The washed-up, old, hacks who compile this column have lost a lot of their skills but can still detect bullshit a mile away when newspaper editors explain why they’ve taken certain action against something that’s appeared in their journals.

One of them said: “I love the smell of desperation in the morning!” and he was referring to the grovelling apology issued by the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald for the publication of this Cathy Wilcox cartoon last Wednesday (above).

Added another Bug staff cynic (is that a tautology?): “Fuck, I never knew the SMH had so many paid subs in the eastern suburbs!”

So what gave the game away that this apology took a great amount of creative work to sound almost convincing? Was it the eight paragraphs devoted almost entirely to the paper’s decision to support a federal royal commission into the Bondi Beach murders? And how wonderful they were to do that. Even gave the other side a run too.

That took up a lot of the space. But before that, was it the contradictory messaging that while the paper acknowledged the distress it caused members of the Jewish community following the Bondi Junction attack, it also defended the role of editorial independence and free expression across its mastheads?

Did that put a smile on your face, Cathy? Not just the contradictory nature of it but also the SMH’s penchant for placing all Jews in a collective group. …the distress it caused members … not some members or a section of that community. That’s not done by accident.

There’s that smile again. Nine said the cartoon had prompted significant hurt, particularly among Jewish readers, despite the company’s intention to scrutinise what it described as the rapid politicisation of the tragedy. Note once again: among Jewish readers … not some Jewish readers.

Shit, Cathy! We may be silly old sausages here at the MGH but that surely was the point of your cartoon. We’ve got no doubt whatsoever that the beating of the anti-semitic drum over the Bondi Beach massacre was a shameful politicisation of that tragedy, egged on by Newscorpse but not, apparently, by a fair and balanced Nine Entertainment Co. publication. And we believe that a vast majority of Aussies – and a more than a fair share of our Jewish community – would agree. We wouldn’t dare imply all of that community now, would we?

Or as one of our more colourful compilers put it: “Some right-wing flag stealers and others who have shown their total distain for Muslims and their faith should go fuck themselves with a garden hose! And then hand it over to the likes of Tim “Proudly Zionist” Wilson, Josh “I feel some votes coming my way; where’s my yarmulke” ” Frydenberg and Australia’s anti-semitism envoy Jillian “any criticism of Israel is by its very nature anti-semitic” Segal .

Yet what did we hear from the SMH editor about those upset by your drawing: “We have heard their distress, and for this pain, we sincerely apologise,” Nine said.

That, surely, must have given you a bemused smile, right?

We thought so. Both distress and pain. Oh, the hatred that section of the Jewish community must hate towards Hamas for declaring a basic aim of ridding their Palestine of Jews, just as Netanyahu and his crazy cabinet are fast achieving the same thing in their pursuit of a Greater Israel.

The SMH apology than tried this on as they attempted to give their apology some credence and respectability: It pointed specifically to Wilcox’s depiction of Benjamin Netanyahu, which it said was based on his public condemnation of Albanese following the attack.

Fair call, but we at the MGH think Cathy might have also borne in mind Netanyahu’s savage attack on Albanese earlier, when our PM finally found his cojones and publicly endorsed a two-state solution that Bibi has no intention of ever allowing to happen.

“Many of our readers found the cartoon thought-provoking,” the statement said. “It is undeniable, however, that many others in the community, particularly Jews, were deeply hurt and offended by it.”

We’ll take that lovely smile, Cathy, as your acceptance of our own view that those in the community offended by your cartoon would be overwhelmingly outnumbered by Aussies offended by the Israel Defence Force thinking that tens of thousands of babies and older kids, and possibly innocent Palestinian civilians in their hundreds of thousands, were Hamas fighters and needed to be killed.

We’ll end our assessment of the SMH apology by highlighting once more how the paper (and sadly many other media platforms) always paints the Jewish community is one homogenous mass when the exact opposite is the case. Many Jewish Australians are horrified by the genocide Israel has inflicted on Gaza for 26 months. There’s another group of Jews called Zionists, who believe the Jewish people are God’s chosen race and others deserve a good spitting on. Well, until the option of razing Gaza and making it clear the sub-human Palestinians still living there needed to fuck off. Well, the ones still capable of fucking off because they haven’t frozen to death yet in their shitty little ripped-apart and water-logged tents while much better housing and 30-plus aid groups are barred from entering the obliterated zone by Bibi’s butchers.

And if you don’t believe that the terms of reference for the upcoming RC will lead to its most likely outcome, that any criticism of Israel will then become branded as anti-semitic, you probably think Trump’s peace plan will eventually end in a proud and prosperous Palestinian state once the world helps rebuild Gaza from the ground up.

We’re running out of time here so please, please, read the xcrements below that plopped their way into our very whiffy Xcrements-of-the-Week prize barrel at the start of the week but we kept over for this column.

We have Jenny Frecklington-Jones and Peter Wicks cutting quickly to the chase here…..

Michael Springer appears to have little time for Gerard “The ABC must be sold immediately to the Murdochs” Henderson, slsandpet drops their own load and we have no problem at all with Adam Houda having a very sensible conversation with himself.

As well, Tony Shepherd and highly respected but now retired metropolitan newspaper columnist Terry Sweetman sent their own virtual faecal flak the SMH editor’s way.

If The Bug and so many online warriors are right about this RC’s outcome, and stuff like Wilcox’s cartoon is sooner than later going to be deemed anti-semitic and she could one day be punished for it, we should at least comfort ourselves that Australia’s Zionist will be spared any hurt and dismay and because no-one will be game enough to even suggest that razing a people’s historical homeland, one supposedly protected by international law, and destroying almost all of their mosques, their homes, their livelihoods, their hospitals, their leisure places, their power, sewerage and safe drinking water supplies, etc, etc, is something that was once worth openly questioning with no fear at all of being punished for it.

Note the use of “almost”. Our compilers may be bitter, old and twisted but still believe the craft of journalism needs some accuracy.

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