Friday, January 2, 2009

Or does your belief in free-speech only stretch so far?

Readers with a long memory will recall Australia’s leading cry-baby cartoonist Michael Leunig got all hot and heavy back in 2006 when somebody send one of his hilarious anti-Semitic anti-Zionist drawings to the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri, without his permission.

The paper was running at the time a series of cartoons suggesting the Holocaust was a "malicious hoax".

Poor old Mike had a bit of a sook, suggesting it was all the work of the “pro-war lobby” and thanked Hamshahri. The Melbourne Age reported at the time;

Leunig said the editors of the Iranian website had been "the first to defuse this", removing the cartoon immediately and apologising. He said he was pleased the editors were "acting in the interests of truth".

Mike went further and said the Iranian Government “cared”.

It was later revealed the cartoon had been sent as a prank by one of The Chaser team – an organisation not previously noted for its blood-thirsty, pro-war rhetoric.

Perhaps Mike might now like to take up cudgels on behalf of an Iranian newspaper which has been recently shut down by the Government for daring to suggest Hamas may not, in fact, be heroic freedom fighters.

AFP notes;

The Iranian press watchdog shut down leading reformist newspaper Kargozaran on Wednesday over publication of a piece criticising Palestinian militants, the official IRNA news agency reported…

He said the ban was ordered over "a piece yesterday which justifies the Zionist regime's crimes against humanity in Gaza and portrays the Palestinian resistance as terrorists who cause the deaths of children and civilians by taking up position in kindergartens and hospitals
."

How about it, Mike?

31 comments:

Perseus said...

A few people I have spoken to in the last couple of days have gone with the 'big, bad Israel picking on innocent Palestinians' line. It's like people think Israel were bored one day so they decided to bomb the crap out of Gaza. I try to explain that for weeks, Palestinian guerillas were firing rockets into Israel border towns, aiming at houses and shops and that this is the retaliation. Yes, Israel have bigger and badder bombs and their force does seem inproportionate but their other option is to just let their towns get bombed by Hamas, or fire off equally pissweak bombs.

Hezbollah are another organisation that tends to place their militants behind women and children and use them as human shields, then cry foul when they die.

The best article I've ever read on the topic (and I wish I could find it) was by a Lebanese journalist who said words to the effect of: "If you want to fight the Israelis, then fight like men."

I don't want dead Palestinians either, but I'm sick of the kneejerk reaction from the left that admonishes Israel if it so much as sneezes.

The Australian cricket selectors can get fucked as well.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Glad to see you back on deck, Pers. old son.

For a moment there I was worried you'd found lasting happiness and didn't need us anymore.

The Australian cricket selectors can get fucked as well.

The head of the selection committee rang me yesterday, wanting to know if I could open the batting for Australia in the Third Test.

I said I was a slow, fat goose with bad eyesight and a drinking problem.

He said "yes, but you'd still be better than Hayden."

Lewd Bob said...

Both sides are equally to blame. Both have cases to answer and both can get fucked.

Entirely innocent men, women (yes I care about them too) and children who a) have never had guilty thoughts let alone actions and b) are children, are killed because, ridiculously, there's this ongoing belief that a piece of ground is of utmost, historical and holy importance. It's fucking dirt. With rocks spread throughout and worms and beetles. Nobody's right here, everybody's wrong.

wari lasi said...

Yep Bob, you're on the money.

Spend half an hour with an Israeli and you'll be convinced that the only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian. Then spend half an hour with an educated (and there's not many) Palestinian and you'll be convinced that Israel won't ever give them their land back and won't be happy until all the Palestinians are dead.

And what's it all about, primarily?

Fucking Religion.

Religion can get fucked, along with the Australian Selectors. I hope Hayden has a decent knock tomorrow in Sydney.

Perseus said...

I did meet a girl, Ramon...

A goth girl, and get this: She likes cricket!

Goth girls that like cricket are hard to come by and I may need to secure the relationship by cutting tiny holes in the condoms.

squib said...

How could you pick on poor Leunig?!! Ramon!!

Nobody's right here, everybody's wrong.

How true

squib said...

PS. Congratulations on the scarce as hen's teeth goth/cricket find Persey!

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Quite easy, squib.

I hate Leunig.

Pers. - tomorrow's the perfect day to snuggle up with Cricket Goth, with a foot massage and cricket, while woofing down lashings of home made piklets.

Lewd Bob said...

Hate to put a dampener on things Perseus, but it sounds just too good to be true. You'll find something wrong with her. Bad breath, racist tendencies or a dick.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Or all three.

Perseus said...

She works at Myer, but I'm prepared to overlook that.

I hate Leunig too.

Lewd Bob said...

I worked at Myer during student days, but was trying to bring it down from within (by selling small electricals below cost).

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with working at Myer?

Perseus said...

I suppose nothing is wrong with working at Myer. If that's the worst thing about her that I know, then that's a good start.

She lives on the other side of Melbourne... two and a half hours' drive. That'll be the deal-breaker if anything.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

My grandmother used to work at Myers and knew the original Sidney Myer.

I don't think she was a Goth, though.

Anonymous said...

Then why mention it PQ? And why would it be the "worst thing" about someone?

Somewhere across town, a cricket-loving goth girl blogs between overs: "He's an accountant, but I'm willing to overlook that..."

Perseus said...

Because I'm hungover and talking gibberish, Boogeyman.

Lewd Bob said...

I started working at Myer as a 'Christmas casual' in 89 and was immediately embroiled in industrial action.

The full timers were after a 15% pay rise while we casuals stood to gain nothing except arguably more highly motivated colleagues.

So I was forced to strike and consequently never rose above the status of 'that slack guy from kitchenware'.

squib said...

I almost got a job in Myer on the cosmetics counter but then I failed the interview with the shrink

Mr E said...

I understand exactly what Israel is going through at the moment. I inherited my current home my father who won it in a lottery.

After I had been here a couple of years, I decided that the place just wasn't big enough and had plans drawn up for an extension to the house including a new pool and barbecue area. I ran into planning permission problems. Apparently the block was not large enough for the proposed development.

Eventually, I came up with a plan that would allow the development to go forward as originally proposed .

Step one was to get a bunch of mates together, all heavily armed, to kick in my neighbour's front door in the middle of the night and drag the entire family out into the street. It was a large family and initially they put up a hell of a fight, but due to our superior numbers they were quickly subdued and locked in my tool shed.

Early the following morning, the bulldozers arrived and quickly demolished the house. Upon release from the tool shed, my neighbour became loud and aggressive, yelling a bunch of stuff about how it was his land, that I had no right to be there and that I had broken the law and would have to leave.

In the interests of Peace, I proposed a compromise which would allow my extension to proceed and grant my neighbours wished to remain on “his” land. The area will surrounding an old chook pen in the back corner of the yard was fenced off, and while initially reluctant, the family eventually moved in and set up house.

The excavations for the pool had barely begun when the bitching started.

“We have no water!”

“We have no electricity!”

“My kids are sick and need a doctor!”

“We have no food!”

Maybe I was foolish to expect gratitude from these people, but in the end, a deal is a deal.

There are some people out there who would deem my response to my neighbour's children throwing rocks and crackers over the fence with sustained bursts of automatic weapons fire as inappropriate. But all I ask is to be able to enjoy my new home in peace and quiet. Is that too much to ask?


Stay strong Israel.

patchouligirl said...

Western interference has exacerbated many of the problems in the Middle East.

Lewd Bob said...

Mr E, I would be furious too if I was your neighbour. But I wouldn't be sending my kids in with the crackers for fear they would be killed by your automatic weapons and my chook pen would be blown up. Instead,I would seek redress in a civilised manner. Go to the council. If that didn't work, the ombudsman, or the courts. After that I'd have no option but to go to A Current Affair.

Mr E said...

As would we all, where such access were possible.

Perseus said...

Mr. E. You conveniently left out the bit when not long after you inherited your father's house, every neighbour in your street surrounded your house with army tanks and missiles and said they would not stop until every member of your household was dead, which in turn forced you to use your weapons and expand your territory.

Perseus said...

Oh, and you also forgot to mention that although your Dad won the house in a lottery, he and his ancestors had lived in that house for 3,000 years but because all the neighbours (and their ancestors) believed the Discharges ate their babies, they were not allowed to join the local council, or vote on it, and they had to pay higher council rates than everyone else.

Also, don't forget that before your Dad won the house, when millions of your cousins were exterminated in another skirmish, your current neighbours danced merrily in the streets celebrating the multiple Discharge deaths because they considered Discharges to be less than human, and still do.

Your neighbours also consider it to be of the highest moral purpose to kill your babies.

Israel stay strong indeed, and Palestinians be safe,.

Balance. Balance.

Mr E said...

PQ,
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Nor do I know or care what the "New Idea" view of the Middle East is.

Think about the view from the cage.

Perseus said...

Step one was to get a bunch of mates together, all heavily armed, to kick in my neighbour's front door in the middle of the night and drag the entire family out into the street.

Don't forget that your neighbours had in fact cut off your water supply, so maybe they deserved a belting.

*

I'm saying that if that's meant to be the six day war, then you left the catalyst out.

Anonymous said...

you also forgot to mention that although your Dad won the house in a lottery, he and his ancestors had lived in that house for 3,000 years

Actually, I believe his ancestors had not lived in that house for the last 1,500 years or so, and it, along with the rest of the street, had been owned by a Mr and Mrs Ott O Mann and their family of comfy footstools. When a family of holidaying Poms defeated the Ott O Manns in a game of heavily armed street cricket, and gained possession of the house, they let the Discharges rent there for a while, till the Discharges got sick of renting, declared they owned the house based on their interpretation of an obscure old contract called the "Old Testament", and spent the next few decades squabbling with and moving the fence that separated them from their neighbours.

A couple of streets over in Ramsey street, the folk there wonder why they can't just all be good neighbours.

Perseus said...

"...declared they owned the house based on their interpretation of an obscure old contract called the "Old Testament""

Oh come on. It was only the far-right pious Discharges that were claiming that. The rest just wanted a home because they were gettin' walloped everywhere else.

Let's not forget also that before the Ott O Manns got there, the Discharges were getting massacred in that area by a Mr. Whippy van full of Roman ex-football players and then large groups of 'meditarranean appearance' types in Holden Monaros clutching an obscure old street directory called 'Koran'.

*

On but off topic, has anyone here actually been to Israel, Syria or Jordan? I've heard it's quite pretty.

homesick said...

I don't think I've ever enjoyed a middle East debate as much as this one right here at TSFKA.

In your analogy, could you make Corey Worthington the Israeli Foreign Minister. I saw her interviewed the other night on BBC World News and it closely resembled the infamous ACA interview.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

I suppose the leason we should take away from all this is that it's important to get along with your neighbours.

Even the hippies who live next door.