It’s becoming clear that The Australian is pushing a pro-Israel agenda which, because of the length of the pieces published and the failure to publish Palestinian viewpoints, is giving readers a very lopsided view on the question of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Earlier this month we were subjected to another pro-Israel analysis of how Israel came into being in the guise of Mark Aarons’ review of a collection of new books on Israel and the Middle East (”More than a sum of its parts”, The Australian Literary Review, 3/9), which disingenuously sought to whitewash the reasons for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians to make way for the Jewish state in Palestine, claiming it was as a consequence of Arab rejectionism. And last weekend, we had another lengthy piece by Bren Carlill (”New world in their hands”, Inquirer, 13-14/9) which seeks to blame the Palestinians for the failure of the Oslo peace process. Most of what was written here is clearly from a pro-Israeli viewpoint and the fact that it was not balanced by a Palestinian view on what is a most contentious issue once again makes The Australian seem like it is unashamedly pushing a very pro-Israel stance. Many would now see that the Oslo Accords agreement, signed in September 1993, was from the beginning a way to force a solution that was outside the framework of international law. As was pointed out by critics of the Accords, and later shown to be in fact what happened, the aim was to create a Palestinian Bantustan by giving Yassir Arafat and the PLO limited power and privilege, much like how the British controlled Palestine during the Mandate years through the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni, and the Supreme Muslim Council. The occupation continued after Oslo, albeit by remote control, while Israeli settlements and Israel’s control of the land and resources escalated, making a lie of Israel’s commitments in the peace negotiations. This is happening again today as Israel continues its unrelenting settlement-building and unilateral redrawing of borders. Dora McPhee; Parkville, Vic
Bren Carlill (”New world in their hands”, Inquirer, 13-14/098/099; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24335420-15084,00.html
