Another big day in the life of NHJ. Thanks so much for your continued comments and emails, both positive, negative, constructive and a hell of a lot in between.

Today's big news is the coverage in the Australian Jewish News (AJN). My Hanan Ashrawi chapter was always going to get certain members of the pro-Zionist lobby hot under the collar. This week, Margo and I lay out our case on Israel/Palestine, the often underhanded nature of the Zionist lobby and illuminate readers to the central issues of the chapter, oh-so-strangely ignored by the paper and Colin Rubenstein in past weeks. I reckon there's an agenda going on here, to not fully engage with the issues raised, but respect to the paper for allowing us to put our position across. The web has only a partial version of the story, so grab the print version.

The letters section of the AJN is also burning with reader comments on the Ashrawi affair. Number one prediction of the day: this debate ain't going away soon.

In more general news and views, this week's Bulletin has an intriguing article by Tony Wright on the individuals behind Howard who are digging up dirt on Latham. It paints a disturbing picture of taxpayer-funded campaigns that we, the taxpaying public, should know more about.

Finally, Sean Carney of The Age wrote an interesting piece yesterday on the ways in which our democracy appears to have been lowered to the status of personal attacks, muckracking and innuendo. And the role of the media in it all.