Antony Loewenstein

Perfection. ABC columnist Tim Dunlop offers his reflections on 2010 and takes out Murdoch’s Australian:

If The Australian was a member of your family you would’ve arranged an intervention by now to stop further self-harm. If it was a bloke you would suspect it of having a very small penis. Has anyone ever seen a major institution so addled with insecurities? How else to explain the amount of space they devote to writing about themselves, defending their actions, and justifying their crusades?

The country’s only national newspaper, and one that provides a home for some of our best journalists, turned itself into a laughing stock in 2010.

From their ridiculous ‘outing’ of a blogger who used a pseudonym (WikiLeaks, eat your heart out!), to the editor’s decision to sue an academic who reported what she heard at a conference, to last week’s feature article in which they attacked every other media outlet for not being enough like them, it has been a stellar year of own-goals for our self-styled most important newspaper evah.

Unfortunately for the Oz, they lack an embarrassment gene and seem to enjoy casting themselves as a victim, so don’t expect much of an improvement in 2011.

Rumour is they will be erecting a paywall around their content sometime next year. Probably a good thing: their particular brand of onanism is best conducted in private.

Newt Gingrich reminds us that his vision for America is a dark, undemocratic nightmare:

A fellow traveller, John Bolton, believes the US should lie its way to superiority. No wonder Washington’s image globally has never been worse:

Putting aside the unworkability of a two-state solution, this shows growing international anger towards Israel. Next step is financial and diplomatic punishment for the Zionist state:

Former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner in January 2010 had already discussed with the US the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state regardless of the outcome of negotiations with Israel, a US cable released by WikiLeaks revealed.

The cable was written by US ambassador to France Charles Rivkin to prepare US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her first bilateral trip to France since entering into her position.

“The French agree with us on the need to help [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas return to the negotiating table by offering assistance programs, guarantees, and the support of Arab leaders. However Kouchner also mentioned to SE [George] Mitchell the controversial idea of offering to recognize a Palestinian state now, with undefined borders, or offering to recognize a Palestinian state within a defined timeline, regardless of the outcome of negotiations,” the cable stated.

Rivkin labeled French President Nicolas Sarkozy as “impatient” in regard to the Middle East peace process, saying he often tries to rush events ahead of US plans.

Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay recently decided to formally recognize a fully independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

This is a debate on CNN over Wikileaks that is deeply revealing. Note the strong sense that journalists should really not uncover information that could upset governments:

Joseph Dana, leading Jewish Israeli activist against the occupation, was arrested last week:

On Friday, I was detained by Border Police officers in Nabi Saleh along with another Israeli. We were handcuffed behind our backs, thrown to the ground and beaten. The other Israeli was beaten much worse than I. His head was smashed against the ground and he was kicked repeatedly in the stomach. All of this happened in front ofa Palestinian Btselem photographer who captured the whole thing on video. After the beating, we were then detained and held in a Jerusalem prison for thirty hours. This story is only unique because it happened to Jews.

It is almost a daily ritual for Palestinians in the West Bank. The border police commander who led the beating gave us a clear explanation for his actions while in the police station when he said, ‘don’t come back to Nabi Saleh you piece of shit.” Israel does not want Israelis in Nabi Saleh documenting the ruthless and brutal repression of Palestinian unarmed demonstrations. The state will go to shocking lengths to intimidate, beat and detain us. One has to experience it to fully believe it.

In the coming days I will publish a more detailed account of my detention and the harassment which I experienced. In the meantime, I would like to draw your attention to a video just released by Btselem documenting a solider beating a Palestinian Btselem photographer. The photographer was on his own land when the soldier attacked him. No charges will be filed against this soldier.

Noam Scheiber, The New Republic, 27 December:

The Wikileaks revolution isn’t only about airing secrets and transacting information. It’s about dismantling large organizations—from corporations to government bureaucracies. It may well lead to their extinction.

A Zionist chauvinist worries that his beloved Jewish state is starting to show signs of ignoring democracy. Over to you, Jeffrey Goldberg:

Is it actually possible that one day Israelis — Jewish Israelis — would choose to give up democracy in order to maintain Israel’s Jewish voting majority?

…

Let’s just say, as a hypothetical, that one day in the near future, Prime Minister Lieberman’s government (don’t laugh, it’s not funny) proposes a bill that echoes the recent call by some rabbis to discourage Jews from selling their homes to Arabs. Or let’s say that Lieberman’s government annexes swaths of the West Bank in order to take in Jewish settlements, but announces summarily that the Arabs in the annexed territory are in fact citizens of Jordan, and can vote there if they want to, but they won’t be voting in Israel. What happens then? Do the courts come to the rescue? I hope so. Do the Israeli people come to the rescue? I’m not entirely sure. There are many Israelis who value democracy, but they might not possess the strength to fight. Does American Jewry come to the rescue? Well, most of American Jewry would be so disgusted by Israel’s abandonment of democratic principles that I think the majority would simply write off Israel as a tragic, failed experiment.

The almost impossible role of an opposition leader in a brutal dictatorship:

Zimbabwe is to investigate bringing treason charges against the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and other individuals over confidential talks with US diplomats revealed by WikiLeaks.

Johannes Tomana, the attorney general, said he would appoint a commission of five lawyers to examine whether recent disclosures in leaked US embassy cables amount to a breach of the constitution. A cable dated 24 December 2009 suggested Tsvangirai privately insisted sanctions “must be kept in place”.

High treason in Zimbabwe can result in the death penalty. Tomana told the state-owned Herald newspaper: “With immediate effect, I am going to instruct a team of practising lawyers to look into the issues that arise from the WikiLeaks.

“The WikiLeaks appear to show a treasonous collusion between local Zimbabweans and the aggressive international world, particularly the United States.”

An important Haaretz editorial that demands decent Jews, Arabs and others inside the Zionist state either stand up now or like most Jews in the Diaspora remain silent as the country becomes more fascist by the day:

Today is the 2nd anniversary of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza. Tragically, tensions are building once more:

Ilan Pappe agrees.

Palestinian civil society releases a statement today that stresses what the international community must do; hold the Zionist state to account:

We the Palestinians of the Besieged Gaza Strip, on this day, two years on from Israel’s genocidal attack on our families, our houses, our roads, our factories and our schools, are saying enough inaction, enough discussion, enough waiting – the time is now to hold Israel to account for its ongoing crimes against us. On the 27th of December 2008, Israel began an indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The assault lasted 22 days, killing 1,417 Palestinians, 352 of them children, according to main-stream Human Rights Organizations. For a staggering 528 hours, Israeli Occupation Forces let loose their US-supplied F15s, F16s, Merkava Tanks, internationally prohibited White Phosphorous, and bombed and invaded the small Palestinian coastal enclave that is home to 1.5 million, of whom 800,000 are children and over 80 percent UN registered refugees. Around 5,300 remain permanently wounded.

We haven’t forgotten.

Israel’s attack simply accelerated the decline of Israel’s image globally. And more importantly, highlighted what Palestinians suffer on a daily basis.

We know what has to happen now.

The following letter was written by Australian Artists Against Apartheid:

December 22nd, 2010

Dear Joseph Tawadros,

We are writing in advance of your planned performance in the apartheid state of Israel, which we hope you will cancel. The Red Sea Winter Jazz Festival (RSWJF) is sponsored by the Israeli government, which additionally sponsors the dispossession of Palestinians from their homes, and many laws discriminating against “non-Jews” in a segregated and undemocratic apartheid system.

State-culture propaganda initiatives, such as the RSWJF serve to brand Israel to the world as a “vibrant cultural hub”, while it continues its profitable human rights violations and colonialism on the ground.

In response to decades of oppression under Israeli apartheid, coupled with the failure of international institutions to support their quest for equal rights and justice, the Palestinian people have called for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (see BDS movement) until Israel is in compliance with international law and human rights conventions.

Given Israel’s extensive use of cultural propaganda, the BDS movement includes a campaign for cultural boycott. A multitude of artists, including renowned musicians such as Elvis Costello, Gil Scott-Heron, and Santana, have heeded the boycott call and canceled planned performances in Israel. All international artists appearing at the RSWJF would violate two key criteria of the cultural boycott of Israel: (1) By performing at a state sponsored event and (2) By performing at an apartheid venue in Israel.

Please cancel your upcoming appearance at RSWJF and help to realize equal rights and justice in Palestine-Israel. By heeding the Palestinian call for international solidarity we can stop entertaining apartheid.

Signed,

Australian Artists Against Apartheid

It’s only terrorism when “they” do it?

On February 25, 2010, State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley lied when he told a press conference that he wasn’t aware of any request from Dubai for assistance in tracking the Mossad killers of Mahmoud al-Mabouh.  To those who say that Wikileaks hasn’t told us anything we didn’t already know–think again.

Wikileaks has just released a February 24, 2010 cable in which the embassy relays the specific credit card numbers used by 14 of the 27 known Mossad suspects to State with a request for assistance from authorities investigating the killing, and confirms that the UAE foreign minister made the exact same request directly to Secretary Clinton on February 23rd: