Win Your Darlings! And exclusive Extract [24.09.2010]
The gang at Kill Your Darlings are nice people. How do we know that? Well, they’ve given us copies the nearly sold out KYD issue 2 to give away, just so they can see people smile at tram stops, in cafes, and while waiting for a table at Shanghai Dumpling.
They’ve also given us an extract by Anthony Lowenstein from the soon to be released issue 3 as a taster for their launch and literary trivia night on October 14th, 2010. For all group/individual bookings and enquiries for the night, drop them an email. All lit-heads and trivia-nuts most welcome.
For now, though, we have five copies to give away and we’re giving them to the first five people to leave comments below that name the Editor and Deputy Editor of Kill Your Darlings.
Like we say: they’re nice people.
MOVING FORWARD?
Australia’s Relationship with Israel
By Antony Loewenstein
I first discovered the importance of the Israel/Palestine conflict in my early teens, in Melbourne. I remember sitting around the Sabbath table with my parents and cousins, discussing the events of the week as we consumed schnitzels, soggy vegetables and chicken soup. In an age before the internet, we relied on print and radio for information about the Middle East, and it all seemed terribly far away. During the Intifada in the late 1980s, where there was the first mass-organised Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation, many middle-class Israelis suddenly realised that their government’s actions would come at a high moral price.
My family would rail against Palestinian ‘terrorism’, they abhorred then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Israel was blameless, cast as the eternal victim of irrational Jew-hatred. But the racism against Arabs, and blindness to the validity of Palestinian resistance, struck me as sick, a hangover from a Nazi-at-the-door mentality. I complained and challenged these positions, but I was usually dismissed as young and ignorant.
More than fifteen years later, I wrote My Israel Question as a statement against predictable thinking on the Middle East. I was writing as an atheist Jew, and called for a Judaism that wasn’t infected with Zionist supremacy. I opposed the occupation, challenged the Zionist lobby’s bullying of politicians and journalists, and asked for open debate. In return, I received vitriol and hate-mail from an insecure Jewish community wedded to the idea of Israel as a homeland (even though most of them never wanted to live there, preferring a far more multicultural nation in Australia).
But times are changing. I’ve seen a growing willingness in the wider community to challenge Israeli actions and question the Australian government’s unequivocal support of the Jewish state. These kinds of views, unprecedented a few years ago in mainstream society, are principally due to Israel’s increased intransigence and criminality – a consensus that is growing, despite both the Labor and Liberal parties refusing to open their eyes to the new reality in Palestine. Not that you heard any of this during the federal election campaign. In fact, foreign policy was mostly absent from the debate.
Full version to come in Kill Your Darlings 3, out Thursday, October 14th. Subscribe here
Kill Your Darlings is a quarterly publication. They publish fresh, clever writing that combines intellect with intrigue.For more info, visit their website or Killings, their bookish super-blog.
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Comments
Jess Barry — 24 September at 08:45PM
Hi, thanks to the power of Google I discovered that the Editor of KYD is Rebecca Starford and Deputy Editor is Hannah Kent. Issue three looks great! Can’t wait to read issue 2.
Laurie — 27 September at 02:22PM
Congratulations Jess! Email me through your details to and we’ll get a copy sent out ASAP.
Emily — 27 September at 02:44PM
the KYD crew are always saying interesting things! Looking forward to reading the Loewenstein essay in full soon. Rebecca Starford editor, Hannah Kent deputy.
Meredith — 28 September at 07:44PM
I was surfing the internet, looking for things to do with writing and I came across this. So, I am interested to find out more about KYD, and the editor is Rebecca Starford, the deputy editor Hannah Kent.
Laurie — 29 September at 01:58PM
Meredith, Emily and Jess Barry, you are winners! Email me at laurie@spunc.com.au with your details and I’ll send the books out, or you can come into the Wheeler Centre and pick up your prize. Congratulations!