Dear Dirk
I can see in the short term at least that we are going to ‘come to blows’... the verbal kind :)
In the spirit of robust debate, I will bypass any lengthy defense of my ‘nasty’ email (as you characterize it) most of which was actually in my POST to this forum.
What I attacked in that email and my post was your reasoning, and I raised some questions as to why that reasoning may have been (in my opinion) skewed. I would hardly call that ‘nasty’. Learn to roll with the punches Dirk, as we all have to.

Now.. your article. Lets subject it to some further scrutiny.

You wrote that Andrew Morton in The Australian described

Lebanese Australian men are members of “gangs” while the youths of Anglo-Cronulla are merely “beachgoers”

Sure, he did use such a sentence, but you could have chosen this one from his same article:

“They (some of the vocal/violent anglo’s) understood that a riot wasn't the way to deal with their anger at misbehaving Lebanese gangs.”

Which clearly shows that the anger of the Anglo ‘beach goers’ was directed not against the Lebanese community as a whole, but against the GANGS. Why does he mention gangs ?
Perhaps because they exist ? The Arncliff boys, Telopea st Boys, Punchbowl boys etc.
Every suburb has its ‘boys’ along with the name of the suburb. There are white ‘boys’ and ethnic ‘boys’. We have them in Melbourne.

Apparently those gangs were coming down looking for trouble each weekend. (did you miss those reports ?) So, it seems to me that you were intent on characterizing Anglo Aussies as racist, and Media reports as biased, and wished to support that view by selective quotes which suited your purpose. To do so is a racist act. (-also nasty)and we reject it.

FYI My attitude to Jews is found in Romans 9 why not read it ? http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=52&chapter=9&version=31
I have an aversion to ANY group (including Anglos and Germans) using its ethnic power for UNjust manipulation of others. (Opium Trade/Wars! Anglos+Jews)

Boaz wrote: "FYI My attitude to Jews is found in Romans 9"

BD - can you not even formulate an opinion without the bible?

How about:

<<my attitude to Jews is based on live and let live, just are there a good and bad christians there are good and bad Jews>>?

You make a great deal of noise about not being racist - yet you continue to label.

One would hope that contributors to discussion on OLO posts could do so with an open mind, not dependent on reference to scripture. The last refuge for people who don't have an argument or the ability to debate. An immediate indication of their dogmatism whilst claiming to be free thinkers.
Don't despair, they expose themselves for what they are.

BD,

The last two posts have been directed at you mainly. Have you registered them?

What was nasty was not your misreading of the Norton and other articles, not even the silly accusation that my reading is racist. It was your inappropriate question about my own ethnicity. For someone with an unhealthy interest in Jews, your choice of OLO name is interesting.

But to deal with the media bais: it does not matter what some Anglos said the day after the pogrom. The question is why it was targeted at all 'Leb' and 'Wog' looking people. It's the excess that needs explaining, and you've not addressed it once. I suspect you won't -- or can't -- because it would threaten your embattled sense of national identity. Who is the 'we' you speak about in your last posting? Does it include Lebs and Wogs?

It's the origin of such distinctions that I've asked you to reflect on a few times now. Critical reflection is hard for us all. It requires, above all, difficult emotional work, distancing ourselves from cherished fantasies about how great 'our group' is. Every group/ethnicity/nationality tends to collective narcissism, especially when it feels threatened. That goes for those Australian-Lebanese gangs no less than for the Anglo ones.

It is entirely appropriate that the press and public revile those revenge attacks on 12 December. The problem is the way it is reported. Paul Sheehan's language in the Herald yesterday was typical of the poor analyses and language choice of so many journalists. What do these gangs have to do with ALP branch stacking? Nothing. And why write ‘belligerent swarms of young Lebanese men’ to describe those youths who are Australian. Swarming is how you write about animals. Yes, I know there is primitive behaviour, and I have female friends who've had a hard time at Bankstown station because of it. Addressing these problems won't be furthered by the hysterical commentaries of Sheehan and his ilk. What is your constructive contribution, BD?

Dear Boaz_David

Yarweh & Son here. We have some familiarity with the tracts you use and abuse. J and I have tried to teach love and respect for all my children. But here you are again suspecting all and sundry of being Jewish as if that were an abomination and relevant to discussion. This is crude and vulgar sociology of knowledge. Crude, because it assumes substantive arguments are appropriately engaged by reducing them to the personal circumstances of those who are enunciating them. Vulgar, because we have observed how you repeatedly do this specifically in regard to those you suspect of being Jewish. This is plain nasty, and unbefitting of a committed Christian. You have chosen to identify with your Scottish roots and the Christian side of my ethical teaching. That is wonderful, but only if honourably witnessed. Remember, there are many ways of serving me. Neither forget nor deride your own Jewish ancestry, as your distinctive Jewish name bears witness. “Sit thee under the Boaz (Boab) tree,” as I once instructed. Thou shalt remember, too, my beloved J.’s message was to “turn the other cheek”, not show it.

Peace be with you…especially whilst shaving

Dirk

Part 1

pogrom
n : organized persecution of an ethnic group

Riot

n : a disturbance of the peace created by an assemblage of usually three or more people acting with a common purpose and in a violent and tumultuous manner to the terror of the public;

So was it a riot or a pogrom?

I never knew Sir Nicholas Shehadie or Premier Bracks were of Lebanese extraction. I in my ignorance I just thought they were Australians with unusual names…like mine.
As Australians I think Sir Nicholas a great bloke, a true leader and a terrific second rower but Premier Bracks an awful Premier and a disgraceful politician, I don’t know if he played footie… .
Who is Marie Bashir? Is she the equivalent of Queensland’s Quentin Bryce but with a couple of irrelevant differences? Did she play footie?

There are many ways of attacking your arguments but I prefer a positive outlook to refute them. Even though I thought and thought I found nothing I could say rivals the laid back and positive view Australians take and which is so forthrightly expressed in the following quoted post. This is the sort of thing my breviloquent truckie mates would say if really offended. Those are the people you disparage with the half smart inferences contained in the following:

‘There is a lot of almost wilful anti-intellectualism in our society, a rage against critical reflection, as our truckie friend Keith exhibits: we who do real mens’ work, doing it tough in the real world know better than you smarty-pants, pansy academics.’

Mate I wouldn't call my truckie mates narssistic, especially the shelias. After they had enquired what it mean’t they would have a good old fashioned laugh at you for your stupidity in labelling them something they know they aren’t. You’d be regarded as a fool for mouthing such inappropriate insults. They would sense your ego couldn’t handle such contempt and they would know you’d spit the dummy and turn violent … towards them all