Ashley Browne: Was he pushed or was he sacked?

Can anyone make head or tail of this?

Nice to see that the Sunday Age is now following the blog.

Michael Barnett, JCCV and AJN Watch

Further to our post re Michael Barnett's letter http://tinyurl.com/kvpjue , here's a short response to his childish bleatings, with the hope that this reaches those to whom he addressed his letter.

From Barnett's letter:

Ten years ago, in 1999, Aleph Melbourne applied to the JCCV for membership. This was an extremely bitter time for the group and as a result of the failed application I was exposed to a level of hate and intolerance that would shock most people.

The attempt by Aleph to become a constituent member of the JCCV always was and still is one of sheer arrogance and provocation. Why on earth should a miniscule group (if it indeed there is such a group) of insignificant nobodies, whose sole aim is to promote and publicize abnormal sexual behaviour, be admitted to an organization representing Victorian Jewry?

(Yes, whether Barnett likes it or not homosexuality is not normal. Until recently EVERONE accepted this. The advent of ‘political correctness’ meant that saying so is limited to honest private conversations by people, who are not interested in bitchy responses and “hate and intolerance’ accusations.

The first sign of your abnormality is the fact that heterosexuals don’t go around advertising and publicizing what they do privately. THAT is normal. Your desperate need for constant publicity (even disgusting parades) announcing and showing off to the world your sexual proclivities – proves this is not normal behaviour.)

Despite all this, Mr Barnett, we don’t hate you. Really. We just simply are not interested in you and your activities. We really don’t care how you live your life and what you get up to - with whom or how. Most people, knowingly or unknowingly, have homosexual acquaintances socially or professionally. And they get along fine. Why? Because they don’t bore us with their personal stories.

Go ahead and do whatever you like. But please SHUT UP about it and stop shoving your lifestyle down our throats.

As for you personally, it is obvious that aside from your homosexuality you have nothing to offer or indeed talk about. How sad.

So don't be so surprised when decent, normal and respectable (religious and irreligious) organizations don’t welcome you to their forum.

Most of the world is sickened by homosexuality. That's just human nature and no legislation will help with their attitude. As for those who follow the Torah and Halacha - which categorically bans it - they cannot ever see it as an acceptable lifestyle. They can’t. The Torah is not theirs to alter, modify or modernize.

All that still does not mean we ‘hate’ you and your type. Observant Jews don’t hate. We don’t hate Shabbat-desecrators and we don’t hate non-Kosher consumers and we don’t hate homosexuals. We get along fine with all types of irreligious Jews – as long as they don’t try to attack our Jewishness and propagate their anti-Torah lifestyles.

Have you ever considered that if the JCCV deemed you as worthy for membership, why not other offensive groups, eg:
“Melbourne Jewish Idol-worshippers”
“Jewish Adulterers Society”
“Jewish Lesbian Hindu Society”
“Australian Jewish Chazir-fressers Club”
“The Shabbat-desecrators Association”
“Jews for Jesus”
“The Ladies Yom Kippur & Tisha B’av Lunchers Guild”
"Melbourne Jewish Car Thieves/Drunk-Drivers/Coke-sniffers"

Funny, no? But no funnier than accepting your Aleph club.

The issue dominated the Jewish media for weeks leading up to the vote and many more thereafter. During this time there was no shortage of homphobic attacks and
expressions of intolerance from all manner of community leaders at Aleph Melbourne's membership application.

We have no idea what attacks you refer to, but as long as there was nothing physical (and I am sure that there wasn’t) big deal. You asked for it by repeatedly opening your mouth and provoking most of the Jewish community. Don’t be so precious. You knew all along what you were going into, so don’t bleat when someone replies. Did you really expect no one to respond?
When you start with an entire community, you cannot afford to be so sensitive.

Wind forward to 2009, now ten years along. On July 10 this year, Rabbi Chaim Ingram,Honorary Secretary of the Rabbinical Council of NSW, wrote a letter to the AustralianJewish News where he unapologetically and unsympathetically lumped homosexuals alongside people who committed adultery, bestiality and incest and later went on to defend his stance, hiding behind the cover of Jewish law.

Here is part of the “offending” letter” :

Judaism teaches that while only Jews need uphold the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, human society as a whole must also adhere to a moral and ethical code comprising seven statutes known as the Noachide Laws. Five of these laws correspond to five of the 10 Commandments. One of them is a prohibition against gross sexual immorality comprising adultery, bestiality, incest and homosexual intercourse. A second is the establishment of legislation that will maintain morality in accordance with the Noachide code. Therefore, no Torah-abiding Jew can ever make peace with the concept of legalising or validating homosexual “marriage” in any society in which he or she lives.

Does Barnett, who demands ‘tolerance’ for his mob, expect religious Jews (and indeed non-Jews) be banned from quoting the Torah?

Rabbi Ingram isn't “hiding’ behind Jewish law. He is quoting it “unapologetically and unsympathetically”. That law is what has guided us for thousands of years and will continue to do so - long after Barnett has been forgotten.

On August 1 in Tel Aviv there was the horrific shooting in the gay community centre
where two people were killed and 15 people injured. The Australian Jewish News
covered this event comprehensively. As a direct result of this coverage an anonymous Melbourne Orthodox Jewish blogger posted on AJNWatch some of the most hurtful language directed at gay people that I have ever read.

“The most hurtful language directed at gay people that I have ever read”. What a load of nonsense. You obviously are convinced readers of your letter will not bother to investigate such disgusting libel. Otherwise you wouldn’t dare to lie so barefacedly.

This prohibition forms a tenet of Orthodox Jewish dogma and is more fervently upheld than just about any other biblical commandment.

More lies and nonsense.

The prohibition against homosexual intercourse (and effectively anything relating to any expression of homosexuality) permeates the teachings of Orthodox Judaism at all levels, through schools, colleges, synagogues and every other aspect of Orthdox Jewish life.

Utter garbage. How insulting to think that Orthodox Jews have nothing else to study and be concerned about other than homosexuality.

I challenge you to find an Orthodox Rabbi in Australia who will not denounce practicing homosexuals as sinners and who will not refer to us alongside people who have committed sins of the gravity as murder, adultery, incest or bestiality.

Repeat. It is not the rabbis who denounce. It is the Torah.

Finally, here's some free advice for you. If you are really seeking to find a place where your type of ‘Judaism’ is acceptable, why not visit a friendly Reform/Liberal temple, where the rabbis and rabbiesses have unlimited freedom and leeway and (as they already disregard most of the Torah) will have no problems in making you feel at home. And who knows? Maybe at some time in the future, they will invite you to become their representative on the JCCV.

********

Talking about tolerance and intolerance, someone sent us an exchange on Barnett's Facebook page which shows how much 'tolerance' he and his mates have for other views.

Comments

Dayenu Sydney:
By the way, did you report the blog to Google? Sounds like it might contravene their terms of service.

Michael Barnett:
Of course, but it I feel it's better it stays up for the moment as it adds weight to the argument.

Also there this garbage:

The ugly side of Jewish extremism that the JCCV wants us to ignore ...
This blog appeared on the "AJN Watch" web site on August 7 2009. This has got to be one of the ugliest pieces of homophobic hate I have ever read.

This blog was one of the catalysts for me writing this letter.
I brought this blog up in a meeting with John Searle, President of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) on August 19 2009. The official word of "The voice of Victorian Jewry" was to ignore it, not to give it any oxygen and it will go away. Some example of responsible leadership Mr Searle.
Just imagine what would have happened if the world buried its head about the Nazis and The Holocaust.

"Just imagine what would have happened if the world buried its head about the Nazis and The Holocaust."
Yep. According to Barnett the AJN Watch blog is comparable to the Nazi Holocaust! The author of such an idiotic comment, wants to sit on the Jewish community's foremost representative council.

Magid: "Thanks for a wonderful job, Ashley. Now bu***r off..."

AJN Watch on 'Australian Conservative' website

We see that some of our posts are featured on the Australian Conservatives site. (No, not Nitzan...)
See: http://tinyurl.com/l45ggd

"Burying bad news is no answer"

AJN Editorial (July 31, 2009)

Burying bad news is no answer

NEWS that rabbis were among 44 individuals arrested in the United States on charges of political corruption, money-laundering and even trafficking in human organs triggered some reflection at The AJN on how to cover the story. Closer to home, the imminent committal hearing in Adelaide of Rabbi Yossi Engel, facing charges over a school-funding application, focuses attention on our role as a newspaper for the Jewish community.
When Rabbi Engel was charged last month, our front cover drew criticism from those who believe the role of a Jewish newspaper is to run public relations for the community to the wider Australian community and beyond. They believe we should turn a blind eye to Jewish figures, and rabbis in particular, who are facing court, or who have been convicted, even while mainstream newspapers freely report these events. We disagree. SNIP
Yet to ask Jewish newspapers to censor themselves is no remedy. It might keep negative news away from the newsagent shelves, but what we would lose in the process is far greater. It is akin to expecting Jewish figures to be given a free pass. Burying bad news does our community no favours. It would create an unhealthy culture, encouraging some to do as they wish, free of public scrutiny. It is not how newspapers in a democracy should conduct themselves.

We, like many others who follow happenings in the Jewish media, have been wondering when the Jewish News' website - and in particluar its soon to be departed/deported editor Ashley Browne on his blog - will give us the full details of his sudden untimely demise. But until the time of writing, there has not been a single word about this on either location.

Does this mean that sometimes "burying bad news" IS the answer?

The answer is obviously "Yes". When the bad news is about AJN staff, publishers or their families - the Jewish News certainly believes in burying it.

Michael Barnett's latest kvetch

A reader has brought to our attention the whiny, kvetchy letter sent by Michael Barnett (of the Jewish homosexual one-man-band ‘Aleph’) to his local member, Bob Stensholt MP for Burwood, (with ccs to Rob Hulls, Attorney General, Michael Danby, MP for Melbourne Ports, Scott Davis, Victoria Police Gay & Lesbian Advisory Unit and John Searle, president, JCCV).

(Read it here:
http://aleph.org.au/docs/20090822_Letter_to_Bob_Stensholt_and_Rob_Hulls.pdf )

Poor discriminated-against Michael is still upset about being refused membership to the JCCV 10 years ago and that orthodox rabbis still quote the Torah’s harsh views about homosexuality.
Into the mix he brings our blog as additional proof of the community’s ‘intolerance’ to those of his persuasion.

On August 1 in Tel Aviv there was the horrific shooting in the gay community centre where two people were killed and 15 people injured. The Australian Jewish News covered this event comprehensively. As a direct result of this coverage an anonymous Melbourne Orthodox Jewish blogger posted on AJNWatch some of the most hurtful language directed at gay people that I have ever read.

His letter goes on:

As a man with a Catholic upbringing you will be fully aware of the sections of the Old Testament in the book of Leviticus that describe the prohibition against men having intercourse with other men and the penalties they must face if they transgress this prohibition. This prohibition forms a tenet of Orthodox Jewish dogma and is more fervently upheld than just about any other biblical commandment. The prohibition against homosexual intercourse (and effectively anything relating to any expression of homosexuality) permeates the teachings of Orthodox Judaism at all levels, through schools, colleges, synagogues and every other aspect of Orthdox Jewish life. I challenge you to find an Orthodox Rabbi in Australia who will not denounce practicing homosexuals as sinners and who will not refer to us alongside people who have committed sins of the gravity as murder, adultery, incest or bestiality.

I am not sure what Barnett wants. Should orthodox Shuls be banned from reading those parts of the Torah that describe the sin of this perversion and its punishment?
We have no idea if he belongs to a synagogue or not, but if he feels the need his type of welcoming religion, who is stopping him from joining one of the Reform/Progressive/ Conservative temples where the prohibition on homosexuality and indeed most of the Torah’s tenets – have long been discarded?
In those circles Michael may even be lucky enough to find a clergyman with similar tendencies to himself.

Another Jewish News editor bites the dust...

Who caused this? "Hamodia' or 'AJN Watch'...?


From J-Wire:

Change at the helm of the AJN
August 21, 2009 by Henry Benjamin

Ashley Browne, the current editor of the Australian Jewish News will oversee his last edition of the national Jewish weekly paper next week.

The 44-yr-old Melbourne-based newspaperman has spent the last two and a half years as its editor. He told J-Wire: ”It has been a privilege to have worked as editor of the AJN and I have enjoyed my time here. I wish the incoming editor and all the AJN staff the very best for the future.

Browne told J-Wire that he did not know who the knew editor would be but there may be a possibility that the position might be taken up by an overseas contender.

While few will be surprised to see Browne being let go, it is a fact that the AJN goes through editors like a losing footy club goes through coaches.
We can't remember all of them but some recent editorial has-beens include (in no particular order) Sam Lipski, Deborah Stone, David Bernstein, Vic Alhadeff, Dan Goldberg, Susan Bures and now Ashley Browne.

Let's see what the AJN management comes up with next.

China's leaders shivering in their boots

One has too feel sorry for China. Battling violent protests, earthquakes, floods - and now our Michael. As we all know Danby has beaten all comers until now and there is not reason to think that the result willl be any different with China.

Central Synagogue's unique entertainment: Chassidish Chazan and Goyish Rock Star

If they won't come to Shul to davven, learn Torah or listen to the rabbi's speeches - maybe a middle-aged rock star will do the trick...

Seriously injured 10-year-old gives Adam Kamien the giggles

Nice man this Adam Kamien.
A little kid is seriously injured.

And his reaction?

He laughs his head off at the poor child's pain and humiliation ("can't get funnier").

Here's some more on the story from the Ynet site:

A ten-year-old boy was admitted to Haemek Medical Center in Afula in serious condition Thursday, after suffering severe intestinal injury. The injured boy underwent emergency exploratory surgery, meant to ascertain the extent of the damage caused to his intestinal track.
The event unfolded around 6pm, when Magen David Adom emergency services paramedics from the Gilboa Station were called to the scene. They found the 10-year-old writhing in pain with his abdomen severely swollen and rushed him to Haemek Hospital.
Dr. Alon Erez, Haemek's deputy chief of staff, told Ynet that the boy was found to be suffering from extensive intestinal tearing.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3754901,00.html

Just imagine the outrage had this sickening piece appeared in the Age or Herald-Sun.

With such sensitivity and compassion Kamien demonstrates that he the lead runner to become the next editor of the AJN and/or to partner Kyle Sandilands on his radio show.

NY Jewish Week on 'Chareidi bashing'

Article from the (secular) NY Jewish Week

(Compare this with the hatred-spewing blog of AJN editor Ashley Browne http://tinyurl.com/l284us )

Rush To Judgment in Gay Club Killings
by Jonathan Mark - Associate Editor

On August 1, a masked man burst into a gay club in Tel Aviv, spraying bullets, killing two. The killer escaped, his identity unknown. According to the Associated Press (Aug. 1), Tel Aviv police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it was “most likely a criminal attack and not a terror attack.” The AP even pointed out that “Tel Aviv has been a target for Palestinian militants in the past.” The Tel Aviv police commissioner, David Cohen, cautioned against speculation.

Everyone’s speculating anyway. But let’s go back a few years. We live in an era in which it is considered inappropriate to characterize religious or racial groups because of the criminal acts of one, or even many. After the planes hit the World Trade Center, but
before the buildings even fell, news anchors said we shouldn’t blame Islam. The next day, Secretary of State Colin Powell went on NBC’s “Dateline” to say that what happened “should not be seen as something done by Arabs or Islamics; it is something that was done by terrorists...”

More recently, when four Islamic men were arrested for attempting to blow up two Riverdale synagogues, the Daily News headlined (May 23), “Riverdale Rabbi: Don’t Blame Islam...”

But in Tel Aviv, let’s blame the Orthodox. After the murders, an editorial in Haaretz (Aug. 3) admitted, “it is still to early to draw conclusions,” but so what. After all, the ultra-Orthodox and even the regular “religious,” said Haaretz, “openly incite against gays and lesbians and their rights.”

Time magazine online (Aug. 3) headlined, “Gay vs. Orthodox,” reporting that Tel Aviv’s gay community “was not hesitant about assigning blame... [pointing] to Orthodox Jewish gay-bashers.”

As far away as Australia, Orthodox Jews were blamed. The Sydney Morning Herald (Aug. 7) headlined, “Hate from the right stoked gay murders,” an opinion piece that compared the killings to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Commentator Yossi Sarid echoed in Ha’aretz (Aug. 3), “Here they don’t just shoot the prime minister. They also shoot homosexuals.”

Rabin’s murder, of course, was blamed on Orthodox incitement in ways that the assassination of Robert Kennedy is never blamed on Palestinian incitement. Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian, said he timed Kennedy’s killing (June 6, 1968) to coincide with the first anniversary of the Six-Day War, but who in the media ever brings that up?

Maybe the police didn’t know the Tel Aviv killer’s motive, but Haaretz reported (Aug. 2) that opposition leader Tzipi Livni knew. It was a “hate crime” born of “homophobia,” she said. MK Shelly Yachimovich (Labor) told a rally: “The pistol did not act on its own, the gunman did not act on his own — what stood behind him was incitement and hatred,” hatred by guess who?

In the United States, news agencies quoted a statement from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assembly who charged that “some voices in [Israeli] society seek to incite violence against the gay and lesbian community; they should be held to account.” Which voices? Take a guess.

Maybe you’re guessing wrong. In 2006, Time reported that Israel’s Islamic clerics were quite vocal against Israeli gays parading in Jerusalem: “Not only should these homosexuals be banned from holding their parade,” says Jerusalem’s Sheikh Ibrahim Hassan, “but they should be punished and sent to an isolated place.” And “Christian groups were also upset,” reported Time, “by what they saw as the deliberate flaunting of sexuality in Christendom’s most sacred place.”

Some Christians say the current charges of incitement unfairly smear Christianity. In the Christian Post (Aug. 6), Linda Harvey, president of Mission America, said people “have the right to oppose homosexuality for religious or other reasons without being called accessories to murder. The motive is still unknown; why engage in slanderous speculation?” The speculation is itself “bigotry ... wildly irresponsible, unjust and inaccurate.”

Why blame the Orthodox? A recent Haaretz-Dialog poll has found that 46 percent of Israelis consider homosexuality a perversion while only 42 percent do not. In fact, less Orthodox Jews (44 percent) think it a perversion than do local Arabs (64 percent) or Russian-speaking immigrants (57 percent). Maybe the killer is a secular Israeli; one of four (24 percent) secular Israelis believe homosexuality a perversion, too.

In Yediot Ahronot (Aug. 3), Michel Dor, who is neither gay nor religious, wonders if the killer was a jilted lover, “maybe someone who wasn’t loved back? Or maybe a mentally unstable individual who decided to take action?”

If someone were to shoot up a shul or yeshiva, “and there was uncertainty in respect to the perpetrator,” asks Dor, “who would the religious community have to blame? Members of Meretz? The radical left?”
Yediot Ahronot (Aug. 4) headlined an Orthodox complaint: “Haredi Public Used As Punching Bag.” Moshe Glasner, editor of the Kikar HaShabbat website, said Israel is experiencing “an unprecedented incitement campaign against the haredim.”

The Jerusalem Post (Aug. 2) also sensed something was wrong. Their editorial said, “Some in the media and in the political establishment have jumped to the conclusion that the rampage was motivated by homophobia.... We reserve judgment...”

Imagine that. That’s what old-fashioned journalists – and rabbis, for that matter -- used to do before they had the facts. They reserved judgment.

Said the Jerusalem Post, “it is important to maintain perspective. Whoever did it — gay or straight, observant or secular — was a wild weed and not indicative of their community.”

In any case, Israeli gays “are not oppressed,” said the Jerusalem Post. “Same-sex couples can today legally adopt children. Gay marriages abroad can be registered as legal in Israel ... Contrast the situation in Israel to gay life in neighboring Arab and Moslem countries.”

If anyone is persecuted in Tel Aviv it is the ultra-Orthodox, which may explain the rush to judgment. The Los Angeles Times (Aug. 6) noticed that secular Jews in one Tel Aviv neighborhood “organized a campaign to drive the haredim out,” the secular anger aimed even at the genial Lubavitchers.
Back in the spring, Haaretz headlined (May 14), “Anti-Semitism is Rearing Its Head in Tel Aviv;” anti-Orthodoxy, to be more exact.

Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, noted that “the entry of a handful of ultra-Orthodox Jews to [one] lovely, modest and tranquil neighborhood has provoked an unlovely wave of racism, tearing the thin veil of openness and liberality from this seemingly left-wing community. If anyone were to behave this way toward Israeli Arabs, the residents might raise a hue and cry, but when it comes to haredim the gloves are off because attacking the ‘blacks’ is the fashion.”

Haredim, he writes, are “the punching bag of the left. What nationalist Israelis do to the Arabs, the left does to the ultra-Orthodox. There’s no difference. Demonization, dehumanization, scare tactics and the sowing of hatred. Hatred of the Other is the same, whether the Other’s name is Mohammed or Leibele, whether he wears a kaffiyeh or a shtreimel. It makes no difference whether the racist is an Arab-hating Kahanist or a Haredim-hating leftist: He is still a racist.”

Mazel Tov! Another Chaplain for the ADF

Does anyone have any idea how many Jews serve in the Australian Defence Forces?
One would think that if we require one senior and 2 'junior' chaplains there should be at least a minyan or two of brave Jewish soldiers out there.
Just wondering.

Kron promotes AJN hypocrisy

Kron, like his employer should be ashamed of himself. Not even a hint on how the AJN buries its head in the sand when m/billionaire (non-frum) mates and family of the newspaper's owners and publishers are in the news for crooked deals involving millions of dollars and costing many Australians big dollars - out of their pockets.

In the AJN's eyes only rabbis and religious Jews must obey the laws of the land - but those who violate the Torah's commandments are free to flout the laws of the country.

Read the AJN's recent hypocritical editorial - and judge for yourself.

Important corrections in the AJN this week

Was that REALLY all that was wrong with those 2 issues...?

"One of the greatest Torah scholars of our generation" !!!

Sent to us by a Sydney reader:

Hi, this is from this week's issue of the Sydney AJN. Just in case you Melbournians were wondering who has recently joined the ranks of the gedolei Hador!

Australian Jewish News, Australian Goyish News or Australian Gayish News?

Anyone reading this week's edition of the AJN will be wondering if he/she didn't mistakenly pick up a copy of the "Australian Gayish News". Why?

Because there are no less than 9 items(!) about the AJN’s current sweethearts – the homosexuals (or to use the full label - “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transvestites”).

Yes – 9, including the ENTIRE front page, an editorial (where naturally blame for the killings in Tel Aviv is insinuated upon the ‘ultra-orthodox’)...


...a couple of repeat letters from the usual Torah-hating, gay-loving, single-issue-obsessed letter-writers (see top right) and of course a Kron cartoon.

Additionally, editor Ashley Browne in his blog uses the gay killings to assail the Hamodia newspaper. (That's the second time in 4 weeks that the Hamodia has been attacked in the AJN. Looks like this upstart weekly a biting deeply into the AJN’s sales and advertising revenue.)

The world according to Hamodia:
no gays, no murder

ASHLEY BROWNE

The shooting attack in a gay community centre in Tel Aviv on Saturday night that killed two people is creating a huge stir in Israel.
This should come as no surprise. Disregarding the Orthodox population, Israel is one of the more gay-friendly countries in the world and you don’t have to spend too much time in the more vibrant sections of Tel Aviv to become aware of a strong and tolerant gay culture.
AJN columnist Haviv Rettig Gur updated his Facebook status yesterday to say that the shooting was “a reminder that when the peace process with the Arabs ends, there are some culture wars to be won inside our country.”
The Israeli media is all over this story - as is the world media - with one notable exception. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Orthodox newspaper Hamodia, has pulled the bedsheet over its head, closed its eyes, blocked its ears and is pretending that the story did not happen.
That’s right. No gays. No murder.
And yes, this is the same newspaper that a section of the Australian Jewish community believes should become our community’s paper of record.

Just like Browne and Bersten, we too have no idea who the TA gays killer is. But there is as much a chance - in fact far greater - that it was another homosexual (jealous lover's tiff, maybe) as it being the work of an 'ultra-orthodox'. But that shouldn't and doesn't hold back Browne from taking an opportunity to smear frum Jews.

And we would advise Ashley to leave the Hamodia alone. They know EXACTLY what they are doing and understand the audience that they are catering to. The last thing their readers are interested in is what is happening in Tel Aviv snakepits of dreck and perversion.

At the time that you struggle to fill a few miserly pages of your paper with anything newsworthy – thus sinking to a new low with 9 items extolling and supporting TA homosexuals, the Hamodia (even the fledgling Australian edition) carries 4 or 5 times as much Israeli, world and Jewish news and features as does the AJN. In fact, the only half-decent reporting one finds in the Jewish News are the articles that you copy and paste from the Jerusalem Post. Sadly for you, even that is a waste of time and newsprint. Anyone who is interested has already read these on the JPost.com website. People no longer wait a week to read your “plagiarism”.

Your comment that “Israel is one of the more gay-friendly countries in the world and you don’t have to spend too much time in the more vibrant sections of Tel Aviv to become aware of a strong and tolerant gay culture” indeed nauseates, depresses and disgusts not only Hamodia readers, but all decent, civilized and moral people - of all religious beliefs. Your pride and delight that Israel has become a world-leader in depravity and debasement says much about you and your publication.

As for Ian Bersten's repetitive attacks on the Torah and his predictable idiotic comments again proves that this man is a total ignoramus as well as an apikorus (if an ignoramus can qualify for this title.)