Antony Loewenstein

Smell the disappointment from the neo-con class:

In Washington the assumption is that it’s only a matter of time before Israel and Hezbollah will be at war again. But what’s worse is that, according to policymakers and analysts I’ve spoken to, the United States is sharply opposed to Israel finishing the work it failed to get done in its two previous Lebanon wars (1982-2000; 2006). This isn’t just because the Obama Administration wants to keep things cool in the region to allow for relatively peaceful U.S. withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan and to keep terrorists off the streets of U.S. cities. The more disturbing reason is that Israel is no longer trusted to do the job right.

…

Regardless of how Israel’s enemies game it out, sooner rather than later, Jerusalem is going to have to make war on Hezbollah, because the United States is withdrawing from the region, Israel is getting weaker, and its enemies are getting stronger. The only way to ratify or challenge a new balance of forces in the region is through war.

I’ll be on the road for a few days so posting will be light.

In the meantime, check out this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this.

Back shortly.

Australia has a new Prime Minister today, Julia Gillard, the country’s first female leader, a woman of the Left (supposedly) who has came into power thanks to the power of the Right.

Already the commentariat are telling Gillard how to “avoid the same fate as Kevin Rudd“, as if they’re players in the game, wise men and women, and yet they prefer to play the adviser game. So much independent thought and analysis.

Here’s Crikey’s thoughts:

Here’s a reality check: many of the general public haven’t tuned into politics for months.

Suddenly, they wake up to a new prime minister. A prime minister they didn’t vote for.

That’s democracy, you could say. Or Labor party democracy, at least. Let’s see what the punters make of that.

But will the government’s policies change? A harsher policy towards refugees? An open discussion towards following every policy coming from Washington, such as Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine?

Don’t expect many differences.

Following this week’s explosive article in Rolling Stone by Michael Hastings on the failing war in Afghanistan, these comments in Vanity Fair ring very true:

McChrystal and Co. would have exhibited far better judgment had they looked into Hastings’s career and writings and come to the obvious conclusion that this sort of journalist has nothing to lose in reporting a series of demonstrable facts. Unlike many of this country’s most respected commentators, Hastings did not spend the better part of a decade repeating conventional wisdom about our allegedly unprecedented success in two wars that have already proven to be abject failures, and thus he has no reason to simply take the word of some or another confused presidential administration that everything is under control, or will be after some additional expenditure of blood and treasure. McChrystal would have been better off talking to Thomas Friedman, who is so amusingly naïve that in 2001 he declared Vladimir Putin to be a force for good for whom Americans all ought to be “rootin’,” a term he chose because it rhymes with Putin. McChrystal would have been somewhat less better-off talking to Charles Krauthammer, who has long been the most respected of conservative commentators despite the fact that he has been demonstrably wrong about every U.S. military action of the last 12 years and plenty else besides; the Washington Post columnist would have presumably returned with another round of good news and thereby jinxed the entire operation. Neither of these men are defeatists; both declared victory in Afghanistan long ago. Both have won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Friedman himself now sits on the Pulitzer committee. And thus it is that Hastings and others like him will never win any Pulitzer Prizes for journalism or commentary no matter how much their work changes the course of history, which is just as well, as they seem to be made from lead and recipients seem unable to refrain from licking them.

That’s what you call a loyal colonial partner:

The Palestinian Authority attempted to neutralize a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution condemning Israel’s deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, leaked UN and Palestinian Authority documents obtained by The Electronic Intifada show. Israel’s 31 May attack killed nine Turkish citizens, including a dual US-Turkish citizen, and injured dozens of others aboard the Mavi Marmara in international waters.

The Electronic Intifada (EI) today publishes one of the documents it obtained, containing proposed amendments to a draft Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution. Annotations to the resolution indicate the Palestinian Authority (PA) stood with European Union (EU) countries against Turkey’s calls for robust action to hold Israel accountable.

The PA’s apparent collusion to shield Israel will recall for many its efforts to undermine UN action on the Goldstone report last October.

Australian Zionists, here are your talking points to help Israel as a Jew, Zionist and human being:

More than 250 Australian students were trained in the art of Israel advocacy during a three-day conference held in Jerusalem this week.

The seminar, run by StandWithUs International (SWU) – a not-for-profit education organisation aiming to ensure Israel’s side of the story is told around the globe – in partnership with the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA), featured lectures from senior Israeli officials. These included spokesperson for the Prime Minister Mark Regev, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein and chairman of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky.

Participants also visited the security barrier, heard from two IDF soldiers, and met Sudanese refugees who have sought asylum in Israel.

The aim of the conference, the first of its kind for students on one-year programs in Israel, was to prepare the participants for the challenges they may face when they return to Australia, turning them into ambassadors equipped to articulate the Jewish State’s case on campus.

To assist in that process, director of SWU Israel Michael Dickson said they also took part in workshops  covering the “three Ds” of anti-Israel rhetoric – demonisation, double standards and delegitimisation.

“They can confront the biggest accusations, the biggest allegations that are thrown at Israel on campus right now. They deconstruct them and have a ready response,” Dickson said.

“These guys can say that I’ve been there and know the issues, and therefore they’ll have more credibility.”

Executive director of the ZFA Robbie Franco, who was one of the instigators of the program, said: “We hope that this will serve as a model for other communities and that in the future, every one of the 8000 overseas participants on one-year programs will be afforded the opportunity  of becoming a young ­ambassador for Israel.

“We believe this to be one of the most exciting new projects that we are undertaking – one that can dramatically assist in improving Israel’s standing around the world.”

Reflecting on the experience, participant Ashley Osie from Sydney said: “The past three days have been really intense. We have heard from an incredibly diverse range of speakers, who have each presented us with a plethora of facts, opinions and information, and have taught us invaluable skills and techniques for advocating for and actively supporting Israel.”

Dean Leveton from Sydney concurred. “The seminar ensured I can confidently embrace university life, both as a Zionist and a Jew. To all university colleagues, challenge me. I dare you,” he said.

Make it transparent, make it accountable and make it efficient. The victims in Sri Lanka deserve nothing less:

The United Nations has set up a high-level panel to look into allegations of human rights abuses in the final months of the civil war in Sri Lanka.

Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general, launched the investigation on Tuesday.

His spokesman said it was established ”to advise him on the issue of accountability with regards to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the conflict”.

Authorities in Sri Lanka have called the move “seriously flawed” and last week, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president, denied his troops fired at a “single civilian” and dismissed calls for a war crimes probe.

Rajiva Wijesinha, the former secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, and currently a member of the Sri Lankan parliament, told Al Jazeera that the panel’s launch is an “extremely regrettable action”.

‘Picking on the small’

“It stems from pressure on the secretary-general [Ban Ki-moon] from so-called human rights groups and some so-called independent officials like Philip Alston [the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial executions], who thinks it is easier to pick on a small country like Sri Lanka,” he said.

“We have said very clearly that if we are given solid evidence of incidents, we will explore them, and the US state department pointed out particular issues which we will look into, but we have no time to focus on all these sorts of allegations by people with no sense of responsibility.”

Israeli Kadima politician Yulia Shamalov Berkovich speaking in the Knesset:

Israeli academia apparently suffers from ‘Palestinomania,’ a mild psychological illness whose symptoms include self-hatred, an affinity for Israel’s enemies, Jewish anti-Semitism and/or anti-Zionism. The spread of ‘Palestinomania’ demands the immediate and painful treatment for all of our sake, and the sooner the better.

Canadian author Yann Martel:

The tragedy of the Holocaust wasn’t exclusively Jewish. It was non-Jews who did it. It was an act of two groups, so it’s not just for Jews to be expert on the Holocaust. In any case, we’re in dialogue with history, and you no more own a historical event than people own their language. The English don’t own the English language; the Jews don’t own the Holocaust; the French don’t own Verdun. It’s good to have other perspectives. If you claim to own an event, you may suffer from group think.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is likely to be out of a job tomorrow after a leadership challenge by deputy Julia Gillard.

Apart from most political journalists getting all excited about the prospect of instability and a new game in Canberra, can somebody please ask Gillard what she really thinks about refugees, the environment and foreign policy (need any reminders of her obsession with Israel?)

Israel’s major opposition party leader Tzipi Livni has no issue with Israeli policies, she merely doesn’t want to be seen as weak by the Arabs. Seriously. What vision.

Meanwhile, back in reality, one of Israel’s senior writers, Yediot’s legal affairs editor, Judge (ret.) Boaz Okon, writes that there is “growing evidence of the lack of the spirit of freedom and the emergence of apartheid and fascism.”

Jews for a Just Peace-NC set up a “Palestinian house demolition” tableau in front of the Durham Performing Arts Center to protest an American Dance Festival performance by the Israel-based Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company on June 17, 2010. The protesters exposed the fact that Israel’s cultural exports have become a tool to divert attention from Israel’s human rights violations. The setup of a demolished home guarded by Israeli soldiers returns the spotlight to those violations. It represents the more than 24,000 Palestinian homes destroyed since 1967 and symbolizes Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the collective punishment of 1.5 million Gazans under siege due to Israel’s blockade.

Sponsorship and funding for this dance company and other Israeli cultural endeavors come in part from the Israeli government, which is engaged in the Brand Israel campaign to reshape the image of Israel through public relations. Ido Aharoni, head of Israel’s Foreign Ministry’s brand management team, wishes to reposition “Israel away from an image of a country in a state of war and conflict to a brand which represents positive values and ideals like ‘building the future,’ ‘vibrant diversity,’ and ‘entrepreneurial zeal’” (Winning the Battle of the Narrative, presented at the January 2010 Herzliya conference).

With such compromised political backing, art cannot be considered simply a positive expression of human creativity. Israeli artists performing abroad are cultural ambassadors legitimizing Israel as a whole, including its policies. These policies — exemplified by the violent intransigence of the Netanyahu/Lieberman government — are not in the long-term interests of Israelis, Palestinians, or Americans. Until the conflict is resolved justly, there can be no peace or security in the Middle East or elsewhere. Misleading public relations campaigns are not substitutes for constructive steps towards a just peace.

Jews for a Just Peace asks the US government to withdraw its yearly $ 3 billion support until Israel acts towards Palestinians in ways that respect their human rights as well as their internationally recognized right to self-determination. It also asks that the American Dance Festival refrain from inviting artists who provide de facto cover for policies that flout international law and human rights.