Zionist organisations aren’t too fond of open debate. Indeed, dissent is shunned, especially on issues related to Israel/Palestine. So this latest, local news is both tragic (and utterly predictable):
Making the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) the pre-eminent voice of the Jewish community is Robert Goot’s main aim, the new president told delegates at the governing body’s annual conference.
Addressing the Melbourne conference, ahead of the ECAJ’s rotation to Sydney, Goot said measures, such as a chief executive officer and a permanent office in Canberra, would also place the Jewish umbrella organisation on a more professional footing.
Goot proposed “a four-way accommodation” between the ECAJ, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) and the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) over responsibilities in communication and advocacy to the wider Australian community.
He said AIJAC, the ADC and ZFA “without reference to the ECAJ have made representations to government, the media and organisations outside the Jewish community on matters of policy that concern the whole of Australian Jewry … mixed messages are being conveyed … there is confusion inside and outside the Jewish community”.
Goot said he was not trying to exclude organisations from making statements, but called for cooperation between the four bodies.
This is really just code for telling Jews who may disagree, even other Zionist organisations, that there should only be one major Jewish voice heard in the wider community. Doesn’t that show a great confidence in democracy?
Then this:
Goot wants the ECAJ to be on guard against rising antisemitism and “the ascendancy of anti-Israel views”, such as those seen in Europe, Canada and New Zealand.
It also needs to be concerned about “a small, but growing number of Australian Jews working in the media and academic institutions [who] have succumbed to intense peer group pressure and become mouthpieces for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments”. Goot nominated Independent Australian Jewish Voices as an example.
As a co-founder of IAJV, a few words are required. If Goot or any other Zionist leader thinks that Jews who disagree with the fundamentalist, non-questioning line towards Israel are only doing so because of “intense peer group pressure”, then they need to get out more and away from their local synagogue. A growing number of Jews won’t be silenced or intimidated by calls for solidarity with the Jewish community. Some Jewish groups seem to also think that with better PR, Israel’s problems in the public domain will be solved. Maybe it’s worth looking at the Jewish state’s immoral actions?
In fact, many in IAJV have specifically told us that the organised Jewish community, with its complete obedience to the racist, Zionist agenda, is turning them away. They want debate. And they want to know why Israel has become an apartheid state, ruling over an occupied people for decades (even the Israeli Prime Minister realises that time is running out on the so-called two-state solution. In fact, the facts on the ground already make it an impossibility.)
IAJV has big plans for 2008. And keeping the Zionist hierarchy happy is at the bottom of our list.