“As Diaspora Jews, is it not more appropriate to respect the will of the Israeli people reflected in its democratically elected goverment? If Jews wish to put pressue on the Israeli government, then is not the appropriate response to go live in Israel, and exercise one’s rights as a resident citizen of Israel”? [Frosh]

• In the same vein, how about our civic duty to exercise the rights and obligations as the solemn citizen of Australia?

One of the isues I have with J-Street is that appears to lobby the US Govt to pressure the Israeli Government.

As Diaspora Jews, is it not more appropriate to respect the will of the Israeli people reflected in its democratically elected goverment?

If Jews wish to put pressue on the Israeli government, then is not the appropriate response to go live in Israel, and exercise one’s rights as a resident citizen of Israel?

Finally, do we really need yet another organisation to lobby the US President to be tougher on Israel? After all, several such organistion already exist, such as The US State Department, as well as large oil companies and many Arab states (many of which are also large oil companies).

My feeling is that political lobbying vis a vis Israel does not capture the imagination of Australian Jews (left or right) to the same degree as American Jews. At least not Australian Jews in the younger generation. In part, this is surely because of Australia is much less influential than America in Middle East politics. (Perhaps we would see a shift to greater involvement if Rudd were successful in his bid for a seat in the UN security council.)

Personally, living in Australia, I feel that there are other areas in which I can be much more effective in creating positive change.

I also would feel reticent to spend my time lobbying for change in the Middle East whilst living in Australia though I understand that there are many others who don’t share this sentiment.

If someone (such as yourself) was to hold a web-2.0 design competitition, Galus Australis would be more than happy to help with publicity by running an article about it.

[From eds: Gah! How embarrassing! Thanks, Sadducee.]

Speak to the Jewish News and see if they will publish the winning idea. This may be some incentive.

You have the opportunity to do something. Seize it.

This is an interesting article/thread, that I hope I’ll get some time a little later to make a contribution to.

But just briefly, I agree with you that there are many such talented people within the Australian Jewish Community.

However, you mention “…some interested and resourced parties.”

I’m not sure how we could arrange this, even if we we wanted to.

Thus far, we have found that those parties that are interested are not that resourced, and those parties that are resourced are not that interested