Spotlight on the 'Australia Israel Labor Dialogue' 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beattie's Obsession with Israel

"Mr Beattie described a proposed ban on politicians travelling to Israel on trips funded by Jewish organisations as an 'extreme view' counter-productive to a two-state solution, which he supports. It smacks of [a] single-minded obsession with Israel. This is becoming an obsession and I don't think that's healthy politically,' Mr Beattie said." (Beattie blasts ALP's 'Stalinist' stance on Israel, Sharri Markson, The Australian, 4/2/16)

A single-minded obsession with Israel? Beattie should know:

"A Queensland-based Corporate Research Centre for software company SAP has become the primary IT solutions provider for the Israeli Government. Under the contract Queensland centre staff would collaborate with SAP Portals in Israel to develop software for SAP's global customers. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie congratulated the centre, saying 'A contract of this size is a tremendous coup for SAP and a glowing endorsement of SAP Australia's decision to choose the Smart State as the base for this Corporate Research Centre in 2001. I am told the Brisbane centre has quickly grown in status to become one of the major contributors to SAP'a global research arm,' Beattie said." (QLD provides IT solution for Israel, itnews.com.au, 25/3/04)

"A new drive by small and medium size exporters is beginning to impact on one of Australia's curious trading anomalies: our relatively modest export sales to Israel... But fresh enthusiasm is emerging for sales to Israel, driven partly by friendly rivalry between Queensland and Victoria for a greater slice of the export pie. Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, has declared he wants his state to become the major focus of Australian business with Israel..." (Israel export, Joe Parkes, dynamicbusiness.com, 1/2/06)

That was then. How about now?

Seems his single-minded obsession with the apartheid state has only grown:

"In her second Sydney appearance, ex MK Einat Wilf shared a platform with past Queensland Premier Peter Beattie before an audience of Labor and union stalwarts at Trades Hall. The two former Labor parliamentarians appeared together to launch the Australia-Israel Labor Dialogue, a new organisation which aims to foster dialogue and fraternal links between the Australian and Israeli Labor parties... Beattie argued for a future of creative partnership with Israel which he cited as the world's best model of the innovative high-tech based entrepreneurial spirit that he had hoped to foster with his 'Smart State' reforms while Premier of Queensland. In his speech Beattie gave pride of place to 'six perspectives to appeal to a new generation of Labor moderates' from a widely circulated recent article 'Labor must not turn its back on Israel' by former Union NSW Secretary, Michael Easson." (Australia-Israel Labor Dialogue launched, jwire.com.au, 18/2/15)

So what, pray, are these 6 "perspectives" which have been widely circulated among Labor moderates? Here's number one:

"The single greatest reason for continuing Israel-Palestine conflict remains Jew-hatred within Palestinian society. Until Palestinians find their Mandela moment, this long, tragic conflict will continue. In slogans on every public wall in Gaza and in much of the West Bank, in Arabic-language television shows, in Palestinian school classes, there is incitement to kill Jews as Jews not just Israelis. How can there be real peace in that atmosphere?"

The Palestine/Israel conflict is a colonial conflict, the natural and inevitable outcome of a British attempt (1917-48) to impose a European settler-colonial movement, Zionism, on an unwilling indigenous people. It has nothing whatever to do with Jews as such. The simple truth is that even if the colonists had been Buddhists, we'd have had the same outcome.

If perspective 1 is fundamentally flawed, why bother with the rest? That Beattie is prepared to swear by Easson's poppycock speaks volumes about him.

Beattie+Easson=Grin & Spin

Why Peter Beattie?

As readers of this blog will know, Murdoch's Israel fanzine The Australian routinely and relentlessly campaigns against any and every manifestation of public support, however small, timid or symbolic, for the rights of the Palestinian people.

The latest such manifestation, of course, is a proposal by NSW Labor Friends of Palestine to call for the adoption at this month's NSW Labor conference of a ban on party members joining Israel lobby-sponsored propaganda tours (aka rambammings) of Israel.

An integral feature of these campaigns is the trotting out of a handful of Zionist spear-carriers (so far we've heard from Vic Alhadeff, Michael Danby, Warren Mundine & Michael Forshaw) to 'slam' or 'blast' - the preferred terminology - the pro-Palestine initiative as 'misguided' or 'divisive' or 'counter-productive,' and/or smear the offending party as 'anti-Semitic' or 'verging on the anti-Semitic.'

Which is where Peter Beattie now comes in:

"Former Queensland premier (1998-2007) Peter Beattie says the Labor Party risks becoming politically irrelevant over its 'Stalinist' approach to Israel, which he argues has become obsessive." (Beattie blasts ALP's 'Stalinist' stance on Israel, Sharri Markson, 4/2/16)

Now let's not get too excited over what Beattie says - 'Stalinist' is just another smear in the arsenal after all. What's far more interesting is what kind of public figure in this day and age, when the verdict is well and truly in on the matter, is still prepared to go into bat for Israeli apartheid?

If Wordsworth's principle that 'The Child is father of the Man' is any guide to an individual's conduct in later life, maybe we should be examining Beattie's childhood for signs which might herald a future going over to the dark side.

Fortunately, Courier-Mail journalist and novelist, Matthew Condon,* has sketched Beattie's early years. It seems that the lad had, as they say, a few issues:

"Beattie targeted the humanitarian stream in his final two years in school. One classmate recalled: 'He used to say to me - why are you studying those subjects? He would only study what would get him the best results. Peter Beattie was always for Peter Beattie. He always did everything so he looked the best. He wasn't very popular. We always thought he was up himself. He was a crawler that's for sure, and he always knew who to influence and who to make friends with.' Another classmate said Beattie was almost addicted to trophies and tangible symbols of achievement. 'In the scouts he had so many badges on his sleeves they were actually curling underneath the sleeve hem,' he said. 'In his bedroom at the house in Robert Street you couldn't see the walls for all the ribbons and pennants he'd put up. There was everything there on display; even those little minor ribbons you wouldn't think twice about, going right back to primary school. He loved to surround himself with symbols of success. Another student recalled a young myth-maker already at work: 'He used to say he was related to (Otto von) Bismarck (founder of the German Empire), or had some German aristocratic background. It was ridiculous. He'd make up the most fantastic stories'."

And now he's calling NSW Labor - not the Qld mob, note - 'Stalinist'.

"In 1970 - his final year of high school - two issues involving Beattie left a sour note amongst his fellow students, and are still heatedly debated amongst them today. The first was a question of loyalty. Peter Beattie was school captain, and his female counterpart was Jenny Whebell. In the middle of that year a young boy was ordered by a prefect to pick up some papers he had dropped in the schoolyard. He refused. The boy was the son of the principal Morrie Harnell. When the matter was brought to Mr Harnell's attention, the prefect was stripped of her badge. Jenny Whebell and the other prefects felt the principal's actions were unjust. They all resigned their positions until a meeting of the school council could be held. The only one not to turn in his badge was Peter Beattie. 'Peter wouldn't hand his badge in,' one source said. 'Being a small town, the whole thing hit the fan over the weekend. He had his gold medal and he wouldn't let it go. He lost a lot of face over that. The rest of them were prepared to put everything on the line, but not Peter Beattie. Jenny Whebell, now Jenny Butler, confirmed the incident but declined to comment. Another contemporary of Beattie also said the story was accurate. She added: 'I never had much to do with him. I didn't associate with him outside of school. I do know he was interested in himself. That will stick in my brain forever.'

Me, myself & I. So telling that.

"The second issue was the awarding of School Dux to Peter Beattie. His name is painted in gold on the wooden honour board at Atherton State High School today. Some contemporaries still believe the award was granted to Beattie 'by default.' The 1970 Barrinean records that the only academic awards Beattie was granted in that final year were for English and Geography. As is custom, Beattie's final year results as Dux were published in the following year's school magazine. He achieved a single 7, three 6's, one 4 and one 3. In the senior exam at the end of the tear, several former students claimed Beattie was only third or possibly fourth in the class. The School Dux honour was awarded by Principal Harnell, as was tradition, prior to the final senior exam. 'He was very ordinary, academically,' one former student said 'We always felt he was Dux by default'." (Peter Beattie: The Atherton Years, Moo Ink, mathewcondon.blogspot.com.au, 25/11/05)

Very ordinary, academically? Sounds about right. Take Beattie's grasp of history, for example.

Markson quotes him in her 'report' thus:

"Mr Beattie said Australia had played a crucial role in the formation of Israel and should continue to play that constructive role."

This, of course, is a reference to Labor's 1945-49 foreign minister, 'Doc' Evatt, who, as head of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestine Question in 1947, was instrumental in recommending the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state as opposed to referring the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an opinion. The resulting UNGA partition resolution emboldened the Zionist movement in Palestine to embark on a campaign of ethnic cleansing that reduced the Palestinian majority to a minority and led to the Palestinian refugee problem which is still with us 67 years later.

And that, according to the Dux of Atherton High, was constructive?

Next post: Beattie's Obsession with Israel

[*Matt Condon is the author of a 3-volume (2013-15) study of the corrupt former Qld Police Commissioner, Terry Lewis.]

Business as Usual at the ALP

In Occupied Palestine, from 1 October - 30 November:

102 Palestinians were killed by Israelis
17 Israelis were killed by Palestinians

11, 299 Palestinians were injured by Israelis
169 Israelis were injured by Palestinians

Meanwhile, far away in the land down under, as one occupied, colonised and brutalised Palestinian after another bites the dust, the great Australian Labor Party is busy implementing number 17 of  'Labor's Enduring Values' (as listed in its 'National Platform'), namely:

"We look at the world differently to our opponents: we see it through the eyes of those without privilege, power or title."

For example:

"Deputy Labor leader and shadow foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek has unequivocally distanced the party from [Bob Carr's] unhinged views. Senator Glenn Sterle is in Israel right now, and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten would have been if not for unforeseen circumstances delaying his trip. Labor stalwart Peter Beattie launched another state branch of the Australia-Israel Labor Dialogue in Brisbane last month, while Western Australian Labor will debate a motion condemning Palestinian knife attacks next week. Meanwhile, high-profile Labor senator Penny Wong reaffirmed her and her party's support for Israel at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry's recent AGM." (Editorial: Carr crosses the line, Australian Jewish News, 11/12/15)

I note that "NSW Labor will harness an army of community activists to try to defeat the Coalition government at next year's federal election and will appoint 10 field directors throughout the state to implement an Obama-style 'organising to win' campaign... The strategy is being led by Kaila Murnain, NSW Labor's assistant general-secretary..." (ALP's 'Obama-style' activist army, Troy Bramston, The Australian, 23/11/15)

Kaila Murnain was rambammed in December 2014 - see my 4/1/15 post Recently Rambammed.

Should she or any of her minions come knocking on your door you might want to ask her/them if they know what Labor's 17th 'enduring value' is and whether they think it's compatible with "an all-expenses paid trip"** to the apartheid state.

[*UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);** The AJN quotes the "unhinged" Bob Carr as saying that "All of them [politicians] are being seduced and bribed... A bloke was just elected... and the lobby was in his door offering him an all-expenses paid trip to Israel, it's disgraceful." (Carr slammed over Jerusalem remarks, 11/12/15)]