Thank you Mr. Alan Matheson for an interesting and informative article on a topic I had no previous information about.

An excellent article. But what you describe is just the tip of the iceberg. AIJAC runs a veritable shuttle service between Australia and Israel for Australian journalists and politicians. Hands up any Australian political wannabee who HASN'T yet been duchessed by AIJAC and the Israeli foreign ministry? The latest Australian Jewish News has this little item on page 6: "A group of senior Liberal and Labor political advisers and young political leaders arrived in Israel on Monday for a six-day visit...etc, etc" I agree with you, I fully understand Israel's and their AIJAC lobby group's interest in laying such junkets on, but those who allow themselves to be used in this way...that's the real worry!

Alan Matheson makes unfounded allegations - he believes want to wants to believe. In reality Maureen Potsma from the VCC, who was on the trip, did report on her engagement with Palestian Christians, which was posted on the Victorian Council of Churches website for weeks, a source which Matheson did not think to consult. He seems to be well-disposed to "partisan lobby groups" - after all he works for one - but only as long as they support HIS causes.
Matheson's record of contributions to online opinion speaks for itself: it is invariably critical of Christians and Christians churches for one reason or another (the reason varies, the cause remains the same). An employee of the ACTU, this appears to be his mission as an onlineopinion author - to attack Christians for their political incorrectness.

MJD: Their "political incorrectness" or their complete failure to take an unequivocal moral stand at the relentless daily abuse dished out to the Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian? Going to Israel at the expense of AIJAC and the Israeli Foreign Ministry is no different to going to apartheid South Africa as the guest of that government. How anyone who purports to have an interest in distinguishing between what is right and wrong can lend themselves to such an exercise is beyond belief.