Briefing from Rambam Fellows

On Wednesday 13 April 2005 four parliamentary assistants shared their impressions of their recent study visit to Israel. They were participants in the Rambam Israel Fellowship Program's Young Political Leaders' Delegation organised by AIJAC. The four who spoke were:

Thomas Cargill, Senior Adviser to Senator Robert Ray

Brad Haynes, Senior Adviser to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer

Alistair Jordan, Adviser, Office of Kevin Rudd MP, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs

Alan Tudge, Senior Adviser to Minister of Education, Dr Brendan Nelson.

The Rambam fellowship was launched in 2003. It has sent 50 prominent Australians to Israel and proven to be an extremely successful way to impart practical understanding of the Middle East and Israel to politicians and their aides. All previous participants have reported the positive impact of their visit.

This was the second young political group to be sent. The first group included such notaries as Ms Simone Burford (Chief of Staff to The Hon Daryl Williams, Attorney General), Mr Peter Crone(Snr Economic Adviser- Office of the PM), Mr Dino Georgiou (Snr Adviser to Senator The HonRobert Hill- Min. for Defence), Mr Chris Minns (Adviser to The Hon Carl Scully MP- Min for Roads& Housing), Mr Scott Morrison (State Director Liberal Party- NSW), Mr Bill Shorten (NationalSecretary- Australian Workers’ Union), Mr Joseph Tripodi (State Member for Fairfield- NSW) and Mr Carl Ungerer, (Adviser for Int’l Affairs to Leader of the Labour Party Simon Crean).

Thomas Cargill

Opened by saying that it was a strange experience to be giving a speech in person rather than writing a speech for someone else. He spoke of the physical beauty of Israel. He referred to Israel as the cradle of civilisation and said that as a Christian, he was most moved by the hills of Gallilee. He remarked on the dynamism of the Israeli people. He found the country inspirational. He was struck by the pragmatism of economy. He became aware that security is an inescapable and defining part of everyday life and talked about the myth of the "noble stone-thrower" and how it plays into the hands of the media. He also noted that engaging with a face, a real victim of terror is much more impactful that reading dispassionately about it in Australia.

Brad Haynes

Started by thanking his hosts and commented that it was an eerie experience to be given a cocktail party after just having been given a trip to Israel. He noted the profound contribution of the Jewish community to Australian society. He noted how "real" life is in Israel. The high pace of life in Israel was impressive. What brought this home in sharp relief was what the group experienced over seven days. At the beginning of the trip, Israel announced the pullout from Gaza, in the middle of the trip the budget was announced and at the end of the trip the group were confronted with the tragedy of a suicide bombing. Brad had been to Israel previously and understood the geopolitical realities.

He remarked that the issues which face Israelis are emblematic of the issues confronting the whole world at the moment with respect to global terrorism. The defining sense he got was that no matter what the challenges, Israel will survive. [RZ RF this is quite a dangerous impression] This sense permeated all the meetings he attended with his counterparts in Israel.

The group met with Itamar Marcus, and Brad spoke about the culture of failure which has vivified Palestinian life. Marcus emphasised how the Palestinians worship death. There does not appear to be any alternative constructive side in Palestinian culture. The fact that terrorism is an existential threat to Israel would be clear to any visitor. He believes the Israelis are responding correctly to this threat.

He spoke about the uniqueness of Israel's geographical position, which covers multiple climatic zones.

Alistair Jordan

Alistair's first comment, made partially in jest, was about the crazy and dangerous drivers in Israel. He then went on to talk about how the events of September 11, the Iraq war, the Bali bombing, Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta, and the more recent incident in the Solomon Islands -- have had an impact on Australian politicians over the past three years. But what Alistair pointed out was that in Israel, these serious kinds of events are compressed down to a few months. eg the disengagement from Gaza, homicide bombings, Syria leaving Lebanon, Al Fayed resigning, Hizbulla belligerence in the form of an unmarked spy plane over Israeli airspace, the passing of the budget: all these occurred in the short space of a few weeks.

He thinks it is important to get out of the Australian prism when trying to understand the Middle East.

Alistair noted that it is important to take into account the critical debates in Israel and the high pressure of Israeli politics. The high profile briefings they received were impressive for the amount of expertise the Israeli advisers exhibited. The Yad vashem experience contextualized for him, the will of the Jewish people to form and hold on to the Jewish State. The group met with the counter terrorism intelligence division of the IDF. This highlighted the need to learn about matters of terrorism from experts.

The whole group was allowed to see, live and breathe the Israeli experience. One highlight was the visit to the Northern Israel border with Lebanon. In the distance on the Lebanese side was a military outpost. The whole group had a shock experience which was related better by Alan Tudge (see below).

Alan Tudge

Alan stated that the briefings and his experiences on this trip changed his feelings towards Israel. The most influential meeting for him was with Itamar Marcus. He learned that we here in Australia don't have a sense of what the Palestinians propagate internally to their own people, how 60-80% of all childeren want to be martyrs, how they say that the Jews are the cause of all problems. He noted that if the Israelis were to propagate such vile material about Palestinians, it would become a world wide scandal in the press, and the UN would never forgive Israel. He suggested that the ABC should transmit some of Marcus' material. This was received with gentle laughs from the audience.

The second highlight was his experience at the Lebanese border where he waved in friendship to the supposed Lebanese army guards in an outpost in close distance on the Lebanese side. The Israeli guide quickly grabbed his hands and stopped him from waving. It turned out that the outpost was a Hizbulla stronghold. This brought a feeling of shocked horror, which the previous speaker also mentioned - the problem with the terrorist organisations is bigger than we think. It brought home how Hizbulla occupy the whole infrastructure of the southern part of Lebanon.

The third highlight of the trip was meeting with the IDF spokesperson about the security fence. He had not realised that 95% of the fence was a not a wall, and it actually works. He had been a stickler for the legality of the location of the fence - ie you cannot put up a fence just anywhere, especially in disputed territory. It quickly became apparent to him that the real location of the fence had to be strategically worked out. For example it makes no sense to have a fence halfway up a hill where terrorists can locate themselves at the top of the hill and look down at the other side. He was shown that it makes much more sense to have a barrier going across the top of the hill. On balance, anyone would make the same decision as the Israeli authorities have made. The path of the fence was NOT a land grab by Sharon.

Masada was beautiful and moving, and also an indication of the resolve of the Jewish people not to surrender. He thanked his hosts.