{"id":20865,"date":"2014-08-06T16:15:22","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T06:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=20865"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:57:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:57:55","slug":"murdoch-zionist-lobby-power-antloewenstein-and-margokingston1-on-2003-ashwari-peace-prize-scandal-mikecarlton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/murdoch-zionist-lobby-power-antloewenstein-and-margokingston1-on-2003-ashwari-peace-prize-scandal-mikecarlton\/","title":{"rendered":"Murdoch-Zionist lobby power: @antloewenstein and @margokingston1 on 2003 Ashwari Peace Prize scandal #MikeCarlton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of Mike Carlton&#8217;s removal as a <em>Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> columnist, it&#8217;s worth recalling another instance of Zionist lobby power. Here&#8217;s the chapter by Antony Loewenstein in <em>Not Happy, John!\u00a0<\/em>featuring an interview with Bob Carr. First, my scene-setting introduction to the story.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>I&#39;m hearing there&#39;s considerable pressure at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Fairfax?src=hash\">#Fairfax<\/a> board level for action against <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeCarlton01\">@MikeCarlton01<\/a> over his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Israel?src=hash\">#Israel<\/a> comments. Passing it on<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hughriminton\/statuses\/496613759494787073\">August 5, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>After a fortnight of being called Nazi,Jew-hating slime, I told a few people to fuck off. We do that in this country occasionally.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mike Carlton   (@MikeCarlton01) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeCarlton01\/statuses\/496827862553354240\">August 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>Updated with Carlton: \u201cThe immense pressure from News Limited has got to them, and that is the worst part of it&quot;. &#10;<a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/Yatr9SKn5Q\">http:\/\/t.co\/Yatr9SKn5Q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; amanda meade (@meadea) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/meadea\/statuses\/496820723738898434\">August 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeCarlton01\">@MikeCarlton01<\/a> same happened to me, Mike. Pushed out for political reasons. Anything goes on the Right while progressives are shut down.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/margokingston1\/statuses\/496827258728771584\">August 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeCarlton01\">@MikeCarlton01<\/a> when I published Cohen &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/antloewenstein\">@antloewenstein<\/a> on Ashwari 2003 Prize <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/smh\">@smh<\/a> deleted &#8211; &#39;anti-Semitic&#39; claim <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/9taSLcJeDm\">http:\/\/t.co\/9taSLcJeDm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/margokingston1\/statuses\/496838756993736704\">August 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeCarlton01\">@MikeCarlton01<\/a> when I queried <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/smh\">@smh<\/a> take-down, told auto unpublish if anti-Semitic complaint &#8211; republished when read piece! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/antloewenstein\">@antloewenstein<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/margokingston1\/statuses\/496840849045475330\">August 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeCarlton01\">@MikeCarlton01<\/a> in 2004 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/smh\">@smh<\/a> editor Robert Whitehead ordered me to delete Webdiary&#39;s archive for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/antloewenstein\">@antloewenstein<\/a> without telling readers.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/margokingston1\/statuses\/496851674774769664\">August 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"500\">\n<p>Mike Carlton leaves.. huge loss for the SMH<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alan Moir (@moir_alan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/moir_alan\/statuses\/496880513924075521\">August 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<strong>*<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I had coffee with George Brandis after his \u2018Greens are Nazis\u2019 speech to Parliament, and said a number of my Jewish friends were very upset by his remarks. He looked startled. He said that after he\u2019d made it he\u2019d rung Colin Rubenstein, head of the privately \u2013 and secretly \u2013 funded think-tank, the Australia\/Israel and\u00a0Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), who\u2019d endorsed it. On <em>Lateline<\/em> the next night Brandis said Rubenstein had contacted him to say &#8220;he supported it and he was pleased it had been given&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Colin Rubenstein doesn\u2019t represent mainstream Jewish opinion,&#8221; I replied, appalled, &#8220;and many Jewish people vote Greens&#8221;.\u00a0George Brandis&#8217;s mouth fell open.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve avoided participating in debates on the Israel\u2013Palestine question for the same reason that most journalists and politicians in Australia and the United States have. History professor Juan Cole of Michigan University put the reason succinctly: &#8220;Most people in public life have frankly been intimidated into just being quiet about it (including every single sitting member of the US Congress, not one of whom ever criticises any action of the Sharon government and survives the next election); this is an incredible degree of political intimidation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This intimidation, and the internal pressure on those in the Jewish community who do not support Zionism or the Sharon government in Israel to shut up about it outside the community, means people such as Colin Rubenstein and AIJAC chairman Mark Leibler dominate the media and politics on the matter, purporting to speak for the Jewish community. There are, however, elected community groups in each state, which join together in the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, established in 1944. The Jewish spokesman for the Council had condemned Brandis\u2019s comparison of the Greens with the Nazis.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, debate was raging about the powerful behind-the-scenes lobbying led by the Rubenstein\u2013Leibler crowd to force NSW Premier Bob Carr not to present the Sydney Peace Prize to Palestinian Dr Hanan Ashrawi.<\/p>\n<p>A Jewish friend cried out in conversation with me: &#8220;I feel ashamed to be Jewish!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No. Please don\u2019t be ashamed, please,&#8221; I said. &#8220;One of my heroes is Ron Castan [who before his death ran the Mabo case for Aboriginal land rights in the High Court]. His is the true Jewish way \u2013 to struggle for human rights for all. Don\u2019t be ashamed \u2013 get involved!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So I gulped three times and asked the only Jewish member of the NSW Parliament, the Greens\u2019 Ian Cohen, to write a piece for <em>Webdiary<\/em> on how he felt about the Brandis attack and the Ashrawi furore. I published it and one by my colleague Antony Loewenstein supporting Ashrawi, to find that a Jewish reader called my editor demanding immediate removal of the whole entry from the website.<\/p>\n<p>However, once attempts to censor two Jewish-Australians were out of the way, the door opened to a fantastic <em>Webdiary<\/em> dialogue that included Jewish, Muslim and other Australians on both sides of the debate anxious, even relieved, to participate.<\/p>\n<p>The night Kerry O\u2019Brien interviewed Hanan Ashrawi on the <em>7.30 Report<\/em>, I suggested to the <em>Sydney Morning Herald \u2019s<\/em> Canberra intern that she have a look. \u2018I\u2019ve never heard the Palestinian view before,\u2019 she said. \u2018I never knew there was another side to the story&#8221;.\u00a0I then commissioned Antony Loewenstein to research the Ashrawi saga for this book.<strong>* <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By the way, I sought Colin Rubenstein\u2019s comment on George Brandis\u2019s claim that he\u2019d endorsed the Greens and Nazis speech. He repeatedly refused to answer my question during a lengthy email exchange. And I copped this in an article on AIJAC\u2019s website: &#8220;Probably the worst accusation came from Margo Kingston, web diarist for the <em>Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>. She claimed on November 14 that Jewish backers of Sharon &#8216;seem to have the power, money and clout to dominate public debate and wield enormous political and financial power behind the scenes. The Ashrawi debacle has exposed this secret power&#8217;. A more clearly-stated racist conspiracy theory I have never seen in the mainstream media in Australia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>*<\/strong> Antony Loewenstein\u2019s subsequent book on the Israel\u2013Palestine conflict, My Israel Question (MUP, 2006), generated much discussion and was short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier\u2019s Literary Award. He writes a column for the online magazine New Matilda and Crikey, and his articles regularly appear in local and overseas newspapers and journals. His website is <a href=\"http:\/\/antonyloewenstein.com\/.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/antonyloewenstein.com\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 500px;\" src=\"http:\/\/docs.google.com\/gview?url=http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Pages-from-StillNotHappyJohn_FULLBOOK_PDF-3.pdf&amp;embedded=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of Mike Carlton&#8217;s removal as a Sydney Morning Herald columnist, it&#8217;s worth recalling another instance of Zionist lobby power. Here&#8217;s the chapter by Antony Loewenstein in Not Happy, John!\u00a0featuring an interview with Bob Carr. First, my scene-setting introduction to the story. I&#39;m hearing there&#39;s considerable pressure at #Fairfax board level for action [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":20870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,3402,2021,65,69,585,21,32,439],"tags":[106,1242,2591,227,2016,260,2023,547,458,2022],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/carlton-mike.jpg?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-5qx","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}