Antony Loewenstein

After the recent Gaza war, reports emerged that rabbis instructed religious soldiers to kill Arabs in the name of God. Fundamentalism is being bred in the West Bank and the Israeli state is more than happy to support it.

The BBC reports that military rabbis are expanding their reach:

I visited an orthodox Jewish seminary near Hebron in the West Bank. It is one of an increasing number of religious schools that encourage taking the Jewish Bible to the battlefield.

All students at the seminary choose to serve in Israel’s combat units while statistics suggest less ideologically-driven Israelis are avoiding them. This has made headline news in Israel.

The 19-year-olds I spoke to at the seminary told me religious soldiers like them can make the army behave better and become “more moral”.

They believe it is their religious duty to protect the citizens of Israel, the Jewish state. The Lord commands it, they said.

The students’ seminary is built in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Newsweek profiles Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The tag-line for the story speaks for itself:

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s unorthodox approach is winning plaudits from the West. That could be his undoing.

While the Western-backed Palestinian Authority talks about “economic development”, the West Bank occupation merely deepens. This is no recipe for an independent Palestine (though Bitterlemons provides some interesting analysis of the current trend.)

This news will only bring belligerence on all sides (Iran, Israel and the US), though the hardline Zionist lobby will be rapt:

A new round of international sanctions against Iran looked almost inevitable today, after the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei said talks with the Islamic republic were at a “stalemate”, and the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to rule out a compromise.

Speaking to journalists, Ahmadinejad told journalists in Tehran that: “From our point of view, Iran’s nuclear issue is over.”

“We will never negotiate over the obvious rights of the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said, a clear signal that his government was not prepared to suspend the enrichment of uranium, as demanded by the UN security council.

Tehran has been given until the UN general assembly, at the end of this month, to respond to an offer of a compromise over its uranium enrichment. Ahmadinejad made clear he was willing to talk broadly about “global challenges”, but not about enrichment.

The Iranian president said his country would continue to have routine talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But in a report to the agency’s board, the IAEA director general, ElBaradei, said Iran had failed to answer questions arising from evidence suggesting it had at least contemplated the design of a warhead.

China’s internet culture is both thriving and repressed. These contradictions are examined in my book, The Blogging Revolution.

This story below perfectly explains the power of the web, the inability of rural people to be heard in the country and sad gender politics:

Recently, “Yunnan Naked Girl” has become one of the hottest topic in the Chinese Internet world. A 21-year old girl, Peng Chunping decided to post her nude photos online in order to draw attention and help from the society. ESWN has translated a full report from Southern Weekend on the background of this girl, her petition journey and what she had been through in her “nude protest”.

According to Southern Weekend’s story, Peng was an orphan whose father was sentenced to death penalty in 2000 because of murder and her mother left the village for work on the same year. In 2003, when Peng was 15-year old, she started her journey to find her mother. She returned 2 years later and found that her household registration and house had been taken away. She blamed her family misery to local government’s oppression and started her petition journey.

Here’s an extracted translation of the girl’s tale:

Peng Chunping decided to continue to publish her so-called “nude photos” photos on the Internet.  To avoid being scorned by netizens as being “as fat as a pig” again, she ordered some fruity weight-reduction capsules advertised on a television shopping program.

This girl who lives to wear white one-piece suits or white wide-collared t-shirts plus hot pants has always been very sensitive about body fat.  Recently this 160cm-tall girl kept complaining to the reporter, “I now weigh 50 kilograms!”

This time, she has decided to have totally nude photos taken by a professional photographer.  Previously, she only took photos with rented cameras, which yielded poor quality and effect.

Since July 2008, she has published three sets of nude photos.  Each time, some media contacted her.  But all her injustices have not been vindicated yet.  This 21-year-old girl from a remote mountainous area did not attend school and held no steady job for the past four years.  Her sole goal in life was to petition against the injustices at all costs.  These costs include posting nude photos of herself in order to attract Internet traffic; offering her body to real or fake government officials, or reporters; finding “boyfriends” and even “fiancés” in order to raise the money to file petitions.

But not a single media report has been satisfactory to her — almost all the media were interested only in the nude photos and nobody paid attention to the “injustices.”  They even directly or discretely indicated to her that her “injustices” were not valid.  She would get angry, and even blame the reporters.  Then she would take another media interview, get angry and blame the reporter all over again.

My following article appears in today’s Crikey:

US President Barack Obama has consistently stated that he imagines a two state solution in the Middle East, with viable Jewish and Palestinian nations alongside each other. Israel, in a clear sign of who runs the show, announced last week that it intended to continue building colonies in the West Bank, in direct violation of international law and US wishes. The White House expressed ”regret”. The Israelis know how to stall for time; they’ve been doing it for decades.

This is one reason why a leading global figure such as writer and activist Naomi Klein is now calling for a boycott of the Israeli state. She told an interviewer recently it was vital for the world to counter propaganda that “promotes the image of a normal, happy country, rather than an aggressive occupying power”.

Australia has backed this charade for as long as the game has been played. Both the Liberal and Labor parties have been willing partners. A few weeks ago, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard told the Australian Jewish News that, “we, as a nation, have always been very strong on supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and to seek security in the region.”

But now a small but noticeable shift may be occurring in the Australian political elite, away from prying journalists and Zionist lobby scrutiny. There is no doubt that the vast majority of serving parliamentarians express support for a two-state solution, openly opposing the possibility of a one-state equation, a state in which Jews and Palestinians live together.

But the impossibility of achieving two states — I saw during my recent visit to the West Bank and Gaza the myriad ways in which the IDF has become an instrument of the Jewish settler movement — has forced interested parties to consider alternatives. I know of at least two Labor frontbenchers that remain deeply sceptical of the Rudd government’s position. I have also spoken to senior Greens MPs who are investigating the viability of a rational and calm public debate about a one-state solution. It is a conversation that remains long overdue.

I can’t over-estimate the fear of these politicians in even raising the possibility of discussion; such will be the fury of the Zionist establishment. They will need reassurance that the Australian public is more than ready to engage on the issues; growing knowledge about Israel’s occupation, the blockade on Gaza and West Bank expansion is having a noticeable effect. Average citizens are increasingly concerned that their government is directly involved in the maintenance of the status quo, a situation that only benefits the Israeli state.

Jimmy Carter wrote in the Washington Post last weekend, after a recent visit to the region with The Elders, that the two-state solution is on life support and one-state is looking increasingly appealing:

“By renouncing the dream of an independent Palestine, they [Palestinians] would become fellow citizens with their Jewish neighbours and then demand equal rights within a democracy. In this non-violent civil rights struggle, their examples would be Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. They are aware of demographic trends. Non-Jews are already a slight majority of total citizens in this area, and within a few years Arabs will constitute a clear majority.”

Last week, for the first time ever, a major Western power, Norway, announced it was divesting from an Israeli hi-tech firm for complicity in human rights abuses in the occupied territories. The upcoming Toronto International Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv is being criticised by prominent global artists for “staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of … an apartheid regime”. These are the just latest example of a growing, global momentum against Israeli intransigence.

Take the meeting of leading Sydney academics next week at Sydney University (disclosure: I’ll be speaking on the realities in Gaza.) Initiated by the head of Peace and Conflict Studies, Associate Professor Jake Lynch, the aim is to focus on cutting ties with Israeli universities, such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, that are directly involved in supporting the occupation of Palestine. This is a non-violent way of telling Israel that “normalised relations” will be impossible while apartheid is practised in the territories. Most major Palestinian civic groups back the campaign.

This isn’t about unfairly targeting “democratic” Israel but rather highlighting the insidious ways in which the Israeli state and its associated institutions enjoy extraordinary privilege within the West as a partner for cultural exchange and beneficial trade relationships. Very few critics of this strategy seem overly concerned with the various methods employed by Israel to destroy, interrupt and hinder Palestinian educational systems. Besides, Israel isn’t being singled-out. Sri Lanka is starting to feel the beginnings of a global boycott after its murderous rampage against the Tamils this year.

These are all important discussions. And they need to be experienced in Australia. It’s time for the major parties to get past meaningless slogans  — two states for two people and Israel is the region’s only democracy — and actually engage with ideas. Nothing should be off the table; two states versus one and boycott or engagement.

Antony Loewenstein is a journalist and author of My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution

So who is blame for this dismal poll result?

A majority of Americans support Israel and blame Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to a new poll commissioned by The Israel Project.

Americans blame the PA for the current conflict in Gaza (56 percent to 18 percent) and “Hamas leaders who control Gaza” for the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza (66 percent to 17 percent), the Public Opinion Strategies and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll of registered voters revealed.

Nearly half of Americans say they have seen, read or heard “a lot” about the military conflict in Gaza Strip, and sided with Israel’s anti-terror efforts over the PA by a 57 percent to 8 percent margin. The figures are virtually unchanged from pre-Gaza War polling in November 2008 (57 percent to 6 percent).

“Americans accept Israel’s justification for acting in Gaza because they accept Israel’s stated obligation to defend the safety of its citizens and the understanding that no country would allow rockets to fall on its citizens without taking action,” said Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Dr. Stanley Greenberg.

The American public has been shielded from the realities in the Middle East for too long. For example, how many actually know that Hamas has consistently offered to negotiate with Israel? Tell people what Israel’s occupation actually means for Palestinians and the true effect of Israel’s war against Gaza and opinions will start to shift.

With Sri Lanka dealing with dissent as robustly as its head teacher, Israel, this letter in today’s Melbourne Age perfectly captures the necessary sentiments:

With the Sri Lankan military having recently perpetrated what Noam Chomsky has called a ”Rwanda-like atrocity” against its Tamil minority; with 300,000 Tamil civilians confined in concentration camps; with the sudden emergence of film showing bound and naked Tamils being shot in the head by Sri Lankan troops; with Tamil journalist J. S. Tissainayagam being sentenced last week to 20 years’ hard labour for writing critical editorials; and now, with Australian UNICEF official James Elder being expelled from the country for speaking out about the ”unimaginable hell” faced by Tamil children in Sri Lanka (The Age, 7/9), why is it that all the Rudd Government can find to talk about so far with the Sri Lankan regime is how it can best protect us from Tamil refugees?

Colin Andersen, Lapstone, NSW

My Israel Question will have its Melbourne launch on 24 September at Readings Carlton book shop. I will be in conversation with Overland editor Jeff Sparrow:

Loewenstein’s forensic discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is continued here in a fully updated and expanded new edition of My Israel Question. Tonight he will be examining the prospects of the Middle East peace process in the new geo-political context. Antony Loewenstein is a Sydney-based journalist and author.

Amos Harel writes in Haaretz:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows his control over the land of outposts is flimsy. He is not the one who will decide how many caravans will be placed on hill 725, or how many Palestinian orchards will be uprooted near Yitzhar.

A senior defense official told Haaretz: “Israeli law was never applied in these areas. Let us presume that the Civil Administration identifies more building violations at an outpost. What will they do? They will stick another warrant on the caravan wall, asking them to get out. They will not even bother ripping it down, and they will just go on with their business.”

With ongoing reports about extremist activity in the Gaza Strip – and we shouldn’t preclude black-ops by the Israelis to exaggerate the supposed threat – this is unwelcome news:

The leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip revealed on Sunday that his men recently tried to assassinate former US president Jimmy Carter and Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

Mahmoud Taleb, a former commander of Hamas’s armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, also threatened that his supporters were planning to launch attacks on Hamas.

Taleb, who is wanted by Hamas’s security forces, has been in hiding for more than two years. Several attempts by Hamas to arrest him have failed, prompting the movement to detain many of his friends and relatives.

A veteran journalist in the Gaza Strip described Taleb as the Palestinian Osama bin Laden. The journalist said that Taleb’s group was seeking to establish an Islamic “emirate” in the Gaza Strip.

Iran, already undergoing a massive crackdown against anybody not subscribing to the fundamentalist mindset, is seemingly about to take an even darker turn:

A hard-line deputy of Iran’s supreme leader announced steps Sunday to purge Iranian universities of Western influences even as the government faced accusations of “fascism and totalitarianism” leveled by the country’s former president.

Hamid Reza Ayatollahi, head of a government body that oversees universities, announced a plan to revise humanities curricula to bring them more in line with Islamic principles.

“Many of the syllabuses taught to students majoring in humanities are not in line with Iranian and Islamic culture and therefore their revision is a must,” Ayatollahi said in a statement published by Iranian news agencies.

A committee has been established to “eliminate certain curricula and replace them with Islamic materials,” he said.

America will sell weapons to pretty much any country, democratic or despotic:

Despite a recession that knocked down global arms sales last year, the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new Congressional study. The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before…

The study found that the larger arms deals concluded by the United States with developing nations last year included a $6.5 billion air defense system for the United Arab Emirates, a $2.1 billion jet fighter deal with Morocco and a $2 billion attack helicopter agreement with Taiwan. Other large weapons agreements were reached between the United States and India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Korea and Brazil.