Antony Loewenstein

Shraga Elam, February 12:

The Israeli elections do not signal a shift to the right, as many commentators are saying. Actually, it is more a shift to the center of Israeli society, which disdains ideology but condones opportunism and corruption. There are criminal investigations against central figures in all three leading parties, with strong evidence in every case. The differences among the parties are not so deep.

Many of the so-called Zionist left gave their votes to the center party, Kadima, because they wished to block Likud’s Benyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu himself was not interested in his party’s getting too many votes because that would have meant that the most radical right-wingers on his list would have to be seated in the Knesset and this would have made his position vis a vis President Barack Obama even harder.

Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Sri Lanka is currently in the middle of military and civil chaos, with the regime causing untold civilian misery.

One prominent Tamil is calling the campaign against her people “genocide.”

In the midst of this uncertainty, the Galle Literary Festival recently took place, with prominent writers including Australian expat Germaine Greer talking about politics, culture and the arts.

Touching.

The idea that literary figures would visit Sri Lanka at such a time is morally questionable. The regime is undemocratic and running an unscrupulous campaign against its oppressed minority.

Any writers who attended a literary festival in Israel during the Gaza war would equally be challenged to visit a nation and therefore provide implicit or explicit endorsement of a regime committing war crimes.

Writers have a social responsibility to speak forcefully against human rights abuses. They should take a stand, even if they miss some champagne and gourmet dinners.

Being a journalist, even in so-called “democracies”, can be a deadly business:

The number of journalists and other media workers killed as they carried out their jobs across the globe fell to 70 last year, according to figures released today by the World Association of Newspapers.

Global media fatalities in 2008 were down from the 95 killed across the world in 2007, when 44 were killed in Iraq alone. According to WAN, the number of media fatalities in Iraq fell to 14 last year.

However, Iraq remained the most dangerous country for journalists despite the number of those killed in several other countries increasing. In total, journalists and other media workers were killed in 23 countries in 2008, WAN said.

India and Pakistan were the second deadliest countries after Iraq with seven killed in each, compared with zero and seven fatalities respectively during 2007.

Six journalists were killed in the Philippines last year, and five journalists murdered in Mexico, where WAN said journalists are increasingly being targeted for their reporting on organised crime.

Four journalists were killed in both Russia and Thailand last year, with three murdered in Georgia, which was invaded by Russian troops last summer.

Journalists in Russia have been on permanently high-alert after the murder of Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow in 2006. A second journalist for that newspaper was killed last month.

Afghanistan, Croatia, Nepal, Somalia and Sri Lanka each saw two deaths of media workers last year.

The Australian Jewish community has reacted with predictable anger to a couple of local Jewish academics who are calling for the dismantling of Zionism.

I had no personal involvement in the statement but I support an important debate over the future of Zionism and its detrimental effects.

I was interviewed by the Iranian satellite channel PressTV on the weekend about the issue:

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A recent survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League found that anti-Semitic attitudes in seven European countries have worsened due to the global financial crisis and Israel’s military actions against the Palestinians.

Some 31 percent of adults polled blame Jews in the financial industry for the economic meltdown, while 58 percent of respondents admitted that their opinion of Jews has worsened due to their criticism of Israel.

Blaming Jews during financial difficulties is a classic anti-Semitic tendency and must be condemned, though when high-profile Jewish figures such as Bernie Madoff cause pain to a great many people, including Jewish charities, many in society will associate greed with Judaism. I don’t seem to recall the criticisms of Madoff when he was supporting Israel and pro-Zionist groups and “being a good Jew”.

Disliking Jews for the actions of Israel is regrettable but utterly unsurprising. If most vocal Jews don’t separate themselves from the Jewish state, how can others be expected to?

Israeli crimes against the Palestinians affect us all.

Leading Australian foreign affairs correspondent Paul McGeough, whose new book on Hamas, Kill Khalid is released soon, tells the Columbia Journalism Review how the world should view the militants:

Rather than describe Hamas as a terrorist group, I would say they’re a group that uses terror as a weapon and I think there’s a significant difference there. You’ll find a lot of Israeli commentators, amongst others, can understand and make in their writing. There is a difference there.

But the Palestinian attitude to terror as a weapon is dictated by their sense of the ability to achieve a settlement. If they think there’s a chance that there can be a negotiated settlement, as they did in the aftermath of the Oslo accords in the mid-1990s, their view of violence falls. But it’s when they see their land being taken, when they see their water resources being consumed, when they see Gaza being converted into a prison, they believe in violence. It’s a part of the world where all sides are very familiar with the notion of revenge and vengeance.

This Hamas official gets it straight when describing the Israeli election:

This shows that the Zionist voters clearly start choosing the one who is most extreme in his speech, the one who wants war with the Palestinians. This troika, this trio of terrorism of Lieberman, Livni and Netanyahu chose the dramatic development in Israeli society towards terror.

In fact, there is virtually no difference between any of the major politicians in Israel; they all view the Palestinians as expendable.

What do we do if the “two-state” solution collapses?

A conservative realist and author of The Israel Lobby, Stephen Walt, poses the question.

If You Love This Planet is a weekly radio show broadcast around the world by famed activist and doctor Dr Helen Caldicott.

Recent guests include New York Times columnist Frank Rich and Times writer Bob Herbert.

Her latest interview:

Australian author Antony Loewenstein joins Dr. Caldicott on the program to discuss the delicate situation in the Middle East, and the volatile relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. His best selling book My Israel Question was published by Melbourne University Press in 2006. Loewenstein mentions the January 26 segment of CBS’s 60 Minutes program (“Is Peace Out of Reach?”) about the two-state issue.

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I spoke at Sydney’s Politics in the Pub event last week on the crisis in Gaza (photos here). Actress Judy Davis and Palestinian activist Rihab Charida joined me in discussing ways to analyse the conflict and how to move forward.

The following letter was endorsed by 300 participants at the meeting on February 6 and sent to federal ministers and Labor backbenchers.

from: Sydney Public Meeting*,

Politics in the Pub, Gaelic Club,

Surry Hills, Sydney, NSW

February 6th 2009

Dear……………………………..,

The Gaza Catastrophe: An Independent Australian Foreign Policy

The killing of over 1300 people in Gaza, a large proportion of whom were children, plus the devastation of homes and basic infrastructure prompts the question, ‘Where is the respect for human rights?’ This question also addresses Hamas firing of rockets which, during the long siege of Gaza, killed at least eleven Israelis.

In relation to the Gaza catastrophe, we ask that your Government cease the practice of treating Israel as an exceptional State, above international law , able to ignore UN resolutions, steal more land for settlements and able to kill at will. Please also find the courage to challenge Israeli spokespersons’ explanations and excuses for their brutality.

We also ask you and your colleagues to find the courage to develop an independent Australian policy which recognizes that peace with justice for the Palestinians, as identified by the rulings and principles of international law, would also provide security for Israel. Dialogue for a just peace, including meetings with Hamas, is the least costly, the most visionary and the only non violent way to address this decades old injustice.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Rees,

Chair, * Public Meeting, letter endorsed by 300 + participants on 6/2/09

Sydney Peace Foundation

Box 54, Holme Building, Univ. of Sydney, NSW 2006

Yes, we can:

[Irish] trade unionists are to launch a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a major campaign to secure a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, Stormont heard today.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) launched a report on Israel and Palestine compiled by senior members who visited the troubled region.

As controversy continues to rage over the death toll in Gaza caused by the recent Israeli military attacks, trade union leaders announced they are to hold a major conference this year to act as a springboard for their campaign.