Self-righteous and smug
WITH the University of Sydney set to host a major pro-BDS conference next Thursday and Friday and the NSW Labor Conference set to vote on supporting unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state as a matter of policy next weekend, the coming days will be watched with concern by members of the mainstream Jewish community.
WITH the University of Sydney set to host a major pro-BDS conference next Thursday and Friday and the NSW Labor Conference set to vote on supporting unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state as a matter of policy next weekend, the coming days will be watched with concern by members of the mainstream Jewish community.
Proudly pro-Israel, they will wonder how it has come to this – that such partisan platforms are taking centre stage at one of the country’s foremost academic institutions and within a key branch of one of the country’s foremost political parties.
To some extent the answer lies with those who prioritise votes over values; to some extent it lies with those who equate Zionism with what they view as evil Western colonialism; to some extent it lies in double standards and conscious or unconscious anti-Semitism; and to some extent it lies with those who have been taken in by biased and misleading media reports.
However, those who have experienced Israel first hand, who have witnessed the challenges it faces and seen the facts on the ground tell a different story.
Step forward Matthew Guy, Victorian Opposition Leader who was in the Old City of Jerusalem when three terrorists killed two Israeli police officers last week.
Guy struggled with the notion of a terrorist attack at a holy site, on the Temple Mount, at 7.15am.
“It wasn’t a time that it was full of people or a time when you would expect,” Guy said.
“It makes you realise that when it comes to terrorism no time is a safe time and these people will attack at any time they could.”
And he couldn’t understand the values of news agencies, such as the BBC and CNN, who covered the incident with headlines that portrayed the perpetrators as victims.
Guy noted that some media outlets reported the incident as three people being killed by Israeli police without mentioning that those people were terrorists who had just murdered two police officers.
In short, it is all very well to lambast the Jewish State from thousands of miles away adopting a misguided and misinformed moral high-ground but unless and until you’ve stood in Israel’s shoes, your sermons are sanctimonious and specious.
AJN EDITORIAL
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