Taking aim at Israel
THE Gaza flotilla crisis triggered a flood of vitriolic letters to the mainstream media around Australia, while bloggers moved into overdrive to place Israel in the dock.
THE Gaza flotilla crisis triggered a flood of vitriolic letters to the mainstream media around Australia, while bloggers moved into overdrive to place Israel in the dock.
An Age reader, shrugging off accusations of anti-Semitism, stated that opposing “the very idea of the State of Israel” is “legitimate”.
A Herald Sun reader wrote of “one nation suppressing another by brutal military force” and scoffed at arguments that Israel had fallen into a public relations trap set by Hamas.
On ABC’s AM, Jerusalem correspondent Anne Barker reported: “Despite the growing international fury — and the many dead and wounded — Israel remains defiant.” The same edition featured an interview with a lawyer for Jerry Campbell, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara, but it was not countered with an Israeli version of events.
In Crikey, commentator Guy Rundle conceded that “defending the flotilla, as one does and must, it would be pretty foolish to give a simplistic account of the events, which appear to be wreathed in bad faith from both sides”.
But his blog was headlined “Greater Israel, Greater Schmisrael — the Zionist entity is mad as a bag of cats”.
In the dailies, there was vilification of the Israeli PM. Promoting a column on June 6, The Age website’s homepage ran a picture of Netanyahu over a tagline: “Unprincipled thug impervious to world opinion”.
The Australian Press Council (APC) has so far received two complaints — one about a June 4 editorial in The SMH that stated: “We believe it’s time for Jews of the Diaspora to question Israel’s actions.
“For too long, the spectrum of Jewish opinion outside Israel has been narrowed on Middle Eastern questions to a compulsory, unquestioning support for the Israeli government of the day, no matter what.”
Another complaint focused on a commentary piece by Mike Carlton in The SMH and The Age, stating the article “was not accurate, fair and balanced”.
APC executive secretary Jack Herman said he would speak to the parties to try to settle the complaints, but added that he could not accept the complaint against The SMH editorial, as it was over “an expression of opinion” by the newspaper, not against unbalanced coverage.
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission executive director Deborah Stone said her organisation is “always concerned when criticism of Israel spills over into attacks on Jews, and that has happened, particularly in a number of internet forums over the past week, and also in the protest movement. We are keeping a very close watch on that situation.”
Meanwhile, Community Security Groups in Sydney and Melbourne have remained on a high alert, coordinating security measures with communal organisations.
PETER KOHN
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