Letter from the Editor: Amidst Gaza horror, don't confuse opposing Israeli actions with antisemitism

Absolutely agree – anti semitism has been weaponised against those protesting the loss of all lives. We are all human irrespective of our religion.

“Let nobody imagine that Donald Trump gives two damns about either issue beyond the votes he can harvest.”

You do realise his daughter is Jewish right? Typical ignorant garbage from people who don’t know the first thing about the man. Gotta get in those anti-conservative and anti-Trump comments though right?

“There was anger on all sides – from pro-Israeli groups who levelled accusations of antisemitism and from pro-Palestinian activists who defended their right to suggest withdrawing economic support for Israeli businesses.”

Their rights to protest do not include targeting a minority based on their religion/nationality or vandalising their businesses because of it. I fail to see how this would not be considered a hate crime based on the legislation. Imagine if they did this targeting the owners because they were gay or trans or whatever other favoured “victim” group of the left, would you still be writing pieces that were so tolerant of their opinions?

Ms Jacobs is trying to tread a fine line, referring to the long history of reprehensible racist actions against the Jews, while garnering sympathy for the radical Islamists. A primary reason for the creation of the State of Israel was as a result of the horrendous treatment of the Jews before and during WWII and to reinstate their homeland after many European nations expelled them during and after the holocaust. It was the Nazi’s program of genocide that led to Hitler and the predecessors of Hamas and Hezbollah, joining forces. Including Grand Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini, whose call to “kill the jews wherever you find them,” resonated with the Nazis. Today’s media’s support for these neo-Nazis, including their refusal to lay the blame for the high rate of civilian deaths on Hamas, who deliberately use their own citizens as human shields, is astounding.

When you add to this the treatment of women (and non-heterosexuals, for that matter) in Iran, Hamas’ major backer, and a number of other Islamic States, the horrendous rape, mutilation and murder of women and girls by Hamas on 7 Oct, the murder of non-heterosexuals by the Gazan Government, the ongoing holding of hostages by Hamas and the fact that this war could come to an end if Hamas released all hostages and laid down their weapons, it beggars belief that our left wing media focuses on Israel’s actions while not calling Hamas to account or making any demands of that organisation to stop the slaughter and end the war.

I don’t think modern Israel is based on a religion, more a common heritage. Hamas has a constitution which stipulates death to all jews, that is their crèed. Hamas is therefore fundamentally built on hatred of Jews – it is basically evil.

Israel’s disproportionate and ongoing response is the greatest terrorist recruitment tool there is. What do they think the surviving kids of these Gazan families are going to do? Israel may even eradicate Hamas but there’ll just be another Terrorist group rise up based on the current slaughter. We’re always being told how professional and effective the Israeli intelligence services including Mossad are, so why couldn’t they have infiltrated Hamas and assassinated or captured their leaders then tried and punished them? Then again they had no idea that the 7th October raids were going to happen so maybe they aren’t up to it. interesting to note that the post-WW2 Jewish refugees were offered the Ord River/Kimberleys in WA but the WA people at the time put a stop to it. Good move.

One again, Ms Jacobs has this wrong. Most western nations are based on Judea-Christian principles and, like Israel, have, until recently at least, had a high percentage of their populations who identify as Christians. Like Israel these nations are secular, rather than theocracies like the Islamic states. Also like Israel, these western nations have representatives from various religious backgrounds sitting within their Parliaments. Another flaw in her argument is that she, like many other mainstream journalists, seems to accept as fact the numbers being provided by Hamas, without any validation or verification.

While civilian deaths are inevitable in any conflict, efforts must be taken to limit these. The problem in this case is that the terrorists who govern the Gaza Strip are using their own citizens as human shields in an effort prevent Israel from responding to their atrocities and to gain International condemnation of Israel. Ms Jacobs must realise that it is Hamas who should be blamed for the high number of civilian deaths, that it is Hamas that continues to fire missiles at Israel and it is Hamas who continues to hold Israeli women and children hostage. By granting these terrorists the same status as Israel, she is, indeed practicing anti-semitism. I can think of no other reason why she would otherwise support Hamas.

One side believes they are entitled to the land because God gave it to them & the other side believes they are involved in a holy war.

Good luck sorting things out when religious nut jobs are involved.

“More civilians have been killed at a higher rate in this war than any other action since World War II”. Really, where did you hear this fake news? What about the Chinese Civil War, Partition of India, Korean War, Nigerian Civil War, Bangladesh Liberation War, Rwandan Civil War, 1991 Iraqi Uprisings, etc.

I’m not confused; opposing Israeli actions is antisemitism, and bolstering an argument by quoting casualty numbers supplied by a terrorist organisation to engender public sympathy is beneath contempt.

Well said Genevieve. Israel has the right to defend itself against attack and the actions of Hamas on Oct 7 were unacceptable and disgusting (I hope everyone involved in planning and carrying out those atrocities are hunted down and face repercussions). BUT Israel does not have the right to commit war crimes under the farce of self-defence. It is not anti-Semitic to question the avoidable deaths of children or the collective punishment of innocents who did not participate in the Oct 7, or any other, attack on Israel.