Good article.

The current Australian government appears to be undermining the legislation which empowers people to battle against hate speech in the courts. I hope that the organisation you represent is involved in lobbying against those changes.

Unfortunately, when dealing with attitudes thousands of years old, it only takes a reminder such as the recent story of a fair-skinned child living with Gypsies, to re-ignite a medieval villager's habits of thought, that we can no longer afford, in a global village.

As Albert Einstein said,
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."

I wonder what Professor Einstein, a man who committed his post-bomb life to peace activism, would think of the current state of Israel.

Israel has the bomb, and won't admit it. Instead, it rails against Iran's nuclear energy program (and I would rather Iran didn't have one at all), claiming Iran is intent on getting the bomb. imho, Israel should allow IAEA inspections, as do North Korea and Iran

This sort of hypocrisy, by the current Israeli government, may cause simple-minded people to confuse the cultural and religious traditions of Jews with the actions of a few bellicose leaders of an elected government (in this case, Israel's).

I sincerely hope that The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (whether or not you are speaking on their behalf) does not conflate unjust criticism of one or more of the unjust policies of the State of Israel with antisemitism.

Israel may have the bomb and rail against Iran's possession of the same, but there is a HUGE difference.

Iran and many other Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East have a stated aim of wiping Israel. In fact it is a frequent exhortation in the Koranic trilogy, along with extensive expressions of other forms of hatred towards Jews and kaffirs, ie us. So is it any wonder.

Another thread here on On- Line Opinion is about the Gonski reforms and making our education system better, and talks about the PISA scores etc, and the need for better KPI's etc.

Well one KPI they could use, is how many Nobel Prizes has a country won per head. On that score Israelis are light years ahead of anyone else.

At least count Jewish people have been the authors of at least 186 Nobel Prizes. Not bad for about 38m people. Our score is about 25 Prizes. But then Cambridge University alone has done that.

But it is the Israeli's lot to now mainly live back in their home land, surrounded by waring Islamic sects of various persuasions, with low standards of literacy/education...for ever beholden to theology that is far from being peaceful.

Anti Semitic behaviour has no place in Australia...but I am afraid we are going to see more of it as immigration levels from the ME and Africa increase.

It would have been nice if the politicians had bothered to ask us if we wanted that.

Yes, it would have been very nice indeed if the government ever bothered to ask us if we wanted increased immmigration, or any immigration at all, from muslim countries. I think if a referendum were held on such a topic, which We The People have every right to insist on, it would be stunningly defeated.

It is unfortunate that writers such as Ms Nathan perceive disagreements with the actions of the State of Israel as anti-Semitism. Typically, as she does, anti-Semitism is equated with anti-Jewishness. Semitic people are a sub-group of Afroasiatic languages that include Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew and Phoenician among others.

There is enormous vilification and hatred of Muslim people in australia and elsewhere, but the Arab semitic people, more truly semitic than the descendants of European refugees that populate Israel, do not warrant a mention.

Does Ms Nathan really believe that votes of 180:6 in the UN General Assembly (the 6 including Israel, the US, United States of Micronesia and Palau) is based on a hatred of Jews? That may be comforting to her but it hardly accords with reality.

The hoary canard used by bigmal and his ilk about "wiping Israel" only serves to obfuscate the history of the region Israel occupies and what is really said by the surrounding governments. As for belligerent threats generally, reward the quotes of Netanyahu and his predecessors, which are a litany of constant threats. Compare the number of countries that Israel has invaded, occupied, bombed or sabotaged in its short existence with the record of its neighbours. Np prizes for guessing just who is the belligerent party here.

Or look at Israel's constant breaches of international law, its apartheid-like regime, or the treatment of Palestinians and the constant theft of their land. Again, not hard to spot the belligerent party.

Jewish community have flourished in places such as Syria and Iran. They flourish in australia too, notwithstanding the mindless attacks on some places and people. But Jews are not unique in suffering this intolerance. Ask any Aboriginal about Australia's fine tradition of racial tolerance; or any Australian Muslim, or indeed anyone who is "different" from the cultural stereotype.

Julie, you forgot to mention the elephant in the room, you know the one, the one who is holding the Palestinians under brutal occupation and has done for 60 plus years, that commits atrocities and genocide upon the Palestinians, that humiliates the Palestinians, that kills their children, that throws them out of them homes into the street, that starves the Palestinians, steals their taxes, deprives them of medical aid and attention, that uses phosphorous munitions against them, that holds them in prison without trial, that defies U.N. Resolutions, that builds settlement upon occupied land, that destroys Palestinan farms, that...

I could fill up pages listing the sins of the Israelis but they ignore them, they pretend they aren't happening, haven't occurred.

And you wonder why the world seems to be anti-Jew and anti-Israeli!

No amount of Jewish lies hides Jewish evil.

Change Jewish behaviour and you might be treated as decent people!

Looking forward to seeing how The Forum's moderators will respond to David G, who conflates the actions of the Israeli government with what he calls "Jewish evil". This is out and out racist stereotyping. His black and white views of all-powerful evil Jews versus helpless Muslim victims incapable of agency is insulting all around.