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It’s a good thing that 165 Australian journalists, led by the tribes at The Guardian, ABC and Nine, have outed themselves as supporters of Israel’s destruction. As many have noted, now we know who they are.
They’ve endorsed an Open Letter from their MEAA union to media outlets. It describes Israel’s retaliatory war to wipe out the Hamas murderers in Gaza as “atrocities” probably involving “war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid” along with torturing of prisoners during Israel’s long history of alleged oppression of Arabs.
The letter makes no reference to Hamas having taken 240 innocent hostages, ranging from babies to grandmothers. As for Hamas’ slaughter of October 7, with babies beheaded, mothers shot while being raped and other babies baked in kitchen ovens, the MEAA merely refers to an “attack that killed 1200 Israelis.” The journalists demand that media outlets treat statements by democratic Israel in its struggle for survival with the same scepticism as those from the Hamas barbarians. Lying is part of the Hamas DNA and perhaps the least of their genocidal criminality.
Australian journalism has never suffered such disgrace as this Open Letter. The MEAA represents more than 5000 journalists and media people and is a member of the allegedly ethics-upholding Australian Press Council. Its federal media section comprises Karen Percy (President), Leigh Tonkin (Vice-President), Erin Delahunty (Vice-President), Caleb Cluff (Vic Board Member) and Martin Saxon (WA Board Member).
The Australian finished its editorial on Saturday: “In joining the anti-Semitic cheer squads, a section of Australia’s free media is letting down the nation. Were Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels alive, he would applaud their world views and warped journalistic values.”
Among 1500 commenters to the Australian was “Steve”:
It is interesting to see how much overlap there is between this group of rogue journalists and those that were most vocal for the Yes vote in the Voice referendum. They are all part of the vanguard for the identity politics that is tearing the West apart, and should be resisted with every fibre of our being.
Added commenter “Leigh”, “Any self-respecting journalists should quit the union.”
The editors in the Nine stable (SMH, Age and AFR) have reacted responsibly and taken staff signatories off any coverage of the conflict.[1] The ABC’s news director, Justin Stevens, in contrast, issued a ‘tut-tut’ email to the ABC’s Hamas supporters, but announced no bans against them covering Gaza affairs. This gives added credence to the meme, “Is that true or did you hear it on the ABC?” The Australian reports this morning (Monday):
“Any pressure or intimidation from managers to prevent workers from doing this, including removing them from relevant stories, is an overreach and an attack on both journalists’ rights and the public’s right to know,” says a union letter addressed to members in Nine newsrooms and titled “MEAA supports your right to stand for ethical reporting”.
It pledges support for those who signed, citing its code of ethics and Nine’s Charter of Editorial Independence…
While the ABC and Guardian Australia house committees signed the letter, The Australian understands the vote to support the petition failed at both the house committee levels inside The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald last week.
It was then passed at a meeting of the MEAA national media section committee after being tabled by two journalists from the ABC and The Age on Thursday.
In this essay I’ll do an arbitrary sampling to put a human (should that be ‘inhuman’) face to the signatories. Even at first pass, one notices how they’re a cohort “educated” at our terminally-leftist universities. Many display a warped idealism as self-appointed do-gooders for society It often pops up that they are also net-zero activists. Step forward the Age’s senior writer Miki Perkins, a signatory who recently won editorial plaudits for an absurd Greenpeace-aided feature illustrated with Fiji’s purported 1.5m of recent sea rise. The letter includes:
We – journalists from across the Australian media landscape – call on Australian newsrooms to undertake these steps to improve coverage:
1/ Adhere to truth over ‘both-sidesism’. Both-sidesism is not balanced or impartial reporting; it acts as a constraint on truth by shrouding the enormous scale of the human suffering currently being perpetrated by Israeli forces. The immense and disproportionate human suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza should not be minimised.
2/ Centre the human tragedy in the coverage of the conflict. Human-focused coverage can include, as examples, daily updates on the civilian death tolls, sharing the profiles and stories of the lives lost and highlighting the humanitarian catastrophe.
3/ Apply as much professional scepticism when prioritising or relying on uncorroborated Israeli government and military sources to shape coverage as is applied to Hamas. The Israeli government is also an actor in this conflict, with mounting evidenceit is committing war crimes and a documented historyof sharing misinformation. The Israeli government’s version of events should never be reported verbatim without context or fact-checking. This is our basic responsibility as journalists.
It says, “The conflict did not start on October 7”. In this hateful excusing of the massacre of 1200 it echoes the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’ appalling claim that October 7 “did not happen in a vacuum.”
Let’s start with the MEAA heavy Karen Percy. She’s a First Nations advocate and lifelong feminist. A veteran ABC staffer 
and now a free-lancer, she describes herself as a “Trusted journalist and media advocate” and “with a passion for ethics and societal good … Since 2017 I have been a director of the Walkley Foundation which celebrates excellence in Australian journalism, serving as Deputy Chair since 2021.”[2] Percy continues:
I am keen to see a strong media sector in Australia underpinned by ethical, public interest journalism. A sustainable, accountable media – that Australians trust – is crucial to our democracy. In this age of misinformation and disinformation, it’s important that we have high levels of media literacy – that media consumers understand how the media works, hold it accountable, and feel comfortable playing their part.[3]
Signatory Pat Abboud won the Walkley “Freelance journalist of the year” title for 2023 for his TV/radio work via his production company. The judges described him as
a rare journalistic package – tenaciously seeking out complex, left-of-field stories that sit outside the daily news cycle, securing the trust of those involved, then telling their stories with rigour, humanity and a dash of good humour.
Abboud lists on his website no less than 24 awards including a two-times LGBTQIA+ finalist for Presenter/Journalist of the Year. World Pride 2023 honoured Pat as one of 45 Rainbow Champions for his ongoing commitment to the queer community.
He has posted on his website his portfolio of “bold, untold award-winning programs” such as an eight-minute feature called “Pup Play” about men “who live as dogs”. This cult gained notoriety in the US last year when the Biden administration appointed an overt dog fetishist, Sam Brinton, to its top job in nuclear waste disposal. He (actually “they”) lost his/their job after being caught purloining women’s luggage at airports to get fashionable clothes for his/their cross-dressing.
Abboud’s take on the pup-play people is respectful. The “dog” handler, ring in his nose, explains, “I am really proud of the pups for coming out and revealing who they are as people and human pups. It is an enormously brave act but it helps educate people and that is worth doing.” (at 7.30mins). Enjoy or at least, view, MEAA signatory Abboud’s movie here (not safe for work).
Some signatories are surprising, such as a veteran Asia-Pacific journalist Nick Chesterfield whose decades of reporting in PNG and the Asia Pacific region crippled his health and has forced him into crowd-funding to cover medical costs. One wonders why he signed.
The first signatory by alphabet is Lachlan Abbott. “Lachie”, as he is known, was picked up by the Age as one of five “highly qualified and eager” trainees from 200-plus applicants 18 months ago. Another of those five, Carla Jaeger, is also a signatory. Welcoming them to Docklands, Age deputy editor Michael Bachelard enthused, “This diverse group is made up of smart, curious, hard-working people from a variety of perspectives and experiences. They want to work at The Age because it embodies the best values of journalism.”
Disclaimer: As a Perth cadet journalist myself in the 1960s, I was naïve and stupid but my mother said I improved with age.
Two AAP “fact checkers”, Kate Atkinson and Lachlan Coady signed the petition. Atkinson has fact-checked at AAP for two years, after research and communication roles with parties including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In 2019 she interned with the ABC “researching misinformation and disinformation during the 2019 federal election.” Coady majored in media studies at Macquarie, “and he is passionate about applying his research skills to his journalism.”
In contrast to the Age kiddies, signatory Drew Ambrose is a veteran TV reporter in Asian and investigative work, producing more than 100 documentaries in 40 nations for Al Jazeera English. He earned a Masters in International Development from RMIT. Drew has also lectured, conducted workshops and created curriculums for tertiary institutions, high schools and journalism organizations. He has mentored young reporters for the Walkley Foundation and Melbourne Press Club and 
contributed chapters to four Australian books on journalism. He’s won or been 
nominated for more than 80 media prizes, winning three Walkley Awards and three Human Rights Press Awards.
A curiosity is that signatories include four cartoonists, Cathy Wilcox (Nine stable, responsible for the anti-Catholic slur at right and others at the foot of this page. The humour-challenged Ms Wilcox evidently knows which creed not to insult), Jon Kudelka (career work for Mercury, The Australian and The Saturday Paper), David Rowe (illustrator for AFR and subject of one of the most curious passive-aggressive ‘apologies’ ever published) and First-dog-on-the-moon (Andrew Marlton, Guardian, who mourned Bill Leak but changed his tune when leftoid Twitter users piled on).
Tahlea Aualiitia, with Samoan-Italian background, is a presenter and reporter with ABC Radio Australia. She speaks of her upbringing in lutruwita (Tasmania, I think), where she graduated first-class honours in journalism and media studies at the University of Tasmania in nipaluna (Hobart, I gather), before moving to ABC Naarm (Melbourne, I know that one) to host Pacific Mornings on Radio Australia. “I’ve learnt so much about the world doing this job,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to exploring the different ways I can use my experience and skills to help uplift others.”
Kelly Bergsma has been an audio-video producer with the Age for 13 years. “I create motion graphic explainer videos, simplifying complex concepts and enhancing audience understanding,” she writes. “Striving for excellence, I approach each project intending to take it to the next level.”
Jarni Blakkarly is an investigative journalist with Choice, after four years reporting with SBS and earlier freelancing with the ABC, BBC and others. He has a journalism degree from RMIT. “I am a proud member of the journalist’s union the MEAA,” he writes. He was a highly commended finalist in the Civil Liberties Journalism Awards last year, and highly commended in this year’s Quill awards.
Signatory Tony Armstrong moved from AFL career to footie calling. From 2021 he’s done sports presenting on the ABC, winning several awards.
Signatory Cheyne Anderson works for the Guardian, Monthly and Saturday Paper and has claimed “a keen interest in reporting on world politics and the environment.” A Sydney University graduate, she’s also studied post-graduate journalism at UTS.
Jordyn Beazley is a reporter at the Guardian. Prior roles include with Save the Children and Triple R radio. She earned a Master’s degree in journalism at Melbourne University, after a BA in international relations at Monash.
Imogen Dewey has been with the Guardian several years after work including Nine TV. Her fields include literature and publishing. She has a Melbourne University BA in politics, international studies and literature.
Dr. Natalia Maystorovich Chulio has been working at Sydney University for a decade, now lecturing in criminology and socio-legal studies. Her research interests include humanitarian and human rights law; transitional justice; the archaeological recovery of mass graves; and the capacity of social movements to elicit social, political and legal change as they seek justice for victims.
Obviously space precludes listing many anti-Western fanatics, do-gooders and woke dopes signing the MEAA letter. I did notice the ABC’s Jan Fran, whose whimsical ABC profile reads:
Jan Fran is a Walkley Award journalist, TV presenter and maker of viral internet videos. She’s shot documentaries all over the world and speaks three languages … most of them terribly. Jan has one son. Who is a cat.
Tony Thomas’s new book from Connor Court is Anthem of the Unwoke – Yep! The other lot’s gone bonkers. $34.95 from Connor Court here
[1] Nine: “It is a strongly held tenet that our journalists’ personal agendas do not influence our reporting of news events. This applies across the board, including to our coverage of the current war in Israel and Gaza. Any newsroom staff who signed this latest industry open letter will be unable to participate in any reporting or production relating to the war.”
[2] Signatory Patrick Abboud, co-host of the Walkley Awards last week, used the ceremony to call on journalists in attendance to push for a Gaza ceasefire.
[3] Her website adds that during a reporting spell in Moscow 2010-13, “I also co-directed and performed in the first English-language version of The VagIna MonoLogues.”
“Babies baked in kitchen ovens”, and “mothers shot WHILE being raped”, I must say I thought I had heard of all the possible depravities but the inventiveness of the Hamas …(take your pick of possible epithets) appears endless. I must admit the murder/rape one is very strange.
An Arab-Israeli woman explained the other day that Hamas and their ilk believe taking honour from a female enemy, especially a Jewish one, is essential so to rape and then murder fulfils their creed.
Very surprising comments from most of you here. Do you not remember that all of you hardcore conservatives – right wingers of the Liberal Party forever, avid supporters of the Vietnam War, anti-immigration Cromwellian Protestants – were once openly anti-Semitic too?
The fascism-loving left have been rabidly anti-Semitic since 1950, when Stalin turned on Israel for rejecting his overtures and he turned Soviet policy to supporting the far-more-numerous Arab causes. Organised racism, backed by violent street enforcers (Socialist Alternative, Free Palestine, Antifa, BLM, etc) like that under the left, is far more dangerous than isolated, but still repulsive, reflexive anti-Jewish sentiment on the right.
Wrong. They were working class folks in those days who could barely read a newspaper, opting instead for Pix, People or Playboy. Blue ribbon Liberals of the day were implacable anti-Semitic. It was only when our migrant and working classes, many becoming private contractors as opposed to factory workers, came up in the world and realised that the only way they could get ahead in the economy of that time was to join the “trickle down” set, that they all started voting Liberal and adopted those same attitudes – albeit a little less subtly. Jewish people, many of them immigrants, did the same and not always in reverse, but those areas in which they excel have now apparently become politically sensitive again. Irritating here are uninformed opinions that obsess around the root topics of religion and racism. So whoever can confidently say that there are two sides to this long and at present insurmountable argument, and that the situation is far too complex for any of us here to pass judgement on – they need support and need to be listened to. Those who cannot abide by that, step away from your screens, take a good look at your own personal problems and stop trying to project them onto others.
‘They we’re working class folks who could barely read….’ Elitist dribble from a a pseudo intellect who can barely read history.
From the Washington Post:
One woman, her face blurred and her identity concealed in a video statement to police, said she saw a gang rape at the Nova rave near Re’im during the Oct. 7 attack, as she lay down, pretending to be dead.
The witness saw a woman bleeding from the back, she said, first bent over, then pulled back up by combatants. One man pulled the woman’s long hair and raped her, the witness said, then passed her onto another man, who also raped her before shooting her in the head.
“He didn’t pick up his pants,” the witness said. “He shot her while inside her.”
Thank you for the quoted excerpt, and yes I agree that the emboldened sentence would qualify as murder whilst raping. Still it has me scratching my head, but as they say truth is often stranger than fiction.
A close relative of mine, an Anthropologist, did field work with a tribe for many years. They told him all the things they did with their captured enemies. As he learned the language it was explained to him that they told these stories to all of the White people who came into their territory and described the most outrageous things they could think of, hoping to get rid of them. Their visitors often carried guns, so they thought it best to scare them away rather than try to engage in combat with their home-made spears and shields. In those days it was mainly missionaries, bringing other visitors, and we all know now the havoc that they wreaked. Are some of these stories here any different?
Hamas’s marketing department copy boys and girls doing a song line run out sale..
Tony is that Tarzan of the jungle or Tony Abbott the matador or tone from Australia post sporting the latest summer apparel (number) on his way to another letter box drop?
Hamas, unsurprisingly is encouraged by the Koran to engage in deceit; firstly, it’s war, in their view, and deceit is one of the tactics, but it is underpinned by taqiyya.
Classic case of shoot the Messenger if you don’t like the Massage .
I want to see a ceasefire so I would be classed as a ” Useful Idiot ” by the Pro Israeli Zionists that are going full throttle to justify the murder of children in their attack on Hamas .Many Jews and even Holocaust victims also want a ceasefire .The ” Useful Idiots ” are not that stupid that they cannot count .The body count is telling and over 5000 Palestinian children dead already cannot be justified no matter how you Spin the narrative .What Israel is doing is endangering its support in the West and is a bigger danger to the existence of Israel than anything Hamas can militarily do .The atrocities that Hamas committed were terrible but they were obviously contrived by Iran to get the response that they knew the far right government of Israel is now doing .If there could be videos of the children being blown to pieces by the Israeli bombs .rockets and shells or dying painful lingering deaths under the rubble there would be more people demanding a cease fire .Saying that supporters of a cease fire are Hamas supporters is in most cases not correct .
So you are demanding Hamas, the PLO and West Bank Palestinians agree to a cease fire? Including indiscriminate firing of missiles and bombing of civilians in Israel And deleting from their charters that all Jews be must driven from “Palestine” and an Islamic state replace it. I must have missed that bit. Are you what is called a “putz”.
The Israelis have been saying the same thing. We have two eyes and two ears.
“Pro Israeli Zionists”
It rolls off your tongue like the UN’s 1975 Resolution.
OK what would you like me to call them ?
We live in an age where it is deemed rude to call anyone any name other than they deem to identify with .
I am not an not a rude person , I am happy to oblige .
All the Palestinian deaths would cease as soon as Hamas does the right thing and surrenders.
But ‘Hamas’ and ‘the right thing’ are logical non-sequiters.
Every Palestinian death in this conflict is the responsibility of Hamas, not Israel.
Wiping your hands of any responsibility for the deaths of innocent children does not cut it with me .
Yes what Hamas does hiding in residential areas gives them co responsibility and I condemn it unreservedly but it is not Hamas pilots dropping the bombs or firing the artillery that is killing the children and turning Hamas city into rubble ..
I fear for the mental health of the pilots when this war finally stops and they reflect on what they have done.
Young men brainwashed to do murder to innocent children in the name of saving their country .
Ah John, simple question being held hostage. Why is Israel talking to Hamas with military force?
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STOP ISLAMIC IMMIGRATION……………WE WOULD BE BETTER OFF IMPORTING NICE PEOPLE FROM SIMILAR CULTURES WHO ARE CIVILISED AND WELL MANNERED.
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Go Israel you good thing!
It is actually Jewish immigration that has caused the overpopulation that has caused the incursions into Palastinian communities with force that has caused this current pushback.
Jewish immigration! Could a Aboriginal be an immigrant in Australia?
Well CK, Gazans who descended from a few hundred years of living within modern Israel’s borders, could ask you the same question.
“The atrocities that Hamas committed were terrible but they were obviously contrived by Iran to get the response that they knew the far right government of Israel is now doing .”
John, John…..you cannot possibly know that. We must take those unspeakable atrocities as the actions of Hamas & their agents. You may be right that those terrible acts were designed to elicit the most severe retribution that Israel could achieve. Personally, it is difficult to credit such appalling cruelty of the most innocent – the babies & children – to a deliberate plan – rather than a bloodlust driven by hatred.
And so you say that these acts were “terrible”. That word doesn’t even come close to what happened to not only Israelis (many who were particularly sympathetic to Palestinians), but to foreign workers and international travellers. Have you troubled yourself to view the evidence, and particularly the photographs – many recorded by the murderers themselves? Many of us have lived through the events of 9/11 and of the terror regime of Islamic State. But I didn’t think I would ever contemplate the manner in which so many suffered on 7th October.
The awful deaths of Gazan citizens – and particularly the children – weighs heavily upon us all. But even those in the UN who are ideologically opposed to Israel could not deny the right of Israel to regard 10/7 as an act of war by the elected government of Gaza.
You are perfectly right I only surmised that but it seems extremely likely to me .
Iran will be pleased with the destruction of the movement of Saudi towards some kind of recognition of Israel and the growing support for some kind of justice for the Palestinians in the West .
What do you expect me to say about what Hamas did it was a crime of deepest depravity and showed hatred running amuck . I am deeply shocked too by what some of the Hamas terrorists did .
But I have been labelled a Putz on this thread , I had to look up the meaning and to put it politely it means that I am a fool .
But this Putz can think for himself and even count .
1500 Hamas fighters were killed in the fierce response of the Israeli military with their powerful weapons .
Some of the deaths of the 1200 mostly innocent non combatants were reported killed in that response .
All those deaths are the complete responsible of Hamas even those unfortunately killed by an Israeli bullet or shell .
Some of the Hamas fighters would have killed multiple people but on average the Hamas invaders killed less than one person each and my guess is that probably half of them killed nobody .
In its retaliation Israel has killed over 12000 Palestinians , over 5000 being children and destroyed the homes of maybe hundreds of thousands .
Each pilot will have killed dozens of children but they are national heroes and the Hamas fighters are seen as less than human beasts .
Of course Palestinians are not thinking like that .
Both the pilot and the Hamas fighter started life just the same .Innocent at birth and the circumstances of their life formed who they ended up .
Both have been brainwashed to do what I believe to be deep war crimes by old men under the sway of books full of hate written by MEN thousands of years ago .
I am not a woke left wing person or anti Jewish at all .
Australia is a country of immigrants and Jewish people have contributed greatly to our national life .
I too think that we should limit to some extent the number of migrants of cultures that clash with our laws .
That said I think that numbers do not count only if you value one innocent life more than another and I just cannot think that .
Up to now Israel has killed probably 10 Palestinian children for every child killed by Hamas please tell me which is the worst War Crime ?
To me the term collateral damage is the worst kind of hate speech .
I am deeply ashamed that Australia did not vote in favour of a cease fire in the United Nations .
John, many people have argued in the past weeks around the world against “moral equivalence” based on numbers killed – whether they be adults or children.
We are all moved by different emotions according to our nature, view of the world, intellect & many many other factors. But the manner of deaths of the unfortunates on 10/7 matters to me, at least. Some of my friends and acquaintances have also shrugged off those atrocities as “war”. I don’t. And the Conventions governing war crimes established in modern times don’t either.
Totally agree with your sentiments. That Quadrant concentrates on the Oct 7 atrocity without once considering the wider historical implications is so disappointing. There are a lot of “anti woke” people who now find Israel’s treatment of Arabs the very reason that radical and revengeful groups like Hamas come into existence. And now with so many kids killed in this retaliatory action, my bet is even more will want to join Hamas.
Agree. But this site seems to be a nice place for lonely old gentlemen to let off some steam. It just surprises me that they support Israel – it was always the other way round for these types. They just had to keep quiet about it when laws came in. Maybe their deepest fear is that if Israel dissolves and its population disperses, they will once again be faced with “The Jewish Problem”.
You mean the wider historical context that modern day Israel is the home of Israelites dating back to the Bronze Age? That context? Or the context that Hamas is a proxy for Iran. Or the context that has a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas treats women like sub optimal humans, or the context that on October 7 Israeli citizens were indiscriminately raped and murdered while babies were beheaded and cooked alive in ovens – that context? Ignoranous!
My “wider historical context” included Arabs and the Sephardic (IE arab) Jews who lived there for hundreds even thousands of years. Yours is far more selective. By the way it’s ignoramus.
Call me old-fashioned if you must but I still find men clad in budgies confronting!
Out of the two, the budgie smugglers is an unfortunate but important part of national identity! I’d rather see a bunch of old blokes running around in European swimmers (participating in life saving and dubious fashion awards) than herds of cultists in ninja suits.
You all sound like staff – trying to keep the old codgers on here happy. And surprising that the Editors are now allowing rational responses. It is usually just one line of invective in Quadrant, steered into the wind by your famous seafar’ing founder, your bold brave Captain Curmugeon. Your subscription fees are far too steep for the average shaven-headed Right Winger on the street.
What’s an “old codger” ?
Or is that just an ad hom middle digit in the air ?
Here’s a definition from collinsdictionary.com
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“Old codger is a disrespectful way of referring to an old man”.
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Remember the good old days when we were taught to respect our elders?
My friend as the Doc told me at my last medical when I had a valid question regarding health….his reply “it’s because you have decrepitude”.
I got a copy of my mother’s father’s Death Certificate from the Births, Deaths and Marriages office and she was very upset when she saw “Cause of Death Senility”. “My father wasn’t senile” she angrily insisted, conflating senility with dementia.
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Grandpa was a tough as nails old bloke (NOT old codger), a farmer in the days of horse and plough, a Light Horseman in WW1 who maintained a large Rural Living block well into his eighties before succumbing to pressure to relinquish his 100-year Returned Soldier lease for sub-division “can’t stop progress”. At 94 his body had had enough (decrepitude?) and he died in his bed at their new home alongside his wife, who lived on to 99.
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I got a lawyer friend to explain that “senility” in this case indicated there was not any identifiable disease or injury that contributed to the death.
“Old age” might have been a nicer term, but medical students must abide by their dictionaries. There might be an irony in the Soldier Settler meme here though. Many of them were responsible for the breakup of the large land holdings of the time, and involved compulsory land aquisitions. While resistance appeared to be minimal, it is still talked about, and many of these smaller holdings were unviable and have led to the subsequent and sometimes controversial subdivisions described. While Israel has obviously made a great success of its endeavours after almost a century, the time has obviously come to examine the implications, consequences and collateral damage more closely.
To label someone you have not met, observed or listened to a “codger” based solely on what he wrote on an on-line forum goes past disrespect to ignorance and arrant rudeness.
They’ll know. The rest of us are just onlookers reading with horrified fascination – and staff too, of course.
But clearly not too expensive for the contributors here who sound like elitist, pony-tailed, gender confused and intellectually challenged academics ensconced in their local humanities department – due to their inability to cut it in the real world. Of course, we all know that such individuals talk out the side of their mouths when on the one hand they decry misogyny and champion feminism and Islamic culture in the same breath. It takes a certain kind of moral depravity to reconcile these things in the mind of your average Leftist activist – but they still manage it on mass. Thats what happens when one lacks the capacity of critical thinking both internally and externally.
Most of these folks would know their History, which has now been turned on its head. We look past heroes and winners. Do you know anything about that?
I know that your antisemitism is the the same as the old antisemitism hiding behind a mask of Neo Marxism and it’s oppressor oppressed postmodernist narrative. Most of ‘those’ people exist in their pseudo-intellectual humanities departments because they don’t have the intelligence for the hard sciences. I suspect you know a lot about being a failed intellectual.
That would not be old fashioned as I remember wearing budgies quite unselfconsciously in the 60’s as did most Surf Life Savers in that day. We did wear only slightly less revealing costumes for surf carnivals. In fact my mother first laid eyes on my father as he “marched past”. So I may not even be here to comment if it were not for revealing swim wear.
Great forensics again Tony.
The leftie brain makes it impossible to impart logic, fact and video evidence to them. Would these so called journos have had the guts to sign a public document stating they support the obliteration of Israel and its people.? Hamas charter says exactly that and 75% of the Gazan “Palestinians” support Hamas. That’s what you’re supporting kiddos.
Maybe in these ‘anything goes’ times they could well be unashamed about proclaiming that too.
The ‘lefty brain’ as you put it prefers not to confront the cold hard reality of existential group conflicts. Liberals are constitutionally incapable of foreseeing the consequences of carrying the their ideals to their logical conclusions. That being said their fatal attraction to the underdog has led them in this matter to be more honest than most of the Quadrant crew, by insisting that there are two sides and a long history to this struggle. It boils down to a conflict of interests decided by superior force, diplomacy and perhaps most importantly propaganda.
Spot on.
Come on, that’s what you call your puppy dog.
Now tell us, in detail, how to prevent Hamas from repeating October 7 in the short-time future. Don’t be shy now.
You know full well, but obviously like to see yourself in print here.
‘Fatal attraction to the underdog’ – Gotta love the way Leftist brain always seeks a victimhood status. Last time I looked Israel exists in a sea of seething Islamic hatred towards the liberal democracy values it represents and espouses. Israel is the Western kid encircled by a bull ring of Islamist bullies, who are cheered on by the useful idiots of the global Neo-marxist left.
I guess to Worlds media should have focused more on the ‘two sides of the story’ that existed between 1939 and 1945 when those other famous Antisemites had a chance to vent their spleen.
If they had, there might have been peace in Europe in 1940 or 1941 or 1942, with the Jews only expelled from Germany. All of the various national patriotic movements of that time may have prevented the catastrophe of the EU and its paradoxical mission, nearing completion, to replace the Europeans.
That area was chosen for economic and strategic reasons. Plus to appease the conscience of the European Christian Democracies who let them down so tragically over the decades leading up to the Second World War. Also a place to get them all out of the way, as they were still seen as “The Jewish Problem”, in Great Britain at least. God bless the opening of archives.
The useful idiot title is clearly well earned in this instance. The numbers you quote come from Hams Health Ministry, the same organisation that happily places Hamas fighters and military hardware in tunnels under their hospitals. Your bleeding heart bleeds nothing but ignorance unfortunately.
100% agree. Every article I read about the conflict comes from Gaza government sources. It’s like asking the Taliban (or indeed America) what casualties were inflicted as you’ll get varying amounts of bias in response to the point of propaganda.
Editor popped in here?
Apparently not, but the leftist totalitarian urge for censorship looks like it might have.
Tony I’ve been impressed with The Australian’s coverage. I might even go back to subscribing if they can stay away from the climate change narrative long enough.
Oops, wrong spot.
If you are apologists for a far-right terrorist group willing to sacrifice civilians under its power in its racist war against Israel, then that makes you just as bad.
The now overt alliance between the far-left socialist agitators and the much more numerous far-right “Free Palestine” groups and supporters, united against a tiny democracy fighting for its life since 1947, creates a worrying dilemma for Labor. Before, Labor Right (actually centrist in outlook) factions held the anti-Semitic left rump under control, and they and the Coalition had a united voice on anti-Semitism and Israel, but the shift to the left and this new alliance create new and dangerous currents. The vast majority of the far-rightist side of this new alliance is in Labor seats, and looking for support from the party they have been loyal to. Labor is desperate not to alienate them, hence the mealy-mouthed prevarications and umm-ing and ahh-ing issuing from various government spokespeople. If the rightists feel that Labor is too pro-Israel, hotheads may decide a new political party is a better option. It could well take a dozen Labor seats in Western Sydney.
Yes. As Keating said in a rare burst of honesty: “We’ll swamp the Tories”.
Now the price to Labor of importing that swamp is manifest.
If a journalist tells you that he is trusted, it’s because he isn’t.
It is a pity that journalists can’t rise above the Left / Right paradigm.
When one does it becomes clear that powerful forces have propagandised the media and created an illusionary reality.
They (The Heirachy Exploiting You) clearly back both sides as a means to maintain control.
Both Israelis and Palestinians claim victimhood and the right to revenge. Each one calls the other “terrorist” and there is indeed historical evidence.
If we are honest let’s talk about false flags and the intelligence services.
The logo of Mossad is “By way of deception thou shalt do war”. Not a bad idea if it reduces human suffering but human suffering is the currency of fear and control.
The Israeli intelligence services and military, we are told, are the best equiped and most efficient in the world. Yet we are expected to believe they were victims of a surprise attack. (echoes of 9/11)
Climate change, Feminism, Racism, Class these are methods of control exploited by both Left and Right western “democratic” governments while simultaneously both claiming the high moral ground.
The reality is that both sides have been bought and paid for in a corrupt merry go round that fleeces the public to support a criminal and sociopathic elite whose very existence feeds on human suffering.
‘The logo of Mossad is “By way of deception thou shalt do war”’
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The Mossad’s motto is ‘באין תחבולות יפול עם, ותשועה ברוב יועץ’ which in English means “Where there is no guidance, a nation falls, but in an abundance of counsellors there is safety.” It is from the Bible — Proverbs 11:14
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“If we are honest let’s talk about false flags”, or better still, let’s talk about reasons for this false information.
Thank you Katzenjammer,
I have must have been a victim of propaganda. Quelle surprise.
My Grandfather, an Englishman educated in an English public school in the 19th century, could speak 7 languages including, Greek, Hebrew and Sanskrit. I unfortunately speak only one. That’s progress.
Your restricted education is not an accident. The education system, even at quite an elite level, has been shunted away from ancient languages and learning in order that the ‘intelligentsia’ should be convinced to smugly believe themselves to live in the most enlightened era.
However a little research has revealed that you have quoted Mossad’s current motto.
Mossad’s former motto, be-tachbūlōt ta`aseh lekhā milchāmāh (Hebrew: בתחבולות תעשה לך מלחמה) is a quote from the Bible (Proverbs 24:6): “For by wise guidance you can wage your war” (NRSV).
Claire Hoy Victor Ostrovsky claims this translates, “By Way Of Deception, Thou Shalt Do War.”
Ostrovsky who wrote “By Way Of Deception, A Devastating Insider’s Portrait of the Mossad” was a former katsa (case officer) in Mossad.
He also wrote “The Other Side of Deception”.
In 1990, Israel tried to stop the book sale with a preliminary injunction, arguing that publication would “endanger agents in the field”. It was the first (and, to date, only) attempt of a sovereign state to stop a book from being published in the United States. Lawyers for Israel convinced Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Dontzin to issue the injunction, preventing the publication and distribution of By Way of Deception.
On September 13, less than 48 hours after the injunction had been issued, an appeals court threw it out. For the week of 7 October 1990, the New York Times best seller list rated the book #1 on its nonfiction list.
Who would have thought that spies could be so sneaky?
Wonderful thing is Wikipedia.
Excellent summary Bruce. There are no real autonomous countries. What we are taught about nation states stopped applying after WW2. It’s all clandestine multinational corps and banks running things. The population-side civics is just a façade to corral the public. The innovation of mass media has proved to be a mind control medium for a large enough swathe of voting demos to remove opposition to the most powerful.
A good summary, in my opinion, by Dr David Hilton on this topic.
https://www.reformation.education/p/confirmed-hamas-used-american-military?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Thank you, Thomas for this list of names. I’ll copy them into my little black book for reference.
My latest ‘rejected’ comment in The Australian yesterday, regarding an article by Chris Mitchell, Social Media Fuels Anti-Semitism:
“We speak of the immigration crisis, but are we permitted, in the same breathe, to speak of the abortion rate in the ensuing demographic crisis in Australia. When we speak of the corruption of journalism, let us beat our own breasts.
It bemuses me how Australian governments legalise, promote and use taxpayer money to pay for abortions and euthanasia while also paying for suicide prevention advertisements and counselling.
Now that is more like it! Let’s also introduce discussion about the evils of vaccination and promote the benefits of veganism. That would, of course, necessitate the introduction of more women into these pages, which might not please some of the old gentlemen who reside here.
Yes, it’s practically impossible to get a comment against abortion, let alone one using the word, through at the Oz. Much as I enjoy their diverse coverage of topics, they are overly timid when it comes to comments online.
You could do that here. It is heading that way already.
The Australian rejects your comments, they reject “Balanced Observation”‘s, the two Peters’, mine…. yet they publish this:
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In full:
Yeah, you don’t normally take on the bikie, mate but the point is ild mate check.
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I have no idea what that means. Do the moderators even read comments in full? Are they illiterate?
Suppose that Australia started to become involved in a war where most or all of the enemy were of the faith of the Hamas. What would be the stance taken by these journalists?
Does prudence indicate that they best be asked now, before such a scenario happens?
Any on signatory list who read this are intellectually free to comment. We built Australia that way.
Geoff S
” intellectually free to comment”, but only able to, quite rightly, if a subscriber.
If only John Lennon was still alive… he and Yoko Ono could be travelling around the world visiting conflict zones and get everyone to sing, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance”!
Skip Afghanistan. Music is haram.
Tony here is Rabbi Efrem Goldberg and Ben Shapiro in support of the quest for truth.
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Combatting the Media War Against Israel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUJyWRMnpu0
Thank you for the quoted excerpt, and yes I agree that the emboldened sentence would qualify as murder whilst raping. Still it has me scratching my head, but as they say truth is often stranger than fiction.
Quadrant does not stand for free speach. You NEVER post my comments , WHY?
Could it be your poor spelling?
I believe they just did.
Tony Thomas says: “The journalists demand that media outlets treat statements by democratic Israel in its struggle for survival with the same scepticism as those from the Hamas barbarians. Lying is part of the Hamas DNA and perhaps the least of their genocidal criminality.
“Australian journalism has never suffered such disgrace as this Open Letter.”
One principle going right down through the history of humanity and further down to the deepest reaches of the Animal Kingdom is simply this: ‘I you can’t defend it, you don’t own it.’
The Jews of Europe learned that the hard way. The Palestinians likewise, but in a somewhat different context, for they are arguably the ‘Philistines’ of the Old Testament, occupants of the ‘Promised Land’ (ie promised by God to Moses and the Jewish refugee population fleeing Egyptian captivity, according to the same Old Testament account.)
The Palestinians (ie the present population of Palestine) in common with all other peoples of the world, including the European Jews, have wanted a land and government of their own, and for as long as their history has run. “Palestine is the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, and has been controlled by many kingdoms and powers, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient Israel and Judah, the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great and his successors, the Hasmoneans, the Roman Empire, several Muslim caliphates, and the crusaders. In modern times, the area was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, [till the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in 1918 – IM] then the British Empire and since 1948 it has been divided into Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestine)
But just as the Jews were demonised by the Nazis as ‘untermensch’ and worthy only of extermination, so likewise the Palestinians, cited by commenter ‘Ceres’ above in the following terms:
“Would these so called journos have had the guts to sign a public document stating they support the obliteration of Israel and its people.? Hamas charter says exactly that and 75% of the Gazan ‘Palestinians’ support Hamas. That’s what you’re supporting kiddos.” (Note Ceres’ scare quotes around the word ‘Palestinians.’)
That is the sort of thing us humans do when we see our ancestral homelands being invaded. If, on the other hand, we are the ones doing the invading, or are descended from the invaders, those invaded are commonly portrayed as being sub-human, phonies, and responsible for their own fate; brought it all on themselves, etc, etc, etc.
As Joseph Furphy might well say, were he still around: ‘such is life.’
The Palestinians have no connection to the Philistines – nor to Palestine, Arabic doesn’t even have a ‘p’ sound, so most can’t even pronounce the name they have stolen.
But: they’ve suffered horribly – at the hands of other Arabs. Israelis haven’t driven tanks through their refugee camps, that was the Jordanians. Israelis haven’t slaughtered them and buried them in mass graves, that was the Kuwaitis. Israelis haven’t engaged in tit-for-tat atrocities, that was the Lebanese.
But no outcry from the media, because they don’t care about the Palestinians, only about a chance to demonize Jews.
Hear, Hear.
Palestinianفِلَسْطينيّ [filasṭīniyy] {noun}
https://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-arabic/palestinian
‘filasṭīniyy’ (‘Palestine’) as I heard it from one Arab in conversation here in Australia some time ago, came off his tongue as ‘Felastin.’ I suggest that despite the turbulent history of that region, in speech at least, Philistines have in part survived.
As refugees from the original Jewish incursions (as traumatised as those original settlers would have been, brought in heavily guarded by various European military groups, most non-Jewish), the so-called lazy good for nothing Palestinians of that time had nowhere to go. Impoverished and now genuinely itinerant – what would you have suggested for them?
The original Jewish Incursions! The original Israelites and Hebrews (pre- cursor Jews) existed in current day Israel since the Bronze Age. Like all postmodernist leftists you know nothing of the full suite of history whatsoever!
‘ If, on the other hand, we are the ones doing the invading, or are descended from the invaders, those invaded are commonly portrayed as being sub-human, phonies, and responsible for their own fate; brought it all on themselves, etc, etc, etc’
Must explain your contributions here during the Voice debate. Yet another contributor in need of a mirror!
Pardon, Citizen, but what precisely did I say in the Voice debate here that you found to be politically incorrect? Please enlighten. (No waffly generalisations please. Give us quotes.)
You didn’t say anything that was ‘politically incorrect’ so to speak – I agreed with your sentiments at that time that playing historical and contemporary race and religion politics is an anathema to liberal democracy. You were at pains at the time to dismiss Aboriginals of anything less than 100% genetically pure as ‘rent seekers’. Fair enough perhaps, except now you lecture all and sundry on the perils of ‘invaders’ ‘dehumanising’ the vanquished – in referencing the state of Israel.
If you can’t see the inherent hypocrisy of that position- that is your problem. In my view is displays a lack of personal integrity to not be able to acknowledge your hypocrisy.
Most Palestinians are in favour of a two state solution: namely, East Palestine and West Palestine; but, oops, what happened to all the Jews? Both the far right and the far left (is there any difference these days?) would be happy.
I have been a bit bemused by the conflation of images in this and other articles. As someone who has contempt for the main stream media in general and who never approaches any publication without scepticism, I am sorry, but I think you have seized on the wrong war here.
The statement by the journalists seems to me to be merely an acknowledgment that information be checked. I, for one, would like to see all journalists adhere to such a policy in every article they impose upon us. If the implication in this article is that the Israeli administration never lies and that to demand verification is somehow ‘anti-Semitic’ then I would like to see that assertion backed up by some pretty powerful evidence.
The article and comments then embark upon voicing political views, all of which are dependent upon what information has been communicated to them and all of which have little to do with the statement signed by the journalists.
Quite frankly, the situation is complex, and to deal with it in binary terms is to fail to address it openly and honestly.
Would it be possible to have “likes” button as well as replies in these comments sections, as well as that little bell that you press that brings up all of the topics that keeps a record “likes” and replies to comments that we have posted? Also an “edit” button to correct any mistakes or deletions that may be needed after posting? The site is becoming very crowded and difficult to navigate now that online subscriptions have been introduced. There also appears to be a more liberal attitude toward replies that might not support the Quadrant narrative, yet are now likely to attract a more informed readership. Apologise if off topic, but don’t know where else to post this.