There has been a big kerfuffle in Margot Kingston's Web Diary because, following the UN Vote on Israel's illegal barrier which Australia bizzarely supports, Margot dared to write:
"The fundamentalist Zionist lobby controls politics and the media in the US and Australia."
The SMH editor was swamped with letters calling for Margot's resignation. Margot replied, somewhat tongue in cheek:
"I thought it was well known that in the US no politician wanting re-election would speak out about the excesses of current Israeli policy. I thought the relentless intimidation of the media by Australia's AIJAC was commonly accepted. Clearly neither of these suppositions were true. My apologies. "
A Jewish Australian friend tried to explain the backlash to Margo:
"Not all Jews are Zionists. Not all Jews are rich. Not all Jews have political clout. If fact, most do not. And the interests of all Jews are not covered by the activities of those Jews who DO have money and political power. So when my cousin gets killed in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv and I demand some action to prevent this happening, and Ariel Sharon decides that that action will take the form of a wall (which I personally think is discraceful), I get really angry when 'you' tell me that instead of taking action to stop my other loved ones being killed, I have to right to self defence because I have the money and standing to get whet I want anyway."
Margot has a long discussion/exploration of the whole debate here.
Personally I am still confused. Maybe she should have said "exerts an extraordinarily huge amount of influence over" rather than "controls" politics and media, which implies total control? But people must be able to debate such issues rationally without being accused of anti-Semitism at every step.
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