Bushbred:"Would you say the formerly cruelly treated Jews are now being spoilt by America, especially letting them build up an arsenal of the most modern nuclear weaponry.

Is such for America's benefit in the Middle East, or just for Israeli protection from the Arabs?"

Now aren't those some large cans of worms? It seems fairly obvious that the US is basing much of its Middle-East policy on appeasing the pro-Zionist lobby at home, just as Australia does. Is there anyone who believes that we sent troops to Iraq just because Howard wanted to be friends with Bush and that the influence in the Liberal Party of such prominent pro-Zionists as the Pratts and the Myers had nothing to do with it?

Quite understandably given their history, Jews have made a point of being almost entirely cohesive on the subject of Zionism (notwithstanding the recent outbreak of independent thought among high-profile Jews in Britain and Australia)and have used that cohesion to become a strong voice influencing Governments. Nothing wrong with that, except that this powerful voice is and has been all too often used to drown dissent, leading to bad policy through lack of proper debate. The support of Israeli interests has become a political norm for politicians - one I suspect they rarely question.

Antiseptic

"Perhaps you should try finding a few friends and you might have some of those yourself? Get out of the synagogue occasionally and some of them might even be *gasp* gentile..."

How little you know. I am fourth generation in Australia. The first Jews arrived on the first fleet. I rarely attend synagogue and am an agnostic. I never attended a Jewish school and few of my friends are Jewish. So you have one Jewish friend.

I do know of the lies circulated by the Palestinians and of the fake press photographs and videos. The one that says that the Temple in Jerusalem was built by Muslims not by Jews. Have you been following the recent court case in France where according to evidence a video showing an Arab boy shot by nasty Israelis allegedly finished with the dead boy sitting up and smiling? The last part was left out by the international media, no wonder so many are angry with dishonest reporting. After all western journalists have been captured and threatened by Palestinians, but never by Israelis, perhaps that affects Press reportage.

Your recent comment about a Jewish lobby, there are only 100,000 Jews in Australia compared with 300,000 Muslims, says it all.

MANNY if you want to know where anti semitism comes from.... you could explore the following:

Sasoons...that highly respected family which sold 100s of TONS of opium to the Chinese, and spread networks of family members across china to facilitate the near moral genocide of a population. Yet, in spite of this, they are lauded in Jewish publications as 'luminaries and visionaries and wonderful examples to follow'

It reminds me of some south American Indian tribes who call themselves 'human' and all non-them 'sub humans'.

If they had simply been a "company" employing 'any' one.. it would be different..but because they made it a 'Jewish' enterprise.. people would be forgiven for tarring other Jews with the Sasoon brush.
I'm reminded of how this worked out with a "High Profile Retailing Identity" in Melbourne who sought to chanel the public company's purchasing through his own family companies.. to enhance his own (Jewish) families wealth.

"Anti" semitism cannot exist without 'Semitism' .. so said Inky Stephenson.. in a well argued essay on the origins of this issue.
Were it not for the deliberate 'Jewish' promotion of Jewish interests within other communities, there would be nothing to be 'against'....

When it comes to Zionism, I find myself more sympathetic. I don't begrudge Jews from having the Biblical homeland... and waving the 'anti semitism' red rag to garner support for it has no impact on me.

CHRIS.. you were in good form there mate.. your conspiracy theory madness had got the better of you mate :) "See how they NEED 'antisemitism' for Zionism to survive as a potent political force"

It could equally be argued "See how Arab/Muslim/Palestinians NEED 'the Zionist entity' to survive as a potent political force"

see it now ? :)

I can't figure out why your bias always comes down on the side of our ENEMIES. grrrr

Marilyn Shepherd you claim that Israel is guilty of "ethnic cleansing".

In 1948 the Arab population of mandated Palestine was about 700,000.

In 2006 the Arab population in the Palestinian territories was about
2 million.

In 2006 the Israeli Arab population was about 1.2 million.

In Israel the fertility rate for Israelis is 2.75 on the West Bank it is 4.17.

Never let facts get in the way of a bit of Israel-bashing.

Logic,

re: Sephradic and Mizrahi Jews. You are right and I am wrong. In my defense I meant to cut-n-paste Mizrahi, and ended up with Sephradic referring to the Judaic practise rather than Arabic Jewish (Musta'arabim et al) cline and language group. An error on my part, and please accept my apologies.

Plaza-Toro,

To my understanding the term "anti-semitic" was coined by Moritz Steinschneider in opposition to Ernest Renan's claims of how "Semitic races" were inferior to "Aryan races" and prior deriving from von Schlüzer's use of the "Semitic nations" in 1787. There can be no doubt whatsoever from reading his works Renan (or von Schlüzer for that matter) was referring to all Semitic peoples. The use of anti-semitism by Europeans against Jews was always a claim that because those of the Jewish religion were of Semitic origin, they were sufficiently impossible to integrate with Indo-European cultures; and with all the tragic consequences that such racism results with. If anything the practical use of the term should encourage a sense of solidarity between Jews and Arabs.

Manny, why do Jews think that they are the only ones to have suffered discrimination and racism in the world, have they/you not heard about the Russians and Chinese losses during the WW2 each lost 20 million or more and yet you don't see them complaining.

Here in Australia whole Aboriginal "language groups" disapeared, as a result of the illegal occupation of our land. This is equlivent on a percentage basis to all french speaking people in the world being suddenly eradicated from the face of the earth for good.

Whilst some isolated incidences of hate crime happens to your people occassionaly its is not supported by the state. For Indigenous people discrinmination on the basis of race is embodied in the constitution of Australia, meaning we have no property rights and the Gubberment can make decisions for us on the basis of our race as in the case of the NT intervention.

As for Jenin in the IDF's own account of the incident it admits to the fact that its soldiers used civilians in the town as human shields, this had the support at the highest level of command and was designed to protect its soldiers against those armed people in the camps trying to protect their famlies.

Why was the IDF comanders not punished as war crimminals like the german commanders in charge of troops during the Warsaw Uprising, could the comparison between Jenin and Warsaw Uprising be lost on the IDF? .

During my last visit to Israel just before the wall went up I personally witnessed the way the Arabs are treated by the IDF at the checkpoints into Israel. They are regularly mistreated including being beaten and humiliated especially the women and elderly, they have guns pointed at their faces or hit with rifle butts and they have no avenue to complain about their treatment.

If people in Australia are going to be called anti semitic for having an opinion on the double standards of Israel, then Jews might find themself being labled anti Australian and being activly encouraged to leave for Israel.