Foreign Correspondents: Then & Now

That was then:

"I read my father's conservative Daily Telegraph from cover to cover, always the foreign reports, lying on the floor beside the fire as my mother pleaded with me to drink my cocoa and go to bed. At school I studied The Times each afternoon. I ploughed through Khrushchev's entire speech denouncing Stalin's reign of terror. I won the school Current Affairs prize and never - ever - could anyone shake me from my determination to be a foreign correspondent. When my father suggested I should study law or medicine, I walked from the room. When he asked a family friend what I should do, the friend asked me to imagine I was in a courtroom. Would I want to be the lawyer or the reporter on the press bench, he asked me. I said I would be the reporter and he told my father: 'Robert is going to be a journalist'. I wanted to be one of the 'soldiers of the press'." (The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, Robert Fisk, 2005, p xix)

This is... *sigh* ... now:

"Ben Knight enjoyed a spectacularly unsuccessful academic career, spending several years working in bottle shops and supermarkets, before somehow landing a short-term job with the ABC in his hometown of Mildura as a radio producer. A few years later, he stopped worrying that someone was going to tap him on the shoulder and tell him there had been a horrible mistake, and moved to Melbourne to host the ABC's daily statewide morning show. Bouncing around jobs in radio current affairs, TV news, and The 7.30 Report - even presenting the weather in order to get his face on TV - he suddenly realised his long-repressed dream of a foreign correspondent's job might be within reach. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two children, and is enjoying every minute of it." (Ben Knight, abc.net.au/profiles, 17/12/09)

Sometimes repression has a lot going for it.

The ABC of Zionist Propaganda 2

The 7.30 Report 0f 21 December does the plight of Middle Eastern Christians:

"Increasingly, Christians are feeling under siege in the territory they've called home for centuries, including the Holy Land - many are fleeing the region for good as they fear for their safety." (21/12/10)

From? "From Egypt to Iraq, they were the victims of violent attacks by Muslim extremists."

Ah yes, Muslim extremists. Egypt to Iraq. Wall-to-wall. And that includes the Occupied Palestinian Territories:

"BEN KNIGHT, REPORTER:... The Holy Land is watching its Christian population disappear."

"FATHER RAFIK KHOURY:.. I cannot imagine the Holy Land without Christians."

"SAMIR QUMSIEH*, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTER: I really fear that the Church of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulchre will be turned into museums."

Yikes! OK, so whether it's Egypt, Iraq or the OPT, your Muslim extremists have your (Arab) Christians on the run.

But wait, what's Father Khoury saying now? "[My congregations] say, Well we lived in that situation, OK for us, but for our children we would like to prepare a better future... That is why they leave."

OK for us? The Muslim knife's up against the Christian jugular, but it's... OK for us? What the... ?

And what's this? "PROFESSOR NABIB GHAYIT: Well they're cowards... you have to sacrifice in order to live, you know."

Cowards? What can he mean? Ben? Ben...?

Ah, but Knight's on a roll... on the Muslim track: "But the danger is real. In 2007, Christian pastor Rami Ayyad was murdered in Gaza. No one was ever charged. His family believes there was never any real investigation." Yep, Muslim extremists alright. Who else could it be?

"But it's not just violence," he presses on, "Some Christians say their Muslim neighbours are taking the land out from under them. SAMIR QUMSIEH: They take it by force, by forgery, by many ways and because many Bethlehem people are emigrating, their lands are done."

Funny that. Knight's been ABC TV's Middle East correspondent for years now, but we haven't heard a squeak from him about Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem (up 45% this year with 396 buildings razed compared with 275 last year), throwing 561 Palestinians, including 280 children, onto the street. "Out of the 250,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem... 60,000 are at risk of having their homes demolished by the Israeli authorities," claims UNRWA (UN agency condemns Arab home demolitions in Jerusalem, BBC News, 23/12/10), but hey, that hardly fits with Knight's Head for the hills! The Muslims are coming! agenda.

Samir Qumsieh tells us that he's "very angry with the Christian world." But not, you'll notice with Israel! Unless, of course, Knight's edited that bit out. Ditto for Father Khoury who laments that "They are forgetting their own roots to help others who have roots in the Holy Land."

Knight then introduces us to the kind of Christians Samir Qumsieh and Father Khoury are presumably angry with: "BRUCE GARBUTT, INTL CHRISTIAN EMBASSY OF JERUSALEM: We come as friends of Israel because Israel is God's chosen people, chosen for a purpose and not because they're different, not because they're better, chosen for a purpose and that's to bring salvation to the world. BEN KNIGHT: This is a messianic view of Christianity that believes when the Jews return to the land of Israel, the temple can be rebuilt and the final day of judgment will arrive. The Palestinian State doesn't fit into that plan. Glen and Marilyn Shaw here are doing missionary work in the West Bank and have seen the poverty there. BEN KNIGHT: You're here today with Israeli flags. GLEN SHAW: Yes. BEN KNIGHT: Who are obviously the occupying force - is that a conflict for you? GLEN SHAW: Not really. Not really. Because God commands us to bless the Jews. To bless Israel. Anybody who blesses Israel will get a blessing in return." Jesus, talk about giving Christians a bad name!

Now would it be too much to expect of a Middle East correspondent doing a piece largely on the plight of Palestinian Christians to ask the lovely Glen and his charming wife, Marilyn, whether they were aware just how pissed off the local Palestinian Christians were with their attitude? Apparently.

I suppose the closest Knight gets to the bleeding obviousness of It's the Occupation, stupid! is when he mentions a Vatican discussion paper on "the situation of Christians in the Middle East," which he says, "talks about some of the driving issues such as the Israeli occupation or the growing influence of extreme Islam right across the Middle East."

But you can't trust Knight as far as you can throw him. That bit about the growing influence of extreme Islam, that's just there to blur the bit about the Israeli occupation, the critical impact of which on Palestinian Christians he has no interest whatever in exploring. And what does that document actually says?: "The meeting document made clear that bishops in the Middle East believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be the root cause of several conflicts in the region. But it also singled out the growth of political Islam in countries like Egypt, and said the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been exploited by radical terrorism in recent years... It criticized the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, saying it had made life difficult both for daily life and religious life since access to holy places are restricted. Citing both the Israeli-Palestinian and Iraqi conflicts, it said: 'The solution to conflicts rests in the hands of the stronger country in its occupying and inflicting wars on another country." (Vatican memo: Mideast conflict driving Christians out of region, Haaretz/ AP, 19/10/10)

IOW, political Islam (or as Knight has it, Islamic extremism) is a response to the USraeli occupation of Arab lands, the driving issue behind the emigration of Arab Christians from the Middle East.

Knight's fleeting reference to the Israeli occupation is soon overtaken by Samir Qumsieh muttering darkly about a "Muslim state" in the West Bank and Knight proclaiming darkly that "In November, Al-Qaeda in Iraq declared open season on all Christians. After a siege at a Baghdad church ended in the deaths of more than 50 people, these Iraqi Christians fled to the relative safety of Jordan. But they're not staying there. They're looking for visas to Canada, the US and Australia. Yet another Christian community has decided it's time to leave the Middle East for good and they won't be the last."

Ooo... Al-Qaeda in Iraq? Is this the same Al-Qaeda in Iraq that used to be led by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who became the subject of a US military propaganda campaign a few years back? "The Zarqawi PSYOP program," boasted one of its operatives, "is the most successful information campaign to date... Through aggressive Strategic Communications, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi now represents: Terrorism in Iraq/Foreign Fighters in Iraq/ Suffering of Iraqi People (Infrastructure Attacks)/ Denial of Iraqi Aspirations." (Military plays up role of Zarqawi: Jordanian painted as foreign threat to Iraq's stability, Thomas E Ricks, The Washington Post, 10/4/06)

Hm... has PSYOPs now come to 'Your' ABC?

[* On SQ see A tale of two Palestinians, Jerry Gordon, frontpagemag.com, 14/9/05]

Dr Knight & Mr Regev

"There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul. And yet I was not alarmed; the fall seemed natural, like a return to the old days before I had made my discovery. It was a fine, clear January day, wet under foot where the frost had melted, but cloudless overhead; and the Regents Park was full of winter chirrupings and sweet with Spring odours. I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin. After all, I reflected, I was like my neighbours; and then I smiled, comparing myself to other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect. And at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering. These passed away, and left me faint; and then as in its turn the faintness subsided, I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the bonds of obligation. I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs; the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy. I was once more Edward Hyde. A moment before I had been safe of all men's respect, wealthy, beloved - the cloth laying for me in the dining-room at home; and now I was the common quarry of mankind, hunted, houseless, a known murderer, thrall to the gallows." Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

What about Gilad Shalit? asked James Carleton, presenter of Radio National's Breakfast program this morning.

"Israel calls him a hostage," began Dr Ben Knight, the ABC's Gent in Jerusalem, conveying the Israeli party line (which, alas, in the simple retelling of events, couldn't help but crumble): "Hamas, who've been holding him, call him a captured soldier. He was on patrol [!] near the Gaza border [!!] in June 2006 in an armoured vehicle [!!!] when some militants from Gaza popped up out of a tunnel they'd dug underneath the fence, attacked the patrol [!!!!], killed several soldiers [!!!!!] and took Gilad Shalit back through the tunnel into Hamas."

Into Hamas! Yikes! Dr Knight had pulled himself up just in time. For a nanosecond there he had nearly said into Hamastan. It's happening, he shuddered. Mr Regev. And smack bang in a bloody Radio National interview! Shit!

He was helpless, and could only listen appalled as Mr Regev regaled the Breakfast audience with the tale of that "quite awful character" Samir Quntar* who, back in the 70s, for no apparent reason, had leapt into a dinghy, paddled down the Lebanese coast and onto an Israeli beach, and offed the first Israeli "family, including the children" he could lay his evil hands on (a bit like those "militants," who, for no apparent reason, had just decided to dig a tunnel and plug some Israeli soldiers who were quietly going about their usual morning killing spree).

He listened, numb, as Mr Regev went on about how galling it was for Israelis to see that q***(ar) being swapped for some Israeli stiffs in Lebanon, and then receiving a "hero's welcome" in Beirut. "This really did stick in the Israelis' craw," ranted Regev, "and so here they are going through it again, but what you're looking at this time is a far higher price. This is a live prisoner, and what is being asked by Hamas is the release of miltants inside Israeli jails who... the term over here is blood on their hands."

It was at that very point, where Mr Regev was about to say with blood on their hands, that Dr Knight rallied with the words the term over here is blood on their hands. Just in the nick of time, he thought, the sweat in beads on his forehead. The doctor pressed on heroically: "Now for some of them, they may simply have been involved in throwing a rock at a police officer."

But it was no good, Mr Regev was simply too strong. "But for others," rasped Regev, "we're talking about the people who made the bombs during the Second Intifada when we saw Tel Aviv and Jerusalem living in fear when buses were blowing up. So Israel is having this national discussion at the moment and the line seems to be, yes, we'll do it this time, we'll allow this large number of prisoners released to get our soldier back, but never again. But it's certainly not a done deal. It's a very, very high price to pay for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a time when he's got other matters on his hands."

Carleton, clearly taken aback by Dr Knight's increasingly obvious struggle with Mr Regev, tried to toss him a lifeline in the form of a question about Hamas maybe not quite feeling the same way.

To no avail. It was not Dr Knight, but Mr Regev, who responded, "Well, each case on its merits, but you certainly do get the impression that Israelis have had enough of watching these prisoners being released when they certainly feel that they should spend the rest of their lives in jail, and in this case, we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of prisoners."

The rest of their lives in jail? It was too much. Dr Knight fought back valiantly: "Now not all of them were involved in those suicide bombing incidents in the Second Intifada. Some of them are car thieves. Some of them picked up in the wrong place at the wrong time and face an Israeli military court, which is not a court that anyone would want to find themselves in if they were Palestinian. But we're talking about hundreds and hundreds and hundreds for one Israeli soldier and you just get the sense that there's a very very strong desire to bring Gilad Shalit home but not at any price and after this there's going to be a major rethink of how it's done."

His bacon was saved - for now. But how much longer can I go on like this, he asked himself, before Dr Knight is no more and only the hideous Mr Regev is left?

Pray for the soul of Ben Knight.

[See my 21/7/08 post The Motiveless Malignancy of Samir Quntar]

Blink & You'd Have Missed It

You've heard of the Great Firewall of China, erected so that the Chinese can't access information relating to certain taboo subjects such as China's occupation and colonization of Tibet and East Turkistan? Well the latest brick in the wall has just been laid by Apple: "Chinese users of the iPhone are unable to download applications related to the Dalai Lama or to Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur leader, after Apple apparently blocked them from its iPhone app store in the country. The move suggests that Apple has followed Google in self-censoring content available in China, under pressure from the Government." (Dalai Lama blocked from download to iPhones in China, Guardian/SMH, 2/1/10)

The operative concept here is self-censorship, which the Western corporate media, in response to decades of sustained bullying by pro-Israel lobby groups, has been practising for yonks. An egregious case in point is the relative lack of media coverage of the Gaza Freedom March and the Gaza Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza.

One's astonishment at this was given eloquent voice by Ibrahim Hewitt of the UK charity Interpal: "At a time of year when editors are looking for news items to fill their pages and programmes, one story sticks out: an international aid convoy with 400 participants from Britain alone; 1.5 million people awaiting eagerly its arrival and the relief it will bring; a rogue foreign government hindering the relief effort; and friendly governments and their citizens who have given the convoy a heroic welcome as it passed through their countries, across Europe and what used to be called Asia Minor. Take some Brit heroes - men and women of all faiths and none - sacrificing their time over Christmas and probably the New Year to help people under siege in the land of Christ's birth, and throw in the anniversary of the war that compounded the hardship for good measure. All the ingredients of a major story, you may think, but that's where you'd be wrong. This is one story that the major newspapers and television news programmes in Britain and the USA are avoiding. Apart from two brief paragraphs on the BBC news website, you will be hard pushed to find anything. The Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza is a non-event as far as most of the media are concerned, which begs the obvious question; why? Is it less important than Britain's weather? Or the Queen's speech? Or Victoria Wood's midlife crisis? Or Manchester City's human resources skills? What is it about hundreds of people trying to take desperately-needed relief to millions of their fellow human beings at Christmas - a time of peace and goodwill to all, in case that's passed you by - that editors think is not newsworthy? Could it be because the man behind it is British MP George Galloway? Could it be because the rogue state is Egypt and we are trying to ingratiate ourselves with Hosni Mubarak (God forbid!)? Or could it be that too much coverage might upset the Israeli government whose blockade, imposed with the attendant threat of massive military force, has created the 'shattered society' (see Amnesty's latest report) that awaits the convoy's assistance? Any one of these would be shameful if it were true." (The missing story, middleeastmonitor.org.uk, 28/12/09)

But what about the Australian media? Here's the scorecard:

News Limited: Not a whisper. No surprises there.

Fairfax: A short piece (Hunger strikers press Egypt on Gaza march) in the Sydney Morning Herald, courtesy of Agence France-Presse on 30/12/09. Another shortie (Jews, Arabs call to end blockade) on 2/1/10, courtesy of The New York Times' Ethan Bronner (say no more), which featured a photo of Israelis - Israelis!!! - daubed with Stars of David and holding Israeli flags. The caption: "Peace plea... Israelis rally a year after the war." The only decent Fairfax press coverage that I'm aware of was Andra Jackson's report (Australians' Gaza protest) in The Age of 1/1/10. And where was Fairfax Middle East correspondent Jason Koutsoukis?

SBS Television: One brief, derogatory snippet on the 6.30 pm News, 31/12/09. (See my 1/1/10 post So-called SBS/ABC News) Blink, and you'd have missed it.

ABC: Despite the derogatory introduction by presenter Tony Eastley (see So-called SBS/ABC News), Anne Barker's story on the Gaza Freedom March on Radio National's AM program (International protest over Gaza blockade, 31/12/09) was commendable. But where were ABC Television's Middle East correspondents, Matt Brown and Ben Knight?

Well we know where the latter was, don't we? Knight was in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, about as far as you could get from Gaza (in Israel), reporting on the woes of Israeli fish farmer Yigal Ben Tzvi. Alas, it seems the bottom has fallen out of Europe's caviar market (Middle East caviar producers hit hard times, 7 pm News, 2/1/10). All the piece wanted was the following surreal exchange:

Ben Knight (scratching head): I seem to recall hearing they haven't got enough to eat down in Gaza.
Ben Tzvi: Let them eat caviar!

Israel's Sock Puppet at the ABC

A more blatant display of Israeli propaganda than last night's 7.30 Report's Gaza conflict - one year on would be hard to find:

"The aim of the attacks was to end the rocket attacks being made on Israel by Islamic militants." (from the introduction on the website)

"The aim was to end the barrage of crude rockets being being constantly fired by Islamic militants towards Israeli towns." (from presenter Chris Uhlmann)

"Operation Cast Lead was launched to put a stop to years of Hamas rockets on Israel's southern towns and cities." (from ABC Middle East correspondent Ben Knight)

That's our (Zionised) ABC for you, folks. It doesn't get much more mantra-like than that.

Well, why did Israel attack Gaza? Quite simply, to get its mojo (aka deterrence capability) back after losing it to Hezbollah in 2006. Don't believe me? Well, just listen to the war criminals behind the Gaza Holocaust:

"The recent military operation in the Gaza Strip against Hamas has restored Israel's deterrence among its enemies and in the perception of the whole world, Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert said." (PM: Gaza op restored Israel's deterrence, Etgar Lefkovits, Jerusalem Post, 26/1/09)

"Hamas was dealt a blow that created 'the deterrence that is now enabling calm'." (Barak says deterrence enabled calm, Hanan Greeberg, ynetnews.com, 19/1/09)

"[Tzipi Livni] said the Gaza offensive had restored Israel's 'deterrence' against militant factions seeking to attack it... Hamas now understands that Israel will act 'wildly' to any attacks against it, she said regarding the 'deterrence'." (Livni: Only Israel will decide when to end Gaza offensive, Deutsche Presse-Argentur, jewishfederations.org)

No, it wasn't about rockets, rockets, rockets - that was just the fiction decided on by the warmongers to sell Israel's wilding to the world - it was about deterrence, deterrence, deterrence.

Then there's this gobsmacking exchange where Ben Knight throws all pretense of journalistic objectivity to the winds and becomes a mere sock puppet for the Israelis:

"Yohanan Plessner, Knesset EU Relations Committee: The laws that govern warfare today are in many ways not so relevant to security challenges.

Yohanan Plessner is a former Israeli army commando who now maintains Israel's relations with Europe.

Yohanan Plessner: In the new kind of warfare today, civilians are more likely to get hurt as long as terrorist organisations and their sponsors are... situating the centre of gravity of their forces within the civilian population.

Ben Knight: That's exactly what Hamas did in Gaza, so did Hezbollah in South Lebanon a few years ago."

And, incredibly, he does it again:

Ben Knight: Israel's problem is not just where it fought in Gaza, but how. White phosphorus burns down to the bone. It's not supposed to be used in built-up civilian areas. Jumaa Al Najar was one of those hit with a white phosphorus shell.

Jumaa Al Najar, Victim: All over my legs, it felt like I was on fire.

Ben Knight: Before the war, Jumaa Al Najar was a textile salesman. He can now barely walk and his right hand is paralysed and he can't get out of Gaza for treatment.

Jumaa Al Najar: Before I was wounded I was the breadwinner in my home. Now I sit at home wondering how to support my family.

Ben Knight: Israel knows it's not the only nation faced with the problem of fighting enemies who operate in civilian zones.

Knight seems blissfully unaware that reports by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Dugard Committee and the Goldstone Report have found no evidence to back Israel's claim that Hamas is using human shields. Nor does he appear aware that such claims were retracted by the Israeli military when they were first used to cover its crimes in Lebanon in 2006. Israeli newspaper Haaretz, for example, had this to say on Israel's massacre of dozens of Lebanese civilians at Qana in south Lebanon: "As the Israel Air Force continues to investigate the air strike, questions have been raised over military accounts of the incident. It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time. The Israel Defense Forces had said after the deadly air-strike that many rockets had been launched from Qana. However, it changed its version on Monday." (Livni: Qana attack led to turning point in support for Israel, Yoav Stern, 1/8/06)

And back when Israel was "punishing, humiliating and terrorising" (to borrow Justice Goldstone's exact words) the people of Gaza, Ben Knight was blithely reporting - I kid you not - on how Arab television was punishing Israel with footage from Gaza. (See my 14/1/09 post Choking on My Falafel) And before that, in September 2008, Knight was busy parroting the argot of the Jewish cowboys who rule the range in the Wild West Bank. (See my 6/10/08 post The Media is the Message)

No wonder the local Israel lobby's given the tick to Knight and his equally clueless ABC colleague Matt Brown*: "On the ABC, both radio and television, the standard of Israel coverage has... depended on the quality of the correspondents. Early in the decade, with Tim Palmer and then Jane Hutcheon, the coverage was at times deplorable. More recently, however, correspondents such as Matt Brown and Ben Knight have delivered more thoughtful and even-handed reporting on the whole." (Bias & Balance in the noughties, Jamie Hyam, The Australian Jewish News, 18/12/09) [*See my posts Sleepless in Sderot, Legless in Gaza (16/1/09) & The Beat-Up Goes On (27/7/08)]

Choking on My Falafel.

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Song for Gaza by Michael Heart

I cannot document this. Channel 10's website doesn't even bother with a summary account of its 5 pm news bulletin, let alone a transcript. Yet, this is what I saw on its 12/1/09 evening news: overseas correspondent Danielle Isdale was standing in the grounds of a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. Two Palestinian (?) patients, allegedly from Gaza, whose cuts and bruises had been lovingly attended to by hospital staff, were out in what appeared to be the hospital's garden, smiling beatifically in gratitude as a small group of Israeli musicians (I seem to remember a guitarist and a violinist among them) serenaded them. I was so gobsmacked I can't remember anything Danielle said, but thanks to her and Channel 10, Israel's beautiful soul was there for all to see.

Also on display (on the AM program) that day were the remarkable reporting skills of Radio National's Middle East Correspondent Ben Knight. The subject: Anger mounts in Arab world as Israel's goals 'nearly achieved'. "Each day that passes," intoned presenter Brendan Trembath, "provokes more anger in the Arab world." Cut to our Ben: "This is the Yasser Arafat Square in Ramallah, it's the market centre of the town. There are shops here selling everything from clothes to jewellery to falafal. And in almost every one of them, there's a television. And that television is invariably tuned in to one of the Arab news networks, where for 24 hours every day it's all Gaza all the time. Over lunch in this cafe, people are seeing a constant feed of graphic images. Many of which could never be shown on Australian TV screens [Could never be shown? Wouldn't want to put our listeners off their food now, would we Ben?] 'We've become used to seeing pictures of killing', says this man, 'But this time the Israelis are going over the top'. [And that, folks, is the only Angry Arab that gets his tuppence worth in Ben's report on Angry Arabs. But more of that later.]

Now, are you ready for this? The flash of Ben's blinding insight that is? "The Arab news networks are punishing Israel." Zounds! How? "For the past week, they've been running and re-running pictures of horribly wounded children, dead bodies and overflowing morgues. In their news reports, they don't refer to the dead, but to martyrs. And the Arab world is glued to it. Not just here in the West Bank, but in the cafes and markets of Egypt and Jordan." Did you get that? The Arab news networks are punishing Israel! The heroes of the Israeli Occupation Forces, one of the planet's deadliest military machines, are slashing and burning their way through the wretched, destitute population of Gaza, the body count soars by 100 a day, the wounded are too numerous to count, and our Ben, sipping coffee in a Ramallah cafe, is telling us that Arab television is punishing Israel!

I did say more of that later, that being our Ben's seeming inabilty to find, with one exception, any Angry Arab to talk to slap bang in the centre of Palestine's de facto capital. But not to worry, help is at hand! General Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of of analysis with Israeli military intelligence, just happened to be sauntering by and, seeing Ben's microphone, just couldn't help himself: "If this war ends up with the Hamas giving up their (inaudible) whenever they don't wake up under the right side, they launch rockets against civilians in Israel, that's a major victory for the moderate enemies in dabau (phonetic). And they can withstand the protest in the area. I think that if we aren't successful, those who protest are going to be weakened with them." Enlightening, no? And it doesn't get any better with a second, third or fourth reading either.

Now what's our Ben to do, all dressed up and nowhere to go in Yasser Arafat Square? But not to worry, help is once more at hand! Here's Major Barak Rimon, a reservist in the Israel army and a Gaza vet. Just sauntering by? But of course! "I can't think about dangerous place to be in the world right now than in Gaza Strip. And then it becomes like a wild west. If somebody is jumping, you don't have enough time to think, you have to react, and that's the main problem." "That makes it highly likely there'll be more civilian deaths," remarks Ben sagely.

The Media is the Message

"[K]ey elements in the lobby strive to influence discourse about Israel in the media, think tanks, and academia, because these institutions are critical to shaping popular opinion. They promote efforts to portray Israel in a positive light and they go to considerable lengths to marginalize anyone who questions Israel's past or present conduct or seeks to cast doubt on the merits of unconditional US backing. Pro-Israel forces are well aware that dominating discussions about the Jewish state is essential to their agenda. These efforts do not always succeed, of course, but are still remarkably effective." (The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy, Mearsheimer & Walt, p 168)

As above, so below. In its annual review of the Australian media, The best (& worst) of the year awards (The Australian Jewish News, 3/10/08), the Israel lobby's pointy end, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), tells us who it believes has been singing in (and out) of tune. There are, of course, NO surprises:

SBS TV has won the MOST IMPROVED category. "Its news service has ... shown greater fairness on Middle East issues this year, with reports generally including more of the necessary context and fewer factual errors and omissions, and interviewees evenly reflecting relevant viewpoints. Its documentaries on the Middle East have also been much more balanced." In the black-is-white world of AIJAC, this means that efforts to pressure SBS TV to toe the Israeli line have been largely successful. "There is, however, still enough room for improvement - especially in Dateline - for SBS to again be a contender next year." Which is AIJAC's way of saying, 'Listen up, SBS! We may be giving you a pat on the head now, but don't let it go to your head (if you know what we mean). Here's the dice: If you don't shape up further, we won't even consider you as a contender for next year's MOST IMPROVED award. Now there's a good boy - go and do something about Dateline!

AIJAC's BEST FIRST YEAR PLAYER was "shared by ABC Radio correspondent Ben Knight and Fairfax correspondent Jason Koutsoukis" who "brought to their often problematic outlets a refreshingly objective approach, simply reporting on the news and attempting to give both sides of the story." Worthy recipients indeed! Maybe Ben's riveting, in-depth piece on that room in his newly-rented Jerusalem house for Correspondents Report (14/9/08) was what did it for him: "I've been in this room more times than I can remember... And I was never quite sure what it was supposed to be. There's no window, it's very bare. It's just concrete walls, a strange shelf running along one wall, also made of concrete, tiled floors [sic], and not much else... But I finally worked out what it was; this is the house's safe room." And, while outside in the real world Israel is literally wiping Palestine off the map, Ben gets the drum from a nice young Israeli soldier who initiates him in the use of gas masks, presumably because those Iranian rockets with their chemical payloads are fairly straining at their moorings to wipe Jerusalem off the map. But doesn't that include Palestinians? Don't ask! And Ben doesn't -neither about the supposed threat nor its unlikelihood. Yep, I can see why Ben got the gong.

Ben's undoubted promise was again in evidence on today's AM program (Israeli settler violence on the rise), where, having emerged from his Jerusalem bunker, he ventured into the wild West Bank to do a cameo on rampaging Israeli settlers, fell in with a right charmer by name of Hillel Ben Shlomo who had God on his side and wanted the Palestinians to hit the road faster than you can say pogrom. In fact, so charmed was Ben by Hillel that he lapsed into settlerspeak, referring to "Arabs/Arab villages" 6 times.

And Jason - what's swung it for him? Could it have been the fearless objectivity of his reporting on the decidedly non-vibrant (try "ramshacle and unkempt") Syria (Slow road for Damascus, SMH 27/9/08), a country which "does not recognise Israel's right to exist*," has had "few foreign or domestic policy successes over the past 4 decades**," and is "host of armed and dangerous groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad." Could it have been that penetrating insight into the mysterious Syrian psyche provided by a "mobile phone dealer" who reckons You Don't Mess with the Zohan is "the best film of the year"? Who knows? Fortunately, Jason's most recent despatch from the front lines of the world's most intractable conflict - on hummus (that's right, hummus, not Hamas!) - (Tasty object of worship for Muslims and Jews, 4/10/08) should make him a shoo-in for next year's award.

[* Tres naughty!]
[** No occupied territories to speak of! No stranglehold over the US Congress! Too busy hosting Palestinian and Iraqi refugees I guess.]

BEST & FAIREST - no! - goes to Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, The Australian's foreign editor, for "consistently showing a superior understanding of Israel's situation and the obstacles to Middle East peace." IOW, he's not only with us. Hell, he's practically one of us!

WORST & UNFAIREST - boo! hiss! - goes to Jason's predecessor at Fairfax, Ed O'Loughlin, for "his consistent use of various forms of often subtle but real journalistic malfeasance," including "the use of biased language, factual misrepresentation and half-truths, editorialising in news stories, and one-sided selection of news subjects and interviewees." IOW, try as we might, we couldn't turn him. Oh, and SMH columnist Alan Ramsey gets a "mention" for "his rants about the supposed* power of the Jewish lobby to suppress criticism of Israel." We can't confuse Joe Sixpack & the Hockey Mums with the bleeding obvious, now can we?

[*See my posts Storms Forecast (22/9/08), Hurricane Herzl (23/9/08) & Hurricane Herzl Fallout (25/9/08)]

AND THE WINNER IS... - you guessed it, clever boy! - The Australian for "its consistently good coverage of the Middle East... led by the best and fairest winner, the excellent Greg Sheridan, [and including] many fine editorials showing a keen understanding of Israel's various predicaments, its right to defend itself and the true obstacles to Middle East peace represented by Palestinian recalcitrance and terrorism." IOW, The Australian's Middle East coverage is sooo good we could've written it ourselves.

Keep up the good work, AIJAC.