After a senior Fairfax exec attacked Ted Lapkin for taking exception to Leunig's cartoon, I wrote to the SMH that anyone who criticised Leunig should be praised for their discernment. Sadly, the SMH chose not to publish my dissenting voice.

If you take Leunig's recent Ariel Sharon cartoon as an example. (The one where a comatose Sharon has enough life to be able to lift a finger to order the death of an old Palestinian man):

The point surely is that men as powerful as Sharon would order such acts with the wink of an eye, the nod of a head or the turning of a 'blind eye'. The 'thumbs down' was used to order the deaths of gladiators, was it not?

Leunig quite legitimately portrays Sharon as quite capable of such an act. All those who have been so critical of the Islamic response to the Danish cartoons, and say they believe in free speech, seem less vocal when it is the 'West' which is being ridiculed.

Just listen to the deafening silence from the right when this Government brought in the recent so called Sedition laws.

Israel has a lot to answer for. So do the Palestinian terrorists. But just because violence is conducted by a State Government, does not make it legitimate. Even more reason in fact why it should be the subject of scrutiny and ridicule.

People of Leunig's immense creativity and humanity are rare in Australia, and of course the right wing elites will do their best to destroy him.

Anti-Zionism is just the new-age slogan to Anti-Jews or "The disbelievers"

Islam's Hatred of the Jews (and Christians) started with Mohammad 14 centuries ago.

Some quotes from Mo's terrorist manual:

2:6-7 "As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not. Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom."

2:286, 3:147 "Give us victory over the disbelieving folk."

3:28 "Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers."

3:32 "Allah loveth not the disbelievers."

3:56 "As for those who disbelieve I shall chastise them with a heavy chastisement in the world and the Hereafter; and they will have no helpers."

3:85 "Whoso seeketh as religion other than the Surrender (to Allah) it will not be accepted from him, and he will be a loser in the Hereafter."

4:91 "Take them and kill them wherever ye find them. Against such We have given you clear warrant."

4:101 "The disbelievers are an open enemy to you."

4:144 "Choose not disbelievers for (your) friends in place of believers. Would ye give Allah a clear warrant against you?"

5:51 "Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. ... He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them."

8:39 "Fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah."

9:5 "Slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush."

9:29 "Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah."

9:73 "Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey's end."

Leunig is a depressed-looking, whingeing middle aged man badly needing a haircut. Not unlike many left wing malcontents who think their views on everything are the right ones. He gets all whiney and victimish when criticised or accused.

He is entitled to be pro or anti anything he pleases, but he is not someone we need to concern oursleves with. The day we look to cartoonists for anything but a laugh will be a sad one.

This is hardly a surprising article echoing from the mainstream voice. Agreed, Leunig’s cartoons are often extreme and radical, but that’s entirely the angle. He is making a political point, and instead of whining about its extremity and ‘anti-Zionism’ perhaps the state of Israel can sit up and take notes. If 100 innocent civilians die, it doesn’t matter how it happened. The end result is what matters, and for that reason there is little difference between the tactics of both sides in this conflict.

Oh an as for ‘abusing of the Holocaust for political gain’, seems a tad hypocritical to me. Perhaps a quick read of Norman Finkelstein’s book ‘The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, Verso, New York, 2000’ would offer some insight on the topic…

The headline of the Philip Mendes article "The strange dalliance between Michael Leunig and Iranian Holocaust deniers" is not supported by the article - it is totally misleading to talk of any "daliance". What connection has Leunig with Iran?

Does Leunig wish to deny history or to use his cartoons to attack Jewish people OR does he merely want to point out that more recent history needs more balance than it gets in the mainstream media.

While Mendes is entitled to the moderate [but in my view wrong] views expressed in his article, his attack on Leunig's mentioning the Holocaust as an ironic backdrop to current Israeli oppression of Palestinians is unreasonable. It may offend some who see the symbols of the Holocaust as sacred and off-limits for all but reverant mention, but it is not invalid to mention the irony of a nation that finds itself committing human rights violations in its own defence against the historical background of the circumstances of the formation of their nation.

If the media was more ethical and even-handed, it would report EVERY violation of human rights, including those perpetrated by Palestinians AND Israellies. Leunig provides a small contribution to a more balanced media.

Britains most decorated war correspondent, Robert Fisk, has produced a book "The Great War for Civilisation" which puts western media to shame on these issues for what they have ignored. In March Fisk is lecturing in Sydney [6th & 10th] and Canberra [9th] and at the Adelaide Writers Festival [8th & 9th].