Comments on: An unhelpful discourse on Israel

By: » April 6, 2009

» April 6, 2009 — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:19:24 +0000

[...] An Unhelpful discourse on Israel: AntonyLowestein.com [...]

By: MuzzleWatch » Subscribe to Jewish Peace News. Defense of German Critic, Halper in Australia, Seven Jewish Children–A Play for Gaza

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:52:23 +0000

[...] Halper: An unhelpful discourse on Israel / Middle East News Service JPN picked this up from Antony Lowenstein. It is Jeff Halper’s unpublished op-ed on getting censored during a trip to Australia. As [...]

By: The Zionist lobby fails, Jewish voices are heard | Antony Loewenstein

The Zionist lobby fails, Jewish voices are heard | Antony Loewenstein — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:35:52 +0000

[...] Following my publication on March 31 of Israel peace activist Jeff Halper’s reflection on Australia’s myopic Jewish community, today’s Sydney Morning Herald publishes a version of this article titled, “Diaspora Jewry needs to let go of idealised Israel.” [...]

By: On Halper, Judaism and humanity | Antony Loewenstein

On Halper, Judaism and humanity | Antony Loewenstein — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:14:18 +0000

[...] Following my recent publication of American/Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper’s comment on the Australian Jewish community and Israel, I received the an email from George Salzman, Prof Emeritus in the Physics Dept at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (but currently based in Oaxaca, Mexico): [...]

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:12:41 +0000

I really appreciate this article but I’m not the one who most needs to read it. I will share it with my mother, a member of an American Reform Jewish community in which I was raised, injected with pure love for the perfect state of Israel… Jeff Halper is amazing.

By: John Miate

John Miate — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:36:14 +0000

Better still, rather than print a copy, send them a link to this website. While they are here, they may find value Antony’s other posts/articles.

Truth is contagious!

By: Sol Salbe

Sol Salbe — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:58:31 +0000

This is a good article that deserves widespread circulation, particularly in the Jewish community. If you have Jewish friends and relations, print them a copy.Augusta

By: paul walter

paul walter — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:29:34 +0000

Now we are getting somewhere. Elsewhere, at Ant’s old stamping ground of Web Diary,for example, equivalent processes are occuring for Anglo Aussies often involving a focus on Pauline Hanson or the production of cultural myths (and people) is also underway.
My understanding has me in mind that jingoism and sentimental volkische notions do not succeed in providing nations with the clarity of vision that comes from an honest inventory and humbler appreciation of human nature.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:20:11 +0000

The funny thing about Leon Uris is that he was a paid propogandist for Israel. I didn’t know that until I read it in Tom Segev’s 1967.

His film Exodus was a crock of crap and made the Israeli propaganda machine over $1 million bucks so they hired him to write propaganda for the Russian jews.

Hilarious when you think about. The Exodus was carrying illegal arms for a banned terrorist group.

It was not heroic settlers escaping from nazis, the nazis have been extinguished many years earlier, it was an illegal arms smuggling ship.

What a hoot for the morons in Israel now to whine about arms smuggling.

And he is right to say Israel is not a jewish state, it has been a jewish state for the precise same amount of time Australia was a white Australia in 1788.

Not one nanosecond.

But for those who have not read 1967 and think it is too long and heavy I advise a read.

It makes me laugh with rage and outrage in places and with sheer unadulterated joy at the stupidity of the US diaspora who banded together to force Johnson to swallow the big lie that Egypt had attacked Israel in 1967 and the fear Johnson felt that they might band together again to protest AGAINST the Vietnam war.

Bizarre.

By: sky

sky — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:31:46 +0000

A great piece and it should be run, and it should be run in our papers as well. According to the CIA factbook on Australia, from the 2001 census, this is the breakdown of religions: Catholic 26.4%, Anglican 20.5%, other Christian 20.5%, Buddhist 1.9%, Muslim 1.5%, other 1.2%, unspecified 12.7%, none 15.3% I assume the Jewish population is part of the 1.2% or the unspecified.

Wikipedia, according to a 2006 census (why doesn’t CIA have this?) 25.8% Roman Catholic, 18.7% Anglican, 19.4% Other Christian 2.1% Buddhist, 1.7% Muslim, 0.4% Jewish, 2.0% other, 18.7% No Religion, 11.2% When the Jewish population is not even one percent of the population, there is really no credible reason why the Palestinian issue doesn’t get an airing in Australia in the way it does in Israel, or even in the U.K. (which I know is also biased, but not as much as here). When injustice occurs, it should always get an airing, but whitewash is more common when there is identification with those who are perpetuating the injustice. In numerical terms, that commonality is not evident.

Non-Jewish Australians do not even realise that they are only getting a tiny bit of the news and a very skewed version of it, because I guess, if they ever think about the issue, they wonder what our government’s investment in upholding the ‘Leon Uris’ vision of Israel is, and I assume that the majority think Israel is a land far away and we are more concerned with our own politics and minorities, as we actually should be, but we are not. I assume they also think Australia is the land of ‘a fair go’, and so as we support Israel, Israel must also support ‘a fair go’. It’s really pretty sickening, especially the fact that I am saying nothing new. Good on Halper for writing that. I wish it had been published.