Soft On Israel

"...Ms Gillard has rejected claims that she is soft on Israel. Former ambassador to Israel Ross Burns made the accusation in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Fairfax press reported. Ms Gillard's partner Tim Mathieson works for prominent pro-Israel lobbyist Albert Dadon's real estate company Ubertas Group. 'I've seen that letter to the newspapers, that's not right', Ms Gillard said today. 'I've made up my own views about Israel and made them known publicly well before there was any suggestion that my partner would work in a property group associated with Mr Dadon'." (Gillard won't play religion card, ABC News, 29/6/10)

So what exactly are La Guillotine's views on Israel and how were they arrived at?

"We want what the Israeli people want - peace between Israel, Palestine and their neighbours. A peace based on: The signing of peace treaties, just as Egypt and Jordan have; The renunciation of terrorism; The end of nuclear proliferation; and recognition of the legitimacy of the State of Israel and its right to exist in safe and secure borders." (Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard addresses the JNF gala dinner, Melbourne, 4/6/08)

Sounds pretty soft on Israel to me. Let's take a closer look:

A peace treaty with the Palestinians?

But Israel doesn't want peace: "We don't want peace. It's as simple as that. It's good for us to wallow in the current situation. There are no terrorist attacks so there are no Arabs. Life is a bowl of cherries, so why change? Society is comatose. It doesn't object and doesn't even ask, led like a flock of sheep, not asking why we need a freeze if at the same time more and more of its funds will be allocated to the settlements in huge quantities. They don't ask why it's okay for the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba and not for Kiryat Shmona. They don't care at all what is happening in their backyard and don't wonder why the whole world disapproves of us. They just want to enjoy life, and who cares about two states or the end of the occupation." (Netanyahu should admit Israel doesn't want peace, Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 13/12/09)

And anyway, peace doesn't pay: "Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace would involve serious damage to national interests. The security industry is an important export branch - weapons, ammunition and refinements that are tested daily in Gaza and the West Bank... Maintaining the occupation and a state of non-peace employs hundreds of thousands of Israelis... A peace agreement would require equal distribution of water resources throughout the country (from the river to the sea) between Jews and Palestinians... As the past 30 years have shown, settlements flourish as the welfare state contracts. They offer ordinary people what their salaries would not allow them in sovereign Israel, within the borders of June 4, 1967: cheap land, large homes, subsidies, wide-open spaces, a superior road network and quality education... " (Israel knows that peace doesn't pay, Amira Hass, Haaretz, 11/5/09)

The renunciation of terrorism?

She means armed Palestinian resistance to occupation of course, not to the terrorist Israeli occupation itself.

The end of nuclear proliferation?

There's only one country in the Middle East with nukes. I think it's called Israel.

Recognition of the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its right to exist in safe and secure borders?

She means its right to exist on as much Palestinian land as it can snaffle up while the so-called peace process rolls on and on and on and... Its right to exist as a state for Australian Jews and American Jews and Canadian Jews and British Jews and... but not for the stateless Palestinians driven out in 1948 and 1967.

And not a word about Palestinian rights or 6 decades of Palestinian dispossession, occupation and statelessness.

Yes, La Guillotine's definitely soft on Israel.

Now where did she get her ideas about Israel from?

I mean "for someone who's regarded as having such a fierce intellect, her library hardly sounds like a heady trip through academia. Gillard laughs and turns her nose up at the suggestion of her bookshelves sighing with Marxist dialectic or political biographies. It's 'airport trash', page-turners and once a year the latest book from an Icelandic murder-mystery writer (Arnaldur Indridason) - a tip from frontbench colleague Laurie Ferguson." (Spotlight on the redhead, Mike Bruce, The Courier-Mail, 15/12/06)

Could they have come from her "brave friends Albert and Debbie Dadon" (JNF address) whose Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE) sponsored her first trip to Israel in 2005?

Evidently.