david f,

"Makes no sense, and merely encourages Israel to draw the wagons together"

Exactly the same argument was used in defence of the SA apartheid regime, the Afrikaners would never have abandoned their repugnant system without outside pressure and neither will the Zionists. The difference of course, is that the SA apartheid regime had very few friends and Israel has the USA, the Americans seem blind to the predatory nature of their protégée.

"Israel, along with the U.S., should be BDS-ed out of existence."

Hmmm but is there a BDS of the US? None that I've heard of. Presumably that doesn't stop you from living up to your word and boycotting all US products, including entertainment, and technologies developed by the US military, e.g. the internet...oh wait...

"They put themselves in the same group as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK etc. As such their behaviour reflects badly on ourselves."

Oh really? Is this the same Australia that perpetuates a discriminatory and racist Intervention program in the Northern Territory, much closer in nature to Apartheid than any of Israel's practices towards Israeli and Palestinian Arabs? Presumably you are not refusing to pay your taxes to this racist regime, and Professor Lynch is happy to receive ARC grant money from it also.

Not to mention Australia's, NZ's, Canada's and the UK's bloody legacy and ongoing degradation of the rights of Indigenous people.

FFS sort your own nonsense out in your glass house before throwing stones at Israel.

Official breaches of human rights, and even more so the death of innocent civilians, are abhorrent and inexcusable, and Israel, just like every nation state on earth, is guilty of these charges. The difference is, the amount of criticism Israel garners, including the only ongoing globally-organised boycott regime, is disproportionate to its wrongdoings in the extreme. While millions have died in the DRC, and while more civilian Arabs have died in less than a year of civil war in Syria than in the entire 100+ year Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine and Israel, Israel is the only country being boycotted. Come on guys, just grow a pair and admit why you support it eh?

Why is Israel singled out? Earlier commenters were spot on - this is highly selective boycotting, and what's more it is self-delusional and hypocritical. And at its core it is about one thing: its supporters just don't like Jews very much. Just because there's the added element that they don't have the guts to admit it to themselves, doesn't make the anti-semitism any less real.

Speegster, more irrelevance and propaganda. Last time I looked all adult aboriginals and Maori have the vote. This is something of a contrast to the 3-4 million Palestinians who live under military occupation. You may find it convenient to compare Israel to the likes of Syria to show their lack of brutality, but this means little to anyone who supports justice and fairness. One thing is for sure, the constant accusations of "Jew hater" at anyone who points out Israeli crimes will do nothing to convince people that Israel is in the right. I do not hate Jews. I don't even know any. But I do hate people who accuse me of racism in order to justify the crimes of the powerful over the weak.

There is one simple adage in this whole subject that does not receive enough attention.

This is the adage that: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

It was on this basis that Australia, in 1941, allied herself to Soviet Russia, whose communist government was the most murderous and oppressive in the world except for the Nazis.

This was because Hitler had attacked Russia, and the above adage applied.

In the current world there are terrorist groups constantly attacking Israel. They have often expressed the desire to attack Australia, with some success in Bali, but fortunately little else.

Let us not be deceived. These groups despise the Australian way of life and if it were in their power would destroy us at once.

These groups are the enemies of Israel. For all the faults in Israel, the Israelis share common enemies with Australia.

It therefore follows that in the current situation in the Middle East, Israel is an ally of Australia.

"Last time I looked all adult aboriginals and Maori have the vote. This is something of a contrast to the 3-4 million Palestinians who live under military occupation."

Oh dear, that was embarrassing. I'm afraid your argument is woefully and risibly misguided. Have you ever been to the region? Do you have any idea what you're talking about? Like most Aussies on this issue, I'm pretty sure you don't.

Palestinians live in a separate, sovereign UN Observer State, where they participate in elections; in the West Bank, they are ruled by Fatah, in Gaza by Hamas. Here's the cabinet website (how's your Arabic)?

http://www.palestinecabinet.gov.ps/

100,000 Palestinian Arabs are treated free of charge in Israeli hospitals every year. Israeli Arabs have full voting rights, full employment rights, and serve in the upper echelons of the Israeli judiciary, government and army.

Ask any Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander person if they think there's equality in Australia. Better yet, ask one of the ones in jail, making up 27% of the total prisoner population, but only 2.5% of the population overall:

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/5087123B0CCE48C1CA257B3C000DC7CE?opendocument

How about some average life expectancy stats:

Australia - 81.44
Israel - 80.69
Israeli Arabs - 78.5
Palestinian Territories - 72.17
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders - 70.05

Sources: http://www.who.int/topics/global_burden_of_disease/en/; http://paa2012.princeton.edu/papers/121822;
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by+Subject/4125.0~Jan+2012~Main+Features~Life+expectancy~3110

Shall I go on? Why do you focus on an issue you have absolutely nothing to do with on the other side of the world, when there’s so much wrong here at home? I think I know…

Your taxes fund the racist and discriminatory Australian government: how dare you accuse a nation you know nothing about, regarding a situation…you know nothing about? When you’ve got absolutely no legs to stand on. Hypocrite.

I think there are many arguments 'for' and 'against' in this case.

Unfortunately 'Anti-Semitic' has become a too oft used word.

Having a grudge with Israel or current Zionistic policy does not automatically make one anti-Semitic.

People have forgotten a little of history.

The CIA have been subverting governments world-wide since the late 1940s.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union (Cold war) the CIA and US foreign policy has been to attract and divide using the new enemy, i.e. Muslims, and yes the blow-back has been enormous. If you were to focus on the Caucasus region and its strategic importance globally, you would understand why the US and Israel are happy to stir the pot, to their own end of course.

Additionally, if you were to ask a surviving Jew who was alive prior to 1947 I am sure you would be stunned by the revelation that Jews and Arabs, whether Palestinian or otherwise, somehow managed to live in peace with each other prior to the intervention, and in particular the ingress of thousands of east European Jews, those who today and their progeny who hold office and control the military in Israel.

Perhaps then, you might understand the broader impact 'Israel' in its current guise works with the US in particular to destabilise foreign relations across the globe.

Unfortunately anyone speaking against these rancid policies and the on-going ethnic issues in the ME and further afield, will be called Anti-Semitic, despite the misinterpretation/representation of the words and the meaning behind those words.

Geoff