Tim Blair

Bernstein's article is lame. "200,000? Why not two million - or even 6 million?" Why not do a little research and find out some real numbers? But, no, not at the Age. I'll just wave my hand around and deny it and make "both sides" mush-mouthed comments.

This article isn't going to make a dent in anybody's conclusions. Is that why it was published?

"The might know much about art but they know who they hate"

(Mark Styen)

I've been following Spooner's work for some time. It is excellent. It strikes me as incisive, non-partisan and consistently satirical; unaffected by the skewed moral compass of most political cartoonists.

What the hell is this man doing at The Age?

I was thinking about the idea of a Palestinean state. I don't believe it can be done, think of the precedent it would set - if the Palestineans are entitled to a state based on their actions, then surely the Chicago Mafia is entitled to one?

They tend to make and keep agreements, they don't indulge in wanton murder of innocents and when a Chicago mob boss gives his word, it's worth something.

Hm. Give the Chicago Mafia the Palestinian state. Sounds like a plan.

The Bernstein article was good, but I could have actually done a better job by presenting better statistics.

Its easy to google and find out only 20,000 Palestinians have been killed IN THE WAR against Israel. The vast majority of them are combatants.

He should have mentioned Jordan's treatment of the Palestinians in "black September" - King Abdullah only slaughtered 10,000 civilians in one month.

He should have mentioned how the UN and other Arab states keep the Palestinians as refugees rather than resettle them and offer them citizenship. 55 years later, and nothing has progressed !

The one point that really really gives it away, and shows that the artist's intentions were fueled by anti-semitism, was his statement "21,000 square kms of land have been annexed".

Well.. err.. wheres that figure from?

Israel is 21,000 square kms in size!

Clearly the artist believes the very creation of Israel, (by the UN), was also an annexation of Palestinian land, and thus Israel doesn't deserve to exist.

Once people confess they believe Israel doesn't deserve to exist, they can't pretend that they are simply making valid criticisms of Israeli policy - they want nothing less than the whole region Jew-free.

Jono,
It was King Hussein, not Abdullah, who slaughtered Palestinians in 1970 when they tried to overthrow his rule. Abdullah was the name of Hussein's father, and is the name of his son, the current king.

That does not invalidate your point that their "Brother Arabs" treat the Palestinians like shit, worse than the Israelis.

I say give the Palestinians Western Australia. And the houses either side of Tim's.

Tim, about your query about how long the thing was up, I'm pretty sure it was put up the Weekend before the whole brouhaha erupted. Firstly, it was part of an exhibit that is supposed to change monthly, this was to be the exhibit for May. In addition, I work for a Jewish organisation, and the first thing we heard about it was on Monday morning, May 3. The thing was very visible to thousands of commuters entering the CBD, if it had been there on a previous weekday, I am pretty sure someone from the community would have spotted it on their way to work and mentioned it to us.

What, no mention of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the artwork?