Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council

Even as some Australian Palestinians and their supporters spent Tuesday evening disrupting commuters in Sydney in the course of their Nakba Day protests against Israel, SBS World News ran a segment on the recent resettlement of several dozen Iraqi Palestinian refugees in Australia.

(While the video will only be accessible on the SBS website for the next week, a transcript of the segment has been created for the purposes of this blog and can be referenced here.)

While the segment was framed by the SBS presenters as an opportunity to raise awareness of the issue of Palestinian refugees on the anniversary of Israel's creation, in reality the story had very little to do with Israel.

People from around the world are traveling to Israel to learn from its innovation and economic success.

Israel's President Shimon Peres recently told a visiting Australian delegation that included Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten, that part of the secret to Israel's economic success was that Israel had to use its brainpower to carve out a living, "We had nothing and that was our luck," Peres said. Peres also told the group that he wanted Israel to become "the Silicon Valley of the Middle East."

The Australian's John Lyons (5/5) reported on an Israeli law passed during the Second Intifada in 2003 designed to prevent terrorists exploiting family reunion laws to enter Israel.

This has meant Israeli Arab Taiseer Khatib's wife, Lana, who is from Jenin on the West Bank, can only stay in Israel on a temporary residency visa, something Khatib denounces as "beyond apartheid".

The newspaper offensively headlined the piece Living under the cloud of Israel's cruel apartheid implying this was a statement of fact rather than Taiseer Khatib's opinion. The online edition has since rectified this error.

The Australian Budget was announced on May 8, and in order to bring the budget into surplus the Government decided to delay its promise to raise foreign aid spending to 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015/16, pushing this goal back until 2016-2017.

This blog post looks at highlights from the foreign aid budget, and also considers the case for improving the effectiveness of Australian aid in the Palestinian Territories.

NORWEGIAN professor Johan Galtung, an "off-site lecturer" at the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, recently exposed himself as one who irrationally criticises Jews.

Galtung's previous commentary on Israel was indistinguishable from the general line followed by CPACS and other academics in the dubious "peace and conflict studies" discipline that he is credited with founding.

Readers with long memories will remember the antics of the Citizens' Electoral Council (CEC) - the local followers of convicted American fraudster and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, who have mostly disappeared from the headlines over the past decade.

But since January, all that conspiratorial thinking has been on public display every week via free-to-air TV. "CEC Report" is a half-hour show presented by CEC founder and leader Craig Isherwood and CEC Executive Member Robert Barwick broadcasting on Melbourne community station 31.

The show somehow manages to be both soporific and thoroughly alarming. Bland, measured and unassuming, Isherwood and Barwick appear much like most amateur community station TV hosts - except their message is stark raving bonkers.

I have known Cardinal George Pell for a number of years, discussed Middle East politics over a kosher meal he arranged for me in his home, worked with him on a range of matters of Catholic-Jewish concern and had any disagreements treated respectfully and graciously. In that light, watching him on ABC television's Monday "Infotainment" program, "Q & A", was not a comfortable experience.

On Friday night, while the Christian world is celebrating Good Friday and the rest of Australia is celebrating a four-day weekend, the Jewish community in Australia will be holding the annual Passover seder, marking the beginning of the week of Passover.

The Syrian Government's decision to accept UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan has been met with a lot of scepticism to say the least. A number of experts have been predicting that the initiative would only paper-over the Assad regime's continued violence and that there would be negative consequences felt in Syria as a result.

Another by-product of the issue has been some rather strange commentary emerging from Australia. Anthony Billingsley, a lecturer at the University of New South Wales, has written his thoughts about the Annan plan on Australian academic blog site The Conversation. His reasoning is a little difficult to follow – in more than one instance, his assessment of the geopolitics seems either misinformed or contradictory, particularly in regards to the American and Israeli role in the Syrian uprisings (emphasis added)...

Recently the Australian media has been focused on news that the Australian government blocked the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from participating in the national broadband network (NBN).

While most commentators are discussing the cyber security concerns, few are raising Huawei's questionable activities in Iran - with reports that Huawei empowered the Iranian regime to track dissidents during the 2009 demonstrations.

On a family rip back to Australia, Gidon Bromberg, an Australian environmental activist now living in Israel, picked up a copy of Chris Hammer's book The River: A Journey Through The Murray-Darling. Bromberg was inspired by Hammer's description of the process that led to the Federal Government passing legislation in 2007 to protect the river basin; so inspired, in fact, that he decided to bring Hammer to Israel and attempt to replicate the feat and help the long-suffering Jordan River.

Bromberg has written about this in today's Jerusalem Post...

The Finkelstein Inquiry into the Australian media has provoked a great deal of comment in the Australian media, most of it critical. And I share the view of the majority of commentators that the major proposal put forward by Finkelstein - for a government-funded body empowered to make legally enforceable and unappealable rulings on any alleged failure to meet agreed standards by any media outlet (including small blogs) - is, at the least, problematic. Any cure worse than the disease would be a mistake.

A visit to Semarang, the largest city in Central Java, is in many ways an assault on the senses. The humidity, with searing heat and blustery winds, is unavoidable, as are the blinding colours and the food which comes in two varieties - syrupy sweet or hot and spicy.

My recent trip, to participate as an Australian delegate to the 6th Asia/Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue (RID), included assaults, but welcome ones, on two other senses.

During the four days of violence starting on March 9 that saw hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza at southern Israel, the Israeli military's precision responses remarkably managed to limit Palestinian fatalities to 25, of whom 22 were terrorists.

However, coverage of the conflict for the Age and Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) by Ruth Pollard, Fairfax's Middle East correspondent, consisted of two pieces that included glaring factual errors, lacked important background detail and obscured this reality.

In this post last month, I argued that the Jewish community in Australia does have the unfortunate need for security at Jewish schools, which remain a target for terrorists, a statement that I later affirmed after the Toulouse attacks. This was to rebut statements made by former Australian Jewish News editor Dan Goldberg, reported in The Age in January - well before the attack in Toulouse - suggesting that the money could be better spent elsewhere:

[Former AJN editor Dan] Goldberg suggested the rising costs of security were helping push up education fees so that ever more money would be spent on protecting ever fewer children...

Last month, I wrote in defence of the security concerns of Australia's Jewish community. With a heavy heart, I must note that these concerns have been unfortunately vindicated once again. Last night, a shooting attack outside Ozar Hatorah, a Jewish school in Toulouse, killed much-loved schoolteacher Yonatan Sandler, as well as his two sons -- Aryeh, age five, and Gavriel, age four -- as well as Miriam Monsonego, age seven. Another boy was injured.

According to the chilling AFP report, a masked gunman dismounted from a Yamaha scooter and began shooting, hitting Sandler as he tried in vain to sheild his sons. The shooter then chased after Miriam as she ran into the school, grabbing her and killing her at close range...

Delhi Police have arrested an Indian journalist, Syed Mohammed Ahmad Kazmi, a Shi'ite with connections to Iran for his alleged role in facilitating the February 13 bombing of an Israeli Embassy car. See previous AIJAC blog post on background on the attack.

Interestingly, reporting on this arrest has featured discussion of a previous alleged plot by Iranian proxies to prepare terror attacks in Australia...

Seldom has there been such a brazen attempt to pass off pantomime as intelligent debate.

Saturday's edition of the Sydney Morning Herald's (SMH) weekly "The Question" section - which canvasses the opinions of four experts with presumed standing on a specific issue - addressed the topic of "Is the West destined for war with Iran? Deepening distrust is fuelling a new round of sabre-rattling."

A fair enough subject for discussion, however, the range of views left a lot to be desired...

SIX federal Coalition MPs who recently returned from Israel said they were full of praise for Israel's achievements, more understanding of its challenges and ready to spread the word.

Bradfield MP Paul Fletcher, Tasmanian Senator David Bushby, Paterson MP Bob Baldwin, South Australian Senator David Fawcett, Brisbane MP Teresa Gambaro and Cowan MP Luke Simpkins all travelled as part of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council's Rambam program.

The recent international focus on Iran's nuclear ambitions generated a lot of heat and occasionally some light in the Australian media.

A Sydney Morning Herald (February 6) editorial astutely warned "there is simply no precedent for a revolutionary Islamist regime getting its hands on nuclear weapons." But there was no grasp that sanctions need a credible military option too, with the paper insisting "Israeli air strikes will only strengthen Tehran's determination to get the bomb".

An additional SMH editorial (Feb. 20) sensed Iran was holding out "the white flag of negotiation."

As has been widely reported, there has been controversy over support by World Vision and AusAID for a Palestinian group with alleged links to a terrorist organisation. While the current complaint is now being investigated by World Vision, it is worth recalling that this is not the first time that World Vision has been accused of making a controversial funding decision in the Palestinian Authority areas.

In the latest complaint, the Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Centre) wrote letters to AusAID and World Vision requesting that they discontinue their support of the Palestinian aid organisation the Union of Agricultural Work Committee, which it alleges is a subsidiary of the terrorist organisation the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine...

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council has hosted a meeting in Sydney at which three Australian members of Parliament told of their experiences on a recent visit to Israel.

Liberal Bob Baldwin member for Paterson near Newcastle, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Shadow Minister for Tourism, Liberal Teresa Gambaro represents Brisbane and is the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for International Assistance and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement and Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby spent a week in Israel as guests of the Rambam Program which has in its ten years has hosted more than 500 journalists, politicians, youth leaders, union leaders and clergy on specially guided tours of the Holy Land.

The three politicians formed part of a group of six members of Federal Parliament.

Also includes: more on Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of an Israeli strike, Holocaust graves rediscovered, an anti-Israel "journalist" exposed and a man in Melbourne who flys the Swastika.

In yesterday's Age, Barney Zwartz has reported on a former editor of the Australian Jewish News questioning the amount that the community spends each year on security.

Goldberg is undoubtedly correct in one regard: the community could benefit from extra funding for education. That said, the unfortunate reality is that the money spent every year on security for the Jewish community goes to countering a very real threat.

For starters...

The Sydney Morning Herald's Hamish McDonald (Jan. 21) came away from a recent visit to Israel with the view that the country's "old liberality" is being whittled away by the right and the ultra-orthodox.

The latter, he wrote, "are 20 per cent of the population, breeding three times faster than more secular Jews." In fact the ultra-orthodox are 11 per cent of the Jewish population. He also wrote that they "are spilling out into the lands occupied since 1967, whittling down the territory held out to the Palestinians for their future state."

Wrong again. Settlements themselves take up no more than 1-2 per cent of the West Bank, a fact Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accepted as true last November 3 on Arabic Radio As-Shams...

Cabramatta is one of my favourite suburbs in Sydney. It is colourful without being too boisterous, assertive without being too aggressive.

The substantial Vietnamese-Australian immigrant population has contributed in many ways, devoting industry and passion in efforts to ensure that their children were given every chance to be part of, and succeed in, Australian society.

As the SBS documentary series "Once Upon A Time in Cabramatta", broadcast in January, highlighted, there were quite a few factors militating against the migrants who came to Australia in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

In a year punctuated by dramatic highs (the All Blacks finally winning the Rugby World Cup) and heartbreaking lows (the Christchurch earthquakes, the aftermath of the Pike River mining disaster), New Zealand's general election seemed to creep up and take many Kiwis by surprise. The lowest voter turnout since 1887 and the long-predicted, largely unsurprising election outcome combined to create something of a feeling that the entire event was merely an exercise in checking off a necessary democratic box.

SBS TV showed a four-part drama, "The Promise", from Britain's Channel 4 and France's Canal+ and Arte France, which was characterised by rampant and crudely propagandistic political messages directed against Israel and Jews, selective, distorted portrayals of historical events, and the sanitising of Arab behaviour throughout the past seven decades.

Episode three of "The Promise" (11/12) sees British Mandate soldier Len, who has had his platoon raided and soldiers shot, has been caught in the King David Hotel bombing and has been shot on the street, kidnapped with two colleagues and held in a hole for 15 days, until he is released and his colleagues hanged. He must be the unluckiest soldier in the British army. In the present day, Len's grand-daughter Erin takes a Palestinian to the house, where he very pointedly asks her friend's parents where they are from "originally" and the mother begrudgingly tells him Hungary. She visits Hebron where she hears an Israeli tell a group, "You'll notice most of the streets around here are deserted. It's known as the sterile zone. Why? To make room for 500 Jewish settlers who have no right to be here under international law, almost the entire Palestinian population of Hebron has been moved out." This is a gross exaggeration and ignores the ancient history of Hebron's Jewish community, and its religious significance.

SBS TV is showing a four-part drama, “The Promise”. The series, from Britain’s Channel 4 and France’s Canal+ and Arte France, has been widely criticised for its rampant bias against Jews and Israel. The first episode (27/11) introduced the main character, Erin, an 18-year-old English girl who stays with a rich Israeli family. She has the diary of her grandfather Len who served with the British troops in Palestine immediately after World War II, so the story switches between the British battling the treacherous Jews and the Israelis oppressing the Palestinians.

As we noted in a post last week, the EU lat weeked imposed new tougher sanctions on Iran, and today Australia followed suit.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced from Lithuania that Australian intends to impose additional sanctions in response to Iran's continuing non-compliance with United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, the US Senate has voted unanimously to pass the most stringent economic sanctions against Iran to date. However, the move was opposed to by the Obama administration.

AIJAC welcomes the announcement by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd that Australia will be pursuing additional sanctions against Iran, including measures that will "further restrict business with Iran's petroleum and financial sectors."

Hopefully, these measures will, when enacted, bring Australia into line with the international consensus developing, which includes the US, EU and Canada, that, in the wake of the latest IAEA report on Iran's illegal nuclear program, the time has come to bring the maximum diplomatic/economic pressures on the Iranian regime before it is too late.

AIJAC mourns the passing of our esteemed former colleague David Greason - a brilliant writer and contributor to AIR, especially in the field of far-right politics in Australia and the UK.

David came to us with a colourful background...

For those of a certain a generation, they are names from the past that cause equal measure of dread and derision.

They are the Australian cheer squad that relentlessly extolled Colonel Gaddafi's virtues in full view of his tyrannical excesses. Australians from both the extreme left and far right were not exempt from seeking his assistance, guidance and resources and proclaiming his virtues.

Between 1 October 1989 and 30 September 2011, I have logged incidents of "racist violence" against Jewish Australians and Jewish Australian institutions, including 566 of physical assaults or property damage, and 1,180 incidents of direct harassment and intimidation (mainly of families walking to or from synagogue).

Also recorded were: 679 incidents of telephone abuse and threats; 1,290 individual mailings of anti-Jewish material; 877 incidents of anti-Jewish graffiti; 3,168 examples of unique emails with anti-Jewish content and/or threats; and 664 incidents of other types, including faxes, leaflets, stickers, text messages and posters.

As part of its "Lost Worlds' series, SBS TV is showing a seven-part series from Britain's Channel 4 titled "The Bible: a History". The second instalment (13/11), "Abraham", was presented by Rageh Omaar, a former BBC journalist now with al-Jazeera. He described Israel as "land the Palestinians have occupied for centuries and which the Jews believe belongs to them." He seeks to cast the Jewish claim to Israel solely in religious terms, neglecting to mention that Jews have occupied the land continuously for thousands of years.

One of the many admirable characteristics of the Australian archetype is a propensity for plain speaking.

So it is to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's credit that Australia sent the Palestinian Authority a clear message by voting against admitting the non-existent state of Palestine to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In essence Australia was reaffirming its repeated stance that the only way to end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is through negotiations.

As it is, the Palestinians will now apply to 16 other UN affiliated bodies for admission on the specious basis of being a state, which they are not yet according to the criteria set out under international law.

Former DFAT head Richard Woolcott wrote a piece for the Age (11/11) critical of Australia's vote against Palestinian membership of UNESCO. Having spent more than half his article setting out the merits of Australia obtaining a seat on the UN Security Council, he then wrote, "In these circumstances, I find it both surprising and a decisive setback to our election prospects that the Prime Minister decided Australia should vote against the admission of Palestine to UNESCO."

Australians should be proud of the fact that our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have consistently and publicly supported, with bipartisan agreement, a genuine, negotiated two-state resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This is why Australia wisely voted against the admission of Palestine to UNESCO and why Australia should vote against Palestinian 'statehood' if and when it comes to the United Nations General Assembly.

Writing in the Australian (4/11) in support of the decision by UNESCO to grant membership to the Palestinians, Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, claimed, "Israeli occupation has not seen the protection and preservation of these riches. Israeli occupation has seen deliberate neglect, damage and the ongoing seizure of Palestine's cultural heritage and territory as its own, violently and with impunity, excluding the interests and rights of all others. Yet Australia voted no to Palestinian membership of UNESCO, preferring, it would seem, the theft and destruction of Palestine's and the world's heritage and saying no to peace." By contrast, he claimed, "Palestine is committed to the protection and preservation of these treasures." The track record shows the opposite to be the case.

Jake Lynch, Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, criticised his university for holding a research forum between Israelis and Australians. He told Imre Salusinszky, "The university risks sustaining reputational damage if the forum goes ahead. It risks being seen as condoning the complicity by Israeli universities in Israel's breaches of international law and indirectly raises problems with the university's social inclusion policy" (Australian, 25/10). Salusinszky reported that, in a letter to the university's Deputy Vice Chancellor, Lynch "says the forum is contrary to the university's social inclusion policy, which requires it to reach out to students in western Sydney. He says most Muslim students live in the west and feel ‘a sense of resentment and alienation resulting from the predominance of pro-Israeli voices in Australia's political and media discourses'." Lynch, who is also an executive member of the Sydney Peace Foundation, which awards the Sydney Peace Prize, seems to have a very skewed notion of what peace actually entails.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council has welcomed the release yesterday by Egypt of Ilan Grapel, who served as a visiting research fellow in its Melbourne office in 2009.

A law student at Emory University in Atlanta, USA, Mr. Grapel travelled to Egypt early this year to volunteer for a charity helping develop civil society there before being arrested in early June amidst allegations he was an Israeli agent. He was held for more than four months without any charges being formally laid against him...

As readers will note from the accompanying media release, AIJAC is very relieved and pleased that Ilan Grapel, a bright young Israeli-American student, has now been released after more than four months of detention in Egypt. Ilan served a 2009 stint in AIJAC's Melbourne's office as a visiting Goldman Fellow, part of a program run by our American partner, the American Jewish Committee...

In honour of the occasion of his release, it seems worth recalling some of the work Ilan did for AIJAC back in 2009...

Meanwhile, there has been some interesting discussion internationally about the motivations for Grapel's arrest and detention by Egypt's interim government, and what it says about where Egypt is going...

The Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange prompted various editorials. The worst, an inaccuracy-riddled effort in the Age (20/10), remarkably expressed the hope that the exchange would "prompt a rethink in Israel" and "be an incentive to renew negotiations". It doubted it would be, continuing, "In part, this is because Mr Netanyahu...refuses to end Jewish settlement activity on Palestinian land." This is clearly untrue, as the recent ten-month moratorium on building of houses in settlements demonstrated. That this did not lead to negotiation shows that Palestinian intransigence, not building within the existing boundaries of settlements is the problem. In addition, the land is not "Palestinian". The borders are to be settled by negotiation. The editorial goes on to advocate that Israel "accept Mr Abbas's conditions for talks." It should urge the Palestinians to talk without preconditions, as the Middle East Quartet proposed. Similarly, the Sydney Morning Herald editorial (20/10) stated, "The Israeli Prime Minister should also be reviewing his stance toward the Palestinian Authority."

The Australian (13/10) titled its editorial about the deal to release Gilad Shalit "Upholding a hallowed principle". With typical insight, it concluded, "It is galling to see terrorists released. We take comfort however from Shalit's imminent release from detention, which was against all international norms. We will share his joy when he is reunited with his family. The Israelis emerge with honour, having upheld the principle that human life is sacred and needless suffering cannot be endured. We can only hope that the returning Palestinians will do the same." A Sydney Morning Herald editorial (14/10) also sensitively considered Israel's dilemma, stating "To accede to the demands of any kidnapper is repugnant. It is all the more so when Hamas, which controlled Shalit's fate, has never abandoned the destruction of Israel as its stated aim. Yet equally, to abandon a captured soldier goes against human nature, as well as political good sense and the interest of Israel's defence force." 

There has once again been a plethora of pieces about the Palestinian statehood bid at the UN. Probably the most misguided was by Malcolm Fraser in the Age (4/10). Dismissing as "thin" the sensible argument that agreement should come through negotiations, he disturbingly claimed that Western opposition to the Palestinian bid was "because of the lock that Israel has over the policies of too many Western countries." His "two major stumbling blocks to peace" were not Palestinian intransigence, but Palestinian division and "the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, the daily diminution of what might become Palestine." In fact, building in settlements since 2003 has only been within the existing settlement boundaries, so there has been no diminution of land.

The Palestinian unilateral move for the UN to declare them a state again produced a vast array of media comment. The Australian (19/9) featured pieces by Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem and head of the General Delegation of Palestine Izzat Abdulhadi. Abdulhadi gave a history of the peace process that somehow omitted the offers of a Palestinian state and the Palestinian terrorism. Instead, he claimed, "Negotiating in good faith for 19 years, Palestinian people have not achieved freedom and independence in their own state, nor the end of the Israeli occupation."

ABC TV Lateline's Ali Moore interviewed Palestinian Authority official Nabil Shaath last night about the PA's UN statehood bid. Shaath , an experienced statesman, gave what on the surface may be perceived as a compelling argument for supporting the statehood bid; however, further analysis reveals inherent problems in his argument.

A key point that Shaath was attempting to put across was the PLO's supposed recognition of Israel:

Up till this minute, Israel have not recognised the right of the Palestinians to a Palestinian state on the border of '67. We still recognise Israel as an Israeli state...

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In recent weeks there has been a fair bit of attention on the activities of the anti-Israel bullies, demonisers and slanderers (who call themselves BDS for other reasons), who try to stop Australians from purchasing anything from hot chocolate and perfume to padlocks.

The more the boycotters are active, the more they are exposed as ignorant, malicious thugs. Rather than promote tolerance or peace-building, they promote bigotry and stereotyping.

On a dry, hot day in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, Australians attending the United Nations' World Conference Against Racism started planting a ''sea of hands'' to stimulate discussion on the many challenges facing indigenous Australians.

I was one of the people delegated to give ''hands'' to passers-by and encourage them to help build the display, with an overwhelmingly positive response from people from many nationalities who enjoyed the break from the intense and often nasty politicking taking place in the sessions. However, a group of about 10 men and women, with badges identifying them as predominantly coming from ''Palestine'', made audible, contemptuous comments at the fact a ''Jew'' (me) was part of the project and went to advise anyone who would listen to dissociate from the event.

New Zealand has decided to withdraw from the Durban III conference to be held on 22 September in New York. The previous two Durban "anti-racism" conferences are known to have been hijacked by antisemitism and anti-zionism, and as noted in a previous blog post, the document released for this conference make it clear that this one is unlikely to be an improvement.

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully stated:

"We remain concerned that the commemoration of the 2001 Durban Declaration could re-open the offensive and anti-Semitic debates which undermined the original World Conference. For these reasons, we have decided not to participate".

In addition, Poland is also attempting to distance itself form from Durban III, as it has been reported that Poland does not plan to send an official delegation to participate in Durban III.

(Blog post continues)

For the third time in three months, on September 13, the Senate debated the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. In a fiery debate, the Coalition criticised the Greens for failing to condemn BDS in Parliament.

Senator Ron Boswell, (Queensland, Nationals), moved that Senate:

a) Condemns the intensification of the Global Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions campaign being conducted against Max Brenner chocolate cafes;

b) Rejects this tactic as a way of promoting Palestinian rights; and

c) Agrees with the New South Wales Greens MP Mr Jeremy Buckingham's assertion ‘that the tone and the public perception of the Max Brenner protests may be counterproductive to the cause of peace and human rights in the Middle East'.

(Blog post continues)

With the approaching Palestinian unilateral bid for statehood during the UN session which started this week, diplomats in New York revealed to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that pro-Palestinian pressure is a major factor underlying their countries' decision-making on whether to support or oppose the vote. According to the diplomats quoted by the newspaper, votes on the matter are largely based on countries' attempts to prevent retaliation against them from regional groups sympathetic or loyal to the Palestinian cause. Moreover, Australia was specifically mentioned in the article as a particular target for such efforts.

The Age (27/8) ran a profile by Guardian Middle East correspondent Harriet Sherwood of Gaza's only five-star hotel. Adopting the usual kid gloves on Hamas but iron fist for Israel approach the Guardian excels at, Sherwood blamed the blockade for the hotel's lack of guests: "At times there have been long delays in getting imported supplies through the tightly controlled crossing from Israel into Gaza".

The blockade was co-enforced by Egypt on its shared border with Gaza until recently but the article ran in Britain last month at a time when Egypt had supposedly lifted the blockade. Failure to mention either of these facts, suggests alarming ignorance, partisan bias or both.

Australia should vote against any United Nations resolution that attempts to replace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians as the only route to Palestinian statehood.

If a "Yes" vote produced a Palestinian state that resolved all the issues of borders, refugees, settlements, and Jerusalem, Israel would be the first to support it.

Unfortunately, as it stands, the resolution the Palestinians are seeking absolutely will not help end the conflict and will almost certainly exacerbate it.

On the ABC TV panel show, "Q & A" (22/8), the conversation turned from Israel, to whether an Islamic country could achieve sufficient separation of church and state to become a true democracy. When the question was put to Labor Senator Doug Cameron, he replied, "Look, I think the issue of Israel and Palestine is huge in terms of trying to get world peace. I think Israel have had a massive amount of support from the world community over the years to establish the Israeli state but with that, I think, comes responsibility. And I don't think it's a beacon of democracy to have Operation Cast Lead. I don't think it is a beacon of democracy to use phosphorous bombs on kids. I don't think it is a beacon of democracy to be demolishing infrastructure in Palestine. So I just think we've got to get a bit of balance in this." It appears Cameron was so eager to attack Israel, he didn't care that it was irrelevant to the question.

Question: Do the following characteristics/actions/behaviours seem suspicious?

Having (and carrying) more than one passport while travelling. Wanting to contact your family and friends in any way possible after being caught up in a natural disaster. Leaving a country (to go home to your family) as soon as possible after being caught up in a natural disaster. Being a citizen of a country whose government representatives check up on its citizens if they are in a foreign country when a disaster occurs. Being a citizen of a country whose government offers a range of assistance to another country after a disaster has occurred.

Answer: Yes, apparently, they do in New Zealand.

It was late evening in Sydney.

Not many hours earlier, I had arrived home from South Africa, having participated in the World Conference Against Racism ("Durban I") and the NGO Forum which had preceded it.

The Jewish community in Sydney had asked me to provide a first hand account of the events, given the reports which they had heard of antisemitism, anti-Israel extremism, bullying and thuggery.

So I found myself giving what I had thought was a dry, unemotional recounting of the lows and highs of my previous two weeks.

If the boycotters had been peacefully promoting their cause to the public, however concerning their beliefs, they would not have broken any laws. However, this was not the case. They have repeatedly chosen to act riotously and aggressively, screaming hateful slogans, illegally blocking the entrance to Max Brenner, scuffling with police and creating a scene that would deter any reasonable person from entering -- not for political reasons but because any sensible person would tend to steer clear of an aggravated mob clashing with police outside a cafe.

In fact, footage from the protests shows an entirely empty food court in what is normally a busy shopping centre: the boycotters were not only scaring customers away from Max Brenner but from the other shops and restaurants in the area.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council today welcomed the announcement last night that Australia would refrain from participating in the UN's tainted Durban III "anti-racism" conference in New York next month.

The Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment campaign became a focal point for passionate debate over the last two days as it reared its head in both the Australian Senate and Victorian Parliament.

First, the Greens maintained their 100 per cent success rate of refusing to vote in favour of any resolutions condemning boycotts of Israeli-owned or affiliated companies.

The Canberra Times (8/8) ran an op-ed by the Guardian's David Hearst who argued that Israel is so irredeemably racist that the only antidote is for the United Nations to first recognise Palestinian statehood on the 1967 borders in September, then subsume Israel into a Palestinian majority state.

Contradicting local boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) supporters who claimed their actions in preventing customers entering a Max Brenner chocolate store in Melbourne last month were peaceful, a prominent supporter of the campaign has condemned their behaviour as "indefensible" and "pretty stupid".

In an interview with the Australian, the president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Reverend Jim Barr, warned that heavy-handed tactics which resulted in 19 activists being arrested had backfired.

The Daily Telegraph's Tim Blair commented in the Spectator (July 30) on the motivation of Leftist activists directing their rage at Israeli-owned chocolate shop Max Brenner.

Blair suggested they are obsessed with the chocolatier as a rallying cause in lieu of criticising federal Labor policies identical to those they noisily attacked when the Coalition was in power.

On August 9, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) published an editorial "Fence-sitting, but the wisest course", which advocated that Australia abstain on the UN General Assembly resolution that is expected to seek UN recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines.

The editorial was commenting on news that Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd held different positions on the Palestinian UN bid. According to the Age's Daniel Flitton, Rudd wrote to the Prime Minister suggesting that Australia abstain on the Palestinian UN resolution, while Gillard has declared strong support for Israel. The SMH editorial declared, "we believe Rudd's advice is the sound course".

Abstaining on the resolution is not a "sound course" but rather a counter-productive course. Australia should not merely abstain but should vote against the resolution in the interests of Middle East peace and a two-state solution. Unilateral acts by the Palestinians will not achieve either peace or statehood, but are likely to escalate the conflict.

In an interesting turn of events, four of the 19 people arrested for engaging in the violent protests against an Israeli-owned cafe in Melbourne have been arrested for breaching their bail condition of not going within 50m of the cafe. As reported by the ABC:

Last month, 19 activists were arrested outside a Max Brenner store after allegedly chaining themselves to furniture. The group was not to go within 50 metres of the company's two two CBD stores. A spokeswoman for BDS says the four protesters were arrested early this morning...

[Post continues]

AIJAC welcomes the decision of the Government of Victoria to ask the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate whether organisations campaigning for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel have been conducting "secondary boycotts for the purpose of causing substantial loss or damage", in breach of section s45D of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

ANU PhD scholar Lee Schrader writing in the Canberra Times (22/7) doubted "whether any compromise is possible under the Netanyahu leadership, regardless of regional developments." Schrader's assessment is unduly harsh considering Netanyahu implemented a ten-month unilateral settlements building freeze in 2009 as a gesture towards restarting peace talks. With one month left of the freeze Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took up the invitation but then only wanted to discuss extending the settlement freeze.

The catastrophic drought in East Africa has created an all-but unprecedented humanitarian disaster. Commendably, many world leaders - including Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd - have called for the international community to provide immediate aid relief to the millions who are suffering.

When describing the tragic situation in Somalia, Michel Gabaudan, the president of Refugees International, has made the allegation that the Somali famine is "man-made". Gabaudan provides a pertinent reminder of the recent anarchic history of the war-ravaged nation...

After New Zealand media outrageously accused an Israeli victim of February's Christchurch earthquake of being a Mossad spy, Prime Minister John Key yesterday publically announce that an investigation demonstrated that neither the victim, Ofer Mizrahi, nor any of his friends, had any involvement in espionage. In a statement on Wednesday, Key said, "Security agencies conducted the investigation and found no evidence that the people were anything other than backpackers." It turns out Mizrahi held two passports, his Israeli and his EU one, rather than the five that a Southland Times article initially alleged. The story quickly spread throughout New Zealand newspapers, and was covered as one of the biggest stories of the week.

Only hours before Key's announcement, Fred Tulett, the journalist behind the initial story, said he was "unshakable in his conviction his facts are accurate."

On Wednesday, the Sydney Morning Herald featured a rant by Australian-born-Egyptian-Muslim-Palestinian pro-Palestinian activist Randa Abdel-Fattah arguing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the latters' ongoing suffering stems from Israel supposedly seeking to safeguard the ''purity'' of a Jewish-only state.

The ostensible motivation for her article was a desire to share the numerous experiences of racism she claims to have witnessed when visiting Israel and the West Bank in May. Yet nowhere in the article is she able to recount a single example of the alleged racism because her real motive is to justify her support for a one-state solution.

In his column in the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph and Adelaide's Advertiser (6/7), Andrew Bolt vented his disgust at the attempted picketing of a Max Brenner shop by pro-Palestinian activists. He wrote, "[In Australia] I never thought I'd see people picketing shops because their owners were Jewish...I've seen pictures of Jewish shops attacked before, of course, but they were in black and white, in another country at another ghastly time."

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Federal MP Mr Michael Danby should be highly commended for their visit yesterday to a branch of Max Brenner in Melbourne, a target of recent anti-Israel protests, where they took a strong stance against the boycott of Jewish and Israeli-owned business. Two weeks ago, Palestinian supporters of the boycott launched a protest outside the café that took a violent turn, leaving three policemen injured and 19 protesters arrested. The Herald-Sun reported Rudd calling the boycott "archaic" and saying, "I went there deliberately to make a point and that is I don't think in 21st century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business...I thought we had learned that from history." The Age also reported Rudd stating that: 

"As an individual citizen - that is me, K. Rudd - I am here because I object to the boycotting of Jewish businesses."

Israel's new "anti-boycott" law has understandably attracted plenty of criticism, but not all coverage of it has been as balanced as it should be.

As a number of backbench Labor MPs have come out against the recent government decision to lift the suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia, partly on the basis that all animals should be stunned before slaughter, a false linkage has been made by some critics between the images from Indonesia's slaughterhouses and the killing of animals for Kosher consumption.

As noted in a recent post, numerous experts on the welfare of livestock, prominent amongst them Professor Temple Grandin, testify that Kosher slaughter is ethical and painless, with Grandin noting "I have observed that cattle held in an upright restraint device had almost no reaction to correctly done Kosher slaughter that was performed with a special long knife...the cut with the special knife appear to not cause pain" . Grandin concluded "It appears the animal is not aware that its throats has been cut."

AIJAC welcomes the Victorian Government's decision to undertake an investigation into racist activity in Victoria and to ascertain the extent of racist incidents over the past ten years. The investigation will be conducted by the Victorian Government Multicultural Commission with the assistance of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

Being the country with the world's largest Muslim population, Indonesia's success in transitioning from a dictatorship to a relatively functional democracy over a short period of time arguably makes it the perfect example for the nations in the Middle East now attempting a similar feat. Giora Eliraz, author of Islam in Indonesia: Modernism, Radicalism and the Middle East Dimension certainly thinks so - observing that despite a traditional Arab disdain for South-East Asian Muslims, Egypt has been clandestinely working with the Indonesian authorities on developing a democratic model.

As he points out, Indonesia is perhaps a better partner in democracy building than the more obvious choice, Turkey, as the latter is...

Moammar Mashni of Australians for Palestine had a letter in the Australian Financial Review about the Gaza flotilla. Here's AIJAC's response in today's edition.

In the lead up to the flotilla's proposed departure, Israel's Government Press Office wrote to journalists warning that any who sailed on it would be subject to exclusion from Israel for up to ten years, as is anyone who enters Israel or its territorial waters illegally. A June 28 Age editorial, however, made it seem journalists were singled out. It stated, "it is most disappointing that the Israeli government is threatening journalists with reprisals" and referred to it as a "threat to punish journalists." At least the following day, when Israeli PM Netanyahu intervened to ensure that journalists would be exempted from this routine policy, a Jason Koutsoukis article made it clear that was the case. However, the Israeli letter to the journalists should never have been misrepresented as it was, and had Netanyahu not intervened, Age readers may well have remained unaware of the true situation.

Concerns about the operations in Australia of radical Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir's (HT) should be renewed yet again following a conference hosted by the group on July 3, at Lidcombe, which drew about 1000 people. The fundamentalist group called for the establishment of a caliphate stretching from the Middle East to Indonesia.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that at the conference, Muslims in Australia were urged to join the uprisings that have toppled regimes across the Middle East, to renounce moderate forms of the religion and to reject democracy.

Israel has jumped 9 places to number 14 in the 2011 Global Innovation Index (GII). Coming from a rank of 23 last year, Israel flew past Australia - which fell from 18 in 2010 to 21 in 2011 - into the top 15 most innovative countries in the world, blitzing the other Middle East and North Africa (MEA) countries, with number 27, Qatar, being the only other country from the region in the top 30.

The GII is a project led by...

Former NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale wrote an article for the June 20 Sydney Morning Herald explaining her decision to participate in the flotilla which will shortly attempt to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza...

Hale's diatribe was responded to brilliantly in the June 22 Herald by advertising creative director Rowan Dean...

Jerusalem has always been used as a pretext for conspiracy theories and propaganda campaigns against Israel in the Arab world. A perennial claim throughout the Arab-Israel conflict is that something Israel is doing presages the destruction of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

An Australian man who was arrested in Israel recently has now been formally charged with spying for Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation both in Australia and in Israel, and has faced an initial court hearing.

As reported by the ABC:

Eyad Abu Arja was arrested along with his wife when he arrived at Tel Aviv airport in March, and has been in custody ever since.

The Sunday Age has recently published two articles, an editorial, and a blog post alleging that Kosher slaughter causes undue pain to animals, advocating legislation that would effectively end the production of kosher meat in Australia.

While the articles repeatedly claimed that unstunned slaughter means an inhumane "up to 20 seconds" of pain for sheep, this conflicts with many expert opinions that confirm that Kosher slaughter is ethical, painless, and humane.

An article in last month's AIR entitled "Are Australian Tax Dollars indirectly funding BDS?" looked at revelations from the October 2010 Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee - Budget Supplementary Estimates Committee hearings which suggested that it was possible that Australian tax dollars were funding elements of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel through the federal government's international aid agency, AusAID.

NEXT week a flotilla carrying so-called activists from various countries under the guise of "humanitarian concern" will set sail for the Gaza Strip, determined to break what they call "the siege of Gaza". Four Australians, including former Greens MLC Sylvia Hale, will be aboard.

This latest anti-Israel provocation comes on the anniversary of last year's ostensibly "humanitarian" flotilla which, likewise, sought to breach Israel's legal naval blockade of Gaza.

During that incident, nine Turkish passengers on board the Mavi Marmara died following a premeditated and vicious attack on Israeli soldiers by a group of shipboard activists.

Last year's flotilla was organised by the Turkish group IHH, which has extensive links to Islamist terror groups, including Hamas. Although IHH has now pulled out of the upcoming flotilla, citing "technical reasons", it has nonetheless been extensively involved in its preparations.

In a press release a few weeks ago, the Australian contingent said their goal was to "break the Israeli blockade of Gaza".

They believe that "Gaza will not be free so long as the Israeli siege destroys the territory's economy".

No, Gaza will not be free so long as Hamas continues to control the Gaza Strip. But then again, there was not a single mention of Hamas in their press release. Why?

Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans appeared on Jon Faine’s “Conversation Hour” on 774 ABC Melbourne on June 16, giving his take on the Middle East and demonstrating we’re lucky he is no longer in the role.

AIJAC Executive Director Dr. Colin Rubenstein has appeared on ABC-TV's Lateline, responding to the use of Nazi and Holocaust analogy in Australia's climate change debate.

On 22 June, Federal MP Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Lib.) made a speech in the House of Representatives drawing the Parliament's attention to the arrest in Egypt of American-Israeli Ilan Grapel. Mr. Grapel was arrested earlier this month for alleged involvement in espionage and formenting sectarian strife in Egypt. As Mr Briggs rightly points out: "These allegations at best seem far-fetched and when you consider that Mr Grapel is a regular visitor to the Middle East and had entered Egypt under his own name on his own passport [and] was posting daily messages on Facebook, the allegations do raise significant concern."

Mr Briggs also commented: "This is similar, sadly, to the five year anniversary of the detention of Israeli citizen Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas since 2006."

BDS Q & A

The issue of Marrickville Council's support for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign against Israel was raised on the ABC TV discussion program "Q & A" (6/6). Greens Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon reaffirmed her support for the campaign, accusing Israel of apartheid. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said calling Israel apartheid is "an extreme link that doesn't really serve the arguments well." Comedian Sandy Gutman, better known as Austen Tayshus, said, "It's just antisemitic. That's all it is." Asked if he supported the boycott, Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough certainly seemed to do so, saying, "Well, I think it's a very clear way to get the debate about the Middle East going in western communities. It's fantastic in Washington at the moment where you get BDS campaigns outside Joe the Trader and various other shops, in particular about a brand of hummus that comes from Israel... Because it's part of a campaign against Israel to make Israel respond on the two state solution." Despite his being a foreign correspondent, it seems to have escaped McGeough's notice that Israel has been responding on the two-state solution since 1993.

"We need to be wary of the rise of the polemicist. Polemic is different from journalism."

This simple statement from veteran journalist Paul Kelly at a session of the recent Sydney Writers' Festival seems as if it should go without saying. Unfortunately, it served as a rather ominous warning for those attending other sessions at the partially tax-payer funded Festival.

On Israel/Palestine issues, this year's Festival featured two high-profile international guests with important things to say related to the Middle East - Palestinian doctor and writer Izzeldin Abuelaish, who lost three daughters in the 2008-9 Gaza war, and British novelist Howard Jacobson. Both of these figures have very positive messages, promoting a genuine Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace and reconciliation. However, the program and atmosphere of the Festival managed to both prevent their positive views from being fully explored, and constantly pitted them against much more extreme Australian voices.

Peace is not made solely through agreements, it is made through both sides accepting each other's legitimacy and working together. BDS and other attacks on Israel's existence have only ever served to vindicate the voices saying that peace and reconciliation are impossibilities. Well-meaning people have been duped by this movement into thinking that they are fighting for human rights. However the policy today is as malicious as the boycott of Jewish settlements was in 1922. For all its carefully-framed rhetoric, its leaders have but one true aim, which they occasionally admit - to end the Jewish state.

Was there ever a time when anti-Israel students felt afraid? Certainly, anti-Zionist fundamentalists, thuggish Israel-bashers and others have been in institutions where they have lost sympathy, debates and votes. But have they ever had to navigate an environment of threats and intimidation?

Have pro-Palestinian, pan-Arab or expansionist Islamist voices been shouted down, physically attacked, bullied or harassed on Australian campuses or in other forums?

I am not talking about anti-Muslim or anti-Arab prejudice, bigotry and racism - which does exist and can have violent manifestations - but thuggish attacks on people seeking to advocate a political position.

ASKED in July 2009, in the aftermath of the Gaza War, if Australia would deal with the Palestinian government if Hamas were to be included, Julia Gillard was unequivocal in her response: "Hamas obviously is a terrorist organisation that has been engaged in violent actions against the Israeli people, and in order to be part of any process it needs to completely renounce that violence."

So it should stand to reason that following the announcement last week that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group and rival Hamas had agreed to end their long-standing feud and form a unity government, the Australian government must re-assess its relations with the Palestinian Authority.

But in Tuesday night's budget, it was announced that "Australian aid to the Palestinian territories and Palestinian refugees in surrounding regions will double to around $70 million per annum by 2012-13".

Included within that, is money that will go directly to the PA to "improve its operations and assist in the delivery of services".

While Canberra's Australian National University (ANU) is generally regarded as a quality institution, some of the public comment emanating from its Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, headed by Professor Amin Saikal, should properly raise eyebrows.

While other mosques, together with temples, churches and synagogues, routinely welcome members of the public, a mosque associated with the infamous Sheikh Tajeddin el-Hilaly and an association which has been identified with the controversial and self-contradictory Keysar Trad had more reason than most to display openness and engagement.

The popular usage of the term "lawfare" is the use of law as a weapon in itself. Its goal is to weaken an enemy, primarily through demoralisation.

Over the past month, the Sydney Morning Herald's coverage of Israel has been noticeably one-sided, even by its usual standards. What was particularly noteworthy was the fervour with which the Herald covered the so-called "Palestine Papers".

Gaddafi has had a few supporters who from time to time promoted his "wisdom". In fact, my copy of Jamahiriya: Era of the Masses, which contains Gaddafi's poetry as well as philosophy, was obtained gratis at the now-defunct Sydney bookshop of the pro-Soviet Socialist Party of Australia

Australian multiculturalism is a policy that has served us well and, properly weighted between our rights and responsibilities, can further help us resolve pressing social challenges. If revitalised and renewed, it will continue to benefit Australia's harmony, diversity and cohesion.

Sadly, it seems there will always be those who, regardless of the true nature of tensions in the Middle East, and despite the plethora of evidence to the contrary, sheet all the blame home to Israel.

On a balmy summer's day in Sydney recently, a friend who is a respected intellectual figure and religious personality in a significant Muslim-majority country told me some of the contemporary claims about Jews and Israel which he encounters, from leading public figures, on a daily basis.

In addition to dealing with the needs of locals, the majority of Marrickville Councillors have determined that they will dive headlong into complex Middle East issues, in the process contravening Australian foreign policy and undermining all those who are working to promote a better future for Israelis, Palestinians and others.

Dr. Colin Rubenstein, Executive Director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council said today, "AIJAC welcomes the decision by the Commonwealth Government to appeal the Federal Court's decision in the matter of the extradition of alleged murderer Charles Zentai to Hungary.

Dr. Colin Rubenstein, Executive Director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council said today, "AIJAC welcomes the December 24 vote by Australia at the UN against the 'Durban III' conference. The vote adds to Australia's long and proud history of acting against racism."

Communal unity often comes about as a result of a polarising issue, a scandal or a tragedy. For the New Zealand Jewish community, such unity has been evident this year due to the issue of shechita (traditional kosher slaughtering practices) - and the fight against the government’s attempt to ban it.

Israel has come out in a largely positive light following WikiLeaks' staggered release of more than 250,000 classified US State Department documents. The cables, most of which date from between 2007 and February 2010, detail Arab countries' fears of Iran's nuclear program

Unfortunately (and unfortunately typically), McGeough's various articles about the flotilla - including the one honoured at the Walkleys - were skewed by bias and replete with factual errors.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has welcomed ACMA's finding that al-Manar breached Australia's broadcasting codes in regards to racism.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has extended "sincere congratulations" to Victorian Liberal Party leader Ted Baillieu on his "stunning election victory and on becoming the 46th Premier of Victoria."

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has formally "acknowledged and extended appreciation" to the Australian Government for the "principled stand in voting against the UN resolution to hold a conference in New York in 2011 marking 10 years since the Durban WCAR [World Conference against Racism]."

Of course, disproportionate hatred of Israel is nothing new - nor are attempts at making parallels of Nazi treatment of Jews with Israeli treatment of Palestinians, however ignorant, offensive and morally bankrupt these attempted parallels are. What is new, and what is making observers increasingly worried, is the mainstreaming of these sentiments over the last few years.

It was encouraging to take part in well-developed discussions on the balance between free speech and protection from the effects of hate speech, and on the distinctions between criticism of Israel (and/or the actions of Jewish people) and antisemitic propaganda and incitement.

Following the success of the Greens in the recent Australian federal election, it seems timely to review the experience with New Zealand's Green Party over recent years and especially its stance towards Israel and the Jewish community.

A common nonsense spouted by individuals and organisations who seek to delegitimise, defame or destroy the standing of Israel is the claim that Israel's behaviour/existence is the principal cause of antisemitism.

The upcoming BDS resolution at the ACTU is both sad and absurd. All Australian unionists in favour of Israeli-Palestinian peace will either vote against the resolution, or unwittingly prolong the conflict.

The recent federal election was unlike any other since World War II, and may have changed politics in this country forever. What did not change, however, was the plethora of minor and special interest parties participating. As always, a number of these had policies that would be of concern to the majority of the Jewish community. This article examines both the policies and the electoral performances of these fringe parties.

After 30 years devoted to identifying, hunting down, and lobbying foreign governments to prosecute suspected war criminals, comes a long-awaited memoir by Efraim Zuroff, historian and current Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem. Despite the passage of time, decline in health and advanced age of the alleged Nazi war criminals, Zuroff launched "Operation Last Chance" in 2002, a final attempt to bring remaining war criminals to justice via a system of rewards for verifiable tips about previously unidentified suspects.

The next prime minister of Australia should be whoever can more convincingly promise a stable coalition able to undertake the responsibilities of government more effectively. Overseas and Australian state government experience demonstrates that stable, effective minority government is possible given the proper attitude of seriousness, sobriety and responsibility on the part of all the relevant political actors.

When Israel reopened an embassy in Wellington in April this year, it seemed obvious that the new Ambassador, Shemi Tzur, and his staff had a big job in front of them. Almost a decade without on-the-ground representation, as well as some years of troubled diplomatic relations between Israel and New Zealand, meant that Kiwi perceptions of Israel had, in many ways, been quite badly damaged.

What struck me then, and continues to strike me, was their complete lack of concern, sometimes even contempt, for the human beings they claimed to champion and the hatred for the human beings on the other side of the political divide. There was no regard for Palestinians who sought co-existence with Israelis, just uncritical support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The idea of institution building, self-determination of individuals or developing any paradigm which could lead to a win-win outcome were simply not on the agenda.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today welcomed the Australian Government's announcement that further sanctions are to be placed on Iran. AIJAC National Chairman Mark Leibler AC said, "Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons is a destabilising factor in an already unstable region. We congratulate the Australian government on imposing these additional sanctions on Iran to help force it to comply with international opinion and UN Security Council resolutions, to stop its enrichment program and open up all nuclear sites to unfettered access for international inspectors."

Once again, the Australian Jewish community is fortunate enough to have the choice between two prime ministerial candidates who strongly defend Israel's right to exist in peace and security. Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott continue the tradition of Australia's bipartisan support for Israel

There does seem to be one prediction on which most election analysts agree - the Australian Greens are likely to wind up controlling the balance of power in the Senate. This will be worrying to many in the Australian Jewish community because not only does the Greens party's membership base seem, on past form, susceptible to radical anti-Zionism, but some of the party's official policies look strongly concerning - to say the least.

Despite the obvious concern that accompanies any change of government - particularly one that had ruled for 11 years - by and large the changeover to the Australian Labor Party saw a continuity of bipartisanship on a raft of Israel and Jewish communal issues. The sudden change of the prime ministership from Kevin Rudd to Julia Gillard in late-June does not dramatically change this calculus and may even strengthen it, with the latter's long standing commitment to the Jewish State and the Australian Jewish community not in question. Indeed, Gillard reaffirmed her support for Israel upon assuming the leadership...

The Age newspaper has, at times, been noticeably skewed against Israel. Recently, there seemed to have been some signs of improvement, but sadly, over the last month, it has regressed. For example, some time ago, it was common that phrases in stories by Fairfax correspondent Jason Koutsoukis would appear in the Age with an anti-Israel slant not present in the same report in the Sydney Morning Herald. Now the same is happening with reports sourced internationally.

Julie Szego's column entitled "The Need for a Critical Diaspora" (July 2) placed entirely too much uncritical faith in the arguments of American author and journalist Peter Beinart. She fails to take adequate account of the outcome of the intense and interesting debate that has ensued in America since Beinart's essay, "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment" was first published in mid-May. In particular, Szego seems unaware that critics have shows that much of the empirical basis of Beinart's key claim is just plain factually wrong.

When asked to respond to a statement by Israeli spokesman Mark Regev that Israel was happy to take and deliver the humanitarian aid, it seemed McGeough had to remind himself he was meant to be a journalist, rather than one of the activists.

Sadly, many in the media overlooked the reasons why the killing was not murder, and, like our Foreign Minister, described it as such. Some also sanitised Hamas terrorist leader al-Mabhouh.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council said that the Australia/Israel friendship is deep and broad and will continue to grow despite the Australian government's regrettable decision announced today that an Israeli diplomat be withdrawn.

Twenty years ago, the Arab League's economic boycott of Israel was pervasive - as was the pressure exerted on Australian companies to comply.

As relations cooled between Israel and the US, some in our media have solely blamed the Netanyahu Government, while others have held the Obama Administration responsible.

Quick's Australian visit received almost no public attention and his hosts escaped the criticism and condemnation they merited.

On ABC TV, Anne Barker declared, "The growth of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank is the biggest obstacle to peace." Apparently the ongoing Palestinian terror and refusal to even talk come somewhere behind the building of houses.

The existence of bigotry, prejudice and racism is unfortunately far from absent in Australia, but in this instance the shock was that it was disseminated through a body promoting multiculturalism.

Concern about domestic radicalisation and home-grown terrorism is a big part of the government's white paper on counter-terrorism released last week. So why haven't successive governments banned Hezbollah's television station, al-Manar, from screening in Australia? After all, al-Manar is all about radicalising its viewers.

In several columns last year I wrote that the diplomatic relationship between New Zealand and Israel appeared to be improving - due to the new more Israel-friendly National-led government and the imminent reopening of an Israeli Embassy in Wellington.

There has been concern expressed that some Australian passports were forged or otherwise misused, and it is clear that no-one condones actions undermining the integrity of Australian passports. It is entirely appropriate for the Australian Government to conduct a thorough investigation through the Australian Federal Police and ASIO.

AIJAC's Executive Director Dr. Colin Rubenstein said, "Australia should be congratulated for its role in facilitating Israel's membership of this subgroup. I hope this means Israel will finally be allowed to take part in all UN activities. For too long, Israel has been denied equal treatment at the UN. This is a small, albeit much delayed, step toward an end to the anti-Israel ground rules and hostile sentiment that has long prevailed in the halls of the UN."

The media predictably commemorated the anniversary of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza with pieces and reports bemoaning the continuing state of "siege". Many failed to blame Hamas for this situation, which would be remedied if Hamas renounces violence, recognises Israel and accepts existing agreements, as the Quartet has been demanding.

The Australian think-alikes distributed curricula vitae of their spokespersons, looking suspiciously like job applications, with anti-Israel disinformation, while urging Australians to exploit the Open as an opportunity to join the defamation of all Israelis.

Virtually every day I see one or more reports of a Jewish person being assaulted, Jewish communal property vandalised, abusive and threatening emails, offensive letters and telephone calls or abuse yelled at identifiably Jewish people from passing vehicles.

AIJAC was confident that Bowen's comments were in breach of both the Codes and the Directive, so we sent a formal complaint to the SBS Ombudsman. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the rights to the disputed land, yet Bowen clearly arbitrates in favour of the Palestinian claim.

Many in our media are insisting the US adhere to its unreasonable position, while others either implicitly or explicitly exaggerate the level of settlement construction and the importance of this issue.

Jim Saleam has become one of the best known faces of the generally faceless far right fringe, who appears oblivious to his lack of accord with the basic decency of the population to which he offers himself as a leader.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein today welcomed the decision of Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor to allow the extradition of suspected Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai.

When the report on the United Nations inquiry into the most recent Israel-Gaza conflict was released, I immediately thought that it would be interesting to observe what type of comment it generated in New Zealand. Although Kiwis often have little time for the United Nations, the conflict itself had generated a lot of attention and heat.

It has become increasingly noticeable that while the ABC TV show "Q & A" sometimes features members of the Muslim community who are also effectively there representing their community, Jewish individuals featured tend to be those strongly critical of Israel.

Channel 9's "Sixty Minutes" has generally preferred to simply sensationalise the issues one-sidedly, employing sputtering outrage in a cheap ratings grab mixed with an ideological hatchet job.

Kyle Sandilands' comments were not only personally nasty to Magda Szubanski, but offensive to the intelligence and sensitivities of all listeners with a minimal degree of understanding or humanity.

The Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA) opened itself up to deserved criticism in August when it apparently gave its seal of approval to al-Manar, Hezbollah's television station.

Much of our media has taken the Palestinian line that the settlements are the main obstacle to peace. Unfortunately, not only are the settlements focused on too heavily, at the expense of the real problem - especially continued Palestinian intransigence and division - but many reports on the West Bank and east Jerusalem are becoming increasingly one-sided and exaggerated, with some bordering on hysterical.

Unlike the other individuals who have been ordered by Australian courts to cease harassment, insult and vilification, Fredrick Toben seemed determined to bring punishment upon himself by flaunting the very gentle "penalty" of being directed to obey this country's laws.

Australia chooses to proscribe as a terrorist entity only Hezbollah's external military wing. That means Hezbollah's internal social, political and military wings are not considered terrorist entities by Australia. This is a little bizarre, since Hezbollah's leaders have publicly insisted there is no distinction between any wing.

ACMA did not see any problem with an advertisement on al-Manar soliciting donations for the al-Emdad charity, which is used primarily for supporting the families of Hezbollah fighters. Giving it money is effectively indistinguishable from giving money to Hezbollah, which is illegal in Australia.

Australia, the West and many other countries, including many in the Arab and Muslim world, are engaged, against their will, in a struggle with groups that use violence in the name of an ideology rooted in one interpretation of a major world religion. This reality must be stated clearly – it cannot be obfuscated.

Julia Gillard's visit to Israel last month was a success, though it barely made a splash in the local Israeli media. The Deputy Prime Minister's meetings with Israeli leaders were described as a "substantive exchange" and these are expected to stimulate an overall upgrading of diversifying bilateral ties.

When speaking with a leader of the Baha'i community in Australia recently, our conversation inevitably turned to events in Iran. In May 2008, seven leaders of this community were seized from their families, imprisoned and faced allegations of grave seriousness. For 15 months, there have been regular indications that trials will occur and that people whose only real offence seems to be their religious beliefs will have the chance to mount legal defences. But the Iranian regime is not only authoritarian and brutal, but almost unspeakably cruel.

3ZZZ's Syrian programming advances the Nazi-inspired dogma of a violent secular party - it is the mouthpiece of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP).

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has recommended that the Australian government designate Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.

If US President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo on June 4 proves to be an historic event, I will be able to say without doubt where I was when he spoke. It was my privilege to be at a gathering of representatives of many of Sydney's Muslim and Arab communities, diplomats, analysts and journalists.

What readers may not know is that Green Left Weekly is openly trying to promote extremism among Arabic speakers in Australia through a monthly Arabic-language insert called the Flame.

An AIJAC complaint to the ABC has been upheld, resulting in a correction and apology from the national broadcaster. A complaint highlighted an incorrect statement by Middle East correspondent Anne Barker, filed April 25,about Israel's security barrier

What McGeough fails to adequately convey are the events that led Israel officials to decide that targeting a then-relatively unknown Hamas leader, on the streets of one of only two Arab countries at peace with the Jewish state, was a risk worth taking.

Ever since I heard that a "Durban II" conference on racism was going to be held, I've watched with interest to see whether New Zealand would be involved and what sort of public dialogue might occur about our stance.

Paul McGeough continued airbrushing the terrorist group Hamas. He interviewed its leader Khaled Meshal for the March 21 Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and had to accept that Hamas would stick to its Charter's call for Israel's destruction, because Meshal insisted.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has welcomed the Australian Government decision on Sunday that Australian delegates will not attend the UN Durban Review Conference in Geneva this week.

The Radio National program "Encounter" dedicated its March 22 episode to Jews critical of Israel, scouring Australia and the globe for six of the most extreme.

They did not just choose Jews who make reasoned criticisms of Israeli policies. Instead, they scoured Australia and the globe for some of the most extreme critics they could find.

In a March 9 Age piece, the ANU's Amin Saikal took it upon himself to advise Barak Obama on Middle East policy. He claimed the Bush Administration's policy had "denied Hamas its right to exercise power as the democratic choice of the Palestinian people." This is untrue.

The reaction of Australia's government, media, and elite, and public opinion to Israel's December 2008-January 2009 military operations against Hamas in Gaza was mixed. At the government level, both the Labor government as well as the Liberal opposition voiced strong, consistent, and principled support for Israel's right to defend itself.

On March 3, Age readers were subjected to a typically jaundiced and poorly argued opinion piece from Peter Rodgers.

Media reports during Israel's Gaza campaign often featured UNRWA head John Ging or spokesperson Christopher Gunness stridently and, dare I say, disproportionately attacking Israel. Woe betide anyone who attacks them though.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council today called for the Australian government to withdraw from the process leading to the UN's scheduled "Durban Review Conference". The conference, known as "Durban II", is intended to be a follow up to the 2001 Durban "anti-racism" conference which degenerated into frequent displays of open antisemitism by NGO representatives

A review by Guardian writer Martin Woollacott of Patrick Tyler's book A World of Trouble: America in the Middle East appeared in the "Panorama" section of the February 14 Canberra Times. Tyler strongly criticises US actions in the Middle East and Woollacott, a long time critic of Israel, strongly agrees.

In the public sphere, regular anti-Israel protests and demonstrations took place around the country. At one such protest in Wellington, Catholic priest Gerard Burn sprinkled red paint mixed with a drop of his own blood, on a memorial monument to Yitzhak Rabin.

The Feb. 12 Age and Herald editorials both wrongly claimed that Netanyahu rejects a two-state solution and the peace process, and portrayed Israel's election results as a blow for peace, implicitly absolving the Palestinians of any responsibility for the state of the peace process.

In last week's JN, AIJAC's Tzvi Fleischer commented on the unfairness of the ABC TV show "Lateline" using hard left Israeli commentator Akiva Eldar as for its analysis of the Israeli election.

In the front page of the January 31 Weekend Australian, Middle East correspondent John Lyons detailed uncorroborated claims by Palestinian eyewitnesses that Israeli soldiers had shot dead in cold blood two Palestinians who had their hands in the air, and had also shot two others in the arms.

How would most Australians feel if a mainstream television station overseas interviewed far left-wing Australian journalist John Pilger as its only commentator on an Australian election?

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council expresses its deepest condolences and prayers of support to all those who have lost loved ones in the Victorian bushfire tragedy. We pray for a speedy recovery for all those who have been injured.

The International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultation (IJCIC), a coalition of major international Jewish organisations representing world Jewry to other religions, is to have direct Australian input. "I am pleased to announce the inclusion of Jeremy Jones, the Director of International & Community Affairs of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, as part of the delegation of the American Jewish Committee to IJCIC," Mark Leibler, AIJAC's national chairman said this week.

One common problem with media coverage is the selective quoting of officials. An excellent example occurred in a report by Natalie McGregor for the ABC TV "Midday Report" on January 27.

Perhaps concerned that its title as Australia's most anti-Israel mainstream newspaper was under threat from The Age, the Canberra Times removed all doubt about its credentials.

John Ging and Christopher Gunness are respectively, the head of and the spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) - the UN organisation set up to care for, and some would say perpetuate the problem of, the Palestinian refugees.

Mixed with chants such as "Bomb the Jews" and children bearing placards bemoaning that Jews didn't get enough Nazi treatment, were many posters and signs claiming Israel/Jews were perpetrating a Holocaust, that the Star of David was the same as the swastika and/or that the Jewish people are involved in genocide.

In a truly disgusting piece in the Business section of the January 17 Age, for which the paper subsequently apologised, Michael Backman ludicrously claimed that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is "at the nub" of the 9/11, Bali and London terror attacks and solely responsible for Muslim enmity for Israel.

The Herald Sun coverage of Gaza has been mixed. Its January 9 editorial concluded that due to Israel's action, "the so-called road to peace has become impassable."

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council today welcomed Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recognition that the terrorist organisation Hamas' act of aggression in firing rockets and mortars in to Israel unilaterally breached the ceasefire and is responsible for the end of the truce in Gaza, with Israel responding to Hamas' actions and threats.

The majority report's politicised approach to the inquiry is disappointing as there are legitimate and serious issues regarding bias and intimidation at Australian universities that concern students, and should concern legislators of all political stripes.

The Majority report's politicised approach to the inquiry was very disappointing, as there are legitimate and serious issues regarding bias and intimidation at Australian universities that concern students, and should concern legislators of all political stripes.

Continuing its yearly tradition, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) debated and voted on a cavalcade of recycled anti-Israel resolutions during its November sessions. This annual rehashing of the same anti-Israel ritual presents an opportunity to review Australia's voting record on the issues and assess the progress in combating the anti-Israel bureaucracy entrenched at the UNGA and UN generally.

As tends to be the case after any major terrorist attack, media commentators and editorial writers reacted to the Mumbai atrocity by trying to extract lessons for the benefit of their loyal readers. Two Age editorials were careful to appropriately condemn the terrorists, but still inappropriately put the onus on the civilised world.

When some Sydney teenagers created a group on the social networking internet platform "Facebook", on which they posted photos of poorly or creatively parked vehicles and made infantile and sometimes offensive comments about Jews, they were apparently oblivious to the public nature of their activities and the consequences of their actions.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council today said it was "very disappointed" with the majority report resulting from the Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Inquiry into Academic Freedom.

During the twelve months ending September 30, 2008, 652 reports were recorded of "racist violence" against Jewish Australians. These incidents included physical assault, vandalism, threatening telephone calls, hate mail, graffiti, leaflets, posters and abusive emails. This exceeded by 2% the previous highest total, recorded in the year ending September 30, 2007. It was more than twice the previous average annual total.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today welcomed the changes to Australian Citizenship testing processes announced this week by the Federal Government.

AIJAC's National Chairman Mark Leibler and Executive Director Colin Rubenstein welcomed the Rudd Government's votes on two anti-Israel resolutions considered last week by committees of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

While a laudable goal, the UN system is too often dysfunctional for temporary Security Council membership to be an end in and of itself. Instead, reforming the UN and its institutions should be the animating factor underlying Australia's campaign and, if successful, its tenure.

Given the consistency of the pre-election polls, the results of the New Zealand election on Nov. 8 would have come as a shock to few Kiwis - John Key's National party handily defeated the Labour party, led by Helen Clark, the prime minister for the past (almost) 9 years.

Every year, the United Nations General Assembly considers a slate of anti-Israel resolutions. To the undying discredit of the world body, these are always all passed with overwhelming majorities. They do nothing for peace, and indeed contribute to the continuation of the conflict...

The raw data on anti-Jewish assaults, vandalism and harassment in Australia makes for sobering reading. In the 12 month period concluding on September 30, 2008, Jewish communal institutions in Australia received a total of 652 reports of incidents which unambiguously fall under the definition of "Racist Violence"

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today welcomed the Australian Government's commitment to maintain the principle that Australian voting on United Nations resolutions on the Middle East should be based on both an understanding of "Israel's legitimate security concerns" and the commitment to only support resolutions which are helpful in achieving "a two-state resolution of the conflict which results in a secure Israel living beside a viable Palestinian state."

The announcement by Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Oct. 15 that Australia would impose new travel and financial sanctions against Iran, similar to those imposed by European countries, was highly significant.

The members of New Zealand's small Jewish community have differing views on the domestic issues which have dominated the campaign, but nonethless have a particular interest in following the fortunes of National party leader John Key. Key would become New Zealand's third Jewish prime minister if the National party wins government.

Each year the Australian Friends of Palestine bring out a speaker to give the Edward Said Memorial Lecture and, while they're here, to do the media rounds. Naturally, the speaker shares their views about the Israeli-Palestinian situation, but this year, they had a beauty in Dr. Sara Roy, a Jewish senior researcher in "political economy" at Harvard University and the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

As Adelaide's Fredrick Toben awaits judgements on whether he will, on appeal, be extradited from the UK to Germany, and/or will be found to be in contempt of the Federal Court of Australia due to the Holocaust denial material he has published over many years, reports reached Australia of the publication in Iran, of a "100-page book of cartoons on the Holocaust".

AIJAC's National Chairman Mark Leibler AC today said that AIJAC supports and welcomes the federal government's decision to extend sanctions against the Iranian government over its nuclear program, announced by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith last week.

The reduced feeling of threat is not a reason to become complacent about terrorism. As the Benbrika case demonstrates, the threat of large-scale terrorist attacks here in Australia remains very real.

Of course, most of the time when journalists get stuck on what they mistakenly believe to be the correct interpretation, there is no budging them. SBS 'Dateline' maintains an unflinching tradition of only reporting bad news from Iraq, despite all improvements there.

Having analysed data on anti-Jewish activity in Australia, I have often observed that the most important co-efficient of increased antisemitism in Australia is increased racism in general, and the Pew Project received headlines such as "Anti-Jew, anti-Muslim attitudes rise in Europe".

HEZBOLLAH'S terrorist television station is once again being beamed into Australia. Al-Manar, translated as "the beacon", has been called more accurately a beacon of hatred and violence. It is to be hoped that the Rudd Government and the Australian Communications and Media Authority are doing everything in their power to block the station.

In any debate about Israel and the Palestinians these days, one is likely to hear the allegation that Jews and other supporters of Israel use accusations of antisemitism to shut down, deter or deflect anti-Israel critics.

It is not surprising that activists on the Middle East will attempt to put a misleading spin on aspects of the conflict... It is more surprising how some journalists seem to be eager to assist them in these cynical endeavours.

AIJAC's position in this matter is that academic freedom is a right that should be respected, and that the balance between the right of academic freedom and the duty to educate students - as well as maximise excellence in academic research grounded in analytical clarity and quality empirical evidence - is one that can be maintained.

In my view, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd got his policy message on Iran pretty much right the other day in remarks to Greg Sheridan in the Australian (July 19). He endorsed diplomacy as "a critical means by which to secure an outcome" but he also, according to Sheridan, appeared to agree with the American position of refusing to take a military option off the table as a last resort.

It is interesting how many commentators think it is more dangerous to prevent Iran - which supports terror on a massive scale, has regional hegemonic ambitions and has avowed its intentions to destroy one of its neighbours - from enriching uranium than it is to let it acquire nuclear weapons.

As I accepted my invitation to participate in the 2nd World Peace Forum in Jakarta this June, I had in mind a comment made by a participant in the 2006 World Peace Forum, that the environment had been "hostile to Jews, even antisemitic".

The study has since been repeatedly cited in the Australian media as having "proved" that community policing is the key to counter-terrorism. However, the empirical portion of the study cannot support such sweeping claims, and its conclusions are rejected at least in part by many of the country's top counter-terrorism experts.

Bizarrely, [Loewenstein] made this claim about AIJAC not "believing in free and open debate" while debating an AIJAC representative on national television.

To mark the anniversary of Israel's independence, SBS showed two documentaries about the war of 1947-49. The first, "I Remember 1948", shown on May 13, was so tilted towards the most extreme, absurd Palestinian narrative of the events of 1947-48 that it was laughable.

MALCOLM Fraser's opinion piece in last Saturday's Age was marred by contradictions, factual errors and a naivete about world events inconsistent with the hard-nosed, realistic prime minister I knew in the 1970s and '80s.

Mr Fraser implied that the problem in the Middle East is principally Israeli settlement building, and the main solution is direct Israeli talks with Hamas.

Yet Israel is not building any new West Bank settlements, and has not for many years. The current controversy involves a few hundred apartments within a few existing settlements, taking no additional land. It is absurd to see these few homes as the principal roadblock. After all, Israel withdrew all settlements from Gaza in 2005 and has been rewarded with rocket attacks.

The Australian and American Jewish communities have a lot in common. In both cases Jews have found in our countries the peace and tolerance which was denied them over the centuries in Europe and the Middle East: but they have not only found freedom and tolerance in Australia and America, they have contributed mightily to our two societies.

Australia's former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer received the American Jewish Committee's (AJC) Ramer Award for Diplomatic Excellence on May 1 in Washington DC at the AJC's 102nd annual conference.

Next week, Israel will mark the 60th anniversary of its founding. Israel's story in that time has been an amazing and inspiring one, a fact too often forgotten in the debate over terrorism and violence, peace plans and peace processes, accusation and counter-accusation.

Israel's story over the last 60 years has been an amazing and inspiring one. In the welter of debate over terrorism and violence, peace plans and peace processes, accusation and counter-accusation, it is easy to lose sight of what can only be regarded as a remarkable record.

Geopolitically, there is little reason to expect Australia and Israel to have any closer relationship than any other two states of a comparable size and similar distance from one another... But in reality, over the past 60 years the relationship has been at an entirely different level from any similar such dyads - much more intense, emotional and politically important.

Within six days in April, I was fortunate to be at three events in Sydney which promoted dialogue and the exchange of ideas, providing reasons for pride and confidence in the intellectual and social maturity of contemporary Australia.

Last month's column noted that Alan Ramsey could not let the impending bipartisan parliamentary motion congratulating Israel on its 60th anniversary pass without lashings of vitriol. Naturally the advent of the motion saw many more join the debate.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein today welcomed the High Court decision to allow extradition proceedings against suspected Nazi war criminal Charles Zentai to proceed.

Australian Multiculturalism... has been official bipartisan policy, federal and state, for more than 30 years and has helped create and sustain what is one of the most successful multi-ethnic, tolerant, democratic societies in the world. It contributes effectively to our social cohesion, economic prospects and positive profile in our region and beyond.

Readers may recall that a while back I took on a piece of misinformation being widely circulated, namely, claims that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had never said ?Israel should be wiped off the map? as widely reported.

Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey has become known for writing his articles by quoting at length and endorsing those with whom he agrees - as well as for his vitriolic attacks on Israel. So the occasion of the parliamentary motion congratulating Israel on its 60th anniversary could not be allowed to pass without a Ramsey classic.

Last month, Kevin Rudd used the occasion of his first parliamentary sitting as Prime Minister to make history: he apologised to Indigenous Australians, and particularly the Stolen Generations, for the policies and practices of past Australian governments.

Happily searching for a good merlot at the local supermarket, I sensed rather than heard the commotion in a distant part of the store. On listening more closely, I could hear a familiar voice saying something about Israel. Curiosity piqued, and clasping my bottle of wine, I headed towards the checkouts - where I found my partner engaged in a heated ?discussion? with a local political columnist.

The occasion of the Parliamentary apology offered to Indigenous Australians gives cause for reflection. When I attended the inaugural meeting of Faith Communities for Aboriginal Reconciliation on behalf of the Jewish community, I was overwhelmed by the high regard in which so many Indigenous leaders held Australian Jewry.

The print media coverage of Israel's attempts to deter the daily rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza by temporarily cutting fuel supplies, and Hamas' breaching of the border with Egypt, featured much oversimplification and outright disinformation at Israel's expense.

The General Assembly routinely promotes and passes blatantly one-sided, anti-Israel resolutions; the UN Human Rights Council ...has so far been no better than its predecessor; and there are four distinct bodies within the UN bureaucracy that are devoted solely to advancing the Palestinian narrative of the conflict while demonising Israel.

The visit to Australia of Gregg Rickman, the US State Department's Special Envoy on Antisemitism, prompted a reflection on one aspect of anti-Jewish prejudice by the writer of the Fairfax-linked weblog "All Men Are Liars".

Some in our media used the recent visit to the Middle East by US President George Bush to unjustly attack Israel'?s conduct, often by rewriting international law or United Nations resolutions to suit their purpose.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) has praised the Rudd Government and its UN ambassador for voting the last week of December against funding for the so-called UN Durban Review Conference, or "Durban II".

In October, a Jewish cemetery in Wellington was desecrated. Again. Like many Jewish New Zealanders, when I heard about the latest attack I had a sad sense of deja vu. This sort of thing should not, and is not meant to, happen in our "fair go for all", egalitarian country. But it does.

A change of government always ushers in new emphases, personnel, policies and preferences. AIR therefore sought the views of a number of knowledgeable and interested figures in Australia and Israel, asking them both to evaluate the current state of Australia-Israel relations and assess how the new Rudd Government might affect the current state of affairs.

To meet Luluk Nur Hamidah is to be impressed. A dynamic, irrepressible academic, poet and political activist with Indonesia?s - and most likely the world?s - largest Islamic organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, Luluk expressed opinions on virtually every topic raised at the inaugural Youth Interfaith Forum in Perth in December, with passion and an overwhelming commitment to democratic values and interfaith cooperation.

To the extent that Iran is today less committed to nuclear weapons than previously, this can be seen as vindication of US policies in the region since 2001. However, some news services overlooked these aspects in all the excitement.

This month's issue of AIR goes to press as Australians head to the polls. Whichever party has won government, John Howard's and Kevin Rudd's answers to the AIR's policy questionnaire in the October issue allow us to say with confidence that Australia will be in good hands on the key issues important to the Australian Jewish community.

In late November, the US Justice Department released the FBI's 2006 Hate Crime Statistics. While few who follow the media will be surprised to read of 156 'Anti-Islamic' incidents, the 967 'Anti-Jewish' attacks in the same table provides a rare perspective.

The new Rudd Government gives every indication of not only seeking to match, but if possible, even improve on the excellent record of the Howard Government in terms of both willingness to act on Jewish domestic concerns and also Australia's support for Israel's security and peacemaking efforts.

Everyone knows that the Arab-Israel conflict is one of the bloodiest and most intense in the world, and this is the reason solving it will lead to great benefits for the whole world - from halting terrorism, to democratising the Middle East, to helping cure global warming - right?

Footage of black-clad, armed police kicking down the door of a Wellington flat posted on TV3s website on the morning of Monday, October 15, was the first indication something strange was taking place in Aotearoa.

British-based Palestinian writer and academic Ghada Karmi, in Australia recently giving talks at various universities, represents an extreme school of thought in relation to the peace process. Her solution is that Israel should cease to exist as a Jewish state, being replaced with a single state, which obviously would have an Arab majority.

When asked to speak at Melbourne International Conference on Counter Terrorism 2007: Counter Terrorism Policing and Culturally Diverse Communities, I explored a number of options in considering what I could most constructively contribute.

A few weeks ago, former High Court Chief Justice Sir Gerard Brennan told a Law Council of Australia conference that some incursions on individual freedom and the values of the common law as part of counter-terrorism laws may be essential to combat the risk of terror.

As has become traditional in the lead-up to a federal election, the Australia/Israel Review posed a series of questions to Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd focusing on international security, the Middle East, and domestic polices of special interest to the Australian Jewish community.

Urbane and articulate, Waleed Aly is Australia's most accessible voice of the Muslim community. Married to a convert to Islam, the Melbourne born and educated lawyer, has worked up a tremendous profile in the media despite his relative youth.

There has been some controversy over $1 million in Saudi funding for Griffith University's Islamic Research Unit, following a story in the Australian on Sept. 17.

On a recent visit to Lakemba, I popped in to one of the larger Islamic bookstores and enquired about texts outlining and explaining different schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The bookseller was keen to help, showing me what he had for sale, and explaining that some books were much cheaper than others because of state subsidies for Islamic texts.

A few weeks ago, former High Court Chief Justice Gerard Brennan told a Law Council of Australia conference that our counter-terrorism laws had made "substantial incursions on individual freedom and the values of the common law" but that such incursions "may be essential to combat the risk of terror.

Russia and China are the key to a new UN Security Council resolution to pressure Iran to stop its illegal enrichment of uranium. Because of our recent deal to sell uranium to those countries, Australia was in a particularly strong position to ask them to play a more positive role than they have so far.

Members of the internet social networking community “Facebook” in August saw naked, unambiguous antisemitism in comments posted to the group “FU Ajax Cricket Club”.

The SBS TV current affairs flagship 'Dateline' tends to be a program on which the choice of guests and stories reflect the worldview of those who produce the show.

Water is the basic building block of life, but in Australia, up until recently, it has been largely taken for granted.

On the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War, many journalists and commentators revisited the war and its consequences. While much coverage was reasonable, unfortunately many rewrote history, unfairly attacked Israel's occupation or claimed that the war damaged peace prospects.

The Australian Muslim community's misfortune is that it will operate in the shadow of Sheikh Taj a-Din al-Hilaly for many years to come.

As mentioned last month, Prof. Alvin Rosenfeld appeared on Radio NationalÂ?s Â?Religion ReportÂ? to comment on the British and Australian Â?Independent Jewish VoicesÂ? groups. As Rosenfeld was critical of these groups, the following week, on Feb. 21, the program gave equal time to Tony Lerman, a supporter of the British group.

THE publicity surrounding the issuing of the "Independent Australian Jewish Voices" statement appears out of all proportion to the petition's significance.

AIJAC pulled out of our planned participation in the program of visiting Israeli Professor Raphael Israeli after he reportedly made controversial remarks about Muslim immigration and communities.

THE Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) cancelled our planned participation in the program of Israeli professor Raphael Israeli after his controversial remarks about Muslim immigration and communities. Characterising Muslim communities as a threat or danger per se is a sentiment we reject and with which we do not wish to be associated.

This book should change the terms in which Australia?s alliance with the United States is publicly debated in this country. Its most important claim, from the standpoint of an Australian, is that the US-Australian alliance empowers Australia.

Since the announcement that an Auckland District Court judge was issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli General (res.) Moshe Ya'alon, who was visiting New Zealand, life has felt rather surreal...

MULTICULTURALISM has been official bipartisan policy, federal and state, for more than 25 years. It has helped create and sustain what is arguably one of the most successful multi-ethnic, tolerant democratic societies in the world, and is vital for our social cohesion, economic prospects and positive profile in our region and beyond.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council today welcomed news that authorities in both Australia and Hungary are investigating suspected Hungarian Nazi war criminal Karoly or Charles Zentai, currently living in Perth following the disclosure of evidence by famed Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today congratulated Prime Minister John Howard and MHR Petro Georgiou on their agreement to modify Australia's immigration detention procedures.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today welcomed the pledge by Prime Minister John Howard to work with Liberal backbenchers to find ways to administer immigration policy "in a speedier, more flexible, more humane way."

AIJAC Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein expressed AIJAC's rejection of the recent statement on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah from the Prime Minister'?s Muslim Community Reference Group.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) welcomes the Australian Communications and Media Authority's (ACMA) proposed new standards that will prohibit broadcasts that directly support terrorist organisations.

The ACMA decision to ban programs that are "directly recruiting persons to join, or participate in, the activities of a terrorist organization" or that are "soliciting or assisting in the collection or provision of funds for a terrorist organization" come as a result of a lengthy investigation following an AIJAC complaint into the broadcast of Hezbollah television "al-Manar" in Australia by satellite company TARBS in 2003.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) declared its support for the concept of toughening state and Commonwealth anti-terrorism laws.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today called for a thorough and immediate review of legal and policy counter-measures in the wake of new revelations about the extent of extremist hate material and pro-terror propaganda in some Australian bookshops in Mosques and Islamic schools.

The 24 June 2005 edition of the Herald Sun reported that a mosque in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick was propagating extremist Islamic hate literature. These books and pamphlets encoura ged Muslims to wage jihad against non-Muslims and advocated hatred and violence towards Christians and Jews.

The problem with Australian terrorism research funding

Antony Loewenstein, the anti-Zionist author who constantly pops up in the Australian media to complain about how he is supposedly being silenced by Zionists, rarely seems to miss an opportunity to declare that not only Israel, but anyone who disagrees with him about Israel, is racist.

You know it's not business as usual when prosecutors from one nation file a criminal indictment against another nation'?s chief of state. But that's precisely what happened in late October when Argentine authorities laid terrorism charges against former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani.

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today called for all participants in the current Australian debate about integration of the Muslim community to recognise the centrality of "core values" to both the concept and the success of Australian multiculturalism.

Undoubtedly the media coverage of Israel's war against Hezbollah could have been greatly improved, with the very honourable exception of The Australian. By a mile, the worst outlet in the electronic sphere was SBS-TV News.

It can't be easy being the diplomatic representative of Syria in Australia. The job description would include putting a gloss on the Baathist regime, with its strong ideological roots in European fascism of the 1930s.

The proposition that political argument should be built on an accurate factual foundation is neither revolutionary nor controversial. Or so I thought. But Melbourne University Publishing's (MUP) Louise Adler seems to think that factual exactitude is a secondary issue where anti-Israel polemics are concerned. She sidesteps any real mention of the inaccuracies that pervade Loewenstein?s work, dismissing any such complaints as mere manifestations of a malign Zionist conspiracy to demean his book. But in retrospect, Adler's lack of critical judgement on Israel-related topics should come as no surprise.

FOR someone who accuses Israel of suffering from an exaggerated sense of victim-hood, freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein (whose work appeared in Perspectives on Monday) is afflicted by his own case of raging paranoia.

After only a week on the bookstore shelves, it seems that Antony Loewenstein's My Israel Question is undergoing a second print run. This might indicate that the book is going like hotcakes. But according to Neilsen?s Bookscan, which keeps tabs on book sales nationwide, only 318 copies were sold during that period.

The catalyst for this conversation was the publication of Antony Loewenstein's "My Israel Question". But what is that question? Loewenstein calls it "a plea for mutual respect and understanding". Yet his text does not consider mutuality in any way. He says his central concern is "a sustainable future for Israel and the Palestinians".

The dominant political culture on Australian university campuses brings to mind a scene from the classic movie Casablanca.

In recent weeks, Australians have witnessed outbursts of antisemitism, ranging from attacks on synagogues to the use of past Jewish suffering as a tool with which to attack Jews today.

TONY JONES: Well, to discuss the role of the pro-Israel lobby and its degree of influence and whether it exists here in the same way as the US, we're joined now by Ted Lapkin, director of policy analysis at the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. He's in our Melbourne studio. And with me in Sydney is the author of My Israel Question, Antony Loewenstein.

You could almost hear the popping of champagne corks in those upscale urban precincts where contempt for America is an article of faith. At first glance, the Bush administration seems to have received its judicial comeuppance from the Supreme Court of the United States.

A feature of our democracy is that various interest groups lobby government, the press and others of influence to advance their particular viewpoint. This is generally uncontroversial...

Eric Butler is dead. At one time, that simple statement of fact would have excited media commentary, and provided an opportunity for politicians to nail their colours to the mast on issues such as antisemitism, cultural diversity and Australian identity.

As this edition of the Australia/Israel Review makes clear, Australia has a problem with some extremist Muslim literature which incites to violent hatred, and even calls for violent terrorism against non-Muslims.

There's an old saying, It's not so much what is poured into the student, but what is planted that really counts. And, at both the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales, on-campus Islamic Societies have been diligently planting seeds of ethnic hatred and intolerance into the minds of young Muslim students.

â??I have a confession to make. If you are Jewish... I used to hate you. I hated you because I thought you were responsible for the war which took my father from me for so long... I saw poor people from a place called Palestine...

On April 23 this year, I attended the annual ceremony at the Martyrs' Memorial in Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery, to recall and honour the memory of the victims of the Nazis.

IN his opinion piece on this page yesterday, Antony Loewenstein complains that an "Israeli lobby" in the US and Australia relentlessly campaigns to stifle pro-Palestinian voices through "intimidation and slander" ("Don't let any lobby shut down debate").

In February, Prime Minister John Howard's Muslim Advisory Group met for the first time for 2006, and it was not a happy event.

SBS regarded Israel's raid on the Jericho jail as such a major story that they allocated it more than 8 minutes, approximately a third, of their bulletin.

After the Hamas election, some commentators implied, absurdly, that the Israeli right were the equivalent to Hamas...

It is a simple truth of human nature that those who reward anti-social behaviour will end up getting more of it. The feebler the penalty paid for past atrocities, the flimsier the deterrent against future acts of barbarity.

Michael Leunig once wrote that â??the pen is mightier than the sword.' But I fear that the cartoonist would be as dead as one of his ducks in pyjamas if he attempted to defend himself against a suicide bomber by stabbing with his quill.

It was both heartening and disheartening to note that the EU finally agreed to withhold some funding to the Palestinian Authority on Jan. 17 because, officials said, the Authority had not met "benchmarks" for budgetary transparency.

Writing in London's The Independent newspaper, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown urged Muslims to join in her country's national commemoration of the Holocaust.

While most Australians rightly expressed their revulsion at the December 11 riots that took place in Cronulla and spread to neighbouring Sydney suburbs, many on the far-right see the events as a golden opportunity to achieve their objectives.

November?s extraordinary political developments in Israel could have dramatic consequences for the Middle East as a whole.

Night after night, we have witnessed shocking scenes of violence and wanton vandalism in French cities. Hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles set on fire, institutions such as libraries and gymnasiums attacked and destroyed, urban populations afraid to venture out into the streets.

Revelations that the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) was allegedly complicit in the UN Oil-for-Food scandal should not come as too much of a shock to anyone who knows the history of AWB behaviour before and during the first Gulf War in 1990-91.

On September 27, Gareth Evans -? president of the respected International Crisis Group (ICG) and former Australian foreign minister -? gave a keynote address in Australia in which he proclaimed, "JI no longer poses a serious threat in Indonesia or elsewhere". Four days later, three suicide bombers walked into crowded restaurants in the Indonesian resort island of Bali and detonated their devices.

The Federal Government's proposed anti-terror laws have dominated media headlines in recent months. Both sides of the debate have been argued passionately in newspaper columns, and on television and radio programs.

Alexander Downer has served as Australia'?s minister for foreign affairs for nearly a decade. Recently, The Review interviewed him about Australia'?s role in Iraq and the wider Middle East, Islamic extremism in Southeast Asia, weapons proliferation, and UN reform.

"A breath of fresh air in the field of media and journalism for Muslims in Australia," is how Editor-in-Chief Sheikh Mohammed Omran described his new publication, Mecca News, when the first edition was released in August 2005. Omran is the controversial radical Muslim cleric who gained notoriety recently for suggesting that Islamic terrorists did not perpetrate the terrorist attacks on London and New York.

To Jewish people, Kishinev, the capital of the modern, post-Soviet Republic of Moldova, will forever be linked with the horrific events of just over a century ago. In a nearby town, a Christian child'?s murderers, relatives of the victim, claimed that Jews had performed the evil deed as part of ritual practices.

The meeting convened by Prime Minister Howard for senior government members and prominent Australian Muslims indicated just how seriously this country treats community harmony and inter-community relations.

Are the Palestinians going to seize the opportunity created by disengagement to advance toward their national goals by demonstrating that they are a responsible peace partner? If there are going to be further peace negotiations, the Palestinians are going to have to create a viable polity that features the rule of law and a government monopoly on force.

Most media coverage devoted to Israel's disengagement from Gaza has been sympathetic. Opinion pieces and editorials alike have recognised the pain Israelis are suffering as a result of the disengagement, and praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his courage.

In the aftermath of the July 7 London bombings, the globeÃ?Â?s democracies mourned those killed at the hands of Islamist extremists and revisited the problem of global terror and how to combat it.

I want to spend a bit of time dissecting the comments of Sheikh Mohammed Omran, who said in a public statement on July 11, "I dispute any evil action linked to bin Laden.

The Australian media focuses disproportionately on Israel and particularly on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The bias in this coverage derives partly from trends imported from international sources, especially certain "narrative frames."

It has all the drama of a Melbourne Cup, but it is infinitely more important. The outcome of a horse race can be measured in dollars and cents. We are witnessing a contest between a simmering grassroots yearning for democracy in Iran and an obsessive pursuit of nuclear weapons by the junta of Islamic extremists who rule that nation.

I am a free speech absolutist. In the tradition of J. S. Mill, I believe that the best antidote to bad speech is more and better speech. To my mind the free marketplace of ideas is the foundation-stone of democracy.

When plans were underway for the first visit to Australia by Pope John Paul II, in 1986, the Vatican made an unprecedented offer to the Australian Jewish community. During the Sydney leg of the visit, time would be specifically allocated for dialogue between the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Pontiff, with formal presentations to be made by each party. From the viewpoint of 2005, it might seem surprising that, less than two decades ago, there was as much apprehension as enthusiasm from Australian Jewry.

The term "gigo" (garbage in, garbage out) was invented by computer scientists in the 1950s. Back then, the term was another addition to the growing vocabulary of the computer industry. Yet, according to critics, this unusual acronym could just as easily be applied to the findings of the heavily-publicised Lowy Institute poll, which was published on March 28.

In January 2004, a prominent Christian leader in Sydney invited Jews and Muslims involved in Interfaith Dialogue to observe a Church service before adjourning for the opportunity to engage informally with his congregation and with each other.

This report originates in the long-running concern of the Australian Jewish community that SBS exhibits an entrenched and strongly pronounced bias against Israel in its news, reportage and selection of documentary material and in the lack of responsiveness, indeed negativity, of SBS to reasoned and documented complaints. It examines the problem of bias in SBS news and current affairs coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard was honored at a January 30 luncheon at AJC headquarters in New York, hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and its Australian partner, the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).