<H2><b>COLIN RUBENSTEIN LIKES PORKIES</b></H2>

The Age newspaper published the news item on 4 February 2010, and it was followed by the letters underneath, one from David Langsam and one from Colin Rubenstein.

Rubenstein accuses Langsam of making false statements and then goes on to make one of his own, one of the most glaring, when he states "Similarly, AIJAC and the State Zionist Council have no formal links beyond both being organisations serving the Australian Jewish community."

Rubenstein believes there is such a body as the Australian Jewish Community which is served by AIJAC and the VZC.

In fact these two organisations are two self-serving bodies serving only the interests of the Israeli government and have no other purpose. When the "Australian Jewish Community" is clearly defined and demarcated, Rubenstein may be justified in his claim. Otherwise he is telling porkies for his own ends.



Welcome mat pulled from Israeli academic
JASON KOUTSOUKIS
February 4, 2010


A MELBOURNE Jewish group has cancelled an invitation to an Israeli academic to speak in Melbourne because she heads an organisation that aided a United Nations report critical of the country's conduct during last year's war in Gaza.

Professor Naomi Chazan, who was a member of the Israeli parliament from 1992 to 2003, was to address a fund-raiser at the Beth Weizmann Community Centre next weekend.

But her invitation by the Union of Progressive Judaism was withdrawn after it emerged that the New Israel Fund, of which she is president, had given millions of dollars in grants to Israeli non-government organisations that had spoken to a UN investigation team, led by Justice Richard Goldstone. The Goldstone report said there was strong evidence that Israel had committed war crimes.

The President of the Zionist Council of Victoria, Dr Danny Lamm, told The Age that the invitation to Professor Chazan had been extended by an affiliate member of his organisation.

But he said her association with the New Israel Fund was "intolerable".

"When I became aware of the New Israel Fund's activities with regard to the Goldstone report, I withdrew our participation," he said.

"Organisations that they have funded have done damage to Israel and as a consequence we don't want to have anything to with the New Israel Fund."



Shooting messenger
IT IS ironic that Victoria's State Zionist Council has achieved that which the Australian Friends of Palestine could not (''Welcome mat pulled from Israeli academic'', The Age, 4/2).

The AFP failed to win support for its proposed boycott of Israeli academics, artists and a female tennis player, but a few inflammatory remarks from the State Zionist Council has forced the cancellation of a visit by Israeli academic and former Knesset member, Naomi Chazan, hosted by the Union for Progressive Judaism.

This "victory" of being the first organisation to successfully impose a boycott of an Israeli academic - coming here to raise funds for Israel - ranks on par with its sister-organisation the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council's May 2009 victory in preventing Jewish actor Miriam Margolyes providing free entertainment for elderly Jewish citizens because she had also performed in the critical play Seven Jewish Children.

The council says the reason for undermining Chazan's visit is that her New Israel Fund funded bodies that spoke to the UN's judge Richard Goldstone and his staff for its report on Israel. They clearly don't understand the dictum of not shooting the messenger.

David Langsam, Flemington



Set record straight
DAVID Langsam's claim (Letters, 5/2) that the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council ''prevent[ed] Jewish actor Miriam Margolyes providing free entertainment for elderly Jewish citizens because she had also performed in the critical play Seven Jewish Children'' is false.

The fact that Margolyes had an appearance cancelled at an aged care facility was the responsibility of the organisers of the event. AIJAC had no role in, or influence on, their decision-making.

Similarly, AIJAC and the State Zionist Council have no formal links beyond both being organisations serving the Australian Jewish community.

Colin Rubenstein, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, South Melbourne