Pearls and Irritations

When recently sacked by Netanyahu, Gallant, in an emotional speech said: “Israel has fallen into moral darkness”. This is what Zionism has internally inflicted on Judaism – moral decay. The security threat suffered by good Jewish people globally is what Zionism has inflicted externally.

Despite Gallant prosecuting Israel’s war in a savage manner as minister for defence, it was still not enough for Netanyahu. Gallant’s view is that bringing hostages back was not and is not a priority to Netanyahu. Investigating how and why October 7, 2023, occurred Netanyahu will not allow.

The error, personified in recent comments from Senator James Paterson, the Australian shadow minister, is that Israel is not only righteously defending itself, it is defending democracy. As Netanyahu’s actions have amply demonstrated, this ‘war’ is not about defending the right of Israel to exist, it is certainly not about the defence of democracy; it is about attacking and eliminating those who get in the way of, or oppose, Israel’s annexing of Palestinian land and diminishing Palestinian people. It is about treating every Palestinian as the ‘enemy’, simply because they exist.

It is ill-informed, or worse, for public figures to claim those who condemn Israel’s violence are antisemitic. Indeed, many Australian Jewish groups make the same criticism of Israel that I do. The critique is of Zionism and its cruel agenda. The Zionist Federation of Australia most certainly does not speak for all Jews. Zionism, in and of itself is a threat to Judaism as amply demonstrated by the extra security good Jewish people worldwide have now needed to avail themselves.

No, this war is not about defending Israel, it is about crushing any opposition to its expansionist agenda.

Gaza is essentially a refugee enclave. While many are generational residents of this small strip of land many others are descendants of those who lost their homes as a result of Israel’s creation. The plight of Gazans and the lifting of the blockade should have been constantly on the agenda of the international community for resolution. If Israel’s existence is dependent upon blockading 2million+ people in an open gaol, then its existence is illegitimate. No humans can live peacefully whilst enduring indefinite life sapping deprivation. The brutality of October 7 can only be condemned, but that it occurred should not have been a surprise.

Israel’s recognised international borders do not include the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The residents of Jenin, Nablus and Hebron are not terrorists. They are men and women boys and girl who endure daily privation. They have no civil rights; they live under military law imposed by hostile occupation. Do we seriously expect them to accept that this is their lot? It is outrageous they are collectively called terrorists.

Last week a resolution passed the UN General Assembly recognising the inalienable rights of Palestinian people to their land and its resources. Australia supported the resolution, the US voted against.

The real terrorists are the rightwing messianic thugs of Israel and those who do their bidding. The real terrorists are those responsible for the death of Zomi Frankcom, as well as countless journalists, doctors, nurses, and aid workers.

Netanyahu needed the war; he also needs it to continue. While at war he is protected from judicial investigation. In some respects, he is a pathetic figure, slave to the consequences of his ego driven life and politically slave to those more theocratically extreme than himself.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister for National Security and Bezalel Smotrich, Minister for Finance, have reason to fear they will also receive arrest warrants: their advocacy and demands have led to some of the worst abuses.

The International Criminal Court arrest warrants should be unequivocally supported by any nation which champions international law. As a trading nation, not only should we champion international law, but we depend on it.

This abhorrent situation does not need to continue. The most productive way to support Judaism and Jewish people, even Israel itself, is to lay bare the moral abyss created by Zionism, into which Israel has slid. A great start would be to adopt the challenge of Judaism’s prophet Micah. “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God”. Accepting this challenge will lead to the recognition of Palestinians as fellow human beings, even more to realising that together the biblical vision of harmony and justice is there to be embraced as hands reach one another across the walls of separation.

Zionism is built on inequity and conflict. Judaism longs for righteousness and peace.

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