A Rose by Any Other Name

[To be read in conjunction with my earlier posts on the Rose Jackson saga: A Faustian Bargain (25/8/08) & Working Out the Mechanics of Our Relationship (18/1/08).]

"The rising Labor star and Waverley Council candidate, Rose Jackson, had an early baptism in politics as campaign manager on George Newhouse's high-profile tilt for Wentworth during the last federal election. Ms Jackson, who was then 22, awoke one morning to a damning front-page story in The Australian accusing her of espousing anti-Zionism in an online student discussion forum. 'I went straight into the bathroom and vomited', she said yesterday. 'I knew I had been misrepresented in such a fundamental way... it not only made me question why I was in politics, it made me feel like my career was over'." (Energy & charisma may take Jackson to a council seat, Josephine Tovey, Sydney Morning Herald, 10/9/08)

Let's get this straight. Rose was heaving over her toilet bowl after reading The Australian. As you would. Specifically, however, after reading a "damning" story "accusing" her of "espousing anti-Zionism." Oh no, not that, not anti-Zionism! Not opposition to colonialism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, racism, collective narcissism, and general swaggering thuggery!

Guess it just wasn't your day, Rose.

Update: This popped up in The Australian's Cut & Paste of 12/9/08: "Would-be Labor councillor Rose Jackson claims in The Sydney Morning Herald that she was "fundamentally misrepresented" in The Australian: [insert above quote from the Herald] But in an article in The Australian on August 23, Jackson admits she did espouse anti-Zionism as a student activist: 'Rose Jackson said two years ago she opposed Zionism because it calls for the creation of a Jewish state, 'and I think all governments should be secular. No Jewish, Islamic, Christian states... in the world, just good, robust, secular democracies'. 'Looking back, I think I just bought the prevailing polemic on campus at the time that Israel was some sort of quasi-theocracy. Having explored the subject more deeply since then, I understand this is nonsense', she told The Australian Jewish News this week. 'I realise I just misunderstood'."

You're branded for life, Rose.