Antony Loewenstein

Australian human rights organisation Project Safecom releases a timely and important press release today that won’t receive the serious consideration it deserves:

“Ultimately the United Nations has no choice but to regulate the international informal travel broker industry in order to minimise deaths at sea and in order to separate fly-by-night opportunistic profiteers from the family-based and ethnically-based small networks or other professional operators that assist asylum seekers to reach shelter in destination countries,” WA Human Rights group Project SafeCom said this morning.

“We join with others in acknowledging with regret the massive loss of life at sea as news emerges of the shipwreck of a vessel 90 kilometers off the coast of Java after its departure from West Java’s coastal capital of Cilapak, but we don’t join with those who once again just throw around worn-out statements about “evil people smugglers”, even while it seems clear that the boat was overloaded to ridiculous levels,” spokesman Jack H Smit said.

“The UN has already ‘painted itself into a corner’ with the establishment of the 2001 UN People Smuggling Protocol. Even so, it needs to realise that if the world community (and more particularly those countries that are signatories to the UN Refugee Convention) is unwilling to pro-actively assist to prevent the need to have unregulated people movements around the globe – a phenomenon that we expect to only increase as climate change and local unrest increases – by opening its borders to asylum seekers – that the informal travel movement is here to stay,” spokesman Jack H Smit said.

“If Australia is unwilling to increase UNHCR resources in Indonesia by a factor of ten or twenty or thirty, and if it is unwilling to fiercely lobby ASEAN countries for resettlement with full civil rights of asylum seekers BEFORE they board boats, the situation will remain the same. As long as Australia is ignoring its dramatic regional shortfall in service provision and as long as it refuses to assist asylum seekers in Indonesia, Australia’s inaction will be the most important factor in people jumping on boats to seek out protection under the UN Charter.”

This is an area covered throughout the recently released book, On Utoya, and my contribution covers how the Norway killer Anders Breivik rather loved Israel in his manifesto.

This piece in American Jewish newspaper Forward highlights this disturbingly growing alliance between hardline Zionism and neo-Nazis (yes, you read that right):

Economic upheaval and strife in Europe have historically begat fierce nationalism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Faced with a serious debt crisis, severe budget cuts, grim austerity, rising unemployment and creeping inflation, the current depression is no exception.

Since the fall of 2008, reported incidents of anti-Semitism have risen across the continent. In Britain, a record number of anti-Jewish crimes was noted in 2009. This year in the Netherlands, the number of Jews who reported being verbally harassed, and even physically attacked, climbed. More recently, a restored Jewish cemetery in the Republic of Kosovo was desecrated with Nazi grafitti.

What is fundamentally different about Europe’s current condition, however, is that anti-Semitism has been largely superseded in the organized far-right by suspicion at best, and hatred at worst, of the continent’s growing Muslim community. As Australian writer Antony Loewenstein puts it: “Yesterday’s anti-Semites have reformed themselves as today’s crusading heroes against an unstoppable Muslim birth rate on a continent that now sees Islam as an intolerant and ghettoized religion.”

More curious still is that via this Islamophobia (for lack of a better term), Europe’s extremist parties have entered into a disturbing marriage of convenience with sections of the Israeli right. In December 2010, politicians including Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria’s Freiheitliche Partei and Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang in Flemish Belgium visited Israel and signed the Jerusalem Declaration, “guaranteeing Israel’s right to defend itself against terror.” On a separate occasion, Members of Knesset Aryeh Eldad (National Union) and Ayoob Kara (Likud) met with members of a Russian neo-Nazi delegation that also toured Yad Vashem.

The English Defense League — not a political party but, rather, a thuggish and violent mob made up of the same sort of white working-class males who formed the rank-and-file of Mosley’s Blackshirts — has described the bond between themselves and Israel in the following terms: “In many ways there are parallels to be drawn between the radicalization that has infected the Palestinians and their supporters and the radicalization that continues to breed in British mosques. In this way at least, the people of England and the people of Israel have a great deal in common.”

After America withdraws most of its troops, the New York Times, a key paper that backed the invasion in 2003, editorialised yesterday and sounded contrite (a little, though no mention of the mainstream media’s drum-boat towards the conflict):

America’s reputation has yet to fully recover from the horrors of Abu Ghraib. The country is still paying a huge price for President George W. Bush’s decision to shortchange the war in Afghanistan. American policy makers, for generations to come, must study these mistakes carefully and ensure that they are not repeated.

…President Obama, who first ran for office campaigning against the war, has never wavered on his promise to bring the troops home. The last few thousand will be out of Iraq by year’s end. We celebrate their return. But this country must never forget the intolerable costs of a war started on arrogance and lies.

As importantly, America is leaving around 16,000 private contractors in the country, a fact missed by most of the corporate press, happy to simply rehash White House press releases. MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan was a rare exception:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The accused Wikileaks leader Bradley Manning faces his first day in court today in the US. Expect the prosecution to claim he’s the devil incarnite. In fact, he’s a bloody hero who should be celebrated for bravely speaking out against countless American crimes.

And then there’s this slimy guy, Adrian Lamo. Seriously, he sounds like he’s been given talking points by the US government. The Guardian reports:

Adrian Lamo, the hacker who betrayed the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manningto the US authorities, has said it would be to his “lasting regret” were the soldier to be given a lengthy custodial sentence.

Lamo, 30, dubbed the “world’s most hated hacker” for his role in passing information on Manning to military intelligence after the soldier befriended him on internet chat, said that he understood that Manning was an idealistic young man who believed he could change the world for the better and “who didn’t necessarily know what he was doing.

“I think about him every day. The decision was not one I decided to make, but was thrust upon me.”

…

Lamo declined to speculate about what an appropriate sentence would be for Manning were he found guilty of the WikiLeaks charges. However, a hypothetical individual who had engaged in passing state secrets to a third party would merit a sentence of “25 to 50 years”, he said.

“This is different to a James Bond film. WikiLeaks was involved in an overall weakening of strategic operations and diplomacy that will take decades to recover from,” he said.

But Lamo added that he was aware of the lasting harm that he has caused. “There are times in life when you are faced with a variety of choices, none of which you consider right. All of them harm someone and you have to choose the one that harms the fewest number of people. That still leaves you harming someone, and, because of that, I think of Manning on a daily basis.”

This is the country we’re supposed to admire?

Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

“Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too ‘rich’ to qualify,” said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

“The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal,” he said. “If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years.”

Congressional Republicans and Democrats are sparring over legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax reduction, part of a year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement spending.

Human Terrain Systems is the term with private companies increasingly hired by the US army (and Australia) to use anthropologists and other related fields to gather “intelligence” in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. 21st century warfare (privatised, of course):

More about this film here.

More here.

Foreign Policy’s The Cable publishes extracts of a speech that prove for the umpteenth time that Washington under Barack Obama is determined to blindly back Israel to the hilt. But be warned, fundamentalist Zionists; smearing critics as anti-Semites ain’t working any more:

The Obama administration may not be getting a whole lot of love from the pro-Israel community these days, but tonight, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations is giving their annual National Service Award to U.N. Representative Susan Rice.

Rice plans to use her acceptance speech at tonight’s event in New York to both defend the Obama administration’s record on Israel and spell out the increased military and security cooperation that’s taken place on Obama’s watch. Previous winners include House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

Here are some excerpts of Rice’s speech, obtained by The Cable:

“America remains deeply and permanently committed to Israel’s peace and security. It is a commitment for this president and this Administration. It spans generations. It spans political parties. It is not negotiable. And it never will be,” Rice will say.

“From the moment he took office, President Obama’s guidance has been clear: to strengthen and deepen that commitment. He has been clear all along that our special relationship with Israel is deeply rooted in our common interests and our common values.”

“That’s why we’ve increased cooperation between our militaries to unprecedented levels. That’s why, even in these tough fiscal times, we’ve increased foreign military financing to record levels. That’s why we’ve also included additional support for the lifesaving Iron Dome anti-rocket system — which saw action just days ago in defense of innocent Israelis who live near the Gaza frontier.”

“That’s why we’re working jointly to toughen up Israel’s security through the Arrow system; and through David’s Sling; and through joint military exercises that have never been more robust.”

“That’s why, if you ask members of the uniformed military of Israel or the United States, if you talk to leaders at the Kirya or the Pentagon, you’ll hear the same assessment: the American commitment to Israel’s qualitative military edge has never been stronger. That’s a fact, plain and simple.”

“Of course, the Arab world is undergoing unprecedented political change, and the calls for freedom across the region have brought legitimate security concerns. But let there be no doubt: we are doing all we can to ensure that Israel remains secure even as the region becomes more free.”

A beautiful short film, Maydoum, by Omar Robert Hamilton:

Maydoum [short film, 2010] from Omar Robert Hamilton on Vimeo.