Antony Loewenstein

The Israeli Democracy Institute releases its 2011 results after interviewing 1200 Israelis. As usual, the results make for despairing reading; this from the “Middle East’s Only Democracy Inc”:

• Jewish-Arab Relations: About a third of the Jewish population does not consider Arab citizens “Israelis.” Moreover, 77.9% of Jews believe that a Jewish majority should be required for making critical decisions concerning peace and security and even socio-economic issues and issues of governance (69.5%). In other words, the Arab public is excluded from significant political decision making. A majority of the Jewish population (52%) even rejects the claim that there is discrimination against Arabs in Israel.
• Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom: 50.8% of the population agrees that severe public criticism of Israel should be outlawed. Most of the Jewish population (57.8%) believes that university lecturers should not express political opinions. More than half the Jews (62.9%) even support political control of the content of academic courses.
• National Solidarity: 83% are proud to be Israelis (more than half the Arab citizens are proud of being Israeli); 78% are certain they want to remain in Israel in the long range and 69.5% feel they are part of the state and its problems. The public estimates the overall solidarity of Israeli society to be moderate, with an average score of 4.8 out of 10. The average score for solidarity of Israeli Jewish society is a little higher (5.8%). Paradoxically, Arab citizens ascribe greater internal solidarity to Jewish society than they ascribe to their own society.

Bravo:

This morning, American University Washington College of Law’s UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) against Sri Lankan General Shavendra Silva, who currently resides in New York City. General Silva was the commander of the 58th Division of the Sri Lankan Army during its brutal counter-insurgency campaign that costs the lives of up to 40,000 civilians in spring 2009. General Silva currently resides in New York City, and is Sri Lanka’s Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations. As the United Nations General Assembly is ongoing, this lawsuit shines a spotlight on a war criminal in its midst.

As commander of the 58th Division, General Silva was responsible for conducting Sri Lanka’s bitter and brutal war against Tamils in northern Sri Lanka, and directly caused the untold suffering of thousands of Tamil civilians. Under the auspices of “fighting terrorism”, General Silva led the Army’s campaign of war crimes and crimes against humanity across northern Sri Lanka. In particular, protected persons – civilians – and protected places – hospitals – were deliberately attacked by General Silva and his forces, which violates Sri Lankan law, American law and international law. General Silva is also responsible for the torture and extrajudicial executions of surrendering members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in clear contravention of the laws of war.

“These egregious violations of international and domestic law have gone unanswered for over two years now, as survivors continue to suffer in suffocating silence on the island. Finally, after years of waiting for someone to answer for the loss of loved ones, the voices of Tamil victims and survivors have been granted their day in court. Today, U.S. courts provide a forum for justice and accountability, where there would otherwise be continued impunity for Sri Lanka’s crimes against Tamils,” said Ali Beydoun, lead counsel on this case, director at American University Washington College of Law’s UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic, and a Senior Partner at SPEAK Human Rights Initiative.

Up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka’s military onslaught against Tamil regions in 2009, according to a report from a United Nations Panel of Experts. However, over two years later, there have been no investigations or prosecutions of those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. “This lawsuit is one small yet substantial step towards accountability for Sri Lanka’s bloodbath on the beach. We will continue pursuing these cases until justice is served,” Beydoun said.

Amidst all the endless talk about the UN bid for Palestine (see here, here, here and here), this remains the grim reality on the ground in Palestine:

The Australian “debate” over asylum seekers leave ones thoroughly depressed. Both major sides of politics seem determined to dehumanise the most vulnerable people seeking assistance. Grubby and utterly pointless. No wonder nobody really respects politicians these days. Are we truly saying Australia can’t handle a few boats arriving on our shores?

Sigh.

The Australian’s George Megalogenis nails it well yesterday:

The political death-roll between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott on asylum-seekers has been fascinating for its lack of basic manners.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Nauru are supposed to pretend our leaders aren’t using them as partisan pincushions. The Prime Minister says Indonesia won’t take back the boats, while Nauru won’t stop them. The Opposition Leader says the Malaysians are not fit to act as our holding pen for asylum-seekers.

Gillard and Abbott are the self-absorbed bogan couple arguing over which neighbour should look after their pet greyhound while they take a holiday. He says that family from Nauru seems nice. “Don’t be silly,” she sneers, “they’ll feed it doughnuts.” She says the Malaysians next door are safer. “Knock it off,” he yells, “they’ll beat the damn dog.” Everyone in the street can hear them fighting, but they look the other way and pretend to be grateful when the call comes to mind the pooch.

It would be funny if Gillard and Abbott were just playing politics. But no Labor or Liberal leader has been this unthinkingly parochial since the last defender of White Australia, Arthur Calwell. Gillard and Abbott would be appalled by the comparison. But what are the neighbours supposed to think, when our leaders trash the golden rule of diplomacy: subtlety.

…

We say we only want to take those who are prepared to wait their turn. Sure, but the debate gets bogged down on the merits of onshore v offshore processing, compassion v tough love. Neither approach works if someone has to catch a boat to get our attention.

The boats would not be coming at all if Australia built, and helped run, the five-star camps in Indonesia and Malaysia that public opinion seems to think already exist on Nauru.

Any half-smart government could sell this approach to Australian shock jock and Asian leader alike because it would create the queue that is a precondition for an orderly process. But it would better if this idea came from both government and opposition because Australia works best when it doesn’t play with the fire of race.

Which companies would benefit from such an arrangement? The Australian Labor Party has always been in love with helping the American war machine and here’s the latest evidence (via the Courier Mail):

She’s been called “Captain Bligh”, now the Premier wants Navy subs based in Queensland to guard the state’s rich gas and coal reserves.

With HMAS Cairns the only major naval base on Queensland’s coastline, Anna Bligh has urged the Australian Defence Force to relocate its submarines to the Port of Brisbane.

It follows Defence Minister Stephen Smith’s call for the ADF to consider “the rise of the need for energy security”.

Earlier this year Mr Smith announced a Force Posture Review to determine whether the ADF was positioned in the right places in Australia to meet current and future strategic challenges. A review panel asked for submissions by mid-September.

If Ms Bligh convinces the Navy to relocate some of its strike force, allowing them to be closer to the Asia-Pacific, millions of dollars could be injected into the state economy.

“As Defence chiefs plan for the next 25 years, we are pointing out that there are big opportunities here particularly in Cairns, Townsville, Central Queensland and Brisbane to support the ADF’s future operations,” Ms Bligh said.

“Queensland is also the world’s largest maritime exporter of coal and has significant coal seam gas reserves and bauxite deposits. The future security of these resources should be considered by the ADF.”

The State Government’s submission also included opening up naval berths in Brisbane and Townsville, while Cairns would become a major support base.

What a change (no doubt after legal threats?) One day, and soon, the Murdoch hacks calling BDS against Israel anti-Semitic will realise how mainstream the movement has become globally, targeting Israeli businesses complicit in the occupation. This has nothing to do with Judaism:

An article published in The Weekend Australian on August 20 (” ‘Anti-Israel bullies’ hard centre bites in chocolate shop campaign“, page 13) reported an anti-Israeli protest march on Israeli-owned Max Brenner chocolate shops.

The article reported comment from a number of people opposed to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the continuing occupation by Israel of the West Bank and Gaza and that some of the BDS had descended into racist generalisations.

The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (SA) has noted that Israeli companies operating in Australia are being targeted, not Jewish companies. They have no criticism of the many shops operating in Australia which happen to be owned by persons of the Jewish faith. As noted in the article: “We stress that the BDS movement is an anti-racist movement that rejects all forms of racism including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia . . . They do not target any particular religious or ethnic group.”

The Weekend Australian did not refer to nor intend any suggestion of racism or anti-Semitism on the part of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (SA).

A quote from the just released unauthorised autobiography:

Vanity in a newspaperman is like perfume on a whore; they wear it to conceal a dark whiff of themselves.

Unelected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke (and issued every paranoid Zionist cliche in the book).

Only one man is democratically elected (and that’s Netanyahu). Both men spoke to different audiences but neither has either the ability nor interest to bring true justice to the situation. How much longer must we hear Israel has the right to illegally expand colonies in the West Bank, making a two-state solution impossible?

Democracy Now! hosted a discussion with Palestinian Ali Abunimah and Mouin Rabbani of the Institute for Palestine Studies and the webzine Jadaliyya:

Sigh:

The tragic debacle that has been the Troy Davis execution has another dimension to it beyond racism, classism, and the miscarriage of justice in a flawed system. That dimension is capitalism: specifically, the corporatization of the prison-industrial complex. If you’ve noticed some angry tweets directed at @correcthealth in the past day, that’s because “CorrectHealth” is the Orwellian-named “medical company” that, according to the ACLU, “oversees all executions in Georgia” including last night’s. It is a for-profit company that stands to make a pile money off of every execution.