Israel pounds Gaza City, killing 123 Palestinians in 24 hours
Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Younis in south Gaza, while in the centre, Israeli gunfire killed nine aid-seekers in two separate incidents, Palestinian medics said. Israel's military did not comment.
Eight more people, including three children, had died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said. That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the war began. Israel disputes those malnutrition and hunger figures reported by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israel, along with Russia, that it may be added to a list of countries suspected of, or responsible for, sexual violence in armed conflict.
In a letter to Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN, Guterres explained that a UN report found 'credible information of violations by Israeli armed and security forces, perpetrated against Palestinians in several prisons, a detention centre and military base'.
The Israeli mission to the UN called Guterres' accusations 'baseless' and 'steeped in bias', with ambassador Danny Danon urging the secretary-general to instead turn his attention to Hamas.
Ceasefire possibilities
Hamas chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya's meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Wednesday were to focus on stopping the war, delivering aid and 'ending the suffering of our people in Gaza', Hamas official Taher al-Nono said in a statement.
Egyptian security sources said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and concede its weapons.
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A Hamas official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the group was open to all ideas if Israel ended the war and pulled out. However, 'laying down arms before the occupation is dismissed is impossible', the official said.
Israeli sources said Netanyahu's plan to expand military control over Gaza could be launched in October, heightening global outcry over the widespread devastation, displacement and hunger in the enclave.
Twenty-four nations this week decried the 'unimaginable levels' of suffering and urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid and says it has taken steps to increase supplies, including daily combat pauses in some areas and protected routes for convoys.
The Israeli military on Wednesday said nearly 320 trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, and that a further 320-odd trucks were collected and distributed by the United Nations and international organisations in the past 24 hours, along with three tankers of fuel and 97 pallets of air-dropped aid.
But the UN and Palestinians say aid remains far from sufficient.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Since then, Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
Arab states and much of the international community want post-war Gaza to be governed by the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The authority's foreign minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, told reporters it was ready to assume full responsibility in Gaza. Hamas would have no role and be required to hand over arms, she added, calling for an international peacekeeping force and withdrawal by Israel.
Hamas says it is ready to quit Gaza governance for a non-partisan technocratic entity agreed by all Palestinian parties.
Israel says it does not trust the PA to rule Gaza.
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Israel in talks to resettle Palestinians in South Sudan
South Sudan and Israel are discussing a deal to resettle Palestinians from war-torn Gaza in the troubled African nation - a plan quickly dismissed as unacceptable by Palestinian leaders. Three sources, who have knowledge of the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters no agreement had been reached but talks between South Sudan and Israel were ongoing. The plan, if carried further, would envisage people moving from an enclave shattered by almost two years of war with Israel to a nation in the heart of Africa riven by years of political and ethnically-driven violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and Israel's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the information from the three sources. A spokesperson for the US State Department said, "we do not speak to private diplomatic conversations," when asked about the plan and if the United States supported the idea. Netanyahu said this month he intends to extend military control in Gaza, and this week repeated suggestions that Palestinians should leave the territory voluntarily. Arab and world leaders have rejected the idea of moving Gaza's population to any country. Palestinians say that would be like another "Nakba" (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. The three sources said the prospect of resettling Palestinians in South Sudan was raised during meetings between Israeli officials and South Sudanese Foreign Minister Monday Semaya Kumba when he visited the country last month. Their account appeared to contradict South Sudan's foreign ministry, which on Wednesday dismissed earlier reports on the plan as "baseless". The ministry was not immediately available to respond to the sources' assertions on Friday. News of the discussions was first reported by the Associated Press on Tuesday, citing six people with knowledge of the matter. Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said the Palestinian leadership and people "reject any plan or idea to displace any of our people to South Sudan or to any other place". His statement echoed a statement from the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday. Hamas, which is fighting Israel in Gaza, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, who visited the South Sudanese capital Juba this week, told reporters that those discussions had not focused on relocation. "This is not what the discussions were about," she said when asked if any such plan had been discussed. "The discussions were about foreign policy, about multilateral organisations, about the humanitarian crisis, the real humanitarian crisis happening in South Sudan, and about the war," she said, referring to her talks with Juba officials. Netanyahu, who met Kumba last month, has said Israel is in touch with a few countries to find a destination for Palestinians who want to leave Gaza. He has consistently declined to provide further details.
Sky News AU
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'Coal is like candlesticks' journo red-faced as NSW dithers on Eraring closure, while David Crowe's shot at President's (practice) golf round ends in a bunker of its own
Read Gerard Henderson's Media Watch Dog column every Saturday morning on The lack of professionalism among senior ABC journalists was evident again on the night of Thursday 14 August when Sarah Ferguson interviewed Mike Huckabee, who was appointed by President Trump as the United States Ambassador to Israel. He is a former governor of Arkansas – and a very senior figure in the Republican Party. Throwing the switch to activist journalism, Ferguson could not control her hostility to Ambassador Huckabee and interrupted him on eight occasions during a 12-minute interview. Moreover, on occasions, Ferguson stated her disagreement with the Ambassador and then closed the discussion down. A few examples illustrate the point: Mike Huckabee: I would say what Australia and the other countries may have done inadvertently is to push Israel towards doing exactly what they're afraid of. Sarah Ferguson [interjection]: But just talk to me about the US…. **** Mike Huckabee: In the very week that the Australian Government, along with many others, were declaring publicly for a Palestinian state, you know who wasn't declaring for a Palestinian state? The Arab League. What they were calling for, that very week, was for Hamas to disarm and to let all of the hostages go. Sarah Ferguson [interjection]: I think that I just have to interrupt you there, ambassador, because it is clear that the Arab League has welcomed this recognition of a Palestinian let's move on. Let me ask you a different question. Mike Huckabee: They weren't calling for it last week, Sarah. They were calling for Hamas to lay down their arms and surrender the hostages, and I think that it is an issue of timing. **** Sarah Ferguson: Let me ask you this question. Do you take it as a starting point for any discussion on this conflict that the idea of a two-state solution is dead? Mike Huckabee: The idea of a two-state solution is only alive if Israel and the Palestinian Authority can figure out a way to make it work. But as long as you have people chanting "From the river to the sea", as long as the Palestinian Authority continues to pay terrorists stipends for murdering Jews… Sarah Ferguson [interjection]: I think to be clear, that Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, has committed to stop doing that. But please continue. Mike Huckabee: No, actually, he hasn't, Sarah. **** Sarah Ferguson [interjection]: Does not the United States' very large military aid, billions and billions of dollars to Israel, give you some leverage over how the war is conducted? Mike Huckabee: I guess if we wanted to tell them what to do, we would but they're our partner. We respect the fact that they were attacked on October 7. They're not the attacking country. They were the attacked country and there were 1,200 people... Sarah Ferguson [interjection]: Sure but the question here... Mike Huckabee: No, Sarah, I'm going to stop you there. Sarah Ferguson: Go ahead. **** And then, towards the end of the program, as time was running out, Sarah Ferguson decided to make her own statement on the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster after interrupting Ambassador Huckabee: Sarah Ferguson: We are running out of time but I am going to jump in there because I need to say something to the audience… Perhaps Comrade Ferguson should interview herself on the Israel–Hamas war. Can you bear it? Sally Sara – A lack of balance in the Coffee Wars On 12 August, RN Breakfast presenter Sally Sara interviewed Senator Michaelia Cash, the Opposition's shadow minister for foreign affairs. Comrade Sara was somewhat antagonistic – which became evident in the following exchange. Let's go to the transcript: Sally Sara: Are you satisfied that Israel has complied with international law in its military response to the attacks of October 7? Michaelia Cash: That is not for you and I to sit back in Australia, where we've probably both gone and had a cup of coffee this morning in our office. Sally Sara: I don't drink coffee, Senator. Michaelia Cash: Well, you know what I'm saying. It's very, very clear. We have been clear. All parties… What Senator Cash was trying to say is that it's easy to decide how to act in war-time if you are thousands of kilometres away from the hostilities. But Comrade Sara threw the switch to pedantry, and tried to ridicule Cash's colloquial comment. Compare and contrast Sally Sara's treatment of the Albanese Labor government's treasurer in her interview with Jim Chalmers on 13 August: Sally Sara: So, just to be clear on the issue of Palestinian statehood, have the principles guiding the federal government, guiding Australia, have they changed? Jim Chalmers: Well, the principle is the same, which is that we need to find a way out of this cycle of violence… I think really our view has been evolving... and that's why – and the international community's view has been evolving as well. And that's why we've seen the progress made this week. Sally Sara: Treasurer, time's against us. We will let you finish that coffee. Thank you very much. Jim Chalmers: I appreciate it, Sally. All the best. How about that? Comrade Sara treated Senator Cash's coffee reference with ridicule. But she was oh-so-friendly with Treasurer Chalmers by telling him 'We will let you finish that coffee'. Can You Bear It? David Crowe's shot at Donald Trump ends in a bunker of its own Media Watch Dog was something of a fan of Rob Harris who, until recently, was the Europe correspondent for Nine Newspapers' The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Your man Harris was an impartial reporter who also filed some very compelling stories on individuals and organisations. What's more, Harris does not readily fit within the left-of-centre fashionable orthodoxy which pervades Nine's newspapers. When his term as a foreign correspondent was up, Harris was replaced by David Crowe. As avid MWD readers know from his past appearances on ABC TV's Insiders and his coverage of Australian politics in The Age and SMH, Comrade Crowe was part of the Canberra Bubble of left-of-centre journalists. Ellie's (male) co-owner does not always read Crowe's reports from Europe. So he was glad when an avid Bendigo reader drew MWD's attention to Crowe's report on President Donald J. Trump's golf exploits during his recent visit to Scotland. Headed 'Can we trust president's bluster on anything?', Crowe's story commenced: Donald Trump has made some big claims over the past few days – on trade, the Epstein scandal, global conflict and more – but his tough talk could be drowned out by his dubious play on the golf course. A video of the American president near a sand trap on a Scottish fairway shows one of his caddies dropping a golf ball onto the grass in a seemingly convenient location for Trump to play his next shot. The move appeared to spare Trump from the harder work of getting his ball out of the bunker and onto the green. The caddy leant down, dropped the ball behind him and walked on as if nothing had happened. Trump was able to climb out of his golf buggy and prepare to play a more favourable shot. Presidents cheat at golf; Bill Clinton was famous for it. But the video spread at the very moment Trump was engaged in big talk that raised a big question: Can anyone rely on anything he says? What a load of absolute tosh – even for a Trump antagonist like Crowe. What Nine's Europe correspondent neglected to say was that President Trump was not involved in a golf match when hitting golf balls in his golf course at Turnberry in Scotland. He was only having a hit by himself – in other words, practice shots. In short, there was no competition – and, consequently, no cheating. Trump's caddy decided to throw the president a new ball so he did not have to enter a bunker and do so himself. What's wrong with that? In any event, no one was marking the score. Crowe concluded his piss-poor 'analysis' as follows: As theatre, the president's appearance [in Scotland] on Monday combined news and entertainment in his trademark way. But it ended with the usual questions about whether his talk was just talk. His latest tariff deals are a mess of questions and confusion. His signals on Gaza and Ukraine keep changing. No deal looks certain. Can the world trust Trump? Ask his caddy. Turn it up. Why should Trump's caddy be expected to be an expert on tariffs or Gaza or Ukraine? And here's another question – Can You Bear It? John Barron misses the joke and sees racism in US politics Timothy J Lynch, who is professor of American Politics at the University of Melbourne, wrote in The Australian on 7 March 2025 that the first advice that he gave to students each year was not to watch Planet America on ABC TV. As Media Watch Dog readers know, it stars John Barron and Chas Licciardello (one of 'The Chaser Boys'- average age 49 and a half.) Thanks to the avid Hunter Valley reader who drew MWD's attention to the front page of the New York Post on 5 August 2025. The news story was this. Most rational Democrats refused to endorse socialist Zohran Mamdani for [New York] Mayor, but he does have one ally – Elizabeth Warren who appeared by his side yesterday. The two share the belief that bigger government is the answer to everything – and that lying about your ethnicity on your college application is perfectly fine. First some background. When working at Harvard University Law School, Elizabeth Warren presented herself as a Native American. And when applying to Columbia University in his 2009 college application Mamdani presented himself as black/African American. Both of his parents were born in India while he was born in Uganda. His mother is a film director and his father is a left-wing academic. This led to The New York Post's front page: 'African American Meets Native American: Mamdani and Warren in liars' summit'. Which MWD reckons is quite funny. But not the oh-so-serious Comrade Barron who saw it as, wait for it, racism. On 6 August, Miranda Devine put out this post concerning The New York Post's front page: To which your man Barron replied: Sure, Mamdani was born in Uganda, Africa – to parents of Indian heritage. As to Warren – she was born in the United States to parents who are not of Native American heritage. Yet, the humourless John Barron reckons that it is 'totally racist' to draw attention to high profile socialist Americans for fudging their background. Can You Bear It? Exaggeration of the year RN BREAKFAST does not challenge Senator Fatima Payman's unsourced claim re the Israel-Hamas war Senator Fatima Payman – who quit the Labor Party in July 2024 over its refusal (at the time) to recognise a Palestinian State – appeared on ABC Radio National Breakfast on 15 August. The Western Australian senator received an oh-so-soft interview from presenter Sally Sara – which included the following exchange: Sally Sara: Have you spoken with the prime minister or anyone senior from the government about the decision [to recognise a Palestinian state] that they've made? Fatima Payman: No, I haven't spoken to anyone yet, but I have written to the Prime Minister. Sally Sara: Would you like an apology from the government or from the PM? Fatima Payman: Look, I've let bygones be bygones. I have not, you know, regretted the decision of leaving the Labor Party. It's unfortunate that it, you know, the whole thing panned out the way it did 11 months ago. But I know that, you know, I was on the right side of history and stood by the Labor Party platform. Sally Sara: Does this, though, tell you that if you'd hung in there, the government could have been persuaded? Fatima Payman: Well, we're looking at a death toll of what, over 200,000 Palestinians according to the Lancet journal…. Hold it there. Comrade Sara did not challenge Senator Payman's allegation about Israel. For starters, Payman did not distinguish between the deaths of combatants in war and that of civilians. Moreover, MWD cannot find any evidence that 200,000 Palestinians have died in the Israel-Hamas war. In The Lancet or anywhere else. Comedy segment Shaun Micallef returns with more Eve of Destruction This week, Shaun Micallef's Eve of Destruction interview show has returned for a second season. From the ABC: Shaun Micallef's Eve of Destruction returns for another season - six brand-spankingly new episodes of existential angst, heart-rending confession, and unqualified psychoanalysis. Avid readers will recall that in 2022, it seemed that your man Micallef might be announcing his retirement. In a tweet about the end of his last ABC show Mad As Hell, Micallef tweeted: PPS Okay, it is true we'll not be returning next year, BUT this is entirely down to me, okay? After 11 years and 15 seasons, I just felt it was time for someone younger to take advantage of the resources and opportunities on offer. I'm turning 60 in a week for f**k's sake. — Shaun Micallef (@shaunmicallef) July 10, 2022 And when appearing on Frankly on 7 October 2022 he said: 'I genuinely wanted to give the microphone over to someone who was perhaps younger, or some different voices.' It is rare for anyone to actually retire from the ABC, so it was unsurprising when Micallef quickly returned with another show Shaun Micallef's Eve of Destruction. Your man Micallef has at least displayed some self-awareness about his past comments – in the trailer for the first series of Eve of Destruction on iView, Micallef said: Two years ago, I resigned from television to make way for bright, new, young talent here at the ABC. As it turned out there wasn't any, so I'm back doing a new show. Micallef addressed his comments in a Sydney Morning Herald interview with Louise Rugendyke on 7 August about the return of Eve of Destruction: 'I had wanted to do more of Mad as Hell with somebody else in the chair, and I could just produce, but that didn't work out that way,' he says. 'So this was the next – maybe better – thing to do, because it's a different animal. And maybe it wouldn't have been fair to a younger performer to have to inherit something that had been made by somebody else'. It seems unlikely a younger performer would have had a problem with inheriting a long-running, popular ABC comedy program. Especially considering that, as Micallef, Wil Anderson and others have proven, once you're in the door at the ABC you never have to leave. As MWD has long maintained, the ABC resembles the words of the Eagles' song Hotel California. In that ABC types can check out of the organisation but they never really leave. Micallef seems to have genuinely tried to get some new faces on at the ABC, but the ABC was not interested. In an interview with David Marr on Late Night Live on 4 November 2024, Micallef was asked if he had coached other comedians. He revealed that at the end of Mad as Hell, he 'did want to usher in a, perhaps a new bunch of comedians who might deal with weekly events. And I was – I offered that, my service, free of charge to the ABC'. The ABC turned down his offer. MWD advises ABC viewers who wish to see a new face, instead of more hours of Micallef, should not hold their breath. According to the ABC, there are only a handful of special people with the ability to chair a panel or conduct interviews. Really. Shane Wright and the Candlesticks As Media Watch Dog readers are well aware, Nine's Shane Wright has risen without trace (as the late Kitty Muggeridge once said about the late David Frost) to become the senior economics correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald – not having published anything of note apart from newspaper articles and columns plus the occasional essay. Even so, you would expect a person in such an elevated position to know about the international energy market. It's only a few years since your man Wright ridiculed anyone who said that coal had any future as a part of energy supply – even in such markets as India, China and Indonesia. He declared on ABC TV Insiders on 11 June 2017 that 'coal is like candlesticks' and compared those who said that there is still a demand for Australian coal exports with members of the Candle Makers Union circa 1870 who (allegedly) argued the case for candles over electricity. Now read on. NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe expresses concern about the closure of the Eraring coal-fired power plant The Eraring coal-fired power station on the New South Wales Central Coast was scheduled to close in August 2025 – that is, about now. In May 2024, a deal was struck between the NSW government and Eraring's owner Origin Energy to keep the plant open until August 2027, with the possibility to extend it for another 2 years beyond that. Earlier this month, during debates about expanding her powers, Penny Sharpe, the Energy Minister in the NSW Labor government, warned that the state could be headed for blackouts if and when Eraring closes in 2027. The plant still supplies about 20 per cent of NSW's power. On August 14, the Australian Financial Review reported that Origin was considering extending Eraring until 2029. While Australia extends the life of its coal-fired stations, China and India continue to build new ones. Demand for Australian coal is likely to remain strong both at home and overseas. It would seem that Penny Sharpe, Origin Energy, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping have all failed to take the prophecy of Shane Wright to heart. MWD will keep avid readers up to date with any further developments in the fate of Shane Wright's prophecy. The ABC/Australia Institute Entente As Media Watch Dog readers know, this blog has been monitoring the ABC/Guardian Axis and the ABC/Australia Institute Entente. That is, the ready access that journalists from the left-wing The Guardian Australia and political operatives from the avowedly leftist Australia Institute (which is based in the Canberra Bubble) get on the ABC. Meanwhile, political operatives from the conservative Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, Robert Menzies Institute in Melbourne and the Menzies Centre in Sydney have been de-platformed by the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster.[Don't you mean censored? – MWD Editor.] The Australia Institute's Deputy Director fudges her opposition to AUKUS Ebony Bennett, The Australia Institute's deputy director, appeared on the Newspaper segment of ABC TV's News Breakfast on Thursday 14 August. She spoke about a story in Nine's newspapers that morning by Michael Koziol and used the occasion to criticise the AUKUS submarine arrangement. Comrade Bennett claimed that over half of Australians are against AUKUS and want Australia to pursue a more independent foreign policy. Let's go to the transcript: James Glenday: Now the first story you've picked out is about AUKUS. What's going on? Ebony Bennett: Yeah, reports that senior people from the United States are more or less warning that Australia really needs to speak more clearly about what the US considers to be the threat from China as part of the AUKUS deal. Or it could put it at risk. Also, warnings that Australia's not spending enough on defence and from some conservative think tanks really setting the expectation that the United States expects that Australia will use the submarines it plans to buy as part of the AUKUS deal, really to support the United States foreign policy objectives. So, this is obviously a deal that's under review at the moment in the United States. And we know this is also in the context of Australians – over half of Australians – really wanting Australia to pursue a more independent foreign policy. James Glenday: We should point out I think the Australian Institute is not campaigning against AUKUS, but is certainly hoping for more scrutiny at the moment on the AUKUS deal, right? Ebony Bennett: That's right. We've got a petition at the moment for a parliamentary inquiry into the AUKUS deal…. What a load of tosh. The Australia Institute has declared that Australia should 'get out' of AUKUS. See advertisement by The Australia Institute in The Canberra Times in July 2025. It is headed: 'Australia Has An Opportunity To Get Out of the AUKUS Security Pact. WE SHOULD TAKE IT'. So there you have it. Presenter James Glenday attempted to soften the words of Comrade Bennett concerning AUKUS. He claimed that The Australia Institute was only seeking an inquiry into AUKUS. Comrade Bennett went along with this – overlooking for the moment her organisation's vehement opposition to AUKUS. Will News Breakfast do an on-air correction? Don't hold your breath – as the cliché goes. Great media u-turns of our time Historian Christopher Clark warns against false historical comparisons – before he compares President Trump with King Louis XIV Ellie's (male) co-owner just loves to be intellectually challenged when walking the said canine at Hangover Time on a Saturday morning – listening to the (somewhat pretentious) Global Roaming program on ABC Radio National. As MWD readers know, the presenters are Geraldine ('Hamish calls me Gerry') Doogue and Hamish Macdonald. On 6 August they interviewed the historian Christopher Clark, author of, inter alia, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. Here's how the interview commenced: Hamish Macdonald: Christopher Clark, Sir Christopher Clark, welcome to Global Roaming. Christopher Clark: Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here. Hamish Macdonald: And I think we actually need to stress from the start you are actually Australian or originally Australian even though your accent doesn't necessarily hint at that very strongly these days. Christopher Clark: Well, I was and am Australian very much so and I still travel everywhere on my Australian passport. The interview featured lotsa one-way flattery along with much name-dropping (of the intellectual genre). The knighted Clark told listeners – if listeners there were – that 'we're coming to the end of this envelope of time that we call modernity'. Could this be because envelopes are in the process of becoming extinct? – MWD wonders. And Sir Christopher declared that there are many who believe that AI 'will serve post-human or trans-human or trans-humanist or post-humanist objectives'. Clever, eh? But what does this mean? When discussion turned to Russia and Vladimir Putin and the inevitable departure of the 72-year-old Putin, the following exchange took place: Geraldine Doogue: But while he's there, no hope [for Russia]. Is that your sort of, you know, brutal summary? Christopher Clark: I don't know. I mean, I think, you know. I don't really, I don't know. I've never met Putin. I don't really understand him. I think that he's an intelligent man. It's possible that he might – that some kind of deal with him might be possible over Ukraine. I just don't know. I don't think that either, I don't think - I think we do need to think flexibly about the future of Ukraine. It's a complex space. Yep – it sure is a complex space. MWD knows, MWD thinks. Earlier, the learned doctor told us that 'people reach back because reaching forward is an impossibility'. Well thanks for that. And then there was this (useful) warning about historical examples: Christopher Clark: To say, for example, that you know Saddam Hussein is Hitler or Putin is Hitler. Hitler's one of the favourite go to guys when it comes to these one-to-one analogies. That rarely generates understanding or increases the fund of, you know, wisdom. What it does is release emotions. Mostly emotions against the person who's being equated with Hitler... But then, towards the end of the intellectual fawn-in – there was this exchange: Christopher Clark: If you think about, for example, the way that the Western media have attuned themselves to the question of, you know, how is Donald Trump feeling this morning? Geraldine Doogue: So, it's like a monarch of the past. Christopher Clark: Well, exactly, it's like Louis the 14th. You know – the King is, is, has had an excellent digestion and is feeling well this morning. So, there you have it. Having warned against comparing President Trump with Hitler and fascism, Sir Christopher compared President Trump with King Louis XIV. Verily, A Great Media U-Turn of Our Time. Correspondence This overwhelmingly popular segment of Media Watch Dog usually works like this. Someone or other thinks it would be a you-beaut idea to write to Gerard Henderson AC (Always Courteous) about something or other. And Hendo, being a courteous and well-brought-up kind of guy, replies. Then, hey presto, the correspondence is published in MWD – much to the delight of its avid readers. There are occasions, however, when (the late) Jackie's (male) co-owner decides to write a polite note to someone or other – who, in turn, believes that a reply is in order. Publication in MWD invariably follows. There are, alas, some occasions where the well brought up Henderson sends a polite missive – but does not receive the courtesy of a reply. Nevertheless, publication of this one-sided correspondence still takes place. For the record – and in the public interest, of course. The Guardian's Amanda Meade breaks her Sky News story – six months late Ellie's (male) co-owner commenced as a weekly commentator on Sky News' The Media Show (presenter Jack Houghton) on Friday 17 January 2025 – over six months ago. It was around this time that Hendo's Media Watch Dog blog moved from The Australian Online to Sky News Online. It appears that it took Amanda Meade, The Guardian Australia's media reporter, some half a year to break this 'news' to her readers – if readers there were. She wrote about this in her 'Weekly Beast' column in The Guardian Australia, under the heading 'Old dog still barks'. The date was 25 July 2025. Which led to the following correspondence. Read on s'il vous plaît. Gerard Henderson to Comrade Meade – 12 August 2025 Good afternoon Comrade Meade My attention has been drawn to the 'Old dog still barks' piece in your 'Weekly Beast' column in The Guardian Australia of 25 July. I make the following points: You wrote your piece without checking your 'facts' with me. The Sydney Institute is not a 'right wing think-tank'. It is a forum for debate and discussion. We recently had discussions on the taxation of superannuation with Cassandra Goldie and Ross Greenwood. Tomorrow, we have a discussion on Net Zero by 2050 with someone from the Centre for Independent Studies and someone from the McKell Institute. Speakers at the Institute's Annual Dinner in recent years include Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison, Richard Marles, Chris Minns and Michelle Rowland. There is more viewpoint diversity in The Sydney Institute's program than can be found at the conservative-free zone that is the ABC or in the avowedly left-wing Guardian Australia. There were technical difficulties in The Australian carrying my lengthy Media Watch Dog blog late on a Friday. So, with the agreement of The Australian, it was taken up by Sky News. I note your comment that some videos from my appearance on Sky News' The Media Show are published by The Australian. The Sydney Morning Herald did not 'drop' my column in December 2013. I had a longstanding invitation to move my column from the SMH to The Australian. I had wanted to take up The Australian's offer. But because I had been treated well by the SMH, I stayed where I was. I was well brought up, you see. When Darren Goodsir, the newly appointed SMH editor-in-chief at the time, told me that he wanted to run my column fortnightly, not weekly, I told him that I had other options. I think that he did not believe me. I immediately contacted The Australian and commenced my column the following Saturday – having advised Darren Goodsir of my decision. He seemed quite surprised. If you had done any research, you would know that your man Goodsir in an email to staff at the time wrote: I felt that such a move [to a fortnightly column] would allow for a range of new voices to be heard in our print opinion pages and websites, while still allowing Gerard's unique commentary to also reach its audience. However, Gerard has opted for a different path and I respect that decision. Please keep reading my Weekend Australian column and my Media Watch Dog blog and continue to watch Sky News' The Media Show. Ellie, a Middle Aged Deaf Dog (with a loud bark she cannot hear), sends her regards. Keep Morale High. Gerard Henderson [MWD Editor's Note] [I understand that Ms Meade is on annual leave. It will be interesting to see if she replies. As I recall, the last time Hendo got a mention in The Guardian Australia's 'Weekly Beast' column was on 26 November 2021. Under the sneering heading 'Pell – Page Turner?', Comrade Meade foreshadowed the publication of Gerard Henderson's Cardinal Pell, The Media Pile-On & Collective Guilt (Connor Court). Clearly, the 'Weekly Beast' author did not expect Hendo's book to be read. Amanda Meade dismissed Connor Court as 'the boutique right-wing publisher.' In fact, Connor Court has published books by the likes of Michael Sexton, Michael Easson and Milton Cockburn – who cannot be seriously regarded as right-wing authors. Even by a member of The Guardian Australia Soviet. Without reading the manuscript, Meade wrote that the 'book…is all about how the ABC covered his [Henderson's] friend Cardinal Pell'. This comment was totally false. Meade also wrote that 'Henderson has been a fierce critic of ABC journalist Louise Milligan whose book Cardinal won the Walkley book award'. Chapter 6 of Cardinal Pell, The Media Pile-On & Collective Guilt contains a list of some 120 journalists and commentators who took part in the pile-on before the High Court, in a unanimous 7–0 single judgment, quashed Pell's convictions for historical child sexual abuse. The list of Pell antagonists included the ABC's Louise Milligan – along with David Marr and Melissa Davey who reported on the Pell case for The Guardian Australia. Not one of the 120 antagonists challenged anything in Henderson's book – and Milligan declined to answer any questions about the scholarship of her book Cardinal. That's what's called intellectual cowardice. The ABC declined to give Henderson's book a mention – it also 'cancelled' Frank Brennan's Observations on the Pell Proceedings. The Guardian Australia (editor Lenore Taylor) also ignored the books by Henderson and Brennan. Henderson's book is in its third edition and contains an endorsement by former High Court judge Michael Kirby. Brennan's book is in its second edition and has been well-reviewed. I believe it is unlikely that Comrade Meade will respond to your email when she returns from leave. But if she does, I hope you will see that it gets a run in your blog. MWD Editor.] * * * * * Until Next Time. * * * * *
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese's Palestinian recognition shows the world is now waiting on Trump
The United States' ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, wasn't about to repeat his private conversations with Donald Trump live on television. But he was happy to characterise what the US president and his administration thought about Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state this week. 'There's an enormous level of disappointment, and some disgust... This is a gift to them [Hamas], and it's unfortunate,' Huckabee told the ABC's 7.30 on Thursday night. 'The emotional sentiment [was] a sense of: You've got to be kidding. Why would they be doing this? And why would they be doing this now?' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had been dealing with a challenging domestic response to his government's decision since Monday, had answers on Friday morning, starting with a similar feeling. 'Australians have been disgusted by what they see on their TV every night. They were disgusted by the terrorist actions of Hamas on October 7, the slaughter of innocent Israelis,' he said on ABC radio. 'But Australians have also seen the death of tens of thousands of people. When you have children starving, when you have children losing their lives, with families queuing for food and water, then that provokes, not surprisingly, a human reaction.' Albanese's decision to follow France, the United Kingdom and Canada in declaring that Australia would recognise Palestine at the United Nations next month was, in part, a human reaction to suffering as striking images of hunger came out of Gaza. Pressure was bubbling inside the Labor caucus and, just the weekend before, more than 100,000 Australians marched in protest over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and on the streets of Melbourne. The prime minister's foreign policy shift was also pragmatic: once like-minded countries made the move, there was expectation that Albanese would add to global momentum. Loading But if Albanese expected warm feedback, it was not forthcoming. Before Huckabee took aim at Australia's decision, Israel had expressed its fury, Jewish Australian groups said they had been betrayed, and even prominent pro-Palestine advocates were lukewarm. The praise, when it burst onto newspaper front pages, was not from desired sources. Instead, senior officials from Hamas, the listed terrorist organisation that conducted the October 7 attacks, praised the prime minister's move, exposing Albanese to fierce criticism and accusations of naivety. Aaron David Miller, a Middle East analyst who worked on US negotiations to end the conflict for decades, doubts next month's meeting at the United Nations will lead to the outcome Western leaders are hoping for. He says a two-state solution remains the 'least-worst option' but the time is not right, given Hamas remains in power in Gaza and the far-right Netanyahu government leads Israel. 'The Australians have had no experience in this region. The British and the French have, and they should know that the Middle East is literally littered with the remains of great powers, their schemes, their dreams, their ambitions, their peace plans,' Miller says. 'I don't see any relationship between what's being done and the impact that it will have on the current situation, let alone on bringing anybody closer to a meaningful two-state solution... Why is it the right time? There's no logical, compelling explanation. This is being done for domestic political reasons or out of moral and ethical motivations.' But the Western nations, including Australia, say a deteriorating situation has added urgency to the two-state push. 'There is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise,' Wong said last week. On Friday, Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich raised the stakes: he announced that work will start on a long-delayed settlement to divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, a move his office said would 'bury' the idea of a Palestinian state. Loading 'Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground. Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods,' he said. Smotrich, a settler himself, claimed Netanyahu and Trump had agreed to the development, although there was no immediate confirmation from either. The Albanese government started laying the groundwork for this week's announcement long before that threat. Foreign Minister Penny Wong started making the case for recognising Palestine as part of a two-state process – rather than at the end of one – back in April last year. Wong said recognition had always been a matter of 'when, not if'. As accusations of mass starvation were levelled at Israel in recent weeks, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled a takeover of Gaza City, other nations made historic moves towards recognition. Then it became Australia's turn. 'We didn't want to be leading the pack, but we didn't want to be too slow either,' a government source told this masthead this week. Albanese said he was also reassured by recent commitments from the Palestinian Authority and Arab League. Still,backlash was swift. Israel's ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said Albanese had abandoned his own conditions for recognition and would reward Hamas in the process. Netanyahu called it shameful. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry – who had been assured by the prime minister a fortnight earlier that recognition was not imminent – described it as a betrayal. Peter Moss, the co-convenor of Labor Friends of Palestine, said the move would be applauded by the party's rank-and-file as a 'historic milestone'. But a co-founder of the Labor Friends of Israel group, Nick Dyrenfurth, said some lifetime Jewish Labor members were considering quitting the party with a sense of despair. Even Nasser Mashni, the president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, called the decision a 'cynical political smokescreen'. Many Palestinians and pro-Palestine advocates labelled recognition a distraction and instead urged the government to pursue sanctions, an arms embargo, and an end to trade with Israel. As the week continued, interjections from Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation, compounded the controversy. This masthead reported that the office of a Hamas co-founder, Hassan Yousef, applauded Australia's decision. Albanese warned media outlets not to report propaganda, and a statement issued in a Hamas telegram channel disavowed the comments attributed to Yousef, saying he was detained and cut off from the outside world. But two other senior Hamas officials soon made similar comments, calling Australia's move towards recognition a 'positive step towards the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people'. John Coyne, the national security director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says the complicated structure of Hamas and its leadership – now dispersed across the world, with diminished numbers in Palestine itself – made it difficult to interpret messages from the group. 'When you've got a global terrorist organisation, it's not like an elected government or public service bureaucracy. The term leadership is used very loosely,' he says. 'There are a number of senior figures and so of course, they'll all have their perspectives and at a time of chaos and change, people aspire to challenge the status quo and become the spokesperson.' But having warned Albanese over recent weeks that he was playing into Hamas' hands, the federal opposition jumped. 'Hamas is more than supporting the decision [Albanese] made, they are in full throated praise of it, they are cheering on, they are calling our Prime Minister a man of courage,' said opposition leader Sussan Ley. 'On a day when a terrorist organisation calls our Prime Minister a hero, surely he has to think about reversing the decision that led to that.' If Labor had envisioned a political win at the beginning of the week, Albanese did not show it. 'This decision is criticised by people on all sides of the debate. I expected that to be the case,' he said on the Today show on Tuesday. 'The people who are saying this is not the way forward... Ok, what's your plan? The plan of Prime Minister Netanyahu is just to continue: continue to push into Gaza, occupy Gaza City. How will that provide a resolution going forward to ongoing conflict that has been there for 77 years?' Most countries in the United Nations – 147 of 193 – already recognise Palestine. But commitments from Australia, France, the UK and Canada to recognise Palestine at a UN General Assembly meeting in New York next month add heft. Several European nations, including G20 members Italy and Germany, have not yet pledged to do so, nor have Japan and South Korea. New Zealand could be the next to add its voice, after conservative prime minister Chris Luxon this week said Netanyahu had 'lost the plot'. But analysts emphasise it is the United States that will ultimately determine whether a Palestinian state inches closer to reality or remains fantasy. 'At the end of the day, the international community can jump up and down as much as they want, but until the US agrees to accept the Palestinian admission into the UN general assembly … this concept of statehood is going to remain an idea,' says Shahram Akbarzadeh, a professor in Middle East politics at Deakin University. 'I don't see how a Trump administration could vote yes to Palestinian statehood ... I think we will see the continuation of Palestinian lives in limbo in terms of international law and international standing.' Amin Saikal, another expert, shares his scepticism. But he thinks Trump could be the wildcard that changes the trajectory of the Middle East. 'There are some elements within the MAGA movement that have called for a revision of American support for Israel,' he says, pointing to congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, and commentators Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson. 'Trump does look at his base, and he does really take what comes out of MAGA quite seriously. At the same time, he is an unpredictable transactional leader.' Loading Trump threatened Canada's trade deal in response to its recognition of Palestine, only to walk the threat back. Before Huckabee gave his full-throttled criticism of Australia, the White House declined to weigh in, saying Trump was 'not married to any one solution'. The US president is a staunch ally of Netanyahu, but even he has lashed out at the Israeli prime minister, most recently by disputing Israel's claims of there being no starvation in Gaza. 'It may come to the point that you could see the widening of the rift between the United States and its allies is not really going to benefit the United States,' Saikal says. 'Therefore [Trump] may decide to soften his position, or put more pressure on the Israeli leadership to accept the reality of a two-state solution as inevitable and as the only one.'
