A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

Obama admin pleased that Netanyahu refuses to acknowledge Zionist racism

Posted: 24 May 2011

 
Really:

White House spokesman Jay Carney expressed satisfaction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Congress addressand his commitment to peace. The White House is satisfied with the commitment Netanyahu expressed for the two-state vision, Carney said.
Ben Rhodes, a senior official in the US National Security Council who is currently touring Europe with President Barack Obama, also praised Netanyahu’s speech. He noted that he himself would not equate Hamas with al-Qaeda but could not help agree with the comparison.
Senator John McCain tweeted “Just left strong speech by Israeli PM Netanyahu. America stands with Israel and always will.”
Netanyahu declared “Israel will be generous about the size of the Palestinian state” but stressed he will not accept the right of return, will not divide Jerusalem and will insist on military presence along the Jordan River.

Netanyahu could advocate ethnic cleansing and US Congress would salute him

Posted: 24 May 2011

Australian Zionist organisation refuses to truly engage on BDS

Posted: 24 May 2011

Yet another story of the mainstream Jewish establishment attempting to shut down open debate on the most controversial issues. Certain, set boundaries are established around these discussions and the Zionist lobby polices them vigorously. Of course the effect is the general public seeing Jews once again trying to censor issues such as BDS and ongoing Zionist occupation of Palestine. This is in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

A Sydney festival celebrating ”the broad diversity of opinions within the wider Jewish community” has banned two speakers because they supported Marrickville Council’s ill-fated boycott of Israel.
The University of NSW academic Peter Slezak, from Independent Australian Jewish Voices, and Vivienne Porzsolt, from Jews Against the Occupation – Sydney, were told by email they were no longer welcome to address the Limmud-Oz festival next month, due to their ”active and vocal involvement” in the proposed boycott at Marrickville.
However, organisers said the three-day festival of Jewish learning and creativity would not ”shy away from tough issues”.
The issue of the boycott will still be the topic of at least two sessions, while others would tackle ”challenging points of view”.
Dr Slezak, who had been invited to speak at the event for the second time, said the decision reflected the Jewish community’s ”hysterical” reaction to Marrickville planning to join the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) against Israel.
He addressed the topic at the council’s meeting when it abandoned the policy last month. ”I argued that even people who are opposed to BDS should stand up for Marrickville Council against the unprecedented campaign of denunciation and bullying.”
In a statement provided by the Shalom Institute program director, Michael Misrachi, organisers said they decided to rule out presenters who advocated the boycott because it undermined the event’s engagement with Israeli academic and artistic institutions and their representatives.
”This is not about censorship, nor are we seeking to stifle dissenting views. Limmud-Oz is proud of the principles of pluralism and inclusiveness which guide us and Limmuds around the world,” it read.
Mr Misrachi confirmed Dr Slezak and Ms Porzsolt’s names were removed from the list of speakers on the event’s website following complaints.
Two other speakers have since pulled out of the festival in protest at the ban, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
Ms Porzsolt, who said she would still attend the festival, told organisers in an email they had misrepresented the boycott, and asked them to reconsider.
”My proposed workshop was not even on BDS … The exclusion of me as a person for the ideas I hold generally, and not because of the topic of my workshop, smacks of excommunication,” it read.
The chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, said it endorsed the decision of the Shalom Institute.

Serco must face the music and accountability forced upon it

Posted: 23 May 2011

 
The role of British multinational Serco in Australia is a murky affair. How much money is the federal government giving them? Can the media and general public get reliable answers from them? Hardly.
Yesterday’s Australian editorial touched on this (but of course didn’t acknowledge that inserting the profit motive into detention centres distorts the system):

Some criticism has focused on Serco, the private operators of detention facilities, but whether they are run by the public or private sector, the government is responsible for ensuring the centres deliver the appropriate security, care and safety for detainees, workers and visitors.

The feature story in this week’s Green Left Weekly details these issues in a far deeper way:

Before visiting the Curtin detention centre in far-north Western Australia in early April as part of a solidarity convoy, Victoria Martin-Iverson told Green Left Weekly she knew the conditions would be grim.
“This is a humanitarian and psychiatric crisis,” she said. “We charge a private company with the responsibility of delivering services to people in detention, but they cut costs every way and anyway they can.
“It makes a profit off the misery of asylum seekers, off the illegal imprisonment of people who have not committed or been charged with a crime.”
…
When a private corporation is concentrating on profit, it will always cut costs and staffing, and will suppress vital information to avoid fines and maintain its contract. It is fundamentally wrong to outsource the detention of vulnerable people who seek and need protection.
If the government refuses to investigate, it is harder for the public to know what is taking place and how to fight it.
But refugees know, and they are trying very hard to tell the public.

Glimpses of Israeli occupation in leading Murdoch space

Posted: 23 May 2011

 
Now and then, the Australian Murdoch press features a story about Zionist occupation that reveals deep truths about what Palestinians are living through. Their main website (in the travel section) ran the following piece about Hebron yesterday:

Mohammed Saadeq has had rocks, bleach and even dead rats thrown at his home but so far it hasn’t put off visitors from coming to stay at his small B&B in Hebron’s Old City.
It’s an adventurous move in an area that is hardly a tourist haven, located in the middle of a tightly controlled Israeli enclave called H2, where 400 hardline Jewish settlers live in the middle of a local population of 6000.
But since the tiny bed-and-breakfast opened its doors just two months ago, its two rooms have been fully booked, bringing the Saadeq family a welcome source of income in an area where 76 per cent of the population live under the poverty line.
Like hundreds of Palestinians in H2, Saadeq’s closest neighbours are settlers who live in the Avraham Avinu settlement, which faces directly on to his one-storey home and overlooks the narrow alleys where the souk is located.
…
This area, once the thriving heart of Hebron, is now a ghost town. More than 1800 shops have closed down, mostly due to Israeli restrictions on movement, while others have been sealed shut by military order.
For Saadeq, the surreal reality that is Hebron’s H2 offers an unusual way to eke out a living – and it is a reality that does not look set to change any time soon.

US moderation towards Palestinians not tolerated

Posted: 23 May 2011

 
Indeed:

State Department diplomat Nelson Milstrand, who appeared on CNN last week and offered an informed, thoughtful analysis implying that Israel could perhaps exercise more restraint toward Palestinian moderates in disputed territories, was asked to resign Tuesday. “The United States deeply regrets any harm Mr. Milstrand’s careful, even-tempered, and factually accurate remarks may have caused our democratic partner in the Middle East,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an unequivocal condemnation of the veteran foreign-service officer’s perfectly reasonable statements. “U.S. policy toward Israel continues to be one of unconditional support and fawning sycophancy.” Milstrand, 63, will reportedly appear at an AIPAC conference to offer a full apology as soon as his trial concludes and his divorce is finalized