Antony Loewenstein

Harvard Law Professor and defender of torture, Alan Dershovitz, claimed in 2003 that Israel “outlawed torture“:

“They were the only country in the world ever directly to confront the issue, and it led to a supreme court decision…outlawing torture, and yet Israel has been criticized all over the world for confronting the issue directly.”

So what about Facility 1391? The Guardian report of 2003 makes for chilling reading:

“Facility 1391 has been airbrushed from Israeli aerial photographs and purged from modern maps. Where once a police station was marked there is now a blank space. Sometimes even the road leading to it has been erased.”

Charges of torture, rape and psychological torment abound. One leftwing MP, Zahava Gal-On, describes Facility 1391 as “one of the signs of totalitarian regimes and of the third world”.

Furthermore, Israeli Shin-Bet officers were sent to Iraq in 2003/04 to assist the US “with the most difficult interrogations.” One major question remains unanswered: were the Israelis involved in torture, and if so, has their role been suppressed?

Interesting recent gabfest at the Brookings Institution about blogging, its relationship with the traditional media and what the future may hold. Put aside the generally conservative voices here (we are, after all, at the Brookings Institution) and discover a fairly thorough investigation about the fear that currently rests in the so-called “old media” towards the blogosphere as well as the idea that blogging can increase mainstream accountability and verification of facts.

Partisan blogging hacks may frequently receive media attention but I believe these people represent only a small fraction of the blogging community. Besides, bloggers are now mushrooming around the world, and thankfully care little about Republicans increasingly intimate line-dancing with the Christian Right.

The support of Ariel Sharon in Israel, from both the left and right, is a disturbing delusion, argues Sefi Rachelevsky in today’s Haaretz:

“…the contrary political path that perpetuates the idea that “only the Likud can do it” is ironically what will allow the Likud to reunite after the disengagement from Gaza, and to gather around the flag of “protecting the real interests of Israel” in the elections that take place right after the withdrawal.”

The essential failure of Israel’s left over the last four years to construct a convincing argument has led to this most unfortunate situation, whereby many on the left support Sharon because he appears to want withdrawal from Gaza and then they argue, as I heard frequently during my recent travels in Israel, “only a right-winger can bring about such a radical shift here.”

Gideon Levy recently wrote a fiery piece entitled, “Good morning to the Israeli left.” He argues that the Israeli left have almost uniformly joined the ranks of Sharon supporters and fallen silent whilst the brutality of the occupation continues:

“…the silence was the greatest failure of all. It is impossible not to ask now where everyone was for the 346 children that Israel killed. What prevented them from protesting when 112 wanted men were assassinated without trial and another 521 innocent passersby were killed at the same time? The demolition of half of Rafah, the uprooting of olive trees in the West Bank, the erection of the wall, the apartheid roads for Jews only, the imprisonment of an entire nation behind checkpoints for years – none of it awakened most of the artists or the “coalition of the majority.” They were silent. They were afraid. They were complicit.”

Speaking out in times of national trauma is what distinguish the brave from the cowardly. So few Israelis have campaigned against the direction that Israel is taking, essentially wanting to remake Gaza as a large prison camp and consolidate a tight grip over the West Bank. All the while, settlement expansion continues. And the West thinks the Israeli government is serious about peace?

Sir William Deane is a former Governor General of Australia and remains a voice of compassion in the community. He gave the following speech at the University of Western Australia on Monday night. Our country is being challenged by a conservative orthodoxy, Deane argued, and the very fabric that makes us diverse and tolerant is being threatened:

“One cannot but be conscious of a tendency in recent times to seek to discount or trivialise policies and attitudes protecting the dignity and self esteem of other human beings by dismissive or occasionally sneering reference to the pejorative and largely meaningless catchphrase of “political correctness”. Or, in some more strident sections of the media, by childish reference to things such as drinking chardonnay, or cappuccino or even latte or an undefined “chattering class” from which those who are enamoured of the phrase apparently see themselves as strangely exempt.”

Two articles, from opposite ends of the globe.

Julian Burnside is a Melbourne-based QC, heavily involved in refugee and human rights issues. He argues that civil liberties are being eroded in Australia and people of conscience must speak up now.

Tony Bayfield is the head of the Movement for Reform Judaism in Britain. He suggests that Zionism must redefine itself in the 21st century. Many of his arguments are spurious, I believe, such as the claim that Judaism as a religion would die if Israel ceased to exist. But it’s healthy that The Guardian is a newspaper that encourages debate on this most sensitive of subjects.