I would find it hard to quarrel with a quintessence of an article that is “Today, it is perhaps not Australian Jews but the Palestinian victims of an illegal, brutal military occupation that deserve sympathy”: Australian Jews, an author of an article inclusively, have a choice between residing in ethnically-segregated, biologically-motivated, de facto anti-Semitic, MULTICULTURAL Australia and becoming the “oppressors-brutal occupants” in own far-from-paradice Jewish State of Israel as the Arabs of Palestine, the Palestinians, had instantly been rejected by any of brotherly Muslim-Arabic states worldwide but racist Israel potentially allowing citizenship both by birth and through marriage for Palestinian -and all other- Arabs residing in a “land of Zionist aggressor”.

I certainly do not want the destruction of Israel, though Zionism must perish. I accept the UN borders of 1947-8, and as the only (imperfect) global law, I accept the State of Israel. Pre-1967, I am a supporter of Israel, especially the Kibbutz movement. But the Occupation destroys any moral position that includes the name Israel. If we didn't fight the Nazis to say that we can never accept again the forced transfer of people and the conquest of another's land by force, what the hell were we doing!

The Occupation is the original sin that undermines the very existence of the State of Israel. The pendulum has been traversing its Rightward arc since Thatcher and Reagan, am I alone in feeling the momentum starting to change? As that pendulum begins to swing Left, rising popular movements are going to turn their indignant attention to the Zionist cancer in our world. Israel has exported the consequences of her dirty land grab to the world in the guise of the "war of Terror", people will start to follow the trail back home soon enough. They have attempted to confuse people legitimately fighting a foreign occupation with the real terrorists, both rogue and State.

After the change in US presidents, all we need is a growing anti-apartheid campaign against Israel, coupled with a well-led non-violent civil disobedience campaign by the Palestinians, and Israel will fold. It has begun, Western churches and universities have begun divesting their interests in Israel; the clock is ticking. Which is why the US and Israel as so keen for a war, to redraw the local situation before Israel is forced to make peace.

I will not be free until the Israeli and Palestinian flags fly in Jerusalem.

Hi Earthrise- nice to see your regular contributions these days.

I'm not sure how you can accomplish "the death of zionism"... I'll guess ur not Christian ? or that you don't place much importance on the Biblical concept of the Land and Covenant, but in this conflict the key issue is....the Settlers DO.... and while you may be able to persuade some non Jewish people.. and even secular Jews...that 'zionism' is a bad thing, the chances of persuading the Settlers are 2....buckleys and none.

Zionism is very deeply rooted in 4000 yrs of history, and cannot be separated from the Biblical foundations.

I mean.. try to tell a Jewish Settler who has just visited Rachels tomb or the Cave of Macpelah, or hears the sound of Abrahams goats and sheep bleeting and baa-ing in the wind and from the soil.....who re-lives the moment that Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers who sold him into slavery, who walks to the well where Jacob (father of the 12 tribes) met Rachel and fell in love with her, that 'this is all wrong'.....it simply won't register :)

Left hand.. "Earthrise and similar well meaning peoples view "zionism must stop"

Right hand.."I will make of you a mighty nation, I give this land to you and your descendants forever, your descenants will be as uncountable as the sand of the sea, " (God)

Yep.. 'right' hand has it :)

Boaz, stop giving us all that Biblical BS. Your arguments are built on sand and the sands of time are running out for Israel's Zionist thugs.
Earthrise has made some very valid points.

David

Boazy: "while you may be able to persuade some non Jewish people.. and even secular Jews...that 'zionism' is a bad thing, the chances of persuading the Settlers are 2....buckleys and none."

That's precisely why the UN should send in a multinational force to kick the Zionist frootloops out. Israel won't do it, the US won't do it, so the UN should.

Who cares if the Zionists have 4000 years of mythology with which to delude themselves? That doesn't matter an iota to the Palestinians who were dispossessed after centuries of ownership of the land, nor should it matter in contemporary secular law.

Earthrise,

You acknowledge that the conflict has a history when you talk about pre-1967 borders. I am sure you are aware then that between 1948-1967 Jordanian forces occupied parts of Israel after the semi-succesfull invasion of the five Arab states. You will also be aware of the Egyptian annexation of the Gaza strip. Israeli Jews were driven from their homes in the Arab held areas.

When these Arab countries again tried to wipe out Israel in 1967, a much stronger Israeli army beat all comers and pushed the Jordanians (as well as the Syrians, Egyptians, Iraqis etc) back behind their borders. Captured land was held as a negotiating point for peace, when Arab aggression/violence had waned.

When Egypt renounced their campaign to destroy Israel the Sinai was returned to them and Palestinians residing on the Arab side of the green line were given autonomy.

Lets not forget that Barak offered the Palestinians a deal to create their own state at Camp David in 2000. Arafat rejected the proposal out of hand. He wasn’t interested in a two state solution. Arafat was still hoping for the annihilation of the Israelis. This strategy is still alive and well and can be seen in the charters of Hamas and Hezbollah. How can Israel make peace with groups who are dedicated to their very destruction?

What is most incredible to me is that supposedly intelligent people think we should use force against Israel, yet cannot abide the idea that the US has used force to return Iraq to the Iraqis.

I wonder Earthrise, if you really believe that people who deliberately target women and children are in any way legitimate?

BushBred,

I wonder what terrorism you think subsided after America left Vietnam? Do you include Pol Pot and his leftist mates. Do you mean those who executed or sent to reeducation camps anyone who was associated with the gov’t of South Vietnam?

How quickly we forget.

The hippys and bandwagon jumpers of the sixties and seventies have been proved totally wrong about the soviet union and international communism. It’s about time they admitted it.