A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

The PA’s push for recognition of a Palestinian state is the diplomatic counterpart to its much-touted “institution-building” and “economic development” efforts which are supposed to create the infrastructure for a future state.
But the institution-building program is nothing more than a mirage, boosted by public relations tricks and good press.
In fact, the main “institutions” the PA has built are the police-state and militia apparatuses used to repress political opposition to the PA and any form of resistance to Israeli occupation. Meanwhile the economy of the West Bank, and the PA itself, remain completely dependent on foreign aid.
UN recognition of a Palestinian make-believe state would be no more meaningful than this fantasy “institution-building”, and could push Palestinians even further away from real liberation and self-determination.
Figures from the Ramallah-based PA have justified their UN recognition strategy as a way to bring international pressure to bear on Israel.
“Such recognition would create political and legal pressure on Israel to withdraw its forces from the land of another state that is recognised with the [1967] borders,” Ramallah ‘foreign minister’ Riyad al-Malki told reporters in January.
Similarly, Nabil Shaath, a top Fatah official, explained to the New York Times that if a Palestinian state were recognised by the UN: “Israel would then be in daily violation of the rights of a fellow member state and diplomatic and legal consequences could follow, all of which would be painful for Israel.”
But can anyone who has seen how the “international community” functions when it comes to Israel believe such delusional expectations?

The largest single customer for computing goods and services, the United States government, endorsed the cloud model this year. Vivek Kundra, the White House chief information officer, wrote a “Federal Cloud Computing Strategy” report, and identified $20 billion, or one quarter of the government’s total spending on information technology, as “a potential target” for migration to the cloud.
That document has certainly caught the attention of the government’s technology suppliers, like Lockheed Martin, the largest. “We’re keenly focused on cloud computing,” said Melvin Greer, a senior fellow at Lockheed Martin.

The International mission in Libya appeared to be running out of momentum yesterday as Barack Obama admitted the situation on the ground had reached a military “stalemate” and France conceded a new UN resolution might be necessary to oust Muammar Gaddafi from power.
As the regime’s rockets continued to hit the beleaguered rebel town of Misrata and Nato forces struck Colonel Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, France and Britain were still struggling to persuade other members of the organisation to provide additional warplanes. A meeting of member countries in Berlin yesterday broke up without any guarantee that military leaders would get the new resources they have asked for.
Mr Obama insisted that Colonel Gaddafi would ultimately be forced from power. But France’s call for attacks to begin on strategic logistical targets that have previously been off-limits emphasised that parts of the coalition have become resigned to the idea that the status quo offers no prospect of the rapid victory that had been hoped for.

From the Forward, a vile statement by a “liberal” equating the struggle for equal rights for a minority with “genocide.” It’s a piece on the group Jewish Voice for Peace, headed by Rebecca Vilkomerson.
“It is troubling that Judaism and support for Israel have become so inextricably linked,” Vilkomerson said at the New York event. “We are trying to create a space in the Jewish world where we can express our criticism as Jews without needing to apologize for ourselves.”
“That is a distinction that even many liberals do not embrace….Ben Cohen, a writer who has focused on American Jewish responses to Israel, [says], “But it is clear that many of their members dream about one state, and for those of us under the communal tent, one state is a code word for genocide.”
Who is Ben Cohen? It says here he is the Associate Director of Communications for the American Jewish Committee. Why is Adam Horowitz not quoted in that article? Or Max Blumenthal? Or Antony Loewenstein? Or Naomi Klein? Or Norman Finkelstein? Or Donna Nevel? Or Jane Hirshmann? Or Lillian Rosengarten? Or Gail Miller? Or Anna Baltzer?
Do you understand what the Forward is doing here? Do you see whom they have granted a platform? Newspapers make choices all the time. I challenge the Forward not to grant such a platform to fear and hatred, I challenge it to make room for non-Zionist voices, and to have a forum to debate whether even notioning one-state is genocide.

Sadly, in Australia we have seen exactly the same kind of Zionist advocacy, with Zionist lawyer George Newhouse shamefully writing this week that the NSW Greens support “genocide” by advocating a one-state solution (which they don’t, by the way; official Greens policy is a two-state solution).
Such comments pass without comment in the corporate mainstream.

Right-wing union boss Joe de Bruyn has joined a backlash of trade unionists angry at a decision by Greens councillors to impose a commercial boycott of Israel.
As NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell warned Sydney’s Marrickville Council of possible consequences if it did not rescind the ban, Mr de Bruyn said the proposal was further evidence the Greens were an “extremist party”.
The national secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union said a boycott of Israel was not in the union’s interest.
“Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” Mr de Bruyn said. “To put a boycott on Israel sounds to me to be totally the wrong way around.”

De Bruyn is the enlightened soul who opposes gay marriage.
The Sydney Morning Herald shows that even supposedly principled Greens can sometimes prefer rhetoric to action, especially when it comes to Palestine. Courage is sorely lacking:

Marrickville’s controversial boycott of Israel is on the verge of collapse after a Greens councillor withdrew his support yesterday. Any boycott will now rely on the support of Labor, which is in doubt.
As the Foreign Affairs Minister, Kevin Rudd, joined a growing response of condemnation and the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, threatened to sack the council, the Greens councillor Max Phillips confirmed he would vote against putting the boycott into practice.
It also emerged that the Greens mayor, Fiona Byrne, had received death threats. The NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said Cr Byrne had received the threats and the council’s stance on Israel had shown courage.
Mr Phillips said that although he supported Palestinian human rights he did not think the boycott was the way to go. ”I had unease initially about the [boycott] when first moved in December, and this unease has grown in listening to the local community,” he said.
”I will not be voting for any kind of boycott at the meeting on Tuesday night. This issue must be put to rest.”
He expected at least one other Greens councillor to join him.
The policy was adopted in principle at a meeting in December with the support of five Greens, one independent and four Labor councillors. Two independents voted against it.
On Tuesday the council will vote on what practical form a boycott would take. Any motion supporting the boycott will now need Labor support to pass.
One Labor councillor, Emanuel Tsardoulias, has already confirmed he will not support it. Yesterday he said he expected his counterparts to join him at a weekend caucus meeting, though they could not be reached to confirm this.
Cr Phillips said local Greens groups had drafted a proposal to the NSW Greens calling for support for the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel to be rescinded, pending a review.
”With the benefit of hindsight there should have been a much more thorough debate on this issue before it was adopted by the NSW Greens and moved on Marrickville Council,” he said.

The Herald’s editorial is seemingly written by a five-year-old child. Advocating for Palestine is a joke, you see, and Zionist occupation will simply disappear by writing countless meaningless articles about a “peace process”: