DECENT AND INDECENT - PART ONE [DECENT]

The decent part is easy.

This article by Greg Sheridan of the Australian shows that he is a decent man.

ISRAEL STILL LOOKS GOOD, WARTS AND ALL

That Israel of the Western mind (and indeed of the Arab mind) is a hateful place: right-wing, militaristic, authoritarian, racist, ultra-religious, neo-colonial, narrow-minded, undemocratic, indifferent to world opinion, indifferent especially to Palestinian suffering.

Yet the Israel I know is mostly secular, raucously, almost wildly democratic, has a vibrant left wing, having founded in the kibbutz movement one of the only successful experiments in socialism in human history. It is intellectually disputatious; any two Israelis will have three opinions and be happy to argue them to a lamp post. It is multi-ethnic, there is a great stress on human solidarity, there is due process. And I've never heard an Israeli speak casually about the value of Palestinian life. I've heard Israelis voice a desire to neutralise Hezbollah or remove Hamas from leadership in Gaza, but I've never in any context heard an Israeli express the view that the value of a human life is determined by race.

The indecent involves people who regard Israel in terms of the first Israel as described by Sheridan.

They will be highlighted here later.

'World duped by Hamas death count'

According to the Jerusalem Post article by Yaakov Katz, the world was duped by the Hamas death count during the Gaza War in December/January.

It's true that the world was duped by the count but those doing the duping included members of the media such as our own Melbourne Age which willing swallowed and repeated the Hamas figures long after it was clear they were discredited. In doing so, the AGe duped and continues to dupe its own readership.

Naturally, there are long odds about the above story appearing in tomorrow's edition of the Age.

Let's Talk About Pakistan

Marty Peretz of The New Republic looks at what's happening in Pakistan at the moment and decides - You May Think The Problem Is Palestine; The President May Even Think The Problem Is Palestine. But, If You Care To Look And Think, It Is Really Pakistan.

He cites two articles in the New York Times on the subject of Pakistan and points to some "positively terrifying" developments occurring over there.

The first is a story of the historic educational vacuum in the country filled by the madrasas "overwhelmingly of the fanatical Islamic persuasion" and the second is about US doubts on a potential failed state with 60 to 100 nuclear bombs.

Scary stuff and one wonders why some parts of the media are so obsessed with Israel's supposed nuclear capacity when the Israeli's have never acknowledged its existence let alone threatened anyone with it.

THE POLITICS OF MARILYN SHEPHERD

I first came across Marilyn Shepherd when reading the readers' comments that appear at the foot of some articles in Israel's Haaretz Newspaper. The posters in this section are an eclectic group who mostly correspond in strident fashion pushing various points of view - many of them particularly extreme. Included in this group are some mean and nasty types with axes to grind and they push their agendas with … shall we say … an unhealthy disregard for the truth.

Haaretz apparently moderates its readers' comments and I suppose it's a tribute to Israel's democracy that a newspaper gives space to a diverse group of anti-Semitic types, Holocaust deniers, Hamas mouthpieces (as well as extremists on the Israeli side) to express their views. After all, they do have Amira Haas and Gideon Levy on the payroll. In any event, you won't see such tolerance and openness in any equivalent Palestinian publication.

Marilyn always seems to stand out: not only because she's an Aussie but because of the systemic and pervasive racism that drips largely from her acidic computer keyboard. I can imagine her skulking in some cellar, tapping gleefully away inventing another imaginary crime perpetrated by those nasty Jews against those poor Palestinians.

Since she first came to my notice, I've followed Marilyn's vicious, racist hyperbole through a variety of media and internet outlets. Hatred of Jews has become her virtual trademark. I have also discovered that Marilyn Shepherd is one of very few people to have been banned from blogs at both extremes of the political spectrum as well as plenty in the middle.

Based in South Australia, Marilyn visibly has anger management issues. Scarcely a post of hers isn't peppered with swear words, calling others "wankers", telling them to "piss off" or similar comments which would make the most foul-mouthed brickie blush but are standard for the 56 year old "lady".

Marilyn, (who will no doubt insist she isn't an antisemite) is a blatant Holocaust denier.

Official figures for the Jewish populations of Germany in 1933 were 450,000, two thirds whom fled before the holocaust.

IN Austria it was only 180,000 and two thirds of them escaped. Where the 6 million comes from is obviously another load of bunkum.

[Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Saturday, 31 May 2008 2:43:26 AM]

On New Matilda, where she goes by the name MaryJ she had this to say:

It is pretty fair to say that historians have shown that 6 million jews did not die in the "holocaust", maybe 1 or 2 million among 70 million other people.

Note New Matilda saw fit to delete her comments (and a raft of others) though perhaps not for the right reason:

We have been following the comments on this article and as you may be aware, deleted some over the past few days.

We have been very concerned at the number of personal attacks and comments which do not contribute to the discussion.

Calling Marilyn a dole bludging wanker, is a personal attack. Holocaust denial is a whole different story. Marilyn is one of those people who will insist ad nauseum that "criticism of Israel isn't antisemitic". As antisemites go however, Marilyn is almost a walking cliche even to the point where she suggests that some of her best friends are Jewish.

... the Palestinians I know well in Australia and gorgeous, gracious, decent, hard working and honest people. My jewish friends love them.

The only "Jewish friend" Marilyn has, if you can call him "Jewish" and retain a straight face, is Antony Loewenstein. Her comments regularly appear on his blog - anyone who disagrees with him is automatically censored.

Marilyn wouldn't know "hard work" however, having been on a disability pension for years. As it happens, her "disability" doesn't prevent her from sitting in front of a computer for ten or more hours a day like most people in offices.

Marilyn was described by one well known columnist as "Australia's most unhinged moonbat", and another dedicated a whole day's blogging to her, noting that "The hate mail for her alone makes up half the traffic" to his blog.

Fluent in Dogalog, Marilyn has a mailing list of politicians and journalists that most PR flaks would kill for. The recipients of her almost daily emails would probably be just as happy however if someone would kill her instead. Rather like Keysar Trad, Marilyn Shepherd actually does her enemies a favour every time she opens her mouth. Feel free to subscribe - msh56712@bigpond.net.au.

Once upon a time, she was obsessed with John Howard. Her mini auto-biographies at Online Opinion notes she was: "In forced 'retirement' due to severe ill health until the Tampa arrived, decided there was no time to be idle and became active after the horrific drownings on what she called 'the drowned refugee boat' to hundreds of politicians and newspaper editors, all to no avail."

It's nice to know some things would get her "active". Your tax dollars at work!

With Howard's departure however, she turned her sights to the world's only Jewish state.

Marilyn's debating style can be summed up as: telling the same lie over and over again until people believe it. Some of her classics:

I don’t want to hear a single word about the naughty Hamas people and their teensy little rockets that have not managed to hit anything.

On the Jewish question:

Now let's ask this question. If being jewish is so damn wonderful why are there so few still?

And one of the finest pieces of irony ever to appear on the screen:

Why do we have to continue on endlessly talking about Israel and Palestine?

This from someone who has posted, literally tens of thousands of comments on precisely that, often to blogs which didn't even mention Israel in the first place.

Yesterday's edition of the Age published a Marilyn Shepherd letter that seemed to buck her usual spiteful trend.

In 1938, we as a nation made one of our most shameful decisions — we refused to accept Jewish refugees and forced them to stay and die. Those who did escape used people smugglers, and I know we would not think of jailing them.

Is this a new sweet Marilyn showing sympathy towards Jews?

Hell no, she's only working on her tarnished image!

Marilyn surely must be aware that the British, at the behest of Palestine's Arab leadership, put an end to the migration of Jews from Europe before the War and that, as a result thousands and possibly millions of Jewish boat people and would-be boat people were forced to stay back in Europe and die. She also knows that the same Palestinian Arab leadership plotted with Hitler to enable his final solution. The same Arab leadership were also members of the Muslim Brotherhood which ultimately spawned Hamas and inspired Yassir Arafat to a corrupt life of terrorism that has caused countless deaths to Jews and Arabs alike. But then again, Marilyn is one of those Holocaust deniers who doesn't think Hitler butchered that many (or enough?) Jews and others during his dirty little war, so she's not really sincere in her sympathy for Jewish boat people.

I don't know why I wasted so much of my time on a verminous piece like Marilyn. It must be a slow day.

THIS IS HAMAS ...

This is Hamas ...

LETTERS OF THE WEEK

A wealthy Australian Jew died this week and that was enough to bring some of the vile anti-semitic vermin that infest the fringes of our society out of the woodwork.

The following two letters appear in today's Australian to counter the dross:

WHY was the letter from Frank Bonaccorso (Letters, 30/4) selected for publication? He opened with the offensive and totally unfounded inference that only the Australia-Israel Review would publish “gushing tributes to a man who admitted collusion in a cartel ...”. Richard Pratt was certainly a Jew and a supporter of Israel, but his philanthropy was remarkable both for the amounts he donated and for its breadth. Israel and Jewish causes were by no means the major beneficiaries of his largesse.

Ian Grinblat
Caulfield, Vic

SELF-declared “revolutionary socialist” John Passant’s hatred towards Israel and Jews has no bounds. Not content with routinely titling Israel a racist, terrorist state and peddling conspiracy theories about Zionism, Passant takes a cheap shot at a dead Jewish man (Letters, 1/5). Whatever one might think of Richard Pratt—he was a flawed man like the rest of us—his family and friends deserve to be spared comparisons with Somali pirates.

Therein lies the rub. The pirates, who happen to be largely Muslim, are to be obliquely lauded because Passant perceives them to be the enemy of Israel and the West. Sadly that’s the perverted logic of the modern-day far Left: is it any wonder that an overwhelmingly majority of the world’s population shun their vile, hate-filled politics.

Nick Dyrenfurth
Waterloo, NSW

EVEN THE BRITISH

When noted Israel basher Richard Falk was appointed UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories we all knew what sort of quality to expect from this man's work. Last month, Falk predictably reported that there was "reason" to conclude that Israel's massive military offensive on Gaza in December and January was a "war crime".

Now, even the British, who have been critical of Israel over its defence of its people targetted by the constant barrage of Palestinian rockets fired for years, has criticised Falk's report as "unbalanced" - Britain raps 'unbalanced' UN rights Gaza report.

In the English language, the use of the word "unbalanced" in criticising such a report means they think it's a pack of lies.

Which it is.

ISRAEL AT SIXTY-ONE

Israel celebrates its 61st Anniversary today. Every day of its existence it has lived under threat of annihilation from its neighbours and, despite being involved in what is called a "peace process" with the Palestinians the threats continue from the axis of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas and other terrorist organisations.

Today's Age explains that even Israel's so called "peace partner", the Palestine Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas refuses to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Abbas is even described as being "defiant" on that issue despite the fact that the United Nations voted in November 1947 to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State - PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT DEFIANT ON JEWISH STATE.

Moreover, as Palestine Media Watch notes, Abbas' pronouncement is more cynical than a mere act of defiance:-

"I say this clearly: I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will," he said at a preliminary conference of the Palestinian Youth Parliament in Ramallah.

At the end of the conference, Abbas was presented with a large framed map of "Palestine," covering the entire area of Israel.

Further, Abbas' Palestine Authority wants his Palestinian State to be cleared of Jews and has made it a criminal offence punishable by death for a Palestinian to sell land to Jews - PALESTINIAN FACES DEATH FOR SELLING LAND TO ISRAEL (and don't hold your breath waiting for the Age to report on this or any of the myriad of instances of PA racism and anti-Jewish sentiment within its own media).

All of this is material that should have been of interest if Durban 2 was an anti-racist conference as it purported to be but we know the truth about that, don't we?

YOM HAZIKARON

Today Israel remembers its fall - those who number in excess of 20,000 and who lost their lives in defence of the Jewish State and who were victims of terror.

Rain on a Battlefield by Yehuda Amichai

It rains on my friends' faces,
On my live friends' faces
Those who cover their heads with a blanket
And it rains on my dead friends' faces,
Those who are covered by nothing.

SLAUGHTER IN YAWN SRI LANKA

I was watching the news on BBC World at the weekend and noticed that Associated Press was reporting that the United Nations is saying that nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed 14,000 wounded over the course of the past 3 and a half months of fighting.

That exceeds the number of Palestinians, mostly armed fighters, killed in almost nine years since Arafat decided to walk away from Israel's offer of peace at Camp David in 2000 and chose armed attacks against the Jewish State and its own civilian population.

Has anyone heard from the remainder of the crew at Durban 2 as to what is being done to prevent the slaughter in Sri Lanka?

MORE FROM THE GAZA GHETTO

Another scene of suffering in Gaza thanks to Free Gaza

Same story, different perspective

There's such a thing as the rule of law in civilised communities where a person is considered innocent until proven guilty.

Here's the same story but with very different perspectives about the Gaza War taken by two different newspapers:

ISRAELI FORCES 'CAN'T CLEAR THEMSELVES'

GAZA CIVILIAN DEATHS MISHAPS: MAJOR-GENERAL DAN HAREL

It's not hard to see which newspaper lines up with civilised society and which is a cheerleader for the barbarians.

JEWS FIGHT BACK

Zvika Krieger reports that in the New Republic that Jewish and Pro-Israel groups have turned the tables on the haters and their visible presence in Geneva for Durban 2 is having an effect - Durban II Dispatch: Spoiling For a Fight This conference was supposed to be filled with anti-Semites. What happened?

To be sure, Ahmedinjejad's speech yesterday was filled with anti-Israel bile, and the Arab delegates have spent the past few hours using their seven allotted minutes at the podium in the Assembly Hall (where I am sitting right now) to lambaste the Jewish state. But unlike the accounts I've read of Durban I, where the entire conference seemed united in their hatred of Israel, I have yet to really see any anti-Israel protesters other than at a few sporadic outbreaks, or even much anti-Israel literature or posters--and definitely nothing even close to what was distributed at the 2001 conference. Any time I've seen an Arab or Iranian NGO giving an interview to the media, a group of Jews is waiting eagerly nearby to respond.

So the anti-Semites are still out there but Jews and their friends are now fighting back.

Recalling Auschwitz not enough to control Iran

This editorial from the San Francisco Examiner says it all - Recalling Auschwitz not enough to control Iran

This is not the first time the U.N., which was created to foster international law, human rights and world peace, has failed to live up to its main mission. Since Hitler's day, millions of people have been starved or slaughtered in Bosnia, Cambodia, China, Darfur, North Korea, Rwanda and other places. Yet, the U.N. is more likely to condemn military action taken to prevent or stop genocide than to actually confront blood-thirsty tyrants like Ahmadinejad who publicly threaten to unleash it.

When a member state announces plans to annihilate its neighbor, there can be only one correct response from the U.N.: total shunning by the entire international community, including ironclad economic sanctions, quickly followed by joint military action to shut down the rogue's war-making capability if necessary.

Until that happens, the U.N. will continue to be nothing more than a weak and ineffectual international body of all talk and no real action, which the current and future Hitlers of the world will be all too happy to ignore.

WHITE PHOSPHORUS AND THE AGE GOES MIA

The Jerusalem Post reports on the conclusions of the IDF Cast Lead investigation into the conduct of its soldiers during the Gaza War - IDF Cast Lead probe: White phosphorus was used legally

The IDF operated in the Gaza Strip in accordance with international law and succeeded in maintaining a high level of professionalism and morals even though it fought against an enemy that cynically uses civilians as human shields, Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel said Wednesday as the IDF publicized findings from five different probes into accusations that were raised during January's Operation Cast Lead.

An on the IDF's use of white phosphorus which became a matter of some controversy in certain circles:-

Regarding the IDF's use of white phosphorus during the operation, which drew international condemnations and accusations that Israel was perpetrating war crimes, the probe into the use of the weaponry discovered that in all cases it was used in accordance of international law. The weapon, the probe discovered, was used as a mortar shell fired by mortar squads as well as by the Navy which fired a 76 mm cannon which every few rounds also fires a white-phosphorus shell so the Navy can track where it is targeting.

In addition, the IDF fired some 3,000 155 mm artillery shells - that looked like exploding octopuses in the air - that are not white-phosphorus weapons and are used strictly in order to create smokescreens for troop movements on the ground.

The probe, conducted by artillery officer Col. Shai Alkilai, revealed that white phosphorus weapons were used strictly in open fields and not in urban centers. The weapon was also not used against terrorists in the fields but for marking and ranging when the forces tried to target Kassam rocket cells operating in the open fields.

The IDF said it knew of only one case when white phosphorus was used in its burn capacity. That incident also took place in an open field and was done in order to burn away shrubbery and uncover tunnel openings in the area. The IDF said that the use of the weapon in that incident was also done in line with international regulations.

While the IDF was not required to, on January 7, the General Staff decided to stop using white phosphorus, Alkali discovered three cases of forces that continued to use the weapon despite the order. The probe revealed that that the use of the weapon after January 7 was since the forces had yet to receive the new directive and that once they did use of the weapon was halted.

And you may ask where is the Age which highlighted several misinformed reports from Arab lobbyists criticising the use of the weapon and charging that Israel was guilty of crimes of humanity based on those lies?

Missing in action!

CARLILL VS RUNDLE ON AHMADINEJAD

Carlill vs Rundle: Ahmadinejad, Palestine and Israel
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Policy Analyst Bren Carlill writes:

It must be frustrating to be Guy Rundle. Imagine having such erudite analytical skills, but finding that the only person of influence who actually agrees with you is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a crackpot political leader who threw a note down a well (where his messiah is hiding), telling him to hurry the hell up and kill those pesky Jews.

Imagine knowing, as Rundle apparently does and somehow the rest of us don’t, that Israeli settlements are actually preventing Palestinian procreation! After citing a definition of genocide that read, "the attempt to destroy the capacity of a people to reproduce itself as a distinct entity," he claimed Israel’s settlement policy "has been a pretty good go at that."

Oh! I get it! (Blush!) He’s not talking about the capacity of Palestinians to reproduce (because that would be stupid, since they’re reproducing faster than Israelis, and faster than the surrounding -- non-occupied -- Arab populations. Indeed, it seems Israeli occupation has been a boon for Palestinian reproductive systems), but rather of their capacity to reproduce as a distinct entity.

Let’s analyse that, shall we? Are we talking about statehood? Palestinians ain’t never had a state. Not in antiquity. Not when the Turks owned what Palestinians (and Rundle) call their land (from 1516). Not when the British controlled that land (from 1916). Not when Egypt, Israel and Jordan shared that land between them (funny that there were no UN resolutions condemning Jordanian occupation of East Jerusalem...), and not, since 1967, when Israel took over the job itself. You can’t reproduce something that was never produced in the first place, Mr Rundle.

Maybe he doesn’t mean statehood, but, rather, national identity? Is Rundle suggesting that Israel is genociding the Palestinians by not allowing their identity to continue? Seriously?! Does he truly believe that Palestinian identity is in danger of disappearing? The Palestinians are one of the best known identities in the world! The Palestinians have entire wings of the UN dedicated to their identity -- the only people group in the world to have that privilege. Ask the Sahrawi, long stateless and under foreign occupation, what they think about that. Oh! Never heard of them? What about the Arabs of Khuzestan? How are their attempts at national identity reproduction going? Frankly, there’s a lot of truth in the argument that if it weren’t for the fact that they’re in conflict with the Jews, no one would have even heard of the Palestinians.

Somehow Mr Rundle believes the settlements are the fault of all this (well, I’m still unsure of the fault of what, but never mind). If settlements are to blame for whatever they are to blame for, how does Rundle begin to explain away the fact that successive Israeli offers to the Palestinians (all rejected without counter-offer) have been of more and more West Bank land. It pretty much destroys the argument that Israeli "settlement expansion" is preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. What’s really preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian state is a mixture of Palestinian rejectionism, Palestinian corruption and Palestinian incompetence.

Rundle’s spray was problematic in many other areas, and space precludes me from fully debunking it (which is a shame, because doing so would be both cathartic and as easy as shooting fish in a barrel).

One more example will have to suffice. Rundle cited Ahmadinejad describing the US invasion of Iraq as racist (with which Rundle agreed). But he chose to ignore Ahmadinejad saying it was the Jews that caused America to start the war. That’s good, honest analysis you’ve got going there, Mr Rundle!

Since I’ve no idea whether or not Rundle would agree with such a racist argument, it’s worth pointing out that anyone with even the slightest knowledge of international affairs should know that pre-2003, Iraq was militarily weak, contained and stable -- meaning it was no threat whatsoever to Israel. Invading Iraq was always going to (and did) produce dangerous destabilisation, an unknown Iraqi future, and open the door to increasing Iranian regional hegemony, which would (and did) increase threats against Israel. That is why senior Israeli figures, from the prime minister down, actually advised America against entering Iraq, to no avail.

But to get to the heart of the matter; the diplomats that walked out during Ahmadinejad’s speech did not do so out of subservience to the Elders of Zion. They did so because they were participating in an anti-racist forum. To listen to someone a) being racist himself and b) hypocritically singling out one country while ignoring racism around the world (I bring to your attention Iran’s treatment of its own Khuzestani Arabs) not only goes against the point of the forum, but actually helps racists, by shielding them from scrutiny.

If Israel has racist individuals, groups or policies, these can and should be investigated. But if you (and here I mean Ahmadinejad, Rundle and a few others) only or disproportionately investigate Israel’s alleged racism while ignoring that of others, you are guilty of using double standards. Using double standards is hypocritical and, when applied to ethnic groups, racist.

CRICKEY ... GUY RUNDLE BLOWS A FUSE

Guy Rundle has written to Crikey from Berlin where, judging from his nasty piece of fantasy entitled Rundle: walking out on Ahmadinejad highlights West's hypocrisy (no link available at present) he has been celebrating the late Fuehrer's 120th birthday.

Here is a selection of his foan at the mouth rant on Ahmadinejad's keynote speech to the converted and semi-converted at Durban 2:

Well score another PR win for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in pursuit of his principal aim -- shoring up his domestic political base by keeping Iran's international relations in a state of permanent crisis.

His speech to the Durban II Conference -- already depleted by half a dozen boycotts -- had them running for the exits faster than the "The Australian Film Finance Corporation Presents" slide. The Czech Republic, that whacko group of climate change deniers and eurosceptics (or was that the last Czech govt?), isn't coming back at all, after Ahme... MA's racist, hate-filled tirade against Israel in the first session. The others who walked out include most of Europe, plus St Kitts and Nevis, who must have presumed it was something about whaling they'd been bribed to vote against.

Writing about Britain and the US:

Following World War Two, they resorted to making an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish suffering. They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. In compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive, r-cist regime in Palestine.

Well not initially. In fact the UK tried to stop Jewish immigration to the Mandate, which prompted a brutal guerrilla campaign against them, which persuaded them they were better off without the place. After that, fairly true -- Truman unilaterally recognised Israel once the uprising had hit its straps. No-one can look at the mass murder of Palestinians in 1948 and conclude it was anything other than cruel and racist:

It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defending those racist perpetrators of genocide, whilst the awakened consciences and free-minded people of the world condemn aggression, brutality and the bombardment of civilians of Gaza.

Genocide? Well according to the Raoul Lemkin definition of genocide as adopted by the UN, the term includes the attempt to destroy the capacity of a people to reproduce itself as a distinct entity, and you'd have to say the settlements policy has been a pretty good go at that:

On the Zionists:

Today, the human community is facing a kind of racism which has tarnished the image of humanity. In the beginning of the third millennium, the word Zionism personifies racism, that falsely resorts to religion and abuses religious sentiments to hide hatred.

Whether or not it was racist to begin with, one can't really deny that Zionism as is has given a license to dehumanise the Palestinian population -- actually, it's the kind of opinion you'd see in Haaretz on a fairly regular basis.

Now he admits that he's suffering paranoia while sitting in Adolph's bunker over there in Berlin:

Efforts must be made to put an end to the abuse by Zionists and their supporters of political and international means ... Governments must be encouraged and supported in the fight aimed at eradicating this barbaric racism and moving towards reforming the current international mechanisms.

You are all aware of the conspiracy of some powers and Zionist circles against the goals and objectives of this conference ... It should be recognised that boycotting such a session is a true indication of supporting the blatant example of racism.

God, you can see the diplomats thinking, as if anyone's going to believe the Zionists run everything! They'd never fall for that. So it won't be a problem if we stage a mass walk-out, on behalf of a country we don't represent. We're fighting racism after all, in the name of liberal human rights, like free speech -- so let's make it clear that the one thing that can't be discussed in unauthorised terms is Zionism and Israel.

It doesn't get any better after that but the man gets so delerious that it's a waste of time repeating the drivel about blood and matzohs and the like. I won't even waste any more space on this idiot other than to say that someone else has hit it on the head and I'll leave it to him.

WHOSE HOLOCAUST?

A campaign of incitement against Israel and the Jewish people is being waged not only in Switzerland where the Durban 2 hatefest continues despite the appearance on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day of Iran's President Ahmadinejad who delivered the keynote speech and called for the destruction of Israel but in the media as well.

Not surprisingly, the campaign is also being fought in the media and Fairfax is at the forefront of the battle. Yesterday, I noted the Sydney Morning Herald and its appeasement editorial - A WORLD IN SHAME.

The Age is tagging along with the publication today of no less than three letters containing outright lies inciting hatred against the Jewish State. These include false accusations that Israel practices apartheid and the now fashionable (among Israeli bashers) odious comparisons with the Nazi regime.

That's strange because democratic Israel gives equal rights to its minorities, all citizens can vote and there are Arabs and Jews in its Knesset which has included Arab government ministers in the past. Successive Israeli governments, including the current government of Benjamin Netanyahu have confirmed their preparedness to accept the principle of two states for two peoples. On the other hand, the Palestinians are governed by Hamas in Gaza - an organisation dedicated to the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel and by the PA in the West Bank which doesn't say it wants to murder Jews, only that its land be "judenrein" and refuses to accept Israel as a state for the Jewish people.

Today's we notice a new phenomenon among Israel bashing letter writers. They are careful to dissasociate themselves from Ahmedinejad and his Holocaust denial but, having done that, they simply repeat the lies and the vile accusations.

Yesterday, there were two letters supporting Israel published in the print edition but they mysteriously failed to materialize in its on line letters. No surprise - it is presumed that they were simply consigned to the blank pages by members of the pro Arab lobby that float around the place occasionally managing to embed the odd Michael Backman piece and ensuring that stories about this never get to see the light of day in their newspaper.

Now just to show the difference between life under real Nazis and life in Gaza, I've reproduced two photographs above. One is from a collection of photographs on the Free Gaza site showing a member of that organisation checking out supplies in a local store in Gaza. The other is of real victims of the Nazis marching to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Can you tell the difference?

The Age can't!

WHO REMAINED SEATED?

Delegates walking out on Ahmedinejad during the Durban 2 racist festival.

Shame on those who remained seated.

A WORLD IN SHAME

Shame that only 10 of the worlds nations have boycotted the United Nation's celebratins of Hitler's 120th Birthday - WALKOUT AT IRAN LEADER'S ANTI-ISRAEL TIRADE.

BUT WHILE THE SPEECH FROM THE IRANIAN LEADER, WHO HAS ALSO DESCRIBED THE NAZI HOLOCAUST AS A "MYTH", WAS SHUNNED BY WESTERN POWERS, OTHER DELEGATES STAYED TO HEAR HIM SPEAK, SOME GREETING HIS WORDS WITH APPLAUSE.

And shame on the Fairfax Sydney Morning Herald for today's nasty, horrible NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN APPEASEMENT EDITORIAL.

Much of the campaign by Israel and Jewish diaspora groups against the Durban Review has been jumping at the shadows of what might happen.

The author of this disgusting piece now has egg on his face because Ahmedinejad just jumped out of the shadows to blow the white paper of inhumanity out of the hands of the appeasers and leaving the floor in a state of surrender to the world's racists.

Human rights abuses in Libya, anyone?