Why Aren't Australian Journalists Backing Julian Assange?

First, the latest shocking news on the fate of WikiLeak's Julian Assange:

"Julian Assange will face a five-day US extradition hearing in February next year, a judge has ruled. [He] faces an 18-count indictment, issued by the US Department of Justice, that includes charges under the Espionage Act... Ben Brandon, representing the US, formally opened the case, a day after an extradition request was signed off by the [UK] home secretary, Sajid Ravid." (Julian Assange to face US extradition in UK next year, Haroon Siddique, theguardian.com, 14/6/19)

The following letter of concern over Assange's fate, naming Australian journalist Peter Greste, appeared in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald:

"Andrew Fowler's article was excellent in its balanced reporting of the facts ('Raids a wake-up to journalists who left Assange swinging', June 12). This was in stark contrast to Peter Greste's article several weeks ago, written with a certain callousness. Assanges's treatment does not reflect well on other journalists or on our successive governments. Fowler is correct that what has occurred to Assange may well occur to other journalists if they do not toe the line." (Virginia Robison, Killara, letter to the editor in Sydney Morning Herald, 14/6/19)

In addition, full page ads placed by journalismisnotacrime.org appeared in both the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian yesterday signed by 38 Australian journalists, including Greste, Alliance for Journalists' Freedom. The ad is billed as an "Open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese, Members of the Parliament of Australia," and is headlined "JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME".

Part of the text reads: "A healthy democracy cannot function without its media being free to bring to light uncomfortable truths, to scrutinise the powerful and inform our communities. Investigative journalism cannot survive without the courage of whistleblowers, motivated by concern for their fellow citizens, who seek to bring to light instances of wrongdoing, illegal activities, fraud, corruption and threats to public health and safety. These are issues of public interest, of the public's right to know. Whistleblowers and the journalists who work with them are entitled to protection, not prosecution. Truth-telling is being punished."

There are reference in the text to "whistleblowers Richard Boyle, David McBride and Witness K," but, significantly, not to Julian Assange.

The failure to include Assange in the ad would seem to have a lot to do with Peter Greste's 12/4/19 SMH/Age opinion piece, Julian Assange is no journalist: don't confuse his arrest with press freedom:

"As someone who has been imprisoned by a foreign government [Egypt] for publishing material that it didn't like, I have a certain sympathy for Assange. But my supports stops there. To be clear, Julian Assange is not a journalist, and Wikileaks is not a news organisation... Journalism demands more than just simply acquiring confidential information and releasing it unfiltered on the internet for punters to sort through. It comes with responsibility... We at the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom are committed to restoring public trust in in journalism, which can only happen if its practitioners work with responsibility and respect. I has never been about opening up a hosepipe of information regardless of the consequences."

Parenthetically, has Greste, I wonder, taken the trouble to read The Wikileaks Files: The World According to US Empire (Verso, 2015). It contains an extensive introduction by Julian Assange and contributions by a range of journalists on the various regions covered by the files?

Understandably, aware readers - especially in Melbourne's Age - bridled at Greste's piece. John Wallace, for example, director of the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre, and a former member of the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) judiciary committee Victoria, had this to say in the Age's letters pages:

"In Australia MEAA journalist code of ethics offers a less rigid view of journalism, one that allows departures from its standards under certain circumstances. The code's preamble states, in part, that 'Respect for truth and the public's right to information are fundamental principles of journalism'. In its guidance clause, the code recognises that sometimes there will be a conflict in its standards, and that in cases of 'substantial advancement of the public interest' it may be appropriate to override any particular standard. If one accepts the Wikileaks disclosures did substantially advance the public interest, Assange's work can certainly be seen as journalism."

Commented another, "Greste's commentary is especially churlish, given the wholehearted support he enjoyed from the Australian community during his own ordeal. A little less pomposity, please." (Nicholas Grey, Kent Town, SA)

One of the most pointed and relevant comments critiquing Greste's piece came in the form a tweet by an Australian journalist of Palestinian origin, Jennine Khalik: "thinking of being a white male journalist and getting arrested in egypt so people think everything I have to say once im out is relevant and insightful." (May 25)

Greste's assessment of Assange as 'not a journalist' cannot be allowed to stand. In fact, a retraction of his 12 April commentary and an apology seems to me to be in order.

Murdoch Venom

Reading Murdoch's Australian is like watching a funnel web spider walking leisurely across your living room floor. You are so transfixed by the horror of it all that you just cannot look away.

By way of example, here are just two from the rag's letters page:

"Now that the Coalition has received a new mandate, Scott Morrison should follow up on the commitment he made at last year's Wentworth by-election to move Australia's embassy to Jerusalem. (Ari Hurwitz, Vaucluse, NSW, 27/5/19)

"I'm not buying Anthony Albanese's change of heart. A damascene conversion requires him to repent, and I suspect he still harbours the mortal sins of open borders, wealth redistribution, rampant taxation and class warfare deep in his breast. Belief in the discredited miracle of magic-pudding economics won't be sufficient to get him to the Pearly Gates of the Lodge." (Peter Raftery, Indoorroopilly, Qld, 27/5/19)

Albanese? Class Warrior? 2

Even Nine Entertainment Co (formerly, Fairfax) is echoing Murdoch's 'Albanese the Red' propaganda line, albeit far more faintly:

"Accustomed to losing, the left will have one of its fiercest combatants in the top job... 'Every fantasy of an old-time left-winger is finally happening,' said one factional enthusiast. 'We've been speculating for decades about what it would look like.' Lest anyone start waving the red flag and singing L'Internationale... " (Is Albanese new light on the hill? Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald, 25/5/19)

Albanese? Class Warrior?

Give me a break!

The  Murdoch press is replete with straw men and women. Anyone who dares not toe its line is painted in the most lurid of colours. Labor leader-in-waiting, Anthony Albanese, is no exception to the rule - except that, at this stage at least, the Murdoch press has hopes of grooming him as another Bob Hawke, or Tony Blair, if you will.

But first, the straw man:

Albo vows to end class war ran the banner headline on page one of Thursday's issue of The Australian. (For the uninitiated, Albo, a purported left-winger, looks set to succeed the hapless Bill Shorten as leader of the federal Australian Labor Party.)

All talk here of 'class war' is, of course, ludicrous. Whether it's Shorten or Albanese at the helm, the ALP wouldn't know what class war was if it hit it in the face. Still, such propaganda tropes are standard fare, deployed by the Murdoch press against any public figure it chooses to mount a crusade against..

The Australian's Peter van Onselen, now a professor of politics at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University, dishes out the following Murdochratic advice/ directive:

"He may well be, having shown a willingness over the years to crab-walk away from causes considered too radical for a mainstream politician... But to do so in more than an superficial way... Albanese will need to prove that he truly believes in the economic structures that support people's aspirations... " ('Tory fighter' should follow Hawke)

Although I'm not party to Albanese's past record of rhetorical flourishes, I seriously doubt he's ever resorted to expressions the Big End of Town, Us & Them, neoliberalism, privatisation, and other expressions of the social and political reality that oppress us all on a daily basis. For example, has he said anything about the $33bn stock market surge which followed Morrison's election win?

For the record, Friday's Australian trotted out a photograph of Albanese with UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, taken last year. Front page, of course. Here's the opening paragraph:

"Labor's leader in waiting Anthony Albanese will be forced to jettison the hard-left policies he has espoused for more than three decades... Mr Albanese has become close to far-left British Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn... " (From left field: Albanese, Corbyn and co, Andrew Burrell/ Andrew Clennell)

Further on in the same piece, there's a reference to his "decades-long history as a spear-thrower for Labor's hard left."

In the same issue, former Zionist lobbyist (and, quite incidentally, MP for Melbourne Ports) Michael Danby, has an opinion piece, headed Let's see if feisty Albo's made of Hawke's right stuff, in which we find yet more blather about Albo/Hawke, as well as this wonderful example of the psychological phenomenon known as projection: "... a ratbag such as Jeremy Corbyn."

I am familiar, however, with Albanese's utterly lame and gutless statements over the years on the subject of Palestine/Israel, the infallible test of principle and courage in today's world. For example:

2009: "I don't support the boycott of Israel, I support engagement... dialogue and discussion." (Q & A)

2011: Albanese accused the then Greens-dominated Marrickville Council of "simplistic sloganeering" when they bravely dared to adopt a pro-BDS policy, and lamely opined that "the inner west of Sydney is... a place where neighbours live in harmony regardless of religion or race."

2016: Albanese expressed "concern" about foreign policy funding, and said China, Israel and Taiwan were among the biggest spenders of sponsored travel and donations in Australia.

2018: Albanese warned about "Israel's actions... damaging the country's reputation."

Simply the Best, Better than All the Rest

"Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has indicated Labor would have split from the US and backed a United Nations investigation into the killing of dozens of Palestinians in Gaza, arguing Israel's actions were damaging the country's reputation." (Albanese demands vote explanation, Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald, 21/5/18)

Really, if damage to Israel's reputation is Albanese's best argument for Australia voting (in the UNHRC) for an investigation into Israel's latest massacres of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, I'd hate to think what his worst might be.

A MSM Political Donations/Junkets Roundup

Left until the final paragraph:

"Mr [Anthony] Albanese said he was concerned about foreign political funding and said China, Israel and Taiwan were among the biggest spenders of sponsored travel and donations in Australia." (Labor seeks foreign donations revamp as Dastyari row festers, Tom McIlroy, Sydney Morning Herald, 5/9/16)

OMG, Albo's only just noticed that politicians have been popping off to Israel in rather LARGE numbers (including his mate, Plibersek, in 2014).

***

It seems that Australian politicians can always be relied upon to burst into song if the price is right:

"Enjoying a glass of red wine, Chinese businessman William Chiu announced he would donate $25,000 if the NSW attorney-general Greg Smith sang him three songs. Mr Smith obliged with Elvis and Sinatra." (Secret past of China donor, Kirsty Needham, The Sun-Herald, 4/9/16)

But it's not just China that gets Greg Smith going. Here he is in fine voice in 2011:

"The BDS resolution against Jewish businesses passed in December 2010 by the Marrickville Council and, more recently, violent activist protests against Jewish businesses, in particular Max Brenner chocolate and coffee stores, are eerily reminiscent of Jewish pogroms of earlier times." (Israel ban bid 'is anti-Semitic', Imre Salusinszky, The Australian, 24/8/11)

***

Now here's music to Israeli ears:

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, currently in Israel, has just invited Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Australia, cooing, "The Australian public would warmly embrace you, welcome you," and brushing aside Israel's stated intention to try World Vision employee Mohammed Halaby in a secret court with a cheery, "Closed proceedings are not unknown in legal systems around the world." (AM, Radio National, 5/9/16)

OMFG, if that doesn't reflect the influence of Israel-linked donations and propaganda trips in Australian political life, I don't know what does. But will our MSM join the dots? Purely rhetorical question, of course.

***

There are many references to China in George Williams' (Dean of Law, UNSW) opinion piece in today's Sydney Morning Herald, but I'm afraid you've got to read between the lines for any hint that Zionist money and junkets are impacting Australia's foreign policy position on Palestine/Israel:

"When it comes to foreign donors, there can be no suggestion that these corporate, national and other interests are acting out of altruism. They are investing in the hope of a return. That might be a favourable decision in regard to a foreign investment, or to shape Australia's foreign policy. They seek to secure these outcomes by direct payments and all-expenses paid study tours." (Dastyari the canary in coal mine for donations reform, 5/9/16)

Shorten Collars the Zionist Vote

"Among the good reasons for ALP members to vote for Bill Shorten in the current leadership contest, there are some relating particularly to Jewish concerns.

"Bill Shorten did significant work as education minister in securing better funding for our schools. He has always been a strong supporter of the US alliance, which many regard as the cornerstone of Australia's security. He has had a long association with the Jewish community and is a stalwart supporter of Israel, which he has visited several times. Last year he led a high-powered delegation of financial-sector executives to Israel, and had meetings with president Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Bill Shorten's support for Israel was in evidence last November when Bob Carr moved to roll Julia Gillard's backing of Israel and the US on a vote to give the Palestinians observer status at the UN. While Bill Shorten sided with Julia Gillard for Australia to vote for Israel and the US to reject this resolution, Anthony Albanese supported Bob Carr's initiative to bring about Australia's abstention.

"Under Shorten's leadership, we could be certain that Labor would continue to support Israel's right to defend itself, and oppose efforts to force Israel into premature concessions." (Letter from Professor Douglas Kirsner in The Australian Jewish News, 4/10/13)

Doing the Donkey* in the NSW Knesset 2

On the speech of The Hon. Luke Foley, Labor Opposition leader in the NSW Legislative Council, arising out of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel (PFoI) "study mission" 'debate' of February 28:

Clearly the PFoI's 'ideas' man, Foley has obviously been lying awake at night trying drumming up a rationale for just why it is that NSW state politicians are falling over themselves to line up behind Israel. After all, hadn't Labor Left Pope Anthony (Albanese) once declared that "Foreign policy is a fair way from the parameters of the role of Marrickville Council."**

"Why would a group of State parliamentarians undertake a study mission to a foreign country, in this case Israel, given that the Australian Constitution provides that foreign affairs is a matter for the Commonwealth Government?" he asked. "I believe the answer is twofold: firstly, the role of NSW Jewry in the life of our state; and secondly, flowing from that is Israel's emotional appeal to NSW Jewry."

According to Foley, given that

a) "Jewish citizens of the colony and then State of NSW have always played a prominent role in the affairs and governance of our society;" and that

b) "Israel exercises an extremely powerful and emotional pull on Australian Jews;" such that

c) "the NSW PFoI group is not merely a friendship group with a foreign state [but] also a friendship group with the NSW Jewish community;" then

d) "[I]t was therefore appropriate for members of the NSW PFoI to embark on a study tour," because "I do not believe it is possible to fully understand the Jewish community of our State without making an attempt to familiarise ourselves with and understand the State of Israel."

Pretty neat, eh? Conversely, I suppose, because we can't find any Muslim First Fleeters and parliamentarians, despite "the extremely powerful emotional pull" on Australian Muslims of Mecca, no Parliamentary Friends of Mecca group has so far been formed. (If, on the other hand, we do eventually locate a Muslim First Fleeter...)

But I know what you lot out there are thinking, you cynical bastards. And so does Foley, because he hastens to add: "I note for the record that the 10 parliamentarians who went on the trip met their own airfares and accommodation costs." So there!

Padding his speech with a wad of 'Israel was born of the Holocaust' mythology and a reference to Vasily Grossman's The Hell of Treblinka (didn't I tell you he was an intellectual?), Foley goes on to pay lip service to the Palestinian untermenschen: "I acknowledge that in addition to our activities in Israel we also visited the [occupied] Palestinian territory, the West Bank, and were guests of the Palestinian Authority. We met with the PA governor of the Bethlehem district and some of his colleague. They, like our Israeli hosts, were most gracious with their time." [Typically, Foley's not telling what they had to say.]

And then, in an astonishing display of chutzpah, Foley comes out with this: "I conveyed to them the strong support of the Palestinian community in NSW for their legitimate national aspiration for a Palestinian nation state by the United Nations and the international community."

On what grand occasion of pomp and ceremony, one is left wondering, did the Palestinian community in NSW confer on Luke Foley the authority to convey such a sentiment to the PA?

Next in the Doing the Donkey in the NSW Knesset series: the Right Reverend Fred Nile MLC reveals that God's in His Heaven and all's well with Israel. Stay tuned.

[*See my 2/3/13 post Doing the Donkey;**See my 18/1/11 post A Rising Tide of Pro-Israel Bias at the ABC.]

Some Questions for Labor Voter, Kate Brettell

In the wake of the weekend's NSW local government elections, it was inevitable that Murdoch's Zio-conservative Australian would be pinning the blame for the swing against The Greens in Marrickville on their support last year for BDS.

Today's issue, for example, had this to say on page 1:

"Gillard government supporters attributed the result to the Greens' obstruction of the government's asylum-seeker changes and contentious local government policies such as a trade boycott of Israel... Mr Albanese, whose inner-western electorate of Grayndler has shown strong support for the Greens in recent years, said Labor had increased its vote by running a 'local affairs not foreign affairs' campaign. The campaign sought to highlight the Greens' interest in issues such as a boycott of Israel rather than policies that mattered more to local residents." (Labor steps up Greens attack, David Crowe)

 A trade boycott? This is Marrickville Council, not a commercial entity. Local, not foreign affairs? Wherein lay the Greens' interest in foreign affairs this time around?

And this, the reason for my post, on page 4:

"Kate Brettell considers herself a long-time supporter of the Greens. But like many others across NSW she chose the council elections to lodge her displeasure with their 'airy-fairy' policies. Ms Brettell, a 34-year old community services worker, felt this time the Greens had failed to connect with local issues. 'I normally vote for the Greens so I was willing to listen, but they weren't really talking about concrete issues,' she said yesterday. In particular, Ms Brettell thought the move by Greens councillors last year to establish an embargo against Israel had pushed residents away. 'I think that really turned a lot of people off because it just isn't a local issue,' she said. 'Whether or not you agree with it is beside the point. It is not something I want my local council to be spending their time on. Their policies just seem a little bit airy-fairy.' For Ms Brettell, the local Labor candidate focused on local issues such as cleaning up the streets and improving traffic conditions. 'It was obvious they had been consulting,' she said." ('Their policies were a bit airy-fairy', Harry Edwards)

1) Kate Brettell, are you the same Kate Brettell mentioned in this AusAID reference to a Global Youth Peace Summit: "Youth ambassadors in Thailand... Kate Brettell... attended the last world youth peace summit (Asia-Pacific region) at the United Nations' regional headquarters in Bangkok," helping to  "develop a regional vision and action plan for world peace" (Global Education, ausaid.gov.au)?

2) If so, did not that particular initiative strike you as a tad airy-fairy and altogether too non-local?

3) Why was your reported displeasure with Marrickville Council's airy-fairy support of BDS last year not assuaged when it ceased to be Marrickville Council policy early last year?

4) Seeing you voted Labor, do you consider that party's unequivocal support for the state of Israel - throwing birthday bashes for it in federal parliament, sending their troops, both federal and state, on junkets there, lining up with it against the rest of the world in UN forums, soliciting campaign funds from its wealthier supporters, hopping-to when its lobbyists snap their fingers, and tolerating members of its external intelligence arm flashing Australian passports when on the hunt - not only worse than airy-fairy but downright inimical to both the national interest and the maintenance of world peace? Is Israel really something you want your state and federal governments spending their time on?

5) Finally, have you ever watched that wonderful BBC comedy series The League of Gentlemen? I'm sure you'd very much enjoy Tubbs and Edward Tattsyrup with their signature refrain, This is a local shop for local people. There's nothing for you here. It's sooo you, Kate!

Slavish Devotion

Can't quite work out why, but these words of Malcolm X just sort of floated into my mind:

"There was 2 kinds of slaves. There was the house negro and the field negro. The house negro, they lived in the house, with the master. They dressed pretty good. They ate good, cause they ate his food, what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near their master, and they loved their master, more than their master loved himself. They would give their life to save their master's house quicker than their master would... If the master's house caught on fire, the house negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would... On that same plantation, there was the field negro. The field negro, those were the masses. There was always more negros in the field as there were negros in the house. The negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house, they ate high up on the hog. The negro in the field didn't get nothing but what was left in the insides of the hog. They call them chit'lins nowaday. In those days, they called them what they were, guts! That's what you were, a guteater. And some of you still are guteaters. The field negro was beaten, from morning til night. He lived in a shack, in a hut. He wore cast-off clothes. He hated his master. I say, he hated his master... When the house caught on fire, he didn't try to put it out, that field negro prayed for a wind. For a breeze. When the master got sick, the field negro prayed that he died... I'm a field negro." The House Negro vs The Field Negro

Now, down to business. ABC Radio National's Fran Kelly interviews Marrickville Council's deputy mayor Sam Iskander - with fascinating results:

FK:... But this wasn't just a Greens boycott. The Labor councillors in Marrickville supported the boycott as well, and I can reveal to you earlier this year Labor's left faction in NSW also voted in favor of the international boycott. The Labor Party deputy mayor of Marrickville is Sam Iskander. He's been interested in these issues long before he was elected to council. In 1977 he fled to Australia from the Lebanon civil war. He joins us now. What will happen tonight when Marrickville Council meets to vote on this issue?:

SI: "We are expecting the whole issue will be buried because we discovered after receiving a report from our staff saying it's gonna be very costly and it can't be in any way benefiting our residents. That's why we will kill it."

Hm, pretty strong language for someone who'd voted for BDS before the deluge.

FK: What about if the mayor... Fiona Byrne puts up a motion that's an in-principle support for the boycott so it doesn't bear any cost? Would you support that?

SI: "Well, we really need to go to the meeting in open mind but I don't see what does it mean in practical. I would really like to go and listen to the debate, but definitely the boycott against Israel is not a goer and since we rule that, and she is ruling that, what principles mean after that? It means nothing clearly. If it's going towards supporting morally the Palestinians to have their rights and to really be supporting for justice in their occupied territories, we all stand for that. Even Israel recognise that the right of the Palestinians to establish their own state it's legitimate. All the issue that really came from the BDS is to support the peace initiatives and the resolution been passed by the UN to establish 2 states and give the Palestinians their rights to live as human beings."

Israel recognises the right of the Palestinians to establish their own state? Oh really? And BDS is all about supporting the so-called peace process?* OH, REALLY? And what UN resolution are you on about, man?

FK: So you say the BDS campaign, which you voted for in December, is a general campaign to support the peace initiatives. Why then would you be backing away from it now?

SI: We are backing off because we can see that it's not something we can do as a council. It's not for us, it's for the federal [government] to decide, and we've been really under a lot of stress from the new-elected premier of NSW which he sent us a letter saying in 28 days we have to respond to his letter asking us to stop the boycott.

What do you know, just what the Israel Lobby and its creatures in the Murdoch press have been saying! And that fiercesome Bazza... oh shit, I've just soiled my pants!

FK: You say it's for the feds to decide. Has your local federal MP, Anthony Albanese, put pressure on the Labor councillors to back down on this?

SI: Not really. We've been communicating and we've been always in support of the 2 states, the Israeli state and the Palestinian state, and, as you know the international community are supporting them so he didn't put any pressure on us, but he always put us on the very clear vision to how can we do it if there is any chance to do it, but there is no chance to do it at all.

No, he didn't put pressure on us, he just sharpened our minds wonderfully.

FK: If there was a motion tonight that expressed solidarity with Palestinians, saying Marrickville Council remains symbolically, though not financially, opposed to the occupation, are you saying you wouldn't support that?

SI: We will definitely oppose the occupation. Definitely we will call for the rights of the Palestinians to establish their own state which the Israelis are working for it. The Jewish community they are very happy to support any peaceful relationship between the 2 sides and to encourage the Israeli government and the Palestinians to achieve the peaceful solution which leads to 2 states. That's what I think the best way to solve all these problems.

The Israelis are working for... whaaat?** The Jewish community are doing... whaaat?

FK: So you agree with Anthony Albanese who said you don't have to be anti-Israel to be pro-Palestine, that's your view. I'm just wondering if you think that will be evident in some kind of motion voted on tonight.

SI: It's not like that really. It's about the BDS, and the BDS to us, it's not a goer, it can't be done in our capacity as Marrickville Council. That's why all of us, we will vote unanimously, that's what I'm expecting, against the BDS. (Marrickville Council Israel boycott under the spotlight, 19/4/11)

Gives the term party animal a whole new meaning now, doesn't it?

[* Iskander clearly has no idea what BDS is all about. To quote from Omar Barghouti's new (2011) book BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights: "The BDS Call, anchored in international law and universal principles of human rights, adopts a comprehensive rights-based approach, underlining the fact that for the Palestinian people to exercise its right to self-determination, Israel must end its 3 forms of injustice that infringe international law and Palestinian rights by: 1. ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands [occupied in 1967] and dismantling the wall 2. recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality 3. respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties, as stipulated in UN resolution 194." (p 6)]

[** Those interested in taking a cold, hard look at the reality of the so-called peace process might like to read another new (2011) book, Israeli Rejectionism: A Hidden Agenda in the Middle East Peace Process by Zalman Amit & Daphna Levit: "This book... argues that there is no peace between Israelis and Palestinians after 62 years because Israel never wanted to achieve peace with its Palestinian neighbours. In recognition of political expediencies and political realities, Israel has consistently proclaimed its commitment to peace, but its consistent strategy was to sabotage any real possiblity of peace. It did so because its leadership has always been convinced that peace is not in Israel's interest. We argue that this began even before the establishment of the State of Israel. Indeed, one can detect this conviction even among the early Zionist leaders such as Herzl." (p 11)]

PS 22/4/11: Compare MC's final resolution (passed 8-4) with Barghouthi's 3 'forms of injustice' above: That Council: 1. Resolve not to pursue the GBDS against Israel in any shape or form as called for in the December 14 resolution; and 2. Remains concerned about Palestinian human rights and calls on Israel to end the occupation of all Arab lands and dismantle the Wall; ensure the fundamental rights of Palestinians to full equality; and respect, protect and promote the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties. Supported by Clrs Hanna (Ind), Iskandar (ALP), Macri (Ind), Olive (G), O'Sullivan (ALP), Phillips (G), Tsardoulias (ALP) and Wright (ALP) It's a bastardized version of Barghouthi, lacks teeth (without BDS), and flies in the face of Iskander's nonsense above about the 'peace process'. What a rabble! Only Clrs Byrne, Kontellis, Peters (Greens) and Thanos (Ind) came out of Tuesday night's meeting with any credit.

A Labor of Love

"Tamara-Mia Cassey represents the other side of Labor's poll woes. The 21-year-old arts student at the University of Western Sydney identifies with Labor principles but feels the party has lost its way and votes Greens. 'I would have liked to have gone Labor, but I didn't see them standing for anything', Ms Cassey told The Weekend Australian." (Youth vote splits as young desert Labor, Ferguson & Westbrook, The Australian, 16/4/11)

Goodness, Ms Cassey doesn't see the Labor Party standing for anything?

Tosh, Ms Cassey. You have a lot to learn, young lady. The Labor Party not only stands for Israel, it also sits down with Israel, snuggles up to Israel, thrills to his sweet talk, and, intoxicated by his heady masculine pheromones, swoons so at his touch with such consequences that I am frankly too embarrassed to describe here.

And here's the evidence, Ms Cassey.

Israel has a word with Kevvie:

"Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has lashed as 'just plain nuts' a decision by a Greens-controlled local council in Sydney to boycott Israeli products and services over its treatment of Palestinians... 'the bottom line is any local authority should get on with the business of what they are paid by ratepayers to do which is to deliver properly their local services - making sure the garbage is picked up... Foreign policy is the province of the national government and for any element of the Greens party to go out there and call upon the nation's government to engage in a campaign to boycott goods and services, be it from Israel or China or any other country, is, as I said, just plain nuts'." ('Just plain nuts': Rudd pans council's boycott, Daniel Flitton, The Age, 15/4/11)

Kevvie has a word with Albo:

"Marrickville council's boycott of Israel has been slammed as 'costly, clumsy and unproductive' by Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who says the resolution should be dropped immediately... The council's 4 Labor members, who previously voted in favour of the boycott, are expected to vote to have it rescinded... Mr Albanese would not say if he too lobbied the local councillors, but said they 'had made it clear' they would vote against the boycott." (Drop Israel boycott, Labor's Anthony Albanese urges Marrickville Council, Lanai Vasek, The Australian, 18/4/11)

Albo has a word with Tanya:

"[Federal Labor Minister] Tanya Plibersek told The Australian she no longer held the views she expressed in parliament. 'The comments that Christopher [Pyne] is referring to were made about 10 years ago, and I acknowledge at the time that I spoke injudiciously', she said. 'Like most Labor Party members and supporters, I'm in favour of a two-state solution. To compare the Labor position with the Greens is simply not right. The residents of Marrickville tell me that they are disturbed by the council's lack of focus on local issues and irrational boycott proposal'." (Israel ban move opens rift in unions, Salusinszky & Franklin, The Australian, 15/4/11)

And Albo and/or Tanya read the riot act to poor old squirming Sam:

"Deputy mayor Sam Iskandar, a Labor councillor, told The Sunday Telegraph he and his party colleagues could no longer support the [boycott] proposal. 'We're not going to support the boycott', Cr Iskandar said. 'That is our position'. The Labor reversal follows the release last week of a council report revealing that boycotting companies with links to Israel would cost ratepayers as much as $4m... Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd branded the move as 'nuts'. Cr Iskandar confirmed he had 'received advice' from his federal counterparts but denied he had been unduly pressured. 'We had advice from the Labor Party... that this is not the way to pursue the strategy of peace in the Middle East', he said. But it is understood Cr Iskandar, who migrated to Australia from Lebanon in 1977 and is a passionate supporter of Palestinian rights, struggled with the decision to back away from supporting the boycott." (Ban on Israel dead in water, Jesse Phillips, Sunday Telegraph, 17/4/11)

There you go, Ms Cassey, Labor stands for... true love! What's not to vote for?

Chalk & Cheese

Australian Labor politician circa 2011:

"The decision of the Greens Party-controlled Marrickville Council to 'boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, academic, government or cultural exchanges', is unfortunate and misguided at best. The council goes even further and suggests that any organisation or company with links to Israel should be boycotted also. It is not clear how much of ratepayer funds will be expended on this research... It's not as if there are no policy challenges or local issues facing the mayor of Marrickville." (Anthony Albanese, federal member for Grayndler, writing in Murdoch's Australian, 14/1/11)

Australian Labor politician circa 1968:

"Two similar members [of the NSW state parliament] were Reg Coady, the Labor member for the marginal seat of Drummoyne, and Davey Hunter, the Liberal member for the equally marginal adjoining seat of Ashfield from 1940 to 1976. Reg was a cripple. Davey was blind. During the 9 years when Reg was in parliament they were friends. When parliament sat late it was somehow touching to see them going home together in the same taxi. Both were bachelors, both had sisters as housekeepers, and both were local members par excellence. They very seldom spoke in parliament on an issue that did not directly affect their electorates. They were perhaps the ultimate in the enervating effect of parliament on class hostility. It was not difficult to imagine Davey as Labor, or Reg as Liberal.

"Reg was known affectionately as the member for bus stops and traffic lights. I got to know Reg quite well. I listened with interest to his tales of how he looked after the interests of his constituents whether it involved the Commonwealth, State or Local government, how he gave legal and other advice, and sometimes just a sympathetic ear. He pushed parish pump issues with a greater intensity than any other MP. He just never had time to engage in politics.

"For me Reg's example was rather frightening. Whilst I was willing and anxious to fight for any cause in which an injustice had been done, I did not believe that injustices were confined to the 60,000 men, women and children in my electorate." (George Petersen, state member for Illawarra (1968-1988), writing in his autobiography George Petersen Remembers: The Contradictions, Problems & Betrayals of Labor in Government in New South Wales, 1998, p 34)

George Petersen (1921-2000) campaigned strongly against injustice wherever he saw it, whether in his own electorate, in NSW, in Australia, or overseas. He campaigned against both South African and Israeli apartheid. Were BDS around in George's day, he'd have embraced it unequivocally. Certainly, you'd never have heard him say, 'Any lasting resolution to the conflict in South Africa cannot be at the expense of either blacks or whites', or, to quote Albanese, "Any lasting resolution to the Middle East conflict cannot be at the expense of either Palestinians or Israelis." George was the real thing. Albanese reveals himself to be just another parish pump hack.

Bob Brown & A Failure of Courage

Greens founder and leader Bob Brown uses the Murdoch press - the Murdoch press for God's sake - to dump on his colleague Lee Rhiannon:

"Senator Brown said the Israel boycott proposal was against his advice and had alienated NSW voters when the party should have been focusing on bread-and-butter issues." (Greens leader Bob Brown slaps down Lee Rhiannon on Israel boycott policy, James Massola & Joe Kelly, The Australian, 1/4/11)

Notice how Brown uses the exact same argument as the Labor opportunist whose wife, Carmel Tebbutt, stood against the Greens' Fiona Byrne for the seat of Marrickville? I speak, of course, of federal Labor minister Anthony Albanese, who weighed in on the subject of Marrickville Council's support for BDS back in January with, "Foreign policy is a fair way outside the parameters of the role of Marrickville Council..." (See my 18/1/11 post A Rising Tide of Pro-Israel Bias at the ABC.) And by so doing, Albanese unmasked himself as a fairweather friend of the Palestinians. (I'm actually at a loss to explain why he was ever considered a friend of the Palestinians in the first place.)

What a sterling example for you to follow, Bob. And what precisely do you mean when you talk about NSW voters? I mean, where's the science here? Fiona Byrne came close to knocking off Albanese's missus, and Jamie Parker looks set to take Balmain from Labor, and all you can do is mutter darkly about supposedly upset NSW voters . Tell us who's been in your ear, Bob.

"He had conveyed his views to Greens senator-elect Ms Rhiannon in a 'robust' phone call this morning. Senator Brown said the federal Greens in no way endorsed the policy', Senator Brown said. 'It was a mistake. I differ from Lee on that, and so do other components of the NSW Greens, who handled so badly that part of the campaign against my advice. I reiterate that the policy she and the NSW Greens had in the run to the NSW election was [the] wrong emphasis. NSW voters wanted to hear about issues affecting them day-to-day, it's one that has been rejected by the Australian Greens'... 'I think that it was damaging to the Greens campaign. They had very good policies on transport, preschool education, renewable energy, and the hate media was able to play this up', he said."

And who have you been talking to, Bob? The hate media, aka the Murdoch press, right? And what's a/the major component of Murdoch press hate, Bob? That's right, lashing out at at anyone who dares to criticise Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian and other Arab peoples, its utter contempt for international law, and its central role in destabilising the Middle East, whipping up Islamophobia around the globe and compromising our democratic freedoms and processes. So what are you saying here, Bob? On the face of it: shove the principle, let's just say whatever it takes to win, and zip up on the rest.

Unfortunately, Bob Brown has dismally failed the litmus test for intellectual and moral integrity so eloquently posed by Singaporean scholar Kishore Mahbubani: "The liberal internationalists were at the forefront of calls to hold Sudan and China accountable for the misery in Darfur under the concept of 'responsibility to protect'. Yet, many of these same voices did not bring up the concept of responsibility to protect when collective punishment was imposed on the people of Gaza. There is one point that needs to be emphasised here: there is always a litmus test to assess a person's intellectual and moral courage. In the West, especially in America, this litmus test is provided by the Middle East issue. The intellectual and moral cowardice of Western intellectuals on this issue is stunning. Paradoxically, by censoring their views on Israel they have done great damage to Israel by failing to point out to it the sheer folly of remaining in perpetual conflict with its neighbors. The next time any Western intellectual calls upon the rest of the world to show courage by speaking 'truth to power' he or she should lead the charge by speaking 'truth to power' on the Israel-Palestine dispute."

Bob?

A Myth Is Born 4

Whatever could The Australian's contributing editor, Peter van Onselen, possibly mean by this:

"... the lessons from Marrickville and Balmain are not to take voters for granted by preselecting candidates with controversial pedigrees." (Green dream turns to ashes, 31/3/11)

Keeping in mind the abuse hurled at both Fiona Byrne ("advocating a polite modern rendering of Kristallnacht") and Jamie Parker ("wanted to turn Balmain power station into a gas chamber"), quoted in my last post, is he suggesting that...?

No, of course not! How could I possibly have thought such a thing? No, read on a bit and you see that he's actually referring, courtesy of his disinterested interlocutor Anthony Albanese, federal Labor minister and husband of state Labor MP for Marrickville, Carmel Tebbutt, to "the Israel boycott voted for by Byrne on the Marrickville Council."

But wait a minute! What's that got to do with Byrne's and Parker's "controversial pedigree"? What is Van Onselen really getting at here?

Ah, I see, can't fool MERC: Fiona's really Fatima and Jamie's really Jamil!

As Van Onselen goes on to write, "Local resident and Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes is convinced that if the Greens had selected another candidate they would have won the seat."

So there you go Greens - if only you hadn't run those two Arabs!

A Rising Tide of Pro-Israel Bias at the ABC

"There is a rising tide of opposition to a plan by a Sydney Council to boycott Israel. The Marrickville Council has joined a global ban of goods and services from Israel over its occupation of the Palestinian territories," announced the reader of ABC TV's 7 pm news last night.

OMG, thought I, a veritable Zionist tsunami, heading straight for plucky little Marrickville Council! I upped the volume control.

"But critics say the council should stick to looking after rates and rubbish and leave foreign policy to Canberra," the newsreader continued. Ah, thought I, no tsunami after all, just critics.

No sooner had I breathed a sigh of relief, however, than the ABC's reporter-on-the-spot had me sweating again as he weighed in with, "Marrickville's anti-Israel boycott is causing a big stir."
Big stir! OMG, it's that rising tide of opposition again!

And then, there it was - rising tide of opposition and big stir all rolled into one (rather ample, I have to say) female form in the person of Rosana Tyler, state Liberal candidate for Marrickville and VP of the Newtown Synagogue.

"I find that most reasonable people are simply against this," she cried, presumably after doorknocking every house in the electorate, sorting out the reasonable from the unreasonable residing therein, asking them, 'Do you support the Greens/Labor/Hamas-dominated Marrickville Council's call for wiping Israel off the map, yes or no?' and completing the required back-of-the-envelope math to arrive at her scientifically impeccable conclusion.

Marrickville Council was by now knee-deep in this rising tide of opposition. But worse was to come when another rising tide of opposition appeared, in the form of a photo of Anthony Albanese, federal Labor Minister for Transport and noted authority on parameters, who was quoted as saying that "Foreign policy is a fair way outside the parameters of the role of Marrickville Council..."

Poor Marrickville Council was treading water by this stage. Another rising tide of opposition and that'd be it! All over, red rover...

Alas, along came a third rising tide of opposition, with someone dubbed "a spokeswoman for the state Minister for Local Government, Barbara Perry" quoted as saying, "Marrickville Council should concentrate on rubbish collection and rates rather than trying to solve the long standing Middle East conflict."

And that was it! Marrickville Council was simply swept away, along with the credibility of the ABC, by the latter's rising tide of pro-Israel bias.

But at least we now know what constitutes a rising tide of opposition at the ABC - 3 critics, at least 2 of whose seats are under threat from The Greens.

Send in the Clown...

Don't bother, he's here:

Can you work this guy - Anthony Albanese, Minister for Transport - out?

Marrickville Council, part of Albo's fiefdom of Grayndler, has dared to make the BDS of Israel part of its practice. However, instead of lauding this perfectly correct, highly commendable and long overdue move, this alleged lefty MP has gone on the attack, presumably under orders from the prime minister. And in Murdoch's Australian of all places! (Local government goes beyond the pale with boycott of Israel, 14/1/11)

Among other things, Albo's accused the Marrickville councillors, both Labor and Greens, of "simplistic sloganeering." And he knows what he's talking about here, because his whining in Murdoch fishwrapper is full of it:

1) "I believe that engagement between peoples promotes understanding and tolerance..."

2) "Surely contact and engagement between Palestinians and Israelis is a precondition for a peaceful settlement."

3) "The inner west of Sydney is... a place where neighbours live in harmony regardless of religion or race."

What can such airy fairy nonsense possibly mean in a context where the vast bulk of Israelis are rusted on to the notion that Palestine is their exclusive domain, and either acquiesce in, or actively support, the colonisation of Palestinian lands (not to mention rejecting the right of Palestinians exiled in 1948 to return to their homes and lands)?

Maybe that should have been Send in the clowns... because in the same edition of Murdoch dropsheet comes this drive-by smear in a letter by Zionist academic Philip Mendes: "Any boycott of Israelis alone is discriminatory given that it is based on an ethnic stereotyping of all Israelis as evil, and is implicitly if not explicitly racist. It is only fascists and xenophobes who classify whole peoples as inherently bad or inferior."

Ever heard a peep from him about Israel's crippling blockade of Gaza*, the BDS measures once applied to apartheid South Africa (of which I assume he would have been in favour at the time), the vile, impoverishing sanctions regime applied by the US against Iraq** or those now in place against Iran?

[* "'As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed to (US embassy economic officers) on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without 'quite pushing it over the edge', one of the cables read." (WikiLeaks: Israel aimed to keep Gaza economy on brink of collapse, Reuters, Haaretz, 5/1/11); ** 1991-2010]

Q&A

ABC Television's Q&A, where a panel of 5 high profiles is quizzed by a studio audience, is one of those rare mainstream shows that occasionally open the Israeli colonisation of Palestine to real debate. Last night's Q&A was a case in point:

The Question - a typical Zionist finger-pointing exercise - came from one, Ronny Schnapp* and was addressed to British comedian (and Israel critic) Alexei Sayle: "Alexei Sayle has called for a cultural boycott of Israel but would he support a cultural boycott of such human rights luminaries as Sudan, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Britain? The list goes on."

[*Ronny who? Well, here's an insight into his 'thinking': "Why are so many letter writers paranoid about having their doors knocked down by federal agents in the middle of the night? Do they have something to hide? Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear." (Ronny Schnapp, letter to SMH, 11/3/02) You can imagine 'good' Germans saying something similar about the Gestapo in the 30s.]

Alexei's half-way* decent answer went thus: "Well... your criticism is kind of saying that because I criticised Israel... I won't criticise Zimbabwe or Sudan. I am perfectly happy to do that. Zimbabwe is a foul country... But... Israel is an adjunct of the West in a sense. Israel is a western colony, the last [such] colony in a sense. It was founded in 1948. People came from central [and] eastern Europe, took over Arab land and formed their state there. And I think, because it is an extension of us, we have to try and ensure that it sticks to the levels of decency we expect of a western democracy and which it significantly fails to do right now... By raising the idea of a boycott, what I'm trying to do is - I mean, I'm in a group called Jews for Justice for Palestinians. A lot of the members are these ferocious little Jewish guys in their 60s and 70s. A lot of them actually fought in the Israeli army in the earlier wars and whatever the argument is about the founding of Israel, all of them feel Israel became a colonial power once it occupied the West Bank and refused to give it back and stood on the necks of the 3 million people who lived there, denied them all civil rights, any kind of life. Israel became, as President Jimmy Carter said, as Bishop Desmond Tutu said, an apartheid state and that's why I called for a boycott." [* Israeli occupation and apartheid began in 1948, not 1967]

Labor's Minister for Infrastructure Anthony Albanese predictably toed the party line: "No [I don't support the boycott of Israel], I support engagement. I am very critical of a lot of Israel's policies*. I, with Joe Hockey, helped set up the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine** as a cross-party group to restore some balance to the debate. But I think if you were about promoting peace, you've got to be about promoting dialogue and discussion, and certainly this arose out of the Leonard Cohen concert there." [*Albo was a little more forthcoming in defence of the Palestinians in a speech in the House of Representatives on 15 September 2002. Since then, however, if his website is any indication, he's said nothing; **Try getting a result from Google on that elusive creature!]

Liberal Likudnik (& Opposition education spokesman) Christopher Pyne just as predictably wore his Zionist heart (liver and kidneys) on his sleeve: "I don't agree with a cultural boycott of Israel at all. I understand Alexei's very strong [extremist!] views. He has held them for a very long time and they're very well known. But I don't believe that all the blame in the Middle East can be laid at the feet of the state of Israel. Israel is a country in many respects like Australia, like the United States, like Great Britain. It's a democracy. It believes in liberty and freedom, and it has been fighting a war for its very survival since 1948. We agree - the Coalition obviously supports a two-state solution - both countries living in peace together, but we also believe that the Palestinian side should recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and, of course, Hamas still doesn't do so and it's questionable whether, in fact, Fatah and the Palestinian Legislative Council has accepted wholeheartedly the right of Israel to exist. So I think there are arguments on both sides but I fall down on the side that Israel needs to be able to live free of terrorism and, in the situation where it found itself, where it could, I think Israel would treat its Palestinian minority population and the West Bank and Gaza quite differently."

The token youngster on Q&A, Indian Youth Climate Network Executive Director Deepa Gupta, had - like - no idea: "I think with any - like, when you get in a war - like - there's so much hurt done on both sides that you can keep arguing for one side or you can keep arguing for the other side, and I don't think you actually get anywhere, and that's what's been happening. Like, people don't understand the hurt that has been done on the other side. And, furthermore, like on the issue of cultural boycotts, like I understand the effectiveness of cultural boycotts but, at the same time, like I think music plays a really big role in bringing peace. Like earlier this year in India we did a climate solutions road tour and we had a solar-powered rock band travelling with us and a dance troupe and - and these people were from America and they sang songs in Hindi and the most amazing thing was - you know, often, especially with rural communities, it takes weeks to build up trust with them and to help them understand what these issues are. With music and dance we were able to break down these cultural barriers within 30 minutes. Like people were happy and dancing and open and really open to listen and I think that we need to acknowledge that music plays a really big role in connecting with people's hearts and helping them understand each other." Deepa, it's OK to say you simply don't know anything about the issue, really.

Alexei Sayle had the last word - and didn't waste a syllable: "Well, I don't think that dialogue with Israel has worked. I think that the people of Israel have been - I made the analogy that Israel is kind of like a teenage bully who has been indulged by his parents, you know, and has never been set any boundaries. Obama says stop. You know as soon as they signed the Oslo Accord, they kept building settlements. President Obama says, 'Please don't build any more settlements'. They say, 'Up yours', carry on building settlements. Dialogue doesn't work with Israel. It has to be like a kind of recalcitrant child. You have to express your disgust at its behaviour. I think a boycott is - we did it with South Africa. I think we need to do it with Israel."