MPs talk of their visit to Israel
Member for Caulfield and Deputy Leader of Victorian State Opposition David Southwick joined five other State Liberal MP participants in AIJAC’s Rambam Fellowship Program in recounting their recent visit to Israel at a luncheon for AIJAC supporters in Melbourne.
Jamie Hyams, David Davis, James Newbury, David Southwick, Colin Rubenstein, Renee Heath, Chris Crewther, Trung Luu, Joel Burnie
Together with Southwick were Member for Southern Metropolitan Region David Davis, Member for Western Metropolitan Region Trung Luu, Member for Brighton James Newbury, Member for Eastern Victoria Region Renee Heath and Member for Mornington Chris Crewther.
Introducing the speakers, AIJAC’s Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein commended the participants for taking part in such a program especially during a time when is Israel under attack on multiple fronts, but also noted how very important it is to continue facilitating the Rambam program during a time when both Israel and the Jewish diaspora are facing unprecedented challenges not only on the battlefield, in the case of Israel, but in a propaganda war that is fueling a rise in antisemitism globally.
Rambam participants saw firsthand the burned-out shells of homes that were once neighbourhoods in Gaza border kibbutzim. They also watched the shocking 47-minute video “Bearing Witness”, edited from body camera footage of Hamas terrorists who carried out the attacks and some security camera footage – an experience the participants said left them speechless.
The group also visited Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, and had candid discussions with a variety of high-level speakers that conveyed the complexity of the issues that surround Israel and its people.
Following their remarks, AIJAC liaison Jamie Hyams thanked the Liberal MP group and rounded out the trip report with some of the other experiences of the trip, which included Jerusalem and visit the Dead Sea and Masada, as well as a meeting with Palestinian Authority officials from the West Bank.
The gathering also heard from National Weekend Political Editor for the News Ltd papers James Campbell, who had himself just returned from a journalist’s Rambam group.
For Campbell, it was his second time to Israel as a Rambam participant – the first time over a decade ago – and he spoke of the difference of seeing the country mobilised during wartime and how the war being waged on Israel’s borders is related to a much bigger challenge to the West at play by actors like Iran, Russia, and to an extent China and North Korea as well.
AIJAC’s Executive Manager Joel Burnie, who had acted as liaison for the journalists’ group, offered the vote of thanks and commended all the Rambam participants as well as the program’s donors, who have enabled hundreds of top politicians, journalists, union and student leaders, clergy and others to lay down a foundation of knowledge about Israel and the Jewish people.
