Sinister & Absurd

The Australian's current BDS whipping boy is, of course, the director of Sydney University's Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies (CPACS), Jake Lynch.

The following succinct and powerful letter from Professor Lynch appeared in the Australian on 25 June:

"Your campaign to equate the call for an academic boycott of Israel with anti-Semitism is an attempt, as sinister as it is absurd, to stifle an important debate. There are other countries that occupy territory recognised as not their own; kill large numbers of civilians in military action; stockpile nuclear weapons without joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty; and violate the 1973 UN convention against apartheid. But only one does all four. There is no non-Jewish state in that category, so the charge of discrimination is easily disproved. Or are you resolved not to let facts get in the way of a good witch-hunt?"

Sinister and absurd sums it up so well. The current phase of the Australian's s&a campaign kicked off with Christian Kerr's Israelis may sue boycott activists (18/6/13), referred to in my 28/6/13 post His Brilliant Career.

Following this (and spiced up with another beat-up about Holocaust denier/revisionist Frederick Toben inadvertently finding his way onto a Greens' mailing list), we had the following propaganda barrage:

20/6: Greens courted Holocaust denier, Christian Kerr
21/6: Split in Greens over Holocaust denier, Christian Kerr
21/6: Editorial: All aboard the ship of fools: The guest list for a pro-Palestinian fundraiser is revealing
22/6: Greens exposed: Letters from P. Clifford, Chatsworth, Qld & Joel Feren, Elwood, Vic.
24/6: Toben backing for peace centre, Christian Kerr
26/6: BDS suspicians: Letters from Merv Morris, St Kilda, Vic., Gary Luke, Erskineville, NSW, and Daniel Lewis, Rushcutters Bay, NSW.
27/6: Funding anti-Semitism: Letter from James Miller, Woolloomooloo, NSW

The point here is that the above is merely the latest round in an ideological dirty war being waged by the Australian against pro-Palestinian BDS initiatives in this country. It began in earnest in 2011 with Marrickville Council's brave adoption of the BDS principle and will continue into the foreseeable future as the BDS movement grows. Keep in mind too that the paper's obsession with BDS is merely another aspect of its broader, pro Israel (and anti-Palestinian/Muslim) agenda, typically associated with foreign editor Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan.

For the round before this, see my 24/5/13 post The Australian's Operation Fear & Loathing.