DECEMBER 4, 1992
"I
Surrender" by Terry Lane,
broadcaster
with ABC television (the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation) and newspaper
columnist I HAVE said publicly
that I will never write or speak on the
subject of Israel or Palestine ever again.
Here is why: The Zionist lobby in this country is
malicious, implacable, mendacious and
dangerous. They have caused me a great
deal of lost sleep - and in the end my
insomnia has not contributed anything to
the resolution of the conflict over
Palestine. I might as well keep my mouth
shut and get some sleep. What's more, once the expression
"anti-Semite" hits the air, or, heaven
forfend, the sacred formula "six million"
is uttered, then I know from bitter
experience that there is not one manager
or editor in the country who will defend
an underling. We are thrown to the
jackals. In the end the truly tolerant have no
defence against intolerance. I surrender,
To the Zionists I say: you win. To the
Palestinians: forgive my
cowardice.
"Own
Worst Enemies" by Phillip Adams,
columnist
for The Australian, a Sydney-based
nationally circulated daily paper and
broadcaster with ABC television I HAVE fronted at
numerous Jewish fundraising dinners,
written obsessively about the Holocaust,
trudged around the death camps, performed
opening ceremonies at exhibitions in the
Great Synagogue in Sydney and fulminated
against John Bennett and other
revisionists. As a consequence, I've enjoyed
excellent relations with the Jewish
community and with its principal political
and social organizations. And then a funny thing happened. I was
the guest speaker at a fundraising dinner
of Jewish doctors in Sydney. It was a
pleasant, congenial occasion, and despite
my friendly criticism of certain aspects
of Jewish political behavior (in
Australia), I was warmly applauded. However, the Jewish News gave a
slightly distorted version of what I'd
said, and, lo and behold, I suddenly
became the Jews' worst enemy. Dozens of
letters accused me of being an
anti-semite. I then received an extraordinary letter
from [Jewish
community leader] Bill
Rubinstein which I found offensive in
tone and remarkably patronizing. As it
illustrated some of the very points I'd
made in my talk to the doctors, I
published it in The Australian and
all hell broke loose. Lots more letters
accusing me of being an anti-semite. All in all, it was such a bruising and
unpleasant experience that I decided not
to write on Jewish matters again. Or at
least to take a long sabbatical from
matters semitic. I could cover pages with evidence of my
good-will to the Jewish community.... In
short, I felt that I'd paid my dues. And
yet it took only a hint of cautious,
friendly criticism to put me on the
receiving end of Jewish anger. . . . When it comes to dealing with the
outside world, with we
[sic]
goyim who are also concerned by aspects of
Israeli policy, the [Jewish] ranks
close and the reactions can be
excessive. I could tell you of many attempts to
repress or suppress an energetic debate on
matters relating to Israel. I could
describe a number of circumstances where
Jewish organizations used a sledge-hammer
to crack a walnut, over-reacting in a
ludicrous manner to things they'd found
objectionable in print or
broadcasting. When talking to the wider world, I try
and explain such excesses in terms of
Jewish suffering and anxieties. But when I
talk to Jews, I have to say that, again
and again, you're your own worst enemies.
Instead of trying to persuade people to
your point of view, there's a tendency to
bully, to threaten, to censor. So as a friend who has laid wreaths at
the concentration camps. ... let me ask
Australian Jews, and Jewish organizations,
to be more careful in the way they respond
to debate in the Australian media. In
America there has been a systematic
overkill which has led to widespread
resentment. I would not like that to
happen here. | 
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to David Irving