in service of the
common good
Israel’s goal: less defence, more domination
It was almost impossible to listen to Benjamin Netanyahu speak at the United Nations General Assembly without a feeling of despair and disgust. Israel’s ‘friends’, which include Australia, must change their rhetoric in defence of Israel when they say: “Israel has the right to defend itself”. No nation has the right to use this slogan to justify its actions if its very existence is hewn out of the wholesale displacement of those who should be its neighbours. A nation only has the right to defend itself, if in its very existence it wishes to live as neighbour with those who surround it. It is a contradiction in terms to seek to be a neighbour to those whom you have been responsible for their pain and anguish. Netanyahu almost certainly disparages anything Christian, but if he is in the slightest bit interested in what is meant by the term ‘neighbour’, he would do well to listen to the parable of the Good Samaritan and be reminded that in this emblematic parable it was a Samaritan, not a Jew who bound up the wounds of the Jew fallen amongst thieves. Thousands of Palestinians live in Lebanon. By no means all of them are 1948 Nakba refugees and their descendants, but many are. Those who are Palestinian Christian have been given the right to live and work in Lebanon, a right that does not, and should not, negate their fundamental right to return home to Palestine. Sunni Muslim refugees, however, have no rights in Lebanon. Most Palestinian Muslims are Sunni. These Sunni descendants of the 1948 Nakba have no right to work, no rights to social welfare, no rights to own property, no rights to education. They are considered by the Lebanese government to be temporary residents on their way back to their homes in Palestine. They are utterly dependent upon UNWRA for their survival. Netanyahu is committed to ensuing they never return home. That they are sympathetic to Hezbollah is hardly surprising. There can never be peace in this part of the world unless or until underlying grievances are addressed. Peace is not an absence of war. Peace emanates from justice. I do not support or condone activities of Hamas or Hezbollah which threaten the lives of Israeli citizens. However, the undeniable truth is that neither Hamas nor Hezbollah would exist if it were not for the fact that the people they represent, or who support them, have suffered intolerable injustice. Netanyahu does his best to demean the United Nations and its agencies, especially UNWRA. However, he needs to be reminded that his nation would not exist if it were not for a resolution of the United Nations in 1947 and its outcome in 1948. In this resolution of partition, it was intended the lands of Palestine be divided almost equally. As a result of the war that followed, causing mass scale destruction of Palestinian homes and communities, Israel has existed on 78% of the land leaving 22% as ‘Palestinian Territories’. In the Oslo accord of the 1990’s Yasser Arafat agreed to accept Palestinian statehood on the 22%. What has happened since has been the Zionist pogrom of gradual destruction and occupation of the 22%. How can any nation, given the original intention of the UN resolution, argue that Israel has the right to defend itself given this context? What Israel is doing cannot in good conscience be called ‘defending itself’. It is aggressively pursuing its agenda of occupation of ancient Palestine ‘from the River to the Sea’ to the exclusion of those who are not Jewish. In his UN speech Netanyahu said Israel would continue its assault in both Gaza and Lebanon until all its goals are met. What are its goals? Clearly the goal is not ‘defence’. The goal is the elimination of any resistance to its goal of complete control of all land from the river to the sea – preferably with no Palestinians. It must be said often and everywhere, this is not the agenda of thousands of Jewish people, both in Israel and in the diaspora, who utterly deplore these actions and most courageously stand with their Palestinian brothers and sisters. Netanyahu loves maps. But the maps he uses are his version of history, not history as it occurred. He loves to use a map which totally ignores the West Bank, in his mind it simply does not exist. Let me remind him of a few facts of history. Israel has never existed in its own right; it has always existed under the threat or with the help of a great power. Jews were slaves under the Egyptians. The State of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians, leaving the small State of Judah as a remnant. Jerusalem and its temple were sacked by the Babylonians. Ironically the power that allowed them some autonomy and return was the Persians – modern day Iran! The Greek, Antiochus Epiphanes erected his own image in the second temple. The Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the second temple. Over many centuries, various waves of Europeans sought control of Jerusalem and its surrounds (notably in the Crusades). In more recent times the whole of the Middle East was part of the Ottoman Empire. It is ironic, bizarre and morally wrong that from the late 19th century onwards, waves of Jewish emigrants first from Europe and Russia and more latterly from North America are considered to have automatic right of entry and possession, while those who can trace unbroken ancestry for multiple generations have none. It needs to be pointed out that the great power that now influences Israel’s future is the United States. Without that support, Israel would not have been able to pursue its pogroms and be saved from multiple resolutions of condemnation at the UN Security Council where the US holds the power of veto. Please Anthony Albanese, do not continue the empty argument that Israel has the right to defend itself. Argue that those who have always lived there, have the right to always live there.
9 Comments
James Tan
30/9/2024 08:53:05 pm
Mr Browning , you are entitled to your revisionist narrative of Israel, Middle East and the Arab Palestinian issues. Historical facts and the fine prints of the United Nations resolutions especially those following the 1948 and 1967 wars are unambiguous and specific about "occupied territories" to be settled through mutual agreements, which the Arabs (before Arafat's "Palestine and Palestinian" tales) had repeatedly rejected Israel's peace offerings except Jordan, Egypt and a few of the rest of the 22 Arab states who had made peace with Israel. For an Anglican clergyman, supposedly a man of God, to spew such unchristian lies and half-truths against Israel, the Beloved of God, is a slap across the Jewish Rabbi, who is Jesus Christ, whom you purportedly serve in the church. Which god or God do you serve? It is clear you heartily serve the god of this world, Satan himself who had "bruised the heel" of our Saviour, whom you now bruise and crucify again and again through your anti-Semitism and your hatred for the Jews, among whom your supposedly Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is one. But alas, you serve Satan not Jesus.
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George Browning
1/10/2024 10:20:14 pm
Dear James,
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Bruce Henzell
30/9/2024 09:08:37 pm
Excellent: clear and compelling for anyone who cares about justice. Too few leaders care for it enough to outweigh their self interest (=acceptability to a prejudiced public).
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James Tab
30/9/2024 09:30:10 pm
Please research and study for yourself. Instead of swallowing Brown's narrative hook, line and sinker, we owe it to ourselves to distinguish between historical facts and truths against propaganda and half-truths of Browning.
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George Browning
2/10/2024 04:03:37 pm
James,
James Tan
30/9/2024 09:48:53 pm
"Argue that those who have always lived there, have the right to always live there." I supposed Browning is referring also to the decimated 3% of the Australian aboriginal people who were brutally displaced by white colonialists British condemned prisoners among whose ancestors are those of Browning's. The difference between Israel and Australia is this - the white colonial prisoners had no ancient historical claim or even attachment to the great Australian land which the white men occupied but the Jews and Israeli had existed and lived in the land including "Palestine" since Abraham was called from the land of Ur. Now when is Browning going to condemn the Albanese government and shove all the white colonialists out of the "occupied" Australian land.?
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Lindsay
3/10/2024 12:36:40 am
Thank you George for addressing a number of very clear issues in your original post (and other corrective issues subsequently). I too am shocked by the unreserved statements about "Israel's right to defend itself" when clearly the Nationalistic Zionists continue to pursue a line of total destruction in the Palestinian Christian and Muslim communities of the Gaza Strip, along with those of the West Bank. Like you I abhore the atrocities that Hamas committed on the 7th of October 2023, on Israeli peoples, the "defensive" actions of the Netanyahu Government and Israel's Armed Forces have been pro-active aggression which are to be condoned. The escalation of the fighting to the North is awful, but the Israeli Leadership fails to heed the calls for a negotiated peace. Mind you some of the opposite sides don't seem to willing either. Surely it is the Netanyahu Government which has an obligation to it's own people, as well as the Palestinians to be a leader for peace and stability in the Region. I write this, not as an "anti-semite", but as fellow traveller who wants to reject historical injustice, and show compassion towards fellow citizens of all races and culture groups, who seek a better future for themselves and those who will carry the burdens in the coming years.
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Richard
3/10/2024 10:34:43 pm
Thank you George for your fact based and, as always, well reasoned piece. Thank you also for your factual and generous response to the harsh critique of your work and personhood by one of the respondents above.
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10/10/2024 04:42:10 pm
Dear Bishop George,
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