Antony Loewenstein

Last night I was on ABCTV News24′s The Drum (video here) talking climate change policy and the Gaza flotilla.

I argued that dwindling public support for real action on climate change was because too many of its backers refused to seriously engage with the general public and denigrated opponents. Labeling “deniers” akin to Holocaust deniers is not the way to win the argument. Besides, as somebody who recognises the damage caused by climate change, it’s heart-breaking to see the Australian government so utterly incapable of prosecuting an argument, speaking of “reform agendas” without being able to convince the public that lack of action is too dangerous for our future. Inner city folk spend too much time speaking to each other (and yes, I live in the inner city).

There’s a false discussion in Australia about which major political party is a better economic manager when in fact they both subscribe to the same neo-liberal policies that have only entrenched the divide between rich and poor. Little dissent from this line is ever heard, and the media perpetuates the lie.

The Gaza flotilla was discussed and I supported the right of global citizens to highlight Israel’s illegal blockade and occupation of Gaza. Thanks to Sydney reporter Kate Ausburn for transcribing some of my comments:

…there are profound restrictions on equipment getting in [to Gaza]. … the idea somehow that the Flotilla is designed to support Hamas, which is exactly what the Israeli government say, is nonsense. It is about highlighting to the world, in a way where governments have failed, that Israel occupies Gaza, and more importantly continues to persecute people collectively, which is illegal under international law for that very reason.

Speaking on Israel’s threat to journalists taking part in the Flotilla to cover the story that they could have their equipment seized and receive a ten year ban on entering Israel:

I think the issue of the journalists being threatened is very clear. It is because they are petrified of a different narrative emerging. Last year when there were countless activists who were filming what happened, all the equipment was taken and destroyed, or at least not given back, and the idea this time is they only want to have one narrative which is that Israel has the right to board the ships. You shouldn’t forget one final thing, Israel boarded the ships last year in international waters, so which is essentially an act of piracy.

Israel has reversed the ham-fisted policy of banning reporters but it’s the sign of a Zionist state that only knows how to threaten (here’s yet another recent example of an Israeli hoax, this time a gay man supposedly opposing the flotilla, that has turned into a complete Israeli PR debacle).

I appeared tonight on ABCTV News’ The Drum (video here) talking about Osama Bin Laden’s murder and its ramifications, alongside Australian Financial Review journalist David Crowe, US Studies Centre Dr Pete Hatemi (formerly in the US military post 9/11) and former CNN correspondent Michael Ware (here’s partial video of the show, mainly featuring the intrepid Ware).

My main theme was highlighting the significance of Bin Laden’s death, and both his importance and irrelevance in 2011. The attacks on September 11 quickly ushered in a Western world obsessed with beefing up intelligence, military spending and foreign wars. The result? None of us are any safer, millions of people are dead and Western forces remain in many Muslim countries. The “war on terror” has been an unmitigated disaster that many in our political and media elites still embrace.

Bin Laden’s failures include a brutal methodology that understandably turned off most people (he killed scores of Muslims, after all). Today the strongest Islamic resistance movements are Hamas, Hizbollah and within the Islamic Republic, all with various roots in political and social sections of societies. Furthermore, the recent Arab uprisings have shown how unappealing was the ideology of Al-Qaeda. Millions of Arabs embraced change, some secular and some religious, and this was achieved despite Western wishes to maintain the status-quo and Bin Laden becoming almost irrelevant in this newfound and necessary resistance.

The celebration of Bin Laden’s death across America shows the infantile nature of mainstream US culture. We are good and They are Evil. I wish I was convinced this death will do anything to change this childish narrative.

I concluded on the program asking what kind of super-power (and its media courtiers) views a man, living in a luxury compound in Pakistan without phone or internet, as the most dangerous figure in the world?

Incidentally, after the show I was talking to Ware about his current projects. He has seen a number of Al-Qaeda videos, some of which have appeared on CNN, and he says they show the terrorist group is “more bureaucratic than the Nazis or the Khmer Rouge”, individuals obsessed with sending memos and following a strict code.

I appeared last night on ABCTV News 24′s The Drum alongside ABC journalist Marius Benson and lobbyist Sue Cato (video here).

While China, we learn via Wikileaks, ignores Australia’s supposed concerns for human rights, I asked if Prime Minister Julia Gillard actually cared about human rights as there had been no public comments from her after this week’s Guantanamo Bay files on countless innocent prisoners tortured by the world’s super-power. US crimes are not abuses in the eyes of our political and media elites. The words “human rights” are used as a political weapon as opposed to being something to cherish. Gillard’s current trip to China is solely about trade and military ties. Can the media and politicians be honest about this, please?

We discussed the alleged medical experimentation in Guantanamo Bay and the doctors complicit in the process. Both David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib have accused the US of doing this to them and yet we still don’t take their allegations seriously; how much did the Australian government know?

Finally, the UN report on war crimes in Sri Lanka during the country’s civil war (the massive allegations have unsurprisingly been denied by Colombo). The fact that up to 40,000 innocents may have been murdered by Sri Lanka (and far less by the Tamil Tigers) requires a robust and international trial. I called on Australia and the global community to back a transparent inquiry (a position supported by a Guardian editorial). Like the Goldstone report into Israeli and Hamas crimes, this latest UN investigation warrants the most serious response, despite China, the US, the West and Australia all likely to not show much enthusiasm.

Sadly, Canberra is more concerned about working with Colombo to stop poor Tamils getting onto boats and coming to Australia. So much for our priority ever being human rights accountability.

Some background here and here.

I feature near the beginning, talking about how the West allows the Zionist state to get away with its occupying ways.

Background here and here.

Last night I was a guest on ABC TV News24′s The Drum to discuss issues of the day (video here).

Foreign issues were front and centre.

America’s Kill Team in Afghanistan – US troops murdering civilians for fun – is just the latest example of occupiers in inhospitable lands treating those they’re supposed to protect with contempt. It happened in Vietnam – calling Vietnamese gooks – and today in the Muslim world they’re named towelheads. Indeed, as I said, there are countless examples of American soldiers since 9/11 explaining – especially during the largely ignored Winter Soldier hearings in 2008 – what they did to Iraqis and Afghans; often dehumanising and smearing them.

Liberation, indeed.

In Syria, President Assad has tried to appease pro-democracy protesters by offering to “reform”. But Damascus isn’t a US client state so therefore far less able to be pressured by Washington. Furthermore, Israel would much rather Assad remain in power (Zionism always needs a bogeyman). I argued that anybody predicting the Middle East at the moment was a fool but it was clear real democracy in Syria would be most welcome. Of course, the West would create the Islamist monster to scare us all.

Finally, Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has called for a welfare to work plan that would force those on the lowest incomes to earn their keep. The issue here isn’t just that this is the easiest, tabloid-friendly policy – look, get those dole-bludgers to work! – but that it comes after similar plans were tried and failed in the Northern Territory intervention, a policy opposed by most indigenous leaders. I said that the best way to raise far more money by the state was to tax the rich on a much higher rate. They can afford it.

Why does the mainstream media report as it does? Corporate pressure? Reporter laziness? Set narrative?

A few months ago a few of us here in Sydney discussed the idea of a Democracy Now! show in Australia, a progressive and critical look at the world, views so often ignored by the MSM.

Sydney University’s Jake Lynch took the lead and today the first edition of News Goo is released by New Matilda. It’s (hopefully) the first of many episodes. More original reporting will happen, slicker presentation etc but the idea is to challenge even the so-called liberal media and presenters (like the invaluable Medialens does in the UK) on their prejudices and blindness:

The program’s name comes from a rap by Polarity1, which contains the lines, “the more we watch, the less we know”. This is something we’ve all felt from time to time, sitting in front of a TV screen — but is it true? If so, how come? And how could it be different?

In the launch edition of News Goo, Jake interviews Julian Burnside QC, and the journalist, author and film-maker John Pilger, about the investigative journalism of Wikileaks. They ask why Australia’s media have been so slow to follow up on important leads from the Wikileaks disclosures, like the unmasking of Senator Mark Arbib as a US “protected source”.

It’s presented with the dry wit that NM readers have come to know from Jake’s regular columns. Features include the “elephant in the room” — complete with picture and sound effects — as the spotlight falls on obvious angles left persistently unreported. And Welsh crooner Tom Jones is on hand to remind us of the most neglected question in journalism: “Why, why why, Delilah?”

The program also takes a closer look at the ABC’s relaunched 7.30, with Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann, and its investigation of Australia’s rusting fleet of naval vessels. Interviewed in the studio, Dr Hannah Middleton of the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition, says it continues a pattern in ABC reporting, of nitpicking over the details of “defence” spending, while ignoring the case for reducing military budgets overall.

And Jake is joined by the author and journalist, Antony Loewenstein, to discuss Channel Ten’s 6PM with George Negus. A “pre-emptive buckle” prevents journalists from spelling out the facts about Israel and Palestine, Loewenstein says — which is why so many programs end up, like 6PM, rehashing the same set of clichéd angles and treatments — despite its claims to be “new and different”.

News Goo is produced by a team of experienced professionals, giving freely of their time and expertise. Like the rest of New Matilda’s coverage, it depends on YOUR SUPPORT! If you would like to see further episodes of News Goo in the future, please make your donation here.

Jake Lynch left his TV career to become Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Sydney Peace Foundation, which staged the Wikileaks event in Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday 16 March.

This happened:

The Palestinian national soccer team faced Thailand on Wednesday in an Olympic qualifying match deep in symbolism: It’s the first time the Palestinians have hosted a competitive match at the international level, and for excited fans in this conflict-ridden area, it marks an important step in their struggle for independence.

Following a 1-0 loss in the first leg in Bangkok, the Palestinian team needs to score at least two goals at Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in the West Bank town of Al-Ram to advance to the next round in regulation. The Palestinians scored the first goal Wednesday just before halftime.

The game means much more to the home team than merely wins and losses.

“The world now will see Palestine in different eyes, in sports eyes,” said Jibril Rajoub, a former West Bank strongman who now heads the Palestinian soccer union. “This is a new launch for the Palestinian people toward freedom and independence.”

Last night I was interviewed on Channel 10 TV’s Sports Tonight (yes, my first appearance on a sports show about anything!) talking about the importance of the game but reminding people that Palestine was still occupied by Israel.

During my recent appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India I was interviewed by TehelkaTV, one of the country’s leading current affairs magazines (my recent article with them about the Egyptian uprising is here).

We talked about the Middle East, why the Tunisian revolution would spread and the rise of dissenting Jewish voices:

Why is it acceptable for Australians to donate money (and receive tax deductions) to illegal settlements in the West Bank but the Australian government isn’t able to openly provide aid to citizens living under the rule of Hamas and Hizbollah? The corruption of international aid by politics. Here’s an interesting report on PressTV and my interview:

I recently attended the Jaipur Literature Festival in India and moderated a session with three men who know something about war and conflict. Brit Rory Stewart, New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson and the Washington Post’s David Finkel.

The video of the event is now online (the sound and picture aren’t perfectly in sync but you’ll get the idea).

I was a guest on last night’s ABCTV News 24′s The Drum alongside Sue Cato and the Daily Telegraph’s Joe Hilderbrand (video here).

One of the main areas of discussion was the Egyptian revolution and just how good it felt. I argued that it was vital for us in the West to understand that Egypt’s “stability” was simply about repressing its own people, assisting Israel in its occupation of the Palestinians and maintaining the illegal siege on Gaza. So much for “moderation”. Furthermore, Washington isn’t seen as a neutral broker, of course; they’re complicit in decades of violence.

Islamism must not be so feared. Not every Islamist is an al-Qaeda member. Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood should be engaged. One of the great failings of Western policy post 9/11 has been its unwillingness to see political Islam as anything other than a threat. The result is the lessening of American influence in the Middle East by so slavishly following Israel’s racism towards the Arabs. This is something I welcome but these facts need to be stated over and over again.

I also stressed that Australia had no right to speak about the rule of rule when it’s now clear that Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was tortured in Egypt, by Mubarak’s thugs including Omar Suleiman, in the years after 9/11. Is there anything Canberra won’t do to please Washington?

Finally, the reporter behind last night’s Wikileaks/Bradley Manning story on ABC TV’s 4 Corners talked about the complex web of intrigue around the case, highlighting the fact that Manning should be seen as a true hero, if he was indeed the one who leaked all this information (that’s my view, not the one expressed by the journalist on air).