Ever dreamt of having the POWER & INFLUENCE to put words into a politician's mouth? Read on:
"Five days later I [John Lyons] was in Cairo, covering a visit by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. At a news conference, he spoke about his desire for Iran to agree the regular international inspections of its nuclear facilities. An Egyptian journalist asked: if Iran and other nations had to agree to inspections, why shouldn't Israel? Rudd remarked that he could not dispute the logic, and agreed that all countries with nuclear weapons should have to submit to regular inspections.
"My ears pricked up. I knew Israel preferred that nobody even referred to their nuclear weapons, let alone talked about inspections...
"So after the news conference I asked Rudd if he could elaborate on his comments. He told me: 'Our view has been consistent for a long period of time, and that is that all States in the region should adhere to the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty], and that includes Israel. And therefore their nuclear facility should be subject to IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspection.'
"Soon afterwards, Rudd was a guest at one of Albert Dadon's banquets at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem... The evening had been going calmly... when the mood in the room suddenly changed. An unwelcome guest had just arrived at the banquet courtesy of the Internet. My interview with Kevin Rudd in which he declared that Israel should not be exempt from international inspections had just been published online. People were standing looking at their phones and reading the story. The anger started bouncing off the walls.
"Sylvie came over to me: 'That man over there is telling people that you've verballed Kevin Rudd in your interview!'
"'That man' was Yuval Rotem, Israel's Ambassador to Australia - who had travelled to Jerusalem for that trip...
"By now it was fair to say I was pretty fired up. So often people instinctively blame the messenger if they don't like what someone has said. And so I went looking for Rotem. 'Ambassador, I hear you are telling people that Kevin Rudd did not make those comments about nuclear inspectors.'
"Rotem seemed uncomfortable that I had challenged him. 'Well, no Australian foreign minister has ever said that before,' he answered. 'Why would Kevin Rudd say it?'
"'Don't you think that's a question for you to ask Kevin Rudd?' I resonded. 'There are two tapes of that interview - I have one and Mr Rudd's staff have one. Would you like a copy? And Mr Rudd is just over there... '
"Just then Rudd's chief of staff, Philip Green, walked past. I beckoned him over. 'Philip, Mr Rotem is saying Foreign Minister Rudd never called for international inspectors for Israel's nuclear facilities.'
"'He did,' replied green. 'We have no problem with your story.'
"I then went looking for [Michael] Danby, who was also telling people in the room he doubted the story, and explained the same thing to him. Danby then switched his anger from me to Rudd. 'I'm going to take this up with Andrea Faulkner,' he said, referring to the Australian Ambassador to Israel...
"Now that it was clear that the quotes were not made up, the gates of fury opened against Kevin Rudd. The next morning I saw huddles in the foyer of the King David Hotel as different groups from Dadon's delegation discussed the issue.
"Dadon told me that while theoretically Israel should be under the same regime of inspections as anyone else, in reality they should be exempt. He was going to talk to Rudd and insist that he say at his upcoming press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Israel had 'unique' security circumstances'.
"At the press conference, Lieberman addressed the nuclear issue. 'What is important is not whether any country is a member of the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] but whether it is responsible,' he said. 'Israel does not regard any inspector as necessary, as it is a responsible country, and we have proved this for many years.'
"Then came Rudd's turn to speak. He concentrated more on Iran's situation, saying Australia was deeply concerned about Iran's nuclear program. Then he mentioned Israel. 'We recognise... Israel's unique security circumstances... but in terms of our fundamental position on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as it applies to this region... all states should be in, including Israel.'
"And so, while he had restated his position, he had added the words that Dadon told me he had wanted him to add.
"Dadon could not come to the press conference but, knowing that I was going along, telephoned me at home that night. He asked: 'Did Kevin use the phrase 'unique security circumstances?'
"'Yes,' I said.
"'Good.'" (Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir, 2017, pp 268-71)
For the details as reported at the time, see my 20/12/10 post The Kevin Rudd Road Show 2.
Yet again: BUY THIS BOOK!
Showing posts with label Albert Dadon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Albert Dadon. Show all posts
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Israeli Junkets Continue During Gaza Genocide
1:
"Despite the current unrest, the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce has recently concluded another successful Trade Mission to Israel - 3rd for this year. Leading a senior group of 30 business executives, including Cameron Clyne, Group CEO at NAB and John Pataridis, Managing Director at Optus Business... The purpose of the visit was to both explore business and investment opportunities as well as understand Israel's unique entrepreneurial and innovative eco-system. Naturally there was also a strong interest in geo-politics. Delegates were briefed by Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi, former Chief of Staff at the IDF and Carmi Gillon, former head of the Shin Bet... The visit included a reception hosted by Australia's Ambassador to Israel, his Excellency Dave Sharma and a performance by the Bat Sheva Dance Company - one of the world's leading contemporary dance groups. The group also took in many of Israel's most iconic tourist destinations, including the Old City of Jerusalem, Dead Sea/Masada, Yad Vashem, Holocaust Museum, Jaffa, Caesarea and the Bahai Temple in Haifa... The Chamber has been facilitating Trade Missions to Israel for over 25 years... Its next Trade Mission is scheduled for May 2015 and will be led by Simon McKeown, Chairman of CSIRO and former Australian of the Year." (NAB chief head of mission to Israel, jwire.com.au, 28/7/14)
2:
From 25-29 July, Israeli love-in impresario, Albert Dadon (Israeli Film Festival, Australia Israel Leadership Forum), staged his annual Australia-UK-Israel Leadership Dialogue in Jerusalem.
Typically, there was next to nothing on the subject in the Australian press. I could find only one brief report (Christopher Pyne says Australia on 'the right side of Israel now', The Canberra Times, Primrose Riordan, 2/8/14) which again, typically, cited only the attendance of revellers Pyne, Michael Danby and David Feeney. How the Australian public is ever to be informed on the subject of Australian politicians' cavortings with Israel without a full listing of all who attend such gigs is just another of those mainstream media mysteries that we, the public, are supposed to put up with.
Moreover, although regaling us on an almost daily basis with the gibberish of LNP politicians, the Australian ms media has done us no favour in failing to report the following egregious specimen of same by Education Minister Christopher Pyne, proving conclusively, for those still in doubt, what an absolute goose the man is. I've copied it verbatim from the Jewish community site, J-Wire, including all, repeat all, the typos (or not as the case may be), for your complete enjoyment. My comments are in brackets:
"Tonight I want to address why the Australians are here... But firstly I should say good friends visit their friends in tough times. It is easy to visit your friends when things are going well. Fair-weather friends who come and go when things are on the up and up are easy to come by. Friends who come when times are tough - they are the real friends.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I was approached by a young man at the reception here at the King David Hotel here on Friday, his name was Aaron, and he asked me who I was and where I was from, and I said I was from Australia and he said 'why are you here?'. And I very simply said, because Australians love freedom. And he said very simply, that freedom isn't free, right?. And I said exactly right. [Such GW Bush profundity!]
"The reason why the Australians are here today, the first reason, is because Australians value freedom. And we have been fighting for freedom for 114 years and usually alongside our UK friends, whether it has been in the Battle of Beersheeva [sic] here in Israel [sic], in the Second World War, or the First World War, or more recently in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Vietnam and Korea, wars that are now well and truly in the past. [Iraq and Afghanistan... well and truly in the past? Has anyone told the Iraqis and the Afghans?]
"Whenever there has been a congregation of freedom loving nations versus non-freedom loving nations, Australia has always been prepared to be in the fight and always on the right side. And that's how we view the state of Israel that we are on the right side. It is the story about the King of Denmark during the Second World War when the Nazis changed their attitude towards the deportation of the Danish Jews. There weren't many Danish Jews, about 8,000 or so, but the King of Denmark when the Nazis changed their attitude and said that they would start to deport the Jews, said that the Jews are Dames and the Dames are Jews. In other words, the concerns of Jewish Dames were the concerns of all Dames.
"In the same way I believe, and I think most Australians believe, that the destruction or defeat of Israel is a concern for all of us around the world. Because Israel is the beacon of freedom and liberty in the Middle East and Australia likes to believe that it is in the world. We are two sister nations believing in the same thing - freedom of the press*, freedom of democracy, freedom of association**. It shows that Israel has existential threats that requires them to take firm action to protect those freedoms, firmer actions than Australia has had to take to protect our own existence. So that is the first reason, ladies and gentlemen, why the Australians are here. Because we regard Israel and Australia as sister countries with the same value systems and we want to show our support for that system here in the Middle East.
"The second reason is more personal, ladies and gentlemen, and it goes to the question of remembering some of the crimes of the past. The great crime of the past against the Jewish people was the Holocaust. And just coming to Israel as an Australian... we reaffirm that we will not forget the crime of the Holocaust against the Jewish people and we stand with the Jewish people. Simply by the act of making sure this dialogue was not cancelled when some people said it should have been cancelled because it was dangerous the Australians and British came here, simply by that act reaffirmed that we will not forget the Holocaust.
"This is my sixth visit to Israel. And it is important that we come again and again to Israel. To say it to those in the Islamic Jihad, the terrorists - Hamas or ISIS or whoever they are - that by their actions they won't frighten Australians into coming to Israel and supporting Israel. That is by me and my colleagues, whether they are Labor or Liberal, are here supporting this Dialogue because it proves, ladies and gentlemen, it proves that freedom is winning and tyranny is losing."
[*Freedom of the press? "A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said: 'It was a constructive and cordial discussion and the PM looks forward to further dialogue.' The Prime Minister's office invited only multicultural media to the press conference before the meeting, meaning Fairfax Media and other organisations were not included." (Onus of proof unreasonable, Muslim heads tell Abbott, David Wroe & Daisy Dumas, Sydney Morning Herald, 19/8/14); **Freedom of association? See my last post NSW Police Seek to Can BDS Protest.]
"Despite the current unrest, the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce has recently concluded another successful Trade Mission to Israel - 3rd for this year. Leading a senior group of 30 business executives, including Cameron Clyne, Group CEO at NAB and John Pataridis, Managing Director at Optus Business... The purpose of the visit was to both explore business and investment opportunities as well as understand Israel's unique entrepreneurial and innovative eco-system. Naturally there was also a strong interest in geo-politics. Delegates were briefed by Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi, former Chief of Staff at the IDF and Carmi Gillon, former head of the Shin Bet... The visit included a reception hosted by Australia's Ambassador to Israel, his Excellency Dave Sharma and a performance by the Bat Sheva Dance Company - one of the world's leading contemporary dance groups. The group also took in many of Israel's most iconic tourist destinations, including the Old City of Jerusalem, Dead Sea/Masada, Yad Vashem, Holocaust Museum, Jaffa, Caesarea and the Bahai Temple in Haifa... The Chamber has been facilitating Trade Missions to Israel for over 25 years... Its next Trade Mission is scheduled for May 2015 and will be led by Simon McKeown, Chairman of CSIRO and former Australian of the Year." (NAB chief head of mission to Israel, jwire.com.au, 28/7/14)
2:
From 25-29 July, Israeli love-in impresario, Albert Dadon (Israeli Film Festival, Australia Israel Leadership Forum), staged his annual Australia-UK-Israel Leadership Dialogue in Jerusalem.
Typically, there was next to nothing on the subject in the Australian press. I could find only one brief report (Christopher Pyne says Australia on 'the right side of Israel now', The Canberra Times, Primrose Riordan, 2/8/14) which again, typically, cited only the attendance of revellers Pyne, Michael Danby and David Feeney. How the Australian public is ever to be informed on the subject of Australian politicians' cavortings with Israel without a full listing of all who attend such gigs is just another of those mainstream media mysteries that we, the public, are supposed to put up with.
Moreover, although regaling us on an almost daily basis with the gibberish of LNP politicians, the Australian ms media has done us no favour in failing to report the following egregious specimen of same by Education Minister Christopher Pyne, proving conclusively, for those still in doubt, what an absolute goose the man is. I've copied it verbatim from the Jewish community site, J-Wire, including all, repeat all, the typos (or not as the case may be), for your complete enjoyment. My comments are in brackets:
"Tonight I want to address why the Australians are here... But firstly I should say good friends visit their friends in tough times. It is easy to visit your friends when things are going well. Fair-weather friends who come and go when things are on the up and up are easy to come by. Friends who come when times are tough - they are the real friends.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I was approached by a young man at the reception here at the King David Hotel here on Friday, his name was Aaron, and he asked me who I was and where I was from, and I said I was from Australia and he said 'why are you here?'. And I very simply said, because Australians love freedom. And he said very simply, that freedom isn't free, right?. And I said exactly right. [Such GW Bush profundity!]
"The reason why the Australians are here today, the first reason, is because Australians value freedom. And we have been fighting for freedom for 114 years and usually alongside our UK friends, whether it has been in the Battle of Beersheeva [sic] here in Israel [sic], in the Second World War, or the First World War, or more recently in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Vietnam and Korea, wars that are now well and truly in the past. [Iraq and Afghanistan... well and truly in the past? Has anyone told the Iraqis and the Afghans?]
"Whenever there has been a congregation of freedom loving nations versus non-freedom loving nations, Australia has always been prepared to be in the fight and always on the right side. And that's how we view the state of Israel that we are on the right side. It is the story about the King of Denmark during the Second World War when the Nazis changed their attitude towards the deportation of the Danish Jews. There weren't many Danish Jews, about 8,000 or so, but the King of Denmark when the Nazis changed their attitude and said that they would start to deport the Jews, said that the Jews are Dames and the Dames are Jews. In other words, the concerns of Jewish Dames were the concerns of all Dames.
"In the same way I believe, and I think most Australians believe, that the destruction or defeat of Israel is a concern for all of us around the world. Because Israel is the beacon of freedom and liberty in the Middle East and Australia likes to believe that it is in the world. We are two sister nations believing in the same thing - freedom of the press*, freedom of democracy, freedom of association**. It shows that Israel has existential threats that requires them to take firm action to protect those freedoms, firmer actions than Australia has had to take to protect our own existence. So that is the first reason, ladies and gentlemen, why the Australians are here. Because we regard Israel and Australia as sister countries with the same value systems and we want to show our support for that system here in the Middle East.
"The second reason is more personal, ladies and gentlemen, and it goes to the question of remembering some of the crimes of the past. The great crime of the past against the Jewish people was the Holocaust. And just coming to Israel as an Australian... we reaffirm that we will not forget the crime of the Holocaust against the Jewish people and we stand with the Jewish people. Simply by the act of making sure this dialogue was not cancelled when some people said it should have been cancelled because it was dangerous the Australians and British came here, simply by that act reaffirmed that we will not forget the Holocaust.
"This is my sixth visit to Israel. And it is important that we come again and again to Israel. To say it to those in the Islamic Jihad, the terrorists - Hamas or ISIS or whoever they are - that by their actions they won't frighten Australians into coming to Israel and supporting Israel. That is by me and my colleagues, whether they are Labor or Liberal, are here supporting this Dialogue because it proves, ladies and gentlemen, it proves that freedom is winning and tyranny is losing."
[*Freedom of the press? "A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said: 'It was a constructive and cordial discussion and the PM looks forward to further dialogue.' The Prime Minister's office invited only multicultural media to the press conference before the meeting, meaning Fairfax Media and other organisations were not included." (Onus of proof unreasonable, Muslim heads tell Abbott, David Wroe & Daisy Dumas, Sydney Morning Herald, 19/8/14); **Freedom of association? See my last post NSW Police Seek to Can BDS Protest.]
Monday, August 18, 2014
NSW Police Seek to Can BDS Protest
Here we go again:
"Police have applied to the supreme court to stop a pro-Palestinian protest at the Israeli Film Festival in Sydney, in a move organisers have described as an attack on their right to protest. Palestine Action Group Sydney has organised the protest for Thursday night at Palace cinemas in Oxford Street when the IFF, which is run by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE), arrives in Sydney.
"Damian Ridgwell, 28, a founder of PAGS, was served on Friday evening by two police officers with the summons to appear in the supreme court. The summons... says police have made an application under the Summary Offences Act 1988 to 'prohibit the holding of a public assembly'. No reason is given... which Ridgwell says will put him at a disadvantage when he fronts the court. 'I think they are going to try to say it will disrupt traffic but if you go by that logic there would never be any protests in Australia, almost every single one of them disrupts traffic,' he said. 'It is not just or fair to deny our right to protest... why is it that pro-Palestinian protesters have to fight for their right to protest?'" (NSW police try to stop pro-Palestinian protest at Israeli Film Festival, Bridie Jabour, theguardian.com, 17/8/14)
To interrupt at this point: you'll remember the unsuccessful attempt by the NSW police to use the supreme court to ban a Nakba Day march in Sydney in 2012, a blatantly political move arising out of links between the then NSW (O'Farrell) government and the Israel lobby. For the details, see my posts NSW Police Seek to Can Nakba Commemoration (13/5/12); Police v Langosch (16/5/12); and Nakba Day Backlash 1-3 (17/5/12-19/5/12)
"Ridgwell said AICE was a 'legitimate target' of protest because of its support for Israel... and called it a 'highly political group'. PAGS is a supporter of the BDS campaign against Israel, and the group argues for cultural and economic boycotts. Ridgwell said he was expecting about 1,000 people at the protest on Thursday evening. 'We are all horrified by Israel's massacre and people feel the response of the Australian government has been appalling,' he said. NSW police are also asking the PAG to cover its court costs.
"AICE was established in 2002 and focuses on literature, film, music, visual and plastic arts, drama, dance and architecture. On its website it describes itself as an 'outward focused, inclusive body, advancing the exchange of culture between Australia and Israel as a means of encouraging art and artistic links'... AICE has been conducted for comment. NSW police did not comment on the application on Sunday." (ibid)
It should be noted her that AICE is the brainchild of Melbourne developer and influential Israel lobbyist Albert Dadon, whose other progeny include the Australia-Israel Leadership Forum (See my 25/10/10 post Record Rambam), and the Australia-UK-Israel Leadership Dialogue (See my 4/11/12 post Pollies in Love-In). On Dadon, see also my 12/4/14 post The Carr Diary 3: A Mere Flash in the Pan Really.
The matter is being heard in the NSW Supreme Court at 9am this morning. Watch this space...
"Police have applied to the supreme court to stop a pro-Palestinian protest at the Israeli Film Festival in Sydney, in a move organisers have described as an attack on their right to protest. Palestine Action Group Sydney has organised the protest for Thursday night at Palace cinemas in Oxford Street when the IFF, which is run by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE), arrives in Sydney.
"Damian Ridgwell, 28, a founder of PAGS, was served on Friday evening by two police officers with the summons to appear in the supreme court. The summons... says police have made an application under the Summary Offences Act 1988 to 'prohibit the holding of a public assembly'. No reason is given... which Ridgwell says will put him at a disadvantage when he fronts the court. 'I think they are going to try to say it will disrupt traffic but if you go by that logic there would never be any protests in Australia, almost every single one of them disrupts traffic,' he said. 'It is not just or fair to deny our right to protest... why is it that pro-Palestinian protesters have to fight for their right to protest?'" (NSW police try to stop pro-Palestinian protest at Israeli Film Festival, Bridie Jabour, theguardian.com, 17/8/14)
To interrupt at this point: you'll remember the unsuccessful attempt by the NSW police to use the supreme court to ban a Nakba Day march in Sydney in 2012, a blatantly political move arising out of links between the then NSW (O'Farrell) government and the Israel lobby. For the details, see my posts NSW Police Seek to Can Nakba Commemoration (13/5/12); Police v Langosch (16/5/12); and Nakba Day Backlash 1-3 (17/5/12-19/5/12)
"Ridgwell said AICE was a 'legitimate target' of protest because of its support for Israel... and called it a 'highly political group'. PAGS is a supporter of the BDS campaign against Israel, and the group argues for cultural and economic boycotts. Ridgwell said he was expecting about 1,000 people at the protest on Thursday evening. 'We are all horrified by Israel's massacre and people feel the response of the Australian government has been appalling,' he said. NSW police are also asking the PAG to cover its court costs.
"AICE was established in 2002 and focuses on literature, film, music, visual and plastic arts, drama, dance and architecture. On its website it describes itself as an 'outward focused, inclusive body, advancing the exchange of culture between Australia and Israel as a means of encouraging art and artistic links'... AICE has been conducted for comment. NSW police did not comment on the application on Sunday." (ibid)
It should be noted her that AICE is the brainchild of Melbourne developer and influential Israel lobbyist Albert Dadon, whose other progeny include the Australia-Israel Leadership Forum (See my 25/10/10 post Record Rambam), and the Australia-UK-Israel Leadership Dialogue (See my 4/11/12 post Pollies in Love-In). On Dadon, see also my 12/4/14 post The Carr Diary 3: A Mere Flash in the Pan Really.
The matter is being heard in the NSW Supreme Court at 9am this morning. Watch this space...
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!
Saturday, April 12, 2014
The Carr Diary 3: A Mere Flash in the Pan Really...
He briefly came to prominence...
"Albert Dadon is a Melbourne Jewish lobbyist. He has sought to influence Australian prime ministers and cabinet ministers on both sides of politics. He counts Kevin Rudd as a friend and Tony Abbott as well. He briefly came to prominence for giving a job to Tim Mathieson, Gillard's partner." (Falafel factions, Likudniks & Carr: inside the battle for Israeli influence, Chip Le Grand, John Ferguson & Troy Bramston, The Australian, 11/4/14)
That's it? That's the lot? That's all he did?
You mean Albert's Australia Israel Cultural Exchanges, his Australia Israel Leadership Forums, and his Australia Israel United Kingdom Leadership Dialogues, which saw Australian and other political 'leaders', MPs, senators and media hacks shuttling back and forth between Canberra, London and Tel Aviv during the term of the last Labor government, was just a figment of my febrile imagination? (1)
You mean those pre-election breakfasts at Albert's Toorak mansion, described by someone in the know as "an opportunity for the ALP to sell itself [to wealthy Jewish donors]," were, to wax Shakespearian, merely "such stuff as [my] dreams are made on"? (2)
You mean those fabulous dinners for Julia at Albert's Italian restaurant, Bakini, were just idle fantasies on my part? (3)
Apparently.
"For all these things [ie for giving Timbo a job] he is unapologetic. And for Carr, he has polite yet powerful scorn. 'What he is trying to do is limit the rights of any members of the Jewish community to have any influence on the political process,' Dadon told The Australian from France. 'We have no apology to make to Mr Carr... for being part of the fabric of this society where we have a voice and influence in public debate. Everyone from car companies to cigarette companies... is trying to have some sort of influence and input in government. So why should we apologise for having a certain outcome by government?'"
Right... except Julia never ever said to Big Tobacco anything like: "I'm looking forward to taking our friendship to new heights during the next term of government." (4)
No, she took her 'friendship' with BT to a new low by introducing plain packaging for cigarettes.
(What a pity she didn't introduce similar legislation for Israeli products: those photos of cancerous tumours and emaciated sufferers that now adorn cigarette packets in Australia could be replaced on imported Israeli goods with images of tanks and warplanes in action, swaggering troops and settlers, checkpoints, apartheid walls, demolished homes and torched olive groves!)
"'There are no apologies to be made and the fact he is singling us out with a finger is reminiscent of a certain era when Jews were limited in having a voice in political debate'."
What are you trying to say here, Albert?
[(1) See my 25/10/10 post Record Rambam;(2) See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition;(3) See my 7/6/12 post Spilling the Cannellini Beans; (4) See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition.]
"Albert Dadon is a Melbourne Jewish lobbyist. He has sought to influence Australian prime ministers and cabinet ministers on both sides of politics. He counts Kevin Rudd as a friend and Tony Abbott as well. He briefly came to prominence for giving a job to Tim Mathieson, Gillard's partner." (Falafel factions, Likudniks & Carr: inside the battle for Israeli influence, Chip Le Grand, John Ferguson & Troy Bramston, The Australian, 11/4/14)
That's it? That's the lot? That's all he did?
You mean Albert's Australia Israel Cultural Exchanges, his Australia Israel Leadership Forums, and his Australia Israel United Kingdom Leadership Dialogues, which saw Australian and other political 'leaders', MPs, senators and media hacks shuttling back and forth between Canberra, London and Tel Aviv during the term of the last Labor government, was just a figment of my febrile imagination? (1)
You mean those pre-election breakfasts at Albert's Toorak mansion, described by someone in the know as "an opportunity for the ALP to sell itself [to wealthy Jewish donors]," were, to wax Shakespearian, merely "such stuff as [my] dreams are made on"? (2)
You mean those fabulous dinners for Julia at Albert's Italian restaurant, Bakini, were just idle fantasies on my part? (3)
Apparently.
"For all these things [ie for giving Timbo a job] he is unapologetic. And for Carr, he has polite yet powerful scorn. 'What he is trying to do is limit the rights of any members of the Jewish community to have any influence on the political process,' Dadon told The Australian from France. 'We have no apology to make to Mr Carr... for being part of the fabric of this society where we have a voice and influence in public debate. Everyone from car companies to cigarette companies... is trying to have some sort of influence and input in government. So why should we apologise for having a certain outcome by government?'"
Right... except Julia never ever said to Big Tobacco anything like: "I'm looking forward to taking our friendship to new heights during the next term of government." (4)
No, she took her 'friendship' with BT to a new low by introducing plain packaging for cigarettes.
(What a pity she didn't introduce similar legislation for Israeli products: those photos of cancerous tumours and emaciated sufferers that now adorn cigarette packets in Australia could be replaced on imported Israeli goods with images of tanks and warplanes in action, swaggering troops and settlers, checkpoints, apartheid walls, demolished homes and torched olive groves!)
"'There are no apologies to be made and the fact he is singling us out with a finger is reminiscent of a certain era when Jews were limited in having a voice in political debate'."
What are you trying to say here, Albert?
[(1) See my 25/10/10 post Record Rambam;(2) See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition;(3) See my 7/6/12 post Spilling the Cannellini Beans; (4) See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition.]
Saturday, February 8, 2014
The Unasked Question
Donating money to political parties is a highly mysterious business. While our news media are happy to list say the top ten single donations to major parties, I've never known an Australian journalist to follow up by contacting the respective donors with a simple one-word question: why?
Until now, that is:
"A Chinese-based property company that hired former NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal as its vice-chairman after he quit politics was among the largest donors to the NSW Labor and Liberal parties last financial year. According to election funding returns published by the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday, YuHu Group (Australia) donated $200,000 to the NSW branch of the ALP during 2012-13, including $100,000 in June last year. It also donated $100,000 to the NSW Liberals during the period... [T]he general manager Holly Huang, said the donations were unrelated to the [company's] planned [$200m Eastwood Shopping Centre] development as approval had been given prior to the company's purchase of the shopping centre. Ms Huang said after the company entered Australia in May 2013 'a lot of people approached us. A lot of Chinese community friends introduced us to the parties to understand how the system runs in Australia,' she said. Ms Huang said she could not comment on Mr Huang's personal donations as she only spoke for the company. YuHu's website features pictures of Mr Huang and politicians including former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and former treasurer Chris Bowen." (Ex-treasurer working for Chinese company that was major donor, Sean Nicholls, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/2/14)
Hardly a satisfactory answer I know, but at least Nicholls, for one, asked the bloody question.
I'm still waiting for a ms journalist to ask the following Israel-doting donors in particular why they lavished the following sums on the Labor and Liberal parties in the 2012-13 financial year:
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Labor
Ubertas Group (Albert Dadon) $7,500 > Labor
Visy (Anthony Pratt) $1,500 > Labor
Pratt Holdings P/L (Anthony Pratt) $250,000 > Liberal
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Liberal
Needless to say, I won't be holding my breath.
Until now, that is:
"A Chinese-based property company that hired former NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal as its vice-chairman after he quit politics was among the largest donors to the NSW Labor and Liberal parties last financial year. According to election funding returns published by the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday, YuHu Group (Australia) donated $200,000 to the NSW branch of the ALP during 2012-13, including $100,000 in June last year. It also donated $100,000 to the NSW Liberals during the period... [T]he general manager Holly Huang, said the donations were unrelated to the [company's] planned [$200m Eastwood Shopping Centre] development as approval had been given prior to the company's purchase of the shopping centre. Ms Huang said after the company entered Australia in May 2013 'a lot of people approached us. A lot of Chinese community friends introduced us to the parties to understand how the system runs in Australia,' she said. Ms Huang said she could not comment on Mr Huang's personal donations as she only spoke for the company. YuHu's website features pictures of Mr Huang and politicians including former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and former treasurer Chris Bowen." (Ex-treasurer working for Chinese company that was major donor, Sean Nicholls, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/2/14)
Hardly a satisfactory answer I know, but at least Nicholls, for one, asked the bloody question.
I'm still waiting for a ms journalist to ask the following Israel-doting donors in particular why they lavished the following sums on the Labor and Liberal parties in the 2012-13 financial year:
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Labor
Ubertas Group (Albert Dadon) $7,500 > Labor
Visy (Anthony Pratt) $1,500 > Labor
Pratt Holdings P/L (Anthony Pratt) $250,000 > Liberal
Westfield Limited (Frank Lowy) $150,000 > Liberal
Needless to say, I won't be holding my breath.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Cowboys & Arabs Ride Again at Israeli FF
I notice that the "closing night event" of Albert Dadon's (AICE) Israeli Film Festival (13-28 August) in Sydney will be the screening of Otto Preminger's 1960 adaptation of Leon Uris' Zionist propaganda novel of 1958, Exodus.
Billed on the Palace Cinemas' website as merely "a lavish, ambitious chronicle of the formation of the State of Israel," Exodus, the original Zionist western (eastern?), takes the propaganda of Uris' novel to new heights - or should that be depths?
The very fact that this load of old Zionist cobblers is being dusted off for a festival such as this is a telling indication of the retrograde, colonial mindset of the festival's organisers. Try to imagine, if you can, a 2013 American film festival concluding with the quintessential 'cowboys & Indians' film They Died with Their Boots On, a 1941 take on Custer's last stand.
An indication of just how outrageously Preminger misrepresents events in Palestine in 1947-1948 may be found in the study Our Exodus: Leon Uris & the Americanization of Israel's Founding Story (2010), by Israeli scholar M.M. Silver. Silver zeroes in on the film's very American Lone Ranger/Tonto relationship between Zionist hero Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman) and his Arab sidekick Taha:
"The Taha-Ari friendship has a frontier quality of emergency patronage and rustic indebtedness. Taha swears that he owes everything to the Ben Canaans. 'When the Syrian Arabs murdered my father in his own mosque, Ari's father saved my life and my heritage,' exclaims Taha. 'Ari and I used to live together in Yad El. We shared the same room. Now to think that my house could become his tomb.' [Wounded during a jailbreak in Acre, Ari is nursed back to life in Taha's village.] Taha might owe his 'heritage' to the Zionist Ben Canaans, but owing to the wild logic of the frontier he is also forced to lodge the Jews' most vile nemesis. An old Nazi is in Taha's house plotting the deployment of his own 'personally trained' 80 Arab storm troopers and 300 newly recruited Abu Yesha villagers in a ruthless attack on the Jewish children's village Gan Dafna. Not willfully duplicitous, Taha appears as an honorable but weak Indian chief who is unable to keep both the good guys and the bad guys off his lands. Taha pleads, earnestly but ineffectually, with the Nazi. 'I am the mukhtar of Abu Yesha, and I will not attack Gan Dafna,' he implores. When he points out that there are 650,000 Jews in Palestine, his ghoulish Nazi guest replies 'temporarily.'
"Few of the details in this sequence make sense when removed from the binary oppositions and emotional expectations of a cowboy movie. There is no historical validity to the gruesome account provided by Taha's Nazi guest regarding his meddling. 'The Grand Mufti was our guest in Berlin during the war. Since we are now his guests, we have placed our experience in handling Jews entirely at his disposal,' the Nazi guest states. He explains that the strategic plan for the attack on Gan Dafna is to clear out the Jezreel Valley to guarantee passage for Haj Amin on his way to Safad, which will serve as the Mufti's 'provisional capital until every last Jew in Palestine is exterminated.' Handicapped by outrageous errors of geography and fact, this Nazi speech does more on its own to delegitimize the Palestinian side of the 1948 struggle than anything Uris ever attempted. As we will see, in his novel Uris pointed to real-life connections between the Mufti and Nazism, and he also indulged scathingly prejudicial descriptions of the Jews' Arab antagonists in the 1948 war. However, Uris never manipulated historically invalid devices to portray the fight as an updated and Palestine-transplanted chapter of the Nazi plot to exterminate the Jews.
"The late sequence in Taha's home is juxtaposed against jubilant scenes from central Israel, where a city crowd throngs on a summery night supposedly in late December 1947 to hear Barak Ben Canaan announce the UN vote in favor of the partition of Palestine and the establishment of a free Jewish state. Barak's oratory implicitly recognizes Palestinian sensitivities and grievances as being at the heart of the brewing dispute: 'We implore you,' the veteran Zionist diplomat addresses Palestine's Arabs, 'remain in your homes and shops, and we shall work together as equals in the free state of Israel.' The oration is a central plot event in the film narrative... As Taha, Kitty [Ari's American lover], and Ari listen to a radio broadcast of the elder Canaan's peroration, the mukhtar candidly spells out Palestinian objections to the land's newly approved dispensation. 'You have won your freedom, and I have lost mine,' Taha laments. Ari attempts to correct his friend: 'We've never had freedom. All our lives we've been under British rule. Now we will be equal citizens in the free state of Israel.' Taha's rejoinder conceptualizes the impending war as a fight for political power. If, as Ari insists, it makes no difference whether a group is a majority or a minority in a free democracy, why have the Zionists fought so hard to create a Jewish state, asks Taha.
"That is a good question, and it can be addressed cogently by an examination of the twists and turns of Jewish history.* But the climactic sequence of the Exodus film engages neither a serious investigation of history nor a serious political discussion of the causes of the 1948 war. Neither the nomenclature, the dates, or much else is accurate; the scene offers absurdly divergent explanations of the Palestinian cause in 1948 as either a Nazi plot or as a nationalist campaign for political power. The scene, in short, is not history in cinema, but cinema transmogrifying history as a western showdown.
"At the end of his blood-curdling interview with the Nazi, Taha dutifully pays obeisance to Middle East hosting rituals by promising his hateful guest dinner. Taha then rushes to Ari's room to warn him to get the Jewish children out of the Gan Dafna village by midnight the following day, the showdown hour designated for the attack by the Nazi-trained Arab storm troopers. Wrapped in traditional white headdress, Taha comes on as a film cliche when he conveys this vital intelligence to Ari - the good native of the cowboy western genre, he personifies a conflict between the demands of blood-brother friendship with a white man and tribal honor... After successfully evacuating Gan Dafna's small children, Ari leads a united Haganah-Irgun attack on Abu Yesha (he has no compunction leading the charge on the home village of his blood brother, because the Mufti's men are understood to have gained control of Abu Yesha). After winding through the alleys of the deserted village with his small force, Ari stops to behold what has happened to his lifetime friend, Taha. The camera follows his gaze down a straight alley; a swastika is smeared on a side wall to herald the handiwork of the Nazi agent. Looking straight ahead, Ari spots Taha, hanging dead from a noose with a blood red Star of David branded onto his chest. The form of execution, a hangman's noose, has relatively little meaning in the terrorized landscape of the modern Middle East. But its resonance as a token of justice, or lack thereof, in the epic frontier of the western knows no bounds." (pp 142-145)
So, on Wednesday night, August 28, at Paddington's Palace Cinema, festival-goers will be able to - ahem - screen out the valiant, scholarly efforts of Israeli historians such as Morris, Sternhell and Pappe to uncover the brutal truth behind the Zionist blitzkrieg in 1948 Palestine, and revert once again to the 'innocent' days of the 50s and 60s when the fantasy Exodus narrative of heroic Zionist pioneers battling impossible odds to avoid being driven into the sea reigned supreme.
[*I don't think so.]
[In a similar vein, you might like to reread my 12/5/13 post Israel: The Movie? and the 3 Battle of Hanita posts which follow.]
Billed on the Palace Cinemas' website as merely "a lavish, ambitious chronicle of the formation of the State of Israel," Exodus, the original Zionist western (eastern?), takes the propaganda of Uris' novel to new heights - or should that be depths?
The very fact that this load of old Zionist cobblers is being dusted off for a festival such as this is a telling indication of the retrograde, colonial mindset of the festival's organisers. Try to imagine, if you can, a 2013 American film festival concluding with the quintessential 'cowboys & Indians' film They Died with Their Boots On, a 1941 take on Custer's last stand.
An indication of just how outrageously Preminger misrepresents events in Palestine in 1947-1948 may be found in the study Our Exodus: Leon Uris & the Americanization of Israel's Founding Story (2010), by Israeli scholar M.M. Silver. Silver zeroes in on the film's very American Lone Ranger/Tonto relationship between Zionist hero Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman) and his Arab sidekick Taha:
"The Taha-Ari friendship has a frontier quality of emergency patronage and rustic indebtedness. Taha swears that he owes everything to the Ben Canaans. 'When the Syrian Arabs murdered my father in his own mosque, Ari's father saved my life and my heritage,' exclaims Taha. 'Ari and I used to live together in Yad El. We shared the same room. Now to think that my house could become his tomb.' [Wounded during a jailbreak in Acre, Ari is nursed back to life in Taha's village.] Taha might owe his 'heritage' to the Zionist Ben Canaans, but owing to the wild logic of the frontier he is also forced to lodge the Jews' most vile nemesis. An old Nazi is in Taha's house plotting the deployment of his own 'personally trained' 80 Arab storm troopers and 300 newly recruited Abu Yesha villagers in a ruthless attack on the Jewish children's village Gan Dafna. Not willfully duplicitous, Taha appears as an honorable but weak Indian chief who is unable to keep both the good guys and the bad guys off his lands. Taha pleads, earnestly but ineffectually, with the Nazi. 'I am the mukhtar of Abu Yesha, and I will not attack Gan Dafna,' he implores. When he points out that there are 650,000 Jews in Palestine, his ghoulish Nazi guest replies 'temporarily.'
"Few of the details in this sequence make sense when removed from the binary oppositions and emotional expectations of a cowboy movie. There is no historical validity to the gruesome account provided by Taha's Nazi guest regarding his meddling. 'The Grand Mufti was our guest in Berlin during the war. Since we are now his guests, we have placed our experience in handling Jews entirely at his disposal,' the Nazi guest states. He explains that the strategic plan for the attack on Gan Dafna is to clear out the Jezreel Valley to guarantee passage for Haj Amin on his way to Safad, which will serve as the Mufti's 'provisional capital until every last Jew in Palestine is exterminated.' Handicapped by outrageous errors of geography and fact, this Nazi speech does more on its own to delegitimize the Palestinian side of the 1948 struggle than anything Uris ever attempted. As we will see, in his novel Uris pointed to real-life connections between the Mufti and Nazism, and he also indulged scathingly prejudicial descriptions of the Jews' Arab antagonists in the 1948 war. However, Uris never manipulated historically invalid devices to portray the fight as an updated and Palestine-transplanted chapter of the Nazi plot to exterminate the Jews.
"The late sequence in Taha's home is juxtaposed against jubilant scenes from central Israel, where a city crowd throngs on a summery night supposedly in late December 1947 to hear Barak Ben Canaan announce the UN vote in favor of the partition of Palestine and the establishment of a free Jewish state. Barak's oratory implicitly recognizes Palestinian sensitivities and grievances as being at the heart of the brewing dispute: 'We implore you,' the veteran Zionist diplomat addresses Palestine's Arabs, 'remain in your homes and shops, and we shall work together as equals in the free state of Israel.' The oration is a central plot event in the film narrative... As Taha, Kitty [Ari's American lover], and Ari listen to a radio broadcast of the elder Canaan's peroration, the mukhtar candidly spells out Palestinian objections to the land's newly approved dispensation. 'You have won your freedom, and I have lost mine,' Taha laments. Ari attempts to correct his friend: 'We've never had freedom. All our lives we've been under British rule. Now we will be equal citizens in the free state of Israel.' Taha's rejoinder conceptualizes the impending war as a fight for political power. If, as Ari insists, it makes no difference whether a group is a majority or a minority in a free democracy, why have the Zionists fought so hard to create a Jewish state, asks Taha.
"That is a good question, and it can be addressed cogently by an examination of the twists and turns of Jewish history.* But the climactic sequence of the Exodus film engages neither a serious investigation of history nor a serious political discussion of the causes of the 1948 war. Neither the nomenclature, the dates, or much else is accurate; the scene offers absurdly divergent explanations of the Palestinian cause in 1948 as either a Nazi plot or as a nationalist campaign for political power. The scene, in short, is not history in cinema, but cinema transmogrifying history as a western showdown.
"At the end of his blood-curdling interview with the Nazi, Taha dutifully pays obeisance to Middle East hosting rituals by promising his hateful guest dinner. Taha then rushes to Ari's room to warn him to get the Jewish children out of the Gan Dafna village by midnight the following day, the showdown hour designated for the attack by the Nazi-trained Arab storm troopers. Wrapped in traditional white headdress, Taha comes on as a film cliche when he conveys this vital intelligence to Ari - the good native of the cowboy western genre, he personifies a conflict between the demands of blood-brother friendship with a white man and tribal honor... After successfully evacuating Gan Dafna's small children, Ari leads a united Haganah-Irgun attack on Abu Yesha (he has no compunction leading the charge on the home village of his blood brother, because the Mufti's men are understood to have gained control of Abu Yesha). After winding through the alleys of the deserted village with his small force, Ari stops to behold what has happened to his lifetime friend, Taha. The camera follows his gaze down a straight alley; a swastika is smeared on a side wall to herald the handiwork of the Nazi agent. Looking straight ahead, Ari spots Taha, hanging dead from a noose with a blood red Star of David branded onto his chest. The form of execution, a hangman's noose, has relatively little meaning in the terrorized landscape of the modern Middle East. But its resonance as a token of justice, or lack thereof, in the epic frontier of the western knows no bounds." (pp 142-145)
So, on Wednesday night, August 28, at Paddington's Palace Cinema, festival-goers will be able to - ahem - screen out the valiant, scholarly efforts of Israeli historians such as Morris, Sternhell and Pappe to uncover the brutal truth behind the Zionist blitzkrieg in 1948 Palestine, and revert once again to the 'innocent' days of the 50s and 60s when the fantasy Exodus narrative of heroic Zionist pioneers battling impossible odds to avoid being driven into the sea reigned supreme.
[*I don't think so.]
[In a similar vein, you might like to reread my 12/5/13 post Israel: The Movie? and the 3 Battle of Hanita posts which follow.]
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Conspicuous By His Absence
Now here's an elephant in a room for you - even if it is only a baby.
Murdoch journalist Kate Legge's profile of the Prime Minister's partner Tim Mathieson* - aka the First Bloke - is a fascinating profile of the man.
Curiously, however, just about everyone under the sun gets a say on Mathieson except one - Zionist impresario Albert Dadon.
Mathieson's one-time employer and the mover and shaker behind such Ozraeli love-ins as the Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange, the Australia-Israel Leadership Dialogue and the Australia-Israel-UK Leadership Dialogue, frequented at different times by Gillard**, gets only this bare mention:
"Tim Mathieson has not been in paid work since 2009***, when Melbourne property developer and Labor benefactor Albert Dadon put him briefly on the payroll selling luxury apartments." (Man about the house, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 9-10/3/13)
Why is this so? Was Dadon contacted? Did he decline to be interviewed? (If so, why not mention it?) Or did a little birdy tell Legge not to go there? For that matter, did she even need to be told?
[*See my posts A Job for the Boy (13/2/10), The PM, Her Manbag, His Employer & Their (Virtually Unremarked) Connection (28/6/10), Something Missing (22/9/10);**AICE - 2005, June 2009; AILF - December 2009;***Actually January-September 2010.]
Murdoch journalist Kate Legge's profile of the Prime Minister's partner Tim Mathieson* - aka the First Bloke - is a fascinating profile of the man.
Curiously, however, just about everyone under the sun gets a say on Mathieson except one - Zionist impresario Albert Dadon.
Mathieson's one-time employer and the mover and shaker behind such Ozraeli love-ins as the Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange, the Australia-Israel Leadership Dialogue and the Australia-Israel-UK Leadership Dialogue, frequented at different times by Gillard**, gets only this bare mention:
"Tim Mathieson has not been in paid work since 2009***, when Melbourne property developer and Labor benefactor Albert Dadon put him briefly on the payroll selling luxury apartments." (Man about the house, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 9-10/3/13)
Why is this so? Was Dadon contacted? Did he decline to be interviewed? (If so, why not mention it?) Or did a little birdy tell Legge not to go there? For that matter, did she even need to be told?
[*See my posts A Job for the Boy (13/2/10), The PM, Her Manbag, His Employer & Their (Virtually Unremarked) Connection (28/6/10), Something Missing (22/9/10);**AICE - 2005, June 2009; AILF - December 2009;***Actually January-September 2010.]
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Tony Abbott On the Prowl
The Australian's editor at large, Paul Kelly, reports from Albert Dadon's latest Israel love-in in London on a bloke on the make:
"Tony Abbott has used his presence at an Australia-Israel-United Kingdom Leadership Dialogue in London to deepen his support for Israel and accentuate the split with the Gillard government over Middle East policy. The Opposition Leader has highlighted the crack in Australian bipartisanship by arguing that Coalition support for Israel is values-based as 'the only mature pluralist democracy in the Middle East' and therefore, enduring..." (Abbott vows support for Israel, 21/12/12)
Pluralist? What part of Jewish state does this brawler not understand? Democracy? Has he not heard of the Great Gerrymander of 1948? Silly question...
Beyond spouting Zionist cliches and talking points, what does this boofhead really know about the Middle East conflict? Well, as Kelly freely admits in an opinion piece on Abbott in the same issue, bugger all: "Abbott knows little about Israel yet his views are fixed." (Abbott throws a mean Right hook and leads with his chin on values)
That wilful ignorance probably goes back to his student days. Back then, issues were never examined on their merits but mindlessly opposed simply because they were espoused by those who didn't happen to share his rigidly conservative Catholic outlook: "... Abbott turned up at Monash University in January 1977 for his first AUS conference* determined to fight the good fight... The right's determination to control or crush AUS had been revitalised by the students' decision a few years earlier to support the Palestine Liberation Organization." (Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott, David Marr, 2012, p 12)
[*See my 13/9/12 post Greg & Tony Do Monash.]
"Interviewed by The Australian outside the dialogue, Mr Abbott attacked the Gillard government's new position on granting Palestine observer status at the UN, alleging it was motivated by electoral factors and warned that Australia's election to the UN Security Council... must not trigger abandonment of its traditional support for Israel. 'We made the wrong decision... for the wrong reasons,' Mr Abbott said. 'My main concern is that this issue was not discussed in terms of the merits - it was discussed in terms of the electoral impact. Labor MPs felt people in western Sydney might be looking at this in terms of their own religious or political heritage from the Middle East and not from the viewpoint of what is best for Australia. Our view is that Australia should have been supported for a term on the Security Council because of our values, not because we were prepared to compromise them.'" (Abbott vows...)
Kelly again: "The evidence is that Abbott is wrong on Labor's motives. Carr was driven by foreign policy, not domestic politics." (Abbott throws...)
That's correct: wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again! It probably didn't occur to this ignoramus that even the Israel-besotted Cameron government had abstained in the UN. More to the point, was the Mad Monk aware of the Vatican's stance?:
"The Holy See welcomes with favor the decision of the General Assembly by which Palestine has become a Non-member Observer State of the United Nations." (Vatican hails UN Palestine vote, wants guarantees for Jerusalem, Philip Pullella, Reuters, 30/11/12)
Probably not.
"The two-day London dialogue was striking for the contrasting level of party representation. Mr Abbott attended as Opposition Leader backed by 6 Liberal parliamentarians including 3 frontbenchers. Labor did not send a minister; its senior representative was Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Mike Kelly..." (Abbott vows...)
How interesting that imbalance! Seems like the Libs are out to impress the devilishly attractive - at least to ms politicians - Albert Dadon. I wonder if the preponderance of this particular species has implications for who'll be turning up at the mover & shaker's Toorak mansion next year? (See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition.)
Furthermore, it had been reported that Kevin Rudd would be attending, although there's no mention of him here. (See my 4/11/12 post Pollies in Love-In.)
"In his speech to the dialogue gala dinner at London's Reform Club, delivered in Abbott's absence by George Brandis, the Opposition Leader said: 'The Coalition maintains a complete and unshakeable commitment to Israel's security. Israel is the only mature pluralist democracy in the Middle East. Israel's values and courage deeply impress Australians. While occasionally Israel, like all countries, makes mistakes, it is a bastion of Western civilization in a part of the world where human rights, including the value of respectful dissent, are not well appreciated. And for no other reason, it is in the interest of the West to show understanding and support for Israel. If Australia or Britain had rockets regularly lobbing on to our territories. I dare say we would suddenly be a lot less particular about the moral gradations of response that we sometimes feel like imposing on Israel.'" (Abbott throws...)
Note the US-style declaration: complete and unshakeable commitment to Israel's security. Under Tony Abbott PM, expect to see Australia in the UN General Assembly voting REFLEXIVELY with Israel, the United States, Canada and the Pacific Island floozies NO MATTER WHAT ISRAEL DOES.
And how completely out of touch with the international perception of Israel as a thug and bully is that bit about Australians admiring Israel's values and courage. But then, if it's Albert you're making a play for, what the f...
"In the interview, Mr Abbott said 'bad behaviour should not be rewarded, adding: 'The Coalition position is that there should be no further international recognition of a Palestinian state until the Palestinians are prepared to recognise Israel's right to exist behind secure borders as part of a two-state solution.'" (Abbott vows...)
How bloody typical! While the rest of the planet's talking about Israeli settlements, Israel's preferred method of sabotaging a two-state solution, Abbott's all rockets and the Palestinian failure to recognise Israel's right to exist as an apartheid Jewish state which has refused to allow the return of Palestinian refugees for the past 64 years and occupied the West Bank and Gaza for the last 45.
David Marr's Quarterly Essay on Abbott, cited above, reveals much about the creature. Here are two quotes that should leave Australians afraid, very afraid:
According to Abbott, "The Coalition of the Willing went to war in Iraq 'to uphold universal values... if it's possible to engage in an altruistic war, this was it.'" (p 57)
"A few days after becoming leader of the Opposition, [Abbott] was given a quick quiz by Josh Gordon of the Sunday Age. Favorite film? 'Gallipoli. Seen it many times.' Film star? 'John Wayne.' Book? 'I'd have to say it's probably Lord of the Rings. It's the book I've read most.'" (p 3)
Memo to all you foreign Frodos out there who read this blog. If this pugilistic bogan should win power in this country next year, pray for us here in Mordor, OK?
"Tony Abbott has used his presence at an Australia-Israel-United Kingdom Leadership Dialogue in London to deepen his support for Israel and accentuate the split with the Gillard government over Middle East policy. The Opposition Leader has highlighted the crack in Australian bipartisanship by arguing that Coalition support for Israel is values-based as 'the only mature pluralist democracy in the Middle East' and therefore, enduring..." (Abbott vows support for Israel, 21/12/12)
Pluralist? What part of Jewish state does this brawler not understand? Democracy? Has he not heard of the Great Gerrymander of 1948? Silly question...
Beyond spouting Zionist cliches and talking points, what does this boofhead really know about the Middle East conflict? Well, as Kelly freely admits in an opinion piece on Abbott in the same issue, bugger all: "Abbott knows little about Israel yet his views are fixed." (Abbott throws a mean Right hook and leads with his chin on values)
That wilful ignorance probably goes back to his student days. Back then, issues were never examined on their merits but mindlessly opposed simply because they were espoused by those who didn't happen to share his rigidly conservative Catholic outlook: "... Abbott turned up at Monash University in January 1977 for his first AUS conference* determined to fight the good fight... The right's determination to control or crush AUS had been revitalised by the students' decision a few years earlier to support the Palestine Liberation Organization." (Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott, David Marr, 2012, p 12)
[*See my 13/9/12 post Greg & Tony Do Monash.]
"Interviewed by The Australian outside the dialogue, Mr Abbott attacked the Gillard government's new position on granting Palestine observer status at the UN, alleging it was motivated by electoral factors and warned that Australia's election to the UN Security Council... must not trigger abandonment of its traditional support for Israel. 'We made the wrong decision... for the wrong reasons,' Mr Abbott said. 'My main concern is that this issue was not discussed in terms of the merits - it was discussed in terms of the electoral impact. Labor MPs felt people in western Sydney might be looking at this in terms of their own religious or political heritage from the Middle East and not from the viewpoint of what is best for Australia. Our view is that Australia should have been supported for a term on the Security Council because of our values, not because we were prepared to compromise them.'" (Abbott vows...)
Kelly again: "The evidence is that Abbott is wrong on Labor's motives. Carr was driven by foreign policy, not domestic politics." (Abbott throws...)
That's correct: wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again! It probably didn't occur to this ignoramus that even the Israel-besotted Cameron government had abstained in the UN. More to the point, was the Mad Monk aware of the Vatican's stance?:
"The Holy See welcomes with favor the decision of the General Assembly by which Palestine has become a Non-member Observer State of the United Nations." (Vatican hails UN Palestine vote, wants guarantees for Jerusalem, Philip Pullella, Reuters, 30/11/12)
Probably not.
"The two-day London dialogue was striking for the contrasting level of party representation. Mr Abbott attended as Opposition Leader backed by 6 Liberal parliamentarians including 3 frontbenchers. Labor did not send a minister; its senior representative was Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Mike Kelly..." (Abbott vows...)
How interesting that imbalance! Seems like the Libs are out to impress the devilishly attractive - at least to ms politicians - Albert Dadon. I wonder if the preponderance of this particular species has implications for who'll be turning up at the mover & shaker's Toorak mansion next year? (See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition.)
Furthermore, it had been reported that Kevin Rudd would be attending, although there's no mention of him here. (See my 4/11/12 post Pollies in Love-In.)
"In his speech to the dialogue gala dinner at London's Reform Club, delivered in Abbott's absence by George Brandis, the Opposition Leader said: 'The Coalition maintains a complete and unshakeable commitment to Israel's security. Israel is the only mature pluralist democracy in the Middle East. Israel's values and courage deeply impress Australians. While occasionally Israel, like all countries, makes mistakes, it is a bastion of Western civilization in a part of the world where human rights, including the value of respectful dissent, are not well appreciated. And for no other reason, it is in the interest of the West to show understanding and support for Israel. If Australia or Britain had rockets regularly lobbing on to our territories. I dare say we would suddenly be a lot less particular about the moral gradations of response that we sometimes feel like imposing on Israel.'" (Abbott throws...)
Note the US-style declaration: complete and unshakeable commitment to Israel's security. Under Tony Abbott PM, expect to see Australia in the UN General Assembly voting REFLEXIVELY with Israel, the United States, Canada and the Pacific Island floozies NO MATTER WHAT ISRAEL DOES.
And how completely out of touch with the international perception of Israel as a thug and bully is that bit about Australians admiring Israel's values and courage. But then, if it's Albert you're making a play for, what the f...
"In the interview, Mr Abbott said 'bad behaviour should not be rewarded, adding: 'The Coalition position is that there should be no further international recognition of a Palestinian state until the Palestinians are prepared to recognise Israel's right to exist behind secure borders as part of a two-state solution.'" (Abbott vows...)
How bloody typical! While the rest of the planet's talking about Israeli settlements, Israel's preferred method of sabotaging a two-state solution, Abbott's all rockets and the Palestinian failure to recognise Israel's right to exist as an apartheid Jewish state which has refused to allow the return of Palestinian refugees for the past 64 years and occupied the West Bank and Gaza for the last 45.
David Marr's Quarterly Essay on Abbott, cited above, reveals much about the creature. Here are two quotes that should leave Australians afraid, very afraid:
According to Abbott, "The Coalition of the Willing went to war in Iraq 'to uphold universal values... if it's possible to engage in an altruistic war, this was it.'" (p 57)
"A few days after becoming leader of the Opposition, [Abbott] was given a quick quiz by Josh Gordon of the Sunday Age. Favorite film? 'Gallipoli. Seen it many times.' Film star? 'John Wayne.' Book? 'I'd have to say it's probably Lord of the Rings. It's the book I've read most.'" (p 3)
Memo to all you foreign Frodos out there who read this blog. If this pugilistic bogan should win power in this country next year, pray for us here in Mordor, OK?
Monday, December 3, 2012
While You Weren't Looking 2
Further to my post on December 1, While You Weren't Looking, new details have emerged in the extraordinary story of how the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was effectively dragged, kicking and screaming, from the clutches of the Israel lobby by leading members of her own party and forced to see reason, or at least some measure of same, on the Palestinian bid for observer status in the UN.
These are contained in the following report by Dennis Shanahan & Joe Kelly, Fears PM isolated on UN vote, in the December 1 issue of the Australian. The highlightings (and interleaved commentary) are, of course, my own :
"After Julia Gillard announced on Tuesday afternoon that Australia would abstain from a UNGA vote on state observer status for the Palestinians, two things happened. Our most important ally, the US, decided to make its 'disappointment' clear to the Australian ambassador in Washington, Kim Beazley, and the Prime Minister's 'special emissary to the Jewish community', Bruce Wolpe, was fingered as having an inordinate influence on Ms Gillard, who had intended to vote against the UN motion."
Yes, you heard correctly: the PM's special emissary to the Jewish community...
"During the previous 48 hours Gillard had been defied by her cabinet, rolled by caucus, abandoned by key supporters in the NSW ALP Right, put her leadership on the line and was accused of giving too much access and influence to Melbourne Jewish business leaders through Wolpe, a Jew, a former Fairfax executive and US Democrat adviser, and her special business and Jewish affairs adviser. It was no small matter for Gillard to defy advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, the strongly held view of Foreign Minister Bob Carr, previous policy positions, lobbying from Bob Hawke and his foreign minister Gareth Evans, most of her backbench colleagues and the 'demographically challenged' NSW Right, including her staunchest cabinet supporter from that faction, Water Minister Tony Burke. As one cabinet source told The Weekend Ausralian last night: 'The Prime Minister turned this into a leadership issue herself by demanding cabinet follow her and a failure of process and consultation beforehand'. The opposition to Gillard cut across factional boundaries and went beyond supporters of former prime minister Kevin Rudd. The success of the party in rolling the Prime minister will have reverberations into the election year and has diminished her authority.
"While it should have been apparent for months - indeed it was a year since Rudd, then foreign minister, wrote suggesting an abstention on the Palestine issue, that now Labor overwhelmingly favoured a less dogmatic approach to Israel - Gillard insisted Australia oppose the move for Palestinian observer status, which was carried at the UN yesterday. On Monday evening, cabinet convened for what was to become an exceptional meeting and an eventual decision that may set various benchmarks in Australian political history. It changed a basic tenet of Australian foreign policy, it broke longstanding bipartisanship on Israel, it ditched a tradition as old as 'Doc' Evatt, disappointed the US, Israel and the local Jewish community and may yet prove to be a more potent leadership issue for Gillard than the Australian Workers Union affair."
Shanahan and Kelly could well be correct here, although the idea that uncritical bipartisan support for Israel and all its works has been a tenet of Australian foreign policy since the days of Evatt completely overlooks the era of Australia's 'even-handed' approach to the Middle East conflict. As former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam said in 1973: "Australia has a bi-partisan policy, a policy of neutrality in the Middle East. The ALP policy is substantially the policy which governments have pursued for the last quarter of a century in Australia." (Quoted in Bob Hawke: A Portrait, Robert Pullan, 1980, p 159)
"Before Monday's meeting DFAT and Prime Minister and Cabinet prepared an options paper - not a cabinet submission - which set out the pros and cons of the 3 UN vote choices for Australia; a vote against with the US, Israel and half a dozen small states, abstain on the basis of a principled position to get Israel to negotiate, or vote for Palestinian state observer status. Carr's position, spelt out to the Prime Minister, was to abstain at least, as was the majority position in cabinet, the outer ministry and the Labor backbench. Carr committed to Gillard before the meeting that he would not speak because it would be obvious the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister were at odds. After the cabinet meeting began and Gillard made it clear she intended to go for the minority position all hell broke loose in the windowless room opposite her office suite in parliament. Minister after minister lined up to tell her - some forcibly - her position was wrong on policy and political grounds. The opposition included Burke and fellow NSW Right minister Chris Bowen, with Burke's contribution particularly significant as the last of the NSW faction's cabinet ministers supporting Gillard's leadership. Even Trade Minister Craig Emerson, derided for his public loyalty to Gillard, was opposed. Only Victorian Right Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, later backed by fellow Victorian right-winger Bill Shorten, spoke up for Gillard's position. Carr couldn't contain himself after 10 ministers had spoken in his portfolio area and made it clear he was at odds with his leader.
"Carr's opposition was significant not only because he was Foreign Minister but also because he had been hand-picked by the NSW Right to replace Rudd in the ministry and will always be seen as a safe fallback as leader should Gillard fail. What's more, Carr, who founded the NSW Labor Friends of Israel, has assiduously worked with Palestinian groups for 17 years and is aware of the plight of Christian groups throughout the Middle East who want peace. After Gillard insisted the cabinet had to agree to her minority position and demanded 'cabinet solidarity', there was a bemused and sullen response, with Carr ringing backbenchers to foment rebellion and government whip Joel Fitzgibbon defying the Prime Minister's request to lock in the Right behind her. Fitzgibbon yesterday said that if Australia had adopted the Prime minister's initial position it would have looked like Australia was acting as a puppet of the US.
"Carr informed Gillard minutes before Tuesday's Labor caucus meeting that she needed to change her position or face a humiliating defeat that would undermine her authority. Gillard conceded and backed a compromise of abstention. In the face of Gillard's initial demand for support, cabinet ministers began to complain there was no real explanation for the position, arguing the US was not overly exercised, many Labor seats were affected by Middle Eastern populations, Christian and Muslim, and there was a policy argument for sending Israel a message 'as a friend'.
"Ministers believed Wolpe was providing 'inordinate access' to the hardline pro-Israeli elements of the Melbourne Jewish community who were having an undue influence on Gillard."
IOW, they felt that Australia's foreign policy stance on the Middle East conflict had effectively been contracted out to a bunch of apologists (as much by omission as commission) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose real goal, a Greater Israel covering the entirety of historic Palestine 'from the river to the sea', runs counter to the 'two-states for two peoples' solution espoused by Labor.
"As a hard left-winger in her younger days..."
A truer picture of Gillard the student politician may be found in my 25/7/10 post Me, A Zionist? How Very Dare You!
" ... Gillard was not seen as a natural supporter of Israel or the US, but has worked hard at links with both, and her partner, Tim Mathieson, worked for Jewish Melbourne developer and Labor benefactor Albert Dadon. As deputy prime minister, Gillard visited Israel and was feted by the Israeli leadership. In Perth last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had indicated to Gillard that the US would prefer a vote against the Palestinian UN motion. It is understood Gillard's decision was determined from her own views and that Wolpe hadn't arranged a prime ministerial meeting with the Melbourne Jewish community for some time. Labor MP Michael Danby, who in Melbourne Ports represents the biggest Jewish community in Australia, said yesterday: 'I hope I am wrong and the UN resolution turns out to give the Palestinian Authority the confidence to begin direct talks with their neighbours, the best outcome that may result.'"
Such is the surreal level of misrepresentation of the true nature of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians by Zionist apologists such as Danby that he can get away with spinning a dispossessing colonial power, engaged in a decades-old process of screwing a dispossessed and colonised people, as a neighbour with whom the dispossessed and colonised need only to sit and have a chat with for a satisfactory solution to their 'differences' to emerge.
Just as you cannot, so the adage goes, fool all of the people all of the time, could it be that the reality of Israel's relentless colonisation drive in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem (indeed, a new round of settlement construction has just been announced in retaliation for the Palestinians' upgraded status in the UN) is beginning at last to dawn on Labor politicians? Hard to believe, I know, but I'd like to think that the cabinet/caucus revolt against Gillard, described here and in the Australian's earlier report, reflects, at least in part, a more realistic understanding by the ALP of what is actually taking place on the ground in occupied Palestine.
These are contained in the following report by Dennis Shanahan & Joe Kelly, Fears PM isolated on UN vote, in the December 1 issue of the Australian. The highlightings (and interleaved commentary) are, of course, my own :
"After Julia Gillard announced on Tuesday afternoon that Australia would abstain from a UNGA vote on state observer status for the Palestinians, two things happened. Our most important ally, the US, decided to make its 'disappointment' clear to the Australian ambassador in Washington, Kim Beazley, and the Prime Minister's 'special emissary to the Jewish community', Bruce Wolpe, was fingered as having an inordinate influence on Ms Gillard, who had intended to vote against the UN motion."
Yes, you heard correctly: the PM's special emissary to the Jewish community...
"During the previous 48 hours Gillard had been defied by her cabinet, rolled by caucus, abandoned by key supporters in the NSW ALP Right, put her leadership on the line and was accused of giving too much access and influence to Melbourne Jewish business leaders through Wolpe, a Jew, a former Fairfax executive and US Democrat adviser, and her special business and Jewish affairs adviser. It was no small matter for Gillard to defy advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, the strongly held view of Foreign Minister Bob Carr, previous policy positions, lobbying from Bob Hawke and his foreign minister Gareth Evans, most of her backbench colleagues and the 'demographically challenged' NSW Right, including her staunchest cabinet supporter from that faction, Water Minister Tony Burke. As one cabinet source told The Weekend Ausralian last night: 'The Prime Minister turned this into a leadership issue herself by demanding cabinet follow her and a failure of process and consultation beforehand'. The opposition to Gillard cut across factional boundaries and went beyond supporters of former prime minister Kevin Rudd. The success of the party in rolling the Prime minister will have reverberations into the election year and has diminished her authority.
"While it should have been apparent for months - indeed it was a year since Rudd, then foreign minister, wrote suggesting an abstention on the Palestine issue, that now Labor overwhelmingly favoured a less dogmatic approach to Israel - Gillard insisted Australia oppose the move for Palestinian observer status, which was carried at the UN yesterday. On Monday evening, cabinet convened for what was to become an exceptional meeting and an eventual decision that may set various benchmarks in Australian political history. It changed a basic tenet of Australian foreign policy, it broke longstanding bipartisanship on Israel, it ditched a tradition as old as 'Doc' Evatt, disappointed the US, Israel and the local Jewish community and may yet prove to be a more potent leadership issue for Gillard than the Australian Workers Union affair."
Shanahan and Kelly could well be correct here, although the idea that uncritical bipartisan support for Israel and all its works has been a tenet of Australian foreign policy since the days of Evatt completely overlooks the era of Australia's 'even-handed' approach to the Middle East conflict. As former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam said in 1973: "Australia has a bi-partisan policy, a policy of neutrality in the Middle East. The ALP policy is substantially the policy which governments have pursued for the last quarter of a century in Australia." (Quoted in Bob Hawke: A Portrait, Robert Pullan, 1980, p 159)
"Before Monday's meeting DFAT and Prime Minister and Cabinet prepared an options paper - not a cabinet submission - which set out the pros and cons of the 3 UN vote choices for Australia; a vote against with the US, Israel and half a dozen small states, abstain on the basis of a principled position to get Israel to negotiate, or vote for Palestinian state observer status. Carr's position, spelt out to the Prime Minister, was to abstain at least, as was the majority position in cabinet, the outer ministry and the Labor backbench. Carr committed to Gillard before the meeting that he would not speak because it would be obvious the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister were at odds. After the cabinet meeting began and Gillard made it clear she intended to go for the minority position all hell broke loose in the windowless room opposite her office suite in parliament. Minister after minister lined up to tell her - some forcibly - her position was wrong on policy and political grounds. The opposition included Burke and fellow NSW Right minister Chris Bowen, with Burke's contribution particularly significant as the last of the NSW faction's cabinet ministers supporting Gillard's leadership. Even Trade Minister Craig Emerson, derided for his public loyalty to Gillard, was opposed. Only Victorian Right Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, later backed by fellow Victorian right-winger Bill Shorten, spoke up for Gillard's position. Carr couldn't contain himself after 10 ministers had spoken in his portfolio area and made it clear he was at odds with his leader.
"Carr's opposition was significant not only because he was Foreign Minister but also because he had been hand-picked by the NSW Right to replace Rudd in the ministry and will always be seen as a safe fallback as leader should Gillard fail. What's more, Carr, who founded the NSW Labor Friends of Israel, has assiduously worked with Palestinian groups for 17 years and is aware of the plight of Christian groups throughout the Middle East who want peace. After Gillard insisted the cabinet had to agree to her minority position and demanded 'cabinet solidarity', there was a bemused and sullen response, with Carr ringing backbenchers to foment rebellion and government whip Joel Fitzgibbon defying the Prime Minister's request to lock in the Right behind her. Fitzgibbon yesterday said that if Australia had adopted the Prime minister's initial position it would have looked like Australia was acting as a puppet of the US.
"Carr informed Gillard minutes before Tuesday's Labor caucus meeting that she needed to change her position or face a humiliating defeat that would undermine her authority. Gillard conceded and backed a compromise of abstention. In the face of Gillard's initial demand for support, cabinet ministers began to complain there was no real explanation for the position, arguing the US was not overly exercised, many Labor seats were affected by Middle Eastern populations, Christian and Muslim, and there was a policy argument for sending Israel a message 'as a friend'.
"Ministers believed Wolpe was providing 'inordinate access' to the hardline pro-Israeli elements of the Melbourne Jewish community who were having an undue influence on Gillard."
IOW, they felt that Australia's foreign policy stance on the Middle East conflict had effectively been contracted out to a bunch of apologists (as much by omission as commission) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose real goal, a Greater Israel covering the entirety of historic Palestine 'from the river to the sea', runs counter to the 'two-states for two peoples' solution espoused by Labor.
"As a hard left-winger in her younger days..."
A truer picture of Gillard the student politician may be found in my 25/7/10 post Me, A Zionist? How Very Dare You!
" ... Gillard was not seen as a natural supporter of Israel or the US, but has worked hard at links with both, and her partner, Tim Mathieson, worked for Jewish Melbourne developer and Labor benefactor Albert Dadon. As deputy prime minister, Gillard visited Israel and was feted by the Israeli leadership. In Perth last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had indicated to Gillard that the US would prefer a vote against the Palestinian UN motion. It is understood Gillard's decision was determined from her own views and that Wolpe hadn't arranged a prime ministerial meeting with the Melbourne Jewish community for some time. Labor MP Michael Danby, who in Melbourne Ports represents the biggest Jewish community in Australia, said yesterday: 'I hope I am wrong and the UN resolution turns out to give the Palestinian Authority the confidence to begin direct talks with their neighbours, the best outcome that may result.'"
Such is the surreal level of misrepresentation of the true nature of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians by Zionist apologists such as Danby that he can get away with spinning a dispossessing colonial power, engaged in a decades-old process of screwing a dispossessed and colonised people, as a neighbour with whom the dispossessed and colonised need only to sit and have a chat with for a satisfactory solution to their 'differences' to emerge.
Just as you cannot, so the adage goes, fool all of the people all of the time, could it be that the reality of Israel's relentless colonisation drive in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem (indeed, a new round of settlement construction has just been announced in retaliation for the Palestinians' upgraded status in the UN) is beginning at last to dawn on Labor politicians? Hard to believe, I know, but I'd like to think that the cabinet/caucus revolt against Gillard, described here and in the Australian's earlier report, reflects, at least in part, a more realistic understanding by the ALP of what is actually taking place on the ground in occupied Palestine.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Pollies in Love-In
Speaking of Australian pollies in love, here we go again*:
"Bitter rivals Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott will call a momentary truce and join a high-powered parliamentary delegation to London next month for talks about Australia's links with Israel and Britain. The cross-party talkfest [sic: love-in], Australia-UK-Israel Leadership Dialogue, organised by the Melbourne businessman Albert Dadon, will include political, business and media delegates from the three countries... The leadership dialogue originally began in 2009 with Australian and Israeli participants, with Julia Gillard the most prominent delegate when she was deputy prime minister. The meeting was expanded to include Britain and in January was held in Jerusalem. It is one of a growing number of private diplomacy 'leadership' initiatives on the Australian calendar, that relate to countries including the US, Canada and New Zealand." (Rudd & Abbott join talks on Israeli links, Daniel Flitton, Sydney Morning Herald, 3/11/12)
According to Flitton, other Australian lovers of Zion in attendance will be Labor's Michael Danby and Mike Kelly and the Liberal's Christopher Pyne, Kevin Andrews, Kelly O'Dwyer and Josh Frydenberg.
[*See my 13/1/12 post Ain't Love Grand?]
"Bitter rivals Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott will call a momentary truce and join a high-powered parliamentary delegation to London next month for talks about Australia's links with Israel and Britain. The cross-party talkfest [sic: love-in], Australia-UK-Israel Leadership Dialogue, organised by the Melbourne businessman Albert Dadon, will include political, business and media delegates from the three countries... The leadership dialogue originally began in 2009 with Australian and Israeli participants, with Julia Gillard the most prominent delegate when she was deputy prime minister. The meeting was expanded to include Britain and in January was held in Jerusalem. It is one of a growing number of private diplomacy 'leadership' initiatives on the Australian calendar, that relate to countries including the US, Canada and New Zealand." (Rudd & Abbott join talks on Israeli links, Daniel Flitton, Sydney Morning Herald, 3/11/12)
According to Flitton, other Australian lovers of Zion in attendance will be Labor's Michael Danby and Mike Kelly and the Liberal's Christopher Pyne, Kevin Andrews, Kelly O'Dwyer and Josh Frydenberg.
[*See my 13/1/12 post Ain't Love Grand?]
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Albert Dadon: All Oyster & No Pearl
How awesome is Australian Zionist mover & shaker, Albert Dadon?
He has only to whisper the 'I' word and the 'v' (vibrant) into the ears of the nations's movers and shakers and they're falling all over themselves to get there, facilitated, of course, by his luxury shuttle service, the Australia Israel Leadership Forum (AILF). Why, the ride's so smooth and comfy, even the Brits have climbed aboard! What next, Palau?
Such is the influence of this rising star in the Israel lobby firmament, that my Lobbyland spies tell me he's got Rubes, Vic and the rest wondering about the very turf under their feet.
Which is why I found the Albert Dadon portrayed in yesterday's Financial Review, under the heading Traveller/ Albert Dadon, puzzling to say the least. I mean, strike a light, Israel doesn't even get a look in! Check it out:
"Most frequent destination: I lived in Paris for many years. It will always be one of my favourite and most special parts of the world."
Hello? Israel?
"Advice for airlines: Singapore Airlines is the most efficient and reliable. There are no surprises, which is the last thing I want when I travel."
Hello? El Al?
"Favourite hotel: La Mamounia in Marrakech, Morocco and the Park Hyatt in Paris. La Mamounia is an 8-hectare haven planted with 100-year-old fruit and olive trees and rows upon rows of blossoming flowers. The hotel radiates opulence, beauty and tradition. It is said that to step into this hotel is akin to a setting from the Arabian Nights."
Arabian Nights? Someone call a doctor, NOW! And what's this? Arabs making the desert bloom? Well I never!
"The Park Hyatt in Paris is my home away from home."
But I thought Australia was your home and Israel your home away from home! Or is it the other way around?
"It's exquisitely decorated, hospitably staffed, and situated right in the heart of the city - only moments from Place de la Concorde, the Champs Elysees, the Tuilieries and the shops of Rue du Faubourg St Honore."
Israel's about to get nuked, and he's out shopping!
"Best overseas dining: I recently dined at Nobu 57 in New York, the flagship restaurant of chef Nobu Matsuhisa. It was an amazing experience. The flavours and presentation were wonderful and the service second to none."
Thank God for small mercies: at least he dines in New York, even if it is Japanese.
"What to pack Apart from the essentials, my bikini..."
Your whaaat?
"... and my skivvy - and of course my guitars."
I bet Herzl didn't even have a piano. What frivolity!
"Tips: Make the concierge your best friend and they'll make sure that you are provided with the very best information and expert tips to ensure that you see, eat, drink and experience all that you wish to."
So the concierge knows more about the joint than local Mossad operatives? Is that what you're saying?
"Technology: BlackBerry, ipad - and every other electronic device you can think of."
That every other electronic device - made in Israel I hope.
"Favourite shopping: The marches aux puces of Paris. Paris's famous flea markets sell everything from antiques to junk, and from new to vintage clothing."
So what's a French flea market got that an Israeli arms bazaar hasn't?
"Best tale: Going to LA to see a Lakers match and bumping into Jack Nicholson."
D'oh! Nobody goes to a Lakers match without bumping into Jack Nicholson.
"Best thing about travel: It allows me to see and experience new places, cultures, design, and technology. It also keeps me away from my BlackBerry.
And I thought Israel had it all.
"Top gripe: As Australia is so far away from my usual destinations, it means sitting down for long periods, which can be damaging and unpleasant."
Life's tough! Gotta take care of those crown jewels.
***
Do you see what I mean, folks? Where's the focus here? Not an Israeli talking point in sight. OK, OK, the world may be your oyster, Albert, but what about the pearl, mate?
He has only to whisper the 'I' word and the 'v' (vibrant) into the ears of the nations's movers and shakers and they're falling all over themselves to get there, facilitated, of course, by his luxury shuttle service, the Australia Israel Leadership Forum (AILF). Why, the ride's so smooth and comfy, even the Brits have climbed aboard! What next, Palau?
Such is the influence of this rising star in the Israel lobby firmament, that my Lobbyland spies tell me he's got Rubes, Vic and the rest wondering about the very turf under their feet.
Which is why I found the Albert Dadon portrayed in yesterday's Financial Review, under the heading Traveller/ Albert Dadon, puzzling to say the least. I mean, strike a light, Israel doesn't even get a look in! Check it out:
"Most frequent destination: I lived in Paris for many years. It will always be one of my favourite and most special parts of the world."
Hello? Israel?
"Advice for airlines: Singapore Airlines is the most efficient and reliable. There are no surprises, which is the last thing I want when I travel."
Hello? El Al?
"Favourite hotel: La Mamounia in Marrakech, Morocco and the Park Hyatt in Paris. La Mamounia is an 8-hectare haven planted with 100-year-old fruit and olive trees and rows upon rows of blossoming flowers. The hotel radiates opulence, beauty and tradition. It is said that to step into this hotel is akin to a setting from the Arabian Nights."
Arabian Nights? Someone call a doctor, NOW! And what's this? Arabs making the desert bloom? Well I never!
"The Park Hyatt in Paris is my home away from home."
But I thought Australia was your home and Israel your home away from home! Or is it the other way around?
"It's exquisitely decorated, hospitably staffed, and situated right in the heart of the city - only moments from Place de la Concorde, the Champs Elysees, the Tuilieries and the shops of Rue du Faubourg St Honore."
Israel's about to get nuked, and he's out shopping!
"Best overseas dining: I recently dined at Nobu 57 in New York, the flagship restaurant of chef Nobu Matsuhisa. It was an amazing experience. The flavours and presentation were wonderful and the service second to none."
Thank God for small mercies: at least he dines in New York, even if it is Japanese.
"What to pack Apart from the essentials, my bikini..."
Your whaaat?
"... and my skivvy - and of course my guitars."
I bet Herzl didn't even have a piano. What frivolity!
"Tips: Make the concierge your best friend and they'll make sure that you are provided with the very best information and expert tips to ensure that you see, eat, drink and experience all that you wish to."
So the concierge knows more about the joint than local Mossad operatives? Is that what you're saying?
"Technology: BlackBerry, ipad - and every other electronic device you can think of."
That every other electronic device - made in Israel I hope.
"Favourite shopping: The marches aux puces of Paris. Paris's famous flea markets sell everything from antiques to junk, and from new to vintage clothing."
So what's a French flea market got that an Israeli arms bazaar hasn't?
"Best tale: Going to LA to see a Lakers match and bumping into Jack Nicholson."
D'oh! Nobody goes to a Lakers match without bumping into Jack Nicholson.
"Best thing about travel: It allows me to see and experience new places, cultures, design, and technology. It also keeps me away from my BlackBerry.
And I thought Israel had it all.
"Top gripe: As Australia is so far away from my usual destinations, it means sitting down for long periods, which can be damaging and unpleasant."
Life's tough! Gotta take care of those crown jewels.
***
Do you see what I mean, folks? Where's the focus here? Not an Israeli talking point in sight. OK, OK, the world may be your oyster, Albert, but what about the pearl, mate?
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Spilling the Cannellini Beans
Hm...
"Wearing her much-scrutinised prime ministerial white jacket, Julia Gillard fitted right in with the chefs in the kitchen of Bakini in St Kilda Road on Saturday night. The besieged leader had dinner in the Italian restaurant owned by Albert Dadon, the property developer and chairman of Ubertus who used to employ Gillard's partner, Tim Mathieson, before she ascended the Canberra throne. Gillard rubbed her white shoulders with the whites of chef Simone Righetto and chatted with kitchen staff. Dadon posted a snap of Gillard on Twitter but when asked to spill the cannellini beans on the visit, he said: 'The dinner was of private nature and I am not at liberty to disclose anything'. If the PM was sounding out Dadon for a job for herself, post-politics, or for Mathieson, he won't say." (Gillard jazzes up dinner with Dadon, Suzanne Carbone, watoday.com.au, 5/6/12)
Sounding out Albert for jobs, Suzanne? That's certainly one possibility. But Albert is so much more than just a property developer. He also runs a shuttle service for Australian politicians and their entourages to Israel called the Australia Israel Leadership Forum. And he's a good mate of Michael Danby, Labor's Mr Israel. Quite clearly Susan, Albert does have more on his mind than just rearranging the cityscape and Italian tucker. Instead of sounding out Albert for a job, could Albert perhaps be sounding out Julia to do a little job... for Israel? His reluctance to spill the cannellini beans, as you put it, certainly invites such speculation. Could the conversation have gone something like this, for example:
To cut to the chase, Julia, what with Israel forever on the cusp of being driven into the sea by massed Palestinian panzer divisions, and more recently, on the cusp of being toasted by Iran's non-existent nuclear arsenal, it really doesn't need yet another headache on its hands, know what I mean? But damn it, that's exactly what it has right now: thousands of African infiltrators are currently on the cusp of turning Israel's fabulous white Jewish Majority into a besieged minority!
And no, it's not just baseless paranoia! I'm talking existential threat here. Israelis know what these infiltrators are up to. After all, they themselves were once a fabulous white Jewish minority who had to work overtime - know what I mean? - turning Palestine's then brown Muslim Majority into the besieged minority you see today, OK? You do understand, don't you?
So how about it, Julia? If you could help us out here, like Howard did with those South Lebanon Army dudes back in 2000, we'd be eternally grateful. And if he ever needs it, I could put Tim back on the payroll as a waiter here at at Bakini's, not to mention throw a couple of those lucrative pre-poll breakfasts with the Jewish community at my Toorak mansion* come election time. What do you say? Is it a deal?
Now lest such speculation be dismissed as idle, read the following item, coupled with my 4/9/11 post, Israel's Australia Solution, and you'll see what I mean:
"MK Danny Danon (Likud) asked Australian MP Michael Danby on Wednesday to propose, in parliament in Canberra, sending African migrants from Israel to Australia. Danon and Danby discussed the issue during the Australian politician's visit to Israel for the World Jewish Congress's International Conference of Jewish Parliamentarians. 'The arrival of thousands of [African] Muslim infiltrators to Israeli territory is a clear threat to [Israel's] Jewish identity', Danon told The Jerusalem Post. 'The refugees' place is not among us, and the initiative to transfer them to Australia is the right and just solution. On the one hand, it treats the refugees and migrants in a humane way. On the other hand, it does not threaten Israel's future and our goal to maintain a clear and solid Jewish majority', he explained. Danon said Danby enthusiastically agreed to present the idea to the Australian Parliament." (Danny Danon: Send African migrants to Australia, Lahav Harkov, 30/6/11)
Watch this space.
[*See my 20/8/12 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition.]
"Wearing her much-scrutinised prime ministerial white jacket, Julia Gillard fitted right in with the chefs in the kitchen of Bakini in St Kilda Road on Saturday night. The besieged leader had dinner in the Italian restaurant owned by Albert Dadon, the property developer and chairman of Ubertus who used to employ Gillard's partner, Tim Mathieson, before she ascended the Canberra throne. Gillard rubbed her white shoulders with the whites of chef Simone Righetto and chatted with kitchen staff. Dadon posted a snap of Gillard on Twitter but when asked to spill the cannellini beans on the visit, he said: 'The dinner was of private nature and I am not at liberty to disclose anything'. If the PM was sounding out Dadon for a job for herself, post-politics, or for Mathieson, he won't say." (Gillard jazzes up dinner with Dadon, Suzanne Carbone, watoday.com.au, 5/6/12)
Sounding out Albert for jobs, Suzanne? That's certainly one possibility. But Albert is so much more than just a property developer. He also runs a shuttle service for Australian politicians and their entourages to Israel called the Australia Israel Leadership Forum. And he's a good mate of Michael Danby, Labor's Mr Israel. Quite clearly Susan, Albert does have more on his mind than just rearranging the cityscape and Italian tucker. Instead of sounding out Albert for a job, could Albert perhaps be sounding out Julia to do a little job... for Israel? His reluctance to spill the cannellini beans, as you put it, certainly invites such speculation. Could the conversation have gone something like this, for example:
To cut to the chase, Julia, what with Israel forever on the cusp of being driven into the sea by massed Palestinian panzer divisions, and more recently, on the cusp of being toasted by Iran's non-existent nuclear arsenal, it really doesn't need yet another headache on its hands, know what I mean? But damn it, that's exactly what it has right now: thousands of African infiltrators are currently on the cusp of turning Israel's fabulous white Jewish Majority into a besieged minority!
And no, it's not just baseless paranoia! I'm talking existential threat here. Israelis know what these infiltrators are up to. After all, they themselves were once a fabulous white Jewish minority who had to work overtime - know what I mean? - turning Palestine's then brown Muslim Majority into the besieged minority you see today, OK? You do understand, don't you?
So how about it, Julia? If you could help us out here, like Howard did with those South Lebanon Army dudes back in 2000, we'd be eternally grateful. And if he ever needs it, I could put Tim back on the payroll as a waiter here at at Bakini's, not to mention throw a couple of those lucrative pre-poll breakfasts with the Jewish community at my Toorak mansion* come election time. What do you say? Is it a deal?
Now lest such speculation be dismissed as idle, read the following item, coupled with my 4/9/11 post, Israel's Australia Solution, and you'll see what I mean:
"MK Danny Danon (Likud) asked Australian MP Michael Danby on Wednesday to propose, in parliament in Canberra, sending African migrants from Israel to Australia. Danon and Danby discussed the issue during the Australian politician's visit to Israel for the World Jewish Congress's International Conference of Jewish Parliamentarians. 'The arrival of thousands of [African] Muslim infiltrators to Israeli territory is a clear threat to [Israel's] Jewish identity', Danon told The Jerusalem Post. 'The refugees' place is not among us, and the initiative to transfer them to Australia is the right and just solution. On the one hand, it treats the refugees and migrants in a humane way. On the other hand, it does not threaten Israel's future and our goal to maintain a clear and solid Jewish majority', he explained. Danon said Danby enthusiastically agreed to present the idea to the Australian Parliament." (Danny Danon: Send African migrants to Australia, Lahav Harkov, 30/6/11)
Watch this space.
[*See my 20/8/12 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition.]
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Why So Shy?
So shy, apparently, is Melbourne "businessman and philanthropist" (AJN, 20/1/12) Albert Dadon about his Australia Israel Leadership Forum (AILF) - which, in its latest manifestation, has grown like good old Topsy into the Australia Israel United Kingdom Leadership Forum (AIUKLF) - that a complete list of those attending its January love-in in Jerusalem cannot be had - not even on Albert's very own Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE) website!
A cast of thousands, both Aussies and Brits, with more Israeli prime ministers, past and present, than you can shake a stick at, and with 'is Lordship Tony Blair 'imself in attendance, and we barely know who fronted!
All we get are gnomic references in The Australian Jewish News such as this: "There was also a raft of international journalists on hand, including The Australian newspaper's foreign editor Greg Sheridan." (Bibi, Blair headline at leadership forum, 20/1/12)
Rafts of international journos, slews of political 'talent', and we the public, their adoring readers/fans, know virtually nothing about it, dammit!
Why isn't the corporate press crowing about this celebrity confab? Why must we first scour a Sheridan column, or stumble across a disclaimer at the foot of a piece by the Herald's now twice-rambammed Asia-Pacific editor, Hamish McDonald (see my 13/1/12 post Ain't love Grand?), to discover even the mere existence of this muted manifestation of movers, this shadowy shindig of shakers? Why must it be left for a humble citizen journalist, such as myself, to scratch around the internet in a near vain effort to round up the revellers?
My gleanings so far reveal only that, in addition to Sheridan and McDonald, "British and Australian lawmakers from both sides of politics were represented. Among the Australian contingent in Jerusalem was Mark Arbib, federal minister for sport & assistant treasurer; Jewish members of Parliament Michael Danby and Joshua Frydenberg... The Britons included Alistair Burt, minister for the Middle East, and Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard." (Joint Australian, British delagation meets Netanyahu, Fayyad, m.jta.org, 17/1/12)
Minister for the Middle East? Is this a first? You couldn't make this stuff up!
OK, so much for the event itself. In Australia, how's the AIUKLF bearing fruit?
I've already registered Sheridan's two lemons and noted that by McDonald (See Ain't Love Grand, 13/1/12, and Faulty Connection, 14/1/12), but observe that the latter's back in today's Sydney Morning Herald with another - Life in Israel an ultra-orthodox paradox - that, in addition to its decidedly desiccated substance, fairly gives me the following pips, which I've taken the trouble to extract for you:
"In Israel itself, the old mix of nation-building pioneers - Ashkenazi Jews steeped in European high culture, kibbutzim making a wilderness bloom, doughty women doing what were then 'men's jobs' everywhere else - is fading fast."
Now if that ain't an A-Z collection of Zionist cliches I don't know what is.
"Internally, the dominance of the right and ultra-orthodox are removing bit by bit Israel's old liberality."
Funny how none of that old Israeli liberality managed to benefit the Palestinians, eh?
"Israelis say Abbas and his non-party Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, can't modify the 'right of return' (to pre-1948 homes) in their demands, and still indoctrinate children that Israel has no right to exist (an accusation disputed by European Union and British monitors of West Bank schools)."
I suppose the bit about EU monitors is about as good as we're going to get from Maccas.
So this is the kind of AIUKLF-generated tripe we're reading in both wings of the corporate press here in Australia. Can't imagine what UK readers are having dished up at the moment by the rest of that mysterious raft of international journalists.
A cast of thousands, both Aussies and Brits, with more Israeli prime ministers, past and present, than you can shake a stick at, and with 'is Lordship Tony Blair 'imself in attendance, and we barely know who fronted!
All we get are gnomic references in The Australian Jewish News such as this: "There was also a raft of international journalists on hand, including The Australian newspaper's foreign editor Greg Sheridan." (Bibi, Blair headline at leadership forum, 20/1/12)
Rafts of international journos, slews of political 'talent', and we the public, their adoring readers/fans, know virtually nothing about it, dammit!
Why isn't the corporate press crowing about this celebrity confab? Why must we first scour a Sheridan column, or stumble across a disclaimer at the foot of a piece by the Herald's now twice-rambammed Asia-Pacific editor, Hamish McDonald (see my 13/1/12 post Ain't love Grand?), to discover even the mere existence of this muted manifestation of movers, this shadowy shindig of shakers? Why must it be left for a humble citizen journalist, such as myself, to scratch around the internet in a near vain effort to round up the revellers?
My gleanings so far reveal only that, in addition to Sheridan and McDonald, "British and Australian lawmakers from both sides of politics were represented. Among the Australian contingent in Jerusalem was Mark Arbib, federal minister for sport & assistant treasurer; Jewish members of Parliament Michael Danby and Joshua Frydenberg... The Britons included Alistair Burt, minister for the Middle East, and Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard." (Joint Australian, British delagation meets Netanyahu, Fayyad, m.jta.org, 17/1/12)
Minister for the Middle East? Is this a first? You couldn't make this stuff up!
OK, so much for the event itself. In Australia, how's the AIUKLF bearing fruit?
I've already registered Sheridan's two lemons and noted that by McDonald (See Ain't Love Grand, 13/1/12, and Faulty Connection, 14/1/12), but observe that the latter's back in today's Sydney Morning Herald with another - Life in Israel an ultra-orthodox paradox - that, in addition to its decidedly desiccated substance, fairly gives me the following pips, which I've taken the trouble to extract for you:
"In Israel itself, the old mix of nation-building pioneers - Ashkenazi Jews steeped in European high culture, kibbutzim making a wilderness bloom, doughty women doing what were then 'men's jobs' everywhere else - is fading fast."
Now if that ain't an A-Z collection of Zionist cliches I don't know what is.
"Internally, the dominance of the right and ultra-orthodox are removing bit by bit Israel's old liberality."
Funny how none of that old Israeli liberality managed to benefit the Palestinians, eh?
"Israelis say Abbas and his non-party Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, can't modify the 'right of return' (to pre-1948 homes) in their demands, and still indoctrinate children that Israel has no right to exist (an accusation disputed by European Union and British monitors of West Bank schools)."
I suppose the bit about EU monitors is about as good as we're going to get from Maccas.
So this is the kind of AIUKLF-generated tripe we're reading in both wings of the corporate press here in Australia. Can't imagine what UK readers are having dished up at the moment by the rest of that mysterious raft of international journalists.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Ain't Love Grand?
Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, ace foreign editor of The Australian has just returned from a tryst with his beloved. Although he's still reeling from the encounter, and the sweat has hardly dried, it so rankles when everyone else reckons she's fugly as:
"I have been spending a week in Israel, and visiting some of the Palestinian territories, under the auspices of the Australia Israel United Kingdom Leadership Dialogue*. This quite unique private organisation is the creation of Melbourne businessman Albert Dadon. Remarkably, the dialogue met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and former British prime minister Tony Blair, although those meetings were off the record. Spending time in Israel is dangerous because it is impossible to reconcile the evidence of your eyes with the accepted international narrative about Israel. In the international media, Israel is presented as a militarist, right-wing, oppressive. In fact it is the only pluralist democracy in the Middle East, the only nation where women's rights - and gay rights - are protected. It has a vibrant Left wing, a cacophonous democracy and an innovative economy." (Territorial compromise loses ground in Arab Spring, 12/1/12)
It happened last time too. Same heart-thumping elation. Same eruptions from every nook and cranny. Same nagging thought: Why can't they see her as I do?:
"I have my very own Israel problem and it is this: the Israel I know... bears no relation to the Israel I see in most of the Western media. That Israel of the Western mind (and indeed of the Arab mind) is a hateful place: right-wing, militaristic, authoritarian, indifferent to world opinion, indifferent especially to Palestinian suffering. Yet the Israel I know is mostly secular, raucously, almost wildly democratic, has a vibrant left-wing, having founded in the kibbutz movement one of the only successful experiments in socialism in human history." (Israel still looks good, warts & all, The Australian Literary Review, 6/5/09)
Poor Greg. But, hey, that's love for you!
[14/1/12:* OK, Greg was there, naturally, and Michael Danby I hear, but why is it so difficult to get a list of these junketeers? As it happens, another journalist, the Herald's Asia-Pacific editor Hamish McDonald has just outed himself: Israel struggles with threat from Iran.]
"I have been spending a week in Israel, and visiting some of the Palestinian territories, under the auspices of the Australia Israel United Kingdom Leadership Dialogue*. This quite unique private organisation is the creation of Melbourne businessman Albert Dadon. Remarkably, the dialogue met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and former British prime minister Tony Blair, although those meetings were off the record. Spending time in Israel is dangerous because it is impossible to reconcile the evidence of your eyes with the accepted international narrative about Israel. In the international media, Israel is presented as a militarist, right-wing, oppressive. In fact it is the only pluralist democracy in the Middle East, the only nation where women's rights - and gay rights - are protected. It has a vibrant Left wing, a cacophonous democracy and an innovative economy." (Territorial compromise loses ground in Arab Spring, 12/1/12)
It happened last time too. Same heart-thumping elation. Same eruptions from every nook and cranny. Same nagging thought: Why can't they see her as I do?:
"I have my very own Israel problem and it is this: the Israel I know... bears no relation to the Israel I see in most of the Western media. That Israel of the Western mind (and indeed of the Arab mind) is a hateful place: right-wing, militaristic, authoritarian, indifferent to world opinion, indifferent especially to Palestinian suffering. Yet the Israel I know is mostly secular, raucously, almost wildly democratic, has a vibrant left-wing, having founded in the kibbutz movement one of the only successful experiments in socialism in human history." (Israel still looks good, warts & all, The Australian Literary Review, 6/5/09)
Poor Greg. But, hey, that's love for you!
[14/1/12:* OK, Greg was there, naturally, and Michael Danby I hear, but why is it so difficult to get a list of these junketeers? As it happens, another journalist, the Herald's Asia-Pacific editor Hamish McDonald has just outed himself: Israel struggles with threat from Iran.]
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The Kevin Rudd Road Show 5
How lucky we are to have an account of the Palestinian leg of the KRRS from the Australian Jewish News' Naomi Levin, because the rest of the media pack showed no such interest. As you'd expect, Levin colourfully depicts an Australian delegation that aggressively engages with its Palestinian interlocutors from an Israeli perspective. (NB: Additional details provided by my fly-on-the-wall):
Led by Albert Dadon, property developer and chair of the Australia Israel Leadership Forum (without whom the entire show could never have been staged), and Labor senator Kim Carr, with "senior (of course!) journalists" in tow, the Aussies bore down on the Palestinians like wolves on the fold:
"Sirens wail and blue-and-red lights blink incessantly as a convoy of armoured, five-and-a-half tonne Landcruisers storm through [Ramallah]. The 6 cars take up both sides of the road and go over, rather than around, roundabouts." (Journey to Ramallah, 24/12/10)
"Ramallah is less than half-an-hour drive from Jerusalem. For the convoy, it is a short trip. For others, it can be much longer as they await security checks by the fastidious young Israeli soldiers."
Trans: others=Palestinians; fastidious=fractious.
"Once through the checkpoint, the road snakes alongside the high concrete security wall* - built to prevent suicide bombers crossing into Israel and a huge success."
[* Wall, Naomi? Wall? How many times do we have to tell you, klutz: fence, FENCE, f-e-n-c-e.]
The Oi, Oi, Ois, of course, loved every metre of the grey beast, especially Labor MP Mike Kelly who had, in his former incarnation as a military lawyer, written a legal paper accusing the International Court of Justice, which had dared, in 2004, to rule the aforementioned fabulously successful structure illegal and call for its removal, of "damaging its credibility" (Critical Analysis of the ICJ Ruling on Israel's Security Barrier, Fordham International Law Journal, December 2005). 'It's still standing', he and Albert hummed cheekily as the convoy stormed by.
First stop was the Palestinian Legislative Council where our Aussie Heroes were greeted by four of that body's shiftiest Spawn of Satan. However, armed as they were with only the latest and most sophisticated of Israeli talking points, our boys were more than ready for anything these SoS had to dish out.
Senator Carr, who had already forgotten (if he'd noticed them at all) those "others" still being f****d around by the fastidious ones at the checkpoints they'd stormed past, wanted to know about "progress in the Palestinian territories."
One of the SoS present "described a very bleak scenario in the West Bank," a description, as Levin noted with a raised editorial eyebrow, "that appears to stand in contrast to the neat apartment blocks and full shops."
Yeah, but what about all the flash apartment blocks and full shops we stormed past, mate? shot back one of our True Blues, with a knowing smirk.
The "economic progress was in spite of Israeli barriers and obstacles," replied the SoS, as Albert, who just couldn't help himself, ejaculated, In spite of? Because of, more bloody likely!
Another of our Bronzed Aussies, thinking to sow confusion in the ranks of the SoS and so amuse his mates, wanted to know "whether the 2-state solution was becoming a 3-state solution because of Hamas's dominance in Gaza."
In response, one of the SoS foolishly attempted to crack a joke: "By the time the Israelis are ready to pull out and recognise an independent Palestinian state in pre-1967 borders, the Palestinian conflict will be resolved." (Well, he could hardly have said, By the time the Israelis are ready to pull out and recognise an independent Palestinian state, Hell will have frozen over, being a denizen of the place and all, now could he?) Anyway, it went down like the proverbial lead balloon, sending "small waves of disbelief around the table of Australians." The small waves of disbelief, reported my fly-on-the-wall, took the form of a chorus of soto voce OMGs.
"And what of Jerusalem? Why has the PA produced a research paper... claiming the Jewish people have no real connection to the Western Wall?" one of our Doughty Diggers chipped in, with a roguish wink to his mates.
Er, fact is, it just so happens to be "the Western Wall [of the] Aksa [sic: Aqsa] compound," which belongs to the "Muslim world," responded the one they later Christened, to everyone's merriment, Beelzebub.
Aksa-cuse me, roared our Lovable Larrikins, Wazzat? Bull-shit! ejaculated Albert.
And that was that.
The delegation then "zoomed up the road" to meet with Nabil Shaath, "former foreign minister of the PA and a long-time warhorse of the Palestinian cause."
Predictably, the old warhorse dared to voice "a simplistic [Good one, Naomi!] comparison between the Palestinians and black South Africans under apartheid."
Our Bra Boys were all, like, OMG! Did he really say that?
When Queensland Labor MP Bernie Ripoli, who'd never even heard of apartheid, asked him for "more concrete information on the comparison," the warhorse listed Jews-only roads, evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, and that rabbinical call for a ban on renting homes to Arabs, before explaining that, anyway, a South African delegation had preceded them and declared that the West Bank was deja vu all over again, only worse, so there.
Then the old bugger got real uppity: "We have complaints about your political position. It is too close to the Americans, particularly under the Bush administration*," he said, before compounding his impudence by calling on Australia to follow the lead of Brazil, Argentina and other banana republics in recognising a sovereign Palestinian state. [*PA to OZ: recognise Palestine, Naomi Levin, AJN, 24/12/10]
But that was it, the Likely Lads had had quite enough, thankyou, of his insolence. Kevvie, who had been absent from the earlier Terrorist tete a tete, suddenly manifested, proclaiming, Fair shake of the sauce bottle, mate. Get your cotton pickin' hands off my policy settings and listen to moi: the peace process is a "'step-by-step' prospect" and "Australia [is] not yet prepared to address Palestinian statehood."
Then it was on for young and old, with Liberal senator Scott Ryan wanting to know "why the Palestinian people use the local media to spread hate," and Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Mike Kelly wanting the dirt on "the delegitimisation of Israel in the Palestinian media." Of course, they'd been unwittingly primed by the folk over at Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) who'd told them of "a song being broadcast on the official PA TV station calling for jihad against the Israeli 'oppressors'." Jeeehad! Albert had ejaculated, as Scott and Mike furiously scribbled in their notebooks. This information, need I remind you, had been carefully designed to hit home, a fact which the delegation was soon to find out.
Scott and Mike's questions about Palestinian hate speech and delegitimisation proved too much for the old Palestinian warhorse, who, on letting fly an obscene Arabic curse, ending in what sounded like... ya ibn sharmuta, clutched at his ailing ticker, and collapsed in a heap on the floor. Undeterred, but obviously quite pleased with their performance, the Aussie party purloined the Palestinian cutlery as souvenirs, and left, giving the body a wide berth.
Led by Albert Dadon, property developer and chair of the Australia Israel Leadership Forum (without whom the entire show could never have been staged), and Labor senator Kim Carr, with "senior (of course!) journalists" in tow, the Aussies bore down on the Palestinians like wolves on the fold:
"Sirens wail and blue-and-red lights blink incessantly as a convoy of armoured, five-and-a-half tonne Landcruisers storm through [Ramallah]. The 6 cars take up both sides of the road and go over, rather than around, roundabouts." (Journey to Ramallah, 24/12/10)
"Ramallah is less than half-an-hour drive from Jerusalem. For the convoy, it is a short trip. For others, it can be much longer as they await security checks by the fastidious young Israeli soldiers."
Trans: others=Palestinians; fastidious=fractious.
"Once through the checkpoint, the road snakes alongside the high concrete security wall* - built to prevent suicide bombers crossing into Israel and a huge success."
[* Wall, Naomi? Wall? How many times do we have to tell you, klutz: fence, FENCE, f-e-n-c-e.]
The Oi, Oi, Ois, of course, loved every metre of the grey beast, especially Labor MP Mike Kelly who had, in his former incarnation as a military lawyer, written a legal paper accusing the International Court of Justice, which had dared, in 2004, to rule the aforementioned fabulously successful structure illegal and call for its removal, of "damaging its credibility" (Critical Analysis of the ICJ Ruling on Israel's Security Barrier, Fordham International Law Journal, December 2005). 'It's still standing', he and Albert hummed cheekily as the convoy stormed by.
First stop was the Palestinian Legislative Council where our Aussie Heroes were greeted by four of that body's shiftiest Spawn of Satan. However, armed as they were with only the latest and most sophisticated of Israeli talking points, our boys were more than ready for anything these SoS had to dish out.
Senator Carr, who had already forgotten (if he'd noticed them at all) those "others" still being f****d around by the fastidious ones at the checkpoints they'd stormed past, wanted to know about "progress in the Palestinian territories."
One of the SoS present "described a very bleak scenario in the West Bank," a description, as Levin noted with a raised editorial eyebrow, "that appears to stand in contrast to the neat apartment blocks and full shops."
Yeah, but what about all the flash apartment blocks and full shops we stormed past, mate? shot back one of our True Blues, with a knowing smirk.
The "economic progress was in spite of Israeli barriers and obstacles," replied the SoS, as Albert, who just couldn't help himself, ejaculated, In spite of? Because of, more bloody likely!
Another of our Bronzed Aussies, thinking to sow confusion in the ranks of the SoS and so amuse his mates, wanted to know "whether the 2-state solution was becoming a 3-state solution because of Hamas's dominance in Gaza."
In response, one of the SoS foolishly attempted to crack a joke: "By the time the Israelis are ready to pull out and recognise an independent Palestinian state in pre-1967 borders, the Palestinian conflict will be resolved." (Well, he could hardly have said, By the time the Israelis are ready to pull out and recognise an independent Palestinian state, Hell will have frozen over, being a denizen of the place and all, now could he?) Anyway, it went down like the proverbial lead balloon, sending "small waves of disbelief around the table of Australians." The small waves of disbelief, reported my fly-on-the-wall, took the form of a chorus of soto voce OMGs.
"And what of Jerusalem? Why has the PA produced a research paper... claiming the Jewish people have no real connection to the Western Wall?" one of our Doughty Diggers chipped in, with a roguish wink to his mates.
Er, fact is, it just so happens to be "the Western Wall [of the] Aksa [sic: Aqsa] compound," which belongs to the "Muslim world," responded the one they later Christened, to everyone's merriment, Beelzebub.
Aksa-cuse me, roared our Lovable Larrikins, Wazzat? Bull-shit! ejaculated Albert.
And that was that.
The delegation then "zoomed up the road" to meet with Nabil Shaath, "former foreign minister of the PA and a long-time warhorse of the Palestinian cause."
Predictably, the old warhorse dared to voice "a simplistic [Good one, Naomi!] comparison between the Palestinians and black South Africans under apartheid."
Our Bra Boys were all, like, OMG! Did he really say that?
When Queensland Labor MP Bernie Ripoli, who'd never even heard of apartheid, asked him for "more concrete information on the comparison," the warhorse listed Jews-only roads, evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, and that rabbinical call for a ban on renting homes to Arabs, before explaining that, anyway, a South African delegation had preceded them and declared that the West Bank was deja vu all over again, only worse, so there.
Then the old bugger got real uppity: "We have complaints about your political position. It is too close to the Americans, particularly under the Bush administration*," he said, before compounding his impudence by calling on Australia to follow the lead of Brazil, Argentina and other banana republics in recognising a sovereign Palestinian state. [*PA to OZ: recognise Palestine, Naomi Levin, AJN, 24/12/10]
But that was it, the Likely Lads had had quite enough, thankyou, of his insolence. Kevvie, who had been absent from the earlier Terrorist tete a tete, suddenly manifested, proclaiming, Fair shake of the sauce bottle, mate. Get your cotton pickin' hands off my policy settings and listen to moi: the peace process is a "'step-by-step' prospect" and "Australia [is] not yet prepared to address Palestinian statehood."
Then it was on for young and old, with Liberal senator Scott Ryan wanting to know "why the Palestinian people use the local media to spread hate," and Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Mike Kelly wanting the dirt on "the delegitimisation of Israel in the Palestinian media." Of course, they'd been unwittingly primed by the folk over at Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) who'd told them of "a song being broadcast on the official PA TV station calling for jihad against the Israeli 'oppressors'." Jeeehad! Albert had ejaculated, as Scott and Mike furiously scribbled in their notebooks. This information, need I remind you, had been carefully designed to hit home, a fact which the delegation was soon to find out.
Scott and Mike's questions about Palestinian hate speech and delegitimisation proved too much for the old Palestinian warhorse, who, on letting fly an obscene Arabic curse, ending in what sounded like... ya ibn sharmuta, clutched at his ailing ticker, and collapsed in a heap on the floor. Undeterred, but obviously quite pleased with their performance, the Aussie party purloined the Palestinian cutlery as souvenirs, and left, giving the body a wide berth.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The ABC of Zionist Propaganda
When was the last time you saw a decent documentary on the contemporary Middle East on the ABC? The last I recall was screened as long ago as 2003 (Israel's Secret Weapon)! All we ever seem to get these days are wildlife, ancient history, or World War II.
But the government broadcaster hasn't just been playing it safe. This year saw it engage in a bizarre process of literally fending off a push to have an Australian doco on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories screened. (See my 11/11/10 post Words Behind Words)
It's not as if the absence of documentary meat is the only evidence we have for what seems to be the adoption of a deliberate policy of not frightening the horses. How's this for an admission?
"The ABC managing director, Mark Scott, has told an audience of film and television producers that the way he had been able to secure additional funding was by convincing the government the national broadcaster was working in its interests." (ABC chief tells how to win funds & influence people, Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald, 18/11/10)
And if we have a government that seems constitutionally incapable of sensibly distinguishing between the national and the USraeli interest, is it any wonder that the 'B' in ABC can only stand for 'bland'?
I wish I could say though that that's as bad as it gets, but I can't. The ABC has reached the sad point where it is now deliberately promoting Israeli propaganda:
We got our first inkling of what's afoot when we learned, in October, that the ABC's political editor (and co-anchor of the coming post-Kerry O'Brien 7.30 Report), Chris Uhlmann, was to join a 17-member politico-media caravan to Israel led by Zionist lobbyist Albert Dadon and set to depart this month.
The climactic moment of this mass rambamming was reported to be a ceremony at Yad Vashem to honour Aboriginal activist William Cooper, promoted by Dadon as the "only man in the world who had the courage to protest and stand up against Kristallnacht." (See my 25/10/10 post Record Rambam).
Dadon's attempt to co-opt Cooper's memory should, of course, be viewed in the context of the Israel lobby's strategy of courting indigenous Australian spokespersons in an effort to mask Zionism's assault on indigenous Palestinians. (See my 11/2/10 post Zionism Goes Native)
In a sign of things to come (?), The 7.30 Report ran an item on Cooper on December 1, featuring Dadon and insinuating familiar Zionist propaganda tropes:
"You look at the de-legitimization that Jews were subject to at the time and perhaps it took someone else else that was himself de-legitimized to recognise the humanity of those people." (Dadon)
"We, the Jewish people were people without land and the Indigenous people were able or could have their own land, but others prevented it." (Shmuel Rosenkranz)
Cooper, we were told, "will be honoured by an academic chair [in Studies of Resistance] established in his name [at Yad Vashem]."
To entertain the idea that this might include indigenous Palestinian resistance to Zionist dispossession, colonisation and apartheid would, of course, be to invite derision.
So far, however, the ABC's deliberate peddling of Zionist propaganda has been most evident on Radio National - on, of all things, The Science Show.
A headline in The Australian Jewish News of 26/11/10 said it all: The science of promoting Israel.
The AJN went on to report: "A series of ABC Radio programs is highlighting Israel's scientific credentials and achievements. Host of Radio National's The Science Show, Robyn Williams, recently visited Israel as a guest of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he interviewed more than 20 top scientists from both the university and elsewhere in Israel. The interviews are now being featured on the weekly program. 'I was delighted to be invited', Williams said, while praising the state of Israeli science. 'Innovation is going brilliantly... and much to my surprise, an awful lot of the research being done is not necessarilly that which relates to the country's own immediate need'. Scientists in Israel are working on diverse projects including diabetes and HIV research, nanotechnology and fish farming in Uganda. Williams is the first ABC Radio journalist in what businessman Leon Fink, who has instigated and financed several initiatives to promote Israel's scientific achievements, hopes will be a continuing program. Fink said he established the program in response to negative press the Jewish State had received recently."
So far, in this series on what Williams calls "Israeli science," we've been treated to a nanotechnologist who talks of seeing "nano Stars of David" under his electron microscope, a Palestinian scientist "working in Israel" who gives the thumbs down to BDS, a scientist who is "helping the starving children of Uganda to eat," and an item on the Einstein archive at the Hebrew University in which we were informed of exhibitions in "Jewish museums in Sydney and Melbourne" which focussed on the great atheist's "Jewish identity**."
[*See my 16/11/10 post Oh Puh-lease! ;** Just how tiresome Einstein took the business of identity politics emerges in a review of the 7th volume of his collected papers: "One of his first attempts to sum up relativity for the layperson appeared in an article for The Times on November 28, 1919. An earlier issue of the paper referred to Einstein as a 'Swiss Jew', prompting a witty analogy: 'By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, today in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bete noire, the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!" ('With fame I become more stupid', PD Smith, The Guardian, 31/8/02)]
I'll leave you with some "Israeli science" I very much doubt will be getting a look-in on The Science Show. How about the Hebrew University's Talpiot program, for example:
"[T]he program... operates mostly out of view. During a rare recent visit to the classified program, housed on the Hebrew University campus... officials would not disclose the work done during the military phase of the program and identified cadets only by their first initials... Each year, the program selects the most prominent high school graduates in science and submits them to 3 years of grueling study, paid by the government, followed by 6 years of paid service in the military... [But] instead of serving in combat units, Talpiot graduates are charged with improving the armed services through technological innovation. Some of the cadets delivered. Avi Loeb, who entered Talpiot in the early 1980s, developed a way to make projectiles travel at more than 10 times existing speeds... Another Talpiot innovation came from Amir Beker... During his military service under Talpiot in the late 1980s, Mr Beker learned that Israeli helicopter pilots were suffering from severe back pain from vibrations during flight. To build a better seat, he first had to determine how to measure the effect of vibrations on the human vertebrae. Together with a Talpiot classmate, Mr Beker led a team that installed a custom seat in a helicopter simulator, cutting a hole in its backrest. Training a pen on a pilot's back, the team used a high-speed camera to photograph the marks caused by a range of vibrations. The researchers analyzed the computerized data to come up with a way to redesign the seats." (How an elite military school feeds Israel's tech industry, Christopher Rhoads, The Wall Street Journal, 6/7/07)
Just imagine the sparkling repartee if ever Robyn Williams were to get within cooee of these blokes:
Robyn Williams: Jeez, Avi, enabling the IDF to take out Palestinian civilians 10 times faster must have been an enormously satisfying achievement?
Avi Loeb: Yes, Robyn, but one can't rest on one's laurels. I'm now working on making our projectiles 1,000 times faster!
Robyn Williams: Amaaazing!
Avi Loeb: Yeah, ain't it though.
Robyn Williams: Strewth, Amir, imagine how much more comfortable it must be now for those helicopter pilots firing their 10-times faster Hellfire missiles at Palestinian civilians.
Amir Beker: And don't forget the collateral benefits, Robyn - a surefire cure for Palestinian back pain too.
Robyn Williams: Pure genius, Amir!
Amir Beker: High fives, Robyn!
Oh, yeah... and I'd like an interview with the Israeli scientists who invented the 'skunk bomb'.
But the government broadcaster hasn't just been playing it safe. This year saw it engage in a bizarre process of literally fending off a push to have an Australian doco on Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories screened. (See my 11/11/10 post Words Behind Words)
It's not as if the absence of documentary meat is the only evidence we have for what seems to be the adoption of a deliberate policy of not frightening the horses. How's this for an admission?
"The ABC managing director, Mark Scott, has told an audience of film and television producers that the way he had been able to secure additional funding was by convincing the government the national broadcaster was working in its interests." (ABC chief tells how to win funds & influence people, Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald, 18/11/10)
And if we have a government that seems constitutionally incapable of sensibly distinguishing between the national and the USraeli interest, is it any wonder that the 'B' in ABC can only stand for 'bland'?
I wish I could say though that that's as bad as it gets, but I can't. The ABC has reached the sad point where it is now deliberately promoting Israeli propaganda:
We got our first inkling of what's afoot when we learned, in October, that the ABC's political editor (and co-anchor of the coming post-Kerry O'Brien 7.30 Report), Chris Uhlmann, was to join a 17-member politico-media caravan to Israel led by Zionist lobbyist Albert Dadon and set to depart this month.
The climactic moment of this mass rambamming was reported to be a ceremony at Yad Vashem to honour Aboriginal activist William Cooper, promoted by Dadon as the "only man in the world who had the courage to protest and stand up against Kristallnacht." (See my 25/10/10 post Record Rambam).
Dadon's attempt to co-opt Cooper's memory should, of course, be viewed in the context of the Israel lobby's strategy of courting indigenous Australian spokespersons in an effort to mask Zionism's assault on indigenous Palestinians. (See my 11/2/10 post Zionism Goes Native)
In a sign of things to come (?), The 7.30 Report ran an item on Cooper on December 1, featuring Dadon and insinuating familiar Zionist propaganda tropes:
"You look at the de-legitimization that Jews were subject to at the time and perhaps it took someone else else that was himself de-legitimized to recognise the humanity of those people." (Dadon)
"We, the Jewish people were people without land and the Indigenous people were able or could have their own land, but others prevented it." (Shmuel Rosenkranz)
Cooper, we were told, "will be honoured by an academic chair [in Studies of Resistance] established in his name [at Yad Vashem]."
To entertain the idea that this might include indigenous Palestinian resistance to Zionist dispossession, colonisation and apartheid would, of course, be to invite derision.
So far, however, the ABC's deliberate peddling of Zionist propaganda has been most evident on Radio National - on, of all things, The Science Show.
A headline in The Australian Jewish News of 26/11/10 said it all: The science of promoting Israel.
The AJN went on to report: "A series of ABC Radio programs is highlighting Israel's scientific credentials and achievements. Host of Radio National's The Science Show, Robyn Williams, recently visited Israel as a guest of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he interviewed more than 20 top scientists from both the university and elsewhere in Israel. The interviews are now being featured on the weekly program. 'I was delighted to be invited', Williams said, while praising the state of Israeli science. 'Innovation is going brilliantly... and much to my surprise, an awful lot of the research being done is not necessarilly that which relates to the country's own immediate need'. Scientists in Israel are working on diverse projects including diabetes and HIV research, nanotechnology and fish farming in Uganda. Williams is the first ABC Radio journalist in what businessman Leon Fink, who has instigated and financed several initiatives to promote Israel's scientific achievements, hopes will be a continuing program. Fink said he established the program in response to negative press the Jewish State had received recently."
So far, in this series on what Williams calls "Israeli science," we've been treated to a nanotechnologist who talks of seeing "nano Stars of David" under his electron microscope, a Palestinian scientist "working in Israel" who gives the thumbs down to BDS, a scientist who is "helping the starving children of Uganda to eat," and an item on the Einstein archive at the Hebrew University in which we were informed of exhibitions in "Jewish museums in Sydney and Melbourne" which focussed on the great atheist's "Jewish identity**."
[*See my 16/11/10 post Oh Puh-lease! ;** Just how tiresome Einstein took the business of identity politics emerges in a review of the 7th volume of his collected papers: "One of his first attempts to sum up relativity for the layperson appeared in an article for The Times on November 28, 1919. An earlier issue of the paper referred to Einstein as a 'Swiss Jew', prompting a witty analogy: 'By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, today in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bete noire, the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!" ('With fame I become more stupid', PD Smith, The Guardian, 31/8/02)]
I'll leave you with some "Israeli science" I very much doubt will be getting a look-in on The Science Show. How about the Hebrew University's Talpiot program, for example:
"[T]he program... operates mostly out of view. During a rare recent visit to the classified program, housed on the Hebrew University campus... officials would not disclose the work done during the military phase of the program and identified cadets only by their first initials... Each year, the program selects the most prominent high school graduates in science and submits them to 3 years of grueling study, paid by the government, followed by 6 years of paid service in the military... [But] instead of serving in combat units, Talpiot graduates are charged with improving the armed services through technological innovation. Some of the cadets delivered. Avi Loeb, who entered Talpiot in the early 1980s, developed a way to make projectiles travel at more than 10 times existing speeds... Another Talpiot innovation came from Amir Beker... During his military service under Talpiot in the late 1980s, Mr Beker learned that Israeli helicopter pilots were suffering from severe back pain from vibrations during flight. To build a better seat, he first had to determine how to measure the effect of vibrations on the human vertebrae. Together with a Talpiot classmate, Mr Beker led a team that installed a custom seat in a helicopter simulator, cutting a hole in its backrest. Training a pen on a pilot's back, the team used a high-speed camera to photograph the marks caused by a range of vibrations. The researchers analyzed the computerized data to come up with a way to redesign the seats." (How an elite military school feeds Israel's tech industry, Christopher Rhoads, The Wall Street Journal, 6/7/07)
Just imagine the sparkling repartee if ever Robyn Williams were to get within cooee of these blokes:
Robyn Williams: Jeez, Avi, enabling the IDF to take out Palestinian civilians 10 times faster must have been an enormously satisfying achievement?
Avi Loeb: Yes, Robyn, but one can't rest on one's laurels. I'm now working on making our projectiles 1,000 times faster!
Robyn Williams: Amaaazing!
Avi Loeb: Yeah, ain't it though.
Robyn Williams: Strewth, Amir, imagine how much more comfortable it must be now for those helicopter pilots firing their 10-times faster Hellfire missiles at Palestinian civilians.
Amir Beker: And don't forget the collateral benefits, Robyn - a surefire cure for Palestinian back pain too.
Robyn Williams: Pure genius, Amir!
Amir Beker: High fives, Robyn!
Oh, yeah... and I'd like an interview with the Israeli scientists who invented the 'skunk bomb'.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Record Rambam
Rambam (v): To be sponsored by smooth-talking Israel lobbyists in Australia on a grooming session conducted by tough-talking PR people in Israel with a view to the sponsored adopting the missionary position for Israel when called upon in Australia. Usually said of Australian politicians, media hacks and other serviceable community misleaders.
Rambam Fellowship, Journalists Mission, Australia Israel Leadership Forum etc: Formal designations given to the process of rambamming. (From MERC's Dictionary of Zionist Discourse)
This is my 39th post on the subject of rambamming. The practice, as you'll see from the following report in today's Australian, is booming. And, take note, for the very first time, the ABC is getting in on the act. (My own comments in square brackets. Serial offenders (SO) are indicated where known. For the details see my 30/3/09 post I've been to Israel too):
"The largest ever Australian parliamentary delegation to visit Israel will travel to Jerusalem as part of a dialogue hosted by the privately funded Australia Israel Leadership Forum. Julia Gillard has given approval for 6 ministers and parliamentary secretaries to be part of the trip led by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd [SO]. They will be part of a record 17 members of the House of Representatives and Senate who will take part in the December visit. The other Labor MPs are Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Industry Minister Kim Carr, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs [In view of our voting pattern in the UN, how fascinating!] Richard Marles and MPs Michael Danby [SO. Labor's unofficial Minister for Israel] and Anthony Byrne. Bill Shorten [SO], the Assistant Treasurer, is expected to join.
"The Liberal Party plans to send 9 members and senators - deputy leader, Julie Bishop [SO], Christopher Pyne [SO], Andrew Robb [SO], George Brandis [SO], Kevin Andrews, Brett Mason [SO], Mitch Fifield [SO], Steven Ciobo and Guy Barnett [SO].
"And the ABC will break with long-held tradition and allow a journalist to attend, political editor Chris Uhlmann. AILF is the project of Melbourne property developer Albert Dadon... Mr Dadon said the record number of participants 'is testimony of the goodwill that exists between Australia and Israel'.
"Asked who was paying for the 17 MPs, Mr Dadon said: 'The general rule for parliamentarians taking part... is that they pay their own way to Israel and we take care of all expenses on the ground except for ministers, who are also paying for their expenses'.
"Five journalists are expected to attend, Uhlmann, Greg Sheridan [SO] from The Australian, Steve Lewis from News Limited, Tony Walker [author of a bio of Arafat] from The Australian Financial Review and Lenore Taylor from The Sydney Morning Herald.
"On the trip, a ceremony will be held at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum to honour William Cooper, the Aborigine who led a protest to the German consulate in Melbourne in 1938 after Kristallnacht (On November 9, 1938, the Nazis launched their first anti-Semitic attack on German Jews, to become known as the Night of the Broken Glass.) While various organisations protested after Kristallnacht, Cooper is the only known individual to have organised a demonstration*. Funding for a 'chair' dedicated to studying resistance during the Holocaust will be formalised. 'It's fitting that the study chair at Yad Vashem that will be researching the resistance against the Nazi occupation during the Holocaust be dedicated to the memory of the only man in the world who had the courage to protest and stand up against Kristallnacht', Mr Dadon said." (Record number of pollies to join tour of Israel, John Lyons) [* See my 2/8/10 post Insufficiently Righteous]
Rambam Fellowship, Journalists Mission, Australia Israel Leadership Forum etc: Formal designations given to the process of rambamming. (From MERC's Dictionary of Zionist Discourse)
This is my 39th post on the subject of rambamming. The practice, as you'll see from the following report in today's Australian, is booming. And, take note, for the very first time, the ABC is getting in on the act. (My own comments in square brackets. Serial offenders (SO) are indicated where known. For the details see my 30/3/09 post I've been to Israel too):
"The largest ever Australian parliamentary delegation to visit Israel will travel to Jerusalem as part of a dialogue hosted by the privately funded Australia Israel Leadership Forum. Julia Gillard has given approval for 6 ministers and parliamentary secretaries to be part of the trip led by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd [SO]. They will be part of a record 17 members of the House of Representatives and Senate who will take part in the December visit. The other Labor MPs are Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Industry Minister Kim Carr, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs [In view of our voting pattern in the UN, how fascinating!] Richard Marles and MPs Michael Danby [SO. Labor's unofficial Minister for Israel] and Anthony Byrne. Bill Shorten [SO], the Assistant Treasurer, is expected to join.
"The Liberal Party plans to send 9 members and senators - deputy leader, Julie Bishop [SO], Christopher Pyne [SO], Andrew Robb [SO], George Brandis [SO], Kevin Andrews, Brett Mason [SO], Mitch Fifield [SO], Steven Ciobo and Guy Barnett [SO].
"And the ABC will break with long-held tradition and allow a journalist to attend, political editor Chris Uhlmann. AILF is the project of Melbourne property developer Albert Dadon... Mr Dadon said the record number of participants 'is testimony of the goodwill that exists between Australia and Israel'.
"Asked who was paying for the 17 MPs, Mr Dadon said: 'The general rule for parliamentarians taking part... is that they pay their own way to Israel and we take care of all expenses on the ground except for ministers, who are also paying for their expenses'.
"Five journalists are expected to attend, Uhlmann, Greg Sheridan [SO] from The Australian, Steve Lewis from News Limited, Tony Walker [author of a bio of Arafat] from The Australian Financial Review and Lenore Taylor from The Sydney Morning Herald.
"On the trip, a ceremony will be held at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum to honour William Cooper, the Aborigine who led a protest to the German consulate in Melbourne in 1938 after Kristallnacht (On November 9, 1938, the Nazis launched their first anti-Semitic attack on German Jews, to become known as the Night of the Broken Glass.) While various organisations protested after Kristallnacht, Cooper is the only known individual to have organised a demonstration*. Funding for a 'chair' dedicated to studying resistance during the Holocaust will be formalised. 'It's fitting that the study chair at Yad Vashem that will be researching the resistance against the Nazi occupation during the Holocaust be dedicated to the memory of the only man in the world who had the courage to protest and stand up against Kristallnacht', Mr Dadon said." (Record number of pollies to join tour of Israel, John Lyons) [* See my 2/8/10 post Insufficiently Righteous]
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Meet Idris Mercus
You're all familiar with Palestinian Media Watch and its dear old director, Itamar Marcus, aren't you? Well, he's popped up again in Australia and he's been "speaking to a [blessedly] small gathering hosted by Albert Dadon, founder of the Australia-Israel Leadership Forum," and explaining how "the Palestinian people are not ready for peace.":
"The Palestinians are saying one thing in English while contradicting themselves in Arabic, according to Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus... Marcus showed footage from a recent documentary, which speaks of a Palestinian state spreading along the Mediterranean from Gaza to Ashkelon to Haifa. He also displayed pages from schoolbooks with the Palestinian flag covering all the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories. 'There is a constant message to see a world in which Israel does not exist', Marcus explained." (Language barrier stalls peace, The Australian Jewish News, 22/10/10)
Well, it's time to meet Israeli Media Watch and its director, Idris Mercus:
'The Israelis and their overseas embeds are saying one thing in Hebrew while contradicting themselves in English', according to Israeli Media Watch director Idris Mercus... Mercus displayed a graphic in The Australian Jewish News of 15/10/10 (p 7) with the Israeli flag covering all the occupied Palestinian territories and the State of Israel. He also showed a State Zionist Council of NSW advertisement in the AJN of 22/10/10 (p 19) which failed to differentiate between Israel improper and the occupied Palestinian territories. 'There is a constant message to see a world in which Palestine does not exist', Mercus explained.
"The Palestinians are saying one thing in English while contradicting themselves in Arabic, according to Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus... Marcus showed footage from a recent documentary, which speaks of a Palestinian state spreading along the Mediterranean from Gaza to Ashkelon to Haifa. He also displayed pages from schoolbooks with the Palestinian flag covering all the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories. 'There is a constant message to see a world in which Israel does not exist', Marcus explained." (Language barrier stalls peace, The Australian Jewish News, 22/10/10)
Well, it's time to meet Israeli Media Watch and its director, Idris Mercus:
'The Israelis and their overseas embeds are saying one thing in Hebrew while contradicting themselves in English', according to Israeli Media Watch director Idris Mercus... Mercus displayed a graphic in The Australian Jewish News of 15/10/10 (p 7) with the Israeli flag covering all the occupied Palestinian territories and the State of Israel. He also showed a State Zionist Council of NSW advertisement in the AJN of 22/10/10 (p 19) which failed to differentiate between Israel improper and the occupied Palestinian territories. 'There is a constant message to see a world in which Palestine does not exist', Mercus explained.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Something Missing
Notice something missing here?:
"Tim Mathieson, the partner of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has quit his job with ALP benefactor and prominent Melbourne property developer Albert Dadon. A senior Jewish business figure last night told The Age his resignation had been 'inevitable' and that moving away from any such employment was 'the right thing to do'. Last month, The Age reported that if Labor won the election, Mr Mathieson would resign, with senior figures in Labor and the Jewish community concerned about his position with Mr Dadon's Ubertas property business. The ALP increasingly regards Mr Dadon as a conduit to donations, including from the Jewish business community. On the last Sunday before polling day he hosted a large breakfast function at his home, where Ms Gillard met members of the Jewish community. The Prime Minister's spokeswoman said Mr Mathieson had decided to resign from his job only because he wanted to pursue more advocacy and charity work, in line with his responsibilities 'as the partner of a Prime Minister'." (PM's partner quits property job with ALP benefactor, Rafael Epstein, The Age, 22/9/10)
That's right, not a whisper about Dadon's role as a leading Israel lobbyist and sponsor (through his Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange & Australia-Israel Leadership Forum) of Labor heavyweight visits to Israel (Gillard/Rudd in 2005; Gillard in 2009). Or about Gillard's declaration, in the lead-up to the last federal election, that Australia and Israel share a "unique bond [that] endures through good times and difficult ones," and promise to "take our friendship [with Israel] to new heights" should she remain prime minister (See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition).
"Tim Mathieson, the partner of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has quit his job with ALP benefactor and prominent Melbourne property developer Albert Dadon. A senior Jewish business figure last night told The Age his resignation had been 'inevitable' and that moving away from any such employment was 'the right thing to do'. Last month, The Age reported that if Labor won the election, Mr Mathieson would resign, with senior figures in Labor and the Jewish community concerned about his position with Mr Dadon's Ubertas property business. The ALP increasingly regards Mr Dadon as a conduit to donations, including from the Jewish business community. On the last Sunday before polling day he hosted a large breakfast function at his home, where Ms Gillard met members of the Jewish community. The Prime Minister's spokeswoman said Mr Mathieson had decided to resign from his job only because he wanted to pursue more advocacy and charity work, in line with his responsibilities 'as the partner of a Prime Minister'." (PM's partner quits property job with ALP benefactor, Rafael Epstein, The Age, 22/9/10)
That's right, not a whisper about Dadon's role as a leading Israel lobbyist and sponsor (through his Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange & Australia-Israel Leadership Forum) of Labor heavyweight visits to Israel (Gillard/Rudd in 2005; Gillard in 2009). Or about Gillard's declaration, in the lead-up to the last federal election, that Australia and Israel share a "unique bond [that] endures through good times and difficult ones," and promise to "take our friendship [with Israel] to new heights" should she remain prime minister (See my 20/8/10 post A Pre-Poll Breakfast Tradition).
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