From The Age, 9/3/07, by Dr Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council...
THE publicity surrounding the issuing of the "Independent Australian Jewish Voices" statement appears out of all proportion to the petition's significance. After all, why wouldn't a community of more than 100,000 include a small percentage who disagree with positions adopted by elected and other representative bodies advocating the viewpoint of the substantial majority?
Of course, the originators and signatories are free to do as they wish, but so are critics from the wider Jewish community free to highlight their flaws and distortions. For example, despite language apparently calling for a two-state solution to satisfy the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians, the group's prime movers are on record as being opposed to Israel's existence, seeking to replace it with yet another Arab-majority political entity. This not only abuses the trust of those who signed the petition in good faith, but also gives the lie to the IAJV claim that it wants to be Israel's "true friend".
For instance, initiator Antony Loewenstein says Israel is a "fundamentally undemocratic and colonialist idea from a bygone era" and calls for Israel to be replaced by a "binational state". Loewenstein is on record not only as accusing Israel of implementing "apartheid-like policies", but damning all past Israeli leaders as displaying "a disdain and virulent racism towards the Palestinians" and stating that when Israeli leaders publicly declare they want a two-state solution, he doesn't believe them. A number of other signatories, including Sol Salbe, Avigail Abarbanel and Ephraim Nimni, have similar views.
Additionally, the petition's claim that voices critical of Israel are being "silenced" or subjected to "vilification and intimidation" is absurd. When the petition had garnered less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of the Jewish community it was featured on the front page of The Australian Jewish News, and widely reported in all the broadsheets and on TV and radio. Robust debate about the Middle East occurs all the time in the letters and opinion pages in the Jewish News and at community meetings.
Further, with anti-Semitic violence on the rise globally, it is hardly surprising that many in the community disapprove of untrue claims about "Zionist" control over debate that can be seized on by anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists.
Also, contrary to the implications of the IAJV statement, our community leadership reflects the view of the vast majority of the Australian Jewish community, shared by both the elected Israeli leadership and the majority of the Israeli public, that Israel's long-term security must ultimately come from a lasting peace based on a democratic Palestinian state co-existing peacefully alongside Israel.
It amazes most of the community that some signatories insist on seeing Israeli policies as solely to blame for the present impasse at a time when the existential threat to Israel has never been more explicit. Among the many facts ignored by IAJV are: that Iran's leadership, which is building nuclear weapons, says the Holocaust never happened and Israel must be destroyed; the Iranian-funded Palestinian leadership says it can never accept the existence of Israel for religious reasons nor renounce violence as a way to achieve its destruction; and the record of Israel's commitment to a two-state solution, from Camp David and the Clinton plan in 2000 to unilateral disengagement from Gaza and plans for the same in most of the West Bank.
Additional concerns are raised by the IAJV's comments condemning equally all "violence". All violence is to be regretted, but to suggest that any and all Israeli acts of self-defence against rocket attacks, suicide terrorism, kidnappings and other violent war crimes emanating from the Palestinian side are just as condemnable as the original acts is morally blind.
Therefore, there is little sympathy for those who insist it is primarily Israeli policies — rather than Palestinian rejectionism, terrorism and lack of the rule of law, plus the flow of outside support to extremists — that are blocking peace.
Finally, there were some people who signed the statement who have little or no engagement with the Jewish community, but identify themselves as Jewish to deflect criticism when they malign the organised Jewish community and Israel. It is hardly surprising that other members of the Jewish community are annoyed when individuals who have made no effort to contribute to our communal life and institutions complain those institutions do not represent them.
We already have a vigorous debate about the Middle East both in Australia and in the Australian Jewish community. But the thin-skinned plea that one-sided critics of Israel be entitled to special immunity from scrutiny, because this is inanely alleged to constitute censorship, is an attempt to stifle constructive discussion. Joining a debate is not silencing it, and this claim is simply intolerance disguised as victimisation.
Let's continue to have an empirically based debate on the crucial question of advancing genuine Middle East peace, instead of such fruitless theatrics.
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