ARAB STATE/JEWISH STATE?

The pundits were aghast when the suggestion was made that, as part of the resolution of their conflict with Israel, the Palestinians should recognise it as a "Jewish State". PA negotiator Sa'eb Erekat ridiculed the idea and indicated that it was unheard of to characterise a nation state in this way. President Abbas said something to effect that Arabs mazen even think about it. Scribes like the Age's Dishonest Reporting award winner Ed O'Loughlin sneeringly referred to the notion of an "ethnic" Jewish state as if there was something not quite kosher about it. Others used the concept to engage in some good old fashioned Jew bashing disguised for the sake of maintaining their supposed integrity and standing as "progressives" as, well ... Israel bashing.

Thanks to Elder of Ziyon - Hypocrisy, thy name is "Arab" we can examine the claim made that by definition, a Jewish state would be discriminatory against Arabs and Muslims. The Elder points out that "... if you define 'Jewish' in purely religious terms, that would mean that any state that defines itself as "Islamic" is, by definition, equally guilty of this discrimination. If you define 'Jewish' in ethnic or national terms, then any state that defines itself as 'Arab' would be equally guilty of the racism that Israel is being accused of." The Elder says it's "time to check out the official hypocrisy of Israel's critics, and note the deafening silence towards this supposed Arab and Islamic racism:

Jordan's constitution:

Article 1 The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an independent sovereign Arab State. It is indivisible and inalienable and no part of it may be ceded. The people of Jordan form a part of the Arab Nation, and its system of government is parliamentary with a hereditary monarchy.

Article 2 Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official language.

Egypt's constitution:

Art.1*: The Arab Republic of Egypt is a Socialist Democratic State based on the alliance of the working forces of the people. The Egyptian people are part of the Arab Nation and work for the realization of its comprehensive unity.

Art.2*: Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia).

Libya's constitution: .

Article 1 [Principles] Libya is an Arab, democratic, and free republic in which sovereignty is vested in the people. The Libyan people are part of the Arab nation. Their goal is total Arab unity. The Libyan territory is a part of Africa. The name of the country is the Libyan Arab Republic.

Article 2 [State Religion, Language] Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official Language. The state protects religious freedom in accordance with established customs..

Morocco's constitution:

Preamble The Kingdom of Morocco, a Muslim Sovereign State whose official language is Arabic, constitutes a part of the Great Arab Maghreb.

Article 6 [State Religion] Islam is the religion of the State which guarantees to all freedom of worship.

Yemen's constitution:

Article (1) The Republic of Yemen is an Arab, Islamic and independent sovereign state whose integrity is inviolable, and no part of which may be ceded. The people of Yemen are part of the Arab and Islamic nation.

Article (2) Islam is the religion of the state, and Arabic is its official language.

Article (3) Islamic Shari'ah is the source of all legislation.

Syria's constitution:

Article 1 [Arab Nation, Socialist Republic]

(1) The Syrian Arab Republic is a democratic, popular, socialist, and sovereign state. No part of its territory can be ceded. Syria is a member of the Union of the Arab Republics.

(2) The Syrian Arab region is a part of the Arab homeland.

(3) The people in the Syrian Arab region are a part of the Arab nation. They work and struggle to achieve the Arab nation's comprehensive unity.

Article 3 [Islam]

(1) The religion of the President of the Republic has to be Islam.

(2) Islamic jurisprudence is a main source of legislation.

Saudi Arabia's constitution:

Article 1 The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its religion; God's Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, God's prayers and peace be upon him, are its constitution, Arabic is its language and Riyadh is its capital.

Kuwait's constitution:

Article 1 Kuwait is an independent sovereign Arab State. Neither its sovereignty nor any part of its territory may be relinquished.The people of Kuwait is a part of the Arab Nation.

Article 2 The religion of the State is Islam, and the Islamic Sharia shall be a main source of legislation.

Algeria's constitution: .

Article 1 [Democracy, Republic]

Algeria is a People's Democratic Republic. It is one and indivisible.

Article 2 [State Religion]Islam is the religion of the State.

Bahrain's constitution:

Article 1 [Sovereignty, Constitutional Monarchy]

a. The Kingdom of Bahrain is a fully sovereign, independent Islamic Arab State whose population is part of the Arab nation and whose territory is part of the great Arab homeland. Its sovereignty may not be assigned or any of its territory abandoned.

Article 2 [State Religion, Shari'a, Official Language] The religion of the State is Islam. The Islamic Shari'a is a principal source for legislation. The official language is Arabic.

Oman's constitution: .

Article 1 [Sovereignty] The Sultanate of Oman is an independent, Arab, Islamic, fully sovereign state with Muscat as its capital..

Article 2 [Religion] The religion of the State is Islam and the Islamic Shariah is the basis of legislation.

Tunisia's constitution: .

Article 1 [State] Tunisia is a free State, independent and sovereign; its religion is the Islam, its language is Arabic, and its form is the Republic..

Article 2 [Arab Nation, Treaties]

(1) The Tunisian Republic constitutes part of the Great Arab Maghreb, towards whose unity it works within the framework of common interests.

Mauritania's constitution:

Preamble:...Conscious of the necessity of strengthening its ties with brother peoples, the Mauritanian people, a Muslim, African, and Arab people, proclaims that it will work for the achievement of the unity of the Greater Maghreb of the Arab Nation and of Africa and for the consolidation of peace in the world.

Title I General Provisions, Fundamental Principles

Article 1 [State Integrity, Equal Protection]

(1) Mauritania is an indivisible, democratic, and social Islamic Republic.

Iran's constitution:

Article 1 [Form of Government] The form of government of Iran is that of an Islamic Republic, endorsed by the people of Iran on the basis of their longstanding belief in the sovereignty of truth and Koranic justice, ...

Article 2 [Foundational Principles] The Islamic Republic is a system based on belief in:

1) the One God (as stated in the phrase "There is no god except Allah"), His exclusive sovereignty and right to legislate, and the necessity of submission to His commands;
2) Divine revelation and its fundamental role in setting forth the laws;.
3) the return to God in the Hereafter, and the constructive role of this belief in the course of man's ascent towards God;
4) the justice of God in creation and legislation;5) continuous leadership and perpetual guidance, and its fundamental role in ensuring the uninterrupted process of the revolution of Islam;
6) the exalted dignity and value of man, and his freedom coupled with responsibility before God; in which equity, justice, political, economic, social, and cultural independence, and national solidarity are secured by recourse to:
a) continuous leadership of the holy persons, possessing necessary qualifications, exercised on the basis of the Koran and the Sunnah, upon all of whom be peace;
b) sciences and arts and the most advanced results of human experience, together with the effort to advance them further;
c) negation of all forms of oppression, both the infliction of and the submission to it, and of dominance, both its imposition and its acceptance.

"Palestine's constitution:

ARTICLE 1.

Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation. Arab Unity is an objective which the Palestinian People shall work to achieve.

ARTICLE 41. 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.

Get the picture?

There's one rule for the Jewish people and their state (and one whose record of equal rights far surpasses those of any of the Arab nations) and another for the large number of Arab and Islamic states. The first is verboten and the second is perfectly aceptable. And we know exactly what that means!

AUSSIE LINK IN DISHONEST REPORTING AWARD

HONEST REPORTING has announced its annual DISHONEST REPORTER AWARDS and Fairfax buffoon Ed O’Loughlin has gained a nomination - DR AWARDS!

Poor Ed is probably livid that he didn't make it as THE Dishonest Reporter for 2007 but his nomination in the Worst Moral Equivalence category for his oversimplified background information on Qassam rockets was well deserved. However, the HR write up on his award overlooked the fact that once Ed established his ignorance over the Qassams he made a sincere effort to atone for his sins by ignoring them and their victims most of the time.

The introduction to the awards was also very informative as it covered the year’s highlights from a news perspective of the region:-

"What a year of surprises.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas talked peace in the presence of Saudi and Syrian dignitaries. BBC journalist Alan Johnston was held hostage for nearly four months. When Israel struck an unidentified Syrian facility, the only significant protest came from North Korea.

And then came Farfur, the Hamas mouse.

Who would've thought?

Of course, there were other unsurprising developments. Qassam rockets continued to fall on Sderot. This year's three unfortunate fatalities: Oshri Oz, Shirel Friedman and Chai Shalom.

Israeli MIAs Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev ended the year in captivity, as did other Israeli MIAs.

The Israel Lobby was a top selling book while The Man From Plains documented Jimmy Carter's controversial book tour."

Naturally, our hero generally steered clear of imparting information on much of the above to his readers - especially the stuff that might cause embarrassment to the Arab cause. After all, who among the readers of the Age or the Sydney Morning Herald wants to know about the preaching of race hatred in the Palestinian media or about an anti Semitic mouse that entertains Palestinian kiddies by preaching murder, violence and death to Jews?

And speaking of embarrassment, Ed has plenty of friends at Wikipedia who persist in obliterating any mention of the accusations of anti Israel bias made against him in the past. I wonder if his mates are able to censor references to his latest award?

Although O’Loughlin is not a real Aussie in that he’s actually an Irishman, his award in the Dishonest Reporting category for Worst Moral Equivalence category makes me want to break out into the special native chant reserved for the truly pathetic

Aussie Aussie Aussie oy oy oy vey!

THE STORY THAT WASN'T

Here is yet another news story that never happened (that is, if you follow the mainstream media) - ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE KILLS A TOP MILITANT IN GAZA.

"An Israeli air strike on Monday night killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander and his aide as they drove in a car through northern Gaza City, according to Islamic Jihad radio and the Israeli Army."

Two other Islamic Jihad terrorists "died with him in the car including his senior lieutenant, Jihad Daher. Six passers-by, including three children, were wounded by shrapnel, according to Palestinian medics in Gaza."

This could easily have made it out of the Blank Pages of the Age given that there were innocent Palestinian bystanders in the vicinity of the vehicle in question but the problem is that the report continues as follows:-

"The car appeared to have been filled with explosives when it was hit by an Israeli rocket."

Blast!

Sorry about that but this single line was enough to kill a whole story for reporters whose policy it is to impart a narrative in which Palestinians are always humanised beyond belief. Even those nasty common garden variety thugs and terrorists who toss their own people off tall buildings (if they're ever mentioned at all) get to be described as "militants" or "activists" involved in "resistance". Naturally, Israelis are always armed soldiers, vicious settlers or "hawkish" politicians.

In this Bizarro World Israel is solely to blame for everything. Lately the focus is on the deteriorating poverty situation of the Palestinians of Gaza due to the so-called Israel blockade of Gaza which is painted as turning the territory's entire population of peace loving, tolerant saints into victims of a bloodthirsty vampire-like tribe of neighbours (aka the Jews).

A blockade? Persecution? Oppression?

Never mind that Gaza has a sea to its east and a land border with Egypt which has also been closed for security reasons.

Never mind that Israel has uncovered video tapes showing Egyptian policemen assisting Palestinian terrorists along the Egypt-Gaza - Israel sends US videos of Egypt helping Hamas.

Never mind the missiles fired from Gaza into the Israeli town of Sderot and surrounding communities in the last six years (except as a brief aside in articles designed to depict the thugs as heroic resistance fighters) the latest of which hit a kibbutz house injuring a three-year-old boy.

Never mind the new report that reveals that more than 190,000 Israelis are within range of Qassam-type rockets in the western Negev and that an estimated 2,380 rockets have landed in that area over the past six years, half of which landed in Sderot.

Never mind, the statement of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the "responsibility for what is happening in Gaza should be put directly on the shoulders of Hamas ... It is the policies of Hamas that have led to its own isolation and by implication Gaza as well ... There have been efforts to make certain that humanitarian assistance is getting through ... Of course we're very concerned, but let's put the blame where it should be, and that's on Hamas."

Then there's Bethlehem from where we are routinely treated by some reporters - the Age's Ed O'Loughlin is one of them - to a Christmas special from the birthplace of Jesus at this time of year about the hardship and ruin suffered by the population as a result of Israel's security barrier.

Never mind the real hardship of Christians who are fleeing repressive Islamic rule in their droves and finding refuge in Israel.

Never mind the fact that the security barrier (which for most of its length is not a wall but you wouldn't know that unless you read the blank pages) has significantly reduced the number of fatalities from Palestinian terrorists on both sides.

Never mind that foreigners are less afraid to visit the Holy Land now that Israel and the Palestinians have renewed the peace process according to this International Herald Tribune report - Israel hands out sweets, smooths travel to Bethlehem for growing number of tourists.

This is the background to the story that wasn't reported in your newspaper today or yesterday. Discerning readers of the news from this embattled region need not bother these days to even expect to find news stories of their ilk in local broadsheets that treat them contemptuously as residents of a Bizarro World where everything is upside down.

But then again ... never mind.

AN INDEPENDENT JEW FOR GENOCIDE

What do you do when the world has finally come to understand the true nature of your agenda and you've lost your (independent) voice?

In your desperation, you could resort to that ultimate get out of jail free card and rant on about "Jewish money and power"?

And if you're a truly arrogant buffoon you might even think you can get away with it [NOT THE PROTOCOLS] by playing out your offensive game plan without resorting to the usual mask of describing those people as "Zionists" instead of "Jews".

I wonder how those dupes who put their names to his silly little petition feel now?

BETHLEHEM CENSORED

In what are hopefully his last days as the Fairfax Jerusalem bureau chief, Ed O'Loughlin continues to plug the line that the poor Palestinians are the only people living in the territory he's supposed to be covering for his newspaper who are suffering - Let us spray: art connoisseurs follow graffiti star Banksy to Bethlehem . The ugly wall is his target in that little effort.

That "ugly wall" is Israel's security barrier (which for most of its path isn't a wall at all but a fence) but don't even try to find an explanation in O'Loughlin's scribblings for its existence.

Why on earth would the Israelis want to spend so much time, money and effort to erect such a monstrosity?

The answer to that question is ... CENSORED

Meanwhile Palestinian terrorists continue to threaten the existence of the Jewish State and continue their barrage of rocket attacks on Israel civilian targets near the Hamas controlled territory of Gaza. Where are the stories of the suffering of the people of the Israeli town of Sderot where there have been several deaths at the hands of these murderous attackers?

The answer to that question is ... CENSORED

What of the stories and photographs of Israeli terror victims, of the tunnels used for smuggling of deadly weapons from Egypt into Gaza, of anti-Semitic cartoons and the hatred taught to Palestinian children in their schools and where are the stories of the incitement to murder Jews in the Palestinian media?

The answer to those questions are ... also CENSORED

They never made it past the censor who writes stuff about the region.

For heaven's sake, get rid of this living hell

The photograph above accompanies an article in today's Melbourne Age about a "quietly passionate urban historian", Li Ye who, for most of his adult life, has been "preserving the history of Harbin so his 15-year-old daughter may connect with the place they have both grown up in." That place is the Manchurian city of Harbin which is now home to 10 million people, but was once a village when the tsarists brought in Chinese workers and turned it into a city.

The caption that accompanies the photograph describes it as follows:

"These old apartments on North Third Avenue in the "Inferno" side of Harbin, burnt down four years ago. More than 30 residents were killed, but the fire never made it past the city's news censors. Photo: Li Ye".

In the days to come, the irony of this caption will be covered in The Blank Pages of the Age.

NEWS FROM AN ALIEN PLANET

Every day, so-called "militants" in the Gaza Strip launch rocket attacks on the Israeli city of Sderot. These attacks are rarely reported so this item from EuroNews seemingly takes on the guise of news from an alien planet in some distant solar system.

There are no hotels open in town and the news crew stayed with a private family. This, and the fact that the attacks are indiscriminate and aimed at civilian areas, possibly explains in part why certain journalists have conveniently managed to stay away from the story.

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

They kick donkeys in public and have even rigged them up with deadly explosives in order to commit mass murder but Palestinian terrorists never seem to attract the attention of animal rights activists or progressive reporters like Mr. Ed from The Age.

Now they've turned their attention to lambs - TERROR SUSPECT HIDES BOMB IN LAMB.


And still, all we hear from the activists and Mr. Ed are the sounds of silence.


For Mr. Ed's sake, I sincerely hope that horses aren't next!

GAZAN OBSCENITY

The Australian Newspaper's Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov must have had trouble keeping a straight face as he filed his latest report about the rulers of Gaza imploring the US "to bring an end to the crippling boycott of the Gaza Strip, which they have likened to the World War II siege of Warsaw's Jewish Ghetto." - Hamas asks US to free Gaza 'ghetto'.

Unfortunately however, it's no joke!

In his article Chulov quotes Hamas spokesman, Ahmed Yousef as follows,

"Our isolation is complete, confining us in a ghetto (worse than the Jewish ghettos of Warsaw) where our sewage, power and water systems have been destroyed, all normal supplies constrained and even humanitarian aid withheld. Many people have not been paid for nearly two years, over 75 per cent are unemployed and now the Israelis are threatening to cut off fuel and power and invade us once again."

The unmitigated chutzpah of this appalling liar beggars belief. Gaza has a sea border with the Mediterranean and a land border with Egypt. The extent of the isolation of Gaza is dependent upon the Hamas leadership's own actions. They can cease the incitement against Israel, the racist hatred that spews out of every media organisation in the territory and they can put an end to the daily barrages of missiles aimed from their territory into civilian areas of neighbouring Israel. Alternatively, they can shut up and accept the normal and reserved response of the Israelis.

To invoke the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto to make propaganda for this cause whose very foundation is built on a programme of genocide against the Jewish people is a complete and utter obscenity.

ISRAELIS IN MECCA

According to The Middle East News Source, "some 4,500 Muslims have departed for Mecca from their homes in Israel, a Jewish country with no diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia." - Israelis Embark on Journey to Mecca.

"Sheikh ‘Ali Bakr, 47, an imam from northern Israel who works for the Israeli Interior Ministry, has been to Saudi Arabia 24 times on pilgrimages. Bakr does not feel a contradiction in holding Israeli citizenship and attending the Hajj.

'On the contrary, I feel we're a bridge between Israel and the Arab countries. We can bring people closer together,' he says. 'Some think that Israeli Arabs are neglected and underprivileged, so we tell them that’s not the case, that we live here as equal citizens and that we fit well into the Jewish social fabric.'"

It's a nice touch for people such as these to be able to practice such an important aspect of their religious observance even if they must do so by heading for Mecca as Jordanian nationals. Perhaps one day, the spirit of Annapolis might spread to the point where the Saudis become even more enlightened and accept these people for what they really are - Israelis!

SUFFER THE ANIMALS

A Palestinian youth kicks a donkey wearing a picture of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as it is walked during a Fatah demonstration in Bureij Refugee Camp, central Gaza Strip

The young Palestinian kicking the donkey in the photgraph above encapsulates all that is wrong with Palestinian society today. He's from Fatah, the Palestinian group that's supposed to be making nice with the Israelis after Annapolis following the efforts of the U.S and E.U envoy Tony Blair but he's kicking an animal representing Bush and Blair. That's right, kicking an animal in a photograph accompanying a pathetic time wasting piece of drivel from Ed O'Loughlin about how tough life is today in Gaza thanks to those nasty Israelis who have for no apparent reason whatsover decided to blockade Gaza.

They do like terrorising animals over there don't they? This year alone we've seen the animals in the Gaza zoo, cats on a Hamas television programme and now the donkey in Bureij. There's even less respect among this crowd for the dhimmis who live on the other side of the border. We should be grateful to the Age for highlighting the part about the animals even if the subject of the kicking the Jews or firing missiles at them on a daily basis is a little too much for the sensibilities of its journalists.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

This is a Reuters photograph of a Palestinian Arab woman baking in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp. That she is living in a refugee camp is most likely due to the fact that her parents or her grandparents fled their original homes in the wake of a war started when five Arab armies entered the newly established State of Israel almost 60 years ago with the intent of creating a "momentous massacre" of its Jewish inhabitants.

Those words were used on the day that Israel declared its independence May 15, 1948 by Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, at a Cairo press conference as reported in the New York Times when he declared "jihad", a holy war. Pasha said that the Arab states rejected partition and intended to set up a "United State of Palestine." He then stated:

"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".

This woman lives in a refugee camp nearly sixty years later because the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbours has not been resolved. It is a conflict that has caused hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides but while Israel resettled its 850,000 refugees from Arab lands, the Arab refugees were mainly consigned to squalid refugee camps like the one in Khan Younis where the above picture was taken. They remain there as pawns in the ongoing war on Israel. And, as we saw both before and after last month's meeting at Annapolis when the Palestinian leadership simply refused to recognise Israel as a Jewish State, the stumbling block to the resolution of the conflict is not the "occupation" of Arab land but the very existence of a Jewish State among Arab lands. In many Arab eyes, the war remains one of extermination.

Could it be otherwise?

Israel gave up its occupation of the Gaza Strip where this Palestinian woman lives more than two years ago when it dismantled 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and removed thousands of Jewish settlers and its own army from this territory where almost half of the number of Palestinians then under Israeli occupation were living. The Israelis closed four settlements in the West Bank at the same time.

The Palestinian response was to continue the firing of missiles on a daily basis into Israeli towns and villages that border on Gaza. Some of those missiles have even targeted the not too distant Ashkelon electrical power supply station. Now, I doubt whether someone like Ed O'Loughlin of the Melbourne Age would ever describe a direct hit on such a facility by the terrorists who fire the missiles as "punishment" of innocents. The Hamas regime that controls Gaza does nothing to stop these rockets and indeed encourages such attacks on Israeli civilians and civilian targets. The attacks have included the bombing of crossings into Gaza where vital humanitarian aid including the supply of fuel into Gaza. When Hamas does this, O'Loughlin never describes such acts as "punishment". In his world, only the Jews "punish" others and make them suffer.

Which brings us back to the Reuters picture of the Palestinian woman. It was used by the Melbourne Age to accompany an article by O'Loughlin entitled, FUEL LEVELS CRITICAL IN BESIEGED GAZA. The writer tells us that Israelis and Palestinians are blaming each other for the fuel shortage in Gaza. He cites Mahmoud Daher, local chief of the World Health Organisation".

"We know some health facilities have zero stocks of fuel now and in several hospitals the situation is critical. The main pediatric hospital is critically low in fuel for generators. All transport vehicles and most ambulance travel have also come to a halt."

O'Loughlin then adds that "Palestinians blame the crisis on a decision by the Israeli cabinet in October to reduce fuel supplies to the besieged territory, officially by 15%, as punishment for militant rocket fire directed at nearby Israeli communities." The Israeli side of the argument is described as being part of a commercial dispute about payment. O'Loughlin focusses mainly on the emotive arguments of the Gazans and quotes Petroleum and Gas Stations Owners Association of Gaza vice-chairman, Mahmoud Khozander as follows:

"Two days ago the Israelis said they would improve the supply to half of our basic minimum requirement, but we refused. It's better to die quickly than to drag things out for months."

So from the Palestinian side it's always about suffering, punishment and dying. That is certainly the picture that O'Loughlin constantly paints about the Palestinians and their conflict with the Jews on the other side of the border. This is a narrative that forms part of a fantasy about the bad Israelis but, as usual, O'Loughlin never paints the whole picture, not even half of it. This story from the Jerusalem Post shows a different aspect of the story which could been given some coverage in the article but didn't merit the slightest of mentions in his eyes - PA: Hamas stealing Gaza hospitals' fuel:

"The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry on Thursday accused Hamas of robbing fuel stockpiles in two hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

"A statement published by the ministry claimed that Hamas had been stealing fuel from the European Hospital in the Strip for use in the group's operations.

"The fuel was supplied to hospitals in order to satisfy their needs, in wake of the blockade imposed on Gaza following Hamas's takeover," continued the statement.

"For three days, Hamas has been preventing Gaza fuel companies from receiving fuel allocations sent from Ramallah. According to a Palestine Press news agency report, Hamas was stealing fuel and medical supplies sent from the PA Health Ministry in Ramallah to Gaza hospitals."

The failure to cover material aspects of the full story is only part of what's wrong with the picture of the suffering Palestinian women that accompanies the O'Loughlin article. There is however, a lot more!

What really is wrong with the reportage from this journalist and his newspaper is the lack of coverage of the Israeli narrative of suffering from the conflict. There are no pictures for example, of Israeli women from the town of Sderot who live their daily lives under fear of constant bombardment from Palestinian missiles of which over 2,000 have been fired this year. The stories of their suffering are also very real; they are depicted by some other news outlets but they receive proportionally far less coverage than the self-inflicted suffering of the Palestinians. You can read about the suffering of the Israelis in this excellent blog This Ongoing War but never in the Melbourne Age which has airbrushed their narrative out of existence altogether.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PALESTINE'S CHRISTIANS

Thanks to the Palestinian Authority we need to talk about its Christian population before its numbers dwindle to very little at all. Sadly, the demise of Christian communities under PA jurisdiction is unlikely to generate much outrage or uproar in Christendom as indicated in this Jerusalem Post editorial - Christians' Plight.

The only thing that does seem to generate any outrage from some sectors of Christendom and the secular world from it emanated is that concerning the plight of the Palestinian people in general much of which is self-inflicted as a result of its pathetic leadership whose hatred of their neighbours and their desire for vengeance rather than peace continues to lead them up the garden path.

IS UNREAL

Isreal lifts Gaza blockade Israel

It's not as if the Melbourne Age hasn't had any stories about Israel before. Pity they can't spell the name of the country particularly when the Israelis are being complimented in a way for clearing a "blockade" of Palestinians trapped in the "blockaded" Gaza Strip. However, they do manage to provide the correct spelling when they publish an op ed piece about the peace efforts at Annapolis even when the authors don't accept Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state let alone a Jewish one.

Those poor old Palestinians (the Age usually gets it right spelling-wise with them) are complaining about the suffering of the citizens of Gaza as a result of the so-called "blockade" but what happens when Israel sends in fuel supplies?

They refuse delivery and then they complain about it and there's rarely ever a mention behind the reason why Israel has closed its border with Palestinian Gaza - the daily barrage of missiles aimed by the Palestinians form terrorist groups that are either part of Hamas or supported by Hamas. Not unexpected when Hamas cheerleaders write the news, provide the analysis and provide opinion pieces that come straight from fantasyland.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

This letter was written to the San Francisco Chronicle in response to an article on the issue of the so-called Palestinian Right of Return to Israel rather than to a future Palestinian State.

Hugh Macleod's "Right of Return, an unbending Faith" (SF Chron, 11/28/07) omits from his otherwise comprehensive article the simple historical fact that there is no "right of return" for the six million or more Arabs who proffer the bogus claim to be refugees from British Mandatory Palestine following the 1947-9 Israel-Arab war.

Of the c. 9,000,000 Arabs who call themselves Palestinians in the world today, less than one-third reside in refugee camps. The remaining 6,000,000 are scattered around the world in what they call the Palestinian Diaspora, living and working and raising families and successfully integrating into dozens of countries. International law is clear. The descendents of refugees who have integrated in to their host countries, have jobs, homes, families, etc. cannot claim the status of refugees. Since the original refugees, who numbered c. 750,000 in 1949, are now either dead or in their dotage, their putative 6,000,000 descendents who do not live in refugee camps are not refugees.

Moreover, contrary to the rabid claims of Arab propagandists, Israel did not cause the refugee problem; and thus Israel bears no responsibility in solving it. I document in my books "Big Lies" (Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 2005) and "History upside Down" (Encounter Press, 2007) the obvious and undeniable historical fact that Israel accepted the UN's 1947 partition resolution (UNSCR #181) and extended offers of friendship, co-existence, and peace to all of its Arab neighbors. Arab leaders rejected the UN resolution and sneered at Israel's peace offers. Armies from seven Arab countries and a host of para-military gunmen invaded with the vociferously ballyhooed intent to utterly wipe out the new state and genocide its Jews. During the course of this war of genocidal aggression against Israel, Arab leaders, including the Hajj Amin el-Husseini (the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler's ally in World War 2), encouraged or forced Arab peasants to flee. During the Rhodes armistice talks in 1949, Israel offered peace and a just resolution for the plight of these refugees. Israel's offers were turned down by every Arab state, and these states forced the refugees to remain, hostage-like, in their camps. Had the Arabs accepted the UN resolution, been willing to live in peace with Israel, or even belatedly accepted Israel's post-war offers of peace and co-existence, not only would there have been no refugee problem, but there would have been a state, almost half the size of today's Israel, for the Palestinians sixty years ago.

Therefore, the full onus of culpability for the plight of the Arabs living in refugee camps today rests exclusively upon the Arab states who caused the war and refused peaceful resolution after the war. The continued existence of the Arab refugee problem today is a function solely of Arab governments' Machiavelian exploitation of their Palestinian brethren to advance their on-going genocidal war against Israel ... no matter what the human cost.

Ignoring this reality rewards Arab leadership for its duplicity and inhumanity.

David Meir-Levi

PALESTINIAN APARTHEID

So Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reiterated his refusal on Saturday to recognize Israel as a Jewish state - Abbas reiterates refusal to recognize Jewish state.

"Historically, there are two states - Israel and Palestinian. Israel has Jews and other people, and this we are ready to recognize, but nothing else."

It may be that Abbas' hands or his tongue is tied but the pronouncement is yet another attempt by an Arab leader to deny history and deny the reality of Israel's creation as a Jewish State. He wants Jews out of the West Bank so that Palestine has Arabs and no other people and wants to dictate the demographic shape of Israel. In short, the Abbas formula is just another form of Apartheid which prompts one to ask where Bishop Tutu and Jimmy Carter are now.

ANNAPOLIS BLUES

The ink had barely dried on the agreement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the Annapolis peace meeting when Mahmoud Abbas's own PATV affirmed its claims on all of Israel. Is this what Abbas means when he says that the "moment of truth on Palestinian statehood has come"?

Thanks to Palestine Media Watch you can click here to view the video that exposes the real truth on the Palestine Media Watch Website but don't hold your breath waiting for word from some of those media "analysts" out there to offer their advice as to what concessions or compromises Israel can offer in return because this story will be buried deep inside the blank pages.

CHECKPOINT

When next you read in stories about Israel of the evils of checkpoints then perhaps you might consider this - IDF CATCHES TWO PALESTINIAN TEENS WITH BOMBS AT WEST BANK CHECKPOINT.

"Security forces on Friday found three bombs in a bag belonging to two Palestinian teenagers at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus in the West Bank.

The youths were taken for questioning following the discovery, and sappers blew up the bombs in a controlled explosion.

Earlier, five mortar shells were fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory. All of the shells struck inside Gaza, near the fence on the border with Israel."

Rarely, if ever, do those stories in the media explain why the checkpoints exist or why Israeli often has to take tough measures against terrorism (or "armed resistance" against any Jewish presence in the region if you like). I wonder why?

TIMELINE - 30 NOVEMBER, 1947

One day after the United Nations voted to create a Jewish and an Arab state in Palestine, the Palestine Post reported that six Jews were murdered by Arab terrorists who ambushed Jerusalem bound buses and another was murdered in Jaffa.

On this day sixty years ago, the Arabs of Palestine, with the encouragement and assistance of the neighbouring Arab States, launched a series of attacks on their Jewish neighbours, in an attempt to undo by force the decision taken on the previous day by the United Nations to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab States, linked in economic union. This campaign of violence culminated in the invasion of the newly declared State of Israel on 15 May, 1948 by the regular armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and contingents from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

"The invasion of Palestine by the Arab States was the first armed aggression which the world had seen since the end of the war" - Trygve Lie, then United Nations Secretary-General, 'In the Cause of Peace' @ p 174.

An informative read on this subject is Sarah Honig's Forget the 30th of November in the Jerusalem Post

THE HAND OF PEACE

"If there is to be conciliation between Arab and Jew, that task begins with the formal creation of the two independent states in Palestine. It should be the urgent desire and purpose of the Jewish State, which has received the assent of the assembled nations of the world, to bring about that conciliation in practice; and to work towards a fruitful union between itself and its neighbour."

Those words are from the Palestine Post editorial of sixty years ago following United Nations Resolution 181 which ended the British Mandate of Palestine and voted 33 to 13 (10 abstentions) to create a Jewish and an Arab state in its place. [Hat tip: Elder of Ziyon]

Sixty years on and the parties are still striving towards the achievement of peace but there are many who still cannot understand that mutual recognition of each other's rights are paramount. The Palestinian delegation at Annapolis this week still struggled with the concept of living side by side with a Jewish state.

There is much pessimism at the outcome of Annapolis and the Melbourne Age's Ed O'Loughlin is certainly in the gloom and doom camp as witnessed by his "analysis" published in yesterday's Melbourne Age - LEADERS HAVE LITTLE TO HOPE FOR AND MUCH TO FEAR.

What value however, is a person's "analysis" when his ability to analyse is in so much doubt?

"At Aqaba it was agreed that as a first step towards final peace talks Israel would freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and ease its military occupation of the Palestinian territories. The Palestinians would eliminate terrorism and armed resistance.

Neither side honoured even these first, preliminary obligations. The road map was dead by the end of the year. Four years later, Bush is a lame-duck president with abysmally low domestic approval ratings and gravely diminished influence abroad."

What we really have to fear is journalists who put their own spin on history so that it is becomes distorted.

The first distortion is that the Road Map never speaks of "armed resistance" - a term used by the Palestinian terror groups and their supporters to describe their terrorist activities such a suicide bombing and the sending of missiles into Jewish homes, schools and businesses as well as bombing the crossings where humanitarian supplies are sent by the Israelis into Gaza (i.e. the things that O'Loughlin rarely ever writes about).

The first step in the First Phase of the Road Map requires the Palestinian leadership to issue an "unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate end to all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere." Instead, the Palestinian leadership, through Abbas at the behest of Arafat, repudiated this requirement within six weeks of the signing of the agreement. The fact that O'Loughlin reverted to the languague used by the Palestinian terrorists has exposed him for what he is and tells us where his sympathies lie. That alone should have been enough to alert any decent editor to the fact that his "analysis" is coloured by bias against the Israelis and those Palestinians who want peace. His work would be more appropriate for an Australians for Palestine or Friends of Hamas publication.

There's also the little matter of O'Loughlin's disingenuous and misleading reference to the "West Bank" in the first paragraph quoted above. The fourth step in the First Phase of the Road Map really says -"Israel withdraws from Palestinian areas occupied since September 2000, as security progresses, freezes all settlement activity, and dismantles outposts. It takes measures to improve the Palestinian humanitarian situation."

By referring only to the West Bank (and not all of Palestine as the Road Map references) O'Loughlin avoids the fact that Israel in 2005 withdrew from Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank. This disengagement reduced the amount of Palestinians living under "occupation" by about 40%. Despite that, the Israelis have on a daily basis been on the receiving end of Palestinian missile attacks from Hamas dominated Gaza.

The fact remains that any attempt to seek peace, no matter that each of the negotiating parties starts from a position of weakness, should be regarded as a bonus for the Israeli and Palestinian people.

While O'Loughlin smugly writes about scoreless draws, he manages to forget that he himself has scored so many own goals by his appalling coverage of the news from the region, that the Guinness Book of World Records beckons for him.

TIMELINE - 29 NOVEMBER, 1947

Sixty years ago today the United Nations General Assembly approved Resolution 181 calling for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The vote was 33 votes in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions and one absent (see list).

The resolution was accepted by the Jews in Palestine, yet rejected by the Arabs in Palestine and the Arab states. Today, the Jewish state is known as Israel. There is still no Arab state in a formal sense and most Arab and Muslim nations refuse to accept the 60 year old vote of the United Nations to this very day with tragic consequences for all people in the region.

Prof. David Navon who teaches psychology at the University of Haifa has written in Ha'aretz for those who have forgotten what a nation-state is and his message is worth remembering on this day in history.

NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY

The Australian Federal election at the weekend resulted in a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party with incumbent Prime Minister John Howard not only losing power in Parliament but also losing his seat in the electorate of Bennelong as well. His campaign was not helped by a ridiculous and childish smear campaign conducted in one Sydney electorate in which flyers were distributed falsely linking the ALP with Muslim extremism. The ploy backfired and the story gained prominence in the Australian media.

A similar, childish and tacky attempt to discredit Labor was made by a lunatic fringe group, Australians for Palestine but this time the story gained little prominence in the media other than in The Australian - Mideast tension surfaces at Vic booth.

It seems that the AFP targetted Jewish ALP candidate Mark Dreyfus QC for his past association with the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council with a flyer that made no personal allegations about Dreyfus but described AIJAC "Australia's leading zionist, anti-Palestine lobby group". What these people really mean is that AIJAC openly supports a two State solution for the resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict as do both major political parties in this country. A vote against Dreyfus and for the Liberal candidate in this electorate would have been a vote for a party that supports the rights of both peoples anyway and therefore this pathetic attempt at grandstanding by Australians for Palestine was nothing if not idiotic.

A close look at recent AFP activities reveals that these people are more in synch with the view that Israel should be dismantled and replaced by a Palestinian State and in this regard they appear as isolated as Hamas, which has a different view of "democracy" to those we hold dear in this country. Back in Palestine, the local version of "democracy" involves hurling political opponents from rooftops and firing on crowds of your political opponents (both Hamas and Fatah are expert at that form of "democratic" exercise. Hamas itself calls not only for the destruction of the Jewish State but it also mandates the killing of Jews so it's not surprising that these AFP characters picked on a Jewish candidate.

The AFP also claims that it wishes to "dispel the myths and disinformation about Palestine in Australia" but their flyers fail to mention the fact that the Palestinians have had numerous opprtunties to make peace with the Jews from 1948 when they joined 5 Arab nations to wage war and drive the Jews into the sea to the meetings at Camp David and Taba in 2000/1 and through the Road Map in 2003. On the very eve of the latest U.S. peace initiative, at Annapolis Maryland, the friends of the AFP were hatching plans to disrupt the peacemaking -Ahead of summit, Hamas threatens to make deadlier Qassam rockets.

The Australians for Palestine are no friends of the democratic process, nor are they even friends of Palestine.

A FICTITIOUS NEWS STORY FROM PALESTINE?

According to this story from the Palestinian Newsagency Ma'an [Masked gunmen abduct Ma'an journalist] a Ma'an journalist was kidnapped at the weekend and held for 12 hours by masked gunmen who "demanded to use his Ma'an password to post a fictitious news story, aimed at stirring up trouble between Ma'an and the Palestinian factions and security services." The article concludes that the agency is "confident that the Palestinian security will arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice in the interests of press freedom."

Fictitious news stories are bread and butter for the Palestinian thugs who operate in both the West Bank and Gaza and I really doubt that Palestinian security is going to solve this intriguing case any time soon.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT SYRIA

Syria doesn't get that much of a run in our media even though the Syrian regime is responsible for so much unrest and dislocation in neighbouring Lebanon (which on some people's reasoning it still occupies through its proxy Hizbullah) and other neighbouring countries. Here's an insight from our own ABC as to how the thugs who run the country like to operate - Syrian Facebook users blocked.

NOTHING IS REAL

We read a great deal about how it is alleged that the Israelis are damaging the Palestinian economy with their blockade of Gaza but the media seems to downplay positive news such as the recent decision announced by Israel's Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon to permit farmers in the Gaza Strip to export their entire crop of strawberries and flowers to Europe - Israeli minister says exports will be allowed out of Gaza Strip.

"Israel will allow the opening of the Sufa crossing for the passage of agricultural produce, beginning with strawberries and flowers and then expanding to include other produce, Simchon told Israel Radio."

The problem is that the Martyr Brigades, a Fatah aligned terrorist group has a habit of bombing the crossing and an even bigger problem is that you won't find out about it in the mainstream media. Ed O'Loughlin of the Melbourne Age for instance won't tell you but Ma'an, a Palestinian newsagency will - Martyr Brigades declare Ahmed Abu Rish claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Sufa military at 3 missiles from helicopter Amr 2.

Whether or not you have an affinity for Jewish settlers living on disputed territory in the West Bank, the fact remains that the great majority of them are hard working, law abiding people. Yet they have been demonised in some sectors of the media which remain decidedly shtumm on the subject of Palestinian vandalism on property belonging to Jewish farmers. To discover about that you need to refer to left leaning Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz which has found evidence of arson, sabotage of equipment and destruction of crops by Palestinians - Settlers: Palestinians vandalizing Jewish farmers' property.

Really, the selective coverage of the news at such a vital time in the history of the Middle East sometimes seems a little like that Beatles' song about Strawberry Fields where nothing is real.

CLOUD OVER ANNAPOLIS TALKS

Ed O'Loughlin reports in the Melbourne Age about the doubts that cloud the new Middle East talks slotted for next week at Annapolis. It appears that hopes of success depend largely on a "key meeting in Cairo today, when members of the Arab League will decide whether and how to participate."

It would indeed be tragic for the Palestinians if the quest for peace cannot progress further because of demands for a preconceived result especially in view of the fact that none of the invited participants seem to be willing to discuss core matters such as putting an end to terrorist violence or even to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. In that regard O'Loughlin quaintly uses the term "as an ethnically Jewish state."

This will certainly help readers understand that the Israelis are not talking about a state based solely on the Jewish religion which was at the core of PA negotiator Saeb Erekat's gaffe of last week. We all know that a successful peace deal must be based on mutual recognition by all sides. It seems that the Arab states are still hung up on the issue of Israel being a Jewish state even though there are already 22 ethnically Arab states most of which have Islam as their official religion. Ironically, Israel is the only state in the region whose very foundation is based on the concept of recognition of more than one ethnic group within its makeup.

And for this reason, O'Loughlin has done everyone a service by highlighting what the Arab states and particularly the Palestinians need to understand in order to achieve peace.If the Arabs stay away from Annapolis or if the Palestinians fail to grasp the mettle and seriously approach peace through mutual recognition, I fear another tragedy coming for these sad, unfortunate people.

THEY STILL DON'T GET IT

The Associated Press reports that Jamal al-Dura father of Mohammed, who became a national symbol when he was killed during intense fighting in Gaza on 30 September 2000, was briefly detained at the weekend by Hamas security for allegedly shooting in the air during a family wedding. Al-Dura, described as a "supporter of the moderate Fatah movement", denied the accusations saying "he can't carry guns because of his medical condition." - Hamas security detains father of iconic Palestinian boy.

The report covers the story of Mohammed Dura's death but fails to mention the fact that the videotape of the incident is currently the subject of a French court hearing in which that story is being seriously challenged as part of a premeditated campaign to stir up violence among the Palestinian population at the start of the "second intifada".

One of the few media outlets to cover the story is Scotland's Sunday-Herald. Very few other mainstream new outlets around the world are even touching it despite its significance to our understanding of the violence and death that followed the incident.

This shouldn't be considered unusual these days. The Melbourne Age for example, today carries its second story in recent days sourced from the London Guardian on the forthcoming Annapolis meeting in which Israel's occupation and settlements are mentioned but there's nothing about the obligations of the Palestinians to arrest and disarm terrorists - to essential first phase requirements in the now dormant Road Map to Peace in the Middle East which the PA repudiated before the ink dried on that agreement in 2003.

There's no mention either of the daily firing of quassam rockets by Palestinian terrorists into Israeli homes, schools and other civilian areas. These things have been airbrushed out of existence but they still happen and the media still don't get it!

HUMAN SHIELDS

This is an incredible story from Carlos of Peace with Realism -

Human Shields: Palestinians Exploit Their Own Schoolchildren.


"Palestinians have made a specialty of murdering civilians, yet still wish to portray Israel as a sponsor of terrorism. They have found an effective method: deliberately putting their own civilians, even their children, in mortal danger."

UN HELPS TERROR

"Hamas is ruling by terror and that UNRWA is afraid and will not criticize."

Arlene Kushner tells How the UN Helps Terror (from Front Page Magazine).

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."