THE LAST WORD FOR 2010 ...

Lauren Booth bankrupt (and not just morally) ... but with so many friends who own oil wells, she'll never starve and if they won't help out then there's always the compo from a potential mad cows disease claim with the British health system...

Have a happy new year.

I OWN A DELI, I AM A JEW - HAPPY NEW YEAR

THE SILENCE OF THE SHEEP

The issue of Jewish settlements in the West Bank is a problematic one that must be solved by agreement between Israel and Palestine when the two sides are ready and able to make peace.

The "settlers" themselves have been the victims of one of the great racial slurs of our time. To be sure, there are some settlers among the several hundreds of thousands who are troublesome but we are talking of a small minority and certainly much smaller in percentage terms than the extremists on the Palestinian side whose villainous behaviour is regularly ignored or excused by some segments of the media.

Which brings me to the story of the West Bank's burning sheep which demonstrates the sheer bastardry of the media and others when it comes to dealing with Jews and Arabs in this part of the world - Leftists Caught Red-Handed: `Burning Sheep' Libel Was Faked.

A Jordan Valley Arab farmer has admitted that he concocted a story about Israeli settlers deliberately burning his sheep to disguise his own blunder of losing control of a brush fire.

Various groups agitating against the settlers immediately spread the story about the Arab shepherd who "saw settlers light a fire in the field where his herd was grazing, burning to death 12 pregnant ewes, and then drive away."

Of course there was no fact checking by those who were eager to spread yet another unconfirmed story of condemnation. It was yet another rush to judgement like the Al Dura case, the Jenin "massacre" and the flotilla fraud story.

The problem here was the story had no credibility. The supposed sheep burning occurred on the Sabbath, when observant Jews are forbidden to drive.

Despite the doubts, the B'Tselem and Yesh Din human rights group alleged that this so-called attack was another one of hundreds of supposed acts of vandalism by Jews against Arabs and the Palestinian Authority called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop "settler violence."

As has been the case with the flotilla fraud, there has been no apology or words of regret about the libels against the settlers, nor are we likely to see any sign of the lies abating.

More likely is the possibility that some sleazy journalist will repeat the lies and that some media group will not only swallow those lies but also award him or her a prize for great journalistic prowess.

GOING IT ALONE

Jerusalem-based researcher and analyst Jeremy Sharon makes some pertinent points about the current Israaeli mindset about peace talks with the Palestinians in today's Australian Go-it-alone lessons hard learned.

If the peace process is to go anywhere, the lessons that Israel has learnt in the past two years also must be taken on board by the international community. If they are simply ignored, then Israelis will never feel confident enough to finally withdraw from the West Bank and an atmosphere of trust will be impossible to establish.

Under such conditions, the situation in the Middle East will continue to fester and prospects of peace will remain extremely dim.

Sharon alludes to the role of the media in partly helping create this mood and there can be no better example than the appalling material coming from such media groups as Fairfax here in this country.

Yesterday's effort from Jason Koutsoukis Little Hope for Middle East Accord in 2011 demonstrates yet again how analysis becomes tainted when important facts are ignored.

The two sides "sat down for face-to-face talks on September 2. The talks were polite, perfunctory and ultimately a waste of time." However, Koutsoukis omits to mention that there were no face to face talks for over nine months while Israel enforced a freeze on building within its settlements. He knows that there is no Israeli policy of settlement expansion but rather, that any growth is taking place within the existing settlements.

It seems customary among Fairfax writers to forget that Hamas is committed to destroying Israel but Koutsoukis continues to mention that no peace deal is "possible" while Hamas is left out of negotiations.

Give us all a break, please.

We know that Israeli PM Netanyahu is committed to two states but does either of the Palestinian leaderships really "want the two-state solution after all"?

Rhetorical question Jason.

Then there's the Mavi Marmara which we all know wasn't a humanitarian mission in the first place (unless the only thing we read about the conflict is the Age). We know the flotilla carried useless supplies that even Hamas didn't want. Out of date medicine anyone?

How anyone could be so naieve or delusional as to think that the IHH provocateurs (nine of who died after the IDF had to come on board to save its soldiers under attack) were "citizens"?

Oh that's right.

"Israel said" the lives of its soldiers were threatened. Nevermind that the visual evidence proved what they said was the truth and that others (including the journalist apologists who quoted them) were not.

Naturally, Fairfax readers wouldn't know because most of the facts are only found in the blank pages.

THE FAKE GAZA

Pictured: Peace loving members of Hamas readying for the next fake flotilla after casting their votes for this year's Walkley Awards

Why on earth would the Egyptians want to seize Gaza-bound anti-aircraft missiles in the Sinai?

Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula recently seized a large store of weapons and explosives that were to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Tuesday.

The cache of weapons included dozens of anti-aircraft artillery shells and several anti-aircraft missiles, according to the report. The weapons and ammunition were discovered in a hole inside an isolated desert storage facility.

And why on earth would anyone covering this part of the world suppress such information from its readers?

Indeed.

NOTHING'S CHANGED

Thanks to Elder of Ziyon for this magnificent piece of work:-

NO CLEAR REACTION

Another WikiLeaks cable release indicates that former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has confirmed Israel's strike on a secret nuclear facility in Syria in 2007. Intelligence collected by the Americans and the Israelis shows that the reactor was built with North Korean help - Israel bombed Syrian nuclear facility

No surprises there and no angle with which to paint the Little Satan as evil so it's been left alone by the media crowd in this country along with the revelations that the Stuxnet worm has set the Iranians back two years in their endeavours to become nuclear.

The fact that the perpetrators left no dead cutthroats behind for the media to turn into innocent choir boy martyrs means that story goes into the blank pages as well.

Aw shucks.

Suicide bomber in burqa kills more than 40 people

Suicide bomber in burqa kills more than 40 people

More than forty, mostly innocent people, lost their lives yesterday in a senseless suicide bombing.

Four times as many as the number who died on the Mavi Marmara - none of them innocent.

How many column inches will be invested by the media on this story on the day after tomorrow and after that?

Very few, I'll bet.

UPDATE: The latest figures from the burqa bombing show the death toll has increased to above 80. The number of deaths by Muslim on Muslim violence this year is in the thousands and would fill hundreds of Mavi Marmaras. Have a Good Weekend.

ABBAS - 38TH RESIGNATION EXPECTED SOON

Ecuador has joined the growing band of nations which recognises a fractured Palestine as an independent State. The problem is that in doing so, the "recognisers" are creating a major problem for the world because the President of one part of Palestine wants to transfer a quarter of a million people out of their homes and out of his country. If those residents were anything but Jewish, this would be considered by the world as a racist policy.

Indeed, it was said by a group of activist academics in the United States who mistakenly warning against Israel's possible "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians in the "fog of war" during Operation Cast Lead that "the expulsion of people according to race, religion or nationality would constitute crimes against humanity and will not be tolerated."

But this is precisely what Abbas continues to maintain he will do - transfer the settlers out of his Palestinian State signalling his intention to commit a crime against humanity.

Of course, the President of the other part of Palestine wants to destroy Israel and kill the Jews there. Again, if you supported his regime and his policies were directed against any other group, you would be described a racist. In our perverted universe, they'll probably award you something instead.

As for the President of the larger part of Palestine (the one that's only part racist), it's time for him to resign again.

Thanks again to the elderofziyon for this cartoon of the man who threatens to resign all of the time, who should resign but won't do it:

MERRY CHRISTMAS

A modern day Christmas Card:-

AND THE WINNER IS MCGOEBBELS!!!

The important awards around the world always seem to acquire a special name like the "Oscar" for the Academy Award. We have the Emmys and the Logies and a litany of other very worthy awards for hardworking artisans who ply their trade around the world.

But it takes something really special to achieve that which Fairfax scribbler Paul McGeough has achieved in the past fortnight - two awards for the price of one. Nominated for a Walkley by Fairfax which also sponsors the very same awards, McGeough won his for an execrable one sided and mostly discredited piece on May's phony fascist Free Gaza flotilla. Closely on the heels of this achievement comes the news that the same individual has snaffled a Dishonest Reporting award for the same shtick drek.

This is truly an outstanding achievement deserving of a special title similar to a "Fisk" so that people will forever associate the winning of dual awards of this nature with all that is pathetic in the world of journalism.

The association of McGeough's efforts with the fascism of Hamas, the IHH and their progenitor the Moslem Brotherhood whose Palestinian leader once sat at the heels of Hitler and plotted the final solution with Eichman and McGeough's own style of writing makes the choice of title a simple one - congratulations on becoming the inaugural McGoebbels winner in 2010.

Read what Dishonest Reporting has to say about this year's McGeobbels winner and about the others consigned to infamy here. J-Wire also has a commentary on the man here.

ISRAELIS SAVE KANGAROOS WHILE BOYCOTTERS TARGET JEWS

I wonder what those bullies in the BDS movement who intimidate young female traders at shopping mall booths think about this:

DULLARD OF THE YEAR

The Loewenstein character (aka "Finkler") wins this award ahead of old "Beady Eyes" McGeough who has more grey matter (not a difficult assignment).

The Dullard of the Year's latest work - Don’t blame Wikileaks for our incompetance

He's right for once.

I blame his English teacher.

LETTER OF THE WEEK

In yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, a letter from the Executive director, Executive Council of Australian Jewry Mr. Peter Wertheim writing about some of the blank page stuff omitted in Jason Koutsoukis' atrociously written piece on Israel's bigoted Ultra Orthodox rabbis:-

Israel repudiates bigoted rabbis

Your story "Students targeted after rabbi's anti-Arab edict" (December 18-19) omits some critical details. The petition of a group of rabbis in Israel to forbid renting homes to non-Jews was immediately condemned by political and religious leaders, including Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Tzohar organisation, representing 600 religious Zionist rabbis in Israel, rejected the petition as contrary to Jewish religious law and affirmed the right of Israel's non-Jewish minority residents to live with equal rights under the protection of the law. Israel remains the only country in the Middle East in which public statements of bigotry are met with immediate repudiation from senior mainstream political and religious leaders.

What surprises me is that bigoted journalists like Koutsoukis think they can get away with suppressing information that should give their stories proper context.

The Walkley Award for Fiction

Bren Carlill of AIJAC politely Fisks, dissects and destroys Paul McGeough and the Walkely Award in The Walkley Award for Fiction.

He concludes by asking the same question that many of us are puzzled about and that is why an award for rubbish when there must be some decent journalists working around the country.

Last year was an astounding one for news media. Think of Kevin Rudd’s fall from grace, the federal election, the economic meltdowns in Greece and Ireland, the WikiLeaks saga, and what a flop the final episode of “Lost” was. Surely there were news articles about issues of more importance – news articles with objective, not objectionable, content – news articles with fewer mistakes! The Walkleys are supposed to award fact, not fiction.

WHERE'S THE SIEGE - VIVA LIARS

There are a slew of products here, and beautiful restaurants. Is this the Gaza we have been hearing about?"

A Sudanese official, who arrived in the Strip about a month ago with hundreds of visitors from Arab countries on the "Viva Palestina" aid convoy, was quoted by Palestinian news agency Maan as saying.

"Where is the siege? I don't see it in Gaza. I wish Sudan's residents could live under the conditions of the Gazan siege," he reportedly added.

If someone covers this story from YNet News then there might be an element of truth in the story behind the next Walkley Award.

ISRAEL, THE JEWS AND WIKILEAKS

Over the past month, the Israel bashers have been suffering from attacks of naqbaitis a the release of the WikiLeak cables fails to paint the Jewish State as a Little Satan pulling the Big Satan's strings.

Even the arch prizewinning idiot at Fairfax made a clumsy but failed attempt to paint it as something sinister over a leak which did nothing other than prove an Israeli diplomat's prediction back in the earlier 1990s about Iran's nuclear aims 100% correct. Naturally, the beady eyed idiot and his mates continue to ignore numerous inconvenient WikiLeak revelations.

As it has turned out so far, WikiLeaks have in the main, endorsed Israeli positions on a raft of issues and have not only proven its critics wrong but, in many cases, exposed them as liars.

The Arab states are the ones who have been baying for Iran's blood more than the Israelis. Iran has been exposed as a weapons supplier carring arms in Red Crescent ambulances and not to be trusted. Turkey's PM is corrupt, has eight Swiss Bank accounts and is not to be trusted (except by those fools on the flotilla in which he embedded IHH cutthroats). Sudan's President has $9b stashed away in UK banks.

So the usual suspects have had no choice but to fall back on Plan B - blame the Jews.

Across the internet, they are twittering and bleating about a Zionist conspiracy. The Jews have bought Julian Assange (even though Assange receives the support of many of the celebs of the hate Israel crowd and he has a loopy anti-Semitic liar named Israel Shamir working on his WikiLeak cables back in Russia).

Here's the story - Jews Control Julian Assange: WikiLeaks And Mossad Deal Protects Israel: Report Theorists

What else can I say but enjoy.

The lies they told us

Finally, A Hamas Leader Admits That Israel Killed Mostly Combatants In Gaza

Respected US jurist Alan Dershowitz in Finally, A Hamas Leader Admits That Israel Killed Mostly Combatants In Gaza discloses how Hamas lied about the casualties of Operation Cast Lead and how the United Nations, the Goldstone Report, various "human rights" organisations and many in the media automatically favoured the distorted numbers offered by Palestinians and rejected Israel's documented figures.

"Since the end of the Gaza War in January 2009, Israel has stood accused of targeting civilians, rather than terrorist combatants. The Israeli Defense Force has claimed that during Operation Cast Lead it targeted only combatants in its efforts to protect its civilians from rocket attacks. It has also claimed that most of the dead were combatants and issued lists of names of many of the combatants killed and identified them as members of the specific Hamas military units. Despite unprecedented efforts to avoid civilian casualties—including hundreds of thousands of leaflets, telephone calls and non-lethal, noise-making warning bombs—some civilians were killed, because Hamas deliberately hid behind civilians, using them as shields, when they fired rockets at Israeli civilians."

Now the truth is out but there will be no retractions and the lies will no doubt continue.

Australians get harsh lesson in racism from Fairfax

A fortnight ago, Shmuel Eliyahu, an Ultra Orthodox rabbi from the northern Israeli city of Safed issued an obnoxious declaration suggesting that Jews should be given preference over gentiles when seeking to rent land. His objective was unabashedly to prevent the country's Arab population from settling too deeply in the land and he received support from about fifty rabbis including some municipal chief rabbis around the country.

The declaration received swift condemnation from most sectors of Israeli society from Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu down. The Israeli PM asked "how would we feel if someone overseas said that it is forbidden to sell apartments to Jews? Such things should not be said, not by Jews and not by Arabs. Such things should not be said in a democratic country, especially not in a Jewish and democratic one".

Throughout the country and across different parts of the political spectrum, religious and community leaders and the media were equally strong in repudiating the repulsive sentiments expressed in the declaration. Jewish communities across the world, including our own here in Australia, rightly condemned them in the strongest terms.

Yesterday, the Melbourne Age published a piece by Jason Koutsoukis about events in the city of Safed - ARAB STUDENTS GET HARSH LESSON IN RACISM FROM HOLY CITY where a mob of 60 ultra-orthodox Jews intimidated an Israeli Arab chanting ''kill the Arabs'' outside his apartment. Koutsoukis described the atmosphere in the northern Israeli city in the aftermath of the rabbis' declaration. He concluded with a quote from Israeli MP Ahmed Tibi who claimed that ''Fascism has raised its head in Israeli society''.

Taken in isolation the piece by Koutsoukis might be regarded as a worthwhile way to expose of the evils of the disgusting declaration of the rabbis which deserves our condemnation in the strongest terms.

Unfortunately, by telling less than half (correction, a quarter) of the this unsavoury tale, Koutsoukis must face allegations of racism similar to those he exposed in his article.

Koutsoukis quoted one Member of Israel's Knesset (and an Arab member who is customarily hostile to his country's Jewish majority) but failed to mention the overwhelming condemnation throughout Israel of the rabbi's statements, including that of the nation's Prime Minister.

By concealing this, Koutsoukis changed the context of a story about racism by a group of extremist rabbis and their redneck followers who simply do not reflect the views of the people into a comment on all of Israeli society.

The piece encompasses what has become systemic and rotten within the Fairfax organisation: yet another piece seeking to delegitimise the Jewish State, this time with Tibi's equally outrageous claim of fascism which would make no sense at all if Koutsoukis has given some space to revealing the nation's response to the declaration.

Since Koutsoukis arrived in Israel two and a half years ago, he could have written similar articles about anti-Semitic calls by the Palestinian Muslim clergy and about Palestinian attacks on Jews on every single day of his term as Middle East correspondent for Fairfax.

The Palestine Media Watch and Memri websites document hundreds of racist attacks from Palestinian pulpits, the majority of which occur with the blessing of the Palestine Authority in the West Bank and/or Hamas in Gaza.

Here are but two recent examples of news stories that were consigned to the blank pages -

Hamas: Allah, kill Christians and Jews "to the last one"

PA TV broadcasts song calling for Jihad against Israel: "Draw your sword, let it not return"

About these, The Age remains silent.

On Friday the Jerusalem Post described how Palestinians had desecrated and ancient Jewish holy tomb by daubing vile hateful and racist graffiti on its walls but, as is the custome with Fairfax journalism, this story was ignored by Koutsoukis.

Yet, he rarely ever misses an opportunity to highlight bad behaviour from Jewish extremists.

I do not condone the events of Safed or the racist pronouncements of the rabbis. They are offensive and have rightly been condemned in Israel from the top down. However, by selectively highlighting what happens in Israel and then suppressing more common and often more vile instances of racism from the Palestinian side, Koutsoukis and his newspaper show their bias and their true colours.

They are no better than any nasty mob that seeks to intimidate innocent minorities with their stones and with their racist slurs.

WIKALIKES

David Horovitz describes a possible cable about the failed set of talks entitled WikaLikes: US ME policy recalibration, Dec. 2010

SUBJECT: (S) REORIENTATION OF POLICY PRIORITIES: ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

1. (S/NF) SUMMARY: This cable sets out amended assessments, priorities for relevant interactions on Israeli-Palestinian Issues (paragraph 2-end) by Department personnel and other Country Team members.
...

Settlement freeze

A. (S/NF) USG focus on obtaining freeze in Israeli settlements in the West Bank for additional 90 days has been discontinued. Recognized that previous 10-month freeze was wasted by Palestinian Authority, which failed to enter direct talks in good faith. PM Netanyahu considered USG request for additional 90-day freeze, though concerned about domestic political fallout. Contacts with PA and Department assessment indicated that new freeze would achieve little: Israel reluctant to discuss border issues in isolation from other Final Status Issues including security, refugees, Jerusalem; Palestinians seeking Israeli border concessions, unwilling to engage on other issues.

...

PM Netanyahu has encouraged “economic peace” in West Bank, fueling economic growth there by easing freedom of movement, access, etc, bolstered by Quartet envoy Blair. Reluctant to give ground in substantive negotiations on Final Status Issues, because of domestic political constraints and own traditional ideology, but acutely conscious of importance of ties to USG, therefore susceptible to cautious risk-taking in context of improved faith in USG.

Palestinian government - stability and orientation

PA President Abbas heading unreformed Fatah movement, nearing end of political career, reluctant to take personal risk. Unwilling or unable to concertedly encourage policy of reconciliation with Israel, evidenced by ongoing incitement and delegitimation (see November PAendorsed study discounting Jewish connection to Western Wall); occasional comments, when abroad, in recognition of Jewish rights in region met with heavy criticism within Fatah and beyond.

...

President Abbas formally committed to demand for right of return, although hints at opportunities for compromise. Inconsistent on possibility of West Bank land swaps to resolve settlement bloc issue. Unhelpfully encouraged by numerous international players to believe he can establish Palestinian state without confronting Final Status Issues. PM Fayyad, presiding over admirable progress toward institution-building in Palestinian West Bank territories with summer 2011 statehood timetable, lacks public backing to promote compromise, debilitated by difficult relationship with Abbas.

...

USG ultimately asking Israelis to relinquish territory to which they claim peerless attachment, from which they were attacked for first two decades of statehood; to enemy/partner that fostered recent terrorist onslaught that killed hundreds of their people, and some of whose institutions vow unceasing enmity against them; against track record of international failure to prevent violent, Iranian-backed Islamists (Hezbollah, HAMAS) filling vacuum left by previous US-backed Israeli withdrawals (Lebanon, Gaza); (b), USG can serve all interests by stringent oversight of process of Palestinian state-building, to promote reconciliation, minimize military, demographic threats to Israel.

...

Time is not on the side of the Israelis, moderate Palestinians, relatively moderate regimes in region, or the American interest. State-championed (Iran) Islamic extremism feels itself ascendant, sees America hesitant, in retreat. Previous lukewarm allies such as Saudi Arabia concluding that Iran will prevail in nuclear face-off with USG, looking to safeguard own interests via altered alliances, domestic nuclear initiatives, etc. Warmer allies such as Jordan, concerned for fundamental interests, recalibrating relations with Iran.