“MILITANT FUNDAMENTALISTS ARE STUDENTS OF THEOCRATIC FANATICISM”

[These are edited extracts from a lengthy essay]

Don't blame the west
By Clive James
The Guardian
October 16, 2002

"The consensus will die hard in Australia, just as it is dying hard here in Britain. On Monday morning, the Independent carried an editorial headed: "Unless there is more justice in the world, Bali will be repeated." Towards the end of the editorial, it was explained that the chief injustice was "the failure of the US to use its influence to secure a fair settlement between Israelis and Palestinians."

I count the editor of the Independent as a friend, so the main reason I hesitate to say that he is out to lunch on this issue is that I was out to dinner with him last night. But after hesitating, say it I must, and add a sharper criticism: that his editorial writer sounds like an unreconstructed Australian intellectual, one who can still believe, even after his prepared text was charred in the nightclub, that the militant fundamentalists are students of history.

But surely the reverse is true: they are students of the opposite of history, which is theocratic fanaticism. Especially, they are dedicated to knowing as little as possible about the history of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. A typical terrorist expert on the subject believes that Hitler had the right idea, that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a true story, and that the obliteration of the state of Israel is a religious requirement.

In furthering that end, the sufferings of the Palestinians are instrumental, and thus better exacerbated than diminished. To the extent that they are concerned with the matter at all, the terrorists epitomise the extremist pressure that had been so sadly effective in ensuring the continued efforts of the Arab states to persuade the Palestinians against accepting any settlement, no matter how good, that recognises Israel's right to exist. But one is free to doubt by now – forced to doubt by now – that Palestine is the main concern."

 

“A MOSSAD TERROR OPERATION”

Indymedia
October 13, 2002

Mossad Bombs ripped through a packed nightspot on Indonesia's traditionally tranquil tourist island of Bali overnight in a Israeli staged terror attack, killing at least 182 people, many of them Australians.

The Saturday night blasts, which where a Mossad terror operation followed persistent reports that Mossad was operating in the area. After the massive peace rally in Australia yesterday these Mossad operations where put into high gear in a deadly way. Mossad terror network operations are trying to draw the western world into war for Israeli and U.S conquest.

 

“I HAVE NEVER SEEN INJURIES ON SUCH A DREADFUL SCALE”

Surgeon saves lives in Bali disaster: A 'horrific sight' that he won't forget
By Henry Benjamin
Jewish Telegraph Agency
October 15, 2002

For Graeme Southwick, an early Sunday morning on an idyllic island launched a day that turned from a dream into a nightmare.

Southwick was relaxing by the pool of his hotel in Bali after attending a plastic surgeon's conference when he learned of the night club bombing that had claimed more than 180 lives the day before.

Southwick, 55, an active member of Australia's Jewish community, immediately contacted the island's only hospital, in the capital of Denpasar.

"At that stage, no one knew how severe or serious matters were," Southwick told JTA.

Hospital staff initially told Southwick, the president of the Society of Australian Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, that everything was under control. A few hours later, however, he received a phone call from a plastic surgeon in Jakarta asking for his help.

Southwick ended up working 15 hours straight. Today, 64 victims are on the road to recovery thanks to the efforts of his medical team, which worked in cramped wards with limited supplies.

"I was not prepared for what I saw," he said. "The hospital was jammed with patients."

The attack is believed to be the work of Jemaah Islamiah, a group headed by a 64-year-old Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, that has links to Al-Qaida. Bashir blames the United States for the attack.

In addition to the dead, who come from around the world, 300 people are injured and 200 are missing.

When Southwick got to the hospital, he immediately set about prioritizing the caseload.

The Australian government had promised to send an Air Force medical unit to assist the doctors, but it was not due for several hours. So Southwick and his team – which included a second-year plastic surgeon trainee from Australia who was on holiday, and his wife, a third-year trainee as an anesthetist – went to work helping people who had suffered burns over as much as 80 percent of their bodies.

"We were able to persuade the Indonesian authorities to let us tackle the European and North American patients first, and we set about identifying as many as we could so that those outside searching for loved ones would know that we had them under our care," Southwick said. "Many volunteers arrived to help, some with no nursing experience and others who could help."

Many tourists offered blood, but facilities for transfusions weren't available and it was difficult for the medical team to even ascertain patients' blood groups.

They also lacked items like surgical instruments, drugs and even rubber gloves.

Southwick's team was able to visit some smaller hospitals and stabilize their patients as well.

The first plane from the Royal Australian Air Force arrived about 10 p.m. on Sunday, and Southwick's team sent patients to the airport in a convoy of nine ambulances, each carrying three wounded.

With more space available in the wards, Southwick was able to identify additional Australian and English patients. He began to stabilize them and prepare them for evacuation to Australia, where they could be treated in proper burn units.

At one stage, 64 patients were lying on the tarmac of Denpasar airport waiting for a flight to Australia. The Air Force had set up a temporary, open-air ward on the tarmac, with a series of ropes holding intravenous drips.

Southwick recalled the case of one woman whose name he never learned.

"She was about 18 and had severe burns around the respiratory area as well as brain damage. We sent her on the first available flight" to Australia, but she died en route, he said.

Most of the patients were on pain medication and remained conscious during the stabilization and evacuation process, Southwick said.

"The patients were wonderful. Some refused painkillers, as they thought others needed them more," he said.

Despite his years as a doctor, nothing had prepared Southwick for the experience in Bali.

"I have never seen injuries on such a dreadful scale. It was a horrific sight which will remain in my memory forever," he said.