Anzac Day Special: The Diggers Who Died for Israel

Rhapsody: Linking Culture between Israel & Australia is a little magazine which comes as an insert every two months in The Australian Jewish News. The following item appears in the latest (April-June) issue of Rhapsody:-

"The Park of the Australian Soldier, to be dedicated in Israel on 28 April by Richard Pratt* and a host of Israeli and Australian dignitaries, will commemorate the charge of the 4th Bridgade, Australian Mounted Division, against the Turkish positions at Beersheba (now Be'er Sheva) on 31 October 1917. The park is being constructed by the Pratt Foundation and its dedication is being co-ordinated on the Foundation's behalf by the Australian Government. The Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, will lead the Australian delegation. It is the first time Australia's Head of State will visit Israel whilst still in office. The area will feature a landscaped recreation park with an innovative playground catering for the needs of children with disabilities and a sculpture** by the Australian Peter Corlett, commemorating the Australian Light Horse."

[*Pratt (Order of Australia), you may remember, is Australia's cardboard king and chief of Visy Industries. He was convicted last year of price-fixing and fined $36 million dollars.][**"Corlett's bronze statue of a mounted light-horseman hurdling sandbags will feature a Magen David (star of David) in its design." (Be'er Sheva park, statue, to honour ANZAC charge, The Australian Jewish News, 25/5/07)]

In the previous issue of Rhapsody, editor Dan Goldberg expounded on the true significance of the above: "The ties that bind Jerusalem and Canberra were further cemented with the commemoration last November of the 90th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Horse Brigade, when brave Aussie Diggers trounced the Turks at Be'er Sheva, paving the way for the capture of Jerusalem...And it is in Be'er Sheva that Richard Pratt is ploughing funds to build the Park of the Australian Soldier - a permanent memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state."

Yes, that's what it says: "... the Park of the Australian Soldier - a permanent memorial to those who died in battle for the Jewish state."

Now we know that Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, just before last year's federal election, declared that "his support for Israel was 'in my DNA'," but none of us, I'll wager, had any idea that Australia's genetically-determined support for Israel extended to the rewriting of history such that Australian troops, who thought they were fighting and dying for King and Country, were actually fighting and dying for a state that still had 31 years to go before it came into being!