A response to Louise Adler from a Zionist humanitarian

Louise Adler’s piece in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald ('These are the things I've learnt you can't ask about Israel', 21 September) demonstrates convincingly the truth of her opening admission that she ‘is no foreign policy expert’. But she certainly claims to be extraordinarily perceptive.

Adler was immediately able to recognise the ‘entrenched racism [and] anti-democratic’ character of the ‘Zionist project’ upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport in 1972. This realisation came to her because she perceived that Middle Eastern Jews (not European Jews) were the mere baggage handlers and Palestinians (presumably Arab Israeli citizens) cleaned the toilets. Apparently, the airport had only one toilet and Adler had developed facial recognition capacity before the concept existed.

Adler’s analysis is said to flow from her standing as a human being. But it is not only ahistorical, it is entirely lacking in any understanding of the many forms of Zionism.

Adler acknowledges that the core of Zionism is support for the existence of a safe, secure and peaceful Jewish state. At first blush it is difficult to comprehend how someone professing Jewish identity can express surprise – indeed dismay – that so many Jews feel a strong emotional attachment to Israel for religious, historical, cultural or familial reasons. There is, however, an explanation for her bewilderment.

Adler is utterly unable to grasp that one can be a Zionist yet contend for a Jewish AND democratic Israel that respects and promotes the dignity and human rights of all its citizens. This is the position of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Jewish Israelis.