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Downer on Israel

Jmedia Manager
Letters
418

Downer’s errors of omission

Alexander Downer is wrong to blame the Palestinians for not having detailed peace plan (“Feckless West can’t keep falling for Hamas propaganda”, May 28). 

In 2002 Yasser Arafat joined the rest of the Arab League in endorsing the Arab Peace Initiative, which proposed the full normalisation of relations between all the Arab states and Israel in return for the latter’s withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and a mutually agreed solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. The initiative was rejected by the Sharon government.

In 2014 Mahmoud Abbas adopted the Arab Peace Initiative as the basis of his own plan calling for a peace agreement to be negotiated over three years. When the proposal was presented to the UN Security Council, the US and Australia rejected it.

The foregoing are only two of many peace initiatives advanced by the Palestinians since 1988. Is Mr Downer ignorant of these proposals or wilfully misrepresenting the Palestinian position?

Michael Shaik, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Melbourne, Vic

International humanitarian law violated

Alexander Downer fails to mention that Israel’s actions are in direct violation of international humanitarian law according to internationally known organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN Human Rights Council.

Israel was never interested in peace. It is well-documented fact that since the Camp David summit (2000), there have been more illegal Israeli settlements, and increasing restrictions of movement imposed on Palestinians. The struggle for Palestinian rights has always been about justice and equality, and Alexander Downer, like many other politicians in the West, fails to see that.

Shadi Saade, ​Heidelberg Heights, Vic

Greed prevents conflict resolution

Alexander Downer’s column would be amusing if the issues were not so serious.

Israel has systematically stolen Palestinian land for over 70 years; compare the borders proposed in the 1940s and what little is left now; look at the maps then and now and the problem becomes obvious. Israel had and has absolutely no intention of allowing a two-state solution; it never did, it has always wanted the lot.

At best Palestinians can hope for a few scattered, water deprived, unsustainable Bantustans surrounded and controlled by Israel. There is no hope for a peaceful two-state solution and Israel may in time find it becomes a minority group within a single state. Often people who are too greedy and avaricious end up with less.

We find it difficult to believe that a politician and diplomat with Mr Downer’s lifetime experience and standing would not realise this and we must therefore conclude that he is fully supportive of Israel’s long-term game plan, which is tragic for all concerned.

David Glauser, ​City Beach, WA

Damn lies and statistics

It’s interesting that Alexander Downer laments “so many governments” falling for what he calls Hamas propaganda.

Even if one knows nothing about the Arab-Israeli conflict, Mr Downer is proposing Australia as the only enlightened nation that sees a US veto for the balanced and compassionate response that Israel deserves – a “compassion” it has exercised no fewer than 44 times in the history of the conflict, always and without fail against the Palestinians – and literally every other country on Earth has been “sucked in”.  This strikes me as a statistical impossibility.

John Yasmineh, Voyager Point, NSW

[These letters have been published in the Australian Financial Review in response to an article written by Alexander Downer titled ‘“Feckless West can’t keep falling for Hamas propaganda”.]