Political, not 'Jewish'

Political, not 'Jewish'

In the article "Australian Jews and the Middle East: The Suppressed Debate" (September 4) I am alleged to have described a political viewpoint as "un-Jewish". This is not an opinion I hold and at no time did I make such a statement. I did outline the majority opinion of the Australian Jewish community and explain the logic of this position, and although the writer of the article asked me a number of times about the inherent "Jewishness" of ideas, I rejected this conceptual framework for what is essentially a political argument.

I at no time compared the views of two University of New South Wales academics to "any Kurd who supported Saddam Hussein's use of mustard gas" in the Australian Jewish Times. In the article cited I accused the Australian Financial Review of cynicism in committing the dishonourable practice of publishing an article purely because of the ethnicity/religious identification of the writers, rather than for its argumentation or newsworthiness.

Readers of Green Left should also know that the writer's definition of "a right-wing Israeli line" encompasses the Israeli coalition government, the opposition Labor Party and all but a small minority of Israelis.
Jeremy Jones
Darlinghurst NSW

From GLW issue 28