Letter to The Editor - attempts to discount the reality of formidable Jewish political and financial power in the modern world have not helped win friends

to THE AUSTRALIAN
     The latest report of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (‘Attacks on Jews a threat to all society’, 27/11) needs to be taken with caution, as it has not been prepared by an impartial and objective body. For example, it may exaggerate the significance of Antipodean Resistance, which is very likely an annoying gnat rather than a dangerous tiger.
     While it goes without saying that anti-Semitic fanaticism needs to be both publicly condemned and checked by appropriate legal safeguards, Jewish groups at times engage in unwise public actions and statements which unnecessarily draw opposition to Jews generally. Responsible conservative opinion is at times defamed under coloured language such as ‘far right’ and ‘neo-Nazi’. The belated and protracted campaign against ‘Nazi war criminals’, the persecution of revisionist historians and attempts to discount the reality of formidable Jewish political and financial power in the modern world have not helped win friends.
  NJ, Belgrave, Vic