O' please Ron, spare us the hand wringing.
Don't tell me you're afflicted by "White Guilt",you could do more for reconciliation (here and in Palestine)by taking your "As a Jew I believe" stand and expose the extensive historical involvement of European Jewry in the pillage and dispossession of indigenous peoples worldwide.
Palestine is part of a pattern, ask yourself the question:
"Who financed colonialism and who reaped the profits?"
Who were the provenders, the ship chandlers, the bankers, the slavers and mining magnates?
Who put up the money for the ports, the railways, the mines, the land clearing?

Anglo/European "Blue Bloods" and their Jewish business partners are responsible for both the plight of Aboriginals and Palestinians, they have names, they have estates and heirs that live on to this day.

Ron and Jay's ancestors didn't kill or steal from Aborigines,we didn't pillage the land. I'll wager that you're not a rich man and that you, like the rest of us have had to go into debt to these same Anglo Jewish imperialist financial institutions.

It's a very simple matter to apportion blame for Colonialism, both historical and contemporary,just follow the money trail.
Once we all start moving in the one direction on issues of reconciliation and ditch this stupid, counterproductive "White Guilt" some real ground could be made.

Hey Jay,

You are no better than the Rabbis - they try to instill guilt on people and so are you.

Yes, well said, Ron.

My compliments to you not primarily for what you have said, but for feeling the need to share it. The fact that as a result of your scholarship you have also become an atheist as well as having discarded myths and fables from Judaism, means quite clearly that you have been part of a life-changing experience. We all trust that you would have not been subject to the slings and arrows of Zionist zealots during your path to your new life.

We are all aware of the cruel treatment experienced by others who have seen the light, in many cases having been forced to recant such things as UN reports into the Gaza killings or suffer isolation from family and past friends as only Zionists can demand. Such treatment has now become the norm.

The people that support Palestine and will never forgive Israel for their inhumanity, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, such people once given harsh treatment as with Gypsies and other ethnic groups by the Third Reich now having developed into a group themselves with values in 2011 no better or enlightened than the conquerors of Europe, seventy years ago. Yes, the world does wonder how such people can hypocritically encourage Jews from far away places to settle in Palestine by stealing land, murdering the occupants and yet, as you have said, refuse to accept a Palestinians right of return to the land that they have owned since time began.

So you have many more friends here just by your caring attitude to a Palestinian people and the world will welcome you as a catalyst for the cause of peace and justice in those lands.

A most welcome article. Finally Sand's important book is gaining the public recognition that it so rightly deserves. It's a mind changer, or so I found it when I first read it soon after it became available in English.
The link with indigenous Australians is also timely. I can only remember disagreeing with Noel Pearson once, and that was when I read him likening the plight of the Aborigines with that of the Jews.
The more apt comparison is with the Palestinians in that both were ancient owners/occupiers of a now contested land, and both were dispossessed by invading colonists from Europe.

Halduell wrote....

"The more apt comparison is with the Palestinians in that both were ancient owners/occupiers of a now contested land, and both were dispossessed by invading colonists from Europe?.

You are right of course but Pearson would have been aiming for some support, financial or otherwise by likening the Jews to the Aborigines perhaps even an indigenous 'holocaust-type' museum in Arnhemland or similar. However, I venture to say that he would know that there could not be a more appropriate example than the Palestinians and the Aborigines, both depressed by their treatment at the hands of others and in Australia, going nowhere with current government policies, unlikely to ever change. The old practice of throwing money at all the problems we have here has never been seen before on such a scale in our history.
The end result is that our indigenous people have bargaining power well in excess of their 2.5% of our population which is not enjoyed by Palestinians under the hateful yolk of Zionism. The opposite applies in fact. Our ethnic cleansing on a much smaller scale ended a long time ago. Israel has been at it now for sixty years.

The sole object by Israel is ethnic cleansing, fast coming to an end, fortunately. But we have been engaged in our efforts at developing the capabilities of our peoples for over two hundred years with little or no progress. That must be viewed as incompetence.

Not the first error Mr. Pearson has made in his understanding of facts and history but he is cunning enough to know where the money is and how to score a point or two.

@ yuyutsu.
Not so, I'm saying heal Judaism instead of abandoning it, similarly I'd like to see my race heal itself and start moving forward again.
The guilt lies with the guilty, rich Whites and rich Jews were the driving force behind the great Capitalist adventure of colonialism, then as now.
The men who pillaged Australia and Palestine wore tailored suits and travelled first class, they didn't wear moleskins or sidelocks and they didn't arrive in steerage.
We can't escape our heritage, we have to absorb it's lessons and move on.
There's nothing shameful in the journeys of ordinary White Australians nor do ordinary Israeli Jews have anything to be ashamed of.