Assault on Australian Jewry

Habeus corpus is a fundamental human right. However, the public discourse also seems to be about issues of collective Jewish loyalty and citizenship which is racial stereotyping and also contravenes human rights. You can't have it both ways.

Suggest you start reading the mainstream English Australian press, mate, especially Fairfax - numerous articles on this topic and mostly hinting at age-old racial stereotyping and questions of dual loyalty.

The 'choseness' of the Jews in the Bible does not imply any kind of aristocracy or superiority of Jews. According to the Bible, Jews are the Chosen People because they were chosen to make the idea of one God known to the world. Jews do not believe that being a member of the Chosen People gives them any special talents or makes them better than anyone else. On the topic of chosenness, the Book of Amos even goes so far as to say: "You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth. That is why I call you to account for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2). In this way Jews are called to be a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6) by doing good in the world through gemilut hasidim (acts of loving kindness) and tikkun olam (repairing the world). So the 'choseness' actually implies responsibility, not superiority. Many States including Australia have national groups who share a love for another state without living in them or even ever stepping on the soil of those lands. So you have second and even third generation Italians living in australia who proudly state that they are Italian Australians or Greek Australians etc. Jews have always had a special bond to Jerusalem and Israel and are one of the oldest nations. So there is nothing wrong with Jews living outside Israel having love for an area which is the wellspring of their national identity and still loving the state they live in.

I can not answer why so many Jews are so viscerally supportive of Israel, I can only tell you this one Jew, me, is. In my lifetime, my grandfather, a Hungarian Jew with roots going back hundreds of years in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was herded into a railroad and shipped to a labor camp where most of his friends were worked to death. Let me repeat, after being a contributing member, a full citizen, going back hundreds of years, a true Hungarian....suddenly by virtue of how he prayed to God, suddenly a non person. And no matter where you live, the only thing a Jew can know for certain is that no matter how unpleasantly Israel may conduct themselves, they will never put my grandfather in a railroad car and gas the rest of his family. So, excuse us if we love the country we live in, but keep a special little special spot for a country where we will always be safe.

but I do not feel it gives me the right to oppress another people and steal its land : this is not bad conduct it amounts to war crimes, a slight difference. I do not know if Imy family was "chosen" but I know it was not very useful.

Jews do not ignore the Armenian Genocide, the Turks are ignoring the Armenian genocide. They say it never happened. Sound familiar?

I'm sorry, Jenny - tragically, history supports Gabe's view with which I agree entirely. After reading yet another one of Tony Walkers insulting and biased articles in the AFR today, I suspect we may be witnessing the beginning of the Dreyfuss Affair part 2.Your dismissive attitude is crap (sic).