“Australia supported a resolution calling on Israel to stop establishing settlements in the Palestinian territories and a resolution calling for the Geneva Conventions to apply in the Palestinian territories.” http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rudd-breaks-with-howard-on-israel/2008/11/09/1226165386581.html

After a flurry of lobbying from the usual quarters, Australia has kowtowed and followed the morally bankrupt current US line in the UN since to the letter. Obama’s Palestinian ‘friend’ Khalidi said recently:

“This situation is linked to the problematic notion that it is acceptable to create a U.S. Middle East policy which caters to Israel – and specifically to the Israeli right – and to the concerns of powerful forces like the Israel lobby that are allied to the Israeli right, but hardly at all to Arab- and Muslim-Americans. Such a policy is based on the opinions, ‘expertise’ and allegiances of Washington insiders who are not knowledgeable about all the complex realities of the region, and are mainly sensitive to Israeli concerns. Just as an Obama administration aspires to reflect the entire country in all its diversity, so should its Middle East policy-making reflect a comprehensive set of interests and concerns, and not just one narrow range of them.”

He points to part of the solution – activism by Jewish groups against the occupation and destructive right wing Israeli policies:

“They appear to have begun to make some headway. They need to convince American politicians, Democrats in particular, that where Israel and Palestine are concerned, leaders of the main institutions of the American Jewish establishment, notably AIPAC, do not represent the views of the majority of the American Jewish community. In fact, the hawkish views of most of these leaders are far closer to those of the 24 percent of that community who voted for McCain than they are to the 76 percent who voted for Obama.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043689.html

Americans and Australians might consider that a continuation of the 60 year occupation, war crimes and alienation of rights perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people does NOT serve their political interests. The major beneficiaries of current policy are a very well-organised, extreme, self-interested Zionist minority, and opportunistic terrorists beyond the occupied territories, whose raison d’etre is amplified by blatant, hideous injustice.

Unlike other humanitarian disasters around the globe like Zimbabwe, this pathetic situation has been going far longer than any other unresolved humanitarian issue. So much for Australia claiming to be the country of a fair go, or having Christian morals or ethics.

To our politicians, except for rare examples like Tim Fischer and Julia Irwin, I say for shame. To Christians for shame as well.