A. Loewenstein Oline Newsletter

Too much to expect Murdoch press to cover BDS fairly? It’s Nazi Germany folks!

Posted: 23 Aug 2011

Yet another article in a long line of pieces in the Australian media – this time in Murdoch’s Adelaide Advertiser – that obscures the real issue behind BDS against Israel. The photo caption is wrong (there is no person called “Max Brenner”), the word “occupation” is absent and the real reason activists are protesting Max Brenner ain’t in there, either.
Nice work, hacks:

To Palestinians it is the final option against an oppressive invader, to Israelis it is a racist policy conducted by a blood-thirsty enemy from within.
The decision by pro-Palestinian groups to protest for a boycott of Israeli businesses, such as cosmetic store Seacret in Rundle Mall, has polarised public opinion and shown that the tentacles of the dispute are so widespread that it has reached the far corners of the world, even Adelaide.
The Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFPA) regularly has been picketing Seacret, and are buoyed by news a coalition of anti-Israeli groups has been targeting chocolate shop chain Max Brenner in the eastern states.
…
Jewish Community Council of South Australia President Norman Schueler calls the campaign “pointless” and claims it has actually promoted sales in SA for Seacret.
“When the BDS campaign unfolded during the last NSW election it showed the extent it had backfired,” he said. “If taken to the enth degree you would have to boycott so much; personal computers because they have Intel chips in them, medicines, equipment, communications, Australia would be ground to a halt.”
He said most “reasonable” people realised Israel was not the aggressor in the Middle East and showed their support for the businesses under boycott by buying their products.
“Israel is the underdog in this conflict, it is surrounded by enemies who are hell bent on the destruction of Israel.
“The charters of some of these countries have so much ill-will that we can never make peace with them, even though we are quite prepared to do so.”
…
However, Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce South Australian President Allen Bolaffi condemned the boycotts.
He said such practices reminded him of the boycotting of Jewish businesses in Germany under Nazi rule.
“It is quite abhorrent, Australians will not relent to such behaviour,” he said. “If you have a political issue, take it to a political forum.
“We will defend anyone’s right to protest but it has to be channelled to the right place.”
He said he did not expect Adelaide boycotts to be as widespread as the eastern states.
“People here are a bit more respectful.”
AFPA co-founder Moammar Mashni said it was time for stronger measures against Israel – which he believes is guilty of crimes against humanity.
“We are boycotting against the companies who say their products are `Made in Israel’ when in fact the natural resource is actually being extracted from Palestinian land,” he said.
“It is a blatant violation.”
Max Brenner himself, whose real name is Oded Brenner, is a 43-year-old Israeli-born and New York-based pastry chef and chocolate maker whose only obvious personal connection to the Israeli military was the fact that he, like other Israeli men, had to complete mandatory military service as a young man.

Obama is a proud war president; US troops to remain in Afghanistan for years

Posted: 23 Aug 2011

Occupation Inc:

Although the Obama administration has made much of the fact that U.S. forces are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, it clearly has no intention of leaving that war-ravaged country to its own devices. In fact, plans are afoot to keep as many as 25,000 American troops in Afghanistan for at least a decade longer than the official deadline, according to the Daily Telegraph. “America and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024,” the London newspaper reports. “The agreement would allow not only military trainers to stay to build up the Afghan army and police, but also American special forces soldiers and air power to remain.” Both sides hope to seal the deal by December.
Some observers have commented that, in short, the American empire is not about to relinquish control over one of its satrapies. As former Indian diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar observed, “The ‘hidden agenda’ of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan can no longer be disowned. Quite obviously, the U.S. intends to plunge into the ‘great game’ in Central Asia.”

Romance of Hamas dwindling in Gaza?

Posted: 23 Aug 2011

When I was in Gaza in mid 2009, life was difficult for the residents due to the Israeli and Egyptian imposed siege. Outright hatred for Hamas was rare.
Times may be changing:

A budding middle class in the impoverished Gaza Strip is flaunting its wealth, sipping coffee at gleaming new cafes, shopping for shoes at the new tiny shopping malls, and fueling perhaps the most acrimonious grass roots resentment yet toward the ruling Hamas movement.
This middle class, which has become visible at the same time as a mini-construction boom in this blockaded territory, is celebrating its weddings in opulent halls and vacationing in newly built beach bungalows. That level of consumption may be modest by Western standards, but it’s in startling contrast to the grinding poverty of most Gazans, who rely on UN food handouts to get by.
Some of the well-off are Hamas loyalists. That rankles many Gaza residents because the conservative Islamic movement gained popularity by tending to the poor, through charitable aid, education and medical care – along with its armed struggle against Israel.
“Hamas has become rich at the expense of the people,” fumed a 22-year-old seamstress, Nisrine, as she stitched decorative applique onto a dress. She wouldn’t disclose her family name, not wanting to be seen criticizing the militant group.
Gaza’s Hamas government denies its loyalists have gotten wealthy since the group came to power. Corruption “doesn’t touch us,” said Hamas official Yusef Rizka.
But others – even those close to Hamas – say the militant group must pay attention. “There is a nouveau riche that has followed the rise of the government,” said Alaa Araj, a former Gaza economic minister and businessman considered close to Hamas. “We must sound the alarm,” he said. “(Resentment) is growing in Gaza.”

Just which privatised forces are helping Libya feel “liberated”?

Posted: 23 Aug 2011

Very few media outlets are reporting this but I’ve been hearing rumours for months that a privatised force – paid by the US, British and NATO? – are operating with very few if any rules of engagement. Welcome to the future of conflict. The London Independentreports:

The Berber rebels in the Nafusa Mountains to the west of Tripoli have played a key role in the endgame of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. What has received less publicity is the small but vital part played in that offensive by British intelligence officials, who from their seat in the Libyan highlands have been advising the rebel leadership on the strategy behind their final assault.
Since 19 March – when the Royal Navy launched cruise missiles on Libyan air-defence targets, followed the next day by attacks by Royal Air Force Tornado jets – Britain has placed itself in the front ranks of Western powers enforcing the United Nations resolution protecting civilians from Colonel Gaddafi’s forces and simultaneously pursuing the Brother Leader’s removal from power.
While the Ministry of Defence has been diligent in providing daily updates on the progress of “Operation Ellamy”, the British codename for its £250m part in the Nato campaign in Libya, a quieter London-sponsored offensive has been taking place on the ground for six months, involving an army of diplomats, spooks, military advisers and former members of the special forces.
One British intelligence operative in the Nafusa Mountains had previously been deployed elsewhere in Libya, including the besieged city of Misrata, part of attempts by London to influence events in Libya beyond the activities of warplanes and naval vessels.
It is a clandestine operation that got off to a spectacularly inauspicious start in March when seven SAS soldiers and an MI6 officer were detained by militia members outside the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, during a botched mission to make contact with anti-Gaddafi leaders. Since then, the British auxiliary efforts have been conducted more clandestinely.
A British diplomatic source said: “From quite an early stage there has been a view that Gaddafi’s stranglehold would only be broken if there were practical measures on the ground as well as the air campaign. We are not talking legions of SAS crawling through the undergrowth. What we are talking about is offering expertise, diplomatic support and allowing others to be helpful.”
The “others” in question are the small groups of former special forces operatives, many with British accents, working for private security firms who have been seen regularly by reporters in the vanguard of the rebels’ haphazard journey from Benghazi towards Tripoli.
These small detachments of Caucasian males, equipped with sunglasses, 4×4 vehicles and locally acquired weaponry, do not welcome prying eyes, not least because their presence threatened to give credence to the Gaddafi regime’s claims that the rebel assault was being directed by Western fifth-columnists.
Amid frustration and even disdain in British and Allied circles about the ragtag nature of much of the Libyan rebel army – whose reputation as fair-weather fighters proved to be literal in April when two days of rainfall halted their offensive – London has been content for the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council to use funds to buy in ex-SAS men and others with a British military background to help train and advise anti-Gaddafi forces.
The Independent understands that the contracts for the security companies, often signed in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have involved funds provided by Western countries to the NTC, although much of the money has come from previously frozen regime bank accounts and assets.
The coalition, including Britain, France and Italy, has also funded high-tech equipment used by rebel fighters to communicate their position to Nato commanders as they plot the air strikes that have helped to tilt the balance against Colonel Gaddafi’s demoralised military forces. Since March, British forces have destroyed 890 targets in Libya, including 180 tanks or armoured vehicles and 395 buildings.
But it is arguably in the arena of post-conflict planning that the British have been most active. In the wake of last month’s decision by London to recognise the NTC as the de facto government of Libya, expelling pro-Gaddafi diplomats in London, the UK mission to Benghazi is now the second largest in North Africa. Diplomats have been engaged in drawing up a blueprint for a post-Gaddafi Libya, including humanitarian aid, help with policing, governance and reform of the military. The prize of being seen as a “friend” in a stable, oil-rich Libya is considerable.
 

Western backing for Libyan “rebels” has nothing to do with oil, not at all

Posted: 23 Aug 2011

Roll up to see “liberal” Australian Zionist power-broker ignore occupation

Posted: 23 Aug 2011

The Australian Zionist lobby has spent years demonising Arabs, Palestinians and moderate Jews in the name of “saving Zionism”. The effect? A Jewish state with a serious image problem. That’s money well spent, people.
Now, a more “moderate” Zionist lobbyist is around, Albert Dadon. There’s nothing really different here – “we want peace”, he says, “we really love Palestinians” and “we’re happy to take politicians and journalists on a propaganda trip to Zionist paradise” – but his piece in today’s Murdoch Australian is a gem:

Fortunately, Julia Gillard, whose moral clarity on the Middle East was first evident when she backed Israel in its war against Hamas in December 2008, is reportedly at odds with Rudd’s view [to abstain from the forthcoming UN vote on Palestine]
Fourth, a yes vote at the UN General Assembly will be nothing but a Pyrrhic victory for the Palestinians. Why? Because full membership requires the backing of the 15-member Security Council and the US has already stated its intention to veto the proposal.
So what the Palestinians will likely end up with is the status of a non-member state, an upgrade from its observer status but a step short of full membership, which requires a two-thirds majority of the 193 countries in the General Assembly. Abbas will achieve a toothless resolution in the General Assembly with no legal force.
…
Finally, an abstention by Australia’s envoy to the UN would be (mis)construed by the Greens — and their leftist allies — as a victory.
For despite Bob Brown’s public statements, among his growing ranks are those who try to disguise their anti-Israel vitriol under the veneer of progressive politics.
The newly elected senator for NSW, Lee Rhiannon, is the quintessential case in point. She openly defended Marrickville Council’s ill-fated support for the Israel boycott, a campaign that has morphed into the targeting of Max Brenner chocolate shops across Australia.
Make no mistake. Factions of this mob of anti-Israel protesters — some of whom are due in court next month for breaching bail conditions after they were initially arrested in the melee outside Max Brenner in Melbourne on July 1 — are red, not green.
One of their chants reveals their true colour: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
This is straight out of the Hamas song sheet and is not-so-subtle code for the elimination of Israel and, in its place, a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.
Moreover, what is so galling is their rank hypocrisy. Where are the mass protests about the slaughter of innocents in Syria, or Libya, or Egypt? Their silence about these crimes is deafening.
Optimists hope that this act of unilateralism by the Palestinians will help resuscitate the stillborn peace process because the alternative is much worse. But it’s a forlorn hope.

Dadon and his friends will come to regret such pointless vitriol. No path to ending the occupation (no mention of it, actually) and a message straight out of the Israeli government.
How’s that two-state solution dream coming along, Zionists?
 

If you thought Murdoch couldn’t corrupt the British political process any further…

Posted: 23 Aug 2011

He could:

The Electoral Commission is to be urged to hold an investigation into whether Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire was covertly funding the Conservative Party while David Cameron was leader of the opposition.
The call from the Labour MP Tom Watson, who has played the lead role in uncovering the telephone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s former newspaper the News of the World, follows a BBC revelation about large payments to David Cameron’s former spin doctor, Andy Coulson
 

Donald Trump imperial logic; take Libyan oil

Posted: 23 Aug 2011