Tuesday 29 October 2013

AN ODE TO THE ABC TEA LADY ET AL!

I wish to draw attention that prior to ABC TV Lateline programme on Monday 28/10, the luvvies at ABC HQTRS decided to advertise their incipient CATALYST programme this coming Thursday 31/10. 

It was so advertised at APPROX 10 30 pm last night 28/10 ABC TV.


  • It [Catalyst 31/10] will be a continuum of their pathetic, outrageous and DANGEROUS episode of CATALYST last THURSDAY,
  • ABC PM ALSO LAST THURSDAY
  • AND THE CONTINUED IDIOCY AS PER LAST NIGHT'S PM PROGRAMME...see earlier links this blog.
  • AS WELL AS THAT UNPRECEDENTED ADVT JUST BEFORE LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE OF [ABC TV] LATELINE!

All the above is available - context understandable - per all of my posts yesterday and earlier today.

I find no record of this advert on ABC sites.
Indeed I would not expect to easily find such classical examplars of what the ABC is plainly now doing to itself - without any help from great episodes of Yes Minister *****

 I am aghast at this obvious pathetic inglorious stubborn streak. MANIFEST IF MERELY IN THEIR DETERMINATION TO BE SEEN AS 'INDEPENDENT'!! 

THIS CHILDISH*** ??? YEARNING - WHICH REMINDS ME OF THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AND THE INFAMOUS EPISODE RE THE YES MINISTER EPISODE OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE BBC - IS ASTONISHING. [see above and below****] I have yet to find the words from BBC Chairman about the ''independence of the BBC!
**** actually children have common sense.....

It is all so pathetically manifest in ABC refusal to accept that:

  1. Their programme directors AND  researchers messed up in seeking out easily discreditable entities.
  2. Never mind the sheer stupidity of content.
  3. Never mind the dead give - away in their easily - impeachable sources indicting themselves -  by plainly indicting themselves -  IF ONLY IN THEIR USE OF THE CLASSICAL ALTERNATIVE QUACKERY WORDS 'FREE RADICALS' AND 'ANTI - OXIDANTS' Text of Catalyst  is available by clicking below.
  4. No one - from the progenitors of this curious catatonic programme...
  5. to the people who conducted the interviews with quacks and charlatans..
  6. To the editors...
  7. The programme director...
  8. To the Chairman.....

.......all are guilty of manifest, aggressive stupidity. From the ABC tea lady who refused to blow the lid on the things she heard to the cleaners!! Or the managing director's driver - none have been whistleblowers. Oh I forgot - they are ABC workers too.

Plainly theABC have no hope of surviving if even the tea lady, cleaners and drivers cannot be relied on.....they are all ensconced in their culture.

Indeed there may be no easily - found record of this self - serving attempt by the denizens of ABC indepence - protective instinct which can be viewed....but I have spent too much time looking!
Geoff Seidner
East St Kilda



heart-1_small.jpg
Heart of the Matter Part 1 - Dietary Villains
This Catalyst special Dr Maryanne Demasi investigates the science behind the long established claims that saturated fat causes heart disease by raising cholesterol.>> more












*****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister


******
http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/yes_prime_minister_2013/

Unprecedented ABC lunacy continues! PM - 28/10/13

See yesterday's three [3] posts on this blog!

GS

Professor wants ABC science program pulled



Tom Nightingale reported this story on Monday, October 28, 2013 18:35:00

DAVID MARK: A leading public health physician is warning the ABC not to air a second program on cholesterol, warning it will result in deaths.

Last week Catalyst claimed the notion that saturated fat and cholesterol causes heart disease is the biggest myth of medical history.

This Thursday's program is about anti-cholesterol drugs, known as statins.

The chair of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicines, Professor Emily Banks, has written to the ABC in a private capacity, warning the program might cause people not to take their drugs.

As Tom Nightingale reports, she says that will lead to more cardiovascular disease events and deaths.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: The drugs that lower cholesterol are known as statins, and they're widely used in Australia. 

Professor Emily Banks is with the Australian National University. 

EMILY BANKS: And if people stop using their statins or if they don't start them when they should be, it's very likely that it will result in death.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Professor Banks also chairs the national Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicines. 

She's written to the ABC to try to stop the Catalyst television program on statins being broadcast on Thursday night. 

EMILY BANKS: So it's likely that if this program goes ahead, and it does the unwarranted undermining of statins, that there will be people who didn't have to have a heart attack and didn't have to die from a heart attack, who will die through reducing use of statins.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: This Thursday's scheduled program is the second in a two-part series. Promotions say it examines how the benefits of statins have been exaggerated.

Professor Banks is highly critical of last week's program, which claimed the science linking cholesterol with heart disease is not as conclusive as widely thought.

EMILY BANKS: Now we have overwhelming evidence from studies of over 900,000 participants showing a strong and graded increase in the risk of heart disease with increasing cholesterol levels. But what we saw on Maryanne Demasi's report, was a series of anecdotes from, I think what would be broadly termed fringe dwelling scientists or people who weren't actually scientists, criticising things about the cholesterol myth.

But actually it's one of the relationships that we have the strongest evidence for.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: That's last week's program. What do you know about what the content is of this week's program?

EMILY BANKS: I don't have a lot of detail about what's going to be in this week's program but I understand it's the same journalist and I understand that the target this time is about use of statins for prevention of heart disease. And I'm just going on last week's show, which really said that cholesterol was a myth, which is clearly incorrect, that there's going to be some similar treatment of use of statins. 

TOM NIGHTINGALE: You were talking about the evidence base for the Catalyst program's assertions, but you don't think it should be aired despite not knowing what the content is?

EMILY BANKS: Well I suppose my concern is that I've already seen what that journalist has said, and the way the journalist has dealt with it on the first Catalyst program. And all I can say is that I am afraid that there will be a similar treatment of the statin issue in the coming program.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Is there an argument though that there should be a debate, debate shouldn't be shut down, science should be questioned? Medicine should be questioned? 

EMILY BANKS: Well look, I'm absolutely for informed debate but what this does was really inappropriately call into question some of the things where we do have really solid large scale evidence.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: The series producer of Catalyst, Ingrid Arnott, told PM the program stands by its claims and has research to back them up. She also says this week's program is asking questions but not telling viewers to stop taking statins. 

Doctor Steve Hambleton is the president of the Australian Medical Association. He thinks the program should go to air. 

STEVE HAMBLETON: Well I think we have to have a debate. And I think that there needs to balance. We need to, as medical professionals, justify why we choose drugs. We do criticise others for not acting on evidence. We need to be judged by the same criteria. So if there's a good reason to take it we should be able to explain it, and we should be able to explain the risks and the benefits of any treatment.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: As the head of the peak doctor's body in Australia, do you agree with the assertion that cholesterol is a myth that's been over-hyped for years and years and years?

STEVE HAMBLETON: Well I'm not so sure I agree with that. I think that we know that when we look at the studies like the North American study which studied an entire town, we know that those with high cholesterol are over-represented with heart attacks. We also know that only explains half the problem, and that cardiologists will tell us that there are people having heart attacks with normal cholesterol.

But as I say, there's a balance. The Framingham Study, that's the town in North America, tells us that if you've got high cholesterol you're at increased risk. It doesn't tell us the whole story though.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: PM asked ABC Television if the program will air as scheduled on Thursday. 

A spokesman says it will, and that it's an important contribution to medical debate. 

And the program will include a note advising viewers it's not intended as medical advice.

DAVID MARK: Tom Nightingale.



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  • TOM NIGHTINGALE
  • Cholesterol
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18:35:00 28/10/2013

Professor wants ABC science program pulled

A distinguished epidemiologist wants the ABC to scrap this week's edition of the science television program, Catalyst. Professor Emily Banks says she hasn't seen any transcripts but believes the program will criticise the drugs used to lower cholesterol levels, known as statins. The ABC says it stands by the program. MORE
jgyttyhtyhrht

Monday 28 October 2013

to AMA...Your comment and action elicited

 
 
From: g87
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 1:52 PM
Subject: to AMA...Your comment and action elicited.. re RETRACTION DEMANDED FROM ABC
 

Manager AMA
I write to inform you re the below: your comment and incipient action is requested.
I have no medical or scientific training – nor do I have the benefits of a tertiary education.
I GET BY...
Regards
Geoff Seidner
East St Kilda
 
 
 
 
Dear Mr Turnbull, Deputy PM Ms Julie Bishop
I draw your attention via above link to the highly dangerous misinformation – plainly a resurrection of that charlatan Atkins of earlier times.
 
I respectfully demand that the ABC retract, redact – or do what they  MUST do without their multiple distortions.
 
Could you pass this on to the ABC board members to ensure they become aware of the long – term responsibility they will hold.
 
Yours Sincerely
Geoff Seidner
13 Alston Gr
East St Kilda 3183
03 9 525 9299
 
 

Atkins died a fat man - Medical News Today 

www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/5822.php
Dr. Atkins, the founder of the Atkins diet was apparently obese when he died (aged 72). His diet, called the ... Before his death he had a history of heart disease.

Correspondences re acid reflux and oesophageal cancer risk

From: g87
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 12:39 PM
To: 
Subject: Please read the below....Shalom...

Dear .....
Kindly note that the ABC cannot be relied on for even basic commentary on the news, legal matters wherein years ago they created a sham, innocence claim promoted by the hooligans’ bushlawyer /  attractive girlfriend or medical matters!
SEE LINK BELOW!! .........highlighted yellow.
However they SEEM to be correct in what they claim with respect to the cancer risks of uncontrolled acid reflux and  oesophageal cancer !
See below as per our correspondences
Regards
Geoff S
##############################################
##################################################
From:
Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2013 11:12 PM
To: g87
Subject: Re: Shalom ....
Hi Geoff
Thanks for that. I am seeing my doctor tomorrow at the Alfred Hospital. Thanks




On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 4:45 AM, g87 <g87@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
The medicine I use is PARIET 10 mg.
Is also available in 20 mg
TRY the 10 mg once a day for a few days – your discomfort should disappear!
AND ALL OTHER POTENTIAL PROBS should be eliminated
Regards
Geoff
I include the ABC programme pasted on my blog for easy reading    http://standarddocs.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/abc-pm-genetic-breakthrough-in.html


    1. PM - Genetic breakthrough in oesophageal cancer research ... - ABC 

      www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3868736.htm

      Oct 14, 2013 - PETER LLOYD: New Australian-led research is linking a certain type ofheartburn to oesophageal cancer. It's a small breakthrough in ...

    2. Heartburn, acid reflux can turn into deadly cancer - ABC Action News 

      www.abcactionnews.com/.../heartburn-acid-reflux-can-turn-into-deadly-...

      Jun 17, 2013 - Millions of Americans suffer from acid reflux and take antacids to ... I hope you'll join me Tuesday, June 18 at 5:00 p.m. on ABC Action News.
    Subject: FORMAL EMAIL NOTICE #1
    Kindly note that essentially there is no need for me to send emails of my ‘works’ to most people on my lists: you need merely the links below.
    I will send emails from time to time for disparate reasons.
    Note my personal details:
    Geoff Seidner
    13 Alston Gr
    East St Kilda 3183
    Tel: 03 9525 9299..... 03 9525 9290
    Alternative email: geoffseidner@gmail.com
    ######################################################################################################################
    THESE TWO PAIRS OF BLOGS ARE THE ONES I USE CURRENTLY.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    The pair of blogs belowmay be discontinued.
    There are hundreds of entries of disparate current interest.
  • RETRACTION DEMAND: ABC ARE NOW INTO MEGA CHARLATANISTIC QUACKERY!




    Dear Mr Turnbull, Deputy PM Ms Julie Bishop
    I draw your attention via above link to the highly dangerous misinformation – plainly a resurrection of that charlatan Atkins of earlier times.
    I respectfully demand that the ABC retract, redact – or do what they  MUST do without their multiple distortions.
    Could you pass this on to the ABC board members to ensure they become aware of the long – term responsibility they will hold.
    Yours Sincerely
    Geoff Seidner
    13 Alston Gr
    East St Kilda 3183
    03 9 525 9299

    Atkins died a fat man - Medical News Today 

    www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/5822.php
    Dr. Atkins, the founder of the Atkins diet was apparently obese when he died (aged 72). His diet, called the ... Before his death he had a history of heart disease.




    ABC ARE NOW INTO MEGA CHARLATANISTIC QUACKERY!

    To say they should be ashamed of themselves for running AND massively promoting junk that is simultaneously an astonishing insult to the intelligence is an understatement.


    1. Never mind the classical conspiracy theorists touted by the denizens of dumbness.
    2. Never mind that all their charlatans are provable charlatans AKA quacks.
    3. Never mind that the insult to the intelligence lies in the fact that the above lunatics were unable to impress anyone else to run these idiocies: good old ABC - one can rely on them to give you unorthodox provable asinity which anyone with half the average allocated neurons by GAIA*** would be able to work out. And here is the rub - the penultimate insult: ALL THIS CAN BE WORKED OUT EFFORTLESSLY, SEAMLESSLY BY ONESELF!! DO NOT BOTHER GOOGLING ANY OF THE BELOW - either PM or the much - promoted Catalyst ex Thursday night ABC TV.
    4. Anyone curious to contemplate the ULTIMATYE insult? It is the plain fact that 'NO ONE' IS / WAS / EVER WILL DISCUSS any of this pap.
    5. What about the other obvious fact - no one in the medical profession will be sued as a result of this asinine programme. One would think that some person would sue, non? Someone must have died of heart disease - and the progeny would use the above of building a prima - facie case? THERE IS NO ONE!!
    6. THE ABC have distorted politics.
    7. They have played pathetic legal games a few years ago in trying to prove the innocence of hooligans..research to come.
    8. Now they insist on finding new ways of humiliating themselves. Why? Have they no one with the elemental accumen to work things out?
    9. Pathetically this is the way they are.
    10. I will send a link of this to ABC HQTRS - I suggest they will not even be ashamed of being imbeciles! No doubt they will claim I am offensive herein: congratulations - they are responsible for not mismanaging and distorting matters of potential import - dangerous import - if anyone takes their advice!
    11. I demand a retraction - I will write said retraction for them!
    Geoff Seidner

    Thursday 24 October 2013

    heart-1_small.jpg
    Heart of the Matter Part 1 - Dietary Villains
    This Catalyst special Dr Maryanne Demasi investigates the science behind the long established claims that saturated fat causes heart disease by raising cholesterol.>> more

    Thursday 17 October


    http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3876403.htm

    Scientific links betweem cholesterol and heart disease called into question


    Peter Lloyd reported this story on Thursday, October 24, 2013 18:34:00

    PETER LLOYD: For the last 40-odd years we've been told that saturated fat clogs our arteries and that high cholesterol causes heart disease.

    But an investigation by the ABC TV program Catalyst has revealed that link has never been proven, and the majority of people taking drugs to lower their cholesterol won't live any longer.

    Dr Maryanne Demasi is the host of Catalyst.

    MARYANNE DEMASI: The idea first gained traction in the '50s by an American nutritionist called Ancel Keys and he was curious to find out what this sharp rise in heart disease was caused by after World War II. And he hypothesised that maybe diet had something to do with it and he thought that saturated fat and cholesterol would build up in the arteries, clog the arteries and cause heart disease.

    So he went about to do a quite ambitious study where he looked at the fat consumption of certain countries and he measured that up against the level of heart disease in these countries and he chose six countries. And it was almost a perfect correlation: the more fat you had, the increased risk of heart disease.

    PETER LLOYD: Just one problem, though?

    MARYANNE DEMASI: There was just one problem. There was actually data available for 22 different countries and even the American Heart Association wasn't convinced at the time and people looked closer at the data and when you actually plot all 22 different countries, the correlation isn't quite as perfect as it seemed.

    So people were already off-side with the idea that Ancel Keys had virtually cherry-picked the data and he was accused of scientific fraud, for deliberately withholding data that would affect his hypothesis.

    And I think that's been a common criticism of mainstream ideas around this diet heart hypothesis, is that those who feel very strongly about saturated fat and cholesterol causing heart disease only look at the data that supports their ideas and seem to ignore or excuse other data that refutes their hypothesis.

    PETER LLOYD: So would it now be correct to say that the cholesterol theory of heart disease is based on a medical myth?

    MARYANNE DEMASI: Well, this is what our experts are arguing. We're not saying that cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease. It's certainly involved with the build-up of the atherosclerotic plaque, but the question is: what actually causes the plaque to form in the first place?

    So we explore some of the alternate views about how damage actually begins in the artery wall and one of the theories is that the high pressure of blood that's coursing through the arteries actually causes damage on that thin lining that lines the inside of your arteries.

    And we know atherosclerosis actually begins when you're a foetus, and it's a chronic disease that progresses for years and years and years. So it's not something that just happens when you're older. I mean, this has been happening for years and years and years in your arteries.

    PETER LLOYD: And these scientists in your film say cholesterol is found at the scene of the crime but it isn't the criminal?

    MARYANNE DEMASI: It isn't the perpetrator. That's what they say. It's like blaming firemen for causing fires just because they're always at the scene of the crime.

    PETER LLOYD: It begs the question, then: what is the cause? Is it sugar?

    MARYANNE DEMASI: Well, I think one the hypotheses is that we've been so focused on cholesterol that we haven't really looked at other causes, and we know that because fats - especially saturated fats - have been so demonised in the '80s, we've taken all of the fat out of our food and replaced it with sugar.

    So we know that people have had an increase in the level of carbohydrate in their diets because they've been so desperately trying to lower the fat in their diet. 

    Now the evidence is coming out that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet is actually worse for heart disease.

    So the National Heart Foundation are not really going to turn around and say, oh, you know, oops. We've made a mistake here. They're now just sort of slightly shifting the goal posts and saying, well okay, all right. Maybe it wasn't low fat. Maybe we jumped to conclusions. We know that high-carbohydrate diets are not so good for us. Maybe we need to switch to polyunsaturated fats, the vegetable oils that you find in a lot of processed foods.

    PETER LLOYD: Why is it so hard for them to admit that they're wrong and they've been telling us the wrong story?

    MARYANNE DEMASI: Well, there might be litigation involved. I mean, there's a lot of money involved. It's scientists' reputation at stake. I think that it would be difficult to acknowledge that the last 30 or 40 years, if you've concentrated on this area in your research career, to turn around and say, well, yeah. You know, I've been looking in the wrong place.

    And we know that, you know, a Mediterranean diet and exercise and cutting smoking is going to reduce your risk more than any medication that lowers your cholesterol. 

    PETER LLOYD: That's Dr Maryanne Demasi. And you can watch part one of Catalyst's special tonight at 8pm on ABC1, and there's an extended version of that interview on our webpage shortly.


    Sunday 27 October 2013

    BRIILIANT GLICK! Our World: The bothersome, annoying truth




    Not much shocks me anymore - but Caroline Glick's brilliant synopsis of the multi - layered evil in our midst
    is almost impossible to believe!
    See below.
    And Ilan Pappe is in the middle of it all!

    Geoff Seidner
    See some of my links as well.
    Geoff Seidner




    http://www.carolineglick.com/

    http://www.jpost.com/

    http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Our-World-The-bothersome-annoying-truth-328715


    10/14/2013 22:35



    Our World: The bothersome, annoying truth






    Israel’s rights and justness are grounded in truth. But today truth isn’t worth as much as it used to be. Those who fight for it find themselves routinely maligned as close-minded extremists.


    Theater [illustrative]

    Theater [illustrative] Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank

    A controversy is raging in the Washington, DC, Jewish community involving the local JCC (DCJCC) and its in-house Theater J. While a local tale, it is a distressing encapsulation of Israel’s predicament.

    Israel’s rights and justness are grounded in truth. But today truth isn’t worth as much as it used to be. Those who fight for it find themselves routinely maligned as close-minded extremists. Those who trounce it are congratulated for being open-minded and fair.

    Last month Theater J announced its Spring 2014 schedule.

    The schedule includes a play called The Admission.

    Authored by an Israeli named Motti Lerner, the play is a dramatization of what is euphemistically known as the “Tantura Affair.”

    In 2000, Maariv published an article describing the Master’s thesis of a student at the University of Haifa named Teddy Katz. Teddy Katz’s thesis purported to document a previously unknown massacre during Israel’s War of Independence. He alleged that in May 1948 the IDF murdered 250 Arab civilians after winning a battle in the town of Tantura.

    The article caused an uproar. Veterans of the battle sued Katz for libel. They won. Indeed, in testimony before the district court judge Katz admitted his thesis was a fabrication.

    Katz later recanted his admission and appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling that Katz had libeled the soldiers. The university appointed a panel of scholars to review his research materials. They found Katz had fabricated statements he alleged came from interviews with eyewitnesses.

    The university cancelled its acceptance of Katz’s thesis.

    Had that been the end of that, the “Tantura Affair” – that is, Katz’s blood libel against the IDF – would have been long forgotten. But Katz’s academic supervisor, then-senior lecturer at Haifa and celebrated anti-Israel propagandist Ilan Pappe, refused to let the truth get in his way.

    Pappe rewrote the history of the “Tantura Affair.” In Pappe’s telling, Katz heroically revealed the truth about the evil core of the Jewish state, and was then persecuted for going against Zionist orthodoxy.

    Pappe has won international acclaim and prestige by being among the most outspoken, virulent foes of Israel in academia with an Israeli passport. He has openly called for Israel’s destruction.

    He is also an admitted liar.

    Benny Morris wrote of Pappe that his “contempt for historical truth and factual accuracy is almost boundless.”

    As Pappe sees it, truth is only important if it is aligned with his ideological goal. The French newspaper Le Soir quoted him saying, “The struggle is about ideology, not about facts. Who knows what facts are? We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truthseekers.”

    For his part, Lerner, who has dramatized Katz’s blood libel, was quoted by The Washington Post saying that his purpose wasn’t to tell the truth, either. “The play is trying to suggest that these historical memories [of what happened at Tantura] have to be explored and revised continuously in order to create a solid basis for reconciliation between the two people.”

    The “revised” – that is, false – memory Lerner seeks to create serves a clear purpose. By portraying the Jews as murderers and as the aggressors in 1948 and the Arabs as their victims, he wishes to convince everyone that it is okay for the Arabs to continue seeking Israel’s destruction, and for the world to keep pressuring the Jewish state for more unilateral concessions. Only if justice is solely on the side of the Arabs is it possible to promote “compromises” in which the Jewish state makes endless concessions to the Arabs, and in return receives terrorism, war and hatred.

    The true history of Israel’s War of Independence in which local Arabs, assisted by invading Arab armies attacked the Jews of Israel with the declared purpose of annihilating them, is inconvenient for the likes of Lerner and Pappe. They have no use for the fact that every area conquered by the Arabs was rendered Jew-free, by massacre or expulsion. They certainly don’t want anyone to know about the heroism of Jews who defended themselves and their nascent state, and prevailed, albeit at great cost.

    Recognizing the propaganda effort at play with The Admission, a group of local Washington, DC, activists launched a protest. Volunteers with a group called Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art (COPMA) have demanded that the Jewish Federation of Washington, DC, defund Theater J and the DCJCC for spreading anti-Israel propaganda whose goal is to defame Israel and romanticize its enemies.

    This is not COPMA’s first run-in with Theater J. COPMA was formed in 2009 following Theater J’s decision to produce the anti-Semitic diatribe Seven Jewish Children. The work portrays Jewish parents as monsters who train their children to become murderers. In a mere 1,300 words, it criminalizes as mass murderers the entire Jewish population of Israel for crimes that were never committed.

    Ari Roth has served as the artistic director of Theater J for the past 17 years. He decided to produce Seven Jewish Children, and another libelous anti-Israel play written by a Palestinian terrorist in 2011. And he decided to produce The Admission.

    From Roth’s statements since COPMA raised the current outcry, it is apparent that he holds truth in the same contempt as Pappe and Lerner. Roth wrote on Theater J’s website, “At least three Israeli historians wrote different versions of the conquest of Tantura: from the right, Yoav Gelber; from the center, Benny Morris, and from the left, Ilan Pappe.”

    As COPMA pointed out, however, Pappe admits to prizing the cause of Israel’s destruction above truth, and Morris and Gelber have stated unequivocally that there was no massacre at Tantura.

    Roth’s statement then is the equivalent of a person saying that since a dozen professors have written about the tooth fairy, she must exist, (even though they wrote that there is no tooth fairy).

    Rather than weigh COPMA’s truthful claims against Roth’s obscene distortions and block the production of the play or fire Roth, the DCJCC’s leadership and the Federation have circled the wagons around Roth and Theater J.

    Speaking to The Washington Post, DCJCC’s chief executive Carole R. Zawatsky defended Roth and attacked COPMA.

    “COPMA,” she said, “would love to see us close down the conversation, and our intention is to open up a conversation.”

    In other words, a blood libel depicting Israeli soldiers – and the society that supports them – as mass murderers, is not beyond the pale. It is the beginning of an important conversation regarding whether or not Israel is a criminal state born in war crimes.

    From the perspective of those who place ideology over facts, this is the best of all possible outcomes. Supporters of Israel – and of truth – are forced to spend hours gathering evidence to prove that a lie is false. Meanwhile those who propagate it are free to play the victim of a McCarthyite attempt to silence them. And then, they can have a debate that places on Israel the burden of proving that the lie you just watched on stage is untrue and maliciously so.

    The saga of The Admission is the saga of Israel in our upside down world today. Here we are, we truthtellers, maligned for our attachment to facts by those who in the service of their goal to destroy what is most important, have convinced themselves and their followers that truth is nothing special. Indeed, that it is bothersome and annoying.