Glenn Milne and his Graydon Carter hairstyle write on Israel today – the demonisation of Israel by members of the Labor left. Nothing new? Uh-uh.

Milne
hangs his story on comments by NSW Labor MP Julia Irwin: “Gaza is now a
Palestinian ghetto; a prison for its one million people. All flows of
people and goods must pass through Israeli border controls, which has
resulted in the World Bank’s reporting that unemployment and poverty
will rise in Gaza. Now Israel will rule Gaza like a walled ghetto, a
giant penal colony, a concentration camp.”

While those last
two words are particularly gratuitous and offensive, her general
remarks have been bog-standard platitudes of the left for decades. So
what’s new?

What’s new is the way in which Milne presents the
Coalition response: “Following Irwin’s unconscionable speech, a number
of things happened. Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne, and
backbencher Tony Smith, the keepers of the pro-Israel flame inside the
Coalition, immediately called for Beazley to state his position.”

Keepers of the pro-Israel flame – and Peter Costello’s two most faithful factotums. Is there some bridge-building going on?