Sarah Ferguson: They're [the Israel lobby] still a very small group of people. How do you account for them wielding so much power?
Bob Carr: I think party donations and a program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel.
***
We covered Morrison's fundraiser at the Pratt's in my 15/3/19 post Pre-Election Fundraising at the Pratt's. The Australian's Business Review, you'll recall, concluded it's Margin Call entry on the subject thus: "Bet you the Visy billionaire [Anthony Pratt] is back in the manor when ascendant Labor leader Bill Shorten and his troops arrive for a reciprocal fundraising event in a couple of weeks."
As predicted, he was! Now here's Margin Call's account of Shorten and troops, cap-in-hand:
"He's on track to be our next prime minister, but Labor leader Bill Shorten is still shy about tucking his knees under the table of Australia's richest family. Just over six weeks from the federal election, Shorten last night entered the billionaire Pratt family's historic mansion Raheen via the secret stable doors, a laneway entrance normally reserved for deliveries. Maybe the leader of the worker's party thought it was the tradesman's entrance?
"For Shorten, it was a return to the Melbourne home of the billionaire family's matriarch Jeanne Pratt, her son Anthony Pratt and his wife Claudine, after a long absence. The politician was previously a frequent guest via his first marriage to Debbie Beale, a god-daughter to Jeanne and her late husband Richard Pratt. But last night Shorten was back in the Pratt fold, with the doors of their Kew home Raheen thrown open for a left-of-centre political fundraiser featuring a powerful clutch of Melbourne business types. Amazing how the sniff of victory can pull a crowd, even at $5000 a head.
"While their leader didn't want to be photographed, his deputy Tanya Plibersek arrived through Raheen's imposing main gates to be greeted by her packaging hosts at the arched front door. Very civilised. Almost Treasurer Chris Bowen, who has become quite chummy with Anthony Pratt of late, had slipped inside much earlier. Their Labor colleague Clare O'Neill had a bumpier entree. The shadow minister for financial services... and her VW family wagon were turned back at the Pratt's threshold and directed to a car park on the street. Retiring Member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby also drove himself in his Ford Territory.
"Rich-lister businessman Peter Scanlon was in for the night, as was former Tennis Australia chair Harold Mitchell and one-time Packer lieutenant and now Ellerston Capital chief Ashok Jacob. Former Telstra chair Bob Mansfield and leading Melbourne lawyer Mark Leibler, both at Prime Minister Scott Morrison's fundraiser at Raheen a fortnight ago, were back to play the other side, as was rich-lister and Jeanne's son-in-law Raphael Geminder. Former Victorian premier and industry super fund CBUS chair Steve Bracks came in a heavily tinted car with driver. Will Shorten soon make his New York dreams come true?
"Outgoing member for Lilley and Labor national president Wayne Swan, looking tanned and relaxed, was in bright and early, as was Member for Isaac Mark Dreyfus and Shorten's good friend and now senator for Victoria Kimberley Kitching, who Margin Call awarded best dressed on the night in a classic navy wrap dress." (Upmarket welcome for the workers' warriors, Will Glasgow & Christine Lacy, 28/3/19)
Showing posts with label Mark Leibler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Leibler. Show all posts
Friday, March 29, 2019
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
AIJAC Strikes Back
"The longer I was in Israel, the more I realised that key figures in the Australian Jewish community sat on the far right of the Israeli political spectrum. In Israel I was able to have meaningful discussions with key army or intelligence figures about the Palestinian issue. But with many of Australia's Jewish leaders this was just not possible. It was almost as if they felt that, given they were not living in Israel, they needed to take a harder line than many people who were living there." (Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir, John Lyons, 2017, pp 260-61)
"In response to our legitimate articulation of an alternative viewpoint on the Middle East, Lyons has devoted a chapter of his memoir to falsely portraying AIJAC as an extreme, hardline mouthpiece for the Israeli Right. Is this the same AIJAC that sponsors programs for prominent Israeli Labor leaders to visit Australia, as part of our efforts to expose people from both countries to counterparts from across the political and social spectrum? Is this the same AIJAC that issued a media release in February this year openly criticising Israeli legislation that would retrospectively legalise settlement outposts on land owned by Palestinians? In a healthy democracy, holding the media to account is arguably as important as holding politicians to account. Lyons ended his comment piece by quoting hard-left Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar's demonising of AIJAC and saying the Australian government did 'not (give) a shit' about his children. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lyons also describes as a hero another Israeli journalist even more extreme, Haaretz's Gideon Levy, an advocate of economic, artistic and academic boycotts against Israel. That's like forming your view of Australia from Green Left Weekly. It's sad that Lyon's response to the normal functioning of interest groups in a pluralist democracy is so vitriolic but it does demonstrate the value of AIJAC and others in advancing additional evidence and alternative views to his." (In Israel, as anywhere, objectivity, balance, multiple voices are critical to credible journalism, Mark Leibler, The Australian, 7/8/17)
"In response to our legitimate articulation of an alternative viewpoint on the Middle East, Lyons has devoted a chapter of his memoir to falsely portraying AIJAC as an extreme, hardline mouthpiece for the Israeli Right. Is this the same AIJAC that sponsors programs for prominent Israeli Labor leaders to visit Australia, as part of our efforts to expose people from both countries to counterparts from across the political and social spectrum? Is this the same AIJAC that issued a media release in February this year openly criticising Israeli legislation that would retrospectively legalise settlement outposts on land owned by Palestinians? In a healthy democracy, holding the media to account is arguably as important as holding politicians to account. Lyons ended his comment piece by quoting hard-left Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar's demonising of AIJAC and saying the Australian government did 'not (give) a shit' about his children. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lyons also describes as a hero another Israeli journalist even more extreme, Haaretz's Gideon Levy, an advocate of economic, artistic and academic boycotts against Israel. That's like forming your view of Australia from Green Left Weekly. It's sad that Lyon's response to the normal functioning of interest groups in a pluralist democracy is so vitriolic but it does demonstrate the value of AIJAC and others in advancing additional evidence and alternative views to his." (In Israel, as anywhere, objectivity, balance, multiple voices are critical to credible journalism, Mark Leibler, The Australian, 7/8/17)
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Et Tu, ECAJ & AIPAC?
Over at News Corpse, Greg Sheridan's fairly beside himself at the First Coming of King Bibi. Even Fairfax has plonked its useless bum on the proverbial fence for the occasion, with a pro (Anthony Bergin) and a con (Stuart Rees) on its opinion pages. But this week's (17/2) Australian Jewish News is strangely silent on the subject, no front cover pic of the Zionist Messiah, no editorial encomiums, nothing really.
Could this AJN report on page 3 possibly have anything to do with it?:
Could this AJN report on page 3 possibly have anything to do with it?:
"Australian Jewish leaders have expressed concern over Israel's controversial new legislation on settlements, describing the law which would retroactively legalise an estimated 4000 West Bank settler homes built on privately own Palestinian land as 'troubling' and 'counterproductive'. In a joint statement, Executive Council of Australian Jewry [ECAJ] president Anton Block and executive director Peter Wertheim said the Regulation Law passed by the Knesset last week, which prevents the government demolishing the homes and forces the landowners to accept compensation, is 'very troubling'. 'It seeks to legalise retroactively outposts that were built on land in the West Bank that had been privately owned by Palestinians. At the time they were built these outposts were illegal under Israeli law,' Block and Wertheim noted. Stating that the law was enacted 'despite the opposition of the Attorney-General of Israel', they said, 'Both he and the Defence Minister, as well as many legal experts, are predicting that the law will be successfully challenged in the Supreme Court of Israel. We can only hope that occurs, reaffirming that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is a democracy governed by the rule of law'." (Leaders unsettled by settlement legislation)
OMFG, they're criticising Israeli colonisation here, folks! ECAJ is criticising core Zionist business, namely the theft and settlement of any and every bit of Palestinian land they can possibly lay their hands on!
So WTF is going on here? These boZos have spent their entire lives cheering on, and otherwise aiding and abetting, Israel's colonisation of occupied (River-to-Sea) Palestine, but this latest land grab is a bridge too far? C'mon, guyZ, talk about swallowing the proverbial camel but straining at the proverbial gnat.
But lest one think that the Zcales have at last fallen entirely from their eyes, Block and Wertheim are really only worried that "this episode will... have the 'unfortunate effect of feeding the false narrative that settlements are the primary reason for the absence of peace and will provide the Palestinians with a further excuse to keep avoiding a return to direct negotiations with Israel'."
(As Yishai Fleisher, the International spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron, said in the New York Times recently: "Israel never seems to have a good answer to accusations against the settlement enterprise. Whenever the claim that Israel stole Palestinian lands is heard, Israel's answers inevitably are: 'We invented the cellphone,' 'We have gay rights,' 'We fly to help Haiti after an earthquake.' Obvious obfuscation. And when pushed to explain why the much-promised two-state solution is perenially stuck, the response is always to blame Arab obstructionism." (A settler's view of Israel's future, 14/2/17))
But there's more:
"Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) national chairman Mark Leibler and executive director Colin Rubenstein said AIJAC believes the bill is a 'counterproductive and unwise piece of legislation aimed at pandering to fringe constituencies at the expense of Israel's integrity and image abroad'."
Whaaat?! Did they say "fringe"? As in 'lunatic fringe'? OMFG, they're calling Israeli colonisers, pioneers, FFS, who are merely doing what Zionist colonisers, formerly known as kibbutzniks, have been doing ever since Balfour gave them Britain's blessing in 1917, lunatics! Can you believe it?
Nonetheless, they too insist that "the Palestinian refusal to negotiate, not settlements" is "the biggest barrier to peace."
(Reread Fleisher.)
Seriously - well, not really - you've got to feel sorry for the current King of the Colonies once he gets to Sydney. Should Block, Wertheim, Leibler and Rubes draw too close to Caesar, will he fix them with his eye, and ask, Et tu, ECAJ & AIJAC?
OMFG, they're criticising Israeli colonisation here, folks! ECAJ is criticising core Zionist business, namely the theft and settlement of any and every bit of Palestinian land they can possibly lay their hands on!
So WTF is going on here? These boZos have spent their entire lives cheering on, and otherwise aiding and abetting, Israel's colonisation of occupied (River-to-Sea) Palestine, but this latest land grab is a bridge too far? C'mon, guyZ, talk about swallowing the proverbial camel but straining at the proverbial gnat.
But lest one think that the Zcales have at last fallen entirely from their eyes, Block and Wertheim are really only worried that "this episode will... have the 'unfortunate effect of feeding the false narrative that settlements are the primary reason for the absence of peace and will provide the Palestinians with a further excuse to keep avoiding a return to direct negotiations with Israel'."
(As Yishai Fleisher, the International spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron, said in the New York Times recently: "Israel never seems to have a good answer to accusations against the settlement enterprise. Whenever the claim that Israel stole Palestinian lands is heard, Israel's answers inevitably are: 'We invented the cellphone,' 'We have gay rights,' 'We fly to help Haiti after an earthquake.' Obvious obfuscation. And when pushed to explain why the much-promised two-state solution is perenially stuck, the response is always to blame Arab obstructionism." (A settler's view of Israel's future, 14/2/17))
But there's more:
"Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) national chairman Mark Leibler and executive director Colin Rubenstein said AIJAC believes the bill is a 'counterproductive and unwise piece of legislation aimed at pandering to fringe constituencies at the expense of Israel's integrity and image abroad'."
Whaaat?! Did they say "fringe"? As in 'lunatic fringe'? OMFG, they're calling Israeli colonisers, pioneers, FFS, who are merely doing what Zionist colonisers, formerly known as kibbutzniks, have been doing ever since Balfour gave them Britain's blessing in 1917, lunatics! Can you believe it?
Nonetheless, they too insist that "the Palestinian refusal to negotiate, not settlements" is "the biggest barrier to peace."
(Reread Fleisher.)
Seriously - well, not really - you've got to feel sorry for the current King of the Colonies once he gets to Sydney. Should Block, Wertheim, Leibler and Rubes draw too close to Caesar, will he fix them with his eye, and ask, Et tu, ECAJ & AIJAC?
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Whited Sepulchres
Not one, not two, but three Zionist lobbyists in three days in the mainstream press. Top that!
And all pointing the finger at, and pontificating on, the likes of Pauline Hanson, Sonia Kruger and 'Islamism', while of course ignoring the evils of the apartheid state, the defence of which is their real shtick.
Never has Matthew 23:27 seemed more appropriate: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
1) The Executive Council of Australian Jewry's Peter Wertheim:
"Hanson has often denied that her views and her party's policies have anything to do with racism and bigotry, but it is difficult to see how else one can characterise her numerous public pronouncements attributing negative behaviour and traits to groups of people on account of their ethnic or religious background..." (Perils of Pauline far from unique, The Australian, 18/7/16)
You mean like the numerous public pronouncements attributing negative behaviour and traits to Palestinian Arabs regularly heard in Israel?
2) The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council's Colin Rubenstein:
"This ideology is best described as Islamism, a violent, totalitarian ideology which argues all political and social problems can be resolved by returning to an imagined version of the Islamic caliphate which existed in the time of the prophet. This ideology is a political belief system - like communism or fascism - and not at all the same as the religion, Islam." (Let's speak clearly on Islamism, Sydney Morning Herald, 20/7/16)
You mean like political Zionism, a violent, totalitarian ideology which argues all political and social problems can be resolved for Jews by returning to an imagined version of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah which existed in the Iron Age?
3) The Australia/ Israel & Jewish Affairs Council's Mark Leibler:
"As a person of the Jewish faith, racism and its consequences are etched into my soul. Racism robs a people of their choices and opportunities, their homes, their livelihoods and their sense of confidence and security." (Lurches to the right reveal racism is the problem, not the solution, The Australian, 20/7/16)*
You mean like Zionist apartheid robs the Palestinian people of their choices and opportunities, their homes, their livelihoods, and indeed their very lives?
And all pointing the finger at, and pontificating on, the likes of Pauline Hanson, Sonia Kruger and 'Islamism', while of course ignoring the evils of the apartheid state, the defence of which is their real shtick.
Never has Matthew 23:27 seemed more appropriate: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
1) The Executive Council of Australian Jewry's Peter Wertheim:
"Hanson has often denied that her views and her party's policies have anything to do with racism and bigotry, but it is difficult to see how else one can characterise her numerous public pronouncements attributing negative behaviour and traits to groups of people on account of their ethnic or religious background..." (Perils of Pauline far from unique, The Australian, 18/7/16)
You mean like the numerous public pronouncements attributing negative behaviour and traits to Palestinian Arabs regularly heard in Israel?
2) The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council's Colin Rubenstein:
"This ideology is best described as Islamism, a violent, totalitarian ideology which argues all political and social problems can be resolved by returning to an imagined version of the Islamic caliphate which existed in the time of the prophet. This ideology is a political belief system - like communism or fascism - and not at all the same as the religion, Islam." (Let's speak clearly on Islamism, Sydney Morning Herald, 20/7/16)
You mean like political Zionism, a violent, totalitarian ideology which argues all political and social problems can be resolved for Jews by returning to an imagined version of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah which existed in the Iron Age?
3) The Australia/ Israel & Jewish Affairs Council's Mark Leibler:
"As a person of the Jewish faith, racism and its consequences are etched into my soul. Racism robs a people of their choices and opportunities, their homes, their livelihoods and their sense of confidence and security." (Lurches to the right reveal racism is the problem, not the solution, The Australian, 20/7/16)*
You mean like Zionist apartheid robs the Palestinian people of their choices and opportunities, their homes, their livelihoods, and indeed their very lives?
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Off to Israel with Him!
Strewth, just how long has this bloke been in the party? Talk about loose lips:
"The new head of the NSW union movement will criticise federal Labor for following Malcolm Turnbull's push to make Australia a 'start-up nation,' in a speech to the ALP's state conference on Saturday. 'Start-ups often pay much less than established companies [...] getting a mortgage is harder [and they] don't always offer decent employment rights,' Mark Morey, the new secretary of Unions NSW, will say in a speech to the state Labor conference on Saturday." ('Start-up nation' can mean a raw deal for workers: Unions NSW boss Mark Morey, James Robertson, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/2/16)
But, Mark, Labor's not just blindly following M' Lord Turnbull here.
It's acting out of its own DNA, mate. As a Zionist party, the ALP cannot help but lap up and regurgitate anything that comes out of Israel. It used to be the kibbutz, but that's sooo yesterday. Now that we're all agile, innovative, neo-liberal go-getters, it's Upstart Nation.
As Zionist elder Mark Leibler once put it:
"Bill Shorten embodies the traditional core values of the Labor Party, and his solid support for Israel reflects that." (See my 21/10/13 post Danby to Keep Young Bill on Straight & Narrow.)
Mark, mate, zip it! Don't go there! Workers be buggered! It's Israel, mate! Israel!
Remember what they did to Tanya (Once was Warrior) Plibersek? Not a pretty picture these days, eh?
Mark, I'm telling you, utter one word against Upstart Nation and they'll have you marked down... for a right rambamming.
"The new head of the NSW union movement will criticise federal Labor for following Malcolm Turnbull's push to make Australia a 'start-up nation,' in a speech to the ALP's state conference on Saturday. 'Start-ups often pay much less than established companies [...] getting a mortgage is harder [and they] don't always offer decent employment rights,' Mark Morey, the new secretary of Unions NSW, will say in a speech to the state Labor conference on Saturday." ('Start-up nation' can mean a raw deal for workers: Unions NSW boss Mark Morey, James Robertson, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/2/16)
But, Mark, Labor's not just blindly following M' Lord Turnbull here.
It's acting out of its own DNA, mate. As a Zionist party, the ALP cannot help but lap up and regurgitate anything that comes out of Israel. It used to be the kibbutz, but that's sooo yesterday. Now that we're all agile, innovative, neo-liberal go-getters, it's Upstart Nation.
As Zionist elder Mark Leibler once put it:
"Bill Shorten embodies the traditional core values of the Labor Party, and his solid support for Israel reflects that." (See my 21/10/13 post Danby to Keep Young Bill on Straight & Narrow.)
Mark, mate, zip it! Don't go there! Workers be buggered! It's Israel, mate! Israel!
Remember what they did to Tanya (Once was Warrior) Plibersek? Not a pretty picture these days, eh?
Mark, I'm telling you, utter one word against Upstart Nation and they'll have you marked down... for a right rambamming.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Hound Dog Herald
The first anniversary of Israel's 'Operation Protective Edge' (8/7/14-26/8/14) is fast approaching.
As the body count soared, this appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of August 12, 2014:
"smh.com.au Like lambs to slaughter
"It's time to get to the root of the problem in Gaza. That problem is not the occupation. The problem is Hamas, an Islamic terror organisation which keeps using Gaza's civilians as sacrificial lambs.
"Read Mark Leibler's article online at smh.com.au/comment"
Reading it, the lyrics from the 50s R&R classic Hound Dog came to mind:
Well, they said you was high-class
Well, that was just a lie
Yeah, they said you was high-class
Well, that was just a lie
Well, you ain't never caught no rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine
As the body count soared, this appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of August 12, 2014:
"smh.com.au Like lambs to slaughter
"It's time to get to the root of the problem in Gaza. That problem is not the occupation. The problem is Hamas, an Islamic terror organisation which keeps using Gaza's civilians as sacrificial lambs.
"Read Mark Leibler's article online at smh.com.au/comment"
Reading it, the lyrics from the 50s R&R classic Hound Dog came to mind:
Well, they said you was high-class
Well, that was just a lie
Yeah, they said you was high-class
Well, that was just a lie
Well, you ain't never caught no rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Don't Mention Palestine at LaTrobe University
The 'Vision' statement of Victoria's La Trobe University reads in part: "La Trobe will be a University known for its excellence and innovation in relation to the big issues of our time..."
And yet, when one of its student politicians, Ryan Higginson, set out to draw the attention of the student body to what certain other student politicians had said on the subject of one of the big issues of our time, namely Israeli genocide and apartheid, he got suspended for his pains:
"In a win for the political right, student activist Ryan Higginson has been suspended from La Trobe University. For 8 months, the 19-year-old will be unable to attend classes or set foot on any La Trobe campus.
"According to its own regulations, the Misconduct Office that investigated Higginson is bound by the rules of 'natural justice'. But in La Trobe's kangaroo court, he was denied legal representation at the hearing. He was prohibited even to be accompanied by someone with legal training. And the full evidence against him was not available to Higginson or his lawyers.
"Higginson was accused of putting up posters that name and quote elected La Trobe Student Union office bearers. The quotes were taken from a student union council meeting that debated Israel's most recent assault on Gaza. The posters are alleged to have created an intimidatory atmosphere on the campus.* The charge is obviously ludicrous. Does the Labor Party create an intimidatory atmosphere when it puts up posters that quote Tony Abbott? What about a newspaper that publishes a politician's comments? Students have a right to know what happens in the student council and the arguments that their representatives make there.
"Another deeply concerning aspect of this case relates to the influence of federal politicians. Education minister Christopher Pyne published an op-ed in The Australian just days before Higginson received notice of his misconduct charges.** The minister had demanded that university administrations crack down on left wing activists and put aside concerns about 'free speech'.
"The day after Higginson received his notice, Labor MP Michael Danby announced that he had written an appeal to the university and had received a prompt phone call from the vice-chancellor in return. He declared that the disciplinary hearings would be held as a result of his representations to the university.
"There is no doubt that there is a campaign of intimidation occurring on university campuses. It is being waged against left wing activists."*** (La Trobe suspends left wing activist, Jessica Lenehan, Red Flag, 20/10/14)
In the spirit of truth in advertising, La Trobe University's 'Vision' statement should perhaps be amended to: La Trobe will be a University known for its excellence and innovation in relation to the big issues of our time, with the sole exception of Israeli genocide and apartheid...
[* "The student making the complaints at La Trobe, Jessica Cornish, 25, is now represented by Arnold Bloch Leibler in her complaints of harassment and intimidation against the Socialist Alternative and Students for Palestine. She said she had voted down a motion condemning Israel's 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza, posters were pasted on campus walls accusing her of supporting genocide in Gaza. She also faced taunts from the students." (Left-wing student club banned, Timna Jacks, The Age, 6/9/14);**See my 6/9/14 post Pyne Whine Deconstructed;*** See my 10/9/14 post AUJS Plays the Anti-Semitism Card.]
And yet, when one of its student politicians, Ryan Higginson, set out to draw the attention of the student body to what certain other student politicians had said on the subject of one of the big issues of our time, namely Israeli genocide and apartheid, he got suspended for his pains:
"In a win for the political right, student activist Ryan Higginson has been suspended from La Trobe University. For 8 months, the 19-year-old will be unable to attend classes or set foot on any La Trobe campus.
"According to its own regulations, the Misconduct Office that investigated Higginson is bound by the rules of 'natural justice'. But in La Trobe's kangaroo court, he was denied legal representation at the hearing. He was prohibited even to be accompanied by someone with legal training. And the full evidence against him was not available to Higginson or his lawyers.
"Higginson was accused of putting up posters that name and quote elected La Trobe Student Union office bearers. The quotes were taken from a student union council meeting that debated Israel's most recent assault on Gaza. The posters are alleged to have created an intimidatory atmosphere on the campus.* The charge is obviously ludicrous. Does the Labor Party create an intimidatory atmosphere when it puts up posters that quote Tony Abbott? What about a newspaper that publishes a politician's comments? Students have a right to know what happens in the student council and the arguments that their representatives make there.
"Another deeply concerning aspect of this case relates to the influence of federal politicians. Education minister Christopher Pyne published an op-ed in The Australian just days before Higginson received notice of his misconduct charges.** The minister had demanded that university administrations crack down on left wing activists and put aside concerns about 'free speech'.
"The day after Higginson received his notice, Labor MP Michael Danby announced that he had written an appeal to the university and had received a prompt phone call from the vice-chancellor in return. He declared that the disciplinary hearings would be held as a result of his representations to the university.
"There is no doubt that there is a campaign of intimidation occurring on university campuses. It is being waged against left wing activists."*** (La Trobe suspends left wing activist, Jessica Lenehan, Red Flag, 20/10/14)
In the spirit of truth in advertising, La Trobe University's 'Vision' statement should perhaps be amended to: La Trobe will be a University known for its excellence and innovation in relation to the big issues of our time, with the sole exception of Israeli genocide and apartheid...
[* "The student making the complaints at La Trobe, Jessica Cornish, 25, is now represented by Arnold Bloch Leibler in her complaints of harassment and intimidation against the Socialist Alternative and Students for Palestine. She said she had voted down a motion condemning Israel's 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza, posters were pasted on campus walls accusing her of supporting genocide in Gaza. She also faced taunts from the students." (Left-wing student club banned, Timna Jacks, The Age, 6/9/14);**See my 6/9/14 post Pyne Whine Deconstructed;*** See my 10/9/14 post AUJS Plays the Anti-Semitism Card.]
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Independent? Always? Really?
Is the following promo yet more evidence of the Sydney Morning Herald's cowardice in the wake of the Carlton/Le Lievre affair? Is it the price the Herald believes it has to pay to appease certain subscribers/advertisers? Is the hosting of unvarnished Israel lobby propaganda about to become as regular a feature of the paper as it is of The Australian?
Found at the bottom of the Herald's opinion page yesterday:
"Like lambs to the slaughter: It's time to get to the root of the problem in Gaza. That problem is not the occupation. The problem is Hamas, an Islamist terror organisation which keeps using Gaza's civilians as sacrificial lambs. Read Mark Leibler's article on-line at smh.com.au/content"
Found at the bottom of the Herald's opinion page yesterday:
"Like lambs to the slaughter: It's time to get to the root of the problem in Gaza. That problem is not the occupation. The problem is Hamas, an Islamist terror organisation which keeps using Gaza's civilians as sacrificial lambs. Read Mark Leibler's article on-line at smh.com.au/content"
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
The Grooming of Gareth Evans & Pat Moynihan
"It took the UN far too long to realize that Zionism is a form of racism, representing a blatant violation of the norms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the standards of international law. It was only in the wake of the 1967 war and the consequent war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces, challenged by the renewed resistance of the Palestinian Arab people led by the PLO, that the UN corrected its record and passed General Assembly Resolution 3379 of November 1975 determining that 'Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination'. And it is, indeed, most regrettable that in the wake of the Middle East Peace Conference convened in Madrid in October 1991, co-sponsored by the USA and the former USSR, the General Assembly muddied its record again by passing Resolution 46/86 of December 1991, revoking Resolution 3379." (Uri Davis, Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within, 2003, p 3)
Gareth Evans, Australia's foreign minister (ALP) from 1988 to 1996, was a recruit/dupe in the Zionist campaign to have UNGA Resolution 3379 revoked, and is today President of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. An ally of Bob Carr's in the revelatory events of November 2012, chronicled in Carr's Diary of a Foreign Minister, Evans launched the book earlier this month. The following report on that occasion intriguingly harks back to Evans' participation in the 18-year Zionist assault on Resolution 3379:
"Mr Evans, an informal sounding board for Mr Carr during his stint as foreign minister... said lobbyists from the Victorian Jewish community had influenced him to campaign against the 'Zionism as Racism' resolution when he was foreign minister - and he was proud to do so because the cause was just. 'But it also lost me... when it lost its way, as it continues to do to this day, on the larger Palestinian issue'." (Gillard cloth-eared on Israel, says Evans, Brad Norington, The Australian, 15/4/14)
Isn't it amazing, the almost mesmeric sway these Zionist lobbyists seem to exercise over our politicians? Here's the even more opaque Zionist version of Evan's falling under the influence:
"Australia will back an attempt to seek support among Asian-Pacific nations to have the iniquitous United Nations Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism rescinded. Foreign Minister Gareth Evans gave this undertaking to a joint delegation from the Zionist Federation of Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in Canberra last week." (Australia will back move to rescind 'Zionism - racism', Australian Jewish News, 13/4/90)
You will not, of course, be surprised to know that Mark Leibler (now of AIJAC, then of the ZFA) was as integral to the process of grooming (or influencing if you prefer) Evans in 1990 as he was of grooming Gillard in 2012. Now while we know that Evans' was groomed by Leibler and Co, neither Evans' reference, nor the Zionist report of 1990, sheds any real light on the details.
We do though have details of the grooming of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003), the US Ambassador to the United Nations (1975-76) and the spearhead of USrael's opposition to Resolution 3379 in the UN, by Ziocon Godfather and editor of the influential US magazine Commentary, Norman Podhoretz (1930-).
It is tempting to see in Leibler's grooming of Evans in 1990 a parallel with Podhoretz's grooming of Moynihan in 1975. The following account of the latter comes from Norman Podhoretz: A Biography by Thomas L. Jeffers (2010)
"On July 9, 1975, Barbara M. White cabled the American Mission a euphoric report on the UN-sponsored International Women's Year Conference in Mexico City. Moynihan's initial reaction was happy: the United States could at last get on the side of the LDCs and, under the banner of feminism, pull some of them away from the Soviet lodestone. There were poisoned dregs at the bottom of the cup, however. With Israel and America voting no, the Conference had also called for the 'elimination of... Zionism, apartheid, [and] racial discrimination.' It was what Garment later named 'the thing from 20,000 Leagues Below the Sea.' He and Weaver told Moynihan that 'this is trouble, Zionism as a form of racism.' And Pat, leaning in, said, 'Well, isn't it?' Knowing next to nothing about the origins of Zionism or the subtler permutations of anti-Semitism, Moynihan didn't, Garment remembered, think it 'unreasonable for an ethicist to say that this is a Jewish people just taking the land from Palestinian people and declaring 'you're not going to come here, we're here'.'
"Bringing Moynihan up to speed, Garment and Weaver called on their 'biggest gun,' Podhoretz, more knowledgeable and more intimate with Moynihan than they were, to conduct dinner-table seminars. Podhoretz himself had learned a great deal about the history of the Zionism-as-racism calumny from the English-born Princeton scholar Bernard Lewis and got Moynihan to read him, too. Garment, 'though Jewish, was only just getting interested' in Israel, Podhoretz recalled: 'What Pat and Len together didn't know could, as the cliche goes, fill an encyclopedia.' But they soon caught on, Moynihan being 'a quick study, as intelligent a person as you could ever meet in higher walks of life, and he rigorously cross-examined me.' He also invited Podhoretz to compose most of the speech, especially the first paragraph, that he would give in the General Assembly when a UN resolution defining and denouncing Zionism as 'a form of racism and racial discrimination' came up for a vote - and passed." (p 182)
How utterly grotesque that a man like Moynihan, who started out with a perfectly accurate understanding of the dynamics of the Zionist project, should go on to became a mere mouthpiece for Podhoretz.
Here, BTW, is the opening paragraph of his aforementioned speech, assumed in his Wikipedia entry to be all his own work. It's Zionist hysteria and bombast at its best? worst?
"The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act. Not three weeks ago, the United States representative in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee pleaded in measured and fully considered terms for the United Nations not to do this thing. It was, he said, 'obscene.' It is something more today, for the furtiveness with which this obscenity first appeared among us has been replaced by a shameless openness. There will be time enough to contemplate the harm this act will have done the United Nations. Historians will do that for us, and it is sufficient for the moment only to note the foreboding fact. A great evil has been loosed upon the world. The abomination of anti-semitism - as this year's Nobel Peace Laureate Andrei Sakharov observed in Moscow just a few days ago - the abomination of anti-semitism has been given the appearance of international sanction.. The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty - and more to the murderers of the six million European Jews. Evil enough in itself, but more ominous by far is the realization that now presses upon us - the realization that if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened."
It'd be interesting to know whether Gareth Evans' promise to "back an attempt to seek support among Asian-Pacific nations," as the AJN put it, involved him in Australian taxpayer-funded travel to the region on Israel's behalf, and if it did, what exactly his talking points were. Did he too play the anti-Semitism and Holocaust cards I wonder?
Gareth Evans, Australia's foreign minister (ALP) from 1988 to 1996, was a recruit/dupe in the Zionist campaign to have UNGA Resolution 3379 revoked, and is today President of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. An ally of Bob Carr's in the revelatory events of November 2012, chronicled in Carr's Diary of a Foreign Minister, Evans launched the book earlier this month. The following report on that occasion intriguingly harks back to Evans' participation in the 18-year Zionist assault on Resolution 3379:
"Mr Evans, an informal sounding board for Mr Carr during his stint as foreign minister... said lobbyists from the Victorian Jewish community had influenced him to campaign against the 'Zionism as Racism' resolution when he was foreign minister - and he was proud to do so because the cause was just. 'But it also lost me... when it lost its way, as it continues to do to this day, on the larger Palestinian issue'." (Gillard cloth-eared on Israel, says Evans, Brad Norington, The Australian, 15/4/14)
Isn't it amazing, the almost mesmeric sway these Zionist lobbyists seem to exercise over our politicians? Here's the even more opaque Zionist version of Evan's falling under the influence:
"Australia will back an attempt to seek support among Asian-Pacific nations to have the iniquitous United Nations Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism rescinded. Foreign Minister Gareth Evans gave this undertaking to a joint delegation from the Zionist Federation of Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in Canberra last week." (Australia will back move to rescind 'Zionism - racism', Australian Jewish News, 13/4/90)
You will not, of course, be surprised to know that Mark Leibler (now of AIJAC, then of the ZFA) was as integral to the process of grooming (or influencing if you prefer) Evans in 1990 as he was of grooming Gillard in 2012. Now while we know that Evans' was groomed by Leibler and Co, neither Evans' reference, nor the Zionist report of 1990, sheds any real light on the details.
We do though have details of the grooming of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003), the US Ambassador to the United Nations (1975-76) and the spearhead of USrael's opposition to Resolution 3379 in the UN, by Ziocon Godfather and editor of the influential US magazine Commentary, Norman Podhoretz (1930-).
It is tempting to see in Leibler's grooming of Evans in 1990 a parallel with Podhoretz's grooming of Moynihan in 1975. The following account of the latter comes from Norman Podhoretz: A Biography by Thomas L. Jeffers (2010)
"On July 9, 1975, Barbara M. White cabled the American Mission a euphoric report on the UN-sponsored International Women's Year Conference in Mexico City. Moynihan's initial reaction was happy: the United States could at last get on the side of the LDCs and, under the banner of feminism, pull some of them away from the Soviet lodestone. There were poisoned dregs at the bottom of the cup, however. With Israel and America voting no, the Conference had also called for the 'elimination of... Zionism, apartheid, [and] racial discrimination.' It was what Garment later named 'the thing from 20,000 Leagues Below the Sea.' He and Weaver told Moynihan that 'this is trouble, Zionism as a form of racism.' And Pat, leaning in, said, 'Well, isn't it?' Knowing next to nothing about the origins of Zionism or the subtler permutations of anti-Semitism, Moynihan didn't, Garment remembered, think it 'unreasonable for an ethicist to say that this is a Jewish people just taking the land from Palestinian people and declaring 'you're not going to come here, we're here'.'
"Bringing Moynihan up to speed, Garment and Weaver called on their 'biggest gun,' Podhoretz, more knowledgeable and more intimate with Moynihan than they were, to conduct dinner-table seminars. Podhoretz himself had learned a great deal about the history of the Zionism-as-racism calumny from the English-born Princeton scholar Bernard Lewis and got Moynihan to read him, too. Garment, 'though Jewish, was only just getting interested' in Israel, Podhoretz recalled: 'What Pat and Len together didn't know could, as the cliche goes, fill an encyclopedia.' But they soon caught on, Moynihan being 'a quick study, as intelligent a person as you could ever meet in higher walks of life, and he rigorously cross-examined me.' He also invited Podhoretz to compose most of the speech, especially the first paragraph, that he would give in the General Assembly when a UN resolution defining and denouncing Zionism as 'a form of racism and racial discrimination' came up for a vote - and passed." (p 182)
How utterly grotesque that a man like Moynihan, who started out with a perfectly accurate understanding of the dynamics of the Zionist project, should go on to became a mere mouthpiece for Podhoretz.
Here, BTW, is the opening paragraph of his aforementioned speech, assumed in his Wikipedia entry to be all his own work. It's Zionist hysteria and bombast at its best? worst?
"The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act. Not three weeks ago, the United States representative in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee pleaded in measured and fully considered terms for the United Nations not to do this thing. It was, he said, 'obscene.' It is something more today, for the furtiveness with which this obscenity first appeared among us has been replaced by a shameless openness. There will be time enough to contemplate the harm this act will have done the United Nations. Historians will do that for us, and it is sufficient for the moment only to note the foreboding fact. A great evil has been loosed upon the world. The abomination of anti-semitism - as this year's Nobel Peace Laureate Andrei Sakharov observed in Moscow just a few days ago - the abomination of anti-semitism has been given the appearance of international sanction.. The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty - and more to the murderers of the six million European Jews. Evil enough in itself, but more ominous by far is the realization that now presses upon us - the realization that if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened."
It'd be interesting to know whether Gareth Evans' promise to "back an attempt to seek support among Asian-Pacific nations," as the AJN put it, involved him in Australian taxpayer-funded travel to the region on Israel's behalf, and if it did, what exactly his talking points were. Did he too play the anti-Semitism and Holocaust cards I wonder?
Monday, April 21, 2014
The Knives Are Out...
... for Bob Carr in the Murdoch press:
Gerard Henderson: A great read with deeply troubling insights into the mind of Carr and his Israel-lobby obsession, The Australian, 19/4/14:
"Diary of a Foreign Minister indicates that Bob Carr is somewhat unhinged in so far as Israel is concerned."
Whereas Gerard Henderson's columns reveal an always rational and objective approach to everything.
"Carr is ready to bag what he terms the 'Israel lobby' in Australia... But he offers no criticism of of such an entity as a 'Palestinian lobby'..."
Would that be a Palestinian lobby with or without a direct line to the PM's office?
Michael Danby: Throwing the Jews under the bus won't help drive the Labor Party to power, The Australian, 19/4/14:
"Let's look not at some of the anonymous trolls on Twitter empowered by Bob the book-pedlar but at people willing to put their names to their bigotry, who feel empowered by a man of his high rank indulging in a false and disgraceful critique 'of the unhealthy influences', which he was 'shining a spotlight on', of the 'Melbourne-based Israel lobby'. My ears burned. I was sent messages by Carr's biggest fans such as 'you are scum', 'Jew loving arsehole' and even alerted that 'we all know what you people are up to... same old nonsense as last 2000 years'."
Bigotry? Is that all, Michael? Just be thankful you're not a Palestinian! If you were, you'd not only be subjected to Zionist bigotry but Zionist brutality in spades and on a daily basis.
"Of course, all the Jewish individuals who dared advance a view slightly different from Carr's global vision - my colleague Mark Dreyfus, respected community leaders such as Albert Dadon, lawyer Mark Leibler and I - support a two-state solution, Australia's policy since the partition of the British mandate since 1948."
Want to know the shortest book ever written? Our Epic Struggle for a Two-State Solution by Danby, Dreyfus, Dadon and Leibler.
"None of the Australians stereotyped and caricatured by Carr... are the fanatics he pretends they are. Leibler is a mate of Noel Pearson. His firm Arnold Bloch Leibler has a legacy of supporting indigenous communities and leaders..."
Not to mention a legacy of supporting Israel's dispossession, exile and occupation of indigenous Palestinians.
"... and Dadon has taken his career as international jazz musician to new heights."
But of course. Nero only fiddled while Rome burned. Dadon fiddles while an entire country burns.
"He says nothing about the abuse of African Muslims in Darfur or the Turkish Uighur of Xinjiang. Where are he and his Twitter-troll supporters as Bashar al-Assad drops barrel bombs on cities every day? Yes, I suppose he perfunctorily dispensed some Australian aid. Excuse me, but I think any of these issues are more pressing and ought to be the subject of public mobilisations, rather than a young, struggling Jewish family making a life in a new apartment on a hill in East Jerusalem."
... in violation of the Geneva Conventions!
Gerard Henderson: A great read with deeply troubling insights into the mind of Carr and his Israel-lobby obsession, The Australian, 19/4/14:
"Diary of a Foreign Minister indicates that Bob Carr is somewhat unhinged in so far as Israel is concerned."
Whereas Gerard Henderson's columns reveal an always rational and objective approach to everything.
"Carr is ready to bag what he terms the 'Israel lobby' in Australia... But he offers no criticism of of such an entity as a 'Palestinian lobby'..."
Would that be a Palestinian lobby with or without a direct line to the PM's office?
Michael Danby: Throwing the Jews under the bus won't help drive the Labor Party to power, The Australian, 19/4/14:
"Let's look not at some of the anonymous trolls on Twitter empowered by Bob the book-pedlar but at people willing to put their names to their bigotry, who feel empowered by a man of his high rank indulging in a false and disgraceful critique 'of the unhealthy influences', which he was 'shining a spotlight on', of the 'Melbourne-based Israel lobby'. My ears burned. I was sent messages by Carr's biggest fans such as 'you are scum', 'Jew loving arsehole' and even alerted that 'we all know what you people are up to... same old nonsense as last 2000 years'."
Bigotry? Is that all, Michael? Just be thankful you're not a Palestinian! If you were, you'd not only be subjected to Zionist bigotry but Zionist brutality in spades and on a daily basis.
"Of course, all the Jewish individuals who dared advance a view slightly different from Carr's global vision - my colleague Mark Dreyfus, respected community leaders such as Albert Dadon, lawyer Mark Leibler and I - support a two-state solution, Australia's policy since the partition of the British mandate since 1948."
Want to know the shortest book ever written? Our Epic Struggle for a Two-State Solution by Danby, Dreyfus, Dadon and Leibler.
"None of the Australians stereotyped and caricatured by Carr... are the fanatics he pretends they are. Leibler is a mate of Noel Pearson. His firm Arnold Bloch Leibler has a legacy of supporting indigenous communities and leaders..."
Not to mention a legacy of supporting Israel's dispossession, exile and occupation of indigenous Palestinians.
"... and Dadon has taken his career as international jazz musician to new heights."
But of course. Nero only fiddled while Rome burned. Dadon fiddles while an entire country burns.
"He says nothing about the abuse of African Muslims in Darfur or the Turkish Uighur of Xinjiang. Where are he and his Twitter-troll supporters as Bashar al-Assad drops barrel bombs on cities every day? Yes, I suppose he perfunctorily dispensed some Australian aid. Excuse me, but I think any of these issues are more pressing and ought to be the subject of public mobilisations, rather than a young, struggling Jewish family making a life in a new apartment on a hill in East Jerusalem."
... in violation of the Geneva Conventions!
Friday, April 11, 2014
The Carr Diary 2: Israel Lobby Deniers
In his new book, Diary of a Foreign Minister, former foreign minister Bob Carr talks of an Israel lobby exercising an extraordinary influence over former PM Julia Gillard, but according to some folk he's either a bigot or a conspiracy-theorist. Meet the Israel lobby deniers:
Michael Danby (Shadow Minister for Israel and all-round mensch):
Louise Yaxley: He also talks about the Jewish lobby or the pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne running the country and says it has an extraordinary influence over Julia Gillard's office. What do you make of that?
Michael Danby: Well, I put it in the same category as all of the other claims. It was, no lobby in Australia I understand has that kind of influence. It's laughable. But I suppose in the current climate, as George Brandis says, it's OK to be a bigot. ...
LY: But how much influence did the pro-Israel lobby have over Julia Gillard's office in your view.
MD: As much influence as any other lobby does...
LY: And is that why Julia Gillard took that position that she did about how Australia should vote at the UN?
MD: I think she took that position because she believed that the best way to a peace settlement... and to end the issue of the settlements is a peace settlement. (Labor MP Michael Danby says Bob Carr 'nutty' and 'maniacal' in interview: bigoted views, mobile.abc.net.au, 10/4/14)
Mark Leibler (Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council):
"How does the Jewish lobby control the prime minister? Through donations to the ALP and sending people to Israel? I mean, give me a break. Would anyone seriously accept that?... When we've got an issue... which needs to be raised, we haven't had a problem in getting access to either ALP or liberal prime ministers or foreign ministers and so it should be. Any representative of a community organisation, if they've got something serious to say, they'll get the access." (Former foreign minister Bob Carr says 'pro-Israel lobby' influenced government policy, abc.net.au/news, 10/4/14)
Robert Goot (Executive Council of Australian Jewry):
"These claims border on conspiracy theories which make for salacious gossip and help sell books but bear no relation to reality." (The book salesman, jwire.com.au, 10/4/14)
Barry Cohen (retired federal Labor minister):
"I have seen what Bob Carr has written about the power of the pro-Israel lobby. You want to know what I think of Bob's comments? Here's what I think. I think it's bullshit." (Reasons stack up for ALP's simmering Israel divide, Mark Hawthorne, Sydney Morning Herald, 11/4/14)
Michael Danby (Shadow Minister for Israel and all-round mensch):
Louise Yaxley: He also talks about the Jewish lobby or the pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne running the country and says it has an extraordinary influence over Julia Gillard's office. What do you make of that?
Michael Danby: Well, I put it in the same category as all of the other claims. It was, no lobby in Australia I understand has that kind of influence. It's laughable. But I suppose in the current climate, as George Brandis says, it's OK to be a bigot. ...
LY: But how much influence did the pro-Israel lobby have over Julia Gillard's office in your view.
MD: As much influence as any other lobby does...
LY: And is that why Julia Gillard took that position that she did about how Australia should vote at the UN?
MD: I think she took that position because she believed that the best way to a peace settlement... and to end the issue of the settlements is a peace settlement. (Labor MP Michael Danby says Bob Carr 'nutty' and 'maniacal' in interview: bigoted views, mobile.abc.net.au, 10/4/14)
Mark Leibler (Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council):
"How does the Jewish lobby control the prime minister? Through donations to the ALP and sending people to Israel? I mean, give me a break. Would anyone seriously accept that?... When we've got an issue... which needs to be raised, we haven't had a problem in getting access to either ALP or liberal prime ministers or foreign ministers and so it should be. Any representative of a community organisation, if they've got something serious to say, they'll get the access." (Former foreign minister Bob Carr says 'pro-Israel lobby' influenced government policy, abc.net.au/news, 10/4/14)
Robert Goot (Executive Council of Australian Jewry):
"These claims border on conspiracy theories which make for salacious gossip and help sell books but bear no relation to reality." (The book salesman, jwire.com.au, 10/4/14)
Barry Cohen (retired federal Labor minister):
"I have seen what Bob Carr has written about the power of the pro-Israel lobby. You want to know what I think of Bob's comments? Here's what I think. I think it's bullshit." (Reasons stack up for ALP's simmering Israel divide, Mark Hawthorne, Sydney Morning Herald, 11/4/14)
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Up There With Atlantis
It's not only G-d who works in mysterious ways. Ditto for certain historical phenomena - at least for those who dwell on Planet Zion.
Here are two examples of same culled from a recent opinion piece by Mark Leibler, national chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), in The Australian, the Murdoch-owned newspaper of choice for Zionist heavies. (Just to fill you in on the context of the piece, Leibler was responding to a "simplistic, contentious and counter-productive" op-ed by former foreign minister Bob Carr on the subject of Israeli settlements.)
The first of these phenomena constitutes, for Zionists at least, one of the greatest mysteries of all time. It is for them what Atlantis is for the rest of us.
Although it may take many forms, here it is in Leibler's current rendering:
"...Palestinians whose ancestors fled in 1948..." (Carr's view on settlements is counter-productive, The Australian, 18/2/14)
Typically, for Zionists such as Leibler, despite their much-touted reputation for grey matter, the 'why' of the Palestinians "fleeing" in 1948 always seems to elude them.
It's like, Now you see 'em, now you don't/ Here today, gone tomorrow/ Funny, I could've sworn they were here a minute ago. Know what I mean?
Like Churchill's Russia, 1948's "fleeing" Palestinians is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma - only more so!
But hey, how convenient was that "fleeing", how very, very convenient. More convenient even than a chain of 7/11s, and then some.
The second phenomenon is equally mysterious:
"Settlers were not transferred or deported into the West Bank in a 'forcible' manner - as Article 49 [of the Fourth Geneva Convention] implies... They moved there of their own volition."
That's right, conveniently, the Fourth GC simply doesn't apply to Israel's colonization of the West Bank because Israel was, always has been, and forever will be just an innocent bystander in the process.
Like God, who created the heavens and the earth and all that jazz in just six (6!) days, and took a well deserved break on the 7th, Israel was so damn rooted from conquering and occupying and cleansing the West Bank in just six (6!) days in June, 1967 that he too rested on the 7th and apparently hasn't lifted a finger (except to the rest of the world) since.
And lo, he, Israel, just sat back and watched in total astonishment as, in the following decades, wave after wave of Israeli settlers crossed the Green Line into the occupied - sorry, disputed - territory, drawn there by some mysterious, totally inexplicable force, never to leave.
Spooky, eh?
Here are two examples of same culled from a recent opinion piece by Mark Leibler, national chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), in The Australian, the Murdoch-owned newspaper of choice for Zionist heavies. (Just to fill you in on the context of the piece, Leibler was responding to a "simplistic, contentious and counter-productive" op-ed by former foreign minister Bob Carr on the subject of Israeli settlements.)
The first of these phenomena constitutes, for Zionists at least, one of the greatest mysteries of all time. It is for them what Atlantis is for the rest of us.
Although it may take many forms, here it is in Leibler's current rendering:
"...Palestinians whose ancestors fled in 1948..." (Carr's view on settlements is counter-productive, The Australian, 18/2/14)
Typically, for Zionists such as Leibler, despite their much-touted reputation for grey matter, the 'why' of the Palestinians "fleeing" in 1948 always seems to elude them.
It's like, Now you see 'em, now you don't/ Here today, gone tomorrow/ Funny, I could've sworn they were here a minute ago. Know what I mean?
Like Churchill's Russia, 1948's "fleeing" Palestinians is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma - only more so!
But hey, how convenient was that "fleeing", how very, very convenient. More convenient even than a chain of 7/11s, and then some.
The second phenomenon is equally mysterious:
"Settlers were not transferred or deported into the West Bank in a 'forcible' manner - as Article 49 [of the Fourth Geneva Convention] implies... They moved there of their own volition."
That's right, conveniently, the Fourth GC simply doesn't apply to Israel's colonization of the West Bank because Israel was, always has been, and forever will be just an innocent bystander in the process.
Like God, who created the heavens and the earth and all that jazz in just six (6!) days, and took a well deserved break on the 7th, Israel was so damn rooted from conquering and occupying and cleansing the West Bank in just six (6!) days in June, 1967 that he too rested on the 7th and apparently hasn't lifted a finger (except to the rest of the world) since.
And lo, he, Israel, just sat back and watched in total astonishment as, in the following decades, wave after wave of Israeli settlers crossed the Green Line into the occupied - sorry, disputed - territory, drawn there by some mysterious, totally inexplicable force, never to leave.
Spooky, eh?
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Recognise
What a mess of contradictions is Murdoch's Australian.
On the one hand, it's solidly behind Reconciliation Australia's campaign - Recognise - to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.
On the other, it's just as solidly behind the Israeli government campaign for Indigenous Palestinians to recognise Israel as "the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people*," as its columnist Janet Albrechtsen put it recently, which would effectively mean Palestinians abandoning their historic (and international law-backed) claims to Palestine, and giving the thumbs up to 65 years of Palestinian dispossession, exile and genocide.
To translate the latter into Australian terms, this would be tantamount to calling on Indigenous Australians to recognise non-Indigenous Australians - past, present and future - as the legitimate owners of this land and giving the thumbs up to over 200 years of Aboriginal dispossession and genocide.
[*Including Messrs Arnold Bloch and Mark Leibler of Arnold Bloch Leibler - Lawyers & Advisers, prominent Jewish supporters of Reconciliation Australia.]
On the one hand, it's solidly behind Reconciliation Australia's campaign - Recognise - to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.
On the other, it's just as solidly behind the Israeli government campaign for Indigenous Palestinians to recognise Israel as "the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people*," as its columnist Janet Albrechtsen put it recently, which would effectively mean Palestinians abandoning their historic (and international law-backed) claims to Palestine, and giving the thumbs up to 65 years of Palestinian dispossession, exile and genocide.
To translate the latter into Australian terms, this would be tantamount to calling on Indigenous Australians to recognise non-Indigenous Australians - past, present and future - as the legitimate owners of this land and giving the thumbs up to over 200 years of Aboriginal dispossession and genocide.
[*Including Messrs Arnold Bloch and Mark Leibler of Arnold Bloch Leibler - Lawyers & Advisers, prominent Jewish supporters of Reconciliation Australia.]
Friday, December 20, 2013
The Adoration of the Sage
Meanwhile, raise a glass and drink in the following scene over at Melbourne's Grand Hyatt:
"A sixtieth anniversary calls for a pretty serious cocktail party, and so it was last night for law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, which marked the occasion in style at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. Among those attending from the government were Tony Abbott, Bronwyn Bishop (no party is complete without her), Kevin Andrews, Arthur Sinodinos, Mitch Fifield and the evidently omnipresent Josh Frydenberg, with Bill Shorten and Mark Dreyfus among those doing the honour for Labor. Also on deck were Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Israeli ambassador Shmuel Ben-Shmuel. And in honour of ABL partner Mark Leibler, a giant in the reconciliation movement, some of the nation's leading indigenous figures on the guest list included Noel Pearson, and Djawa and Balupalu Yunupingu from East Arnhem Land. Leibler saved some special words for his guest of honour, the PM: 'On Israel especially you have always been prepared to support what is right and correct, as distinct from what may be 'politically correct'. I thank you for that commitment. And, like me, you understand that indigenous Australians are not only the country's most disadvantaged citizens, but the most discriminated against'." (Bottoms up, Strewth, The Australian, 19/12/13)
There is really only one way to do justice to such a scene: paint it in the style of some Italian Renaissance master. Something like this perhaps:
Mark Leibler, front and centre, sits on a throne elevated above the others, as befits a sage with a direct line to that which is eternally Right & Correct. High above, shining its light down on him, is an otherworldly Star of David.
A crowned and ermine-caped Tony Abbott kneels before him kissing his ring.
Shmuel Ben-Shmuel stands off to one side, a mysterious smile wreathing his face, his kippa, halo-like, floating ethereally only millimetres above his bald head.
Frydenberg stands opposite Abbott, his eyes fixed on the PM, unable to conceal his lust for crown and ermine.
Bishop, Andrews, Sinodinos, Fifield, Shorten, Dreyfus and Doyle, locked in poses of adoration and wonder, cocktail glasses raised high, gaze up at Sage Isi.
The Indigenous trio, in the bottom right hand corner of the painting, sprawl on the ground, looking every bit as though they have just been elbowed aside and trampled by Bishop, Andrews et al in the rush to hear Sage Mark's latest Dalai Lama-style pearl of wisdom.
Captured by the painter in a scroll at the very top of the painting, said pearl reads: 'O King Tony, on Israel you have always supported what is Right and Correct, and like me, you understand the plight of indigenous Australians.'
And there, in the bottom left hand corner of the work, lie a pile of torn and bleeding Palestinian bodies.
"A sixtieth anniversary calls for a pretty serious cocktail party, and so it was last night for law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, which marked the occasion in style at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. Among those attending from the government were Tony Abbott, Bronwyn Bishop (no party is complete without her), Kevin Andrews, Arthur Sinodinos, Mitch Fifield and the evidently omnipresent Josh Frydenberg, with Bill Shorten and Mark Dreyfus among those doing the honour for Labor. Also on deck were Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Israeli ambassador Shmuel Ben-Shmuel. And in honour of ABL partner Mark Leibler, a giant in the reconciliation movement, some of the nation's leading indigenous figures on the guest list included Noel Pearson, and Djawa and Balupalu Yunupingu from East Arnhem Land. Leibler saved some special words for his guest of honour, the PM: 'On Israel especially you have always been prepared to support what is right and correct, as distinct from what may be 'politically correct'. I thank you for that commitment. And, like me, you understand that indigenous Australians are not only the country's most disadvantaged citizens, but the most discriminated against'." (Bottoms up, Strewth, The Australian, 19/12/13)
There is really only one way to do justice to such a scene: paint it in the style of some Italian Renaissance master. Something like this perhaps:
Mark Leibler, front and centre, sits on a throne elevated above the others, as befits a sage with a direct line to that which is eternally Right & Correct. High above, shining its light down on him, is an otherworldly Star of David.
A crowned and ermine-caped Tony Abbott kneels before him kissing his ring.
Shmuel Ben-Shmuel stands off to one side, a mysterious smile wreathing his face, his kippa, halo-like, floating ethereally only millimetres above his bald head.
Frydenberg stands opposite Abbott, his eyes fixed on the PM, unable to conceal his lust for crown and ermine.
Bishop, Andrews, Sinodinos, Fifield, Shorten, Dreyfus and Doyle, locked in poses of adoration and wonder, cocktail glasses raised high, gaze up at Sage Isi.
The Indigenous trio, in the bottom right hand corner of the painting, sprawl on the ground, looking every bit as though they have just been elbowed aside and trampled by Bishop, Andrews et al in the rush to hear Sage Mark's latest Dalai Lama-style pearl of wisdom.
Captured by the painter in a scroll at the very top of the painting, said pearl reads: 'O King Tony, on Israel you have always supported what is Right and Correct, and like me, you understand the plight of indigenous Australians.'
And there, in the bottom left hand corner of the work, lie a pile of torn and bleeding Palestinian bodies.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Danby to Keep Young Bill on Straight & Narrow
"Bill Shorten embodies the traditional core values of the Labor Party, and his solid support for Israel reflects that. Mr Shorten knows, as we do, that bipartisan support for Israel is an integral part of the fabric of our country's foreign policy."(AIJAC national chairman Mark Leibler, The Australian Jewish News, 18/10/13)
While firefighters in NSW are battling desperately to contain and extinguish blazes across the state, a battle of far greater import, unheralded by the media, has been fought by a small band of heroes against a fire that came close to consuming the very core principle - nay, the very heart and soul - of the federal Labor Party: its unshakeable, unswerving, uncritical, river deep and mountain high love for Israel.
Make no mistake about it, in igniting the (dead) wood of the parliamentary Labor party last November, Labor's pyromaniacal foreign minister, Bob Carr, triggered a conflagration that almost destroyed the PM herself!
Still, PMs come and PMs go.
Far, far worse, Carr's incendiary act came close to changing forever the very way we vote - vis-a-vis Israel - in the UN General Assembly.
The good news is that now, with Carr's unlamented departure from Labor's parliamentary ranks, the last burning embers of critical thinking on the subject of Israel have finally been extinguished, and the smoke is beginning to clear to reveal the lineaments of a new party firmly under the control of those for whom Israel is, was, and always shall be, the proverbial light on Labor's hill.
I can now reveal that this epic struggle for the Israeli soul of the Australian Labor Party was won largely by the heroic efforts of one man, Michael Danby MP. After all, as this humble and self-effacing man hinted in a recent tweet, it was his Solomonic wisdom that has guided Bill Shorten ever since the latter fell under his spell while barely out of short pants:
"Known Bill since he was 20. Always thought he'd be PM. Hope my (parliamentary secretary) role contributes to his office projecting serious and adult policies." (17/10/13)
Serious and adult policies? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...
Still, it should not be forgotten that however great has been Danby's role in seeing off Carr and overseeing Bill Shorten's rise and rise to the wuthering heights of Labor leadership, others too have been risking their all in dousing those last flickering embers of critical thinking (on the subject of Israel):
"ECAJ representatives have met with Tanya Plibersek on several occasions, most recently in Sydney last week. The meeting discussed the differences of opinion we had had with the former government but was friendly and constructive', [said ECAJ president Danny Lamm]." (ECAJ on Plibersek: forgive and forget, The Australian Jewish News, 18/10/13)
And just to make sure that Danby's magic on Shorten doesn't wear off, ECAJ "will be working with him to try to reverse some of the poorly considered statements about Israel that were made in the name of the previous government." (ibid)
And just to make sure that ECAJ's magic on Shorten doesn't wear off, AIJAC's Colin Rubinstein "said he was looking forward to working with Shorten and his shadow cabinet." (ibid)
And just to make sure AIJAC's magic on Shorten doesn't wear off...
While firefighters in NSW are battling desperately to contain and extinguish blazes across the state, a battle of far greater import, unheralded by the media, has been fought by a small band of heroes against a fire that came close to consuming the very core principle - nay, the very heart and soul - of the federal Labor Party: its unshakeable, unswerving, uncritical, river deep and mountain high love for Israel.
Make no mistake about it, in igniting the (dead) wood of the parliamentary Labor party last November, Labor's pyromaniacal foreign minister, Bob Carr, triggered a conflagration that almost destroyed the PM herself!
Still, PMs come and PMs go.
Far, far worse, Carr's incendiary act came close to changing forever the very way we vote - vis-a-vis Israel - in the UN General Assembly.
The good news is that now, with Carr's unlamented departure from Labor's parliamentary ranks, the last burning embers of critical thinking on the subject of Israel have finally been extinguished, and the smoke is beginning to clear to reveal the lineaments of a new party firmly under the control of those for whom Israel is, was, and always shall be, the proverbial light on Labor's hill.
I can now reveal that this epic struggle for the Israeli soul of the Australian Labor Party was won largely by the heroic efforts of one man, Michael Danby MP. After all, as this humble and self-effacing man hinted in a recent tweet, it was his Solomonic wisdom that has guided Bill Shorten ever since the latter fell under his spell while barely out of short pants:
"Known Bill since he was 20. Always thought he'd be PM. Hope my (parliamentary secretary) role contributes to his office projecting serious and adult policies." (17/10/13)
Serious and adult policies? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge...
Still, it should not be forgotten that however great has been Danby's role in seeing off Carr and overseeing Bill Shorten's rise and rise to the wuthering heights of Labor leadership, others too have been risking their all in dousing those last flickering embers of critical thinking (on the subject of Israel):
"ECAJ representatives have met with Tanya Plibersek on several occasions, most recently in Sydney last week. The meeting discussed the differences of opinion we had had with the former government but was friendly and constructive', [said ECAJ president Danny Lamm]." (ECAJ on Plibersek: forgive and forget, The Australian Jewish News, 18/10/13)
And just to make sure that Danby's magic on Shorten doesn't wear off, ECAJ "will be working with him to try to reverse some of the poorly considered statements about Israel that were made in the name of the previous government." (ibid)
And just to make sure that ECAJ's magic on Shorten doesn't wear off, AIJAC's Colin Rubinstein "said he was looking forward to working with Shorten and his shadow cabinet." (ibid)
And just to make sure AIJAC's magic on Shorten doesn't wear off...
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Zionist Hypocrisy Alert
"We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying employment for it in our country." Theodor Herzl, Zionist Godfather, 1895
I really don't know which is the more revolting: the hypocrisy of Zionists who speak out for refugees, so long as they're not Palestinian refugees (or indigenous people, so long as they're not indigenous Palestinians), or the alacrity with which opinion editors give them a platform to do so in our newspapers - which is precisely what opinion editor Paul Austin has done in today's Age:
Under the heading Stop the ugly politicking: this is a matter of life & death, tax lawyer and national chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) Mark Leibler claims that "[i]t chills me that we have come to a point where we are denying refugees reaching Australian waters any prospect of ever being settled in this country."
At various points, he refers to "vulnerable refugees fleeing persecution [who] while deserving of our empathy... are instead left degraded and dehumanised"; "[Australia's] record as a nation that embraces a 'fair go' for refugees fleeing persecution"; "our moral obligation to contribute to the global refugee crisis"; and the fact that "most refugees would want to go home if it was safe to do so."
Leibler's piece is replete with noble sentiments and oozes humanitarian feeling. But there's only one thing wrong. He just happens to be one of Australia's foremost apologists for Israel, a colonial-settler state with a Jewish majority only achieved by the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and the creation of over 750,000 Palestinian Arab REFUGEES, who are still refugees today, 65 years later.
That's right, Palestinian refugees. Remember them, Mark?
Just to remind you, the following account, by Swedish photo-journalist Per-Olow Anderson, was published back in 1957. Anderson's concluding questions are as relevant today as they were in the 50s:
"Human suffering is nothing new to me. As a photo-journalist I have encountered it many times during the newspaper and magazine assignments that have taken me to 74 countries in the past 20 years. But none of my experiences was more shocking to me than my introduction to the plight of the more than 1 million Palestine Arab refugees in the Middle East, whom I first saw in April, 1956, on my arrival at Gaza on an assignment for my Swedish magazine.
"The Palestine Arab refugees exist in misery and despair in crowded camps in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip - in caves in Palestine, squatters' rows near large Arab cities, and the slums of the cities themselves. I have seen the squalor of their tents and mud huts sprawled on rocky hillsides and in bone-dry, dust-blown valleys. I have felt their grief and suffering, heard their bitter memories and frustrations, and their tense and emotional cry: 'Justice, justice! All we ask is justice!'
"What is justice in their particular case, and why has it been denied them for so long? When the United Nations sanctioned the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, it did not intend that the Arab population of the territory given to the Jews should be expropriated, expelled or forced to flee. But this is what actually happened. Nearly a million Arabs whose ancestors had lived for countless generations in Palestine lost their lands and homes and became penniless refugees, to make way for Jewish refugees, who had themselves been forced by Nazi persecution to flee their homelands.
"The world has extended its help and sympathy to the Jewish refugees. Everything possible was done for them and the conscience of humanity was so stirred that it approved of their being given a Jewish state of their own. Ironically and tragically, however, the world in attempting to right an injustice to one people sowed the seeds of injustice to another. The Palestine Arabs, whom the Jewish refugees displaced, also became victims of war and terror. For them, the world set up only a relief agency to hand out a dole and to carry out a plan for resettling them in other Arab lands, against the wishes of both themselves and of the countries to which they were to be assigned. Nothing has been done to answer the desire of the Palestine Arabs for repatriation to their former homes, or to compensate them for the loss of their property, or to enforce the UN-imposed boundaries that would have divided Palestine almost equally between Jew and Arab.
"I cannot see why - after 9 years - the world still has not solved this problem. I cannot understand how the world at large came to forget these people who, in terms of human suffering, are paying an agonizing price for a mistake for which all of us are responsible." (From the Introduction to They are human too...: A Photographic Essay on the Palestine Arab Refugees)
I really don't know which is the more revolting: the hypocrisy of Zionists who speak out for refugees, so long as they're not Palestinian refugees (or indigenous people, so long as they're not indigenous Palestinians), or the alacrity with which opinion editors give them a platform to do so in our newspapers - which is precisely what opinion editor Paul Austin has done in today's Age:
Under the heading Stop the ugly politicking: this is a matter of life & death, tax lawyer and national chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) Mark Leibler claims that "[i]t chills me that we have come to a point where we are denying refugees reaching Australian waters any prospect of ever being settled in this country."
At various points, he refers to "vulnerable refugees fleeing persecution [who] while deserving of our empathy... are instead left degraded and dehumanised"; "[Australia's] record as a nation that embraces a 'fair go' for refugees fleeing persecution"; "our moral obligation to contribute to the global refugee crisis"; and the fact that "most refugees would want to go home if it was safe to do so."
Leibler's piece is replete with noble sentiments and oozes humanitarian feeling. But there's only one thing wrong. He just happens to be one of Australia's foremost apologists for Israel, a colonial-settler state with a Jewish majority only achieved by the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 and the creation of over 750,000 Palestinian Arab REFUGEES, who are still refugees today, 65 years later.
That's right, Palestinian refugees. Remember them, Mark?
Just to remind you, the following account, by Swedish photo-journalist Per-Olow Anderson, was published back in 1957. Anderson's concluding questions are as relevant today as they were in the 50s:
"Human suffering is nothing new to me. As a photo-journalist I have encountered it many times during the newspaper and magazine assignments that have taken me to 74 countries in the past 20 years. But none of my experiences was more shocking to me than my introduction to the plight of the more than 1 million Palestine Arab refugees in the Middle East, whom I first saw in April, 1956, on my arrival at Gaza on an assignment for my Swedish magazine.
"The Palestine Arab refugees exist in misery and despair in crowded camps in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip - in caves in Palestine, squatters' rows near large Arab cities, and the slums of the cities themselves. I have seen the squalor of their tents and mud huts sprawled on rocky hillsides and in bone-dry, dust-blown valleys. I have felt their grief and suffering, heard their bitter memories and frustrations, and their tense and emotional cry: 'Justice, justice! All we ask is justice!'
"What is justice in their particular case, and why has it been denied them for so long? When the United Nations sanctioned the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, it did not intend that the Arab population of the territory given to the Jews should be expropriated, expelled or forced to flee. But this is what actually happened. Nearly a million Arabs whose ancestors had lived for countless generations in Palestine lost their lands and homes and became penniless refugees, to make way for Jewish refugees, who had themselves been forced by Nazi persecution to flee their homelands.
"The world has extended its help and sympathy to the Jewish refugees. Everything possible was done for them and the conscience of humanity was so stirred that it approved of their being given a Jewish state of their own. Ironically and tragically, however, the world in attempting to right an injustice to one people sowed the seeds of injustice to another. The Palestine Arabs, whom the Jewish refugees displaced, also became victims of war and terror. For them, the world set up only a relief agency to hand out a dole and to carry out a plan for resettling them in other Arab lands, against the wishes of both themselves and of the countries to which they were to be assigned. Nothing has been done to answer the desire of the Palestine Arabs for repatriation to their former homes, or to compensate them for the loss of their property, or to enforce the UN-imposed boundaries that would have divided Palestine almost equally between Jew and Arab.
"I cannot see why - after 9 years - the world still has not solved this problem. I cannot understand how the world at large came to forget these people who, in terms of human suffering, are paying an agonizing price for a mistake for which all of us are responsible." (From the Introduction to They are human too...: A Photographic Essay on the Palestine Arab Refugees)
Monday, January 23, 2012
No Whispering in the Heart?
You may have noticed that one of Australia's most prominent Zionists, lawyer Mark Leibler, is heavily involved in the current push to recognise indigenous Australians and remove racially discriminatory provisions in the Constitution:
"Mark Leibler, better known as a leading corporate and tax lawyer at Arnold Bloch Leibler, was co-chair, with Patrick Dodson, of the expert panel. Its report, Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution, was released yesterday with a national referendum to be held either before, or at, the next federal election next year. Speaking to Prejudice yesterday, Leibler said he was asked by the Prime Minister to take on the co-chair role in 2010. 'I felt it was important and I agreed', he said." (Constitution report leaves Leibler proud, Susannah Moran, Prejudice/The Australian, 20/1/12)
As he explained recently in an Age opinion piece, Leibler felt the issue was very important and agreed to Gillard's request for very personal reasons:
"Racism turns your life into a lottery. It reduces your ability to control your destiny or make decisions for yourself. To stay or go becomes a matter of life or death. Racism condemned my maternal grandparents to being murdered in Auschwitz. In 1939, it drove my parents from Belgium and the Nazis to find sanctuary in Australia." (Racism still shadows our history, 20/1/12)
A cris de coeur, indeed. And so beautifully put. But something nags.
As Leibler wrote this, did he for one moment pause to consider that whole generations of Palestinians have had their lives turned upside down so that, in addition to his parents' Australian sanctuary, he (and they) could also call Israel home? Did it cross his mind for so much as a nanosecond that Israel is because Palestine isn't? Did he perish the thought that maybe, just maybe, Palestinians too are the victims of a profoundly racist project?
Unsurprisingly, following his deeply felt prelude, fine, noble sentiments followed:
"As far as the constitution is concerned [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people] are invisible; no mention of their heritage and cultures; no mention of their place as the first inhabitants of this country and as the world's oldest continuing cultures. How did this happen? Because the constitution, understandably, reflects the values and beliefs of the time it was drafted. The founding fathers'... perspectives - including those on race - were of the 19th century, not the 21st... Today, there is no more pressing need than to remove the sections in the constitution dealing with race and to end the exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the document and, at the same time, acknowledging their place, cultures and languages as integral to our nation's identity."
But did it ever enter the mind of this Zionist advocate that, where the indigenous Arab inhabitants of Palestine are concerned, Zionists have written the book on invisibility - whether it's a 'people without a land for a land without a people', or Golda Meir's "non-existent" Palestinians or Zionist lobby-funded Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's "invented" Palestinians, or a myriad other variations on the theme?
Dit it occur to him how so 19th century is the idea of an ethnographic state such as Israel, a state which excludes ethnically-cleansed Palestinian refugees simply because they're not Jewish, but hoovers up any Jew, anywhere on the planet, even ferreting out and uprooting so-called 'lost tribes', proclaiming that the land of Israel is their exclusive and God-given birthright?
Did he possibly reflect that there is no more pressing need than to remove the panoply of apartheid legislation, beginning with the thoroughly racist Law of Return, which underpins Israel's 'Jewishness' and forever excludes non-Jewish Palestinians from becoming integral to its identity?
I seriously doubt it.
I'm reminded here of the 19th century Sydney barrister, Richard Windeyer. Australian historian Henry Reynolds describes a man as dismissive of Aboriginal rights to the land of Australia as any latter day Zionist is of Palestinian rights to Palestine.
Windeyer, writes Reynolds, in the context of an 1842 debate, "took particular exception to the proposition that the Europeans 'had no right to take the land'. That claim, he argued, begged the whole question 'which is whether the land be theirs'. Europeans who ventured into the interior of Australia had met Aboriginal people and had assumed the land was 'more or less appropriated'. But the tribes didn't actually inhabit the land. Rather they ranged over it. 'That they have never tilled the soil, or enclosed it, or cleared any portion of it, or planted a single tree, or grain or root, is acknowledged'. As a consequence there was no ownership. Aboriginal occupation of the land did not 'by the law of nature establish any title to the substance of the soil'. It was, indeed, 'the height of absurdity to talk of the title of these men of the woods to anything not under the control of their bludgeons'... In a sweeping peroration Windeyer declared: The consideration of the rights of the Aborigines to the enjoyment of their laws and customs, to the soil of the country, to its wild animals is done. The argument is sound, the chain of reasoning is complete'." (This Whispering in Our Hearts, 1998, pp 20-21)
But something still nagged at the man. As Reynolds puts it:
"And yet that was not the final word. His powerful analysis had not satisfied his own conscience. 'How is it our minds are not satisfied?' he asked. 'What means this whispering in the bottom of our hearts?' (ibid)
No such whispering in your heart, Mark Leibler?
"Mark Leibler, better known as a leading corporate and tax lawyer at Arnold Bloch Leibler, was co-chair, with Patrick Dodson, of the expert panel. Its report, Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution, was released yesterday with a national referendum to be held either before, or at, the next federal election next year. Speaking to Prejudice yesterday, Leibler said he was asked by the Prime Minister to take on the co-chair role in 2010. 'I felt it was important and I agreed', he said." (Constitution report leaves Leibler proud, Susannah Moran, Prejudice/The Australian, 20/1/12)
As he explained recently in an Age opinion piece, Leibler felt the issue was very important and agreed to Gillard's request for very personal reasons:
"Racism turns your life into a lottery. It reduces your ability to control your destiny or make decisions for yourself. To stay or go becomes a matter of life or death. Racism condemned my maternal grandparents to being murdered in Auschwitz. In 1939, it drove my parents from Belgium and the Nazis to find sanctuary in Australia." (Racism still shadows our history, 20/1/12)
A cris de coeur, indeed. And so beautifully put. But something nags.
As Leibler wrote this, did he for one moment pause to consider that whole generations of Palestinians have had their lives turned upside down so that, in addition to his parents' Australian sanctuary, he (and they) could also call Israel home? Did it cross his mind for so much as a nanosecond that Israel is because Palestine isn't? Did he perish the thought that maybe, just maybe, Palestinians too are the victims of a profoundly racist project?
Unsurprisingly, following his deeply felt prelude, fine, noble sentiments followed:
"As far as the constitution is concerned [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people] are invisible; no mention of their heritage and cultures; no mention of their place as the first inhabitants of this country and as the world's oldest continuing cultures. How did this happen? Because the constitution, understandably, reflects the values and beliefs of the time it was drafted. The founding fathers'... perspectives - including those on race - were of the 19th century, not the 21st... Today, there is no more pressing need than to remove the sections in the constitution dealing with race and to end the exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the document and, at the same time, acknowledging their place, cultures and languages as integral to our nation's identity."
But did it ever enter the mind of this Zionist advocate that, where the indigenous Arab inhabitants of Palestine are concerned, Zionists have written the book on invisibility - whether it's a 'people without a land for a land without a people', or Golda Meir's "non-existent" Palestinians or Zionist lobby-funded Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's "invented" Palestinians, or a myriad other variations on the theme?
Dit it occur to him how so 19th century is the idea of an ethnographic state such as Israel, a state which excludes ethnically-cleansed Palestinian refugees simply because they're not Jewish, but hoovers up any Jew, anywhere on the planet, even ferreting out and uprooting so-called 'lost tribes', proclaiming that the land of Israel is their exclusive and God-given birthright?
Did he possibly reflect that there is no more pressing need than to remove the panoply of apartheid legislation, beginning with the thoroughly racist Law of Return, which underpins Israel's 'Jewishness' and forever excludes non-Jewish Palestinians from becoming integral to its identity?
I seriously doubt it.
I'm reminded here of the 19th century Sydney barrister, Richard Windeyer. Australian historian Henry Reynolds describes a man as dismissive of Aboriginal rights to the land of Australia as any latter day Zionist is of Palestinian rights to Palestine.
Windeyer, writes Reynolds, in the context of an 1842 debate, "took particular exception to the proposition that the Europeans 'had no right to take the land'. That claim, he argued, begged the whole question 'which is whether the land be theirs'. Europeans who ventured into the interior of Australia had met Aboriginal people and had assumed the land was 'more or less appropriated'. But the tribes didn't actually inhabit the land. Rather they ranged over it. 'That they have never tilled the soil, or enclosed it, or cleared any portion of it, or planted a single tree, or grain or root, is acknowledged'. As a consequence there was no ownership. Aboriginal occupation of the land did not 'by the law of nature establish any title to the substance of the soil'. It was, indeed, 'the height of absurdity to talk of the title of these men of the woods to anything not under the control of their bludgeons'... In a sweeping peroration Windeyer declared: The consideration of the rights of the Aborigines to the enjoyment of their laws and customs, to the soil of the country, to its wild animals is done. The argument is sound, the chain of reasoning is complete'." (This Whispering in Our Hearts, 1998, pp 20-21)
But something still nagged at the man. As Reynolds puts it:
"And yet that was not the final word. His powerful analysis had not satisfied his own conscience. 'How is it our minds are not satisfied?' he asked. 'What means this whispering in the bottom of our hearts?' (ibid)
No such whispering in your heart, Mark Leibler?
Sunday, December 4, 2011
A Surreal Experience
Judging by the account at jwire.com.au, Yachad-Unity-Israel, Australia & Education (29/10/11), the National Australia Bank Yachad Scholarship Fund Luncheon in Melbourne on November 25 was a surreal experience.
There was Mark Leibler, Deputy Chair of Yachad, who talked about his, the NAB's, and his community's "passion for redressing the disadvantageous circumstances faced by Indigenous Australians."
(In that case maybe he could put the hard word on the Chair of NAB, Michael Chaney, who doubles as Chair of Woodside, to drop its plan for a gas hub at James Price Point on the Kimberley coast which is the location of a song cycle sacred to the Goolarabooloo and other people of the Dampier Peninsula. (See Sacredsong-cycle site disturbed by gas hub plans, Paddy Manning, The Age, 5/12/11)
Needless to say, nothing was said of Israel's passion for creating and maintaining the disadvantageous circumstances faced by indigenous Palestinians.
There was PM Julia Gillard, who gushed:
"We do gather as friends today - friends of the great republic of Israel whose peace and security is so dear to Australian hearts and to mine. We are two countries separated by distance but united by values. Liberal democracies that seek freedom and peace. A just and secure Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people is an indispensible part of a just and secure world. In the Common Era there has never been a century when the Jewish people have known safety. May this century be the first. May this be the time when people of good will, Israelis and Palestinians alike sit together and find a lasting peace. A century when understanding overcomes hate."
Which, if you took her seriously, could only mean that Australia too is an apartheid state. Still, how can you think straight when you've got an election to fund in 2013, if not sooner, and the usual suspects are scrutinising your every word and then some? So on she went:
"On my visit to Israel I was struck repeatedly by the depth of commitment amongst Israel's people to solving problems, for innovation and ingenuity in the face of adversity. It is a quality that we can all benefit from. Strength in partnerships through education and social action is a vital part of any society."
The rest of us tend to be struck repeatedly by the hole Israel has been digging for itself ever since its creation in 1948, but no matter, for an Australian PM trailing in the polls, and for whom nothing matters more than hanging on to power, the show, as they say, must go on.
There was Dr Ron Weiser, Honorary Life President of the Zionist Council of NSW, who chimed in with: "Despite the certain sacrifices and risks that any negotiated peace would entail, Israel still relentlessly pursues that peace and mutual recognition."
Which makes for high comedy when paired with this little item from this week's Australian Jewish News on Netanyah's relentless pursuit of peace: "In light of regional unrest, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset on Wednesday last week that Israel must now move slowly and cautiously in peace moves with the Palestinians, and those who urged otherwise had their heads 'buried in the sand'... We can't know who will end up with any piece of territory we give up. Reality is changing all the time, and if you don't see it, your head is buried in the sand', Netanyahu said." (Netanyau warns against rushing into peace deal, Herb Keinin, The Jerusalem Post/AJN, 2/12/11)
Finally, there was Dr Jakelin Troy, "2011 NAB Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University Yachad," and "an indigenous academic" who researches "indigenous social and cultural well-being at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies based in Canberra."
This was surely the most surreal touch of all - an indigenous Australian set to sit at the feet of the mob who, in 1948, ethnically cleansed Palestine of most of its indigenous inhabitants, and who, since 1967, have occupied the rest.
There was Mark Leibler, Deputy Chair of Yachad, who talked about his, the NAB's, and his community's "passion for redressing the disadvantageous circumstances faced by Indigenous Australians."
(In that case maybe he could put the hard word on the Chair of NAB, Michael Chaney, who doubles as Chair of Woodside, to drop its plan for a gas hub at James Price Point on the Kimberley coast which is the location of a song cycle sacred to the Goolarabooloo and other people of the Dampier Peninsula. (See Sacredsong-cycle site disturbed by gas hub plans, Paddy Manning, The Age, 5/12/11)
Needless to say, nothing was said of Israel's passion for creating and maintaining the disadvantageous circumstances faced by indigenous Palestinians.
There was PM Julia Gillard, who gushed:
"We do gather as friends today - friends of the great republic of Israel whose peace and security is so dear to Australian hearts and to mine. We are two countries separated by distance but united by values. Liberal democracies that seek freedom and peace. A just and secure Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people is an indispensible part of a just and secure world. In the Common Era there has never been a century when the Jewish people have known safety. May this century be the first. May this be the time when people of good will, Israelis and Palestinians alike sit together and find a lasting peace. A century when understanding overcomes hate."
Which, if you took her seriously, could only mean that Australia too is an apartheid state. Still, how can you think straight when you've got an election to fund in 2013, if not sooner, and the usual suspects are scrutinising your every word and then some? So on she went:
"On my visit to Israel I was struck repeatedly by the depth of commitment amongst Israel's people to solving problems, for innovation and ingenuity in the face of adversity. It is a quality that we can all benefit from. Strength in partnerships through education and social action is a vital part of any society."
The rest of us tend to be struck repeatedly by the hole Israel has been digging for itself ever since its creation in 1948, but no matter, for an Australian PM trailing in the polls, and for whom nothing matters more than hanging on to power, the show, as they say, must go on.
There was Dr Ron Weiser, Honorary Life President of the Zionist Council of NSW, who chimed in with: "Despite the certain sacrifices and risks that any negotiated peace would entail, Israel still relentlessly pursues that peace and mutual recognition."
Which makes for high comedy when paired with this little item from this week's Australian Jewish News on Netanyah's relentless pursuit of peace: "In light of regional unrest, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset on Wednesday last week that Israel must now move slowly and cautiously in peace moves with the Palestinians, and those who urged otherwise had their heads 'buried in the sand'... We can't know who will end up with any piece of territory we give up. Reality is changing all the time, and if you don't see it, your head is buried in the sand', Netanyahu said." (Netanyau warns against rushing into peace deal, Herb Keinin, The Jerusalem Post/AJN, 2/12/11)
Finally, there was Dr Jakelin Troy, "2011 NAB Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University Yachad," and "an indigenous academic" who researches "indigenous social and cultural well-being at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies based in Canberra."
This was surely the most surreal touch of all - an indigenous Australian set to sit at the feet of the mob who, in 1948, ethnically cleansed Palestine of most of its indigenous inhabitants, and who, since 1967, have occupied the rest.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
That's What Friends Are For
Keep smiling, keep shining
Knowing you can always count on me, for sure
That's what friends are for
In good times, in bad times
I'll be on your side forever more
Oh, that's what friends are for
Dionne Warwick
"TRICOM boss Lance Rosenberg called on character evidence from the top ranks of the business world, including his 'close personal friend', Westfield managing director Steven Lowy, as he battled a 4-year ban from corporate life. 'I find Mr Rosenberg to be a gentleman of high integrity, intelligence and enthusiasm', Mr Lowy said in his character reference. Mr Rosenberg also received glowing testimonials to his honesty from Investec Bank executive Geoff Levy, Sydney QC Malcolm Holmes, former Mallesons partner David Fairlie and leading tax lawyer Mark Leibler... Mr Lowy, the son of Australia's richest man, Frank Lowy, was the most high-profile figure to provide a character reference. Mr Lowy told the Australian Securities & Investments Commission [ASIC] he had known Mr Rosenberg for 27 years... 'We have a close personal friendship, communicate frequently, and currently sit together on the board of a charitable organisation, United Israel Appeal' [UIA]... Geoff Levy, the former chief executive of South African investment bank Investec's Australian arm, said he had 'interacted in business with Mr Rosenberg for some 20 years'... Mr Leibler, senior partner at Melbourne law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler and one of Australia's best tax lawyers, said he had known Mr Rosenberg 'for approximately 5 years'. The Leibler family super fund had used Tricom as its sharebroker, while Mr Rosenberg was a client of Arnold Bloch Leibler, he said... " (Lowy's role in defence, Ben Butler, The Age, 21/9/10)
Did I hear United Israel Appeal? Yes, Lance isn't the only cause that has our friends rallying around:
Lance Rosenberg and Steven Lowy sit together on the board of the UIA. Frank Lowy is 'Life Governor' of the NSW UIA Executive. Mark Leibler (National Chair of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council) is a former chair of the UIA's World Board of Trustees. And, while Geoff Levy, deputy chair of Investec, may not be directly connected with the UIA, Investec's chairman, David Gonski, is a member of the UIA's 'extended executive' (as well as being on the board of Lowy's Westfield Group).
And what exactly is the UIA? Nothing less than the "central fundraising organisation for Israel throughout the world." (uiansw.org.au) And blow me down if it isn't a tax-exempt charity. Work that one out.
Knowing you can always count on me, for sure
That's what friends are for
In good times, in bad times
I'll be on your side forever more
Oh, that's what friends are for
Dionne Warwick
"TRICOM boss Lance Rosenberg called on character evidence from the top ranks of the business world, including his 'close personal friend', Westfield managing director Steven Lowy, as he battled a 4-year ban from corporate life. 'I find Mr Rosenberg to be a gentleman of high integrity, intelligence and enthusiasm', Mr Lowy said in his character reference. Mr Rosenberg also received glowing testimonials to his honesty from Investec Bank executive Geoff Levy, Sydney QC Malcolm Holmes, former Mallesons partner David Fairlie and leading tax lawyer Mark Leibler... Mr Lowy, the son of Australia's richest man, Frank Lowy, was the most high-profile figure to provide a character reference. Mr Lowy told the Australian Securities & Investments Commission [ASIC] he had known Mr Rosenberg for 27 years... 'We have a close personal friendship, communicate frequently, and currently sit together on the board of a charitable organisation, United Israel Appeal' [UIA]... Geoff Levy, the former chief executive of South African investment bank Investec's Australian arm, said he had 'interacted in business with Mr Rosenberg for some 20 years'... Mr Leibler, senior partner at Melbourne law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler and one of Australia's best tax lawyers, said he had known Mr Rosenberg 'for approximately 5 years'. The Leibler family super fund had used Tricom as its sharebroker, while Mr Rosenberg was a client of Arnold Bloch Leibler, he said... " (Lowy's role in defence, Ben Butler, The Age, 21/9/10)
Did I hear United Israel Appeal? Yes, Lance isn't the only cause that has our friends rallying around:
Lance Rosenberg and Steven Lowy sit together on the board of the UIA. Frank Lowy is 'Life Governor' of the NSW UIA Executive. Mark Leibler (National Chair of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council) is a former chair of the UIA's World Board of Trustees. And, while Geoff Levy, deputy chair of Investec, may not be directly connected with the UIA, Investec's chairman, David Gonski, is a member of the UIA's 'extended executive' (as well as being on the board of Lowy's Westfield Group).
And what exactly is the UIA? Nothing less than the "central fundraising organisation for Israel throughout the world." (uiansw.org.au) And blow me down if it isn't a tax-exempt charity. Work that one out.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Israeli Occupation of Federal Parliament 2
Whenever there's a party, there's always someone around to pooh pooh it. On 12 March in the nation's capital, party animals of all stripes flocked to Parliament House. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, and their party faithful, had gathered to pay homage to the 'plucky' little state of Israel on the occasion of her 60th birthday.
The Israel lobby's preferred press, The Australian, had no doubt been breathless with anticipation for the day when the Liberal lion (recently defanged) would lie down with the Labor lamb (recently fanged), and both would be as one in singing the praises of that Blight unto the Nations.
However, certain party-poopers (of a left-wing, anti-Israel persuasion, according to the self-proclaimed Heart of the Nation) just couldn't resist raining on the parade (not to mention sullying its pages) by placing a large, white-on-black, not-in-our-name advertisement protesting the PM's "bipartisan parliamentary motion...congratulating Israel on reaching the milestone of 60 years of statehood." Headed Improper Motion Needs Proper Action, 1948 Palestine Al Nakba, the ad was signed by a range of pro-Palestine organizations and individuals, including the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).
The ad's message, never to my knowledge heard before in Murdoch's flagship, read as follows:- "We, as informed and concerned Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a celebration of the triumph of racism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948. As we write, Israel continues to expand illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank including Arab East Jerusalem. Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people and its leaders the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession of the Palestinian people. Israel has poisoned our (the West's) relations with the whole of the Arab and Muslim world. Rather than celebrating the creation of the State of Israel we should be recognising the people of Palestine, those who were dispossessed, those who lived and died as refugees, those who continue to live and die and suffer at the hands of the State of Israel, and those who will continue to suffer and die in the future until justice is done."
Needless to say, it acted as the proverbial red rag to the Zionist bull[ies] who infest the pages of The Australian, and The Heart of the Nation wasn't going to take this outrageous provocation lying down:-
On page 2 we were alerted to Canberra's festivities by the header Online Today: Australia Salutes Israel, Multimedia: Greg Sheridan looks at 60 years of the Jewish state; Blog: Have your say, complete with photo of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert standing next to an Israeli flag.
On page 4 we ran bang into a news report, Labor split over motion on Israel: "Yesterday, the motion provoked a clash between Kevin Rudd and pro-Palestinian Labor MP Julia Irwin after Ms Irwin questioned why the Government was supporting the gesture given Israel's treatment of the Palestinians... Partyroom sources told The Australian Ms Irwin unsuccessfully attempted to table a number of Amnesty International reports during yesterday's caucus meeting, which she said detailed Israel's alleged [!!!] mistreatment of the Palestinians. Ms Irwin...had yet to decide if she would support the motion...In 2003 Ms Irwin called for UN intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also read an email to the parliament that described the Jewish lobby in Australia as 'the most implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby in the country' [ie sterling advocates for their implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful 'cause']"
Then, just when we thought we were safe, the opinion page disclosed Philip Chester's rhapsodical Israel's far-flung friend: The Jewish state cops a lot of criticism, but not from Australia. Phil, of course, is the prez of the Zionist Federation of Australia.
Some highlights:-
"Israel is quite simply a modern marvel. In the anti-colonialist era...European masters began the process of returning lands to their original inhabitants. What distinguished the Jews from other such people was that they had been expelled and forced to live in exile while the land they had lived in for 1500 years endured occupation for 2 milleniums."
Except that European masters weren't normally in the habit of returning stolen lands. These were generally taken back by the colonized, often after an armed struggle of the type waged by the indigenous Palestinians against the Zionist occupation and colonization of their Palestinian homeland. In the case of Palestine, post-WW1 British mandate rule constituted the imperial womb from which the Zionist brat emerged into the unsuspecting world of Arab Palestine. I say brat because the little blighter later turned to biting the imperial hand that had nurtured him, not to mention getting stuck into the natives big time. Phil's conceit, a Zionist staple, that today's Jews are somehow directly descended from those who lived in Palestine 1500 years ago is, of course, pure fantasy, but even if it were not, the notion that all who sailed in the good ship Palestine, before or after the 'Jewish phase', were occupiers is typical Zionist claptrap.
"While other post-war countries remained mired in corruption, authoritarianism, violent fundamentalism and poverty, Israel accumulated a range of achievements in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres that are truly mind-boggling. Israel is a true liberal democracy, with numerous political parties representing the wide range of Jewish and Arab interests...Israel is the only country in the world that entered this century with a net gain in its number of trees..."
Corruption: Israel is hardly anything to write home about in this respect: Transparency International, in its 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index rated it 5.9/10, making it no. 30 in a field of 180.
Authoritarianism: The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) notes (2004) that "protection of human rights in Israel is poor; there is serious political and economic discrimination against the Arab minority; there is much less freedom of religion than in other democracies; and the socioeconomic inequality indicator is among the highest in the sample." Further, they state that in terms of stability and social cohesion, "Israel ranks at the bottom of the list...The turnover in governments is more frequent than in other democracies and only India ranks lower in social tensions and rifts between the various segments of society." And that's only if we take Israel's democratic credentials at face value. Drive out the native majority, as Israel did in 48, so that the Jewish minority becomes the new majority, and, hey presto, you've successfully gerrymandered a state that's both Jewish and democratic. And we won't whisper a word about authoritarianism in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Violent fundamentalism: Hello settlers!
Poverty: According to mazon.org, 30% of Israeli children and 20% of its elderly live below the poverty line, while 22% of its population is food insecure. Now where does that $3 billion + US aid go to, I wonder?
Mind-boggling achievements: Phil has neglected to mention the most mind-boggling of all: Israel is, as Uri Avnery has pointed out, "Numero Uno" in liquidations.
Israel is a true liberal democracy, with numerous political parties representing the wide range of Jewish and Arab interests: Perhaps he hasn't gotten around yet to reading last year's report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) which "paints a bleak picture: increasing racism, restriction of personal freedoms and discrimination even within the Knesset walls - and that's just scratching the surface." Read on at Israel's ynet.co.il, Racism in Israel on the rise, Aviram Zino 12/8/07.
Trees: Often planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) over the ruins of the hundreds of Palestinian villages razed by Israeli forces in 1948.
"Australia and Israel share a great friendship. Political, economic and cultural interchange is common and Australia, since its significant role in supporting the establishment of the state of Israel in 1947, has proved itself a staunch ally in international forums. As the parliament's bipartisan resolution demonstrates, our main political parties are united in their support of Israel...Australia and Israel are both vibrant democracies that respect the rule of law and freedom of the press, despite being situated in regions where democracy is not necessarily the accepted order...Australia and Israel have been remarkably enriched by the arrival of people from diverse cultural origins. And, perhaps most tellingly, Israelis and Australians reject extremism and pretension and believe in the fundamental freedom of the individual."
1947: OMG, the ZFA prez has forgotten that Israel was established in 1948!
Staunch ally in international forums: Yeah, like those other staunch allies in the Pacific, Palau, Micronesia, the Marshalls, Nauru etc. Now what could possibly be in it for them? Or us?
Australia/Israel vibrant democracies: Except, of course, that Australia's democracy is not based on the mass expulsion and ongoing exclusion of millions of its potential citizens.
The rule of law: On Kaufmann et al's Rule of Law Index (2002) Australia rates 1.85, while Israel rates 0.97, hardly light years away from Cuba (0.94), Bahrein (0.92) or Libya (0.91).
Freedom of the press: On Reporters Without Border's Press Freedom Index (2007) Australia is no. 28, while Israel is no. 44, dropping to 103 when it comes to the occupied Palestinian territories. Can't give the press too free a hand there now, can we?
Immigrants from diverse cultural origins: Except that Australia doesn't exclude people simply because they don't have a Jewish mother.
Yadda, yadda, yadda. Should you wish to hear Phil's rhapsody in its entirety, that always reliable Zionist cyber warrior, anonymous, has thoughtfully appended it to his comment on my last post.
Then, on the letters page, we were treated to one of those bizarre editorials (Isratorials?) all too often found in The Australian. BIPARTISAN SUPPORT FOR STATE OF ISRAEL: An enduring beacon of democracy in a troubled region began in comic vein by asserting that Rudd's motion and Michael Danby MP's recent "first Jewish wedding in Parliament House" demonstrated "the bipartisan support that exists for Israel."
The goofy grin on the editor's face soon disappeared, however, because, let me tell you, he was not, repeat NOT, very happy with the advertisement or those behind it: "Predictably, today's statement to parliament - the timing of which has been agreed between the Government and the Israeli embassy for the convenience of parliament [Lobby memo: Israeli embassy tells Australian Government to celebrate Israel's next birthday at a time convenient to our Enduring Beacon of Democracy] - has spawned a chorus of dissent from the left-wing, anti-Israel suspects...a group claiming to be informed and concerned Australians has distanced itself from what it says is 'a celebration of racism and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948'...The sponsors of the advertisement, which include individuals and organisations such as the Australian Friends of Palestine, the militant [As in Hamas militants?] left-wing CFMEU and the Socialist Alliance, are entitled to their view. The group expresses what is now fashionable thought in academe, increasingly attracted to victimhood [Of which Israel holds the patent]...Unfortunately, it offers nothing to further the cause of peace or properly recognise the tragic circumstances that underpinned the creation of the state of Israel in the first place."
"Nowhere has the grotesque nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict been more evident than in the joyful celebrations among Gazan civilians following news that a deranged gunman had killed 8 Jewish students...What does it say about Hamas culture that it would promote public celebration at the slaughter of children?" Palestinians of course, as pure automatons, have to be organized by the evil CFMEU, sorry, Hamas militants, to indulge in a spot of schadenfreude. The fact that Israel had only just left off tearing over 120 of them limb from limb couldn't possibly have spurred them to such a display.
"One thing is certain: such barbaric displays by Israelis do not accompany news of the murder of Palestinians." How true! And how could it be otherwise? As Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) chairman, Mark Leibler, has so memorably put it: "For Hamas and Hezbollah, every dead Israeli child is a victory and a cause for celebration. For Israel, every dead Palestinian child is a tragedy and a mistake."
"The Australian believes Israel has been a force for good in the Middle East while its Arab opponents have, unfortunately, slipped backwards." But of course - think how helpful Israel has been in relieving the Palestinians of the terrible burden of self-determination and national independence. Think how over the years Israel has selflessly implemented huge slum renovation and population reduction projects throughout Palestine (and even beyond). And just imagine how obese those Gazans would be if Israel hadn't in her wisdom decided to put them on a diet.
Quite frankly, those Palestinian ingrates have only themselves to blame. By embracing "Islamic fundamentalism," they "find themselves caught in escalating violence led by zealots who have no interest in any settlement that recognises Israel's right to exist [at their expense]. These leaders are prepared to use the suffering of their own people in a propaganda war against Israel in the Western media [Any suggestion, however, that Israel is milking the plight of its own citizens in Sderot to justify picking off Hamas will not be tolerated]. The success of this propaganda war can be seen in the advertisements, such as the one published today."
That's right, folks, all those signatories are merely the unwitting dupes of foaming Islamic fundamentalists. The fact that the only way they can get their twisted message out is by paying Murdoch for an ad in The Israeli, sorry, The Australian, in no way indicates that Israeli leaders/lobbyists have been so successful in their propaganda war that they've successfully kept that message out of the Murdoch, and other ms presses. Perish the thought!
"We reject the view that the Israeli conflict lies at the root of all the problems in the Middle East and is the trigger for the rise of al-Qa'ida...in truth al-Qa'ida had little to say about Israel or Palestine throughout the 1990s." Oh boy (wearily reaches for copy of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden (2005), edited by Bruce Lawrence, and scans heading for Bin Laden's first (1994) message - The Betrayal of Palestine).
"As Greg Sheridan wrote..." Nuff said... My good friend, anonymous, has kindly posted the whole kit and kaboodle as an appendix to his own "barbaric display" of gloating over the duped signatories' unwitting commissioning of Phil's Istralia Rhapsody and ed's Hasbara Chorus.
Finally, there were the letters: Jeremy Samuel of Double Bay ("Congratulations to Kevin Rudd and Brendan Nelson..."); Barry Brummer of Sydney ("[Israel[ has walked a tightrope between recognising the rights of its neighbours and securing its own safety."); Ron Parkinson of Avalon ("I think it's safe to say that - short of a nuclear strike from Iran - Israel will still be battling for survival by the time the 100th anniversary comes around."); and Robert Eichel of Bondi Junction, who quoted a 40's Arab Dalek ("This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.") And who, dare I ask, was on the receiving end of those little dustups?
You can see that the lobby doesn't take too kindly to those who trespass (even if after bribing the proprietor) on its personal press fiefdom, The Israeli, sorry - there I go again - The Istralian.
The Israel lobby's preferred press, The Australian, had no doubt been breathless with anticipation for the day when the Liberal lion (recently defanged) would lie down with the Labor lamb (recently fanged), and both would be as one in singing the praises of that Blight unto the Nations.
However, certain party-poopers (of a left-wing, anti-Israel persuasion, according to the self-proclaimed Heart of the Nation) just couldn't resist raining on the parade (not to mention sullying its pages) by placing a large, white-on-black, not-in-our-name advertisement protesting the PM's "bipartisan parliamentary motion...congratulating Israel on reaching the milestone of 60 years of statehood." Headed Improper Motion Needs Proper Action, 1948 Palestine Al Nakba, the ad was signed by a range of pro-Palestine organizations and individuals, including the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).
The ad's message, never to my knowledge heard before in Murdoch's flagship, read as follows:- "We, as informed and concerned Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a celebration of the triumph of racism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948. As we write, Israel continues to expand illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank including Arab East Jerusalem. Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people and its leaders the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession of the Palestinian people. Israel has poisoned our (the West's) relations with the whole of the Arab and Muslim world. Rather than celebrating the creation of the State of Israel we should be recognising the people of Palestine, those who were dispossessed, those who lived and died as refugees, those who continue to live and die and suffer at the hands of the State of Israel, and those who will continue to suffer and die in the future until justice is done."
Needless to say, it acted as the proverbial red rag to the Zionist bull[ies] who infest the pages of The Australian, and The Heart of the Nation wasn't going to take this outrageous provocation lying down:-
On page 2 we were alerted to Canberra's festivities by the header Online Today: Australia Salutes Israel, Multimedia: Greg Sheridan looks at 60 years of the Jewish state; Blog: Have your say, complete with photo of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert standing next to an Israeli flag.
On page 4 we ran bang into a news report, Labor split over motion on Israel: "Yesterday, the motion provoked a clash between Kevin Rudd and pro-Palestinian Labor MP Julia Irwin after Ms Irwin questioned why the Government was supporting the gesture given Israel's treatment of the Palestinians... Partyroom sources told The Australian Ms Irwin unsuccessfully attempted to table a number of Amnesty International reports during yesterday's caucus meeting, which she said detailed Israel's alleged [!!!] mistreatment of the Palestinians. Ms Irwin...had yet to decide if she would support the motion...In 2003 Ms Irwin called for UN intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also read an email to the parliament that described the Jewish lobby in Australia as 'the most implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby in the country' [ie sterling advocates for their implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful 'cause']"
Then, just when we thought we were safe, the opinion page disclosed Philip Chester's rhapsodical Israel's far-flung friend: The Jewish state cops a lot of criticism, but not from Australia. Phil, of course, is the prez of the Zionist Federation of Australia.
Some highlights:-
"Israel is quite simply a modern marvel. In the anti-colonialist era...European masters began the process of returning lands to their original inhabitants. What distinguished the Jews from other such people was that they had been expelled and forced to live in exile while the land they had lived in for 1500 years endured occupation for 2 milleniums."
Except that European masters weren't normally in the habit of returning stolen lands. These were generally taken back by the colonized, often after an armed struggle of the type waged by the indigenous Palestinians against the Zionist occupation and colonization of their Palestinian homeland. In the case of Palestine, post-WW1 British mandate rule constituted the imperial womb from which the Zionist brat emerged into the unsuspecting world of Arab Palestine. I say brat because the little blighter later turned to biting the imperial hand that had nurtured him, not to mention getting stuck into the natives big time. Phil's conceit, a Zionist staple, that today's Jews are somehow directly descended from those who lived in Palestine 1500 years ago is, of course, pure fantasy, but even if it were not, the notion that all who sailed in the good ship Palestine, before or after the 'Jewish phase', were occupiers is typical Zionist claptrap.
"While other post-war countries remained mired in corruption, authoritarianism, violent fundamentalism and poverty, Israel accumulated a range of achievements in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres that are truly mind-boggling. Israel is a true liberal democracy, with numerous political parties representing the wide range of Jewish and Arab interests...Israel is the only country in the world that entered this century with a net gain in its number of trees..."
Corruption: Israel is hardly anything to write home about in this respect: Transparency International, in its 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index rated it 5.9/10, making it no. 30 in a field of 180.
Authoritarianism: The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) notes (2004) that "protection of human rights in Israel is poor; there is serious political and economic discrimination against the Arab minority; there is much less freedom of religion than in other democracies; and the socioeconomic inequality indicator is among the highest in the sample." Further, they state that in terms of stability and social cohesion, "Israel ranks at the bottom of the list...The turnover in governments is more frequent than in other democracies and only India ranks lower in social tensions and rifts between the various segments of society." And that's only if we take Israel's democratic credentials at face value. Drive out the native majority, as Israel did in 48, so that the Jewish minority becomes the new majority, and, hey presto, you've successfully gerrymandered a state that's both Jewish and democratic. And we won't whisper a word about authoritarianism in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Violent fundamentalism: Hello settlers!
Poverty: According to mazon.org, 30% of Israeli children and 20% of its elderly live below the poverty line, while 22% of its population is food insecure. Now where does that $3 billion + US aid go to, I wonder?
Mind-boggling achievements: Phil has neglected to mention the most mind-boggling of all: Israel is, as Uri Avnery has pointed out, "Numero Uno" in liquidations.
Israel is a true liberal democracy, with numerous political parties representing the wide range of Jewish and Arab interests: Perhaps he hasn't gotten around yet to reading last year's report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) which "paints a bleak picture: increasing racism, restriction of personal freedoms and discrimination even within the Knesset walls - and that's just scratching the surface." Read on at Israel's ynet.co.il, Racism in Israel on the rise, Aviram Zino 12/8/07.
Trees: Often planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) over the ruins of the hundreds of Palestinian villages razed by Israeli forces in 1948.
"Australia and Israel share a great friendship. Political, economic and cultural interchange is common and Australia, since its significant role in supporting the establishment of the state of Israel in 1947, has proved itself a staunch ally in international forums. As the parliament's bipartisan resolution demonstrates, our main political parties are united in their support of Israel...Australia and Israel are both vibrant democracies that respect the rule of law and freedom of the press, despite being situated in regions where democracy is not necessarily the accepted order...Australia and Israel have been remarkably enriched by the arrival of people from diverse cultural origins. And, perhaps most tellingly, Israelis and Australians reject extremism and pretension and believe in the fundamental freedom of the individual."
1947: OMG, the ZFA prez has forgotten that Israel was established in 1948!
Staunch ally in international forums: Yeah, like those other staunch allies in the Pacific, Palau, Micronesia, the Marshalls, Nauru etc. Now what could possibly be in it for them? Or us?
Australia/Israel vibrant democracies: Except, of course, that Australia's democracy is not based on the mass expulsion and ongoing exclusion of millions of its potential citizens.
The rule of law: On Kaufmann et al's Rule of Law Index (2002) Australia rates 1.85, while Israel rates 0.97, hardly light years away from Cuba (0.94), Bahrein (0.92) or Libya (0.91).
Freedom of the press: On Reporters Without Border's Press Freedom Index (2007) Australia is no. 28, while Israel is no. 44, dropping to 103 when it comes to the occupied Palestinian territories. Can't give the press too free a hand there now, can we?
Immigrants from diverse cultural origins: Except that Australia doesn't exclude people simply because they don't have a Jewish mother.
Yadda, yadda, yadda. Should you wish to hear Phil's rhapsody in its entirety, that always reliable Zionist cyber warrior, anonymous, has thoughtfully appended it to his comment on my last post.
Then, on the letters page, we were treated to one of those bizarre editorials (Isratorials?) all too often found in The Australian. BIPARTISAN SUPPORT FOR STATE OF ISRAEL: An enduring beacon of democracy in a troubled region began in comic vein by asserting that Rudd's motion and Michael Danby MP's recent "first Jewish wedding in Parliament House" demonstrated "the bipartisan support that exists for Israel."
The goofy grin on the editor's face soon disappeared, however, because, let me tell you, he was not, repeat NOT, very happy with the advertisement or those behind it: "Predictably, today's statement to parliament - the timing of which has been agreed between the Government and the Israeli embassy for the convenience of parliament [Lobby memo: Israeli embassy tells Australian Government to celebrate Israel's next birthday at a time convenient to our Enduring Beacon of Democracy] - has spawned a chorus of dissent from the left-wing, anti-Israel suspects...a group claiming to be informed and concerned Australians has distanced itself from what it says is 'a celebration of racism and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948'...The sponsors of the advertisement, which include individuals and organisations such as the Australian Friends of Palestine, the militant [As in Hamas militants?] left-wing CFMEU and the Socialist Alliance, are entitled to their view. The group expresses what is now fashionable thought in academe, increasingly attracted to victimhood [Of which Israel holds the patent]...Unfortunately, it offers nothing to further the cause of peace or properly recognise the tragic circumstances that underpinned the creation of the state of Israel in the first place."
"Nowhere has the grotesque nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict been more evident than in the joyful celebrations among Gazan civilians following news that a deranged gunman had killed 8 Jewish students...What does it say about Hamas culture that it would promote public celebration at the slaughter of children?" Palestinians of course, as pure automatons, have to be organized by the evil CFMEU, sorry, Hamas militants, to indulge in a spot of schadenfreude. The fact that Israel had only just left off tearing over 120 of them limb from limb couldn't possibly have spurred them to such a display.
"One thing is certain: such barbaric displays by Israelis do not accompany news of the murder of Palestinians." How true! And how could it be otherwise? As Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) chairman, Mark Leibler, has so memorably put it: "For Hamas and Hezbollah, every dead Israeli child is a victory and a cause for celebration. For Israel, every dead Palestinian child is a tragedy and a mistake."
"The Australian believes Israel has been a force for good in the Middle East while its Arab opponents have, unfortunately, slipped backwards." But of course - think how helpful Israel has been in relieving the Palestinians of the terrible burden of self-determination and national independence. Think how over the years Israel has selflessly implemented huge slum renovation and population reduction projects throughout Palestine (and even beyond). And just imagine how obese those Gazans would be if Israel hadn't in her wisdom decided to put them on a diet.
Quite frankly, those Palestinian ingrates have only themselves to blame. By embracing "Islamic fundamentalism," they "find themselves caught in escalating violence led by zealots who have no interest in any settlement that recognises Israel's right to exist [at their expense]. These leaders are prepared to use the suffering of their own people in a propaganda war against Israel in the Western media [Any suggestion, however, that Israel is milking the plight of its own citizens in Sderot to justify picking off Hamas will not be tolerated]. The success of this propaganda war can be seen in the advertisements, such as the one published today."
That's right, folks, all those signatories are merely the unwitting dupes of foaming Islamic fundamentalists. The fact that the only way they can get their twisted message out is by paying Murdoch for an ad in The Israeli, sorry, The Australian, in no way indicates that Israeli leaders/lobbyists have been so successful in their propaganda war that they've successfully kept that message out of the Murdoch, and other ms presses. Perish the thought!
"We reject the view that the Israeli conflict lies at the root of all the problems in the Middle East and is the trigger for the rise of al-Qa'ida...in truth al-Qa'ida had little to say about Israel or Palestine throughout the 1990s." Oh boy (wearily reaches for copy of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden (2005), edited by Bruce Lawrence, and scans heading for Bin Laden's first (1994) message - The Betrayal of Palestine).
"As Greg Sheridan wrote..." Nuff said... My good friend, anonymous, has kindly posted the whole kit and kaboodle as an appendix to his own "barbaric display" of gloating over the duped signatories' unwitting commissioning of Phil's Istralia Rhapsody and ed's Hasbara Chorus.
Finally, there were the letters: Jeremy Samuel of Double Bay ("Congratulations to Kevin Rudd and Brendan Nelson..."); Barry Brummer of Sydney ("[Israel[ has walked a tightrope between recognising the rights of its neighbours and securing its own safety."); Ron Parkinson of Avalon ("I think it's safe to say that - short of a nuclear strike from Iran - Israel will still be battling for survival by the time the 100th anniversary comes around."); and Robert Eichel of Bondi Junction, who quoted a 40's Arab Dalek ("This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.") And who, dare I ask, was on the receiving end of those little dustups?
You can see that the lobby doesn't take too kindly to those who trespass (even if after bribing the proprietor) on its personal press fiefdom, The Israeli, sorry - there I go again - The Istralian.
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