I've been thinking about Bob Carr's limited understanding of Zionism and its apartheid colonial-settler project in Arab Palestine, Israel. His 2014 Diary of a Foreign Minister, for example, condemns only what he refers to as "the hard-line, Likud-aligned pro-Israel lobby."
I just wonder whether the man who (along with Bob Hawke) started up Labor Friends of Israel back in 1977, but is now (following his clash with Australia's Israel lobby during his stint as foreign minister) the patron of Labor Friends of Palestine, will ever come to see that political Zionism, in whatever guise, Likud or Labor, is toxic to the core, and that a real friend of Palestine cannot also be a friend of Zionist Israel. (See my 9/11/14 post Bob Carr: Nagging Questions Remain.)
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2 comments:
Yes MERC; it is a contradiction in terms.
My understanding, is that it was originally meant as a criticism of Jews in the movement. B
It may have been based on the assumption that Jews are raised with an identity of Jewishness which is not only intrinsically tied with Israel, but like the state, also supremacist. An identity which often dismisses the acceptance of "others", even in the discussion of Jewishness.
Perhaps a harsh or bias consideration on my part to think that it may be a code which actually means "Jew".
A mockery of sorts. originating in the pro-Palestine movement (perhaps from Gilad Atzmon; an x-practicing Jew, x-Israeli). So there may be a valid argument if you were to say: 'anyone opposed to Jews in the movement; and uses the term while assuming it originates from Atzmon, is actually a hypocrite.'
I may be misguided and 100% wrong on may things, but I do try to be honest.
Which takes me to an aside.
The last 2 comments by me on your blogg; are unpublished.
Did you find them offensive, absurd, unproductive, highly speculative or even all of the above?
At any case, I still consider your blogg the best in "Monitoring pro-Israel influence in Australia's public and political arena" and I value and respect the effort you put in and your evident effort to refrain from over-speculation.
Let's give Bob C the benefit of the doubt. In my youth, I was taken in by the Zionist propaganda - making the desert bloom, the idyllic kibbutzim, etc. This was Camelot - a utopian society. Of course, it was all lies, as anyone not too lazy (as I was then) to do the homework would have understood. I too would have been a friend of Israel in 1977. But at least Bob learned as I did. It is the ones who are unable, or more likely, unwilling for their own political ends to learn that we should be attacking. It is the cynical Danbys and the Gillards that are the real enemy. It is not in Bob's interests, if he has any more political ambitions in Australia, to be pro-Palestinian, but he is. Good for him! The power structure in this country is unerringly pro-Zionist, and woe betide any politician that does not toe the line. He has had his "road to Damascus" moment and decided that morality is more important than political capital. Let's cheer when we hear that from a politician. Perhaps he is still enough of a politician still to realise that he cannot win the war all at once, but he can win a few battles. If he can get the Australian public to realize that Likud is fundamentally evil, he will be doing a great service to Palestinians. Let's support him for this. If he can move public sentiment (and the ABC) that far, the Palestinian cause will eventually win. It only needs a few cracks in the edifice before it starts to crumble. If not, there is no hope for Australia vis-a-vis Palestine, and it will be left to other countries, less dominated by Zionism, to take the lead.
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