Letter March 13, 2014

JOHN Lyons (“Distant ‘experts’ choose to ignore Israeli realities”, 8/3), did not address any of the substantive criticism levelled at his Four Corners program. Instead, he made new unsubstantiated allegations ­directed at critics.

AIJAC has consistently argued that a negotiated two-state settlement is the only path to genuine peace in the narrow strip of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean — thus fulfilling the desire of all parents there to give their children a secure and fulfilling future free from terrorism and war.

Yet Lyons vilifies us as holding “extremely hard-line positions on ­Israel” and being part of “Melbourne guys” who someone said can “declare a fatwa”.

Lyons cites a politician who ­accused us of having misguided priorities, yet AIJAC’s national chairman had already published, in this paper, a rebuttal of this false charge.

Greg Sheridan and others have documented that racists and bigots are using Four Corners to rationalise grubby interventions in public debate. It is disappointing that Lyons belittles these concerns rather than using the numerous opportunities provided him to condemn the ­racists.