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Dear Shadow Minister,

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You wrote :

« … the new president, especially one whose party also controls the congress, the senate, and the majority of state governors, can easily more than reverse the consequences of the UN vote »
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Not so easily, Shadow Minister. It is not as simple as that.

The US vote abstention is not so much a political condemnation as it is a moral condemnation of Israel’s illegal behavior. Coming from its staunchest and most powerful ally, it should have responded in a much more respectful tone. The US has no obligation to Israel. Quite the contrary, it is the reverse that is true.

But all this is the domain of the symbolic, not the praxis – for the time being.

If the Netanyahu government continues to overreact negatively, as it has up until now, it will end up doing itself far more harm than the UN vote ever could.

Trump will soon have the opportunity to prove that he can achieve what the Obama administration and their predecessors have never been capable of achieving so far as Israel and the Palestiniens are concerned.

Personally, I have an open mind on the question. Who knows, if a "lame duck President" can't do it, perhaps a "wild bull President" can.

If neither of them can, than we'll just have to wait for the next animal that comes sniffing around the farm yard looking for something to chew on, won't we ?

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Hey ttbn,
You and I agree on many issues, so I'm hoping I can put the following Israel questions / criticism across without offence.
And I'm kind of sorry to catch you out in this delimma of sorts; and direct these questions at you, but I like to question the pro's and con's of things...
Please don't take offense, you don't even have to reply if you don't want to.

So firstly, I know you are against the idea of indigenous treaties / recognition etc.
You're against the idea that the traditional owners of this nation be recognised or given any kind of real authority within Australia am I right?
For numerous reasons I'd agree with you, for instance that there should not be diffenent classes of people with different laws.

But you, as well as some other forum members are anti-indigenous but pro-Israel, and this creates a dilemma of sorts...

Is it not the basis that being traditional owners / inhabitors of the land that Israel uses to justify it's creation and existence?
So I'm arguing firstly that the two seperate beliefs you hold dont seem to be congruent.
It's not ok in the case of indigenous but it is ok in the case of Israel?

Now put that first argument to the side, because the real truth is more complicated.

DNA evidence confirms that the vast majority of people who identify as Jews in Israel are Ashkenazi who decent from Khazaria, and are not at all related to any of the traditional hebrew tribes spoken about in the bible.
Now not to denigrate, but the people of Khazaria were in fact phallus-worshipping warlike folk who converted to Judaism around 800AD.
(I'm not making it up; don't shoot the messenger - look it up.)
[TBC]

[Cont.]
And so if we want to get really technical, the truth is that the people who now identify as the Jews of Israel don't really have any connection to the land of Israel other than the fact their distant Khazarian relatives took up the Jewish religion in 800AD right?
(And you said there is no such thing as Palestine which is incorrect as there are references to it from very early AD and through the Middle ages)

And so anyway the question now becomes 'Does ones taking up of anothers religion give an entitlement to traditional lands?'

And so....
Lets say I take up the religion of 'Ra' the sun god.
Am I now able to claim a connection to the traditional owners of Egypt and claim native title and ownership of the lands of Egypt demanding that all others leave?
What if I take up the religion of the Vikings and worship 'Odin', can I claim Norway?
What about if I take up Mayan? Do I get parts of South America and Mexico?

This brings up a new can of worms about religions.
What say I do convert to 'Mayan'.
Am I allowed to paint people blue and decapitate them on the top of my pyramid, rolling their severed heads down the pyramid steps and throwing their corpes over the side?
Can I do this whilst claiming religious impunity?

At what point is one not reasonably allowed to say in regards to a particular religion 'Your religious beliefs are a danger to yourself and the people around you and should be outlawed'?
So many questions, so little answers...

The essential genetic descendants of the tribes of Israel wish to have a homeland the same as the relatives of Mario. Israel is a secular State not a religious State and accommodates any person who is willing to live peaceably within the State. I have relatives living in Israel who live by the laws of the State. Israel has been welcoming Christians as well as Jews from Iraq and Syria. They even welcome homosexuals escaping the laws of Muslim countries.

Arab countries vow the death of every Jew and are wiling to murder any person who lives in Israel. The Arab State of Palestine trains their children from six to hate and desire the death of every Israeli and learn how to kill with a knife. That is why we have 12 - 14 year old's Palestinians attempting to murder persons in Israel. Israel gets a bad reputation if its guards shoot the teenager. Palestinians Muslims are fed hate and they do not accept Western values.

Banjo,

So the mass murder of its citizens and the theft of aid to buy weapons, etc by Hamas goes unmentioned, but the construction of settlements in the disputed territories is a moral issue.

I think your moral compass is more than a little off.

Dear Shadow Minister,

I think we have previously ascertained you are not Jewish. It has therefore intrigued me why you choose to personally suppress the fact that UN resolution after resolution has shown that the vast majority of the world including Australia have rightly concluded that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal, against international law and contravene the Geneva convention.

It has always seemed to me that you have signed up for an ideology and signed away your willingness to think for yourself. It doesn't appear rational.

Just because for a brief moment in Australia's history we have a rightwing government who is keen to co-opt many of the US' policies shouldn't take away from all those occasions when both sides of Australian politics recognised the injustice of the Israeli settlements and their impediment to a peaceful solution.

Be an individual mate. You might find it rewarding.