Philip.. I found a summary of your book.

~~~
Australia’s Welfare Wars questions many of the values and assumptions that underpin contemporary social welfare policies. In particular, it critically examines the neoliberal or economic rationalist ideas currently dominating the welfare debates both in Australia and internationally, and demonstrates and reaffirms the ongoing relevance of social-democratic and welfare-state ideals.
~~~

I'm glad u question the economic rationalist approach. I dont know about the welfare state ideals. "Who's" ideals ? I don't know why this is such a tough area for governments. Israelite social policy was 'work for the dole' The farmers were expected to leave an amount of the harvest for the poor.. who then had to go and COLLECT it themselves.. quite a good example of mutual obligation I'd say.

Social democratic ideals are something I support totally. I fail to see why we cannot have a good public health system and why the State would abdicate its responsibilties for prisons and the such like.

PHil.... I can't leave your last post alone :)

"Traditional Christ Killers" ???

The degree to which Jews are "blamed" for the death of Christ, is the degree to which any person suggesting such (even the Catholic Church at one stage) is OFF the mark. Evangelical Christians fully understand the biblical teaching that it was SIN which killed Jesus, all of our sin, Christ came "to give His life as a ransom for many"... no one took His life from Him, he freely gave it up. From the moment that Peter understood "You are the Christ" the very next thing in the gospels is:
Mark 8.31
31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Note the word 'MUST'. It matters not that they were Jews who did this, it was mean't to be. Christs death, was our Salvation.
So please don't think of Christians as being 'anti semitic' because of the death of Jesus

Phil,

Thanks for your reply.

I guess its going to be hard for us to see common ground on this. You made quite an impressive list of the attacks on Jews and the Jewish community. The problem is I've heard them all many times over the years. In fact, for as long as I can remember I've heard the shrill cries and read the headlines about anti-Semitism being on the rise. They may even be right but it's hard to take it as objective truth when it all comes from a self-interested lobby group.

And while I hear much about attacks on Jews I hear very little about attacks on Arabs and Palestinians by Jews. I don't hear about the litany of abuses perpetrated by the state of Israel. Did the conference mention Israel's human rights record?

The juxtaposition of traditional anti-Semitism with modern Israeli policies was absurd and disingenuous. In view of Israel's brutal occupation and manipulation of the US in terms of Mid-East policy, if you really think any rise in anti-Semitism is about a perception of 'well poisoners and ritual murders', well, then....

I also noticed you did the same thing in your coining of the term 'anti-Zionist fundamentalists'. This too is disingenuous. You take a completely legitimate position, anti-Zionist, and then use the same term with the additional word 'fundamentalist' to mark an illegitimate position. Hence you have very neatly linked anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism. This isn't fair. What you are really describing is an anti-Semite. Anyone who is anti-Semitic is also (surely) anti-Zionist. The reverse is not true and so there is no need to link them in any way. Hence, I feel the new term is unwarranted.

I guess my biggest concern about these conferences is they continue to portray Jews as powerless victims. When of course the opposite is true. Jews are really one of the wealthiest, well connected and powerful minorities in Australia (and throughout the Western world).

I think we need to move on.

Well said radical Phil. Everyday I drive past a jewish school at Pymble. Every time the school bus is driven, it is checked for bombs.
Please Josh, tell me the last time this occurred in a muslim school in Australia.
Yeah, we're just 'imagining' the rise of antisemitism.
The Sayeret Matkayal. The special gentlemen. The tip of the IDF spear.

Sayaret
I'd be interested in your view of inherited wealth which is derived from the Trafficing of Drugs on a huge national scale. As scale which would make Antonium Mochbal in Melbourne look like chicken feed.Said inherited wealth is quite possibly funding some of those children in those schools right now. With backgrounds like that I would not in the slightest be surprised that some chinese person who has a penchant for history and maybe a Grandpa who died of opium related illness put a bomb under such a bus. Let alone some palestinian.

U know what ? from what I can see, there are people in Sydney who are quite possibly connected to this very thing.
Opium trade in China. I feel the Chinese should take these people to task about 'crimes against humanity' and seek MEGA compensation for drug re-habilitation to repair the social damage caused by this 'legal'trade. (i.e. legal.. with British gunboats sitting off the coast)

Can u guess who I'm speaking about ?

Once upon a time…a fable

Once upon a time Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, and their respective advisers, sat down at the same table with each other. They discussed Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, ending violence, the status of Jerusalem, the setting up of a proper Palestinian state alongside Israel, racist and religious incitement, compensation based on justice, and other matters which I am not at liberty to divulge.

The two teams came out of the conference room smiling and with a workable plan in their hands, but this infuriated some on both sides who wanted to keep on fighting. The word “betrayal” was heard in both Hebrew and Arabic – as well as in many other languages once the news got out.

But look what else happened.

Most Israelis and Palestinians, tired of the bloodshed, gave a sigh of relief. The rest of the world sighed with them.

Those Jews in the Diaspora who until now had said they were unhappy with the way the Israeli government went about things were no longer told by other Jews that they hated themselves for being Jewish, that they were naive traitors and that they were vipers in the bosom of their own people. Perhaps they felt more relieved than anyone.

Quite suddenly, Palestinians and Arabs generally were no longer seen by Jews as treacherous, cruel and warlike, and Jews were no longer seen by Arabs as arrogant, thinskinned, brutal and devious. Each side still saw the other as Enemies of God, but somehow this did not seem to matter so much now.

The supporters of one side or the other were relieved of the wearying task of defending the indefensible, and everyone lived happily ever after.