Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Green Light/Red Light

Question: When is it OK for an Australian citizen to enlist in a foreign army?
Answer: Silly question. When they join the Israeli army, of course...

A rare ms media news item on young Australian Zionists who are doing just that - Young Australians risking all to support Israel - appeared on ABC television's 7.30 on November 28. Here's part:

Leigh Sales: The Middle East ceasefire is a week old, but young Jewish Australians are preparing to go and join the Israeli Defence Force... Ben Milston wants to be a combat soldier in the Israeli Army...

Tom Tilley, Reporter: It's ambition that'll put him on the frontline of an ongoing and bitter conflict. He says it's his way of supporting Israel... Ben works in a Jewish cafe in Bondi and lives a comfortable life, so leaving friends and family to take up arms for the Jewish state wasn't a part of his life plan. But a gap year in Israel changed that.

Ben Milston: I guess I realised how comfortable I am being with other Jewish people, other people that might have, you know, the same emotions or experiences that it's just I guess a really nice connection to be with your own people...

TT: Ben's at the weekly leaders' meeting of his Zionist youth movement... These young Zionists believe the state of Israel is central to Jewish life.

BM: Are you Jewish first? Are you Australian first?... I guess for me I'm Jewish first.

Question: What about an Arab army?
Answer: Don't be ridiculous...

Here's part of the discussion on the struggle in Syria which appeared on SBS television's Insight program on October 30:

Jenny Brockie: Zaky, you've just been to Syria and you've made contact with the Free Syrian Army... Were you fighting with them?

Zaky Mallah: [T]he FSA armed me with that [AK] and I told them that it is against Australian law that if I was to take up arms and engage in combat, I will be charged when I go back home, so they took that off.

JB: If it had been legal to fight, would you have fought?

ZM: If the Australian government today gives me the green light to go to the front line tomorrow, to Aleppo, I'll be out of here within 24 hours.

I wouldn't even bother asking about Australians joining the Palestinian or Lebanese resistance.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Crimes [Foreign Incursions and Recruitment] Act does not apply to the many young Australian Zionists who flock to join the "Gadna" for military training and further indoctrination.

Why?