Piers Akerman
THE death of 12-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Durra by “gunfire from the direction of the Israeli” forces, as reported by French TV reporter Charles Enderlin, was huge world news eight years ago.
But it now seems that what we saw was not what actually happened. The dramatic footage of the youngster crouched beside his father as “Israeli” bullets whizzed by him, the scenes of his death and his father’s wounding were ghastly but compelling viewing.
Locally, it was reported by The Daily Telegraph, The Australian, The Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald, the latter stating unequivocally that “Rami (sic) Al-dura, 12 (was) killed by Israel fire while cradled in his father’s arms”.
Invocations of the young al-Durra’s death became a regular ritual on Palestinian television, songs encouraging children to join him in martyrdom were written, streets were named after him, mothers were exhorted to encourage their infants to be like him, his image was even used on stamps.
The murderers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl used the clip when they posted footage of their nauseating crime on the internet.
The al-Durra imagery truly became, in the words of one Canadian journalist, “the farce that launched a thousand suicide bombers”.
Doubts arose about the footage shot by a Palestinian cameraman for the network France 2 when it was revealed the same person had been responsible for faking other news footage.
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Did only Rudd think this turkey would fly?
Andrew Bolt
A complete disaster for Kevin Rudd, caught out spinning once too often:
THE RUDD Government has been humiliated over revelations that it ignored warnings from its own public service experts in four key departments that a National FuelWatch Scheme could increase petrol prices rather than reduce them.
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Hope raped
Andrew Bolt
This is not a problem with a happy ending in our lifetimes:
MORE than 90 per cent of people in Arnhem Land do not understand basic legal concepts, with many Aborigines under the impression that white society is “lawless”, a report has found. This has resulted in wrongful imprisonment and “massive confusion”, with some communities still unaware that rape is considered illegal...
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Dear boss: just damn the torpedoes
Andrew Bolt
If he forgets diplomacy and lets rip, these Boyer lectures will be uncommonly good -to date, Rupert has been most kind to Rudd. No reason to believe that will change. - ed.
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The sorry danger
Andrew Bolt
National Sorry Day was held once more this week. Reader John says the great CS Lewis warned against just this kind of thing in his The Grand Miracle:
DANGERS OF NATIONAL REPENTANCE===
... men fail so often to repent their real sins that the occasional repentance of an imaginary sin might appear almost desirable. But what actually happens (I have watched it happening) to the youthful national penitent is a little more complicated than that. England is not a natural agent, but a civil society. When we speak of England’s actions we mean the actions of the British government. The young man who is called upon to repent of England’s foreign policy is really being called upon to repent the acts of his neighbor; for a foreign secretary or a cabinet minister is certainly a neighbor. And repentance presupposes condemnation. The first and fatal charm of national repentance is, therefore, the encouragement it gives us to turn from the bitter task of repenting our own sins to the congenial one of bewailing - but, first, of denouncing - the conduct of others. If it were clear to the young that this is what he is doing, no doubt he would remember the law of charity.
Unfortunately the very terms in which national repentance is recommended to him conceal its true nature. By a dangerous figure of speech, he calls the government not “they” but “we.” And since, as penitents, we are not encouraged to be charitable to our own sins, nor to give ourselves the benefit of any doubt, a government which is called “we” is ipso facto placed beyond the sphere of charity or even of justice. You can say anything you please about it. You can indulge in the popular vice of detraction without restraint, and yet feel all the time that you are practicing contrition. A group of such young penitents will say, “Let us repent our national sins”; what they mean is, “Let us attribute to our neighbor (even our Christian neighbor) in the cabinet, whenever we disagree with him, every abominable motive that Satan can suggest to our fancy.”
Creaking under Castro’s feet
Andrew Bolt
Closer, although still no Cuban cigar:
It has been 100 days since Fidel Castro relinquished power and his brother, Raul, took over as president of Cuba… But commander-in-chief Raul, now 76, has surprised many of his people with the introduction of economic reforms that promise to boost agricultural output and bring an end to complaints over food shortages.
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Rudd on the rocks after just six months
Alan Jones
Kevin Rudd, more than the government is in real political trouble over petrol, and in particular, FuelWatch. And it's trouble of his own making.
It's now clear that Kevin Rudd was warned about this by no fewer than four economic departments. About the possibility of price hikes arising from FuelWatch.
Amongst the warnings in departmental language were, "the increased financial cost it would impose on service stations, especially small independent operators".
The Prime Minister's own department told Cabinet, "Econometric modelling indicates that a small overall price increase can't be ruled out".
Treasury warned, "The proposed scheme will result in ongoing increased operating costs of around 4,000 dollars per annum to affected small businesses".
The Finance Department advised, "Introduction of a price commitment rule may result in higher average petrol prices over time, as the option may lead to the creation of a de facto price floor."
The Finance Department said the FuelWatch proposal would add 20.7 million dollars to business costs in the first year with "the impact likely to fall disproportionately on independent retailers".
The Department of Resources and Energy expressed concern, "The scheme will reduce competition and market flexibility, increase compliance costs and has more potential to increase prices".
The Government's own Department of Resources and Energy said of FuelWatch, "It has the capacity to increase petrol price coordination amongst retailers".
Now, was Mr Rudd determined to kill off the remaining small business in petrol retailing? Because he ignored all that advice.
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