My following letter appear in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:
Criticising Israel is a risky business. Robert Goot and David Knoll (Letters, March 12) round on Alan Ramsey for suggesting that Palestinians will not be celebrating Kevin Rudd’s parliamentary motion on the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state. They use the armoury of Israeli Foreign Ministry talking points to portray the Palestinians as bloodthirsty terrorists out to obliterate all Jews. Many Israelis do not agree, a majority recently telling a Haaretz-sponsored poll that they believed in talks between Hamas and the Israeli government. Despite the rhetoric in the Western media, many in the Hamas leadership have consistently offered a long-term ceasefire and accepted a two-state solution.
After unilaterally disengaging from Gaza in 2005, Israel has maintained an economic blockade. Israel targeted civilians at the end of the 2006 Lebanon war by dropping cluster bombs in the last days of its botched campaign. Mr Goot and Mr Knoll paint Israel as a robust democracy in the heart of the Middle East, conveniently ignoring the ever-expanding illegal occupation in the West Bank and racially discriminatory policies in Israel proper.
Many Diaspora Jews, myself included, remain ashamed at Israel’s behaviour. It does not speak in my name.
Antony Loewenstein Petersham
I was offended by their letter too. My (unpublished) contribution to the Herald went as follows:
David Knoll and Robert Goot (SMH, letters, 12/3/08) unfairly malign your correspondent Alan Ramsey, using the underhand tactic of suggesting that he is an anti Semite without actually spelling it out. Their letter has too many falsehoods to address here. Israel has withdrawn from Gaza? Only to strangle its economy, starve its people and inflict unbelievable misery. Israel a “thriving democracy”? Israeli Arabs (20% of the population) are legally discriminated against on many fronts and parties exist in the Knesset who advocate the permanent removal of Arab citizens from Israel - this is hardly democracy as we know it in Australia. The cream on the cake is the Aussie angle that attempts to link the legacy of the Anzacs with the eventual emergence of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Well said Ant, as usual, and bondiboy too.
quot: “Many Diaspora Jews, myself included, remain ashamed…”
and that is why you are a diaspora jew, not only in presence in but in soul.
people like you invented the “stokholm sindrom” before it was detected and named.
and that is why you’ll always be diaspora jew and like it is sais in the hagada of peshkh about the the “bad” son: if he were there (in egypt) he would not have been saved with the others.