even condemning, United States foreign policy towards Israel'." By omitting the words "a Court could not find in favor of the Plaintiffs" and replacing them with "argued that the case could not go to trial" he completely distorts the decision to the point of suggesting that the judges believed the Plaintiffs' case had merit. This is not what they ruled upon.

Pilkington's bias against Israel comes out in his very simplistic description of the facts behind Corrie's death which he puts down as a foregone conclusion -

"Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed on March 16, 2003, by a 60-tonne Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, as she tried to prevent the home of a Palestinian pharmacist being razed. She was wearing a fluorescent orange vest and, according to witnesses, was in full view of the bulldozer operator."

Pilkington fails to mention of the fact that Corrie was a member of the terrorist supporting International Solidarity Movement which portrays itself as a "peace group" but which in fact openly states that it supports the Palestinian "armed resistance". Some peaceniks!

The witnesses who Pilkington quotes as claiming that Corrie was "in full view of the bulldozer operator" included friends and supporters of the owner of the house that was being demolished and used to smuggle weapons destined for use by suicide murderers of Israelis. Most were members of the ISM so they weren't exactly independent witnesses. While their credibility is not questioned by Pilkington, he follows the typical O'Loughlin's blank page methodology by deliberately omitting that fact that bulldozer operator denied seeing Corrie because she was not visible from his vantage point on the bulldozer or the myriad of inconsistencies and lies told by Pilkington's witnesses who even resorted to the use of doctored photographs to ensure that Corrie's death would not be in vain - i.e. that it could be used as a centrepice for their campaign against Israel.

The Stop ISM site is most instructive in providing an insight into how Rachel Corrie was used as an unwitting playtoy for this devious organisation and its cause.

And Corrie is not the only person duped by their perverted Palestinian propaganda campaign. If you're a reader of the Age you have long ago been welcomed to the club.

HISTORY REPEATS

It was almost seventy years ago that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arrived in London after meeting with Nazi Chancellor Hitler waving a useless scrap of paper over his head and ranting on about "peace in our times".

Time passes on and there is no shortage of idiots who echo similar sentiments of appeasement today - even when rabid warmongers threaten others with annihilation. This month's idiot is one R.N. Watson of Newtown, N.S.W who penned this piece of nonsense to the Sydney Morning Herald (Published under the heading "Warmongers should be frog-marched off the stage" on 19/9/07) -

"To the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner: with respect, pull your head in, mate. We do not want war with Iran ("Prepare for war with Iran: French warning", September 18). The people are sick of people like you and their jingoist mates who shout about the bogeyman and expect us all to cringe with fear. We do not want war, not with the beautiful country of Iran, not with the poor suffering people of North Korea, not with Syria, and not with anyone else. Work your problems out peacefully or get out of the way and let another democratically elected representative of the people do it.

The time for this kind of rubbish has long passed. We're not going to fall for this kind of thing again. We know what George Bush's motives for war with Iraq were. It is plain to see that the blood on his hands is mixed with oil. We've seen the suffering that comes from allowing a warmonger his way. There is no excuse for the kind of murder that has occurred in Iraq. Human life is valuable, and not to be wasted on such material things.

The West is treating Iran like a young child might treat a cat. If the child corners the cat and pokes it with a stick, the cat will scratch the child. If the child shows the cat the respect it deserves, it will purr. The people of the world do not want there to be war with Iran.

Monsieur Kouchner, the people of France do not want war with Iran and will tell you in their passionate way. The brave people of the US will fight for their country with pride, but they are sick of being duped into sending their brave sons and daughters to die for other goals.

Monsieur Kouchner, we know what you are trying to do. Iran is far less a threat to the world than you would have us believe. Put down the stick and go and find somewhere else to rattle your sabre."

Watson fails to understand (or ignores the fact) that the rattling began long ago and that it's been Iran's racist Holocaust denying advocate of genocide Ahmedinajad who has been holding the sabre. Apparently, the letter writer doesn't mind that at all.

Watson does get some things right.

He's not blaming the Jews as many of his ilk do when dealing with this subject matter because, if it really is all about oil as he alleges, then at least he's leaving the so-called "Israel lobby" out of the equation.

He's also correct in saying that the world doesn't want war with Iran and that it is indeed, a beautiful country. Of course, so is Germany but that didn't stop the Germans from perpetrating one of history's great crimes against humanity when it murdered millions of Jews, gypsys, socialists and gays. Nor does the beauty of countries prevent senseless fools like Watson from being cheerleaders for some of the hideous, criminal philosophies and regimes that emanate from them.

STILL CELEBRATING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

When Al Quaeda terrorists brought down New York's twin towers and murdered nearly 3,000 Americans in September 2001 there was much celebration among Palestinians, many of who could barely conceal their joy. At the time, the Palestine Authority did its best to suppress news of the celebrations but these days, according to the latest Palestime Media Watch BULLETIN, the celebrations continue.

The above cartoon showing Osama Bin Laden making the "V" for victory sign with two fingers in the shape of the burning Twin Towers appeared in the PA daily "Al Hayat Al Jadida", which is owned by the PA and controlled by the office of its Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas who is in the midst of negotiations for peace with the Israelis in an initiative mainly being facilitated by the United States.

KEEPING MUM

Speculation continues as to the objective of Israel's recent strike deep into Syrian territory at a place near its border with Turkey.

Everybody including the Israelis and the Syrians are keeping mum but according to this report from the London Times ISRAELIS 'BLEW APART SYRIAN NUCLEAR CACHE' the IDF mission managed to destroy a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert isn't saying much - other than that "the security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage. We naturally cannot always show the public our cards."

The media is doing very little talking on the issue as well, preferring to keep the story of Syria being in control of WMD's from North Korea right out of the limelight.

An interesting footnote are the comments of Times reader, S. Ahmed of Cairo immediately below the story -

"So many comments here reflect how ignorant many are on the Middle East. Those refering to Syria as an islamic extremist country. Syria is very secular & has crushed islamic extremists in the city of Hama in a brutal way back in 1982. Those congratulating the IDF forget that its the same body that botched up big time last year & couldn't retrieve its 2 captured soldiers. What I am witnessing here is the same irrational zealous that hizbullah supporters displayed after the end of hostilities in 2006. I find it a load of hollow bravado flamed by prejudice."

Nice of Mr. Ahmed to let us know what a bunch of nice guys the Syrians and Hizbullah are and to mention the massacre at Hama when the current President's old man butchered 20,000 fellow citizens. You'll never read about such things in the local press!

SLANT AND ERROR

Labour MP Michael Danby takes Fairfax apart for exposing its readers to SLANT AND ERROR over the issue of Israel/Palestine.

I couldn't have put it better myself.

BOTH SIDES NOW

According to a report in this week's edition of the Ausralian Jewish News, Fairfax has appointed a new Middle East correspondent, Jason Koutsoukis, currently the Canberra correspondent for the Sunday Age.

The AJN article (no link available) quotes him as saying,

"There's two sides to every story and I think we've got to tell both sides."

The promise of fair and balanced coverage of the Israel-Palestine issue is most welcome after five years of biased one sided and ugly coverage from Koutsoukis' predecessor.

With that good news, I wish Jewish readers a happy, healthy and sweet New Year.

A MAJOR COMPLIMENT

Don't look now but the Melbourne Age has handed Israel a major compliment with today's revelation that Israel has arrested eight violent neo-Nazis in the town of Petah Tikva. The young men are among 1 million migrants from the former Soviet Union who came to Israel under its "Law of Return". Ed O'Loughlin reports on the calls to deport what he terms these "Israeli Nazis".

I have used the word "compliment" because I believe that it is a credit to this nation that it has acted swiftly to identify and root out the racists in its midst. Just as it did when it outlawed the racist "Kach" Party some years ago.

This is in sharp contrast to what happens elsewhere in this region. The neighbouring Palestinians, for example, have a far greater tolerance for neo-Nazi philosophies. Indeed, last year they even elected a party to government that has a racist Charter and calls on its people to destroy Israel and kill Jews. Of course, Age readers wouldn't know about that because O'Loughlin generally steers clear of covering the brutal racism of Hamas or its incitement to violence and murder even among young Palestinian toddlers watching kindergarten television shows. Such things are not even on Ed's radar.

Another neighbour of Israel is Jordan which also rarely gets a mention from O'Loughlin but which, in reality, is the true "apartheid state" of the Middle East. The Jordanians expelled all of their Jews from the country way back in 1948. They also created a citizenship law to give Palestinians citizenship - this is how Law No. 6 of 1954 on Nationality defines Palestinians to specifically exclude those Jews who previously had Palestinian nationality for those purposes -

"Any person who, not being Jewish, possessed Palestinian nationality before 15 May 1948 and was a regular resident in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between 20 December 1949 and 16 February 1954;"

This would make the old time Nazis proud and it really is a wonder that while O'Loughlin manages to make an article out of eight hoodlums arrested in Israel for what the entire nation agrees is unacceptable behaviour, he routinely fails to highlight the true state based racism and apartheid from the region which he is meant to be covering in an objective manner for his newspaper.

YOU WOULDN'T READ ABOUT IT

The above photograph sums up democracy Hamas style. Haaretz Newspaper reports how the Islamic group reinforces its rule in Gaza by sending out security forces armed with rifles and clubs to beat up Fatah supporters trying to hold street prayers to protest against that movement. You wouldn't read about it in your local press, so follow the story here.

You won't see much vision of this thuggery on your screens either because Hamas security men are ordering journalists to stop filming such incidents. "One security officer told reporters, 'if a single shot is on TV, you know what will happen.' He then drew his finger across his throat."

And British journalists are boycotting who?

THE AGE AND O’LOUGHLIN SHIELD HIZBULLAH

On 29 August 2007 the New York-based Human Rights Watch published a report condemning the indiscriminate firing by Hizbullah of thousands of missiles into civilian areas of northern Israel, killing at least 39 civilians during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. In its report, HRW dismissed Hizbullah’s justifications for its attacks on Israeli towns – that they were a response to indiscriminate Israeli fire into southern Lebanon and to draw Israel into a ground war – on the basis that they had no legal basis under the laws of war. The subject of the truthfulness of the assertions that Hizbullah's actions were a "response" to anything rather than part of its own murderous attack strategy was not really considered.

HRW arranged a news conference in Beirut to announce its findings, but it had to be cancelled because of threats of Hizbullah protests.

Hizbullah's anger at HRW has clearly shaken some in the news media if the reaction of the Melbourne Age and its Jerusalem correspondent, Ed O'Loughlin is any guide. Both remained silent and failed to cover its reports or the Hizbullah threats of protest and violence.

Not a single word.

O'Loughlin however, was not so reticent when it came to covering HRW's damning report on Israel's response to Hizbullah whose leader Hassan Nasrallah has stated on numerous occasions that his aim is to destroy the Jewish state and kill Jews everywhere.

The second report was released yesterday and O'Loughlin went straight into action to tell his readers that Israel 'broke laws of war' in Lebanon.

In true O'Loughlin fashion, he ignores HRW's damning earlier report on Hizbullah or the movement's threats against HRW.

Naturally, the Age article fails to give any space to the IDF’s response to the HRW report which points to countless documented examples of civilian facilities being used for military purposes - missiles in houses, mosques and schools used for storing weapons.

This is yet another instance of indiscriminate reporting on the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours and the airbrushing out of existence of the worst elements of the terrorist thuggery from groups like Hamas and Hizbullah. By acting as a shield for such groups, this journalist and his newspaper have reached such appallingly low levels of objectivity that their coverage is now considered by many as part of the anti-Israel propaganda industry.

For those who like to be aware of both sides, a more balanced report can be read here in Haaretz.

AND ON A POSITIVE NOTE ...

Israel's Minister for the Interior, Meir Sheetrit announced yesterday that his country intends to grant citizenship to several hundred Darfur refugees who are currently in the country.

According to the Minister, Israel cannot ignore the refugees' fate because of the history of the Jewish people.

"Just as Israel granted citizenship to refugees from Vietnam, the same ought to be done today," the minister said in Haaretz Newspaper. He disclosed that he has been working with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on a plan to determine, in coordination with the United Nations, a quota of refugees who would become naturalized Israeli citizens.

This is a very positive initiative and a victory for humanity. If you live in Australia however, it's unlikely you'll read about in any of your local newspapers so I thought I'd let you know about it!

NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY

As sure as night follows day, the Melbourne Age Jerusalem correspondent Ed O'Loughlin reappeared today.

His article was brief but so very predictable. Although he's not the one necessarily responsible for dreaming up the headlines to his stories it was always a certainty that we would see something like ISRAEL THREATENS TO CUT OFF GAZA'S WATER heading up a news story in this newspaper.

On Monday, the children of Sderot, an Israeli town located near the border with Palestine's Gaza Strip were greeted back to school by rockets launched from Northern Gaza. Seven such missiles were fired in their direction and one struck near a day care centre in their town. There were no injuries, but 12 children were treated for shock. Following the attack, the Sderot Parents Committee decided to keep children home from all of the city's schools until further notice. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

This story was not covered by the Age on Tuesday. O'Loughlin was nowhere to be seen or heard and there was no headline ringing out saying PALESTINIANS TARGET JEWISH SCHOOLCHILDREN (you needn't bother clicking; there's no link and no story!).

Nothing!

The news of the resumption of large scale rocket attacks only appeared on the Age's radar when an Israeli Minister made the suggestion that if the attacks did not cease, then his country would consider cutting off the supply of electricity, water and fuel to its neighbour whose elected rulers have shown no interest in preventing the murderous activities of its citizens and are, in all likelihood, right behind these criminal acts.

Why are stories of the trauma inflicted upon Israeli schoolchildren routinely ignored and consigned to the blank pages (and for that matter we should add stories of the indoctrination of Palestinian children to hate their neighbours)?

Why do they only become news when the angle of possible Palestinian suffering as a result of a proposed Israeli response to terror activity is on the table?

Surely the powerbrokers at the Age don't really believe that their readers are only able to identify with the victimhood of one of the participants in this tragic conflict? Or are the readers themselves being subjected to an agenda aimed at ensuring that they think about it in one way and therefore it is they too who are being manipulated to become victims of a selective campaign of misinformation?

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS STORY?

You really have to exercise your imagination here as to the identity of the person who killed the Gaza teenager in this story:-

TEEN DIES AS GAZA RALLY TURNS VIOLENT:Melbourne Age

The story of the continuing violence in the unoccupied Gaza Strip is now really about the brutality of Hamas as it seeks to strengthen its vice like grip on the lives of its people and of the methods it uses to stifle opposition from Fatah Party which still rules in the West Bank and which is currently involved in peace negotiations with Israel.

Of course, it's not really the fault of Islamic Fundamentalist thugs from Hamas at all according to the writer. It's simply a matter of the "Gazans' desperation since Israel and Egypt sealed off their coastal territory following its June takeover by the Hamas movement."

Perhaps it's because the killing and the violence referred to in the article was instigated and carried out by this newspaper's pin up boys from Hamas that they get off so lightly. Naturally, the story would be so different if the IDF was really involved in the boy's death.

WHY?

The above photograph was taken by Associated Press photographer Majidi Mohammed in the West Bank city of Nablus last week. The Palestinian girl holding the weapon is among members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militia linked to Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah movement which is currently carrying on negotiations for peace with Israel.

MARRACKVILLE MAULERS

The mayors of the West Bank city of Bethlehem and the municipality of Marrickville have signed a sister-city agreement. The week-long visit to Sydney of Bethlehem's Mayor Victor Batarseh was intended to spread goodwill but, as is often the case with officials from his part of the world, the word "goodwill" is certainly not synonymous with "peace" and "reconciliation" with neighbours.

Batarseh spent most of his time here telling fibs about Israel that would even make Joseph Goebells blush. Fibs like the one about Israel's security barrier, which he claims is intended to steal Palestinian land rather then keep out suicide attacks. Indeed, despite statistics which show a dramatic decline in Palestinian terrorist attacks since the barrier's construction, the good mayor denies that what he calls "the wall" (which for the most part it isn't) has "really, diminished the attacks inside Israel." - (ABC interview here).

At a meeting held last week at the University of Sydney, Batarseh repeated this claim and the 90-strong crowd (who, no doubt would like to be tagged as 'peaceniks') "applauded when a member of the audience called for 'the complete destruction of Israel'."

We see the same same sort of bluster in neighbouring Leichardt municipality from a "Friends of Hebron" group which is seeking to establish a twin city relationship with that West Bank city. The FOH were recently scheduled to meet with a Jewish group as part of a council brokered conciliation initiative but they stunned that group by pulling a proposal for funding joint Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives off the agenda.

These things should not come as a surprise. Peace is not on the agenda of those seeking to establish these twinning arrangements. They might be marketed as peaceful initiatives designed to do something about the plight of the Palestinian people but instead the agenda is to encourage and promote the hatred of Israel and the Jews that the corrupt leaders of these poor people have adopted over decades and which have brought about the tragic situation in which they find themselves today. The applause of the ninety people in the crowd at Sydney University at the suggestion that Israel should be "completely destroyed" stands as testament to that fact.