The following letter appears in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:
Your editorial oversimplifies the reasons the Australian Jewish News rejected the Jeffrey Halper advertisement (“With friends like these ”¦“, March 13). Halper does not just campaign against Israel’s bulldozing houses. He campaigns against the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, as he did on ABC radio’s PM on Wednesday. So do the groups promoting his visit.
These campaigns are offensive to most the vast majority of the Jewish population. The Jewish News is a commercial business. I doubt the Herald would run an advertisement that offended most of its readers.
The main opposition to Chas Freeman came from the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who objected to his stance on China. Resorting to Jewish conspiracy theories says more about his politics than the reasons he withdrew his nomination.
Athol Morris O’Connor (ACT)