APOLOGIES TO PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY FOR MISQUOTING HIS FAMOUS WORDS:

HAIL TO THEE BLITHE SPIRIT,

BIRD THOU NEVER WERT!

After the following article appeared in the Sunday Age on 3 August 2008, a flurry of letters followed in the next few weeks, some from the usual suspects. These are the ones who have yet to learn the lessons of history, and it seems they are intent on learning them the hard way.

These people - zionist true believers - live in Australia where they decry the ever-growing voices of those who understand the need for change. Israel will ultimately have to become a secular state together with Palestine in a one-state solution to stop the 60-year war  which will otherwise continue indefinitely with death and horror in a continuous violent confrontation.

The letters follow the article, and appeared in the Sunday Age on 10 and 17 August 2008:

Straddling the divide

• Paul Daley
• August 3, 2008

A CHARACTERISTIC of Kevin Rudd's brief but eventful political life had been his remarkable, irrepressible capacity to promote his views - regardless of where they fitted in with party orthodoxy.

As a mere slip of a backbencher Rudd decided that foreign affairs was his forte; he was, after all, a former diplomat. And he was not going to be deterred from speaking out on almost any diplomatic issue by the fact Labor had a foreign affairs spokesman in Laurie Brereton.

Rudd used to drive Brereton and his staff mad. He'd pop up in all sorts of foreign, weird, dysfunctional places - not least the press gallery - to enunciate his views and critique both Labor and government diplomatic and defence policy.

Those of us who occasionally dealt with him back then admired his energy and chutzpah, while observing his tensions with Brereton with a sense of squeamish hilarity. By and large he was given pretty short shrift (there's a lesson in that for sure!) until Simon Crean actually awarded him the shadow foreign affairs job after Labor's 2001 election loss.

Rudd continued to work the press gallery tirelessly.

On one occasion, in July 2004, Rudd was on the phone constantly and walking in and out of the various bureaus incessantly. He was in a complete lather and the issue was Israel.

That was when Australia was one of just six countries to vote against a United Nations resolution demanding Israel dismantle its notorious security barrier - the wall around the West Bank that, while making life a misery for Palestinians, has done much to thwart suicide bombings.

The UN held the non-binding vote after the International Court of Justice ruled a section of the structure had been built on Palestinian land.

The five other "no" votes came from Israel, America, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau - 150 other countries voted "yes".

Rudd was telling anyone who'd listen that Australia's position was shameful. The government, aware of this, did some rear-guard briefing of its own, telling journalists that not only could Labor not be trusted to manage the precious bi-lateral relationship with America, but it would also mishandle Australia's "special friendship" with Israel.

Certainly Australian and Israeli Jews regarded John Howard as a great friend. When I visited Israel with Alexander Downer about this time last year, the foreign minister was feted like a rock star. Even Downer seemed to blush at the incredible platitudes awarded to him during dinner at Jerusalem's King David Hotel. Back then some Israeli officials and some prominent Australian friends of Israel viewed the prospect of a Rudd Government with measured caution.

A few months ago, when I was back in Israel, one of Tony Blair's advisers approached me. Blair, the former British prime minister, is now a special envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the so-called quartet of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union. "Did you know," the adviser asked me, "that your government has increased aid to the Palestinian Authority?" This was seen as a big deal by the quartet - something John Howard would not have done and a sign, perhaps, of a different approach by Kevin Rudd on Israel.

A week before Christmas the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, announced Australia had indeed doubled its 2008 aid package to the Palestinian Territories to $45 million.

A senior Australian diplomatic source told me the aid increase "succinctly reflected a subtle repositioning and a new approach" in the Middle East.

Earlier this year Downer's replacement, Stephen Smith, gave an interview in Washington in which he said Australia was committed to an "even-handed" approach on Middle East policy.

Smith told Tony Walker, of The Australian Financial Review, that Labor would adhere to a longstanding policy acknowledging Israel's right to exist and the rights of a Palestinian nation state.

"That's an even-handed approach which Labor has had as its policy for a long period of time. It's a two-nation solution. That's even-handed," Smith said.

Walker, a veteran Middle East watcher, observed that that position "contrasts with the previous government, which tilted Australia's Middle East policy towards Israel and made little pretence of adhering to an 'even-handed' approach".

Perhaps he was right. On February 8, Michael Burd, in a letter to the Australian Jewish News, wrote: "It wasn't so long ago Jewish Labor supporters were arguing there was no difference between Liberal and Labor policy towards Israel, and Jews who attended private dinners with Kevin Rudd … were led to believe Labor would continue to support Israel.

"This letter writer will be watching for the next Arab/Muslim-backed UN anti-Israel resolution to see if Rudd stands by his commitment to the Jewish community."

Around this time, Rudd seemed to allay some fears when he introduced a motion into Federal Parliament honouring the state of Israel, which turned 60 this year. One of his MPs, Julia Irwin - a long-time critic of Israel's conduct - boycotted the motion.

Australia, meanwhile, is watching Israel closely as its prime minister, Ehud Olmert, prepares to stand down amid myriad corruption allegations. Despite his domestic problems, Olmert has done much to advance the peace process.

Australia also watches carefully as Middle East tensions rise over Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons capable of striking at the heart of the Jewish state. Senior figures in the Rudd Government will not, based on intelligence briefings, privately rule out a pre-emptive, unilateral strike against Iran by Israel.

There is no doubt that, while the Australia-Israel relationship remains close, there is significant new uncertainty about it.

Rudd, who has yet to visit Israel as prime minister, does little by accident.

Paul Daley is The Sunday Age's national political columnist.

Who's extreme?

Larry Stillman (Letters, 10/8), a member of both the left-wing socialist organisation Australian Jewish Democratic Society and Independent Australian Jewish Voices — groups considered extremist by the Jewish community — claims my views on Israel are extreme.

I support a two-state solution with issues of shared status to be part of any final negotiations.

The only issues I would imagine Stillman may consider extreme are that I would expect reciprocity from the Palestinians before any facts agreed by both sides change.

I would also expect acceptance from all Palestinian factions of a Jewish state as their neighbour, just as Israel would have to accept an Islamic state of Palestine; zero tolerance on all forms of violence against Israeli civilians and, unless provoked, against the Israel Defence Forces; and, finally, zero tolerance of incitement of hatred towards Jews and Israelis in Palestinian Schools, universities and media.

MICHAEL BURD, Toorak