Something Unique in Australian Journalism?

Has veteran Australian journalist Tony Walker done something unique in Australian journalism? Call on a bloviating Zionist lobby operative to put his money where his mouth is:

"In an opinion piece in Sydney's Daily Telegraph, Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, likened [Melissa Parke's] criticism (ill-defined) of Israel to a 'new anti-Semitism'. 'Disguising itself as anti-Zionism, the new anti-Semitism uses criticism of Israel as a Trojan horse to perpetuate age-old stereotypes about Jews under a quasi-intellectual cover,' Leibler wrote. I reached out to Leibler to ascertain what criticism of Israel might be acceptable in the interests of enabling reasonable discussion about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, and its attitudes more generally to the peace process. He did not respond." (Melissa Parke incident raises difficult questions about Israel, Tony Walker, smh.com.au, 17/4/19)

Lie Back & Think of Two States

The Labor candidate for the WA seat of Curtin, Melissa Parke, "has pulled out of the contest after reports she told a public meeting last month that Israel's treatment of Palestinians was 'worse than the South African system of apartheid'." (Labor's candidate for Curtin, Melissa Parke, withdraws from federal election race, abc.net.au, 12/4/19)

Parke didn't pull out - she was pushed out. And what's more, she was pushed out not for any wrongdoing on her part, but simply for stating the bleeding obvious.

The details of the push are still murky, and will likely remain so, but this will come as no surprise:

"ECAJ chief executive Alex Ryvchin said he had conveyed his concerns about Ms Parke to several Labor figures." (Jewish advocates label WA Labor's star pick for Curtin 'extreme and divisive', Nathan Hondros, watoday.com, 10/4/19)

Yet another example of the malign hold of the Israel lobby over Bill Shorten's Labor Party.

Presumably, the ideal Labor candidate/politician is one who does no more than mindlessly chant the 'two-state' solution mantra.

But, of course, the Israel lobby has an even greater hold over Morrison's Liberal Party.

Scott Morrison's principal private secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, described as "in charge of the political strategy of the office," and "a former advisor in the Howard government, and later the chief executive of heavyweight of Liberal campaign firm Crosby Textor," (Power behind the leaders, Sydney Morning Herald, 12/4/19) has some very interesting baggage indeed:

"The NSW Liberal Friends of Israel group was launched at NSW Parliament House in Sydney this week [15/8/12]... Chairman Yaron Finkelstein told J-wire: 'All Liberal State and Federal Members of Parliament from NSW have been asked to join the Liberal Friends of Israel, and be active participants in its programme of events which include intelligence and policy briefings, visiting speaker functions and ongoing Australian/Israeli political exchanges'." (NSW Liberal Friends of Israel, Henry Benjamin, jwire.com, 15/8/12)

Did anyone dare decline?

Spotlight on the 'Australia Israel Labor Dialogue' 1

Before you read the following expose by The Australian's John Lyons - Labor Friend of Israel a lobbyist for weapons firm (16/3/16) - keep in mind that Israel's arms manufacturing Elbit Systems 'won' a $349m contract with the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) to develop a command, control and communications system for the Australian army in 2010 (See my 17/3/10 post Passports: Finally, Some Action) and is linked to Israel's illegal (ICJ 2004 ruling) West Bank apartheid wall* (See my 26/10/11 post Sucked in at Sydney University):

"A key figure behind a Labor Party friends-of-Israel group is also a lobbyist for the Australian subsidiary of one of Israel's largest arms manufacturers. Mary Easson has also played an active role in the emotive debate within the Labor Party over its policy towards Israel. Ms Easson is one of five members of the NSW branch of the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue. At the same time, she is a lobbyist for Elbit, according to her latest listing on the federal registrar.

"The fact that Ms Easson's company, Probity International Pty Ltd, is lobbying for Elbit is almost certain to lead to anger within the ALP from those who have taken trips organised by the AILD. Ms Easson has been locked in a brutal fight inside the Labor Party with former minister Bob Carr over policy towards Israel. Ms Easson wants the ALP to retain its bipartisan support for Israel while Mr Carr wants a deadline for Israel to cease its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and to return to negotiations with the Palestinians.

"Elbit is one of Israel's largest manufacturers of bombs, mortars, cyber warfare systems and drones and much of its ordnance was used in the 2014 war with Gaza. On its website, Elbit says one of its products - the Soltam Spear - has 'unprecedented lethality.' The patron of the NSW branch of the AILD, former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, said he was unaware of Ms Easson's connection to Elbit. 'I am very comfortable saying if there is any contribution made in NSW and that is made available for trips to Israel, that information should be publicly available.' Since it was formed in 2010, the AILD has sent 33 union and Labor Party officials to Israel. Ms Easson told The Australian most of those had been sent by the Victorian branch and she did not know of any being sent by the NSW branch.

"NSW convener Greg Holland said he took a group of unionists in 2014, which included now NSW ALP secretary Kaila Murnain and the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Perth, Tim Hammond. Yesterday, Ms Murnain would not answer any questions related to her trip and Mr Hammond said he was conscious  these trips were 'highly sensitive' and would make no comment.

"When asked whether her role as a lobbyist for Elbit presented a conflict of interest when being part of a Labor Party group, Ms Easson at first said she worked for Elbit Australia, not the parent company. Later she said: 'I am employed by Intech Strategies and Intech Strategies is employed by Elbit Australia.' Ms Easson said she did not know who funded the trips for unionists. 'I'm not being coy, I really don't know the answer,' she said. 'How they get their funds I don't know - I guess I should have asked.'

"She said she joined the NSW branch of the AILD twelve months ago when it formed and it had not raised any funds or sent anybody on overseas trips. No one associated with the AILD contacted by The Australian was prepared or able to say who funded the trips. She said Elbit Systems of Australia managing directer Dan Webster had yesterday assured her no donation had been made from Elbit to the AILD. In October last year, three key NSW Labor officials went on an AILD trip - the secretary of the NSW branch of the Rail Tram and Bus Union, Alex Claasens, the secretary of the NSW Police Association, Peter Remfrey, and the Transport Workers Union's Polo Guilbert-Wright. Mr Claasens said he was approached by the Victorian branch and did not know of the Elbit connection when he went. 'The question for the people who run the organisation and the individual concerned is should it be put out there for people to see? Mr Claasens said.

"One of the key figures in the AILD, ACTU assistant secretary, Michael Borowick, would not give any specifics about who funded the AILD trips. 'Many individuals pay for their participation in the trips. AILD does respond favourably to individuals who make requests for a subsidy where it is available to do so,' he said. When asked who funded the AILD he said: 'AILD employs a variety of funding methods to support its activities.'

"Ms Easson has written in support of the current ALP policy - she was not a delegate but wrote a live blog from the NSW Labor conference in February. When the conference rejected motions she opposed, she wrote that 'the moment the fanatical anti-Israel forces were stopped and stood up to by sensible people in NSW Labor.' Several motions called for the banning of products made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and mandating that all Labor MPs who visited Israel on paid trips should spend equal time on the Palestinian side. The conference accepted a motion that 'encouraged' party members to spend 'substantial time in both Israel and Palestine.'

"Mr Holland did not think the AILD should have to reveal who funded trips. Asked if unionists who had been on these trips should have been told of Ms Easson's connection to Elbit, he said: 'That's up to Mary to do.' Asked about the possible conflict between the AILD, whose stated aim was a peaceful solution, and an arms manufacturer, Mr Holland said: 'I'm not sure what they (Elbit) do and how they do it. They might have peaceful solutions to conflicts.' He had the utmost confidence in Ms Easson and her probity.

"Federal Labor MP Melissa Parke - who has not taken one of the trips - said: 'Given the significant numbers of ALP members who are apparently being taken on these trips to Israel, it is a concern to know who is providing the funds, particularly where there is a person associated with an Israeli weapons manufacturer on the AILD committee. The Israel-Palestine conflict is a matter of ongoing and sometimes heated debate within the ALP. The best antidote to distrust and suspicion is full disclosure and full transparency'."

[* This puts Mary Easson's 2007 comment on the wall in a whole new light: "A wall in principle sounds like a terrible thing, but you go and see it and you think, 'Oh well, yeah, I can see why you would need that." See my 19/6/12 post A Family Affair.]

Melissa Parke MP: Nice Girl in a Place Like This

New Matilda journalist Max Chalmers' excellent piece on Labor MP (Freemantle, WA) Melissa Parke, who has announced she will be stepping down at the next election, is called Labor's conscientious objector: inside Melissa Parke's war on indifference (28/2/16). It could just as well have been called What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? 

Chalmer's essay is a fascinating reflection on the interface between a thoroughly decent, principled, and beautiful human being and a thoroughly indecent, unprincipled, ugly-as-sin party machine. Or, to put it another way, the interface between a human being so morally and intellectually courageous that the issue of Palestine is central to her outlook on life and a party machine committed to ensuring that it is consigned to history's dustbin. Which is to say, a rotten-to-the-core Zionist party.

I would urge all of you to read the essay in its entirety. For now I wish only to highlight the following passages and say a few words:

"The issue of BDS in Australia, and of the Israel/Palestine conflict generally, remains politically unrewarding. Support begets accusations of anti-Semitism, and as The Greens have learnt, dogged attacks from the conservative press. If you are unlucky you might even end up in court. Meanwhile, most Australians couldn't tell you the first thing about the aging conflict. The repercussions for pushing it onto the public consciousness are severe, and the political payoffs somewhere between questionable and nonexistent."

Now isn't that the naked truth?! And yet, it seems to me, that even as good a journalist as Chalmers is afraid to spell out the bleeding obvious; whether Lib, Lab or Green, the Zionist lobby has Australian politics by its non-existent balls.

Example? Melissa Parke MP is tabling a petition in support of BDS by a dissident Israeli academic resident in Australia, Marcelo Svirsky. Writes Chalmers: "Despite being delivered to a near-empty chamber, Parkes' remarks were punctuated by outraged interjections."

Near-empty chamber... outraged interjections. Says it all, really.

So why has Parkes embraced the cause of Palestine? Simple. Being the intellectually and morally courageous individual she is, and having seen what she's seen, she simply cannot look away. From this:

"As the Second Intifada raged [2000-2005]... Parke was in Gaza... working as a Legal Officer for a UN refugee agency... At the time, Israel was deploying what Parke describes as 'a sort of shock and awe bombing campaign.' She says thirty-six bombs were dropped on her first night in Gaza city, shaking her building and its surrounds. She lay awake. Then Israel started targeting leaders of Hamas - too bad if you're the one who gets stuck in traffic behind them when the IDF locks on. 'You could be driving behind the car targeted with Hamas in it and you're gone as well,' Parke says. She was scared, and her fears were soon vindicated. The same year as Parke arrived in Gaza, a place she stayed for two and a half years, fellow UN worker Ian Hook was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper from a nearby building. Hook was in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank but was inside a UN compound at the time he was shot. He'd been there to help rebuild homes. Israel contests the exact details of the killing, but those like Parke believe the shooter must have known who they were about to slay. Despite some outrage, and conciliatory calls from Israel's then foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to the English government, a UN resolution condemning the murder was vetoed by the United States.

"The killing of Hook and lack of international response outraged Parke, and she carries the injustice of it with her still. So too the many others she witnessed directly in the shelled and reshelled streets of Gaza. 'I didn't go there with a preconceived view,' Parke insists. 'I obviously had read about the situation. But it's not until you're there on the ground that you come to appreciate the absolute imbalance of power. You're talking about the fourth largest military power in the world with the latest technology and with an army, navy, airforce, versus an occupied people - an impoverished, occupied people.' These experiences soaked deep into Parke. When I tried to move the interview on, at one point, she moves us back to Palestine. This is what she wants to talk about and part of the reason she came to Parliament: to grab the megaphone and to use it."

Inevitably, the subject of Tanya (Once was warrior) Plibersek arises:

"Both Parke and Plibersek secured progressive inner-city seats and have an affinity for development and international affairs. Both are used as counter-examples by party faithful disillusioned with the middling leadership of Bill Shorten. Both have a powerful charisma and independent streak. But only one has played the disciplined insider game: Plibersek now finds herself on the ladder's penultimate rung. Yet... Tanya Plibersek underwent a transformation over the period of her ascent, especially in regards to international affairs. In earlier times, Plibersek decried Ariel Sharon as a war criminal and blasted the US but by the time he died in 2014, she was thanking the former Israeli leader for his 'courageous stand' for peace."

Yet another example, if one were needed, of the extraordinary power of the Israel lobby in this country. The appalling reality of Australian political life, as of American, is that the path to the the political ladder's penultimate rung passes through the Zionist lobby.

Finally, a quibble: "[Parke] is drawn to Labor's history and points to Doc Evatt... as [a source] of inspiration."

Melissa, should ever get around to reading this post, please, please, please take the trouble to click on the Dr Evatt label below and find out a little more about this Zionist icon.

First Julia Irwin, Now Melissa Parke

"One of the Australian Labor Party's most outspoken opponents of offshore detention, mass surveillance and live animal exports will not contest the next federal election. Melissa Parke, who has represented the West Australian seat of Freemantle since 2007, said she would not seek a fourth term... In the statement on her future, Parke said the role of an informed and engaged backbencher was 'undervalued in the Australian political system, which increasingly favours the executive over the parliament' [and that] 'It has been a pleasure to work with parliamentary colleagues, academics, scientists, experts, industry, unions and community groups on issues such as the abolition of the death penalty, justice for refugees, nuclear disarmament, marine sanctuaries, climate change, press freedom, fair trade, closing the gap, war powers reform, Australian aid, early childhood education, public health, rare diseases, medicinal cannabis, dying with dignity, support for veterans, whistleblower protection, an independent office of animal welfare, an end to gene patenting, and long-overdue justice for the Palestinian, Tibetan, West Papuan and Rohingya peoples'."(Labor MP Melissa Parke, fierce critic of offshore detention, won't recontest seat, Daniel Hurst, theguardian.com, 22/1/16)

Such a shame! I wonder what she was doing in the ALP in the first place, and I wonder which of the myriad issues taken up and listed by her here gave her the most grief as an ALP backbencher. So hard, that one.

Melissa Parke: Filling Julia Irwin's Shoes

West Australian Labor MP Melissa Parke (Fremantle) courageously tabled Wollongong University political scientist Marcelo Svirsky's pro-Palestine BDS petition in federal parliament last Monday. (See my 1/10/14 post Marcelo Svirsky's Long Walk for Palestine.)

In doing so, she has distinguished herself as the only Australian parliamentarian - Liberal, Labor, Greens or independent - with the guts to speak out plainly in this setting on the subject of Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people. The last federal politician to do so, need I remind you, was the redoubtable Labor MP Julia Irwin, who retired in 2010. (See my 11/8/10 post Julia Irwin Spills the Beans.)

Contrast this abject state of affairs with the recent House of Commons debate, which resulted in British MPs from all parties slamming Israeli criminality and intransigence, and voting 274-12 in support of a Palestinian state. (See my 17/10 post Britain's Responsibility for Palestine.)

 In her speech, Parke noted, in a statement of the bleeding obvious:

"I do wish to dispel some of the misunderstandings around the official BDS campaign, including that its supporters are anti-Semitic and intent on the destruction of Israel... It is not anti-Semitic to protest injustice."

Such expressions of the bleeding obvious, however, are intolerable to the Israel lobby. This explains the following riposte from Labor's Glenn Sterle in the Senate on Thursday:

"It is time that the member for Fremantle stopped spouting propaganda that comes directly from organisations and groups that are devoted to genocidal ideologies."  (BDS comments 'ill-informed', Dennis Shanahan, The Australian, 1/11/14)

Talk about projection!

Sterle, needless to say, was rambammed in 2007.