(Sydney Morning Herald-Australia) Paul Rubenstein - "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." So goes the chant by anti-Israel demonstrators over the past 10 days. Let there be no doubt about what these words mean. They do not represent an appeal for a Palestinian homeland to be established as part of a two-state settlement. The slogan is an aspirational bid for Israel, which lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, to be wiped off the map of the world. Only this week, Hamas deputy political chief Mousa Abu Marzouk said his group's war against Israel would end with "their [the Jews] leaving Palestine." How has it come to be that supporting the destruction of Israel and the creation of a Jew-free zone within its current borders has become something acceptable to express in public? Unfortunately, for many critics of Israel, their rhetoric around the nation state is interchangeable with their attitude towards Jewish people in general. The writer is NSW chairman of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council.
2021-05-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive