The following article was published in The Aus­trali­an Jewish News on 24^th August, 2017 ahead of the Sydney launch of ECAJ Public Affairs Director Alex Ryvchin’s book The Anti-Israel Agenda.

The political war on Israel

The Aus­trali­an Jewish News
August 24, 2017


SHINING a light on how the insti­tu­tions of greatest influence are being appro­pri­ated in order to turn public opinion in the Western world against Israel was the impetus for Alex Ryvchin’s new book, The Anti-Israel Agenda.
Speaking to The AJN ahead of its launch at the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival this Sunday (August 27), Ryvchin said the book explores the full depth and breadth of the latest phase in the campaign against Israel, “which seeks to do, through political means, what war and terror could not – that is, to isolate and cripple the state until it can no longer defend its interests or its people”.
The book is a col­lab­or­at­ive work that brings together some of the finest minds devoted to the Israeli – Palestini­an conflict, including Alan Der­show­itz, Hillel Neuer, Colonel Richard Kemp, Alan Johnson and more.
Ryvchin, who is public affairs director at the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, said he was motivated to compile the book by his upbring­ing as a Jew from the Soviet Union.
“Having come from a place where our people were subjected to great injustices and denied basic human rights, and now living freely in the West, I felt compelled to expose this unjust war on Israel which strikes at the inali­en­able rights of the Jewish people,” he said.
Ryvchin noted that Israel has always been at war but the means by which its enemies sought to destroy it have changed.
“The Six-Day War showed and the Yom Kippur War def­in­itely proved that Israel could not be defeated through tra­di­tion­al armed means which saw the conflict shift to phases of terrorism and now political war,” he said.
“The ‘Zionism is Racism’ res­ol­u­tion in the UN in 1975 was the first major blow in the political war and the events that both preceded and followed it really created the blueprint for how the conflict with Israel could be taken from Ramallah to the UN and then to the campus, the news-media and every forum that touches our lives.”
Ryvchin said he wants readers to “see what is happening, to question the reports of UN fact-finding missions that accuse Israel of delib­er­ately killing civilians, or news reporters that place greater emphasis on the fate of the terrorist and not the victim”.
He warned that winning this war will take “painstak­ing engage­ment and effort in every theatre in which Israel is maligned and the rights of the Jewish people are attacked”.
“We cannot turn away from forums that are becoming hostile to Israel because they retain their power and moral authority with or without us,” Ryvchin cautioned.
“If you don’t like an organisation’s position on Israel, join it in the largest numbers possible, build support and change it. Real change can only come from within.”
The Anti-Israel Agenda – Inside the Political War on the Jewish State will be launched at Waverley Library on Sunday, August 27 at 7.15pm.
To order a signed copy, visit www.anti-israelagenda.com.