Monday 1 July 2013

The Oz 26/6, 27/6 and 1/7 Letters Re Tobin !!!

Toben's image
CONTRARY to the claim of Henry Herzog (Letters, 27/6), I did not "deny that Fredrick Toben is anti-Semitic" (Letters, 25/6). My letter sought explicitly to balance an unfairly negative image of the man and implicitly to protest at a person being made a social pariah because he has expressed unpopular and controversial views.
Nor did I "deny" that he is a "Holocaust denier". I rejected this propaganda term as a false description of his position. "Holocaust revisionist" is more accurate and more honest.
It may be that Toben has made intemperate remarks about Jews on occasion, but he has also been subject to provocation and should never have been jailed for expressions of opinion.
Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

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Deniers who deny

LET me quote Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben for the benefit of Nigel Jackson (Letters, 25/6): "There is serious doubt that the Holocaust occurred; it is unlikely that there were homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz."
And this: "Jewish people who are offended by and challenge Holocaust denial are of limited intelligence."
Just one more: "Some Jewish people, for improper purposes, including financial gain, have exaggerated the number of Jews killed during World War II and the circumstances in which they were killed."
That's a sample of what appeared on Toben's website and what the Federal Court ordered removed because it incited hatred of Jews.
But Jackson defends Toben by denying that he is either anti-Semitic or a Holocaust denier. Great, now we have deniers who deny that there are Holocaust deniers. And Jake Lynch (Letters 25/6), don't tell us you're not an anti-Semite, tell Toben - he's the one who is sending you fan mail.
Henry Herzog, St Kilda, Vic

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BDS suspicions

JAKE Lynch's attack on Israel does little to dispel the suspicion that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, of which he is a strong supporter, is not about Israeli policies (Letters, 25/6).
By focusing on Israel's alleged faults while ignoring the well documented crimes and human rights abuses of many countries around the globe, BDS advocates leave themselves open to the charge that their campaign is primarily driven by a sinister hatred of Jews.
Were Lynch to campaign, for example, against Sudanese Muslim persecution of Christians, the firing of rockets at Israeli cities by Hamas and Hezbollah, and Syria's attacks on its own citizens, his denial of a connection between BDS and anti-Semitism might be a little more credible.
Merv Morris, St Kilda, Vic
CONGRATULATIONS to Jake Lynch for inventing the four-criteria game, and thanks for revealing his four subjective opinions that apply only to Israel. I really enjoyed this humorous sample from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University.
Gary Luke, Erskineville, NSW
CONSIDERING the obsessive demonisation of Israel and the targets they chose to conveniently ignore, Jake Lynch's Orwellian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies fails the smell test. At least he didn't argue that some of his best friends are Jewish.
Daniel Lewis, Rushcutters Bay, NSW

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