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Israel e News, Israel
Feb 20 2008
The hardest word
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - By: Loewenstein, Antony
Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally
apologized last week to tens of thousands of Aboriginals known as the
'stolen generation', who as children were forcibly removed from their
families by the government until as recently as the early 1970s.
The apology was welcomed by Australian Jews who have historically
supported the country's indigenous population. The Australian Jewish
News endorsed the move which comes after 11 years of deliberations in
Australia politics. `We are a people all too familiar with
persecution and discrimination,' the AJN published in response to the
apology. Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence of the Great Synagogue in Sydney
called on Jews to `acknowledge the wrong, to apologise for the damage
caused' to the Aboriginal community.
`We've suffered 2000 years of persecution, and we understand what it
is to be the underdog and to suffer disadvantage,' said Mark Leibler,
a prominent Melbourne Jew who co-chairs Aboriginal rights group
Reconciliation Australia.
Rudd's apology acknowledged the `profound grief, suffering and loss'
inflicted on the Aboriginal people but no Jewish leaders seem capable
of considering similar sentiments towards the Palestinians.
They blame somebody else for the fact that the number of settlers
rose by five percent in the West Bank in 2007. They remain mute when
Israel's Interior Minister Meir Sheerit suggests destroying a Gaza
neighbourhood. They look away when Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger
urges Israel to move Gazans to the Sinai Peninsula.
New Republic editor Marty Peretz recently told Haaretz, `No
occupation is kind or sweet. But bad things happen everywhere, all
the time.' Israel was therefore only acting with the best intentions
when it announced last week plans to build 1120 apartments for Jews
in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian area.
Many Australian Jews resist recognising the suffering of the
Palestinians. `Pounding the enemy only makes the enemy want to pound
you back', Forward editorialised in early February. The fact that
Hamas has offered a long-term ceasefire to the Israelis is not
mentioned. `Why doesn't our government jump at this proposal?' asked
Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery. `Simple: to make such a deal, we
must speak to Hamas. It is more important to boycott Hamas than to
put an end to the suffering of Sderot.'
The Zionist leadership in Australia and across the Diaspora prefers a
state of war to a state of peace because they have not yet acquired
the moral standing to take responsibility for Israeli actions. As
Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson said last week: `It takes courage to
apologise. It takes courage to forgive.'It was a far cry from the
Anti-Defamation League's Abraham Foxman, who last year equivocated
over using the term `genocide' to describe the massacres perpetrated
by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians because he feared
upsetting the Turks.
How much longer must we wait for the worldwide Jewish community to
understand the dispossession and dislocation of 1948 and 1967? And
when will the global Zionist leadership realise that Israeli policies
in the occupied territories is leading to the country's destruction?
America will not forever provide the moral, financial and military
blanket for the Jewish state's behaviour. A recent survey by B'nai
B'rith World Centre in Jerusalem found a majority of Israelis
believed that Diaspora Jews had no right to publicly criticise the
Israeli government. However, some Jews recognise that they have a
special moral responsibility not to remain mute over Israeli crimes
committed in their name and on which they may have some clear effect.
Such common sense suggestions are absent from the mainstream media
debate. After the destruction of the wall between Gaza and Egypt, the
Australian Jewish News meekly condoned Israel's suffocation of the
Strip, saying Israel had `no options but to keep Gaza sealed off',
shrugged its shoulders. Despite the stated Israeli aim of destroying
support for Hamas in Gaza, the opposite has predicably happened, with
recent polls indicating a rise in support for the Islamist
organization.
Israel has become an object of uncritical adulation. The Rudd
government is not likely to disappoint. It was a rare moment, after
the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, when Rudd expressed his
condolences and stated that the PLO head was a `passionate,
controversial leader of the Palestinian people. Whatever people
thought of Arafat, there was wide consensus that he was a symbol for
a secular Palestinian state.' Since then, however, Rudd has rarely
expressed any sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Rudd, who has visited Israel twice and said in 2004 that he was
`passionately pro-Israel', sadly believes that appealing to nearly
400,000 Australian Muslims, and becoming `passionately
pro-Palestinian', is political suicide. The Zionist lobby may not
have the clout of their American brethren, but they still are
significantly intimidating to their perceived enemies.
Rudd's government will undoubtedly continue the historically
bipartisan support for the Jewish state. John Howard was viewed by
many of the country's more than 100,000 Jews as the best friend
Israel has ever had in the Australian parliament.
Like many Jewish communities around the world, a leader's credentials
on Israel are praised if they offer unconditional support. It is high
time that the Jewish community offered true leadership and reflected
on the moral significance of last week's apology to the victims of
our crimes. The Palestinians deserve nothing less.
The opinions and views articulated by the author do not necessarily
reflect those of Israel e News.
Feb 20 2008
The hardest word
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - By: Loewenstein, Antony
Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally
apologized last week to tens of thousands of Aboriginals known as the
'stolen generation', who as children were forcibly removed from their
families by the government until as recently as the early 1970s.
The apology was welcomed by Australian Jews who have historically
supported the country's indigenous population. The Australian Jewish
News endorsed the move which comes after 11 years of deliberations in
Australia politics. `We are a people all too familiar with
persecution and discrimination,' the AJN published in response to the
apology. Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence of the Great Synagogue in Sydney
called on Jews to `acknowledge the wrong, to apologise for the damage
caused' to the Aboriginal community.
`We've suffered 2000 years of persecution, and we understand what it
is to be the underdog and to suffer disadvantage,' said Mark Leibler,
a prominent Melbourne Jew who co-chairs Aboriginal rights group
Reconciliation Australia.
Rudd's apology acknowledged the `profound grief, suffering and loss'
inflicted on the Aboriginal people but no Jewish leaders seem capable
of considering similar sentiments towards the Palestinians.
They blame somebody else for the fact that the number of settlers
rose by five percent in the West Bank in 2007. They remain mute when
Israel's Interior Minister Meir Sheerit suggests destroying a Gaza
neighbourhood. They look away when Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger
urges Israel to move Gazans to the Sinai Peninsula.
New Republic editor Marty Peretz recently told Haaretz, `No
occupation is kind or sweet. But bad things happen everywhere, all
the time.' Israel was therefore only acting with the best intentions
when it announced last week plans to build 1120 apartments for Jews
in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian area.
Many Australian Jews resist recognising the suffering of the
Palestinians. `Pounding the enemy only makes the enemy want to pound
you back', Forward editorialised in early February. The fact that
Hamas has offered a long-term ceasefire to the Israelis is not
mentioned. `Why doesn't our government jump at this proposal?' asked
Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery. `Simple: to make such a deal, we
must speak to Hamas. It is more important to boycott Hamas than to
put an end to the suffering of Sderot.'
The Zionist leadership in Australia and across the Diaspora prefers a
state of war to a state of peace because they have not yet acquired
the moral standing to take responsibility for Israeli actions. As
Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson said last week: `It takes courage to
apologise. It takes courage to forgive.'It was a far cry from the
Anti-Defamation League's Abraham Foxman, who last year equivocated
over using the term `genocide' to describe the massacres perpetrated
by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians because he feared
upsetting the Turks.
How much longer must we wait for the worldwide Jewish community to
understand the dispossession and dislocation of 1948 and 1967? And
when will the global Zionist leadership realise that Israeli policies
in the occupied territories is leading to the country's destruction?
America will not forever provide the moral, financial and military
blanket for the Jewish state's behaviour. A recent survey by B'nai
B'rith World Centre in Jerusalem found a majority of Israelis
believed that Diaspora Jews had no right to publicly criticise the
Israeli government. However, some Jews recognise that they have a
special moral responsibility not to remain mute over Israeli crimes
committed in their name and on which they may have some clear effect.
Such common sense suggestions are absent from the mainstream media
debate. After the destruction of the wall between Gaza and Egypt, the
Australian Jewish News meekly condoned Israel's suffocation of the
Strip, saying Israel had `no options but to keep Gaza sealed off',
shrugged its shoulders. Despite the stated Israeli aim of destroying
support for Hamas in Gaza, the opposite has predicably happened, with
recent polls indicating a rise in support for the Islamist
organization.
Israel has become an object of uncritical adulation. The Rudd
government is not likely to disappoint. It was a rare moment, after
the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, when Rudd expressed his
condolences and stated that the PLO head was a `passionate,
controversial leader of the Palestinian people. Whatever people
thought of Arafat, there was wide consensus that he was a symbol for
a secular Palestinian state.' Since then, however, Rudd has rarely
expressed any sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Rudd, who has visited Israel twice and said in 2004 that he was
`passionately pro-Israel', sadly believes that appealing to nearly
400,000 Australian Muslims, and becoming `passionately
pro-Palestinian', is political suicide. The Zionist lobby may not
have the clout of their American brethren, but they still are
significantly intimidating to their perceived enemies.
Rudd's government will undoubtedly continue the historically
bipartisan support for the Jewish state. John Howard was viewed by
many of the country's more than 100,000 Jews as the best friend
Israel has ever had in the Australian parliament.
Like many Jewish communities around the world, a leader's credentials
on Israel are praised if they offer unconditional support. It is high
time that the Jewish community offered true leadership and reflected
on the moral significance of last week's apology to the victims of
our crimes. The Palestinians deserve nothing less.
The opinions and views articulated by the author do not necessarily
reflect those of Israel e News.