BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS
MELBOURNE — Two hundred people attended a September 18 public forum entitled "Who's to blame: Middle Eastern people or US foreign policy?". The forum was initiated by the Socialist Alliance.
"Being victims of Israel's terror and war for the last 54 years, we cannot but side with the victims of the terrorist attack", said Ali Kazak, the representative of the Palestinian Authority in Australia.
"Who is to blame? If we are to blame anyone, we must blame the root cause of this hateful act", he said, pointing the finger squarely at US intervention in the region, in particular its long backing of Israel's suppression of his own people.
"Terrorism has no nationality and no religion", Kazak concluded. "Frustration has no nationality and no religion."
The Socialist Alliance's representative on the platform was Alison Thorne, the lead candidate on the alliance's ticket for the Senate in Victoria.
"My brain went immediately into overdrive", Thorne said, describing her reaction to the news of the terrorist attacks, "first [into] distress at what was actually happening to ordinary working people, then to anger — to not to allow the US to kill even more innocent people."
The Socialist Alliance condemns terrorism, she said, including the state terrorism used by Western governments. "Is it any wonder that the US war machine is so widely hated?", she asked.
A strong sentiment of unity in the face of a possible war emerged during the discussion, with various speakers, including a member of the anarchist-influenced Autonomous Web of Liberation (AWOL), pledging to work in unity with Socialist Alliance against the impending threat of a US-led war in the Middle East.