"As a Jew who escaped the Holocaust by moving with my family to America in 1938, I turn on the BBC at night. And what I see are clouds of black smoke, explosions; the dead and the dying - children crying bitterly, cities in ruins. Only yesterday, these piles of rubble in Lebanon were home to thousands. Now, the cars roll out onto the highways, white flags attached to the windshields and doors. More than half a million are homeless."
This interesting article, "Why doesn't Israel work for peace?" appears in Newsday.com - and raises some important questions even if not easily addressed let alone answered. But it a perspective on the whole issue of support for Israel and how those who dare criticise its actions are subjected to accusations of either anti-Zionism or anti-semitism, or if Jewish, as being "self-hating Jews" [whatever that might mean!]. Read the full article here.
The very topic of Israel, its detractors and those who lobby on its behalf is the subject of a new book in Australia, My Israel Question [by Antony Loewenstein - published by MUP] details of which can be found here. The interest the book has created has seen the first print already sold out 10 days after being released. The second edition is due out within the next 2 weeks.
Meanwhile, on the same topic Mike Carlton in his weekly column in the SMH says:
"Last week's column about this obscene war drew an extraordinary response from Herald readers; more than 450 emails at last count, from Australia and abroad, including the US, Lebanon and Israel.
There was a handful of lunatics: bomb all the Arabs, kill all the Jews, etc. But the vast majority came from people, Jew and Gentile, in despair at the horrors that confront us.
Of the Gentiles, most affirmed Israel's right to exist and to defend itself. They acknowledged Hezbollah's acts of terrorism. But they believed the Israeli blitzkrieg - several used the word - is grossly disproportionate, amounting to war crimes against the Lebanese people which dishonour Jewish history.
Profoundly moving, though, were letters from Australian Jews aghast at what is being done in their name."
Read parts of some of those letters and Carlton's piece here - and pause for thought!
This interesting article, "Why doesn't Israel work for peace?" appears in Newsday.com - and raises some important questions even if not easily addressed let alone answered. But it a perspective on the whole issue of support for Israel and how those who dare criticise its actions are subjected to accusations of either anti-Zionism or anti-semitism, or if Jewish, as being "self-hating Jews" [whatever that might mean!]. Read the full article here.
The very topic of Israel, its detractors and those who lobby on its behalf is the subject of a new book in Australia, My Israel Question [by Antony Loewenstein - published by MUP] details of which can be found here. The interest the book has created has seen the first print already sold out 10 days after being released. The second edition is due out within the next 2 weeks.
Meanwhile, on the same topic Mike Carlton in his weekly column in the SMH says:
"Last week's column about this obscene war drew an extraordinary response from Herald readers; more than 450 emails at last count, from Australia and abroad, including the US, Lebanon and Israel.
There was a handful of lunatics: bomb all the Arabs, kill all the Jews, etc. But the vast majority came from people, Jew and Gentile, in despair at the horrors that confront us.
Of the Gentiles, most affirmed Israel's right to exist and to defend itself. They acknowledged Hezbollah's acts of terrorism. But they believed the Israeli blitzkrieg - several used the word - is grossly disproportionate, amounting to war crimes against the Lebanese people which dishonour Jewish history.
Profoundly moving, though, were letters from Australian Jews aghast at what is being done in their name."
Read parts of some of those letters and Carlton's piece here - and pause for thought!
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