The war in Gaza, part of a much longer and deeper conflict, has wrought division within communities thousands of kilometres from the epicentre. For multinational nations like Australia, this portends ill. There are bound to be differences of opinion between people from divergent traditions.

I was brought up, for my first decade at least, in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, which had and still has a sizeable Jewish population. All of my friends were Jewish and often I attended birthday parties where I wore an honorary yarmulke and was most welcome, the lone goyim amongst the group.

The yarmulke was donned again when two decades later I was engaged to a Jewish woman. Our engagement party was lively and carefully curated to ensure that certain food groups did not congregate on the same plate.

As a result of my experiences and as a long-time student of history I have a soft spot for the state of Israel. I have no illusions about the manner of its establishment. Nor have I any regard for the Netanyahu Government, which strikes me as intransigent and oddly disconnected from Israel's own best interests. I support the two state solution.

But support for a Palestinian state does not need to come with a concomitant dose of antisemitism, nor should there necessarily be any relationship between them. One too can be critical of Israeli government policy without falling into the same trap. Unfortunately this has been lost on many who, through ignorance, over-zealousness or perhaps genuine racism, are parroting the language of extremist groups who want no less than the destruction of Israel

The left has changed a lot since I was a young politically-awakened lad. I am happy to see the demise of communism, but many of the basic issues that informed the old left have been overshadowed by tribal grievances and bespoke identity politics. 

Misplaced much of it is, I think.