Letters (September 25, 2009)

Get The AJN Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

A selection of letters published in the AJN print edition of September 25, 2009

Richter ignores Arab rejections

ROBERT Richter castigates Israel for not “settling down and talking with the enemy” (AJN Rosh Hashanah magazine 18/09). He seems unwilling to acknowledge that after the victory of 1967, Israel readily accepted the principle of negotiated peace, but was stymied by the notorious Arab summit refusal: “no negotiations; no peace; no recognition”.

Arab thinking is still dominated by that 1967 declaration by Arab heads of state. Richter responds by saying he won’t abandon his views on basic human rights. Yet he avoids mention of the injustices heaped upon Palestinian Arabs by their own leaders, who neglect and victimise their own people. He ignores this abuse of human rights. What a seemingly one-sided way for a human rights “champion” to pursue justice!

IVAN CHER
Caulfield North, Vic

How pro-Israel is Richter?

IN Robert Richter’s life story, describing his connection with Israel (AJN Rosh Hashanah magazine 18/09), he is quoted as saying that “Zionism was about the establishment of a Jewish state, it has been established and must continue to exist.” This laudable statement is, however, inconsistent with other statements he has made, and with his affiliations.

For example, at the launch of self-described anti-Zionist Jew Antony Loewenstein’s My Israel Question, which I attended, Richter supported Loewenstein’s work of anti-Israel fiction, along with other high-profile Israel critics Louise Adler, Julian Burnside and former Australian ambassador to Israel Peter Rodgers.

Considering that Richter supports Loewenstein, he appears to be confused on his “Israel question”.

MICHAEL BURD
Toorak, Vic

Palestinian academic one-sided

WHENEVER people like Antony Loewenstein or visiting Professor Saree Makdisi propose a one-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, it brings back the images of those Palestinians rejoicing with Jewish blood on their hands after allegedly beating to death the two Israelis who sought shelter in a Palestinian police station.

Prof Makdisi strangely enough condemns Israel for calling Palestinians living in Israel “Israeli Arabs”, when he considers himself a “Palestinian American” (The Age 17/09).

HENRY HERZOG
St Kilda East, Vic

Israel’s image moulded by others

MICHAEL Visontay’s discussion of Israel’s image problem (AJN 18/09) has some merit, but his argument fails by unfairly laying the blame for this with Israel, rather than the hostile environment in which the country exists.

Israel’s “one-dimensional” image is not the result of its bad PR, although there are aspects of this that could certainly be improved. It is rather a consequence of a media infused with hostility towards Israel at best, and anti-Semitism at worst.

Apart from newspapers such as The Australian, and to some extent The Herald Sun, the messages that most Victorians receive are heavily skewed against Israel, portraying it as an aggressive, manipulating, land-grabbing entity, instead of a legitimate, thriving western democracy that is forced to defend its very existence from a culture that simply does not want it there as a Jewish state.

Coupled with this is the fact that Palestinian activists regularly present speakers to the Australian public, again reinforcing Israel’s negative image.

Our communal organisations do a splendid job of connecting visiting academics and other experts with our politicians, but we fall down badly in countering the regular stream of mendacious messages that are repeatedly delivered to the general public.

Making more movies like Noodle (which was very good, by the way) won’t do much for Israel’s image; taking its case to the general public will.

ALAN FREEDMAN
St Kilda East, Vic

Opening hearts and minds

THE time is now, this New Year/Eid season, to ask each other to forgive our sins and to celebrate the promise of a better life for another year.

We can start afresh, supporting each other, sharing with each other, learning from each other, celebrating and sobbing with each other, and demonstrating respect and honour of each other in every word and deed.

Let heads of state begin this year with President Mahmoud Abbas accompanying PM Binyamin Netanyahu to his synagogue for Yom Kippur services, and with Netanyahu accompanying Abbas to Eid-al-Adha prayers at his mosque.

Let each leader open his house, his family, his mind and his heart and welcome a visit from each other.

JUDY BAMBERGER
O’Connor, ACT

Boycott proposal disturbing

IT isn’t just Associate Professor Jake Lynch who is promoting this idea of a boycott of contact with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; it appears to be the majority of the Council of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS), of which Lynch is the director.

According to its website, the Council of CPACS currently has no more than 18 members. These members appear to have lately become an anti-Israel lobby group, operating under the protective umbrella of The University of Sydney.

As an honorary associate and alumnus of that university, I am disturbed at this development and hope that its vice-chancellor will reject any suggestion of a boycott of the Hebrew University or of any other academic institution.

MICHAEL MESSER
Balmain, NSW

Ottoman land system’s legacy

TOM Wolkenberg, eviction for illegally discontinuing rent payment isn’t news, except among those seeking to demonise Israel and Jews (AJN 18/09).

The problems can be traced to “miri land” — state land under Ottoman law — which a family could work rent-free, bequeath to heirs, but could neither sell nor leave, for it would legally be reverted to the state.

Those “illegal” Israeli settlements were built on a mix of Jewish land and miri state land — not on Palestinian land.

As to “many Arab villages wiped out” in 1948, one need only go to Mark Twain’s account of his travels in 1865 to realise that most had already been abandoned under the Ottomans. Many disappeared during the Mandate, when children abandoned these miri properties to pursue urban opportunity, and the handful of villages where Arabs were removed in 1948 is a matter of public historical record in Israel.

MORRY SZTAINBOK
Bentleigh, Vic

Trading with Iran

MAHMOUD Ahmadinejad again has denied the Holocaust in a speech in Teheran, claiming “that the Holocaust was a hoax and a pretext to creating the State of Israel and all Muslims have a duty to confront the State of Israel and Israel will not exist for long”. World leaders were up in arms and Hillary Clinton condemned the speech, as did Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Milliband, calling it an “abhorrent and a hateful speech”.

So why are British companies still trading with Iran?

URI BUTNARU
North Bondi, NSW

View from the cave

OSAMA bin Laden really needs to get out more. He needs to skulk out of whatever cave he is hiding in and have a good hard look at the world as it really is, rather than as his fevered imagination envisages it.

Banging on about Israel, George W Bush and “neo-conservatives” really won’t cut it. Bin Laden sounds more hysterical and delusional than ever. The democratic world has not caved in under his threats — it is he who hides in a cave.

DR BILL ANDERSON
Surrey Hills, Vic

Don’t bring up controversies

I AM saddened to see that in an article celebrating the appointment of Rabbi Ian Goodhardt to Blake Street Hebrew Congregation (AJN 18/09), The AJN felt it necessary to try and dredge up shmutz regarding Rabbi Yirmi Garfunkel, a true mensch and respected rabbi to our community for 11 years.

The AJN’s job as presenters of news to the Australian Jewish community need not always be riddled with machloket (controversies). Perhaps a New Year’s resolution for The AJN should be to report stories in a way that can unite and be positive (where possible) rather than divide and cause angst in the community.

JANET GOODVACH
Caulfield, Vic

No excuse for vilification

IF anything, Michael Danby should be congratulated for bringing to the attention of the wider community the low level that both New Matilda and Crikey have sunk to in allowing anti-Semitic material to be posted on their sites (AJN 11/09).

While Larry Stillman attacks Danby, I applaud the MP, as do many in our community who have been offended by the vicious material allowed to appear. One can have civil debate even in the new media, which Stillman claims moves at lightning speed and should not be regulated. Stillman would not accept the vilification of other ethnic groups and neither should he accept it of the Jewish community.

YOSSI TAL
Leichardt, NSW

A Yom Kippur reflection

WHILE we deepen our thoughts as we move towards Yom HaDin, it would be good to reflect on the three paradigms of prayer with which we are presented in our Rosh Hashanah Torah readings. Encouraging our entreaties to Hashem, Judaism calls on us to consider the successful supplications not only of Sara and Chana, but of Hagar as well.

And all of this, while the world community seeks to demonise Israel via the Goldstone report, and Shimon Peres calls the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister Salaam Fayad “the Palestinian Ben Gurion”. It suggests that we have something to say to Islam and Christianity.

FRED ZARTZ
Melbourne, Vic

Facebook hosts haters

FACEBOOK has been hosting Holocaust-denial groups and other hate/racist groups. In response to a litany of complaints, it has reviewed its activities.

Rather than listening to the justified criticisms, it has instead dug in its heels, removing the explicit ban on content that is “harmful”, “defamatory”, “abusive”, “inflammatory”, “vulgar”, “obscene”, “fraudulent”, “invasive of privacy or publicity rights”, or “racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable”.

The reference to local, regional, and national laws has also been removed. Facebook is now providing a ready-made platform for anti-Semitic groups and all sorts of hate, racist and defamatory organisations and individuals. Jew-haters can now have a picnic spreading their poison across the entire global spectrum.

Countries around the world must not allow such abuse of their internal laws — hate groups and individuals using Facebook should be prosecuted with the full force of the law. To do otherwise would contravene the hard-fought-for standards of decency, fairness and ethics we have achieved in democratic countries the world over. And all of us who use Facebook should immediately withdraw our accounts and explain clearly to Facebook why we are doing so.

EDDIE MOSES
Caulfield South, Vic

If you would like to submit a letter, email letters@jewishnews.net.au