I saw Antony Loewenstein, the Australian activist, yesterday. His new book on the Blogging revolution comes out today. A few strong impressions:
Medium height, dark haired, very animated face, informal and Australian manner. Straightforward, personable. Silver earring in left ear. German/Austrian Jewish roots. Atheist.
An only child of two only children, he's extremely independent thinking. Maybe the most independent thinking person I know in this area. Unapologetic. I discern a psychological root: he has his parents' encouragement in his work. He went to work for the Sydney Morning Herald just a few years ago, what for anyone else would be a plum job, the sort of job I myself have kissed a lot of butt to have; but Antony chafed in the traces and soon went out on his own. Is now a leader of Jewish anti- opinion in Aussie and has an int'l reputation. Good on ya mate. Just published a book on internet censorship.
His analysis is grim. He thinks that Israel has swallowed the occupied territories. Sat down to dine on them by policy and design and with relish (and not accidentally!) 40, 60 years ago. Now they are in Israel's stomach. Won't be removed without major catastrophe, possible civil war and certainly not without American interference, which is unlikely to happen.
I answered him again and again with the Rahm Emanuel ameliorative reading. That a new consensus is emerging, of 2 states now. And Obama is going to get behind this with his wiles, and Hillary Clinton. Loewenstein reads the Clinton appointment in a far darker light, and sees nothing really changing. I have a different theory of history. It says: You can't stay in one spot forever. Things change gradually gradually, and then they change Abruptly. We've been having gradual change for a while. Now it's going to be emphatic.
One area of disagreement I had with Loewenstein. He says that Mearsheimer/Walt went too far in ascribing Iraq war to Israel lobby in any real measure. He is somewhat leftish in his belief that oil and American power played crucial roles. Many people share Loewenstein's view. The Nation, I think Jerry Slater, too. Myself I am agnostic as to all the Iraq causes, which the historians will be exhuming for decades, but believe that any effort to discount center-right Jewish intellectual/financial power in American society doesn't serve journalism; it mystifies a real, true, new element in Establishment life. Loewenstein is covered in the Aussie press. Anti-Zionists get no ink in the American press whatsoever.
Damn I Wish I'd Said to Loewenstein: Here you are in the States; what do you make of the fact that 3 out of 4 faces on the President's page of Council on Foreign Relations report are Jewish? Why did Obama give Hillary power? Why did he have to? What true significant faction do she, Summers, Emanuel and all the other centrists he has empowered represent–to the insult of his progressive base which is no where represented? Where are Chuck Hagel and Robert Pape–great realist statesman, scholar. But he was a houseguest, and I didn't berate him.
Loewenstein did say that the Israel lobby was not going to sign on to 2 states because peace would put them out of business. We were sitting at the fireplace. I said, And what will it do for us, Antony? He winked. Bad for our careers!
I drove him to the train in the rain. En route he said that No one in the States is fully aware of how our reputation has fallen. The leadership in liberal ideas is global now, per his new book. The U.S. is dragging knuckles behind, with state -sponsored torture and imperial adventure. He laughed that I had Commentary magazine in the car. Then he said, with joy, that our side has the esprit de corps. It's like an insurgency, and the mainstream has lost the ability to counter it effectively, and doesn't know what to do. And the insurgency keeps getting numbers…
Related posts:
- Antony Loewenstein, on Racism and ‘Jewish-Born’ Critics of Zionism
- Antony Loewenstein reports on New York’s 2009 Salute to Israel march
- 2-State Solution ‘a Complete Disaster,’ Israeli-American Author Says
- Loewenstein says newspapers are dying because they missed the story
- Author of ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’ Wrote that He Has ‘Full-Time Security’ When in Germany
{ 3 comments }
Wonderful stuff – I'm glad you two got together. LIke you, Antony is what we here call 'fair dinkum'.
I agree with him the war wasn't only down to the Lobby. Arguments that oil played no part because 'if we wanted oil we would just go to market' are jaw-droppingly and rather usefully juvenile. The 3 trillion price tag doesn't look too bad against the 30 trillion worth of the black stuff experts say Iraq sits on. Read Jim Kunstler's column at Clusterfuck Nation today; if he is only half right, invading Iraq makes a lot of sense from an American interest point of view. Things may get ugly sooner than people think, and control of supply ensures the world's biggest user, the US military, can keep on truckin', even if all they're doing is guarding the extraction, production and transport of it back to the Homeland, where the way of life is as we all know 'non-negotiable'. The other aspect of the oil argument is the absolute need to keep petro-transactions in dollars. Saddam threatened to move to Euros; bye bye Saddam.
Certain Lobbyists clearly saw the historic opportunity all this afforded their designs, particularly the Oded Yinon thesis which was furthered and formalised by the Clean Break team and PNAC, then carried into the Bush admin. Throw in the drooling military contracting community (after the Lobby, the firmest controller of Congressional and Senate votes) and a Hill full of smooth, calculating opportunists practiced in running with the herd – plus of course the rah-rah aggression and racism unleashed by 911 – and you have a perfect storm, a vortex most of the Western world fell into.
I didn't, nor did Antony or yourself. Nor did Obama; but most everyone he has tapped did, and how. I am trying my level best to remain hopeful about this.
Glenn Condell: Thank you for your most excellent analysis, and so well written! I keep looking for some new hire, some statement, some sign Obama will pull a real change rabbit out of his hat…
"I’ve written and researched the Israel/Palestine conflict issue for years and yet remain surprised with the lack of information reported by the Western media. Who knew that Switzerland in mid-November accused Israel of wantonly destroying Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and near Ramallah in violation of the Geneva Conventions’ rules on military occupation? Or that Israel’s transportation minister, Shaul Mofaz, a former IDF chief of staff and defence minister, recently suggested the return of “targeted killings” for democratically elected leaders of Hamas? How about a report in Haaretz that found Defence Minister Ehud Barak has approved dozens of construction projects in the West Bank contradicting Israel’s supposed commitment to the Road Map? Or that the chairman of Hebrew University’s Arab student body was apprehended by university personnel after he refused to shake the hand of visiting President Shimon Peres after calling it a “murderer of children”? Or that the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, again said recently that his group was willing to accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders?
All of these facts are shocking yet uncontroversial; they are daily life in the Jewish state. A haze of misinformation, outright lies and Holocaust guilt cloud this issue the world over. The occupiers are the eternal victims. Critics tell me that the Palestinians deserve their fate, led by hateful leaders."
I like this guy.
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