Letters (January 29, 2010)
A selection of letters published in the AJN print edition of January 29, 2010
Lack of coverage of Israel’s efforts in Haiti
AHRON Shapiro in his analysis piece (AJN 22/01) says “the global appreciation of IDF humanitarian lifesaving work in Haiti is richly deserved”. This may be the case in Europe or elsewhere but certainly not in Australia. I would like a dollar for every person that has commented about the lack of reporting [censoring] in The Age/Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) about Israel’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti.
It certainly appears 2010 will be more of the same as far as the Fairfax attitude towards Israel is concerned. The Age/SMH would rather report about Bibi’s babysitter or 10 Palestinian activists protesting about Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer’s presence at the Aussie open than report about Israel’s humanitarian contributions in Haiti.
Although The Age editor Paul Ramdage told attendees at a Jewish function recently that he would try to encourage more balance in the reporting about Israel, just last week the Australians for Palestine lobby group, on its website, praised the Age journalist Andra Jackson for her reporting of their protests over Gaza and Peer.
Fairfax, ABC and SBS are so obsessed with Israel and went berserk about Israel’s “disproportionate response” to Hamas and Hezbollah rocket attacks, however they are reluctant to report about Israel’s “disproportionate” response to Haiti.
Considering Israel’s tiny population, the country sent over 200 experts that included medical and search and rescue personnel, and set up a field hospital treating hundreds of survivors; far more than Australia, UK and larger countries. Not that ignoring past Israeli humanitarian work by these media outlets in India, Turkey, Kenya is anything new.
No doubt Israel’s detractors will argue ulterior motives for Israel’s humanitarian work in Haiti
Michael Burd
Toorak, Vic
Quake aid reveals true nature of Jewish State
ONLY when reason gives way to ideology could somebody suggest, as does Steve Brook (AJN 22/01), that Israel must talk to Hamas. Even Neville Chamberlain ultimately recognised that you can’t negotiate with somebody bent on your destruction, and Hamas was created for the sole purpose of destroying Israel. Hamas is in an existential war with Israel, and, besides lying down and dying, Israelis have nothing to offer Hamas in negotiation.
On the other hand, in the wake of the destruction and hardship Hamas foisted on Gaza as soon as the Israelis left, it should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that you do the Palestinians no favours to even contemplate that path, much less advocate it.
Israeli efforts in Haiti have shown the world the true face of Israel, when not confronted with the imperative of defending its citizens against terrorists. It is an Israel that the Palestinian leadership could take full advantage of in advancing a peaceful state of its own. All they need to do is to stop plotting Israel’s destruction, and accept a Jewish state as a neighbour.
Could it be simpler?
Morry Sztainbok
Bentleigh, Vic
Israel’s response is a source of pride
Your front page last week, Israel answers the call (AJN 22/01), was the best cover of the year. And there is plenty of time this year for more wonderful front pages.
The paper highlighted Israeli soldiers and rescue teams helping to establish a field hospital in Haiti. It’s far away from our small country, but the assistance is huge.
Doctors, nurses and hospital staff are putting their knowledge together to save life.
Each reader of The AJN took b’simcha into his hands and looked with happy, proud feelings at the newspaper.
Ivan Singer
Castle Cove, NSW
Questioning Israel’s ‘moral authority’
MAVINA Malinek (AJN 15/01) asks how a Jewish organisation could question Israel’s moral authority.
Yes, it is essential for Jews to apply the same standards to Israel’s behaviour as to that of all other countries. If ever Australia were to use phosphorus bombs against civilians caught up in a conflict, I, and many thoughtful people around the world, would wonder whether its moral authority was not also compromised.
Tom Wolkenberg
Glen Iris, Vic
Defeat not dialogue is proven path to peace
IT is just too bad that the Allies in World War II never sat down and negotiated with the Nazis. If only they had, thousands of Nazi lives would have been saved, the Battle of Berlin may never have taken place and Jew and Nazi could live side by side, enjoying a “just peace settlement”.
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Yet that is precisely the argument made by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society’s Steve Brook (AJN 22/01), who suggests “Like it or not, Israel will eventually have to talk to Hamas”. Why? In fact, (like it or not), eventually people realised that talking to the Nazis was fruitless, and there was only one language they understood — unspeakable violence and catastrophic defeat.
As far as Hamas is concerned, this is yet to happen. To date, Arab leaders do not believe they have ever been defeated. Such is their cognitive dissonance, that on October 6 each year the Egyptians actually celebrate their “victory” in the Yom Kippur War.
In contrast, the Imperial Japanese and Nazi Germans were never under any misconception that they lost, and have, since surrendering, gone on to build productive democratic societies, as opposed to some Muslim states.
As far as the Islamists are concerned, what we perceive as diplomacy, they regard as weakness. Witness the Iranian leadership. So I will never understand why there are still left-wing Jews who believe that talking to sworn Jew-killers is always the answer. In the history of the Jewish people, negotiations with anti-Semites and Jew-murderers have only ever resulted in more dead Jews.
What has changed is that the Israelis aren’t going to simply die quietly this time. The Hamas Charter states: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavours.” So, Mr Brook, aside from unconditional surrender, just how do you plan to start the conversation anyway?
Daniel Lewis
Rushcutters Bay, NSW
Israel-Turkey dispute is just PR hype
THE controversy surrounding Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon’s treatment of the Turkish ambassador in Israel was either tomfoolery on the part of Ayalon or a ¬≠alculated move coordinated by the Foreign Minister to highlight Turkey’s anti-Israel stance.
Either way, it has proved to be a misguided publicity stunt on many counts. But it will not seriously damage relations between Israel and Turkey.
Despite Turkey’s rhetoric through its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has at every given opportunity criticised the State of Israel, and in spite of the public hostility by Turkey’s opportunistic politicians, Turkey is one of only a handful of Muslim countries to have full diplomatic ties with Israel.
Turkey has an embassy in Tel Aviv. Turkey was among the first countries to recognise the nascent state of Israel in 1948. The real powerbrokers in Turkey are the military high command. The military fully understands Israeli strategic and political value as a close US ally and as an arms manufacturer and the exporter of high-tech weapons systems.
Turkey also needs to enter into the European Union and will need to appear as a moderate state. The Turkish high command wants to keep Israel-Turkey relations viable, so all the media hype is just that — hype.
Basically, Turkey’s generals know which side their Turkish bread is buttered on and they are not about to jeopardise that because their ambassador sat on a lower seat in Tel Aviv.
Uri Butnaru
North Bondi, NSW
Greater kashrut competition needed
THANK you to Lea Weiss for publicising the concerns about Sydney’s kashrut monopoly (AJN 15/01).
Having spent my holidays in Melbourne, I was able to do my own investigation in that city and came to the conclusion that only by having more than one kosher-supervising authority will we ever be able to enjoy fairer costs.
Melbourne’s three kosher butchers each have a different hashgachah (supervisory agency) — keeping them all on their toes. This shows up clearly in the prices of meat which seem to be between 20-30 per cent below those in Sydney. I was told that all the butchers have customers in Sydney, as freight charges are miniscule.
Poultry costs in Melbourne, however, are quite high. Why? Because all the butchers have to buy from a single supplier. Which proves my point about the results of monopolies.
As to simchas, I don’t believe any of Melbourne’s kashrut organisations would have the audacity to charge the KA’s $6.60 per person fee. I understand the highest charge in Melbourne is less than half of that.
Rabbis and consumers, as well as Chabad and the other outreach organisations seeking to promote kashrut, must join forces to establish a competing authority. This shouldn’t be too difficult seeing that a quite a few prominent and learned rabbis are not part of the KA.
Alternatively, one of Melbourne’s authorities should establish a Sydney branch.
We repeatedly get told how lucky we are that we have a single kashrut standard that everyone accepts. I agree, but not if it makes kosher food and functions unaffordable for lower and middle-class earners.
Yankel Hold
Bellevue Hill, NSW
School funding comparison wrong
THE Australian Council of Jewish Schools rejects, as misleading, the comparison of school funding that forms the basis of the statement by the Australian Education Union (AEU). The AEU has compared direct funding by the federal Government, in some categories, and ignored the most rudimentary aspect; namely that the vast majority of federal Government funding for government schools is indirect funding, channelled through state governments that own and run the schools.
The federal Government allocates a far greater level of funding per student to state schools than to non-government schools, whether measured on a school comparison or student-by-student basis. This is as it should be. It is right that the federal Government provide greater recurrent funding per student to government schools.
It is also right that the federal Government provides the capital basis for government schools to have proper resources and infrastructure. But it is also important that the federal Government provides appropriate levels of funding to non-government school students, distributed in accordance with, among other things,
the economic capacity of parents/guardians. The current model for federal Government school funding is to be examined over the next 12 months. We have every confidence that the federal Government will maintain an equitable funding system that will ensure adequate funding based upon the needs of the entire Australian community.
This is not a time for division on such a fundamental issue. It is a time for all of us to ensure that state and non-government schools are adequately funded, so that the right of all students to an affordable (and/or free) education, of the highest standards, is satisfied and all schools are funded at levels that allow our children and grandchildren to reach their potential.
Nechama Bendet
Co Chair, Australian Council of Jewish Schools
‘Climate realists’ make a titanic error
SO now it’s “climate realism” Terry Davis (AJN 22/01), no longer climate scepticism? A fine example of language being used to influence how people think: I believe it’s called propaganda. Is that how Mr Davis “leaves his mind open to objective persuasion”?
Apart from what Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black said about the world taking man’s impact on climate change very seriously — as demonstrated by the Copenhagen conference (AJN 15/1) and the overwhelming amount of evidence of rising sea levels and extreme weather changes to support the same — even if the vast majority of reputable scientists are wrong, would it not be wise to err on the side of caution especially as the consequences would be so very dire?
Mr Davis claims to get his information from reputable scientific journals rather than the letters pages of a newspaper and then uses his daughter experiencing cold conditions in London as evidence of global cooling rather than warming. From my reading, the cold Mr Davis’ daughter is experiencing is due to changes in ocean currents; a direct result of global warming.
Unfortunately, I don’t think people like Terry Davis will ever be convinced. They are like those poor souls ordering drinks as the Titanic was going down, still believing she was unsinkable.
Henry Herzog
St Kilda East, Vic
Opening our eyes to Jewish poverty
THANKS for your article on homelessness (AJN 15/01) by Chantal Abitbol.
In 2004, the Social Justice Committee of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria held a poverty forum. A journalist from The AJN contacted me for my comments on poverty and mental illness. The paper was doing a follow-up article on the topic of poverty. I checked with one of my associates and gave the journalist an appropriate response. I was about to discover the sad truth. Ninety per cent of the people I was working with over several years now were in that category — living on the edge of poverty.
They would talk about their illnesses but not their poverty. I started Wings of Care’s Community Chest at this point and that was the beginning of my work with mental illness and poverty. Your article highlights the problem in Sydney’s Jewish community. Yes, we have it in Melbourne too.
Lorraine Levy
Founding President of Wings of Care (Kanfei Chesed) Inc.
If you would like to submit a letter, email letters@jewishnews.net.au
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