Australian visitors returning from Israel often remark on the energy and vibrancy they experienced during their stay. In our conversations, they share a common impression of their Israeli experience with me
The pulse of the land at the uttermost parts of the earth In the early hours of September 25, 1918, on the moonlit southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, white and aboriginal Australians executed the last horseback charge in military history to capture a small but fiercely-defended train station – Tzemach. Weeks later, World War 1 was over, and for the first time in nearly seven centuries, the Jews’ ancient homeland was free from Muslim control. As this article goes to press, the centennial of this little-known but critical Battle of Tzemach is being marked at the restored site, 11 months after the 100th anniversary of the famous victorious charge at Beersheba of the Australian 800 Light Horsemen. Beersheba began the liberation of the Land of Israel; Tzemach secured that liberty. ***** Last year—in the run up to Beersheba —I came to Australia to motivate for the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Multitudes of Aussies longed to see their country “lead the charge” as the first to move its embassy to this city. My 2017 journey took me to every major center around Australia, and from Elcho Island in the north, through Alice Springs, to Tasmania way down […]
Over the last few years, in the lead-up to the Beersheba centenary, I have actively promoted the view that Australia—in timely fashion and emulating its famed Light Horsemen—could once again lead the charge, recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and place its embassy there. In 2016, I sat in the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv and asked then-Ambassador to Israel, David Sharma, why it was that his country would not take the initiative and do the right thing in Israel—as it had with every other one of its embassies and high commissions around the world—by placing its embassy in the designated capital. He replied that it was “not Australian statecraft” to do so. A few months later, I put the question to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott during a ‘chance encounter’ at Jerusalem’s Holocaust Memorial Museum. His response was very different: “If I was prime minister I would do it today.” Later that year, as we approached 100 years marking the Battle of Beersheba and the celebrated legacy of the 800 Light Horsemen, people around Australia responded to this voiced hope: that on this pivotal issue of the embassy move to Jerusalem, their nation might again show the maverick brand of […]
Photo of Anzacs from AWM: “Australian light horsemen riding waler horses. The soldiers are of the original contingent of the Australian Imperial Force and the photo was taken prior to their departure from Australia in November 1914. The soldier on the right is Trooper William Harry Rankin Woods, 1st Light Horse Regiment, who died of wounds on 15 May 1915, one of the first light horsemen to die during the Battle of Gallipoli.” I recently re-read an article I wrote in 1992 entitled ‘The Anzacs and Israel’ which had been published in several Christian magazines and circulated around Australia and New Zealand. It portrayed a somewhat patriotic ANZAC perspective – which I now realise was not entirely balanced. At that time I was working as a local guide at Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem specialising in British, European and Protestant involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean 1798-1948. This article reflected my attempt to present the significant contribution which ANZAC soldiers had played in helping to lay the foundations for the establishment of Israel – as part of the bigger geo-political picture. This perspective was aided through also conducting In Step with Allenby and the Light Horse tours from Jerusalem, down […]