Antony Loewenstein

2005 will be remembered as the year that citizens across the world started to realise the rules of the game in the “war on terror.” Extraordinary rendition, US supported and administered torture, unauthorised spying on citizens, privatised killing, diving support for the Iraqi quagmire and a growing Iranian influence. Liberation, indeed.

In other news, we saw the shameful response to Hurricane Katrina, world apathy on the Sudanese genocide, military threats towards Iran’s supposed nuclear arsenal, Latin America’s challenge to US imperialism, Israel’s talk of peace but further entrenchment of the occupation, Pacific islands starting to feel the effects of global warming and climate change starting to be taken seriously, in some quarters anyway.

We should take heart from the fact that the US’s global influence is waning. Still a superpower but heavily weakened by the Iraq war and imperial arrogance, Latin American countries provide perhaps the best example of a way forward towards a world without constant US threats and bullying. The mainstream media is being challenged like never before and many people are simply ignoring the “establishment” sources and looking elsewhere.

In Australia, we experienced the full force of the Latham Diaries - the finest and most insightful political book about the local scene for a very long time - and the Howard government’s control of the Senate saw a flurry of legislation likely to benefit the business community and the Murdoch press, but few others. Opinion polls now show the ALP in front, a direct connection to draconian industrial relations “reforms.” The Labor party remains an archaic institution and appears to inspire less people every day. Support for the Greens is steady but climbing in some states. Robert Fisk made his first tour to the country (and returns next March.)

On a personal note, the year has been challenging. My book on Israel/Palestine is nearly finished and will be released in July next year through Melbourne University Publishing. My time in the Middle East - and constant, almost obsessive, threats - makes me even more determined to challenge the Zionist version of the conflict.

I’ve recently signed with Random House to write a book about the parlous state of the Australian media, the often corrosive impact of the US media and the curse of “insider” journalism. It will be released in 2007.

My regular column for growing online magazine New Matilda - and the positive emails I receive after nearly every article - has proven that there is an appetite for dissenting work in the Australian media.

After being appointed to the board of Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies, we intend to inject some humanity and diversity to the often one-dimensional, Orientalist and racist views of the Arab world and Islam present in Australian society.

There are a number of other projects in development and I should be able to confirm these early in 2006.

As for this humble blog, thanks for all the comments, thoughts and suggestions. I have a number of ideas to expand the site next year. Let’s all try to lower the abuse and increase the insights.

I’ll be back in the first days of the new year.

Peace to you all.

Never let it be said that car dealers don’t make great US ambassadors:

“The US embassy in London was forced to issue a correction yesterday to an interview given by the ambassador, Robert Tuttle, in which he claimed America would not fly suspected terrorists to Syria, which has one of the worst torture records in the Middle East. A statement acknowledged media reports of a suspect taken from the US to Syria.

“Torture is banned in the US but the CIA has been engaged in a policy of rendition, flying terrorist suspects to countries in the Middle East and other parts of the world where torture is commonplace.

“Although Mr Tuttle, a Beverly Hills car dealer and major donor to George Bush’s re-election campaign, has been ambassador in London only since the summer, he is proving to be accident-prone. Last month he vigorously denied British media reports that American forces used white phosphorus as a weapon in Iraq, only to be undercut by an admission from the Pentagon the next day.”

Nepotism is alive and well in the Bush administration. And so is outsourcing torture.

A headline in today’s Sydney Morning Herald reads: “Sharon may be ready to accept an independent Palestinian state“:

“The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, would turn over more territory to the Palestinians and accept an independent Palestinian state if elected to a third term, according to a draft platform of Mr Sharon’s Kadima party released yesterday.”

Sharon has not become a peace-maker, however. His definition of a Palestinian state is both inadequate and contradictory:

“But it still falls short of Palestinian demands, as Mr Sharon wants to keep control over all of Jerusalem, and has said he wants to retain large blocs of West Bank settlements. Yesterday Israel announced plans to expand two settlements there despite a ban on such construction in the US-led plan for peace with the Palestinians.”

While West Bank settlements continue to expand and checkpoints make life next to impossible for many occupied Palestinians, the SMH headline-writer clearly needs to read more widely than the syndicated news feeds.

Iran’s leading hard-line newspaper has called Iraq’s recent elections as “the creation of the first Islamist state in the Arab world.”

It went on:

“Of the 275 seats in Iraq’s new parliament, 140 will belong to pious Islamists, 60 will be occupied by Kurds with excellent ties with Iran, and 40 will belong to Sunni Arabs, most of whom want a sovereign, Islamist state.”

The Western nightmare continues.

Australia’s top spy is in the business of wishful thinking:

“New ASIO director-general Paul O’Sullivan has warned his spy network not to allow politics to colour their intelligence-gathering and to avoid overstepping their new counter-terrorism powers.

“As spy agencies around the world reel from accusations of political bias, Mr O’Sullivan has told the intelligence community “judgments need to be unbiased and not influenced by political considerations”.

“‘What the Government needs is balanced assessments that draw on both classified and unclassified information,’ he told 200 new spies from several security agencies in a speech.

“Western intelligence agencies have been heavily criticised in the past three years for being too beholden to their political masters.”

The intelligence services, especially in a post 9/11 world, have become increasingly politicised, to the point where governments only want to hear viewpoints from a certain political perspective. Lance Collins, former senior intelligence officer and now whistleblower, explains:

“The system is very heavily weighted to produce a certain answer that is acceptable to a certain political party and its agenda rather than the nation and its well-being.”

Australians are increasingly not seeing themselves on screen:

“Local television drama is set for a lean year, with network belt-tightening and timid programming adding to instability created by expected changes to media ownership laws.

“Viewers are being let down, said the head of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, with only a “patchy” schedule of local drama production in 2006.

“‘The trend of declining drama out of the networks and the desperate situation at the ABC means it’s very difficult to sustain independent production,’ Geoff Brown, said.

The three commercial networks are avoiding the risky returns on local dramas for a clear reason, he said, trying to clean up their books before changes to ownership laws.

“‘Even though they all deny it, they’re all up for sale,’ he said.”

It seems we can’t rely on private investment or government support of SBS and ABC. But then - and although it’s made in the UK - the League of Gentlemen might have to keep punters amused.

It seems like yesterday that Israel was being praised for bringing peace to the conflict. Now, perhaps, the world will realise the Jewish state’s true intentions.

The IDF now advocates collective punishment and the targeting of civilian areas in Gaza. Notwithstanding the failure of such policies in the past, the IDF suggests it may even cut off electricity so that Palestinians understand the meaning of Israeli might.

Seventy U.S. senators are calling on George Bush to tell Palestinian leaders that “Hamas and other groups that the United States wants terrorist organizations to disarm or be banned from upcoming Palestinian elections.” Again, dictating terms of democracy to a fledging state is a sure way to increase public support for Hamas. Besides, since when does the US or Israel have the right to tell the Palestinian people that only certain candidates are acceptable? Perhaps Abbas should actively campaign for the defeat of Ariel Sharon in the March Israeli elections.

Leading Israeli journalist Amira Hass reports on Israel’s enlightened view of dissent:

“Israel Defense Force soldiers confiscated documents belonging to the Committee for the Popular Struggle against the Separation Fence during a nighttime raid on the northern West Bank village of Qafin, a committee activist said yesterday. Apparently, the soldiers located the committee headquarters in a building search and seized documents and NIS 7,000 and 500 dinars from their offices, said the activist.”

Like the US - afraid of truly free elections across the Middle East due to the likelihood of Islamist parties taking power, as is happening in Iraq - Israel is trying to undermine free elections in Palestine. It is destined to fail on a number of levels. Open elections are impossible to conduct under occupation, though Palestinians will try and convince the world that they can while support for Hamas is partly related to the Palestinian Authority’s corruption and inefficiency.

Until the occupation finally ends, Palestinian “democracy” is little more than a smokescreen. Israel and the US must be so proud.

Haaretz, December 23:

“Cases of abuse of Palestinians, whether by soldiers or by settlers, have stopped making headlines in the press or eliciting shock. Nor do investigations of these incidents appear to be serious, and complaints are ignored until the story is either published in the media or dealt with by one of the human rights organizations active in the territories. This growing apathy can perhaps be attributed to the continuous satisfaction felt over the disengagement from Gaza, following which Israelis feel that the occupation is about to end. But, meanwhile, the occupation is continuing in all its severity, with all the abuses that have characterized it throughout the years.”

In my ongoing series of “guess what? The military lies”, Deutsche Welle reports on interesting times in Germany:

“The German ministry of defence has admitted that it is carrying out an internal inquiry into the possible extracting of information on suspected terrorists by Bundeswehr operatives posing as journalists in Bosnia.

“The confirmation of an inquiry on Wednesday, reported in the German media on Thursday, follows allegations that German soldiers attached to the United Nations mission in Bosnia had operated outside official army regulations and interviewed members of the public under a pretence.”

It is imperative that journalists remember their first duty - to tell the truth. As Robert Fisk says in the introduction to his new book, “The Great War for Civilisation“:

“[Journalists should] challenge authority - all authority - especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die.”