Demystifying Jewish support for Israel

First, the official leadership of Australian Jewry has long held to a policy of supporting the elected Israeli government whatever its political colour. This policy has some obvious limitations given that many Israeli actions are hotly debated within Israel itself - for example the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, or the responses to the two Palestinian intifadas. Nevertheless, this is felt to be the consensus position.

Second, it is argued pragmatically that a united position is necessary to effectively lobby governments and other influential groups in a pro-Israel direction.

Third, many Jews (even when they do not approve of particular Israeli actions towards the Palestinians) are reluctant to wash “their dirty linen” in public for fear that their criticisms of Israeli policies will be unfairly exploited by anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish groups.

It appears that many outside the Jewish community and even some within would like to see a more robust Jewish debate about Israel and the moral and political legitimacy of some of its actions. But this is unlikely to happen given the intense emotional attachment that most Australian Jews feel towards Israel, and the perceived continuing threat to Israel’s existence.

To use an obvious analogy we are no more likely to see a representative group of Jews protesting against Israeli settlements or other actions in the Palestinian Territories than we are to see a representative group of Australian Palestinians condemning Hamas and suicide bombings.