The following letter appears in today’s Australian newspaper:
In reading the storm of letters and articles generated by the Independent Australian Jewish Voices group, it is hard not to recall Samuel Johnson who declared, “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”.
Israel is facing many problems, more than most countries. In order to cope, it needs outstanding men and women, people with vision, integrity and talent. And yes, patriots who are not refuge-seeking scoundrels.
For me the “minority” IAJV, individuals and groups in Israel like Gush Shalom (Peace Now) and also the courageous refuseniks, Israeli soldiers who conscientiously object, are those patriots.
Sebastian Pupillo
Oakleigh, Vic
Keep going Tony. You are my favourite Jewish patriot.
Regards and deep respect/Tom Brown
Tony speaks his mind concerning Israel for the same reason Major Mori, an American, speaks out about the US detention of Hicks or the likes of me, who remain perturbed about Australia’s at times dark and suspect relationships with countries like Indonesia and East Timor in the region.
It has nothing to do with nationalism and everything to do with having a good intelligence to comprehend and a conscience that demands non-compliance with evil.
Tony speaks out against these things,too, as both a citizen and an Aussie of Jewish antecedents.
Likewise I can abhor that disgusting prototype for annihilation; the Holocaust.
This is despite being sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians simply on the basis of oppression being evil. Its not the “race”; its the crime.
It is not so much disgusting that millions of Jews( the wider Holocaust also saw tens of millions of slavic Russians murdered by the “Master Race” ) suffered so grievously because they were Jews, as because they were Human.
So without ever having been born Jewish, a human worthy inclusion into the most basic classification of humanity ought to weep for the Holocaust Jews in the basis of their humanity as much as their Jewishness.
Likewise, Tony can sympathise with the miserable plight of Palestinans, or Srebrenica Bosnians, without ever having born Arab or Muslim because his humanity has not yet been tainted by Fascism.
In kind, at least some Arabs will sympathise with Israeli victims of bomb blasts, as Hanan Ashrawi has.
No, ethnicity race and nation are great focii for inclusion and “belonging”. But essentialism has been the problem, with pity conditional to racial, ideological, religious or ethnic criteria rather than encouraging inclusion for the human.