Regarding Heilpern’s article: 1. Not a token of non-Jews serve in the army. By and large the whole Muslim Druze community serve. While it is correct that most Arabs do not, Arabs have more rights in Israel than in any of the 21 Arab countries.
2. Israel is a Jewish state, and is Heilpern implying there is something nefarious with the Star of David being on the flag – 64 countries have a religious symbol on their flag, including 21 Muslim countries and 31 Christian countries.
3. America, Australia, the UK and other countries do not consider a genocide is taking place, which is an extreme accusation with no basis in fact. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) did rule there was a plausibility of genocide but rather to merely preserve the rights for the case to move forward.
4. As far as his antisemitism claims, when he says the Zionist lobby, he’s talking about over 90 per cent of Jews worldwide and the vast majority of Jews in Australia. He is the token voice.
You can be complicit in your own people’s oppression, being Jewish doesn’t absolve you of being an antisemite.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
