Month: April 2026

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ABC, the ‘most trusted news source in Australia’, airs Netanyahu’s 30-year-old bogus Iran nuke claims

For about 30 years, Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel, has been making the claim that Iran is on the verge (one month, two weeks, a few weeks, not very far from or variations of that theme) of having a nuclear weapon.

Thus far, there is no sign at all that Teheran has acquired nukes. Given this fact, who would air such a ridiculous claim during a program that claims to be taking a serious look at Iran and the nuclear issue?

Well, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had no qualms about running a program on Monday (April 6) — made by the American public broadcaster PBS — which put the square-jawed Netanyahu on-screen — among others — questioning if the Islamic nation had gone nuclear. And that too, during an ongoing attack by Israel and the US which is claimed to be aimed at preventing Iran from getting such weapons (which they don’t have). Continue reading “ABC, the ‘most trusted news source in Australia’, airs Netanyahu’s 30-year-old bogus Iran nuke claims”

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Joe Biden’s legacy? The Palestinian genocide

American presidents are big on talking about what they believe to be their legacy, even if there is no substance to the claims they make. With Joe Biden, it is crystal clear what he can claim as his legacy: the genocide that has resulted in close to 70,000 Palestinian lives being snuffed out.

[First published in Pearls & Irritations on January 17, 2025]

The announcement of a ceasefire days before Donald Trump’s inauguration is meant to confer credit for this deal on the Biden team when all they have done is block everything apart from Israel’s murderous campaign that was designed to clear Gaza of all human life.

But the past tells us that no chief executive of the US can pretend to be powerless in an Israeli-Palestinian stoush; there are numerous examples of how the man in the White House has put his foot down and got what he demanded. Continue reading “Joe Biden’s legacy? The Palestinian genocide”

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Israeli envoy takes clueless Australian journos for a nice ride

Journalists based in Canberra are a compromised lot, something that was glaringly evident by their performance — or more accurately the lack of it — during an address to the National Press Club by the new Israeli Ambassador, Dr Hillel Newman, on Tuesday (March 31).

Though many of the questions started out promisingly, they were not prosecuted to any satisfactory conclusion, allowing Dr Newman, a seasoned PR practitioner who has served as consul-general in Los Angeles and ambassador in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to override the queries with statements that were mostly half-truths.

For example, Matthew Knott, defence and national security reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald, started off the Q&A by asking Dr Newman about the new law passed by the Knesset which can impose the death penalty on Palestinians who are found guilty of terrorism offences that threaten the security of Israel.

Knott is one of two journalists from the SMH who wrote a report on 7 March 2023 claiming that China was set to launch a war to retake Taiwan within the next three years. Both he and his collaborator in this report, Peter Hartcher, the international editor of the SMH, have kept a low profile when the bogus report was raised this month. Continue reading “Israeli envoy takes clueless Australian journos for a nice ride”