ANZAC Day is growing in Jerusalem too

From JPost, 28 April 2013, by Greer Fay Cashman:

           

Australian soldiers prior to ANZAC ceremony Photo: REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom

 

...Never in living memory had there been so large an attendance [at the ANZAC Day commemoration at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Jerusalem] of diplomats; military attaches from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Turkey, France and India; representatives of ex-service organizations, Zionist youth, business and sporting organizations, Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces, the Jewish National Fund, the Israel Britain and the Commonwealth Association, the Society for the Heritage of World War I, the Gallipoli Association, the United Nations Troop Supervision Organization, the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) and the Australian Zionist Federation, along with Australian and New Zealand expatriates living in Israel, and Australian and New Zealand tourists.

...“The Middle East is no stranger to Australian servicemen and women,” said Australian Ambassador Andrea Faulkner, who noted that since the battle of Gallipoli and “the critical role of Australian troops in the success of the Palestine campaign in World War I – which is marked every year in Beersheba on October 31 – our soldiers have been intimately involved in campaigns and peacekeeping in the region. Our histories are forever intertwined.”

...ANZAC Day ceremonies in Israel are always ecumenical, with appropriate readings divided between Christian and Jewish clergy.

Because Jewish soldiers are also buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus, two Australian Rabbis living in Israel, Rabbi Raymond Apple assisted by Rabbi Edward Belfer, conduct a service after the official ceremony and recite kaddish in that section of the cemetery in which most of the Jewish soldiers are buried.

Apple, who is chief rabbi emeritus of the Sydney Great Synagogue and was formerly the senior rabbi of the Australian Defense Forces, said that in the upcoming Torah reading Moses was instructed to count the Israelite people in accordance with their armies. The age for service according to the Torah, was 20 plus. The soldiers buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery were more or less the same age, and had the world ahead of them, said Apple. They were young men who went into the unknown.

“What society lost with these young men was a concentration of identity, energy, enterprise, courage, vision and achievement,” said Apple, observing that a little over a week earlier, Israel had mourned the loss of so many of the nation’s young people “during a struggle that is tragically not yet over.”

Australia has ‘failed badly’ on justice for Nazis

From AJN, April 16, 2013, by Peter Kohn:                      

Western Australian, Charles Zentai: wanted for murder in Hungary

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre cited the  Zentai case as “the most disappointing result”

     

AUSTRALIA’S strategies for bringing alleged Nazi war criminals in this country to justice are fundamentally flawed, according to a key anti-Nazi campaigner.
Broadcaster and historian Mark Aarons said Australia deserved to languish in the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s lowest category after the organisation gave Australia an “F” in its finding of nations’ efforts to bring fugitive Nazis before court.
The 12th annual report by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre classed Australia with countries that had made the least effort, and lacked the “political will” to seek justice for Holocaust victims.
Aarons said Australia stood apart from other Western democracies with large intakes of displaced persons (DPs) after World War II, as it did not seek to prosecute alleged Nazis and collaborators for breaches of immigration law, unlike the United States and Canada.
Australia accepted some 180,000 DPs, second only to the US, which took around 250,000, with Canada third. Canada, like Australia, had tried to conduct war-crimes trials but when witnesses and evidence became too old and unreliable, Canada copied the US model of prosecuting individuals for lying about their past to obtain entry permits. Australia did not follow that path, Aarons said.
Under former prime minister Bob Hawke, Australia briefly conducted war-crimes trials from 1986 to 1991 after Aarons’ landmark 1986 ABC radio documentary Nazis In Australia brought the issue to prominence.

[Aarons told The AJN this week:]
“Except for the Hawke period, every other government has been a failure ...Every other government has thrown up its hands and refused to put any effort into it at all.
“Actuarial mortality rates being what they are, there’s a very good chance that the last Nazi will die peacefully in his bed somewhere in Australia.”
Aarons slammed last year’s High Court ruling rejecting the extradition of Perth man Charles (Karoly) Zentai to his native Hungary over the 1944 murder of 18-year-old Budapest Jew Peter Balazs. The case was cited in the Wiesenthal Centre report as “the most disappointing result in a specific case during the period under review”.
Jewish community leaders supported the Wiesenthal Centre’s findings.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Danny Lamm said:
“Australian government officials should not have turned a blind eye to the known crimes of former Nazis and Nazi collaborators. Australia should not have waited for 42 years … before enacting legislation that would make it possible to prosecute these people.”

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein said: “It is disappointing and frustrating that the energy and time invested by governments and human rights advocates over many years has not resulted in better results.”

BDS: unthinking prejudice - not boycott

From: The Australian, May 02, 2013, by Christian Kerr:     
A KEY supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement has been caught on camera admitting "there isn't really any connection" between Australian Max Brenner chocolate shops and Israel.
Palestine Action Group spokesman Patrick Harrison made the admission in a video of a BDS protest last November at the Max Brenner outlet in Parramatta, in Sydney's west, posted recently on YouTube by a graduate filmmaker.
Promotional material for the protest claimed: "Max Brenner is an ongoing target of the BDS campaign for its support for Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces..."
But Mr Harrison appears in the video saying: "Max Brenner itself is a franchise. So financially speaking there isn't really any connection between this Max Brenner store in particular and Israel. It's become really a kind of cultural ambassador for Israel, this store..."
Mr Harrison did not respond to calls from The Australian yesterday.
A Max Brenner spokeswoman confirmed the local operations were wholly Australian owned. "Its sole shareholders are a young Australian couple," the spokeswoman said. "
The company was established more than 13 years ago, in 2000, and has the franchise rights to Max Brenner in Australia."
The spokeswoman said the Strauss Group bought the International Max Brenner brand in 2001, after the establishment of Max Brenner Australia. "Max Brenner International thus became part of the Strauss Group," the spokeswoman said.
"The Strauss Group or Max Brenner International has absolutely no holding in Max Brenner Australia."
Executive Council of Australian Jewry chief Peter Wertheim said the video was "revealing".
"This exposes the unthinking prejudice underpinning the BDS movement," Mr Wertheim said.
He said Intel, Microsoft and other similar companies operated in Israel and supplied the Israeli Defence Force without being targeted by BDS activists.
"It is not difficult to understand the reason for this hypocrisy," he said. "Any attempt to boycott the products of these other companies, which are integral to the lives of most people in Australia, would be met with derision."
The video revelations came a day after a BDS action against the planned opening of a Max Brenner at the University of NSW.
University officials reacted to that with a statement condemning "in the strongest possible terms" anti-Semitic comments made on a Facebook page promoting the rally.

Two Killings and the Media’s Moral Equivalence

From an Israel Advocacy Network Update, 1 May 2013, by Emily Gian:
At around 8am [Tuesday] morning, a Palestinian man approached the Tapuach Junction in the West Bank, pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed an Israeli man. He then grabbed the man’s gun and began to open fire on the Border Guard post. Soldiers returned fire and the situation was stabilised. The victim, identified as 31 year-old father of five Eviatar Borovsky, died at the scene. His attacker, believed to be a Fatah operative from a village near Tulkarem, was treated at the scene by and taken to an Israeli hospital in Petach Tikvah. He is believed to have been released from prison less than six months ago, having been convicted three years ago for stone throwing. 
A few hours later, at 10am, an Israeli Air Force air strike on northern Gaza killed a terrorist from the “Global Jihad”, the Salafist organisation responsible for a rocket attack on Eilat a few weeks ago. Nine rockets have been fired on Israel in the past ten days by global jihad organisations, who were the same thugs responsible for a rocket attack on Sderot during President Obama's visit back in March.
The two incidents are in absolutely no way linked, and yet they prompted a story in the LA Times entitled “2 killings shatter relative calm between Israelis, Palestinians”. The content of that article provides an interesting case study into the way in which the international media attempts to create a moral equivalence between the death of a terrorist and the death of an innocent civilian.
The opening sentence to the article says it all: “Tensions rose Tuesday between Israelis and Palestinians after two separate killings – one by each side – shattered what had been a period of relative calm in recent months”.
I’m not sure if the firing of rockets from Gaza into civilian areas constitutes as relative calm, but I suppose we are still living by that old adage, “it all began when Israel fired back”. 
Meanwhile, the article reports that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is the military wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, took responsibility for the brutal murder in the West Bank, calling it a “gift” to Palestinian prisoners and promising more of the same in the future. 

The article then makes a somewhat interesting commentary on the number of Israeli deaths within the West Bank in recent history declaring “the killing was the first of its kind since September 2011. Last year was the first year in recent memory during an Israeli was not killed in the West Bank, a fact that was praised as a sign of progress by President Obama during his March visit to Israel and the West Bank”. 

In light of the earlier statement of Fatah declaring they will continue gifting Palestinian prisoners with these sorts of attacks, it is interesting that the journalist felt given nobody had actually been killed in the past year and a half, progress had been made. In fact, a similar stabbing took place at the same junction back in January on a 17-year-old boy, who sustained moderate wounds. Other attacks have taken place with no fatalities but the incident that stands out in my mind is the story of 3-year-old Avigail Biton, who was in the car with her mother and her sister back in March, when Palestinians began hurling rocks at cars travelling on Route 5. Avigail’s mother Adva swerved the car, as did a truck driver, which resulted in a collision between the two vehicles. Avigail suffered a serious head injury and remains in a very critical condition in hospital. 
Given that Avigail is still alive, albeit attached to a number of tubes in an Intensive Care Unit, she does not contribute to a statistic of deaths, and therefore keeps this idea of “progress” in tack.
As Avigail’s mother said in an open letter to Ha’aretz journalist Amira Hass, “has she [Avigail] had a chance to cause anyone harm in the three years she has been alive?” The answer, to any moral person, should be no, but in the media’s game of tit-for-tat, of a “cycle of violence”, stories such as Avigail’s and of Eviatar Borovsky are just another link in the chain. 

But at least the LA Times reported on both incidents from yesterday. Locally, our Fairfax publications published a story online entitled ‘Israel kills militant blamed for Eilat attack’, where not surprisingly the murder of Eviatar Borovsky did not even rate a mention. 

Boycott fiasco

From The Australian, 30 April 2013, by EAN HIGGINS:

A MUCH-anticipated student rally in support of the international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel ended up a damp squib today, with journalists, police and security guards nearly outnumbering protestors.
The University of NSW protest against a planned Max Brenner chocolate shop on campus had been expected to see displays of anti-Semitism, which Prime Minister Julia Gillard had denounced in advance.

Ms Gillard's intervention, reported in The Australian today, came after controversial posts appeared on the rally's Facebook page....
As it turned out, only about 30 protestors marched under the banner Students for Justice in Palestine at the Sydney campus, chanting "Max Brenner, come off it! There's blood in your hot chocolate!"
...speeches [were] delivered by speakers including SJP spokesman Damian Ridgwell, two Palestinian students, and the National Union of Students' national queer officer, Cat Rose.
...Max Brenner is a brand name of the Strauss Group, a large Israeli food and beverage company ... Max Brenner Australia said the sole shareholders of the franchise operation in this country "are a young Australian couple" who have no direct connection to the Strauss Group.
"Max Brenner Australia is not politically affiliated in any way and proudly employs over 1,100 Australian residents across 4 states," spokeswoman Kate Jones from Magnum PR said.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said of the protest:
"The paltry turn-out was an encouraging signal that students at UNSW don't respond to crude theatrics and blatant politicising of what is nothing more sinister than a chocolate shop."

Unis tolerating intolerance

From: The Australian, May 01, 2013:     
Universities Tolerating Intolerance

IT says a great deal about the illiberal tendencies of parts of our academic community that the anti-Israeli boycott, divestment and sanctions movement - which often borders on the anti-Semitic - finds support in the humanities faculties of some of our universities.

Given the right of people to go about their legal business, and shop where they please, it is questionable that the University of NSW should even tolerate protests against a chocolate shop being established on its site. But it is beyond question that it should take action against protesters using blatantly racist and anti-Semitic language as part of these protests. We expect that, quite rightly, there would be forceful action to stamp out any vilification of, say, Muslim or Asian students. Yet seemingly the targeting of Israeli-linked companies and Jewish people throws up a confected moral quandary.
The BDS movement wins support not just from jejune students eager for an anti-establishment cause but also from some academics, perhaps for the same reason. If it were not so tragic it would be a hilarious paradox that the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies backs BDS, including preventing academic exchanges. It is difficult to think of an act that is more close-minded or less conciliatory than banning an exchange of ideas between people in liberal democracies. Still, this is what passes muster in some parts of the academy these days.
The blatant dishonesty of this campaign should be identified and condemned. The legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people present a worthy cause, yet to couch their campaign in hateful language about "apartheid" and "war crimes" is demonstrably inaccurate and offensive. No objective view of history could fail to recognise Israel's offers to surrender territory to the Palestinians in return for peace. The landmark Oslo Accords cemented this reality but the olive branch has never been grasped, primarily because Hamas, like Yasser Arafat's PLO before it, simply will not recognise the right of Israel to exist. A peace based on two secure states can hardly be delivered without that fundamental acceptance. When Israel evacuated its citizens and withdrew from Gaza in 2005 it wasn't peace that ensued but bloody battles between Hamas and Fatah. Israel was rewarded with indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into its territory, targeting its civilians. Unless Palestinians accept responsibility for their actions, there can be no serious consideration of a peaceful resolution to their rightful claims for territory, statehood and the return of refugees.
As a pluralistic democracy that provides for the security and well-being of Palestinians, Israel is not remotely comparable to apartheid South Africa. For decades Arabs have had greater democratic and human rights in Israel than in any Arab country. They make up about a sixth of Israel's population and Palestinian Muslims hold seats in the Knesset on a platform of creating a viable Palestinian state. Israel is not perfect and the Palestinian issue must be resolved. But demonising Israel and Jews is not only wrong because it is racist, it is also an incorrect and deceptive interpretation of reality. Julia Gillard is right to condemn the BDS campaign, now so marginalised it has been disowned even by the Greens. We are entitled to expect our universities to take a stronger stand both against racism and in favour of facts.

Anti-Semitic views have no place in a civilised Australia

From: The Australian letters column, May 01, 2013:

ALL reasonable Australians should be offended by the vile anti-Semitic campaign at the University of NSW ("PM denounces activists as anti-Israel protest turns anti-Semitic", 30/4).
The campaign that started as a protest against opening a chocolate shop on campus because it might have some indirect link to Israel, has morphed into a campaign of hatred inconsistent with Australian values.
This is the campus which has as its Chancellor the architect of the federal government's education reforms, David Gonski. I have yet to hear him make a statement on this matter.
Where is the moral leadership at the University of NSW? We learn that some Jewish students now feel insecure. History teaches us that the sort of expressions used in hate campaigns can soon become physical actions. What action does the university propose to take to deal with this disgraceful problem?
David Adler, St Ives, NSW

FOR University of NSW Students for Justice in Palestine to complain that the charge of anti-Semitism on their Facebook page is an attempt to censor them is risible and an attempt to defend the indefensible. Those who care at all about racism and intolerance wish to stop such blatant anti-Semitic and racist slurs seeing the light of day.
I applaud those who have made the effort to oppose this dangerous slippery slope to possible violence.
George Foster, Abbotsford, NSW

SEX segregation at Melbourne University, Jew bashing and Holocaust denial at the University of NSW - it seems our centres of higher learning are becoming hotbeds of Islamism. What's next - uni courses in jihad? Geert Wilders did try to warn us.
Terry Coupland, Toowoomba, Qld

IT is shocking that some students are demanding a boycott of allegedly Israeli products in their university and that anti-Semitic rhetoric is raising its ugly head.
As an academic, I find the idea of students - and some academics - demanding a boycott of Israeli products in universities sickening. Are those calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel demanding similar bans against non-Jewish governments such as Iran, China, Burma, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe? If not, why not?
Bill Anderson, Surrey Hills, Vic