UPDATES

Lyons’ angry roar hides lack of substance

Mar 13, 2014 | Allon Lee

Lyons' angry roar hides lack of substance
news_item/spin640________________________________________________.jpg

In a nearly 1,100 word response to Greg Sheridan’s dismissal of his “Four Corners” hatchet job on Israel, one might have expected John Lyons would have found space to answer the factual questions raised by his critics. Instead he preferred to attack Sheridan for relying on analysis by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) that debunked many of Lyons’ claims (Australian, March 8).

These analyses, which appeared in the Australian newspaper, the Australian Jewish News, the Australia/Israel Review and AIJAC’s website, exposed Lyons’ catalogue of misreporting, half-reporting, obfuscations and sensationalising.

Lyons insisted the analyses could not be trusted because AIJAC is “a privately funded lobby group with extremely hardline positions on Israel.”

If “hardline” in Lyons’ worldview means supporting a negotiated two-state resolution, then AIJAC pleads guilty.

Obtusely, Lyons attacked Sheridan, “find[ing] it breathtaking that a journalist would recommend a private lobby group for a rebuttal of journalism.”

In other words, after 2,500 years, Western traditions of logic and evidence have run their course and intellectual arguments should be decided solely on the basis of who makes them, rather than their substance.

Of course, Lyons’ own reports relied on such shadowy organisations as “Breaking the Silence” that provided largely anonymous “evidence” that cannot be investigated to charge Israel with systemic and widespread mistreatment of Palestinian minors.

Lyons also attempted to discredit both AIJAC and Sheridan, not for the critiques of his “Four Corners” report, but for “repeat[ing] AIJAC’s claim about settlements not growing – year after year AIJAC says this while construction booms… Israeli statistics show settler housing more than doubled last year, and in the first half of 2011 grew 660 per cent. Outposts are also surging – these are illegal under Israeli law, yet Israel tolerates them.”

Again, Lyons overreaches. First, AIJAC never said there was no growth in settlement housing, only no new settlements and no expansion in the boundaries of existing settlements. Secondly, the 2011 leap Lyons cherry picked was the result of the end of the Netanyahu Government’s unprecedented ten-month settlement building freeze intended as a good will gesture to kickstart peace talks.

In fact, overall, during the past five years the Netanyahu Government has built far fewer homes in the settlements than recent predecessors.

As Evelyn Gordon explained last week on the Commentary blog, between 2009 and 2013 “housing starts in the settlements averaged 1,443 a year… That’s less than the 1,702 a year they averaged under Ehud Olmert in 2006-08… It’s also less than the 1,652 per year they averaged under Ariel Sharon in 2001-05… And it’s far less than under Ehud Barak, who is also internationally acclaimed as a peacemaker… One single year under Barak, 2000, produced more housing starts in the settlements (4,683) than the entire first four years of Netanyahu’s term (4,679).”

Lyons concluded that “Obama told Israelis their occupation was unfair” but again left out of his reckoning the three offers made but rejected by the Palestinian Authority that would have ended that occupation.

Meanwhile, over at J-Wire, readers might be intersted in a hard hitting analysis of John Lyons’ output courtesy of Isi Leibler, the veteran Australian and international Jewish leader who now lives in Israel.

– Allon Lee

Tags:

RELATED ARTICLES


D11a774c 2a47 C987 F4ce 2d642e6d9c8d

Bibi in DC, the Houthi threat and the politicised ICJ opinion

Jul 26, 2024 | Update
Image: Shutterstock

Nine months after Oct. 7: Where Israel stands now

Jul 10, 2024 | Update
Palestinian Red Crescent workers from Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip (Image: Shutterstock)

Hamas’ impossible casualty figures

Mar 28, 2024 | Update
455daec3 C2a8 8752 C215 B7bd062c6bbc

After the Israel-Hamas ceasefire for hostages deal

Nov 29, 2023 | Update
Screenshot of Hamas bodycam footage as terrorists approach an Israeli vehicle during the terror organisation's October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, released by the IDF and GPO (Screenshot)

Horror on Video / International Law and the Hamas War

Oct 31, 2023 | Update
Sderot, Israel. 7th Oct, 2023. Bodies of dead Israelis lie on the ground following the attacks of Hamas (Image: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa/Alamy Live News)

Israel’s Sept. 11, only worse

Oct 11, 2023 | Update

RECENT POSTS

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan (centre) announces his request for arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders on May 20 (Screenshot)

AIJAC slams ICC decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant

International Criminal Court 2018

AIJAC slams ICC decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant

Screenshot 2024 11 20 At 4.49.05 PM

Australia out of step with US and other allies on UN vote: Joel Burnie on Sky News

UNRWA is portrayed as the “backbone” of Gaza aid efforts, but actually supplied only 13% of aid there over recent months (Image: Anas Mohammed/ Shutterstock)

An empire of perpetual suffering

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and PM Anthony Albanese have degraded our relationship with our most important Middle Eastern partner (Screenshot)

The consequences of Australia’s Mideast policy shifts since October 7

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan (centre) announces his request for arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders on May 20 (Screenshot)

AIJAC slams ICC decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant

International Criminal Court 2018

AIJAC slams ICC decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant

Screenshot 2024 11 20 At 4.49.05 PM

Australia out of step with US and other allies on UN vote: Joel Burnie on Sky News

UNRWA is portrayed as the “backbone” of Gaza aid efforts, but actually supplied only 13% of aid there over recent months (Image: Anas Mohammed/ Shutterstock)

An empire of perpetual suffering

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and PM Anthony Albanese have degraded our relationship with our most important Middle Eastern partner (Screenshot)

The consequences of Australia’s Mideast policy shifts since October 7

SORT BY TOPICS