Gerard Henderson Spins Prisoner X

Legendary Sydney Morning Herald columnist Gerard Henderson sets out to rebut international law professor Ben Saul's thesis that, re the Prisoner X case, "[t]here comes a point where a Jewish person cannot faithfully be both Australian and Israeli. One has to choose." (Zygier spy case gets ever curiouser, Sydney Morning Herald, 20/2/13)

Now of course, Gerard being Gerard, MERC has no choice but to agree:

"The concept of dual loyalties in Australia has an unpleasant connotation since it invariably implies disloyalty. A century ago, some sectarians labelled Catholics as possessing a dual loyalty. This was cover for an imputation that their real loyalty was to the Pope or to the Irish nation, usually both. Today, the allegation tends to be made against Jewish Australians, whether or not they hold both Australian and Israeli nationalities. The imputation is some Australian Jews put their loyalty to Israel before that to Australia."

Spot on, Gerard! I mean, just because an Australian Jew is indoctrinated in a 'Jewish' school into believing that Palestine/Israel is his birthright and that he can only really feel 'Jewish' if he migrates there, and just because he (or so the scenario runs) is recruited by its intelligence service and returns to Australia to pick up new Australian passports under new names which he then uses to travel to countries periodically reduced to rubble by Israel and gets up to God-knows-what while there, doesn't mean that his primary loyalty to is Israel, right?

Gerard is correct: the "tragic death in custody" of Ben Zygier all boils down to a matter of "available evidence," and "[t]he available evidence suggests that Zygier was a troubled young man who committed suicide following his arrest by Israeli authorities on security-related charges."

So what's all this about a Mossad connection? Where's the "available evidence" for that?

"[T]he [visiting Israeli] journalist Alon Ben-David is reported in The Australian Jewish News as saying Zygier was a young man in distress who revealed state secrets to a foreign element," but hey, is there anything in what Ben-David says to suggest he worked for Mossad? I mean, I've read that sentence a dozen times and haven't come up with a single thing!

Maybe Zygier just found the aforementioned "state secrets" by the side of the road, and thinking they must've accidentally fallen out of the pocket of a passing "foreign element," polite and all as he was, set about returning them to their owner. To put it another way, just because he walked like a duck and quacked like a duck, doesn't mean he was one, right?

"Australia is a remarkably tolerant and accepting society."

Absolutely! I mean, what other country would provide refugees with free accommodation on a tropical island?

"Yet there has always been a degree of anti-Semitism within it. An accusation of dual loyalties against Jewish Australians from an anti-Semite is regrettable but not unexpected. When such claims are made by those who should know better, it is a matter for genuine concern."

Now I'm so glad Gerard mentioned that. After all, anti-Semitism is the only form of racism that really matters, right? And yes, Ben Saul, he's talking about you!

As Gerard correctly concludes:

"The Jewish community spends considerable funds guarding its synagogues and schools from attack... In such an environment, it is irresponsible in the extreme for prominent Australians to imply some of their fellow citizens are disloyal."

How true! Since synagogues and Jewish schools are about as secure as the Alamo was with Santa Anna's forces scaling its walls, it's perfectly understandable that some Australian Jews should feel the need to become Israeli agents or soldiers and off a few Palestinians. Perfectly understandable.

Now no one, of course, would suggest - least of all me - that that might have something to do with Zionism's insistence that there's absolutely no daylight between Judaism and itself, or that Israel promotes itself as a Jewish state belonging to all Jews everywhere, including those down under. I mean, where's the "available evidence" for that?