Jay of Melbourne,

"they have the capacity and the willpower to take out Rome and Athens in retaliatory strikes."

I'll take that as a scenario.

Reminds me of Hitler's megalomaniacal ravings during the last days of the Third Reich, if the Europeans and Americans take that drivel seriously they might already have plans for a preemptive nuclear attack on Israel before the mad Zionists destroy the sources of Western civilisation. As the Americans say "it's a no-brainer".

Mac.
Hitler was talking about "Wonder Weapons" which either did not exist as practical concepts or were still in prototype, there is a "conspiracy" milieu which puts about the idea that the Germans had viable prototype Nukes at the Skoda works in Czechoslovakia up until 1944 and believes that this is what Hitler was talking about but it's not proven.
The Israelis however actually do have submarines and aircraft capable of launching a nuclear armed missile.

Jay,

Agreed. That sort of hubristic threat can't be dismissed completely.

Mac, the mad Zionists are a worry but the imperial U.S. is a larger one.

The problem is that they are both tarred with the same brush. Both seek infinite power, both see war and plundering as the answer, and both see themselves, just like the Germans, as exceptional and superior!

Australia needs to be independent of these two rogue powers before we are drawn into a nuclear war!

David G,

"Australia needs to be independent of these two rogue powers before we are drawn into a nuclear war!"

That's a dream, unfortunately.

Australians are so committed to the "Great and Powerful Friend" fantasy, that the chances of this country leaving the US alliance are negligible, particularly since China's rise. Most likely, in a crisis, the Americans would abandon Australia ( as the British did in 1942) if it suited their strategic interests. So much of US foreign policy seems to be warped because of its pro-Israel policies that it's difficult to separate the two. I remember a US foreign policy commentator saying ---"America has its allies but Israel is family", US foreign policy might be transformed if israel was treated as the predator that it is.

# To Jay of Melbourne

You ask:

"Why is it vital that we support closed borders and a permanent Jewish majority for Israel?"

"...why should Jews be a special case?"

Answer: Because Israel is the Jewish National home legally sanctioned by the unanimous approval of all member states of the League of Nations under the Mandate for Palestine in 1922 and preserved to this day by article 80 of the UN Charter.

The Mandate constitutes a binding agreement in international law that is as operative today as it was when promulgated.

Those who deny the legal effect of the Mandate and the UN Charter prefer to pursue the law of the jungle. That is their prerogative - but it has brought them little cheer for the last 90 years.

Do you really find the idea of one Jewish homeland so difficult to support when there are 57 Islamic states each with a permanent Moslem majority that are mostly not prepared to entertain any idea that Jews should have just one state like the 57 they possess?

The European treatment of Jews as evidenced by such events as the Spanish Inquisition, Britain's 1939 White Paper, the Holocaust and the manifold attacks on Jews throughout Europe in recent years only serves to justify the wisdom and foresight of the League of Nations to set aside 0.01% of the captured Ottoman territories for Jewish self-determination as part of an arrangement which saw the Arabs getting the remaining 99.99%.