Herald: Pressure Israel!

Despite its rambammed journalists (Sheehan, Hartcher, Levett etc), its general cluelessness on the issue at hand, and its lilly-livered approach to Psycho Israel and its Wiping Palestine Off the Map project, the Sydney Morning Herald has been growing increasingly irritated with Psycho's behaviour. Hence yesterday's editorial, Goodwill goes missing. Some excerpts:

"Stephen Smith, the foreign Minister, is right to be outraged by Israel's announcement last week of 1600 houses for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem. Venturing beyond Australia's usual safe diplomatic language on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Smith called it 'a bad decision at the wrong time' and 'not a helpful contribution to the peace process'... Smith was still smarting from unresolved tensions with Israel over the use of forged Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai... Even more than that episode, the tactless announcement over East Jerusalem highlights Israel's apparent disregard for the role of goodwill in relations with even its closest friends. Palestinians see East Jerusalem as their future capital, should a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict ever come to pass. Yet the housing plan is just one more event in a process by which the Israeli government has been busily remaking East Jerusalem in Israel's own image, often disregarding Arab heritage..."

At which point I'm compelled to ask the question: Why is it that the SMH editorialist never seems to grasp the simple fact that everything - EVERYTHING - that has happened in Palestine since 1948 has been part of a process by which successive Israeli governments have been busily remaking Palestine in Israel's image, relentlessly wiping out Palestine and Palestinians?

After further blah on Biden and Bibi, the editorialist concludes with the Herald's version of tough talk (or, to paraphrase Hartcher, flogging Israel with a warm lettuce leaf): "Since late 2008, Australia has supported a freeze on Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. We must now follow this through and bring what pressure we can on Israel to grasp the goodwill so vital to the peace process."

We, I assume, means the Australian government. This, of course, is the height of hypocrisy. If the Herald is sincere in bringing what pressure we can on Israel, it needs to lead by example. It can begin by implementing the relevant provision of The Fairfax Code of Conduct and cracking down on the practice of press junkets to Israel by its journalists (See my last post), and leaving the publication of Zionist lobby propaganda pieces, such as that by Vic Alhadeff* in the very SAME issue, to the Murdoch press or The Australian Jewish News.

[*First step is accepting Israel's right to exist]