For all of his years in the NSW Parliament Bob Carr was my local member. I admired his work as NSW planning and environment minister and his political skills as premier. On Israel and Palestinian issues we part company (“Carr rejects anti-Semitism inside ALP”, 10/6).
The suggestion that anti-Semitism within the ALP, and especially its left faction, does not exist is ludicrous. One only has to read the wording of the party’s motion in Queensland to realise that its so-called criticism of Israel is little other than a cover.
No mention is made of Hamas, the rulers in Gaza, and its stated policy to exterminate all the Jews living in Israel. No mention is made of the more than 4000 rockets launched in this recent conflict indiscriminately from Gaza towards Israel’s cities and civilians.
As a gentile whose name is Gentile and having been born in an Arab country and taught Arabic by a gentle and kind mullah, I see clearly the anti-Semitism cover of the ALP left, disguised as opposition to “Israeli policies”.
Anthony J. Gentile, Maroubra, NSW
Vincent Zankin’s claim (Letters, 10/6) is questionable when he says it is an “inconvenient truth” that the Palestinian people believe that Israel is ethnically cleansing the Holy Land.
An undeniable inconvenient truth is that despite repeated offers by Israel since the Camp David conciliation attempt to give Palestinians a two-state solution it has been thrown back in Israel’s face
Another undeniable truth is that the Hamas terrorist organisation has been using civilian population centres as shields to stockpile and fire deadly weapons into Israeli civilian centres.
While Penny Wong has a Labor agenda, her support of a two-state solution and her call for both sides to step back from their polarised positions is a common sense call that is welcomed by the majority of the wider world community.
John Bell, Heidelberg Heights, Vic
Read the letters in The Australian.