"The PM's holiday reading includes former Canadian PM Stephen Harper's Right Here, Right Now... " (Our pollies brought to book over summer, Troy Bramston, The Australian, 11/12/18)
Stephen Harper, eh? No surprises there:
"[O]ne of Harper's most polarizing foreign policy causes has been Israel. As Israel has grown increasingly isolated due to its treatment of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories - as well as building illegal settlements on this land - the Harper government has become one of the country's most zealous supporters.
"Since Harper became prime minister [2006], Israel has invaded Lebanon - killing up to 1,125 Lebanese (as compared to 159 Israelis) and launched two invasions of the Gaza Strip, the first in 2008-09 that led to 1,434 Palestinian casualties (as compared to 13 Israelis) and then last year, leading to 2,139 Palestinian deaths and 11,000 wounded (as compared to 73 Israeli deaths and 556 wounded). In 2010, when six Turkish ships set sail for Gaza to deliver 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to relieve Israel's blockade, Israeli commandos stormed the boats in international waters and killed 10 activists. Despite international condemnation over what was seen as Israel's overkill in these instances, the Harper government has consistently rushed to Israel's defense and been quick to brand Palestinians and their organizations as 'terrorists.'...
"Harper has a close affinity with the current government of Israel, led by the hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu, although Netanyahu's party won only 23% of the vote in the most recent election. Moreover, during that campaign, Netanyahu pledged to never negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians and made thinly racist comments on the eve of the vote, saying 'Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves' as a warning to voters to back his Likud party. In fact, Canada has sided with Israel to thwart Palestinians' efforts to have their own state: in 2012, Canada was the only one of nine countries in the UN that voted against Palestinians achieving statehood. Since 2007, it has cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority, voted against all UN resolutions recognizing the rights of Palestinians and complained bitterly when Palestine was admitted as a full member state to UNESCO.
"Not surprisingly, Harper's foreign policy has alienated Canada's Arab and Muslim communities... In 2009, the federal government cut its $1-million annual funding for the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) due to the organization's criticism's of Israel... And then there is Harper's decision to send fighter jets to Iraq to do battle with ISIS, costing $360-million this year... " (Is Harper Canada's worst prime minister?, Bruce Livesey, nationalobserver.com, 7/6/15)
That was 2015. Lately, Harper has begun to display signs of the dreaded Jerusalem Syndrome:
"The intersection of populism and trade may be Harper's second-favourite subject on the speaking circuit after Israel. His sharpest post-political advocacy is for the Jewish state, after steadfast rhetorical support during his time in government. Maclean's counts at least 10 Israel-related speaking engagements or events Harper has attended since leaving office [in 2015]... plus a private event at the mansion of pro-Israel casino magnate Sheldon Adelson for the Republican Jewish Coalition while still MP in 2016. Harper has become director of the Friends of Israel Initiative, a group of former political leaders [inc. Howard and Downer!] - and it was through that group that he co-signed a full-page ad in the New York Times praising Trump's pulling out of the Iran nuclear accord, which Israel hotly advocated but Canada's current government didn't.
"'He's a man of principles and he's not going to let political exigencies affect his standing for what he believes is right, even if not popular,' says Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, head of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. When that charity [LOL] held its first gala, at Trump's glitzy Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, it hoped to book Nikki Haley, Trump's UN ambassador, Eckstein recalls. When she was unavailable, his board opted for Harper. According to a speech transcript provided by the charity, Harper... ripped into anti-Semitism on campuses, Iran's threat to Israel, how he would declare Jerusalem the state's capital if he were prime minister, and why unequivocal support of Israel is 'plainly and simply the right thing to do'." (What on earth is Stephen Harper up to? Jason Markusoff, macleans.ca, 12/7/18)
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Monday, March 6, 2017
Political Sycophants vs Us
When it comes to Israel, the sycophantic, formulaic utterances of Western politicians ('historic ties/shared values') in defence of the indefensible (Israeli occupation, colonisation, apartheid, racism and genocide) are depressingly familiar to us all.
What the general public thinks of Israel, however, is quite another matter.
In Canada (one of Israel's reliable figleaves, along with Australia, in the UNGA), an EKOS poll reveals that Canadians are quite open to the idea of imposing economic sanctions on Israel. The poll found that:
1) 91% of all Canadians believe that sanctions are a reasonable way for Canada to censure countries violating international law and human rights.
2) 66% of all Canadians believe that sanctions on Israel are reasonable given its violations of international law.
3) 78% of all Canadians also believe that the Palestinians' call for a boycott of Israel is reasonable.
In Canada's case the leading political sycophants singing like canaries for Israel have been the former prime minister, Stephen Harper (coming to Australia this month to sing for Israel) and the current prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
Were a similar poll conducted in Australia, I imagine the results would be much the same as in Canada.
One recent, albeit small-scale, indication that this would be the case may be found in a most unlikely place, namely, the letters page of Murdoch's fanatically Zionist rag, The Australian.
Usually the preferred forum of right-wing nutjobs and Islamophobes, the Talking Point segment of the letters page of The Australian for February 23 this year - during Netanyahu's visit to Australia, on which the paper had lavished the kind of attention and praise one might have expected for the Messiah himself - was a notable exception. Only 3 of the 12 letters published were in praise of Israel and/or its leader.
I was particularly taken with this, from Peter Marshall, Captain's Flat NSW:
"It is intellectually lazy to describe Israel as a democracy. It is a gerrymander, with apparently unrestricted immigration by people of Jewish faith or ancestry, while Palestinian refugees are unable to return to their homeland."
And this, from John Dorman, Toowoomba, Qld:
"Mr Turnbull might deplore the UN's many 'one-sided' resolutions criticising Israel. If he cares to flip the coin he might also like to comment on how Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, saw the lie of the land: 'If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country'."
In The Australian, mind you!
What the general public thinks of Israel, however, is quite another matter.
In Canada (one of Israel's reliable figleaves, along with Australia, in the UNGA), an EKOS poll reveals that Canadians are quite open to the idea of imposing economic sanctions on Israel. The poll found that:
1) 91% of all Canadians believe that sanctions are a reasonable way for Canada to censure countries violating international law and human rights.
2) 66% of all Canadians believe that sanctions on Israel are reasonable given its violations of international law.
3) 78% of all Canadians also believe that the Palestinians' call for a boycott of Israel is reasonable.
In Canada's case the leading political sycophants singing like canaries for Israel have been the former prime minister, Stephen Harper (coming to Australia this month to sing for Israel) and the current prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
Were a similar poll conducted in Australia, I imagine the results would be much the same as in Canada.
One recent, albeit small-scale, indication that this would be the case may be found in a most unlikely place, namely, the letters page of Murdoch's fanatically Zionist rag, The Australian.
Usually the preferred forum of right-wing nutjobs and Islamophobes, the Talking Point segment of the letters page of The Australian for February 23 this year - during Netanyahu's visit to Australia, on which the paper had lavished the kind of attention and praise one might have expected for the Messiah himself - was a notable exception. Only 3 of the 12 letters published were in praise of Israel and/or its leader.
I was particularly taken with this, from Peter Marshall, Captain's Flat NSW:
"It is intellectually lazy to describe Israel as a democracy. It is a gerrymander, with apparently unrestricted immigration by people of Jewish faith or ancestry, while Palestinian refugees are unable to return to their homeland."
And this, from John Dorman, Toowoomba, Qld:
"Mr Turnbull might deplore the UN's many 'one-sided' resolutions criticising Israel. If he cares to flip the coin he might also like to comment on how Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, saw the lie of the land: 'If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country'."
In The Australian, mind you!
Friday, February 3, 2017
Independent, Fearless Journalism, Guardian-Style
"Become a supporter. Support our independent, fearless journalism in Australia," pleads the ad on the Guardian Australia website.
I wonder, though, what happened to that independent, fearless journalism when the Guardian reported on the recent case of the Quebec terrorist, Alexande Bissonnette as follows:
"Those who know Bissonnette have described him as pro-Donald trump, anti-immigration and sympathetic to the far right." (Fox News tweet made no mention of the other man arrested after Canadian PM's office steps in, Ashifa Kassam, 1/2/17)
The Guardian left out the fact that Bissonnette was an admirer of Israel and its army. To learn about that one has to go to the Electronic Intifada website, where Ali Abunimah points out that:
"Quebec media have pointed to the Facebook page of Bissonnette [which] showed that Bissonnette has 'liked' a number of political figures and entities which, if taken as signs of his views, may indicate far-right leanings. His 'likes' include the official Facebook pages of Trump, Le Pen, the 'Israel Defence Forces' and a group called 'United with Israel'." (Quebec mosque attack suspect liked Trump, Israeli army, French far-right, 30/1/17)
For those with eyes to see, Zionism and far-right extremism are natural bedfellows. See my 19/4/12 post 'Our Zionist brothers'.
I wonder, though, what happened to that independent, fearless journalism when the Guardian reported on the recent case of the Quebec terrorist, Alexande Bissonnette as follows:
"Those who know Bissonnette have described him as pro-Donald trump, anti-immigration and sympathetic to the far right." (Fox News tweet made no mention of the other man arrested after Canadian PM's office steps in, Ashifa Kassam, 1/2/17)
The Guardian left out the fact that Bissonnette was an admirer of Israel and its army. To learn about that one has to go to the Electronic Intifada website, where Ali Abunimah points out that:
"Quebec media have pointed to the Facebook page of Bissonnette [which] showed that Bissonnette has 'liked' a number of political figures and entities which, if taken as signs of his views, may indicate far-right leanings. His 'likes' include the official Facebook pages of Trump, Le Pen, the 'Israel Defence Forces' and a group called 'United with Israel'." (Quebec mosque attack suspect liked Trump, Israeli army, French far-right, 30/1/17)
For those with eyes to see, Zionism and far-right extremism are natural bedfellows. See my 19/4/12 post 'Our Zionist brothers'.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
The Love Song of J. Pierre Trudeau
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two.
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use.
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous -
Almost, at times, the Fool.
"As I've said many times, before and after visiting Israel, standing up for Israel is more than just standing up for her security. It is also standing up for the very values and ideals that our two countries share - democracy, openness, tolerance, compassion, respect for the rule of law, and perhaps above all, the quest for peace. I want to reiterate that the Liberal Party of Canada will have Israel's back. Not because it is in our political interests to do so at home but because it is the right thing to do. I do want to emphasise the importance of having a political consensus in Ottowa across party lines. We must support Israel. Canada must remain a steadfast and true friend to Israel. The only way to accomplish that goal is to make sure that, regardless of our differences, all Canadian political parties are united in our support for a safe, secure and prosperous state of Israel." (Justin Trudeau, 6/4/14)
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two.
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use.
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous -
Almost, at times, the Fool.
"As I've said many times, before and after visiting Israel, standing up for Israel is more than just standing up for her security. It is also standing up for the very values and ideals that our two countries share - democracy, openness, tolerance, compassion, respect for the rule of law, and perhaps above all, the quest for peace. I want to reiterate that the Liberal Party of Canada will have Israel's back. Not because it is in our political interests to do so at home but because it is the right thing to do. I do want to emphasise the importance of having a political consensus in Ottowa across party lines. We must support Israel. Canada must remain a steadfast and true friend to Israel. The only way to accomplish that goal is to make sure that, regardless of our differences, all Canadian political parties are united in our support for a safe, secure and prosperous state of Israel." (Justin Trudeau, 6/4/14)
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Justin Trudeau in a Nutshell
"The BDS movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses." - JT tweet, 13/3/15
And as Israel rained death, hell and the grave on Gaza last year, Trudeau Ziobabbled:
"Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Hamas is a terrorist organization and must cease its rocket attacks immediately." 15/7/14
And as Israel rained death, hell and the grave on Gaza last year, Trudeau Ziobabbled:
"Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Hamas is a terrorist organization and must cease its rocket attacks immediately." 15/7/14
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Using Force, Rewriting History & Getting Away With It
In an opinion piece in Tuesday's edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, international editor Peter Hartcher concluded his commentary on the the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre as follows:
"As it did 25 years ago in a very different situation, China is using force, rewriting history, and getting away with it." (China muscles its way to power, 3/6/14)
(The present tense is using refers, of course, to the recent sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in the South China Sea.)
Whatever this formulation's applicability to China, however, I was struck by how well it summed up Israel's modus operandi: using force, rewriting history, and getting away with it.
Thank you, Mr Hartcher.
But typically, not in a million would Hartcher, rambammed in 2009 and 2011, ever say any such thing about the apartheid state, its long history of murder and mayhem, its false historical narrative, and its Scarlet Pimpernel-like ability to evade censure and sanction.
To take just two recent examples from The Australian Jewish News of history rewritten:
1) A supplement to the AJN last month, Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) 2014-5774, leads with a two-page spread A journey through history, by Nathan Jeffay.
Essentially a tourism ad, the only history we get here is:
a) that "the modern Jewish state" was established on May 14, 1948.
b) that an attack by Arab armies followed the above.
c) that three "Zionist militias" (the Palmach, the Etzel "paramilitary organisation, also known as the Irgun and commanded by the man who became Israel's 6th Prime Minister, Menachem Begin," and the "hard-line Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang") made this glorious event possible.
What we don't get is any mention of Palestinians or the fact of their ethnic cleansing at the time. They are completely absent from Jeffay's journey through history.
2) An article by Uri Butnaru, The forgotten refugees, in the AJN of 23/5/14. This begins:
"The decision by the Canadian parliament earlier this year to recognise the refugee status of 850,000 Sephardi Jews forced to leave Arab lands such as Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Libya between 1948 and the early 1950s is another small step towards justice. Being the son of an Iraqi Jewish refugee, it gladdens my heart that in a small way the world is starting to understand that there was suffering on both sides of the conflict, sparked by the establishment of Israel in May 1948 - it wasn't just the Palestinians who were dispossessed and displaced. Sephardi Jews from Arab lands had to leave everything behind, their homes and all their possessions. But while not one of the 22 Arab countries that could have taken in the displaced Palestinians did so, for the Sephardi Jews there was one tiny country in the world that welcomed them with open arms."
Butnuru's is, of course, a propaganda piece premised on a false equivalence, namely that both Palestinians and Arab Jews were "refugees," sharing a similar experience and fate (summed by Butnuru as "dispossession and displacement") and that Israel's sole involvement in the matter extended to nothing more than merely "welcom[ing] them with open arms."
A Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) report from March 28, 1950 gives the lie to this:
"Premier David Ben Gurion returned today from his 3-weeks leave and tonight will attend a joint session of the Israel Cabinet and the Jewish Agency executive, called to explore the possibilities of the immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel after they are permitted to leave Iraq." (Ben Gurion returns from vacation; discusses immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel, jta.org)
The key word here, of course, is immigration. Broadly, while the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland by Zionist forces, Arab Jews emigrated from Iraq with more than a little help from Ben Gurion and friends.
Now I could stop here, but let's go on and explore some of the differences between the experiences of Palestinian refugees on the one hand, and Iraqi Jewish emigrants on the other.
Here, for example, is a description of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian port city of Jaffa in late April, 1948, courtesy of our aforementioned Israeli 'paramilitary' chieftain, Menachem Begin:
"Then a strange phenomenon was revealed before our eyes: the mass flight from Jaffa. Arab civilians and a variety of Arab 'fighters' suddenly began to leave in panic. There appear to have been two causes for this epidemic flight. One was the name of their attackers and the repute which propaganda had bestowed on them.* The Beirut correspondent of the United Press cabled that when the first boat-load of refugees arrived there from Jaffa they reported that the information that this attack was being made by the Irgun had thrown the population into a state of abject fear. The second factor was the weight of our bombardment. I do not know exactly how many [mortar] shells we sent into Jaffa. Yigal Yadin, Operations Officer of the Haganah, told me afterwards that we had not been sufficiently economical with our precious shells. The total load was certainly very heavy." (The Revolt: Story of the Irgun,1952, p 363)
[*A veiled reference to the Irgun's Deir Yassin massacre of April 9, 1948.]
Nothing even remotely comparable happened to Iraqi or any other Arab Jewish community.
To stick with the example of Iraq's Jews, news of Zionist atrocities against Palestinian civilians in 1948, the Iraqi army's involvement in the war against a Zionist takeover of Palestine, and the existence in Iraq of an armed Zionist underground, all combined to foster the view that Iraqi Jews constituted a potential 5th column for Israel.
The Iraqi government initially reacted by seizing the property of Iraqi Jews known to be in Israel, and some Jews began leaving Iraq illegally by December 1948. When restrictions on the emigration of Iraqi Jews were lifted in March 1950, a spate of mysterious bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad followed, leading to a mass emigration, mostly to Israel, from May to August 1950. Evidence points to the work of Zionist terrorists seeking to speed up the process. (See my posts Greg Sheridan: Charmed by Israel's 'Most Dangerous Politician', 21/12/07; Shameless Israeli Propaganda at the WaPo, 3/12/14)
Israel's foreign minister at the time, Moshe Sharett, crowed in a telegram that "[The emigration] is striking vindication persistent and daring efforts of Mossad Ha'Aliyah [underground Zionist movement for encouraging emigration] which in long years of underground work... succeeded creating movement which breathed new spirit into traditionally submissive Iraqi Jewry." (quoted in Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries, Michael R. Fischbach, 2008, p 56)
To return to our opening theme: aggression in spades, rewritten history on a grand scale, and getting away with it every time. Israel makes the Chinese look like mere amateurs.
"As it did 25 years ago in a very different situation, China is using force, rewriting history, and getting away with it." (China muscles its way to power, 3/6/14)
(The present tense is using refers, of course, to the recent sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in the South China Sea.)
Whatever this formulation's applicability to China, however, I was struck by how well it summed up Israel's modus operandi: using force, rewriting history, and getting away with it.
Thank you, Mr Hartcher.
But typically, not in a million would Hartcher, rambammed in 2009 and 2011, ever say any such thing about the apartheid state, its long history of murder and mayhem, its false historical narrative, and its Scarlet Pimpernel-like ability to evade censure and sanction.
To take just two recent examples from The Australian Jewish News of history rewritten:
1) A supplement to the AJN last month, Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) 2014-5774, leads with a two-page spread A journey through history, by Nathan Jeffay.
Essentially a tourism ad, the only history we get here is:
a) that "the modern Jewish state" was established on May 14, 1948.
b) that an attack by Arab armies followed the above.
c) that three "Zionist militias" (the Palmach, the Etzel "paramilitary organisation, also known as the Irgun and commanded by the man who became Israel's 6th Prime Minister, Menachem Begin," and the "hard-line Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang") made this glorious event possible.
What we don't get is any mention of Palestinians or the fact of their ethnic cleansing at the time. They are completely absent from Jeffay's journey through history.
2) An article by Uri Butnaru, The forgotten refugees, in the AJN of 23/5/14. This begins:
"The decision by the Canadian parliament earlier this year to recognise the refugee status of 850,000 Sephardi Jews forced to leave Arab lands such as Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Libya between 1948 and the early 1950s is another small step towards justice. Being the son of an Iraqi Jewish refugee, it gladdens my heart that in a small way the world is starting to understand that there was suffering on both sides of the conflict, sparked by the establishment of Israel in May 1948 - it wasn't just the Palestinians who were dispossessed and displaced. Sephardi Jews from Arab lands had to leave everything behind, their homes and all their possessions. But while not one of the 22 Arab countries that could have taken in the displaced Palestinians did so, for the Sephardi Jews there was one tiny country in the world that welcomed them with open arms."
Butnuru's is, of course, a propaganda piece premised on a false equivalence, namely that both Palestinians and Arab Jews were "refugees," sharing a similar experience and fate (summed by Butnuru as "dispossession and displacement") and that Israel's sole involvement in the matter extended to nothing more than merely "welcom[ing] them with open arms."
A Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) report from March 28, 1950 gives the lie to this:
"Premier David Ben Gurion returned today from his 3-weeks leave and tonight will attend a joint session of the Israel Cabinet and the Jewish Agency executive, called to explore the possibilities of the immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel after they are permitted to leave Iraq." (Ben Gurion returns from vacation; discusses immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel, jta.org)
The key word here, of course, is immigration. Broadly, while the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland by Zionist forces, Arab Jews emigrated from Iraq with more than a little help from Ben Gurion and friends.
Now I could stop here, but let's go on and explore some of the differences between the experiences of Palestinian refugees on the one hand, and Iraqi Jewish emigrants on the other.
Here, for example, is a description of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian port city of Jaffa in late April, 1948, courtesy of our aforementioned Israeli 'paramilitary' chieftain, Menachem Begin:
"Then a strange phenomenon was revealed before our eyes: the mass flight from Jaffa. Arab civilians and a variety of Arab 'fighters' suddenly began to leave in panic. There appear to have been two causes for this epidemic flight. One was the name of their attackers and the repute which propaganda had bestowed on them.* The Beirut correspondent of the United Press cabled that when the first boat-load of refugees arrived there from Jaffa they reported that the information that this attack was being made by the Irgun had thrown the population into a state of abject fear. The second factor was the weight of our bombardment. I do not know exactly how many [mortar] shells we sent into Jaffa. Yigal Yadin, Operations Officer of the Haganah, told me afterwards that we had not been sufficiently economical with our precious shells. The total load was certainly very heavy." (The Revolt: Story of the Irgun,1952, p 363)
[*A veiled reference to the Irgun's Deir Yassin massacre of April 9, 1948.]
Nothing even remotely comparable happened to Iraqi or any other Arab Jewish community.
To stick with the example of Iraq's Jews, news of Zionist atrocities against Palestinian civilians in 1948, the Iraqi army's involvement in the war against a Zionist takeover of Palestine, and the existence in Iraq of an armed Zionist underground, all combined to foster the view that Iraqi Jews constituted a potential 5th column for Israel.
The Iraqi government initially reacted by seizing the property of Iraqi Jews known to be in Israel, and some Jews began leaving Iraq illegally by December 1948. When restrictions on the emigration of Iraqi Jews were lifted in March 1950, a spate of mysterious bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad followed, leading to a mass emigration, mostly to Israel, from May to August 1950. Evidence points to the work of Zionist terrorists seeking to speed up the process. (See my posts Greg Sheridan: Charmed by Israel's 'Most Dangerous Politician', 21/12/07; Shameless Israeli Propaganda at the WaPo, 3/12/14)
Israel's foreign minister at the time, Moshe Sharett, crowed in a telegram that "[The emigration] is striking vindication persistent and daring efforts of Mossad Ha'Aliyah [underground Zionist movement for encouraging emigration] which in long years of underground work... succeeded creating movement which breathed new spirit into traditionally submissive Iraqi Jewry." (quoted in Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries, Michael R. Fischbach, 2008, p 56)
To return to our opening theme: aggression in spades, rewritten history on a grand scale, and getting away with it every time. Israel makes the Chinese look like mere amateurs.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Manichean Madness
OMG:
"If you're searching for the single government in the world that the Abbott government most resembles... turn your gaze to Ottowa. If the Abbott government has a model, it is the Canadian government of Stephen Harper. This week, I met his gregarious and engaging Foreign Minister, John Baird. 'Stephen Harper has a very high regard for Tony Abbott,' he told me, and went on to extol Canada and Australia's shared values... In foreign affairs, the two governments have a very similar world view... One of the biggest changes Abbott and his Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have made from the previous Labor government is to reverse Labor's anti-Israel voting pattern at the UN, and restore the pro-Israel pattern that had prevailed under the Howard government... Why does Canada support Israel? [I asked Baird] 'It's the only liberal democracy in the region. In the great struggle of our generation, against international terrorism, it's often on the frontline.' I ask him if anything Israel is forced to do to defend its security qualifies its status as a liberal democracy. His answer is straightforward: 'No. It lives in a tough neighborhood. If there were 5000 or 10,000 rockets raining down on Canada or Australia there would be enormous pressure on the government to act..." (Our Canadian connection, from the Anglosphere to the Middle East, Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 27/2/14)
No, dear God no, not Canada:
"Canada's government is now the most undiluted, fervent supporter of Israel... in the entire world. The Harper government would wear that description as a badge of honour... Why has this government gone beyond all previous Canadian ones in supporting Israel? It is something visceral and personal for Mr Harper. His deep commitment does not spring from personal experience or considerable reading about the Middle East and its history - indeed, while he was leader of the opposition, foreign diplomats in Ottowa who managed to secure a meeting (often difficult) with him were struck by how little interested he was in any international issues. Mr Harper sees the world, like Canadian domestic affairs, in rather Manichean terms, wherein the forces of good and evil are arrayed against each other, with threatening enemies everywhere, prepared to pounce on any weakness. The forces of good are democracies, especially of the Anglo-Saxon variety and a few others, including Israel. The forces of darkness and instability are other kinds of political systems. Mr Harper expressed that Manichean world view when speaking to the Negev [JNF] dinner in Toronto last month. Israel, he said, is 'a light of freedom and democracy in what is otherwise a region of darkness.' That dichotomy - light versus an entire 'region of darkness' - is of course how many Israelis see their country, a democracy surrounded by enmity and instability. Such a world view, applied to the Middle East, leaves no room for nuance, balance or understanding of complexity, just a dualistic clash between good and evil..." (No room for nuance in Harper's mindset, Jeffrey Simpson, The Globe & Mail, 18/1/14)
Or, as our Stephen Harper-lite, Tony Abbott, would put it, between 'goodies and baddies'.
But maybe there's a chink of light in Abbott's Manichean madness. Could his Catholicism possibly act as a restraining influence of sorts when it comes to going all the way with Israel?
Take the evangelical Harper's recent pilgrimage to Jerusalem, for example. His entourage reportedly included 21 mostly orthodox rabbis (as well as scores of other Jews), and anywhere between 10-15 evangelical pastors, but keeping in mind that Canada has a 40% Catholic population, only one Catholic. (See Why did 10 evangelical leaders fly with Harper to Israel? Douglas Todd, vancouversun.com, 28/1/14)
I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether the 'Judeo-' triumphs over the 'Christianity' in Abbott's professed Judeo-Christianity. For which, see my 16/12/13 post Time to Get Serious, Tony!
"If you're searching for the single government in the world that the Abbott government most resembles... turn your gaze to Ottowa. If the Abbott government has a model, it is the Canadian government of Stephen Harper. This week, I met his gregarious and engaging Foreign Minister, John Baird. 'Stephen Harper has a very high regard for Tony Abbott,' he told me, and went on to extol Canada and Australia's shared values... In foreign affairs, the two governments have a very similar world view... One of the biggest changes Abbott and his Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have made from the previous Labor government is to reverse Labor's anti-Israel voting pattern at the UN, and restore the pro-Israel pattern that had prevailed under the Howard government... Why does Canada support Israel? [I asked Baird] 'It's the only liberal democracy in the region. In the great struggle of our generation, against international terrorism, it's often on the frontline.' I ask him if anything Israel is forced to do to defend its security qualifies its status as a liberal democracy. His answer is straightforward: 'No. It lives in a tough neighborhood. If there were 5000 or 10,000 rockets raining down on Canada or Australia there would be enormous pressure on the government to act..." (Our Canadian connection, from the Anglosphere to the Middle East, Greg Sheridan, The Australian, 27/2/14)
No, dear God no, not Canada:
"Canada's government is now the most undiluted, fervent supporter of Israel... in the entire world. The Harper government would wear that description as a badge of honour... Why has this government gone beyond all previous Canadian ones in supporting Israel? It is something visceral and personal for Mr Harper. His deep commitment does not spring from personal experience or considerable reading about the Middle East and its history - indeed, while he was leader of the opposition, foreign diplomats in Ottowa who managed to secure a meeting (often difficult) with him were struck by how little interested he was in any international issues. Mr Harper sees the world, like Canadian domestic affairs, in rather Manichean terms, wherein the forces of good and evil are arrayed against each other, with threatening enemies everywhere, prepared to pounce on any weakness. The forces of good are democracies, especially of the Anglo-Saxon variety and a few others, including Israel. The forces of darkness and instability are other kinds of political systems. Mr Harper expressed that Manichean world view when speaking to the Negev [JNF] dinner in Toronto last month. Israel, he said, is 'a light of freedom and democracy in what is otherwise a region of darkness.' That dichotomy - light versus an entire 'region of darkness' - is of course how many Israelis see their country, a democracy surrounded by enmity and instability. Such a world view, applied to the Middle East, leaves no room for nuance, balance or understanding of complexity, just a dualistic clash between good and evil..." (No room for nuance in Harper's mindset, Jeffrey Simpson, The Globe & Mail, 18/1/14)
Or, as our Stephen Harper-lite, Tony Abbott, would put it, between 'goodies and baddies'.
But maybe there's a chink of light in Abbott's Manichean madness. Could his Catholicism possibly act as a restraining influence of sorts when it comes to going all the way with Israel?
Take the evangelical Harper's recent pilgrimage to Jerusalem, for example. His entourage reportedly included 21 mostly orthodox rabbis (as well as scores of other Jews), and anywhere between 10-15 evangelical pastors, but keeping in mind that Canada has a 40% Catholic population, only one Catholic. (See Why did 10 evangelical leaders fly with Harper to Israel? Douglas Todd, vancouversun.com, 28/1/14)
I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether the 'Judeo-' triumphs over the 'Christianity' in Abbott's professed Judeo-Christianity. For which, see my 16/12/13 post Time to Get Serious, Tony!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Nasty Campaign to Boycott & Silence (TM)
Stung by reports of growing support for the Palestinian Boycott Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign at Sydney University in their fave paper, The Australian, the usual suspects have leapt into print on today's letters page to head off this latest existential threat to their One & Only Love.
Fulminates Monash University academic, Philip Mendes:
"It's disgraceful that Sydney University's SRC is supporting the extremist BDS campaign against Israel. This nasty campaign to boycott and silence Israelis violates the basic academic principle of supporting freedom of speech for divergent views."
Nasty campaign to boycott and silence?
Now it's worth remembering that just as Middle East-related terrorism was pioneered by Menachem Begin's Boston-style bombings in Palestinian market places in Jaffa and Haifa in the thirties,* so too the the Nasty Campaign to Boycott & Silence (TM) critics of Israel was pioneered by the Zionist movement - and that long before the advent of BDS.
Take, for example, the case of Canadian churchman and journalist, the Reverend A. C. Forrest, who dared to report, for a range of Church-based newspapers in Canada and the US, on the plight of Palestinian refugees following Israel's conquest of the West Bank in 1967:
"In the months that followed the publication of my reports on the situation in the Middle East I was subjected to a barrage of innuendo and invective. In 30 years of more or less public church life, 15 of them editing the largest - and I like to think the most respected - church paper in the British Commonwealth, I had never known anything like it. One cannot take a place as a responsible editor in the free church press without angering some people. There is usually a way in which controversy can be carried on with decency. However, I have found no way to criticize the policies of the State of Israel, or question the philosophy of political Zionism, or tell my readers what the facts of the Middle East are, and escape slander and libel from the Zionist-Israeli community. In Israel it is different. (The Unholy Land, 1971, p 38)
"I was invited by several Jewish groups to speak to them. In one case it was an on-again, off-again matter over several months until the young lad in a synagogue youth group who asked me admitted they were under a lot of pressure from their parents to withdraw the invitation. The Jewish press was keeping up the attack and I was labelled, 'that creature', a 'virulent anti-Zionist', and 'an enemy of Israel'. One Toronto rabbi said I had admitted 'I had always hated Israel'. One rabbi at a distinguished social gathering told me, 'You'll have a page in Jewish history along with Adolf Hitler'. He also said loudly, 'I'd like to know what the Arabs are paying you'.
"Finally the synagogue speaking engagement was on, on condition that after I had spoken I would be answered by the Israeli Consul-General in Toronto, Mr Aba Gefen. I concentrated on 'the new refugees', and reported what I saw.
"Mr Gefen embarked on a personal attack. Where had I been when Hitler was coming to power, and where was I when he was killing 6 million Jews? (When I got a chance, although I don't like that kind of question, I admitted I had been a boy in high school when Hitler came to power and later wore an RCAF uniform during World War II, although I had done all my service in Canada and most of my fighting with Commanding Officers.) Gefen said: '... these refugees were urged by the Arab governments to return westward and incited to destroy Israel from within. And now thousands of them could be returning under categories approved by the Israeli government, their return is wantonly prevented. Thousands of refugees have Israeli permits to return, but the Jordanian government declared none will return'.
"That was in November, 1967.
"The thoroughly documented fact then was that 170,000 refugees in Jordan filled out forms applying to return (Israel says only 150,000) and Israel issued permits for 20,000 to go back. Only 14,000 returned. The reasons why the other 6,000 permits were not used are many. The main one was that in many cases Israel approved the return of part of a family and said 'no' to others, such as boys of 17 or 18. Rather than split up and run the risk of never seeing their children again families decided to stick it out in the refugee camps.
"I thought then that the Consul was deliberately misleading his audience. I have concluded since that he actually believed what he said. After a time I was honoured by attention from the Anti-Defamation League, which commissioned a Zionist professor named Arnold Ages, who had been in on the attack, to do some real research. He made a study of [The United Church] Observer over some 20 years - a very selective one for a research professor I must add - and the ADL circulated their 13 page single-spaced document among the newspapers and radio stations of Canada. It ended with a quotation from a line-toeing fundamentalist premillenialist, Dr Douglas Young of Jerusalem, who had attacked my call for a 'peace with justice settlement now'.
"Young addressed an Open Letter to me which was apparently published in the Jerusalem Post. It began 'J'Accuse', and continued: 'If war comes to the Middle East again, historians will record that your pen, which could have been a contributory to peace... will, like a sword of war, drip with the blood of the wounded and dead on both sides'.
"That quotation now continues to turn up here and there in Zionist attacks on me; even rabbis with standing quote it, as though Young were an authority. In Jerusalem, Dr Douglas Young and his Institute are almost unknown to the intelligent Christian community." (ibid, pp 45-47)
But there was more to the Zionist Nasty Campaign to Boycott & Silence (TM) A.C. Forrest.
It even extended to his book, The Unholy Land:
"Perhaps the biggest publicity the book has received, however, was the announcement by Coles Bookstores that they were removing it from their 29 outlets across Canada as 'an absolute non-seller'. This made the headlines almost coincidentally with the announcement of its reaching the best-seller list! This action, noted the Toronto Star, 'lends color to Mr Forrest's claim that there is a pattern in Canada of 'suppressing criticism' of Israel.' Three-to-six-column headlines proclaimed, 'Book critical of Israel disappears from Coles', 'Israel book ban 'smells', and 'Book criticizing Israel still sold by most shops'. Buckley's bookstore advertised, 'We do not suppress books however truthful they may be', and offered a dollar discount on The Unholy Land 'to all who believed that book banning died with Hitler'." (The Unholy Land enters 4th printing, L. Humphrey Walz, The Link, November-December 1971)
[*See my 27/6/08 post Breathtaking Zionist Hypocrisy.]
Fulminates Monash University academic, Philip Mendes:
"It's disgraceful that Sydney University's SRC is supporting the extremist BDS campaign against Israel. This nasty campaign to boycott and silence Israelis violates the basic academic principle of supporting freedom of speech for divergent views."
Nasty campaign to boycott and silence?
Now it's worth remembering that just as Middle East-related terrorism was pioneered by Menachem Begin's Boston-style bombings in Palestinian market places in Jaffa and Haifa in the thirties,* so too the the Nasty Campaign to Boycott & Silence (TM) critics of Israel was pioneered by the Zionist movement - and that long before the advent of BDS.
Take, for example, the case of Canadian churchman and journalist, the Reverend A. C. Forrest, who dared to report, for a range of Church-based newspapers in Canada and the US, on the plight of Palestinian refugees following Israel's conquest of the West Bank in 1967:
"In the months that followed the publication of my reports on the situation in the Middle East I was subjected to a barrage of innuendo and invective. In 30 years of more or less public church life, 15 of them editing the largest - and I like to think the most respected - church paper in the British Commonwealth, I had never known anything like it. One cannot take a place as a responsible editor in the free church press without angering some people. There is usually a way in which controversy can be carried on with decency. However, I have found no way to criticize the policies of the State of Israel, or question the philosophy of political Zionism, or tell my readers what the facts of the Middle East are, and escape slander and libel from the Zionist-Israeli community. In Israel it is different. (The Unholy Land, 1971, p 38)
"I was invited by several Jewish groups to speak to them. In one case it was an on-again, off-again matter over several months until the young lad in a synagogue youth group who asked me admitted they were under a lot of pressure from their parents to withdraw the invitation. The Jewish press was keeping up the attack and I was labelled, 'that creature', a 'virulent anti-Zionist', and 'an enemy of Israel'. One Toronto rabbi said I had admitted 'I had always hated Israel'. One rabbi at a distinguished social gathering told me, 'You'll have a page in Jewish history along with Adolf Hitler'. He also said loudly, 'I'd like to know what the Arabs are paying you'.
"Finally the synagogue speaking engagement was on, on condition that after I had spoken I would be answered by the Israeli Consul-General in Toronto, Mr Aba Gefen. I concentrated on 'the new refugees', and reported what I saw.
"Mr Gefen embarked on a personal attack. Where had I been when Hitler was coming to power, and where was I when he was killing 6 million Jews? (When I got a chance, although I don't like that kind of question, I admitted I had been a boy in high school when Hitler came to power and later wore an RCAF uniform during World War II, although I had done all my service in Canada and most of my fighting with Commanding Officers.) Gefen said: '... these refugees were urged by the Arab governments to return westward and incited to destroy Israel from within. And now thousands of them could be returning under categories approved by the Israeli government, their return is wantonly prevented. Thousands of refugees have Israeli permits to return, but the Jordanian government declared none will return'.
"That was in November, 1967.
"The thoroughly documented fact then was that 170,000 refugees in Jordan filled out forms applying to return (Israel says only 150,000) and Israel issued permits for 20,000 to go back. Only 14,000 returned. The reasons why the other 6,000 permits were not used are many. The main one was that in many cases Israel approved the return of part of a family and said 'no' to others, such as boys of 17 or 18. Rather than split up and run the risk of never seeing their children again families decided to stick it out in the refugee camps.
"I thought then that the Consul was deliberately misleading his audience. I have concluded since that he actually believed what he said. After a time I was honoured by attention from the Anti-Defamation League, which commissioned a Zionist professor named Arnold Ages, who had been in on the attack, to do some real research. He made a study of [The United Church] Observer over some 20 years - a very selective one for a research professor I must add - and the ADL circulated their 13 page single-spaced document among the newspapers and radio stations of Canada. It ended with a quotation from a line-toeing fundamentalist premillenialist, Dr Douglas Young of Jerusalem, who had attacked my call for a 'peace with justice settlement now'.
"Young addressed an Open Letter to me which was apparently published in the Jerusalem Post. It began 'J'Accuse', and continued: 'If war comes to the Middle East again, historians will record that your pen, which could have been a contributory to peace... will, like a sword of war, drip with the blood of the wounded and dead on both sides'.
"That quotation now continues to turn up here and there in Zionist attacks on me; even rabbis with standing quote it, as though Young were an authority. In Jerusalem, Dr Douglas Young and his Institute are almost unknown to the intelligent Christian community." (ibid, pp 45-47)
But there was more to the Zionist Nasty Campaign to Boycott & Silence (TM) A.C. Forrest.
It even extended to his book, The Unholy Land:
"Perhaps the biggest publicity the book has received, however, was the announcement by Coles Bookstores that they were removing it from their 29 outlets across Canada as 'an absolute non-seller'. This made the headlines almost coincidentally with the announcement of its reaching the best-seller list! This action, noted the Toronto Star, 'lends color to Mr Forrest's claim that there is a pattern in Canada of 'suppressing criticism' of Israel.' Three-to-six-column headlines proclaimed, 'Book critical of Israel disappears from Coles', 'Israel book ban 'smells', and 'Book criticizing Israel still sold by most shops'. Buckley's bookstore advertised, 'We do not suppress books however truthful they may be', and offered a dollar discount on The Unholy Land 'to all who believed that book banning died with Hitler'." (The Unholy Land enters 4th printing, L. Humphrey Walz, The Link, November-December 1971)
[*See my 27/6/08 post Breathtaking Zionist Hypocrisy.]
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Criminalising Criticism of Israel
"Noam Chomsky raises a second objection against against the ability of the pro-Israel lobby to influence policy on its own steam. 'No pressure group', he maintains, 'will dominate access to public opinion or maintain consistent influence over policy-making unless its aims are close to those of elite elements with real power'. One problem with this argument is easily stated. It pits the Jewish lobby as one 'pressure group' arrayed against all the others that hold real power. This equation of the Jewish lobby with a narrowly defined 'pressure group' is misleading. We have argued - a position that is well supported by the evidence - that Jewish protagonists of Zionism have worked through many different channels to influence public opinion, the composition of political classes, and political decisions. They work through the institutions and media that shape public opinion to determine what Americans know about Israel, how they think about Israel, and what they can say about Israel. Once we recognize the scale of financial resources the Israel lobby commands, the array of political forces it can mobilize, and the tools it commands to direct public opinion on the Middle East, we would shrink from calling it a lobby*." (Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, M. Shahid Alam, 2009, pp 199-200)
"Since the creation of Israel, anti-Semitism has performed a third vital function in the history of Zionism. In the postwar period, when Western nations occupied the moral high ground with their rhetoric of human rights, the Zionists had to ensure that Israeli violations of Palestinian rights did not enter the public discourse in Western societies. Similarly, they would seek to prevent Americans from questioning their country's partisanship toward Israel and the role that the Israel lobby plays in creating this special relationship. In order to stifle any debate on Israel, American relations with Israel, or the influence of the Israel lobby on US policies toward the Middle East, the Zionist organizations have worked with great effectiveness to equate any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. They have routinely employed charges of anti-Semitism to discredit, ostracize, intimidate, and deny employment to Americans - especially politicians and academics - who criticize Israel, the Israel lobby, or the deeply partisan relations that the United States maintains with Israel." (ibid p 119)
Of course Zionist lobbies don't exist, and even if they do, their reach hardly extends to the high ground of policy-making in Western colonial-settler states such as Canada, Australia and the United States, and even if it does, our most basic freedoms are not under threat.
If you believe this, you're surely asleep and in need of the following wake-up call: Canada clamps down on criticism of Israel: In an affront to free speech, government committee declares that criticism of Israel should be considered anti-Semitic, Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, english.aljazeera.net, 22/7/11:
"Nearly 2 years after the first hearings were held in Ottowa, the Canadian Parliamentary Committee to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) released a detailed report on July 7 that found that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Canada. While the CPCCA's final report does contain some cases of real anti-Semitism, the committee has provided little evidence that anti-Semitism has actually increased in Canada in recent years. Instead it has focused a disproportionate amount of effort and resources on what it calls a so-called 'new anti-Semitism': criticism of Israel. Indeed, the real purpose of the CPCCA committee seems to be to stifle critiques of Israeli policy and disrupt pro-Palestinian solidarity organizing in Canada, including, most notably, Israel Apartheid Week events. Many of the CPCCA's findings, therefore, must be rejected as both an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of protest, and as recklessly undermining the fight against real instances of anti-Semitism.
"The CPCCA was born out of a conference held in London in February 2009 by the Inter-Parliamentary Committee for Combating Anti-Semitism. Formed in March 2009 and not directly linked to the Canadian government, or to any NGO or advocacy group, the CPCCA included 22 Canadian Parliament members from across party lines... Between November 2009 and January 2010, the CPCCA held 10 separate hearings during which times representatives of various non-governmental organizations, religious institutions, police departments and Canadian and Israeli universities presented papers meant to assess the level of anti-Semitism in Canada. While groups critical of Israel were denied the chance to address the committee, major Zionist organizations like B'nai Brith Canada, Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWCHS), and the Canadian Jewish Congress were welcomed. 'Much of today's anti-Semitism manifests in anti-Israel agitation around boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS)', said Avi Benlolo, President and CEO of the FSWCHS, during a hearing in November 2009. 'It deploys an unfair double standard against the Jewish state, singling out Israel alone for one-sided, harsh criticism and calls for punitive actions'. Throughout the consultation process, the CPCCA regularly focused on Canadian university campuses, which were routinely described as hotbeds of anti-Semitism, where Jewish students or students with pro-Israel leanings are often intimidated or threatened. This accusation was made repeatedly, and included in the CPCCA's final report, despite the fact that Dr Fred Lowy, President Emeritus of Concordia University in Montreal, stated in his address to the CPCCA that, 'by and large, Canadian campuses are safe and are not hotbeds of anti-Semitism of any kind'.
"In its final report, the CPCCA made about 2 dozen recommendations on how best to fight anti-Semitism in Canada. While the report states that 'criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is wrong', it also found that 'singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium... is discriminatory and hateful' and many of its recommendations deal with combating this 'new anti-Semitism'. A major recommendation issued by the CPCCA was that the Canadian government should promote the working definition of anti-Semitism used by The European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism & Xenophobia (EUMC). This definition categorizes 'applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation' as anti-Semitic. In other words, the CPCCA is supporting a definition whereby individuals who focus their attention on Israeli human rights violations, can be labeled as anti-Semitic. This is obviously problematic since Palestine solidarity activists - like any other people - have commitments that make it impossible to engage with every issue they are otherwise interested in. They shouldn't be labeled as anti-Semitic due to their inability to participate in every single human rights struggle happening around the world.
"Another dangerous recommendation made by the CPCCA was that Canadian university administrators should condemn 'discourse, events and speakers which are untrue, harmful, or not in the interest of academic discourse, including Israeli Apartheid Week'. Even the use of the word 'apartheid' in relation to Israel is anti-Semitic, the CPCCA found, since it amounts to the 'denial of the Jewish people their right to self-determination... by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour'. This clearly violates freedom of speech and an open exchange of ideas at Canadian universities, and also unfairly and inaccurately labels Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) as anti-Semitic. In reality, IAW has since 2005 brought together respected activists, academics, journalists and cultural figures from around the world, including Judith Butler, Ronnie Kasrils, Noam Chomsky and Ali Abunimah, among others, to openly discuss ideas related to Israel/Palestine. IAW provides an educational space for understanding Israel's apartheid policies - as evidenced, for example, through the separate legal systems used by Israelis and Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank or the discriminatory land ownership laws operating inside Israel - and supports the growing campaign for BDS, which aims to nonviolently pressure Israel to respect international law. It is far from the 'uniformly well-organized, aggressive [campaign] designed to make the Jewish state and its supporters pariahs' the CPCCA report makes it out to be.
"The CPCCA also recommended that the Canadian Committee of Foreign Affairs undertake a study on the United Nations Human Rights Council, 'particularly regarding its over-emphasis of alleged human rights abuses by Israel, while ignoring flagrant human rights abuses of other member states'. This clearly demonstrates how the committee has confounded anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel and is prepared to levy dubious suspicions against UN bodies and tarnish Canada's international standing in the process.
"In a statement released in July 8, Thomas Woodley, president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), said that the CPCCA's recommendations, 'if implemented, will inhibit public discussion of Israel's conduct'. CJPME believes that conclusions and recommendations generated by a process by which the same body - the CPCCA - is prosecutor, jury, and judge, are not credible. Although a few of the witnesses recounted incidents that were indeed indicative of genuine anti-Semitism, many were complaining about merely being exposed to criticism of Israel's conduct, the CJPME press release stated.
"Independant Jewish Voices Canada also criticised the committee stating that the 'CPCCA's goal was to criminalize criticism of Israel and Zionism, not to hold impartial hearings. Therefore, we oppose the CPCCA as an ideologically biased organisation with an agenda that will harm free speech and human rights activity in Canada. We oppose the CPCCA's Orwellian distortion of anti-Semitism. It is a danger to both Canadian liberties and to the genuine and necessary fight against anti-Semitism'.
"While labeling critics of Israeli policy as anti-Semitic is nothing new, the level at which this accusation is now being used in Canadian discourse must be seen as a reflection of the Canadian government's official and current policy on the Middle East. 'When Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, de-legitimization, the three D's, it is the responsibility of us all to stand up to them', Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in 2010 at the Ottawa Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism, which was supported by the CPCCA. Harper added: 'Harnessing disparate anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so. We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is'.
"Under Harper, Canada has routinely defended Israeli intransigence and disregard for international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people under its control. In return, trade cooperation and military and security technologies ties have been strengthened between the two states. In May of this year, it was reported that Harper was adamantly opposed to making any reference to the 1967 borders in a G8 Summit statement calling for renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Far-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman thanked Harper for his position, and stated, 'Canada is a true friend of Israel'. In 2010, Canada announced it would discontinue its financial contributions to the United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA), the organisation that provides support and resources to approximately 4.7m registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territories, and funnel the money into greater policing and security institutions run by the un-elected and corrupt Palestinian Authority leadership instead. In January 2009, as the Israeli army continued its disproportionate attack on the besieged civilian population in Gaza that left 1,400 Palestinians dead in the span of 3 weeks, Canada was the only country out of 47 that voted against a motion at the UN Human Rights Council condemning the Israeli violence. In addition to providing diplomatic cover for Israel, the Canadian government has attacked and cut funding to various non-governmental organizations working on issues related to Israel/Palestine, including Kairos Churches and Alternatives International. Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration & Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, who led the formation of the CPCCA and is an ex-officio member, has also repeatedly alleged that the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) promotes anti-Semitism and hatred. While Kenney never backed up these claims, the CAF's contracts with the government - which helped finance language programs for Toronto-area immigrants (the majority of whom are of Chinese origin) - were not renewed in 2009.
"Anti-Semitism, like all other forms of racism, is appalling and must be strongly and unequivocally condemned. But by defining legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and pro-Palestinian activism in Canada as anti-Semitic, the CPCCA is not only threatening free speech and freedom of protest, but it is undermining the fight against real cases of anti-Semitism and weakening the seriousness with which such cases should be dealt. This is something that Canadians, and people everywhere, should be adamantly against."
Watch this space...
[* James Petras' preferred term is Zionist power configuration (ZPC): "The ZPC can best be understood as a complx network of interrelated formal and informal groupings, operating at the international, national, regional and local levels, and directly and systematically subordinated to the State of Israel." (The Power of Israel in the United States, 2006, p 46)]
"Since the creation of Israel, anti-Semitism has performed a third vital function in the history of Zionism. In the postwar period, when Western nations occupied the moral high ground with their rhetoric of human rights, the Zionists had to ensure that Israeli violations of Palestinian rights did not enter the public discourse in Western societies. Similarly, they would seek to prevent Americans from questioning their country's partisanship toward Israel and the role that the Israel lobby plays in creating this special relationship. In order to stifle any debate on Israel, American relations with Israel, or the influence of the Israel lobby on US policies toward the Middle East, the Zionist organizations have worked with great effectiveness to equate any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. They have routinely employed charges of anti-Semitism to discredit, ostracize, intimidate, and deny employment to Americans - especially politicians and academics - who criticize Israel, the Israel lobby, or the deeply partisan relations that the United States maintains with Israel." (ibid p 119)
Of course Zionist lobbies don't exist, and even if they do, their reach hardly extends to the high ground of policy-making in Western colonial-settler states such as Canada, Australia and the United States, and even if it does, our most basic freedoms are not under threat.
If you believe this, you're surely asleep and in need of the following wake-up call: Canada clamps down on criticism of Israel: In an affront to free speech, government committee declares that criticism of Israel should be considered anti-Semitic, Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, english.aljazeera.net, 22/7/11:
"Nearly 2 years after the first hearings were held in Ottowa, the Canadian Parliamentary Committee to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) released a detailed report on July 7 that found that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Canada. While the CPCCA's final report does contain some cases of real anti-Semitism, the committee has provided little evidence that anti-Semitism has actually increased in Canada in recent years. Instead it has focused a disproportionate amount of effort and resources on what it calls a so-called 'new anti-Semitism': criticism of Israel. Indeed, the real purpose of the CPCCA committee seems to be to stifle critiques of Israeli policy and disrupt pro-Palestinian solidarity organizing in Canada, including, most notably, Israel Apartheid Week events. Many of the CPCCA's findings, therefore, must be rejected as both an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of protest, and as recklessly undermining the fight against real instances of anti-Semitism.
"The CPCCA was born out of a conference held in London in February 2009 by the Inter-Parliamentary Committee for Combating Anti-Semitism. Formed in March 2009 and not directly linked to the Canadian government, or to any NGO or advocacy group, the CPCCA included 22 Canadian Parliament members from across party lines... Between November 2009 and January 2010, the CPCCA held 10 separate hearings during which times representatives of various non-governmental organizations, religious institutions, police departments and Canadian and Israeli universities presented papers meant to assess the level of anti-Semitism in Canada. While groups critical of Israel were denied the chance to address the committee, major Zionist organizations like B'nai Brith Canada, Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWCHS), and the Canadian Jewish Congress were welcomed. 'Much of today's anti-Semitism manifests in anti-Israel agitation around boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS)', said Avi Benlolo, President and CEO of the FSWCHS, during a hearing in November 2009. 'It deploys an unfair double standard against the Jewish state, singling out Israel alone for one-sided, harsh criticism and calls for punitive actions'. Throughout the consultation process, the CPCCA regularly focused on Canadian university campuses, which were routinely described as hotbeds of anti-Semitism, where Jewish students or students with pro-Israel leanings are often intimidated or threatened. This accusation was made repeatedly, and included in the CPCCA's final report, despite the fact that Dr Fred Lowy, President Emeritus of Concordia University in Montreal, stated in his address to the CPCCA that, 'by and large, Canadian campuses are safe and are not hotbeds of anti-Semitism of any kind'.
"In its final report, the CPCCA made about 2 dozen recommendations on how best to fight anti-Semitism in Canada. While the report states that 'criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is wrong', it also found that 'singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium... is discriminatory and hateful' and many of its recommendations deal with combating this 'new anti-Semitism'. A major recommendation issued by the CPCCA was that the Canadian government should promote the working definition of anti-Semitism used by The European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism & Xenophobia (EUMC). This definition categorizes 'applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation' as anti-Semitic. In other words, the CPCCA is supporting a definition whereby individuals who focus their attention on Israeli human rights violations, can be labeled as anti-Semitic. This is obviously problematic since Palestine solidarity activists - like any other people - have commitments that make it impossible to engage with every issue they are otherwise interested in. They shouldn't be labeled as anti-Semitic due to their inability to participate in every single human rights struggle happening around the world.
"Another dangerous recommendation made by the CPCCA was that Canadian university administrators should condemn 'discourse, events and speakers which are untrue, harmful, or not in the interest of academic discourse, including Israeli Apartheid Week'. Even the use of the word 'apartheid' in relation to Israel is anti-Semitic, the CPCCA found, since it amounts to the 'denial of the Jewish people their right to self-determination... by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour'. This clearly violates freedom of speech and an open exchange of ideas at Canadian universities, and also unfairly and inaccurately labels Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) as anti-Semitic. In reality, IAW has since 2005 brought together respected activists, academics, journalists and cultural figures from around the world, including Judith Butler, Ronnie Kasrils, Noam Chomsky and Ali Abunimah, among others, to openly discuss ideas related to Israel/Palestine. IAW provides an educational space for understanding Israel's apartheid policies - as evidenced, for example, through the separate legal systems used by Israelis and Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank or the discriminatory land ownership laws operating inside Israel - and supports the growing campaign for BDS, which aims to nonviolently pressure Israel to respect international law. It is far from the 'uniformly well-organized, aggressive [campaign] designed to make the Jewish state and its supporters pariahs' the CPCCA report makes it out to be.
"The CPCCA also recommended that the Canadian Committee of Foreign Affairs undertake a study on the United Nations Human Rights Council, 'particularly regarding its over-emphasis of alleged human rights abuses by Israel, while ignoring flagrant human rights abuses of other member states'. This clearly demonstrates how the committee has confounded anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel and is prepared to levy dubious suspicions against UN bodies and tarnish Canada's international standing in the process.
"In a statement released in July 8, Thomas Woodley, president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), said that the CPCCA's recommendations, 'if implemented, will inhibit public discussion of Israel's conduct'. CJPME believes that conclusions and recommendations generated by a process by which the same body - the CPCCA - is prosecutor, jury, and judge, are not credible. Although a few of the witnesses recounted incidents that were indeed indicative of genuine anti-Semitism, many were complaining about merely being exposed to criticism of Israel's conduct, the CJPME press release stated.
"Independant Jewish Voices Canada also criticised the committee stating that the 'CPCCA's goal was to criminalize criticism of Israel and Zionism, not to hold impartial hearings. Therefore, we oppose the CPCCA as an ideologically biased organisation with an agenda that will harm free speech and human rights activity in Canada. We oppose the CPCCA's Orwellian distortion of anti-Semitism. It is a danger to both Canadian liberties and to the genuine and necessary fight against anti-Semitism'.
"While labeling critics of Israeli policy as anti-Semitic is nothing new, the level at which this accusation is now being used in Canadian discourse must be seen as a reflection of the Canadian government's official and current policy on the Middle East. 'When Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, de-legitimization, the three D's, it is the responsibility of us all to stand up to them', Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in 2010 at the Ottawa Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism, which was supported by the CPCCA. Harper added: 'Harnessing disparate anti-American, anti-Semitic and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so. We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is'.
"Under Harper, Canada has routinely defended Israeli intransigence and disregard for international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people under its control. In return, trade cooperation and military and security technologies ties have been strengthened between the two states. In May of this year, it was reported that Harper was adamantly opposed to making any reference to the 1967 borders in a G8 Summit statement calling for renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Far-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman thanked Harper for his position, and stated, 'Canada is a true friend of Israel'. In 2010, Canada announced it would discontinue its financial contributions to the United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA), the organisation that provides support and resources to approximately 4.7m registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territories, and funnel the money into greater policing and security institutions run by the un-elected and corrupt Palestinian Authority leadership instead. In January 2009, as the Israeli army continued its disproportionate attack on the besieged civilian population in Gaza that left 1,400 Palestinians dead in the span of 3 weeks, Canada was the only country out of 47 that voted against a motion at the UN Human Rights Council condemning the Israeli violence. In addition to providing diplomatic cover for Israel, the Canadian government has attacked and cut funding to various non-governmental organizations working on issues related to Israel/Palestine, including Kairos Churches and Alternatives International. Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration & Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, who led the formation of the CPCCA and is an ex-officio member, has also repeatedly alleged that the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) promotes anti-Semitism and hatred. While Kenney never backed up these claims, the CAF's contracts with the government - which helped finance language programs for Toronto-area immigrants (the majority of whom are of Chinese origin) - were not renewed in 2009.
"Anti-Semitism, like all other forms of racism, is appalling and must be strongly and unequivocally condemned. But by defining legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and pro-Palestinian activism in Canada as anti-Semitic, the CPCCA is not only threatening free speech and freedom of protest, but it is undermining the fight against real cases of anti-Semitism and weakening the seriousness with which such cases should be dealt. This is something that Canadians, and people everywhere, should be adamantly against."
Watch this space...
[* James Petras' preferred term is Zionist power configuration (ZPC): "The ZPC can best be understood as a complx network of interrelated formal and informal groupings, operating at the international, national, regional and local levels, and directly and systematically subordinated to the State of Israel." (The Power of Israel in the United States, 2006, p 46)]
Monday, June 27, 2011
An Israeli-Occupied Mind
Spare a thought for all those Labor flaks and minders who lost their jobs at the last NSW state election. Where did they go when the electorate massacred their masters?
Well, one of them, Walt Secord, who had worked for the likes of Bob Carr, Kevin Rudd and Kristina Keneally, has found himself on the plush, cushioned benches of the NSW Legislative Council. But this is no sinecure, no retirement home. Even here there's work to do!
You see, no sooner had Walt dusted himself off, loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves, than he set about the vital work of attacking one of our most basic human rights and diverting our men in blue away from their routine duties to 'protect' Israel's business interests down under:
"Newly appointed Member of Legislative Council Walt Secord has wasted no time demonstrating his support for Israel. Secord has called on NSW Police Minister Michael Gallacher to provide assurances for the protection of businesses with Israeli links in light of recent Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) protests. Secord, a former Australian Jewish News journalist, asked a series of formal questions on Monday, including what measures the government was taking to protect businesses and patrons affected by actions, such as the demonstration outside the Max Brenner chocolate shop on June 11. He also asked about the status of 2 arrests made on that evening and if the Government had plans to respond to similar incidents. 'With the BDS gaining support, the NSW Government and the Police Minister must ensure that companies with an Israeli connection are protected and are not unfairly targeted', Secord said. 'BDS is part of a worldwide attempt to isolate Israel, to boycott Israeli products, creativity, programs and culture. It has reached Australia and that is of concern. I vehemently oppose the BDS campaign'. Secord said that the government must protect members of the community from harm during protests. 'The NSW Government has a responsibility to protect staff and people who are drinking coffee or hot chocolate on a weekend morning in a cafe from violent protesters', he said. Secord also encouraged people who support Israel to visit a Max Brenner outlet and make a purchase 'as an act of solidarity and defiance against the BDS'. While not Jewish, Secord worked at The AJN between 1988 and 1991." (Police called to action on BDS, AJN, 24/6/11)
Like many Labor politicians, Walter is a welter of contradictions and a source of much puzzlement to any thinking man or woman. For those of you with an interest in the 'clueless conduct and views that madden to crime' of our polliewaffles (to adapt one of the more memorable lines from Ambrose Bierce's wonderful definition of the word 'maiden'), some insights may be gleaned by a perusal of Walt's - ahem - maiden speech of June 1:
"Growing up on a [Canadian] Indian reserve in the 1970s politicised me and made me finely and deeply attuned to injustice. I am the product of an interracial bicultural marriage. My father... is a full-blooded Mohawk-Ojibway status treaty Indian."
You'd think Walt's upbringing would've given him some insight into the brutal dynamics of settler-colonial societies and an ability to sense the species wherever found, including Israel, but no, seems he fell in with the wrong crowd:
"After a short stint as a youth employment public servant and a reporter on the Toronto Star... I migrated to Australia in September 1988... Shortly after arriving in Sydney I got a job at The Australian Jewish News. I worked there for almost 4 years. They gave me a go as one of their first non-Jewish reporters. I am pleased to say that that fair go was rewarded when I won an Australian Human Rights Award for a series of articles I wrote for that publication. But my proudest time at the AJN was defending myself against British Revisionist David Irving, who took legal action against me for appropriately describing him in print as a Holocaust denier... My links to the Jewish community predate my coming to Sydney and stretch back to the Indian reserve in Canada. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to a wonderful Jewish man, a mentor from my childhood. He is the late Godel Silber, a Holocaust survivor who became friends with my father... Mr Silber was extremely observant and religious. He told me about... the importance of Israel, the Holocaust and the need to fight racism and intolerance... Mr Silber also sparked my interest in the prevention of genocide..."
Yes, seems like Walt had it drummed into him that being a Jew automatically meant being a Zionist, and that you needed to tackle racism, discrimination and intolerance in every corner of the world but one:
"I will never be able to fathom the desire of one group to exterminate another race or faith. I have studied the Shoah, the Armenian Genocide, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda."
But not the Nakba. The bullshit's there, of course:
"Everything I have learned only reinforces my strong commitment to cross-cultural diversity and interfaith activities."
But the bottom line is always:
"I am also a strong and vocal supporter of Israel. I support a two-state solution. But I also believe that Israel has a right to defend herself within secure and safe borders. On that note, earlier this week I approached leader of the Opposition Robertson, and obtained his approval to assume the Labor position on a reactivated NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel."
A most peculiar blind spot, but not uncommon in the ever thinning ranks of the ALP.
If not Walt, then other native Americans know a genocidal, colonial-settler project when they see one. A representative of the American Indian Movement West (AIM-WEST), Choctaw man Jimbo Simmons, will be on the latest blockade-busting Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
And a graphic description of the occupied Palestinian territories under the gun has appeared in the Mohawk Nation News. Titled Did you visit your relatives today? Is this Palestine or soon-to-be-Ongwehonwe, here's the conclusion. Sound familiar?:
"Palestinians say this is how they are being treated by the Israelis. Canadian police and military are being sent to Israel for training on 'crowd control'. Many of these fascist tactics were used on us during the 1990 Mohawk Oka Crisis. Five thousand Canadian troops surrounded 3 of our communities behind razor wire and fully armed troops because we opposed the desecration of our burial and ceremonial sites. We were surrounded by walls of police, soldiers, arms and checkpoints for 78 days. We had to wait hours to get through them and suffer from specially designed humiliation at the hands of police and troops. Canadian soldiers went into Mohawk homes purportedly looking for weapons. They smashed everything and even s--t on the floors. Many of us were arrested for 'political activities', which is called 'administrative detention'." (25/11/08)
Well, one of them, Walt Secord, who had worked for the likes of Bob Carr, Kevin Rudd and Kristina Keneally, has found himself on the plush, cushioned benches of the NSW Legislative Council. But this is no sinecure, no retirement home. Even here there's work to do!
You see, no sooner had Walt dusted himself off, loosened his tie and rolled up his sleeves, than he set about the vital work of attacking one of our most basic human rights and diverting our men in blue away from their routine duties to 'protect' Israel's business interests down under:
"Newly appointed Member of Legislative Council Walt Secord has wasted no time demonstrating his support for Israel. Secord has called on NSW Police Minister Michael Gallacher to provide assurances for the protection of businesses with Israeli links in light of recent Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) protests. Secord, a former Australian Jewish News journalist, asked a series of formal questions on Monday, including what measures the government was taking to protect businesses and patrons affected by actions, such as the demonstration outside the Max Brenner chocolate shop on June 11. He also asked about the status of 2 arrests made on that evening and if the Government had plans to respond to similar incidents. 'With the BDS gaining support, the NSW Government and the Police Minister must ensure that companies with an Israeli connection are protected and are not unfairly targeted', Secord said. 'BDS is part of a worldwide attempt to isolate Israel, to boycott Israeli products, creativity, programs and culture. It has reached Australia and that is of concern. I vehemently oppose the BDS campaign'. Secord said that the government must protect members of the community from harm during protests. 'The NSW Government has a responsibility to protect staff and people who are drinking coffee or hot chocolate on a weekend morning in a cafe from violent protesters', he said. Secord also encouraged people who support Israel to visit a Max Brenner outlet and make a purchase 'as an act of solidarity and defiance against the BDS'. While not Jewish, Secord worked at The AJN between 1988 and 1991." (Police called to action on BDS, AJN, 24/6/11)
Like many Labor politicians, Walter is a welter of contradictions and a source of much puzzlement to any thinking man or woman. For those of you with an interest in the 'clueless conduct and views that madden to crime' of our polliewaffles (to adapt one of the more memorable lines from Ambrose Bierce's wonderful definition of the word 'maiden'), some insights may be gleaned by a perusal of Walt's - ahem - maiden speech of June 1:
"Growing up on a [Canadian] Indian reserve in the 1970s politicised me and made me finely and deeply attuned to injustice. I am the product of an interracial bicultural marriage. My father... is a full-blooded Mohawk-Ojibway status treaty Indian."
You'd think Walt's upbringing would've given him some insight into the brutal dynamics of settler-colonial societies and an ability to sense the species wherever found, including Israel, but no, seems he fell in with the wrong crowd:
"After a short stint as a youth employment public servant and a reporter on the Toronto Star... I migrated to Australia in September 1988... Shortly after arriving in Sydney I got a job at The Australian Jewish News. I worked there for almost 4 years. They gave me a go as one of their first non-Jewish reporters. I am pleased to say that that fair go was rewarded when I won an Australian Human Rights Award for a series of articles I wrote for that publication. But my proudest time at the AJN was defending myself against British Revisionist David Irving, who took legal action against me for appropriately describing him in print as a Holocaust denier... My links to the Jewish community predate my coming to Sydney and stretch back to the Indian reserve in Canada. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to a wonderful Jewish man, a mentor from my childhood. He is the late Godel Silber, a Holocaust survivor who became friends with my father... Mr Silber was extremely observant and religious. He told me about... the importance of Israel, the Holocaust and the need to fight racism and intolerance... Mr Silber also sparked my interest in the prevention of genocide..."
Yes, seems like Walt had it drummed into him that being a Jew automatically meant being a Zionist, and that you needed to tackle racism, discrimination and intolerance in every corner of the world but one:
"I will never be able to fathom the desire of one group to exterminate another race or faith. I have studied the Shoah, the Armenian Genocide, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda."
But not the Nakba. The bullshit's there, of course:
"Everything I have learned only reinforces my strong commitment to cross-cultural diversity and interfaith activities."
But the bottom line is always:
"I am also a strong and vocal supporter of Israel. I support a two-state solution. But I also believe that Israel has a right to defend herself within secure and safe borders. On that note, earlier this week I approached leader of the Opposition Robertson, and obtained his approval to assume the Labor position on a reactivated NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel."
A most peculiar blind spot, but not uncommon in the ever thinning ranks of the ALP.
If not Walt, then other native Americans know a genocidal, colonial-settler project when they see one. A representative of the American Indian Movement West (AIM-WEST), Choctaw man Jimbo Simmons, will be on the latest blockade-busting Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
And a graphic description of the occupied Palestinian territories under the gun has appeared in the Mohawk Nation News. Titled Did you visit your relatives today? Is this Palestine or soon-to-be-Ongwehonwe, here's the conclusion. Sound familiar?:
"Palestinians say this is how they are being treated by the Israelis. Canadian police and military are being sent to Israel for training on 'crowd control'. Many of these fascist tactics were used on us during the 1990 Mohawk Oka Crisis. Five thousand Canadian troops surrounded 3 of our communities behind razor wire and fully armed troops because we opposed the desecration of our burial and ceremonial sites. We were surrounded by walls of police, soldiers, arms and checkpoints for 78 days. We had to wait hours to get through them and suffer from specially designed humiliation at the hands of police and troops. Canadian soldiers went into Mohawk homes purportedly looking for weapons. They smashed everything and even s--t on the floors. Many of us were arrested for 'political activities', which is called 'administrative detention'." (25/11/08)
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