Strewth (continued),

4) Not only do you unfairly and irrationally criticize Israel, but you compare it unfavorably to Australia! Even if one were to accept your ridiculous argument that Palestinian Arabs have some exclusive claim on “indigenousness” in Israel/Palestine, ~20% of Israelis are Palestinians; only ~1-2% of Australians are aboriginals. Your country was founded on near-total “expulsion, exclusion, dispossession and occupation of another people”, and you are throwing around accusations of the same about my country, which wasn’t.

5) Re the shameful White Australia policy, it is worth mentioning that it was in force until 1973, and elements of it continued until 1982! Israeli immigration policies never included any sort of racial discrimination.

6) Lest one think that discrimination completely ended when the White Australia policy was dismantled, let’s look at current immigration policy: According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Australia , the Australian migration program discriminates in favor of the skilled and those who are sponsored by a family member who is “an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen aged 18 years or over who lives in Australia”. Why all this discrimination!? By contrast, Israel’s LOR does not discriminate against the unskilled, and gives no advantage to people who are “sponsored” by family. Even if one were to accept that sponsorship by an Australian adult family member is reasonable grounds for discriminatory favoritism, what is New Zealand doing in there? Now notice that there are other special rules for New Zealanders – yet more discrimination. And the same website mentions various other sorts of discrimination in the area of immigration, as well.

Sganot,

Thanks for sharing your pics with us.

I doubt that even putting a human face on yourself will influence Strewth one jot though.

Also I don’t see the comparisons with Australia and it’s problems with the indigenous population as a good basis for comparison. When the English came to Australia, the indigenous people were just about the most primitive people on the face of the earth, living in very small tribal communities as stone age hunter gatherers, who hadn’t yet invented the bow and arrow. Understandably, in the context of the late 18th Century, the settlers that found them did not regard them highly, and regrettably treated them more like pests than fellow human beings. This is such a different situation to what happened with the creation of modern Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, that drawing parallels seems far fetched.

Now, if you don’t mind, some questions: What's the mood in Israel now that the most recent round of fighting is over? Do Israeli's feel cheated of victory, defeated, or has the absence of Hizbullah rocket attacks in recent weeks make it seem the conflict was worthwhile? What of the still missing soldiers, is there much outcry over this? Where to from here?

Oh no, make a statement like I did above and people knee jerk with the timing of the roman saluting ankle clicking German Nazi's of the Third Reich.

OI! It was a figure of speech. Get over it!