Linda Morris writing in the SMH on the current debate and discussion underway in Australia, and overseas, about members of the Jewish community challenging Israel's policies:
"Since the creation of the modern state of Israel, almost 3 million Jews, 10,000 of them from Australia, have made a new life there. They have been driven by a yearning to become part of the Jewish homeland, a dream inculcated at the family dinner table, reinforced by private Jewish education, and realised in short- and long-term visits to Israel.
The process of migration has a name - aliyah, which in Hebrew means to ascend - and it represents the highest ideal of the Zionist movement in fulfilling its commitment to re-establish and protect the ancient Jewish homeland.
The Zionist Federation of Australia, whose job it is to assist the settlement and integration of migrants to Israel, says that Australia has one of the highest per capita rates of aliyah in the Western world.
To outsiders it might be perplexing that Jewish Australians should swap suburban security for life in a foreign land that more often than not makes the television news with images of terrorism and violence. The willingness to uproot grows out of a deep psychological and ideological attachment which lies at the heart of the community's cultural and ethno-religious identity.
But has unswerving loyalty to the Jewish homeland resulted in an allegiance to ensuring Israel's security at all costs? And has it served to impoverish debate in the Jewish community about the rights and wrongs of Israeli foreign and domestic policy?"
"Since the creation of the modern state of Israel, almost 3 million Jews, 10,000 of them from Australia, have made a new life there. They have been driven by a yearning to become part of the Jewish homeland, a dream inculcated at the family dinner table, reinforced by private Jewish education, and realised in short- and long-term visits to Israel.
The process of migration has a name - aliyah, which in Hebrew means to ascend - and it represents the highest ideal of the Zionist movement in fulfilling its commitment to re-establish and protect the ancient Jewish homeland.
The Zionist Federation of Australia, whose job it is to assist the settlement and integration of migrants to Israel, says that Australia has one of the highest per capita rates of aliyah in the Western world.
To outsiders it might be perplexing that Jewish Australians should swap suburban security for life in a foreign land that more often than not makes the television news with images of terrorism and violence. The willingness to uproot grows out of a deep psychological and ideological attachment which lies at the heart of the community's cultural and ethno-religious identity.
But has unswerving loyalty to the Jewish homeland resulted in an allegiance to ensuring Israel's security at all costs? And has it served to impoverish debate in the Jewish community about the rights and wrongs of Israeli foreign and domestic policy?"
Comments