Malcolm Fraser, in The Age, attacks the Israeli state for increased bigotry when it tries to end Hamas attacks
THE death toll (in Gaza) is estimated at more than 1000, a significant proportion of them children. This military action by Israel would have been condemned worldwide if it had been undertaken by any other country. The approach is a totally disproportionate response to Hamas missiles. They too need to be condemned, but they are for a large part ineffective and inaccurate, and have done comparatively little damage. Their impact is more psychological than real. It is the kind of weapon used by those who have been pushed too far and basically have no resources. Far from destroying Hamas, Israel may well find that its actions strengthen resistance and earn it increased hatred and an increase in anti-Semitic activities around the world. There are few political leaders in the West prepared to speak against Israel or to criticise Israeli policies. While debate often rages in Israel itself, criticism of Israel from other countries or by non-Jews is often condemned as anti-Semitic, a title nobody wants to wear.
Mark Leibler in yesterday's The Age:
MALCOLM Fraser should know that anti-Semites cause anti-Semitism. If one disagrees with something, an action, by either Jews or Israel, fine, criticise them but to say that Israeli actions "cause" anti-Semitism is to place the onus for preventing anti-Semitism on Jews themselves. Terrorists cause terrorism, not policies that terrorists dislike.
Fraser seems to mistakenly think that the concept of proportionality in warfare has something to do with how many die on each side. In fact, it's about whether an attack is proportionate to its military objective.
Israel's military objective in Gaza is the valid one of stopping Hamas launching rockets on Israel's towns now and in the future. Hamas does all it can to bring about the death of Palestinian and Israeli innocents, by using Palestinian civilians as shields and deliberately targeting Israeli civilians.
Fraser seemingly is arguing that Israel must wait for Hamas' thousands of rockets to flatten a kindergarten or hospital before it is entitled to respond. Fraser bizarrely dismisses the Hamas attacks as "more psychological than real". He should recognise how intolerable are eight years of trauma and economic paralysis in southern Israel now extending to a million Israelis.
Fraser claims these attacks are simply those "used by those who have been pushed too far and basically have no resources". Yet when Israel left every inch of Gaza to its own devices in August 2005, the rockets increased dramatically.
Since Hamas' inception in 1987, its leaders have said, without wavering, that they want to destroy Israel and that they are not interested in peace.
Anti-globalisation guru, Naomi Klein, on her website put forward another helpful suggestion - an Israeli boycott:
It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa. In July 2005 the campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - BDS for short - was born. Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the BDS cause, and talk of ceasefires is doing little to slow the momentum.
Barry Shaw, in December 2006, suggested a few things boycotters might give up:
An Israeli company has developed a simple blood test that distinguishes between mild and more severe cases of multiple sclerosis. So, if you know anyone suffering from MS, tell them to ignore the Israeli patent that may, more accurately, diagnose their symptoms. An Israeli-made device helps restore the use of paralysed hands. This device electrically stimulates the hand muscles, providing hope to millions of stroke sufferers and victims of spinal injuries.
Throw away your computer! Most of Windows operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel. The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed at Intel in Israel. Both the Pentium 4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel. Voicemail technology was developed in Israel. The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 in Israel by four young Israeli whiz kids. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel. So, due to your complete boycott of anything Israeli, you now have poorer health and no computer. But your bad news does not end there.
Above all, one of the most imminent beneficiaries of Israel's progressive society isthe Palestinians who live close by and receive top-flight medical and social services from Israel.
