Editorial, January 28, 2011

Advancing Australia fair

IN a place far from home, Young Australian of the Year nominee Tara Winkler has exemplified much of what it means to be Jewish and Australian. Asked why this holidaying Sydneysider chose to stick around and help vulnerable children at a Cambodian orphanage, her reply was simple: “I couldn’t turn my back on them, I had to stay and help.”

Closer to home, Order of Australia Medal recipient Kathy Kaplan, whose citation includes the volunteer work she has done for Victorian victims of domestic violence, said she learnt at home at an early age that “where there is no mensch, be a mensch”.

Susie Balint, long-time former Victorian president of the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia (NCJWA), spoke of the “giving” nature of her parents as an inspiration for her own work in the community, which includes organising opportunity shops and bus services for people with special needs. Similarly, Perth’s Angela Davis, who chairs NCJWA’s Status of Women group, rejects passivity.

Our recipients of Australia Day Honours are a varied lot, from a diversity of occupations and ages.

We cannot help but be inspired by Sydney Professor Michael Friedlander’s quiet war on cancer, Professor Ivan Goldberg’s battle against glaucoma, Professor David Copolov’s fight to understand schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, Graham Einfeld’s work in Jewish education and health care, Robert Smorgon’s pioneering initiatives in providing greater security for young people, Bernard Brzegowski-Korbman’s preservation of Shoah history and the contributions of all those honoured this week.

They all share an innate understanding that Australia, at its finest moments, is not a nation of onlookers. It is their passion for getting their hands dirty and putting a score on the board that makes them our communal and national role models.

As Australians, we face many national challenges and conversations – Dorothea Mackellar’s “droughts and flooding rains” have tested us. The refugee boats off our remote coastlines prod us to consider what kind of society we will become. How will we embrace strangers? How will we treat our indigenous Australians? And how, on the international scene, will shifting spheres of power impact on our standing and role?

In this 224th year since Captain Arthur Phillip’s fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour, we live in turbulent times. So it is encouraging to see people of vision and compassion, many drawn from our own community, at the tiller.

The price of peace

THE leaking of working documents by Palestinian negotiators has touched off a controversy in the Arab world this week, although in some ways it is hard to understand what their problem is.

The leaked papers did not deal with current talks, rather those held between negotiators representing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and then Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Apparently, the Arab world is aghast that the Palestinians appeared to bargain in good faith with Olmert on core issues, including the fate of Jerusalem, settlements and refugees. A deal was not struck, but there appeared to be some semblance of compromising going on.

It should be noted that since negotiations between the Olmert government and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ended, the Israeli press has publicised practically all the parameters of Olmert’s offer. Very little of the leaked information comes as news for Israelis. What seems to be troubling the Palestinians is that their own leaders appeared to consider the proposals.

What a sad commentary on Israel’s peace partners if the revelation that negotiations were actually getting somewhere is a cause for alarm.

Naturally, nobody wants to be seen as capitulating, especially on issues of such magnitude. But nobody said peacemaking would be easy. Just what exactly did they think went on in these negotiations? Did the Arabs really believe that only Israel would be expected to make concessions for peace?

Conventional wisdom says this week’s scandal could be the death knell for Abbas’s rule. Indeed, should the PA continue to try to distance itself from its prior negotiating positions, then there is little to prevent extremist groups from hounding the Fatah leadership out of office for “selling out”.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. If Abbas can summon the courage, this episode could present an opportunity for the PA to turn a page and prepare its people for peace. For one thing is certain: in order to obtain a two-state solution, one day Palestinian and Israeli leaders will have to look their people squarely in the eyes and tell them the reality – that in order to make peace for the benefit of all, they will not be able to cling to every demand.

As far as peacemaking is concerned, the sooner that day arrives, the better.