Antony Loewenstein

Oh dear:

A major Zionist organization has withdrawn an advertisement because it featured images mocking the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The United Israel Appeal (New South Wales) – Keren Hayesod last week withdrew the ad for a young adult UIA event, which was issued as a press release as well as on a Facebook page.

UIA of New South Wales President Bruce Fink told the Australian Jewish News that the images, which included a naked man standing against a wall with a bag over his head, were “a grave error of judgment.”

“We have now instituted protocols so that all future material will be checked prior to it being posted,” he was reported as saying.

The function, scheduled for November 25, is to raise funds for two projects in Israel.

Malcolm O’Neill, the assistant secretary of the US Defence Force’s Acquisition, Logistics and Technology division:

I see in the future a US army with 547,000 active soldiers like we have today and 547,000 ranger buddies – wingmen that would hopefully go into combat with them and hopefully stand in front of them and sacrifice their robotic lives for the human who they’re fighting with.

The Columbia Journalism Review explains that China isn’t simply an authoritarian state where freedoms are suppressed:

The resourceful ways that Chinese netizens have responded to the social injustices that surround them and to the limitations of their country’s carefully censored press, and indeed the sheer pace of change in this world, highlight one of the fundamental complexities of characterizing the situation of expression in China. For instance, it is becoming ever clearer that China’s online community is providing a more robust example of the full potential and sheer relevance of what we call the “citizen journalist” than exists in many rich, liberal societies. This, despite the fact of determined, even stern political control of the press that is often emphasized in the West.

Shame about the editorial in the Washington Times, asking for intense scrutiny and profiling of Muslims to avoid “terrorism”.

Perhaps we should just lock all Muslims in a large cage.

We often hear about the military industrial complex, but what does it mean in practice?

Exhibit number one:

The construction projects are sprouting like mushrooms: walled complexes, high-strength weapons vaults, and underground bunkers with command and control capacities — and they’re being planned and funded by a military force intent on embedding itself ever more deeply in the Middle East.

If Iran were building these facilities, it would be front-page news and American hawks would be talking war, but that country’s Revolutionary Guards aren’t behind this building boom, nor are the Syrians, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, or some set of al-Qaeda affiliates.  It’s the U.S. military that’s digging in, hardening, improving, and expanding its garrisons in and around the Persian Gulf at the very moment when it is officially in a draw-down phase in Iraq.

On August 31st, President Obama took to the airwaves to announce “the end of our combat mission in Iraq.”  This may, however, prove yet another “mission accomplished” moment.  After all, from the lack of a real Iraqi air force (other than the U.S. Air Force) to the fact that there are more American troops in that country today than were projected to be there in September 2003, many signs point in another direction.

In fact, within days of the president’s announcement it was reported that the U.S. military was pouring money into improving bases in Iraq and that advance elements of a combat-hardened armored cavalry regiment were being sent there in what was politely dubbed an “advise and assist” (rather than combat) role.  On September 13th, the New York Times described the type of operations that U.S. forces were actually involved in:

“During two days of combat in Diyala Province, American troops were armed with mortars, machine guns, and sniper rifles. Apache and Kiowa helicopters attacked insurgents with cannon and machine-gun fire, and F-16’s dropped 500-pound bombs.”

…

Even if the U.S. was forced to withdraw all its troops from Iraq, however, its military “footprint” in the Middle East would still be substantial enough to rankle opponents of an armed American presence in the region and be a drain on U.S. taxpayers who continue to fund America’s “empire of bases.”  As has been true in recent years, the latest U.S. military documents indicate that base expansion and upgrades are the order of the day for America’s little-mentioned garrisons in the nations around Iraq.

One thing is, by now, clear: whatever transpires in Iraq, the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf and surrounding environs will be formidable well into the future.

What Israeli “democracy” is all about, funded by the US taxpayer:

Travelers along the “original” West Bank roads, the ones enabling drivers to bypass Palestinian villages, can see signs declaring “USAID from the American People.”

The roads are one of the initiatives of the United States Agency for International Development for building infrastructure in underdeveloped countries. Israel has already proudly left the club of developing countries and is not among the clients of USAID. Nevertheless, it appears the Smith family of Illinois is making the occupation a little less expensive for the Cohen family of Petah Tikva.

According to a June 2010 fact sheet on the USAID Internet site, last year American taxpayers funded the paving of 63 kilometers of asphalt roads in the West Bank. It also says completion of a road in the southern part of the West Bank dramatically increased the amount of trade between Dahriya and Beer Sheva.

What the site doesn’t say is that a significant segment of the road goes through Area C – the 60 percent of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli civilian and military control and responsibility under the interim agreement of 1995 (the second Oslo agreement ). The agreement states: “Territorial jurisdiction includes land (and ) subsoil.”

This is not the only occupation-perpetuating road funded by American money. Dror Etkes, an expert on the settlements, noticed a few days ago USAID workers energetically laying asphalt on two roads in the Samaria region (northern West Bank ) that crosses Area C. Israelis haven’t been traveling these roads for years now because the taxpayer (in this case, the Israeli taxpayer ) has already paved separate, wide, modern roads for them.

Etkes wondered how it is possible that the Obama administration, which is vociferously opposed to the continuation of the status quo in the West Bank, continues to subsidize the road for Israel. “If the state of Israel is insisting on continuing to hold on and de facto annex the West Bank,” he says, “it should also be allocating the money needed to take care of the infrastructure.”

I asked an American official why the administration isn’t demanding of Israel that it fulfill its obligations and pay the price of the occupation out of its own pocket.

“Who told you we aren’t demanding that?” replied the official. “We are also demanding a construction freeze in the settlements and you know at least as well as anyone else what is happening on the ground.”

It is worth mentioning that the when the Palestinians sought permission to pave a short road in Area C to enable access to the planned town of Rawabi, Israel pulled out the Oslo accord and kicked them down the stairs. The USAID tractors don’t have access to the area either.

The suicide yesterday of yet another asylum seeker in Villawood detention centre in Sydney reminds us of the climate of over-crowding and mental trauma perpetuated by the government.

I was interviewed by The Wire about the incident and the responsibility of Serco:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A great pro-BDS flashmob was carried out by Israeli activists on November 15 outside the Tel Aviv Opera House to coincide with the premiere of the the Cape Town Opera production of Porgy and Bess:

Read this for a laugh.

A cover story in leading Israeli daily Ma’ariv slams New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman for being too critical of Israel and “jealous” of Netanyahu:

You, Mr Friedman, are no Grossman and no Barnea. You’re just an American journalist. There are hundreds and thousands like you the world over. Many of them, for instance those at the Wall Street Journal, have opinions the opposite of yours. They are asking where you and the Palestinians were during the first nine months of the settlement construction freeze.

So enough with the worried, concerned Jew manipulations, Mr Friedman. The leaders in Israel have enough intelligence, experience and reason to make the right decision on the way to another, reduced settlement freeze. Nobody here needs your advice – advice that comes in slogans every preschool child in Israel can recite without threats and intimidation. Get out from under our skin, Mr Friedman. We have enough troubles here without you, pal.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on news values, bias, being liberal and real journalism post 2003:

A helpful historical reminder from Scott Burchill:

… It is wrong to assign a power of policy veto over the West to one favoured dissident, as appeared to happen in the 1990s with Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi.

[The Australian's Foreign Editor] Greg Sheridan, Asian Values, Western Dreams (Allen & Unwin, St Leonards 1999), p.315.

SB: In 1990 Suu Kyi won a democratic election in Burma but was prevented from forming a government by the military, which has incarcerated her for most of the last 20 years. To describe her nine years after her election victory as simply “one favoured dissident” betrays an extraordinary contempt for both democracy and the wishes of the Burmese people. No wonder Sheridan has such a well-earned reputation as an apologist for right wing military dictatorships in East Asia. And why he has been conspicuously quiet since her release.

Another day and another tragedy in Australia’s detention centres. It’s clearly too much for the media to investigate  the role of the company that runs the places, Serco:

Detainees at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney are planning a hunger strike today after the suicide of an inmate.

It is the second suicide at the centre in just over two months.

A 41-year-old Iraqi man was found unconscious and taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead early this morning.

Other detainees at Villawood say the man had been in detention for about a year and had his claim for asylum refused.

They say he had asked to be sent back to Iraq to be with his wife and family.

An Iranian inmate at Villawood, Mosan Manoucheripour, says a lot of people are grieving.

“We start to do the hunger strike for showing my protest against the act of Immigration, and we want to mourn for this man who died,” he said.

Mr Manoucheripour says about 30 detainees have gathered to listen to the Koran.

“They are very very upset and confused and they couldn’t sleep, they want to be awake until morning and they want to start the hunger strike,” he said.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says he hopes this latest incident will lead to change.

“The fact is that there have been suicides and deaths inside detention previously and we haven’t seen a lot of change, but at some point the Government will have [to change],” he said.

“The reality is we cannot keep presiding over the dysfunctional system that is mandatory detention.”

Mr Rintoul says detainees are also concerned about the speed of the response to the death.

“They’re pretty angry really because it took 45 minutes for the ambulance to come. There was some attempt to resuscitate him there, which according to eyewitnesses failed, but they took him to hospital anyway,” he said.

The New South Wales Ambulance Service says a crew got to Villawood 12 minutes after the triple-zero call, which was made by a member of staff at 12:21am (AEDT).

A spokesman for the immigration department, Sandi Logan says everything was done for the man and an ambulance was quickly called for.

“Every step was taken by the detention service’s staff when the man was discovered not breathing,” he said.

“CPR was commenced immediately, he was transferred shortly thereafter by ambulance to hospital but was unfortunately later pronounced dead.”

The Department of Immigration says the incident will now become the subject of a coronial inquiry.

In a story yesterday, Serco was mentioned in passing:

Overcrowding has been blamed for a violent brawl involving about 50 children at a Melbourne detention facility.

The Immigration Department does not call it a detention centre, but the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation facility in Broadmeadows is one of the sites the department uses to hold hundreds of unaccompanied children who are seeking asylum in Australia.

Last week there were 43 boys there, but another 98 were flown in from Christmas Island on the weekend.

On Sunday night tensions flared up and police were called in to stop what the department says was a series of scuffles involving 50 mostly Afghan detainees.

…

Refugee advocate Nicole Mousley, who visited the centre a week ago, says the brawl was probably the result of overcrowding.

“From what I saw, I don’t think that centre is equipped to deal with that many boys,” she said.

“The common room is not designed to hold that many people.

“The boys were telling me they were a bit concerned about the new people coming and weren’t sure what was going to happen once everybody got there.

“The boys actually told me they thought they would be kept separate from the new arrivals for a while.

“So if the new arrivals have been put in straight away and expected to share the common area, I think then maybe some of the boys who have been there previously have been a bit surprised by that.”

…

Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan says he is concerned by the situation.

“We are concerned about ensuring the centre remains in order, remains calm and that we are in control, which we are,” he said.

“These are all young men, all minors under the age of 18 who were involved in the disturbance. It was a series of scuffles. We believe focusing around access to computers, but we’ve still really to get to the bottom of that.”

Mr Logan says the capacity of the centre is 150 and he is confident it can comfortably house that many.

He denies there are inadequate facilities for the 136 boys now there.

“We are confident Serco, the detention services provider, is able to manage the accommodation and the good order of the centre,” he said.

“We’re also confident the expansion of the centre has been done appropriately with enough recreation facilities, enough opportunities for all of the detainees within the centre to have enough activity to keep them active, to keep them engaged.”

Ms Mousley says it is not appropriate to have Serco investigate an incident which happened under its own management.