A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• My reaction to 9/11 didn’t turn into desire to murder Arabs Posted: 11 Sep 2011 I was interviewed last week by Radio Farda, Iranian Branch of Radio Free Europe, on my attitudes toward 9/11 and the subsequent decade. My answers were translated into Farsi so my English responses are below: 1) Do you remember how and where you got the info on 9/11? I was in Melbourne, Australia and I remember normal TV programming being interrupted with the news that a plane had crashed into New York’s Twin Towers. At first, like most people, I had no idea what was going on but this soon changed. From day one, the Australian Prime Minister, who happened to be in America at the time, mirrored the rhetoric coming from the Bush White House, namely we believe in a military solution to this “war on terror”. Little has changed practically since then, except the rhetoric. 2) Did you cover the news o n your site, journal or blog? I didn’t have a blog and nor was I journalist. 3) In your opinion, how did media cover this news in your country? Back then, the internet was in its infancy and the Australian media largely copied the American perspective which was both in shock (a totally understandable response) and blood-thirsty (far more disturbing). I opposed the war against Afghanistan, believing it would achieve little apart from greater destruction and sadly ten years later I have been proven right. 4) 10 years ago there was no Facebook, Twitter. How did the cyber world/citizen media role cover 9/11? I recall reading some blogs after 9/11 to get a different perspective but I was most interested to try and understand the perspective of Muslims in the Middle East and Afghanistan, a nation my country (along with many others) was bombing into “liberation”. 5) Any story that really hit your memory after 10 years? I remember well a conversation with a number of male and female friends about the idea that my country might force able-bodied young men into war, like Australia did during the Vietnam War. My female friends said that they wouldn’t let their male friends leave and would bring food and supplies in jail, if we were placed there. I remember there being some talk in the media about the possibility of conscription for then undefined conflicts. I certainly had no intention of joining the army to fight countless illegitimate wars in the name of “freedom”. 6)  After ten years, what is the 9/11 impact on the world? 9/11 has had a profoundly destructive effect on the world. America adopted the Israeli model of fighting terrorism – killing countless civilians in an attempt to prove superiority – and the effect has been a weakened West, militarily and morally, something I welcome. Over a million lives have been lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and countless other nations. There’s no doubt that extreme Islamism is a threat but our leaders seem determined to answer primarily with the use of the gun. Such responses almost deserve punishment. I hope the coming decade brings a greater understanding that fighting violence with violence and occupying Muslim lands will only bring one outcome, so we should stop it.

  A decade of (mostly) media failure since 9/11 Posted: 11 Sep 2011 Al Jazeera English captures the post 9/11 decade well, showing how the vast majority of journalists and media companies became propagandists for endless war against the Muslim world:

  The Left and 9/11 Posted: 11 Sep 2011 Two views, one from here in Australia and the other on the global scene. From my perspective, the last decade has brought both remarkable levels of carnage by both Western actions and Islamists but also a growing awareness of where the real threats reside, and it isn’t from some men in a cave in Afghanistan or safe house in Pakistan. Left Flank: …In the shadow of the twin towers are other legacies: those of endless war waged by the West and the dramatic rise of Islamophobia globally. It is these consequences that confront us today. And the Left’s inability, in particular in Australia and the US, to mount a serious ongoing challenge to them remains a serious failing. … It is for these reasons — the real human cost located in endless war and islamophobia, wreaked in the memory of those killed on 9/11 — progressive voices must return to bolder times. One of my proudest moments as a Greens member was seeing Kerry Nettle fight her way through security and parliamentary members in order to deliver a letter from Mamdouh Habib’s wife to US President George Bush on his visit to Parliament in Canberra. The response from those in the vicinity, to block and manhandle Nettle, belies the relatively conservative nature of her action. While clearly Nettle knew approaching Bush would not be seen as ‘appropriate’, who could have imagined that others would feel their political views gave them the right to physically restrain a Senator just because she disagreed with them. But gone are the days when Nettle’s office was an organising centre of the campaign against the Iraq War in Sydney, or senators recruited their staff for the activist credentials rather than ability to impact political spin in the mainstream and on social media. Increasingly Brown and the Greens have equivocated on political issues that are seen as too Left wing. A strategy of minimising criticism of the party in the mainstream media, in order to possibly increase the national Greens vote, is the order of the day. This is despite the personal commitment of most party members and elected Greens parliamentarians to various questions — such as the decriminalisation of drug use and its treatment as a health issue, decreasing the funding form the public pursue to the elite wealthy private schools, or most recently on the question of justice for Palestinians.  As success has come in the polls, and the number of representatives has increased in Parliament, the activist and progressive voice of the Greens has been diminished. So in recent weeks we have seen growing argument that the Greens should condemn the protests at Max Brenner chocolate shops, actions conducted by one part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Australia. Some inside the party have claimed that the demonstrations were ‘violent’ (even though the footage on Youtube show police attacking protesters rather than the other way around) and that the large number of arrests at the first demonstration might reflect badly on the Greens. Yet the Greens have always been centrally involved in environmental campaigns such as those against the logging of old growth forests and the damming of the Franklin, which have by their nature resulted in very many arrests of activists. By this logic, it is fine — even a badge of honour — to be associated with Bob Brown as he was arrested in Tasmania’s wilderness, but we should condemn those campaigning around the BDS and attempting to end the brutal occupation and repression of 2.3 million Palestinian Arabs living the West Bank or the 1.6 million living in Gaza. This has reached near-farcical proportions with the decision by recently elected NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham to go to the Fairfax media to run a public campaign against the state party’s pro-BDS position. In an attempt to appear even-handed on the Israel-Palestine conflict (as if the balance of forces in the Middle East was ever even) he has joined the ‘Parliamentary Friends of Israel’ group, as well as a pro-Palestinian caucus. This is akin to joining a ‘Parliamentary Friends of South Africa’ group at the height of Apartheid. Increasingly for some Greens, the priority is a squeaky clean image that plays well in the conservative mainstream media, rather than prosecuting established party policy or making the less popular argument on a crucial questions of human dignity. It is not enough to bleat words about human rights, if in the next breath you condemn those who are actively seeking and end to the Palestinian occupation. It may not be that the Greens as a whole want to be involved in organising the Max Brenner protests, although some members and MPs will, but to seek to alter the NSW party policy of supporting the BDS for ends related solely to political image is unconscionable. More importantly, such political manoeuvres do not exist in a social vacuum. They have real impact on real people. Not only are the horrific conditions endured by Palestinians in the Occupied Territories being trivialised by those conservatives in the Greens unwilling to take a principled stand against Israel’s actions, the Australian debate over the BDS has unleashed a disturbing strain of hard Right and racist sentiment. Among all the confected slanders of ‘anti-semitism’ against BDS campaigners from the mainstream, there has been no similar condemnation of the far Right, Islamophobic organisations that have joined the defence of the chocolate shops. Groups like the Australian Defence League and the Australian Protectionist Party have linked their hatred of Muslims and Arabs with Israel’s roleas regional spearhead in the West’s war against Islamism. Despite the horrific consequences of the far Right’s ideology being expressed in the Norwegian massacre in late July, there is growing activity among like-minded Islamophobes here. One would’ve thought that Greens like Brown and Buckingham would be more concerned about these developments. Instead their quest for mainstream acceptance seems to be blinding them to the malign state of pro-Israel politics in this country. Ten years on from 9/11 one wonders if the Greens are developing selective amnesia about the realities of the War on Terror and its Islamophobic ideological veneer. Naomi Klein in the Los Angeles Times: In a September 2001 essay titled “Game Over: The End of Warfare as Play,” Klein noted that the United States had fought a series of wars in which it had experienced few casualties. “This is a country that has come to believe in the ultimate oxymoron: a safe war,” she wrote. The attacks of 9/11 would change that, she believed. “The illusion of war without casualties has been forever shattered.” Today, she’s not so sure. I suppose it was wishful thinking. As I watched footage of New Yorkers fleeing from the attacks, their terrified faces covered in dust from the collapsing towers, I was overwhelmed by how different these images were from the people-free videogame wars that my friends and I had grown up watching on CNN. Now that we were finally getting an unsanitized look at what it meant to be attacked from the air, I was sure it would change our hearts forever. But the Bush Administration was determined to tightly police what we saw of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, introducing “embedded” reporting, and banning photographs of returning caskets. They also let it be known that reporters who embedded themselves with local populations instead of with allied troops were acceptable military targets — as attacks on Al Jazeera reporters in Afghanistan and Iraq made clear. The wars being waged by our governments in our names are today more distant to us than ever before. . Some of the fighting is carried out by mercenaries, who die without so much as a mention in the papers. And drone attacks have ushered in something even more dangerous than the “safe war” — the idea of “no touch” warfare. This sends a clear message to the civilians on the other side of our weapons that we consider our lives so much more valuable than theirs that we will no longer even bother showing up to kill them in person. As we should have learned ten years ago, this is an extraordinarily dangerous message to send.

  Does Zionist lobby feel comfortable with fascists marching alongside them for Israel? Posted: 11 Sep 2011 It would seem so, as I’ve read no condemnation by the lobby of the far-right supporting Max Brenner at a protest in Sydney and Melbourne over the weekend. Being “pro-Israel” clearly trumps decency, strategic depth or human rights: Supporters of the Max Brenner chocolate chain have rallied outside a Newtown store as activists protested against the business’s links to the Israeli military. Pro-Palestinian groups stood on the opposite side of the road, chanting and waving placards bearing slogans such as ”Max, Max, Murderer”. But the store was defended by about 60 supporters, including members of the Australian Protectionist Party, a far-right nationalist group. Brenner stores in Melbourne have been targeted recently as part of a global campaign called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, criticised the protest. ”Why are these extremists targeting a legitimate Australian-owned business?” he asked. ”Calling for boycotts is counterproductive and divisive, and does nothing to advance a peaceful solution to the [Israel-Palestine] conflict.” A police line guarded the store, but customers were able to enter and leave freely. A rally organiser, Patrick Langosch, said the stores were legitimate targets. ”Max Brenner is owned by the Strauss Group, which is Israel’s second-largest food and beverage conglomerate. The Strauss Group openly supports the Israeli Defence Force,” he said. By the way, Alhadeff is deliberately trying to obscure the Israeli connection to Max Brenner.

  Israel attacks peaceful protests in the West Bank Posted: 11 Sep 2011 Just another day in occupied Palestine:

  Wikileaks reveals US helping maintain siege against Gaza Posted: 10 Sep 2011 Well after Barack Obama came into power, this cable from August 2008 proves that Washington had every intention of helping its close friends; the dictatorship of Egypt and occupying Israel: Since the Egyptian-brokered “tahdiya” (“calming”) between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza took effect June 19, rocket attacks from Gaza have decreased, and Israeli public pressure on the GOE to stop smuggling via tunnels into Gaza has relaxed. However, smuggling remains an important security issue. We are working closely with Egypt to develop a comprehensive counter-smuggling strategy. Assisting the GOE with deployment of a U.S.-supplied counter-tunneling system on the Egypt-Gaza border provides Egypt with an opportunity to more fully exploit tunnels and break up smuggling rings. As Egypt moves forward into a new phase of counter-smuggling efforts, we will continue our cooperation in a variety of areas: helping interdict smuggling on Egypt’s western, southern, and eastern borders; economic development in the Sinai; border security assistance; and de-mining. End summary.

  Of course Colombo wilfully murdered Tamils during civil war Posted: 10 Sep 2011 Wikileaks reveals: US diplomats in Sri Lanka have shown satellite images of damage by shelling in “safe zone” even after the government announced ending heavy artillery and aerial bombing, according to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Charge d’Affaires of the US embassy James R. Moore, has said that he showed the images to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona two weeks before the government declared its military victory over Tamil Tigers. Sending a cable to the secretary of state, with a copy to the White House, Mr Moore says he took the opportunity to meet the president and Mr Kohona following a meeting Mr Rajapaksa had with donor co-chair ambassadors on 5 May 2009. “The President maintained that Government forces have not been shelling into the “safe zone” since his April 27 statement announcing the end of heavy artillery and aerial bombing in this area,” the cable said.

  Israel faces total isolation but not to worry colonies will keep them warm at night Posted: 10 Sep 2011 The times they are a changing. Decades of Zionist arrogance, paying off dictatorships and expanding an illegal occupation is starting to bite. Finally. Violence against Israelis is utterly pointless and counterproductive, and should be condemned, but after years of Israel literally getting away with murder, we shouldn’t be surprised. Welcome to the new Middle East (today’s New York Times page one story): With its Cairo embassy ransacked, its ambassador to Turkey expelled and the Palestinians seeking statehood recognition at the United Nations, Israelfound itself on Saturday increasingly isolated and grappling with a radically transformed Middle East where it believes its options are limited and poor. The diplomatic crisis, in which winds unleashed by the Arab Spring are now casting a chill over the region, was crystallized by the scene of Israeli military jets sweeping into Cairo at dawn on Saturday to evacuate diplomats after the Israeli Embassy had been besieged by thousands of protesters. It was an image that reminded some Israelis of Iran in 1979, when Israel evacuated its embassy in Tehran after the revolution there replaced an ally with an implacable foe. “Seven months after the downfall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, Egyptian protesters tore to shreds the Israeli flag, a symbol of peace between Egypt and its eastern neighbor, after 31 years,” Aluf Benn, the editor in chief of the left-leaningIsraeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote Saturday. “It seems that the flag will not return to the flagstaff anytime soon.” Egypt and Israel both issued statements on Saturday reaffirming their commitments to their peace treaty, but in a televised address on Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned that Egypt “cannot ignore the heavy damage done to the fabric of peace.” Facing crises in relations with Egypt and Turkey, its two most important regional allies, Israel turned to the United States. Throughout the night on Friday, desperate Israeli officials called their American counterparts seeking help to pressure the Egyptians to protect the embassy. President Obama “expressed his great concern” in a telephone call with Mr. Netanyahu, the White House said in a statement, and he called on Egypt “to honor its international obligations to safeguard the security of the Israeli Embassy.” Washington — for whom Israel, Turkey and Egypt are all critical allies — has watched tensions along the eastern Mediterranean with growing unease and increasing alarm. And though the diplomatic breaches were not entirely unexpected, they prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity in Washington. The mayhem in Cairo also exacted consequences for Egypt, raising questions about whether its military-led transitional government would be able to maintain law and order and meet its international obligations. The failure to prevent an invasion of a foreign embassy raised security concerns at other embassies as well. The Egyptian government responded to those questions Saturday night, pledging a new crackdown on disruptive protests and reactivating the emergency law allowing indefinite detentions without trial, one of the most reviled measures enacted under former President Hosni Mubarak. Since the start of the Arab uprisings, internal critics and foreign friends, including the United States, have urged Israel to take bold conciliatory steps toward the Palestinians, and after confrontations in which Israeli forces killed Egyptian and Turkish citizens, to reach accommodations with both countries. Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador a week ago over Israel’s refusal to apologize for a deadly raid last year on a Turkish ship bound for Gaza in which nine Turks were killed. The storming of the embassy in Cairo on Saturday was precipitated by the killing of three Egyptian soldiers along the border by Israeli military forces pursuing terrorism suspects. Israel has expressed regret for the deaths in both cases, but has not apologized for actions that it considers defensive. The overriding assessment of the government of Mr. Netanyahu is that such steps will only make matters worse because what is shaking the region is not about Israel, even if Israel is increasingly its target, and Israel can do almost nothing to affect it. “Egypt is not going toward democracy but toward Islamicization,” said Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Cairo who reflected the government’s view. “It is the same in Turkey and in Gaza. It is just like what happened in Iran in 1979.” A senior official said Israel had few options other than to pursue what he called a “porcupine policy” to defend itself against aggression. Another official, asked about Turkey, said, “There is little that we can do.” Critics of the government take a very different view. Mr. Benn, the Haaretz editor, acknowledged that Mr. Netanyahu could not be faulted for the events in Egypt, the rise of an Islamic-inspired party in Turkey or Iran’s nuclear program. But echoing criticism by the Obama administration, he said that Mr. Netanyahu “has not done a thing to mitigate the fallout from the aforementioned developments.” Daniel Ben-Simon, a member of Parliament from the left-leaning Labor Party, said the Netanyahu government was on a path “not just to diplomatic isolation but to actually putting Israelis in danger,” he said. “It all comes down to his obsession against a Palestinian state, his total paralysis toward the Palestinian issue. We are facing an international tide at the United Nations. If he joined the vote for a Palestinian state instead of fighting it, that would be the best thing he could do for us in the Arab world.”

  My reaction to 9/11 didn’t turn into desire to murder Arabs

• A decade of (mostly) media failure since 9/11

• The Left and 9/11

• Does Zionist lobby feel comfortable with fascists marching alongside them for Israel?

• Israel attacks peaceful protests in the West Bank

• Wikileaks reveals US helping maintain siege against Gaza

• Of course Colombo wilfully murdered Tamils during civil war

• Israel faces total isolation but not to worry colonies will keep them warm at night