Bill Rubinstein: The New Israel Fund (NIF) has been much in the news lately, with its supporters here holding high profile meetings in Sydney and Melbourne.
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry on Jan. 7 published a list of 20 organisations affiliated with the BDS movement that will be barred from entering the country, marking the Israeli government’s first major step to ban entities that seek to undermine the Jewish state since legislation targeting such groups was passed last year.
The leaders of the Israeli fringe group known as Breaking the Silence (BtS) specialise in sharp criticism of the IDF, but they show no tolerance when it comes to criticism of their own activities. Their part of the current debate in Australia has been particularly shrill, self-righteous, and lacking in substance....write Gerald Steinberg and Naftali Balanson.
