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.]

The Psychopathology of False Accusations of Anti-Semitism

Katie Miranda's interview with Rich Forer at mondoweiss.net - Understanding the fundamental roots of conflict & suffering: An interview with Rich Forer (11/3/16) - is well worth a read. Forer is the ex-Zionist author of Breakthrough: Transforming Fear into Compassion, A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict (2010). Here he is on the subject of false accusations of anti-Semitism:

Katie Miranda: Accusations of anti-Semitism are a common phenomenon in the debate over Israel-Palestine. Can you explain what is going on in the minds of the people who use these accusations even against Jews who are upset with Israel's behaviour?

Rich Forer: Identifying as the victims in this struggle, accusers reject historical fact and allege that criticism of Israel or acknowledging embarrassing facts is motivated by anti-Semitic bigotry. David Ben-Gurion admitted that Israel had 'stolen' the land from the Palestinians. Was he an anti-Semite? Was Yitzhak Rabin an anti-Semite for lamenting that 'ruling over another people has corrupted us'?

Most accusations of anti-Semitism are projections. The actual bigotry occupies the minds of those who are afraid to ask why someone is critical of Israel. Indifferent to the suffering of an entire people and refusing to do honest research to refute or confirm the criticism, these accusers scapegoat anyone who challenges their historical narrative. Abdicating personal responsibility for their feelings, they project onto Israel's critics fear, confusion and anger, all of which are animated by unexamined beliefs and images within their minds.

It is true that a small percentage of critics is anti-Semitic and would like to do to Israel what Israel does to the Palestinians. But most critics simply want Israel to comply with international law. They don't want to harm Israelis. They want to prevent Israelis from harming Palestinians. But even their compassion for Palestinians is conflated with indifference to Jewish lives and judged anti-Semitic. If compassion for Palestinians is bigotry then virtually all Palestinians must be anti-Semites. And if criticism of deliberate violations of international law is bigotry what is turning one's back on the suffering of millions?

Are we to presume that the proof that someone is not an anti-Semite is that they accept Israeli justifications for its contempt for international law and its denial of human rights to non-Jews? If so, doesn't this make a mockery of Judaism and characterize the Jewish people as inhumane? But such a characterization would itself be considered anti-Semitic. This creates an absurdity. The proof that you are not an anti-Semite proves that you are an anti-Semite. This is the dualistic mind infected with existential fear and confusion.

For the most part, accusations of anti-Semitism are moral blackmail and they debase Judaism. Real anti-Semites incite anti-Semitism. I don't know anyone who does that more effectively than the Israeli government and its defenders. And after inciting anti-Semitism, they complain that they are victims of an anti-Semitic world.

No, No, Nadim

I notice that a bloke called Hussain Nadim keeps popping up on the opinion pages of the Sydney Morning Herald. Nadim is of Pakistani origin and is billed as "a doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney and co-ordinator of South Asia Study Group." He is elsewhere touted as an anti-radicalisation expert.

In an opinion piece in yesterday's Herald, Nadim had this to say:

"A few months ago, I had the opportunity to attend a fundraiser hosted by an Islamic organisation in Australia. To my surprise, in a matter of four hours, the organisation raised more than $2 million to build yet another mosque. The organisation's head said at the event he was committed to building a mosque every two miles in Australia. This is just one of the hundreds of Muslim organisations in Australia... For too long, the discourse has been focused on building mosques, instead of universities... Unless the Muslim world and the Muslim communities living in the West re-prioritise and start investing in people and scientific knowledge with their oil wealth or charity, the field will remain wide open for militant-minded individuals to carry the flag of Islam." (Islam needs to invest in people, not mosques, 14/3/16)

If that is indeed what is going on at these fundraisers, I couldn't agree more. Any group prepared to cough up a cool $2m for a mosque, church, synagogue, temple, whatever, every X mile or so, are people who have a priority problem.

But I'm not sure what he's on about with regard to universities. These, like our schools, should all be secular, free and publicly funded, not the recipients of funding by religious or corporate interests. If the organisation Nadim is writing about is Arab, that $2m should go to the victims of Israeli apartheid and genocide. No ifs, buts, or maybes. Moreover, the only mosque which should be at the forefront of any Muslim's mind now and in the foreseeable future is Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is in imminent danger of demolition by Zionist fanatics.

Not that Nadim would know anything about that. After all, he reckons its time for Pakistan to talk to Israel. Seriously. In Time to talk to Israel (The Express Tribune, 22/8/15), he unveils the extent of his 'understanding' of the apartheid state:

"There are better ways to show solidarity with Palestine than refusing to have any diplomatic relations with a country that is as old as ours and has the same rationale for independence."

That sentence alone shows that Nadim knows SFA about Palestinian history, and by implication Pakistani history.

"When even a country like Saudi Arabia, which has historically maintained close backdoor channels with Israel, is pondering over [sic] taking Saudi-Israeli relations to the next level, what then is holding Pakistan back?"

I would have thought that maybe Wahhabi Saudi Arabia exercised enough of a malign influence over Pakistan already, wouldn't you?

"Even if the rationale to boycott Israel has been to offer solidarity to Palestine, the best way to do that would be to recognise Israel, and mount pressure on it to play a part in resolving the crisis."

So Pakistan is going to succeed, where no one before has succeeded, in extricating the Palestinian rabbit from the gut of the Israeli python? Best of luck with that, Hussain.

When Reality is Anti-Israel

Here we go again:

"McGraw-Hill Education has taken the unusual step of withdrawing a textbook and planning to destroy all copies of it - following criticism that four maps in the book are inaccurate and anti-Israel. The book is a political science textbook, Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World. The McGraw-Hill Education website no longer features the book. But a page on Amazon describes the book this way: 'This contemporary presentation stresses the importance of global events and offers students a number of lenses through which to view the world around them'." (McGraw-Hill Education withdraws textbook with maps viewed as anti-Israel, Scott Jaschik, insidehighered.com, 8/3/16)

OK, let's just pause there.

"Inaccurate"? What, Jerusalem's Haifa and vice versa?

No, if that were the problem, you wouldn't be reading about this matter. The problem clearly has to do with the maps being "anti-Israel." And for our mysterious, faceless critics, anything anti-Israel is ipso facto inaccurate or... worse! And to hell with this namby pamby multi-lens approach to the world. There is only one lens for these guyz. But I digress...

"The book features 4 maps of what is now Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and say that it shows 'Palestinian loss of land' from 1946 to 2000."

Now we're getting close. There's a word there that is to these mysterious critics as garlic is to vampires.

Can you see it? Suffice it to say that it begins with the letter 'P'.

"Many Palestinian advocates agree with the maps, but many historians and supporters of Israel strongly disagree...."

Oh, I see, Scottie...

Advocates agree with the maps, but HISTORIANS (& supporters of Israel) disagree.

End of matter. After all, HISTORIANS (& supporters of Israel), have HISTORY on their side, and must be right, right?

And just so you get it, Scottie adds: "Supporters of Israel have fought the use of these maps elsewhere and quickly demanded urged McGraw-Hill to change or withdraw the textbook. Here is one such blog post which outlines objections to the maps and includes alternative ways to think about land in the region."

Thanks for putting us all on the ztraight and narrow, Zcottie.

And thanks, McGraw Hill for protecting our students from that awful creature, reality. Can't have that ugly bastard messing with their impressionable young minds, now can we?

Pew's Portrait of Fugly Israel

What a surprise that 48% of the citizens of a sectarian (Jewish), apartheid (Jewish/non-Jewish) state, founded on a monstrous act of ethnic cleansing, expulsion and larceny, dressed up as a 'War of Independence', want the remnant native, non-Jewish population OUT NOW!:

"Most Israeli Jews [48/46%] want to expel Palestinian citizens of Israel... This documentation of racism... inside Israel is contained in a new in-depth survey of Israeli attitudes by the Pew Research Centre." (Most Jews want to expel Palestinians - Pew's ugly portrait of Israel, Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz, 8/3/16, mondoweiss.net)

Not "Pew's ugly portrait of Israel," guys: Pew's portrait of fugly Israel.

Travel Tart 2

Oh dear:

"Taxpayers footed the bill for family members of two Coalition MPs to fly to one of Australia's farthest-flung territories, the idyllic Cocos Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean, for a weekend stay. The $10,000-plus bill to fly the wife and two daughters of West Australian Liberal Luke Simpkins and the husband of Northern territory Country Liberal Natasha Griggs to and from the tropical islands is the equivalent of a business-class round trip ticket to Honolulu for each of the four family members."  (Public pays $10k for family trips to tropical isles, Heath Aston, Sydney Morning Herald, 9/3/16)

Hm...

I wonder, is rambamming responsible for whetting our politicians' appetite for travel at someone else's expense? I mean, take Luke Simpkins, for example.

Back in 2012, a nice man, quite out of the blue, for no apparent reason, slipped Luke a ticket to Israel. To put it mildly, the experience messed with his head something terrible. On his return, he began muttering about halal meat turning us all into Muslims and squawking from his parliamentary perch that unless we ratcheted up sanctions against Iran, we'd all be rooned. Then, in 2013, he conceived the urge to visit the "homelands" of "major non-English speaking communities in his electorate." He did Vietnam. He did Greece. He did Thailand. And he did Macedonia, which he found to be "complex."

And now this...

Zionist Pot Calls Islamist Kettle Black

"The term Islamophobia is used so routinely to silence dissent, it has come to signal the presence of a freethinker in a field of PC censors." (No place here for Islamist bias, Jennifer Oriel, The Australian, 9/3/16)