My following article appears in Online Opinion and discusses the role of Zionism in the failures of the Middle East:
Age journalist David Bernstein has said that he thought Melbourne Jews needed help. “It’s a community [thanks to the Holocaust] that in some ways is sick ”¦ They are neurotic and should be treated with sympathy.” However, it seems clear that this attitude serves as cover for Jews who use the Holocaust as protection against any criticism of the Jewish state. Today, it is perhaps not Australian Jews but the Palestinian victims of an illegal, brutal military occupation that deserve sympathy.
Israel is a superpower with nuclear weapons, unchallenged military might in the Middle East and unparalleled levels of support by the United States. Despite these facts, many Australian Jews portray Israel as one step away from annihilation, facing a daily “threat” from Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria.
Playing the victim has never been so dishonest. Indeed, many polls around the world show that sympathy for Israel has diminished over the last 20 years. Jews often claim that Israel is constantly striving for peace. However, relentless expansion of settlements in the West Bank, for example, is a strange way to show such a commitment.
Although community leaders assert that the majority of Jews support the Jewish state unconditionally, there are cracks appearing in this façade. Increasingly many self-identifying Jews cannot support the ongoing injustice towards Palestinians, including the daily expansion of illegal settlements across occupied territory.