Alex Bainbridge, Sydney
"We are not facing an enemy to the Muslim people, nor an enemy to the Middle East ... It's an enemy to humanity in general", Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad told a July 26 public forum on Israel's wars on Lebanon and Palestine. Sixty people attended the forum, organised by Green Left Weekly and sponsored by the Socialist Alliance.
Trad said that Israel was using "a whole army" against people who do not have the means to properly defend themselves, and that it was a matter of basic justice and defending "human dignity" to oppose Israel's attacks. He added that Israel will not be able to break the will of the Palestinian and Lebanese people to resist occupation.
Fadi Rahman, director of the Independent Centre for Research's Libcombe Youth Centre, rejected the notion that the current conflict began with the capture of two Israeli soldiers, pointing out that Israel has a long history of aggression against Lebanon. He called on everyone to maintain the solidarity campaign that began with the 20,000-strong rally in Sydney on July 22. "We want to see justice and what is going on now is injustice", he said.
Green Left Weekly writer Michael Karadjis unpacked the gross hypocrisy of the Western media and spoke about the US rulers' interests and involvement in the Middle East conflict. Karadjis supported the formation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as a transitional step. He argued that the only long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a democratic, secular state encompassing the whole area of historic Palestine.