And as a complete dumbass for invoking the “some of my best friends are Jewish” defense.

The Victorian Liberal campaign director who sent an anti-Semitic email to a colleague has quit her job and apologised for her remark.

State president David Kemp said Susan Chandler was given the option of quitting or being sacked.

Chandler had described a candidate in an email as a “greedy f***ing jew”.

In the latest shot fired in an internal party war that has the Liberals reeling, an email, forwarded from campaign officer John Osborn, shows Ms Chandler making the reference to Liberal Party candidate Adam Held.

In a statement, Ms Chandler said she has many Jewish friends and is not anti-Semitic.

She said her comments were completely out of character, and made on the spur of the moment during a difficult period of the election campaign.

The anti-Semitic remark follows a request from Mr Held for more election campaign pamphlets in October last year.

You can see the email exchange that led to her “completely out of character”, “spur of the moment” comment made “during a difficult period of the election campaign” below.

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From following articles by Palestinian Arabs in the West decrying Israeli “crimes” and pretending to yearn for their land, one is struck by a simple fact: most if not all of them live, quite comfortably, outside “Palestine.” From universities in the US and the UK they rail about “justice” and the suffering of their people - but none of them seem to want to actually move to “Palestine.”

It’s not like it is so hard. Even if Israel limits immigration, there is no shortage of ways to get in from Jordan. Tens of thousands of opportunistic Jordanians did exactly that during the early Oslo years as it appeared that the economy in the West Bank was poised to leapfrog Jordan’s.

It is instructive to compare the early ideological Zionists, many of whom of whom risked their lives for a very uncertain future in Palestine (even before Herzl), and today’s “settlers” who do the same, with today’s ideological Palestinian Arab nationalists who are quite happy to pontificate from afar.

The lives of the early Zionists were no more secure in Palestine than in the West. It was far from clear that they would be able to build a homeland successfully. Yet they sacrificed themselves for an idea that they believed strongly in.

Similarly, there are hundreds of thousands of Jews - today’s pioneers - who choose to live across the Green Line. They build schools, clinics, farms, against the wishes of not only the Arab world but most of the West and sometimes even their own government. Yet they choose to stay, and more choose to move there. Even if you disagree with them you must admit that they have a strong ideological core that makes them want to move there.

But where are the Palestinian Arabs who grew up in the West? They stay in the West. The ideology of “return” is great to talk about, but not so important to live.

Palestinian Arabs have hijacked the terminology of the Jews (”Diaspora,” for example) but they have always suffered from a black hole at the center of their ideology: their most passionate nationalists were either terrorists or lived outside Palestine altogether, with no desire to build the land.

Of course they applaud and encourage the miserable Palestinian Arabs who live in the Middle East to have lots of children so the next generation will be even more miserable. They are in the forefront of screaming “Zionism=Nazi” in left-wing rags. But they simply do not put their money where their mouths are.

Because they really don’t care nearly as much about a Palestinian Arab state as they do about the destruction of a Jewish state.

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- Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora

Yeah, who’d have thought a terrorist organization that targets civilians and uses its own people as human shields would prove to be crueler than a State that goes out of its way to limit civilian casualties, at great peril to its own soldiers and civilians?

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No, not that one.

A United Nations agency called on Israel on Sunday to investigate the death of a Palestinian teacher employed by the agency who was killed in her home during an Israeli raid last week in the Gaza Strip.

“We’re calling on the Israelis for an impartial investigation,” said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for which Wafa al-Daghma worked as a teacher at an elementary school for refugee children.

‘We want to see accountability’

A spokesman for the Israeli armed forces said they were looking into the matter. Dozens of civilians have been killed in Gaza this year in air and ground attacks that Israel says are directed against militants who fire rockets into its territory.

Immediately after the violence near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the army said troops attacked militants. Islamic Jihad said one of its fighters was killed and six were wounded in an Israeli air strike in the area.

Palestinian medics and relatives at Abassan, a village east of Khan Younis, said Daghma, 32, was at home with three of her children when Israeli troops with tanks approached.

Gunness said inquiries by UNRWA suggested Daghma was killed when troops blasted open the door of her home in order to take the building as an observation post.

Meanwhile, it begs to be asked why haven’t we heard any more about UNRWA’s promised investigation into their terrorist teacher?

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Well, the factually (and horizontally) challenged Hari has responded by accusing critics of launching a smear campaign against him to make him look like an anti-Jewish bigot (hat tip: Honest Reporting). As Melanie Phillips writes:

But the most remarkable and revealing comment of all by Hari is this:

Alan Dershowitz and Melanie Phillips are two of the most prominent figures sent in to attack anyone who disagrees with the Israeli right.

‘Sent in’, eh? By whom, exactly? By the world-wide Jewish/Zionist/Likudnik conspiracy, of course. Yup, it’s those Protocols again. Whoops, what a giveaway. Case proved, I think.

Melanie also notes that Hari’s “comeback” mysteriously vanished, but is accessible here thanks to the wonders of Google cache.

It seems Hari is digging so deep, he must be trying to create a new underground sewerage system for the palestinians.

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The militant group Hamas said early Sunday morning that one of its members had been killed in an explosion along Gaza’s fence with Israel.

The Islamic group’s military wing said a man was killed, and another injured, during a holy mission. Such language is used when explosives meant for an attack on Israel explode prematurely.

The dead Hamas man was named as Osama al-Aftal.

The Israel Defense Forces issued a statement clarifying troops were not operating in the area at the time of the explosion early Sunday.

Call me religious, but here’s hoping to many more “holy missions.”

Meanwhile, despite the fact you’d think palestinian news agencies would be beaming with pride about such missions, blaming Israel seems to be an even holier mission, as evidenced by this Ma’an News account of the same incident.

Undercover Israeli forces killed a Palestinian fighter in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning, witnesses and medical sources said.

The dead body of 23-year-old Usama Al-Astal, a fighter with Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was taken to a hospital in the city of Khan Younis.

Eyewitnesses told Ma’an’s reporter that Al-Astal was on lookout duty east of the town of Al-Qarara, when he noticed Israeli special forces entering the area. He immediately hurled a grenade towards the Israelis, who fired back, killing him and wounding three other fighters.

Update: Elder points out that the Hamas website uses an even better euphemism.

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy.

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He also wants everyone to know who the real enemy is.

Guess who.

“What Hizbullah did is a coup,” Siniora said Saturday. “Hizbullah has become the problem of all of Lebanon. We are not scared of its weapons.”

Later Saturday, an opposition statement said Hizbullah and its allies will end all armed presence in Beirut after the Lebanese army overturned government measures against the group. “”The Lebanese opposition will end all armed presence in Beirut so that the capital will be in the hands of the army,” the statement said. However, the opposition noted that “civil disobedience” will continue.

By Saturday evening, eyewitnesses reported that trucks carrying Hizbullah gunmen were leaving Beirut as Lebanese soldiers were deploying in the streets.

The reports came shortly after the Lebanese army announced that it will comply with Hizbullah’s demands, namely refraining from replacing the Beirut airport’s security chief and allowing Hizbullah to maintain his separate communication network.

—-

Siniora added that “we believed and we still do that the real danger to the country comes from the direction of Israel – our true enemy. However, the experience we are going through at this time shows that our democratic regime has fallen victims to our homeland brothers.”

“We did not underestimate the resistance against Israel, but what is Hizbullah doing in Lebanon?” Siniora said. “What is it doing on the roads to the airport? Is it controlling the road to Tel Aviv by controlling these roads? Syria is our sister and Israel is the enemy.”

This is the man supported by the Americans, and makes a further joke of UN Resolution 1701 which, among other things, provides that “there will be no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon.” Clearly, the government of Lebanon has until now consented to Hizbullah being in possession of its weapons against Israel. And here’s an even clearer indication:

In his first public reaction to Hezbollah’s takeover of west Beirut, Mr Siniora decried what he called a “poisonous sting” to democracy.

He said Hezbollah’s weapons could no longer be considered to be legitimately held because they had been turned on the Lebanese themselves.

In other words, they were legitimately held while being used to kill Israelis.

Lebanon has in the past been called the “Paris of the Middle East.” I would posit that it only similarity with Paris these days is its hatred of Jews Zionists.

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I won’t recap the entire plot of the episode, but it can be found here. The bad guys are a neo-con, pro-Israel group called the November Committee, who murder those who stand in the way of their vision of a Greater Israel. The pro-palestinian group in the episode, similar to the ISM, are initially suspected of financing suicide bombings, but by episode end are cleared of any wrongdoing.

Besides the one dimensional pro-Israel=bad message of the episode, there were a number of other misleading points, including the notion that Israel’s “occupation” of lands during the Six Day War of 1967 are the root cause of the conflict and palestinian terrorism. As if palestinian terror groups were not formed before 1967, and as if palestinian terror groups to this day do not espouse the aim to drive all the Jews into the sea and take over the entire land of Israel - not just the so-called “occupied” territories of 1967.

And then there’s of course the fact that the show had to invent an extremist Israeli terror group as the bad guys and major obstacle to peace in the Middle East. I say invent, because such groups, if they exist, are not a factor (Israeli society and the police would not tolerate them). Never mind the fact that palestinian terror groups are all too real and enjoy the support of a majority of the palestinian population.

While television shows and movies continue to tiptoe around the issue of Islamic terrorism and go out of their way to show more nuanced depictions of Muslims, shows such as Spooks show no such sensitivity when depicting Israelis and Israel supporters.

In other words, it’s not just the mainstream media poisoning peoples’ minds and feeding them lies and half-truths about the Middle East conflict.

By the way, did I mention that Spooks is a BBC show?

Update: Here’s a synposis for a later Spooks episode:

Ros is taken hostage as part of a siege at the Saudi Trade Centre. The hostage-takers demand that Al-Qaeda prisoners are released.

MI5 realise that there’s an informant among them. The leak is traced to Neil, who commits suicide. But Adam is suspicious - why would Neil be helping an Arab terrorist group when his family were killed by Arab suicide bombers?

The team soon realise they’re actually dealing with an Israeli plot designed to discredit the Saudis and de-rail the nuclear deal.

The Security Services storm the Embassy. The true nature of the plot remains a secret and the world believes an Al-Qaeda plot has been foiled. The nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia goes ahead, with the Saudis lauded as a worthy ally who stand firm in the face of fundamentalism.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Spooks has an agenda. Which is very much aligned with that of the BBC.

Update: I just found this earlier post from Kesher Talk. So you see, it’s not just me.

Update: Yet another earlier blog post, this time on a subsequent anti-Israel Spooks episode. And a Telegraph piece on BBC bias, which mentions the show. It seems I am late to the party.

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As for being a genocidal maniac, he’s real good.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that the state of Israel is a “stinking corpse” that is destined to disappear, the French news agency AFP reported.

“Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as having said.

“Today the reason for the Zionist regime’s existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation.”

Ahmadinejad further stated that Israel “has reached the end like a dead rat after being slapped by the Lebanese” - referring to the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.

I’m a bit confused. After all, I can understand how we can simultaneously be a “stinking corpse” and a “dead rat,” assuming the corpse is that of a rat. But how could we also be a “filthy germ” and “cancerous bacterium”?

Then again, us Zionists are mighty tricky.

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