Bob Carr has been involved in politics for many years.
His political posts have been long and varied and he has been an environment minister in a New South Wales government as well as having been Premier of that state for many years.
After he left NSW politics and Julia Gillard was the Australian Prime Minister, when there was a vacancy as Foreign Minister Gillard invited Carr to take the post which he seems to have done with alacrity.
Of course it all came to a tearful end when Kevin Rudd dumped Gillard and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) lost government to the Coalition in September 2013.
Carr is not renowned as being a left-wing member of the ALP - rather he is right of Genghis Khan in keeping with the 2014 version of the ALP.
In Australia there are approximately 100,000 to 120,000 Jews. This is not a tight-knit community, but by and large the majority are supporters of the apartheid Israeli state.
There are many christian communities in Australia and many of them are christian zionists. It is my belief that those christians around the world who support apartheid Israel do so from an anti-semitic point of view because they would like to help Jews living in their communities to go and settle in apartheid Israel.
Those who were the original supporters of Palestine as a home for the Jews, dating from well before the first world war and the Balfour Declaration, back to the 19th century, and who supported the early zionists looking for Palestine to be the Jewish homeland, were christian politicians in England who were eager to remove Jews from Britain.
What has all this got to do with Bob Carr?
Carr has just published a diary of his years as the foreign minister of Australia, and in the book he relates how the Jewish lobby in Australia exerts an undue amount of influence over government foreign policy in relation to apartheid Israel, particularly such bodies as the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council.
For once in Carr's life he is correct and has hit a bullseye!
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and there have been hysterical outcries from members of the Abbott government's ministers, particularly the current foreign minister Julie Bishop, and many others including, of course, the Jewish members of the current opposition ALP parliamentary representatives, and also including the so-called christian members of both sides of politics - if they can be defined as such.
But the Jewish communities - or many members of these so-called communities are beside themselves and the cries of anti-semitism are probably soon to be on their way.
This story has a way to run but it has created an interesting diversion from the horror of Australian politics relating to such issues as asylum seekers and other nasty stories which are breaking out on both sides of the so-called political divide.
Watch these spaces - more interesting events are bound to unfold in the coming days and weeks!
The following article is from Mondoweiss on 10 April 2014 and is by Philip Weiss. It is very helpful to know what has been happening in Australia in the media and from those Jews who belong to some of the organisations under discussion.
Aussie media focus on Carr’s assertion that Israel
lobby had ‘direct line’ into Prime Minister’s office
Former Australian PM Julia Gillard
Yesterday
I did a short post on the stunning criticism of the
Israel lobby’s influence in Australia coming from a former Australian foreign
minister, Bob Carr, whose memoir says that Jewish donors so preyed on the mind
of a liberal prime minister that she wouldn’t let him utter a word of
criticisms against Israeli settlements.
Well,
sunshine is the best disinfectant, and this story just gets bigger and bigger.
It’s in Haaretz (my postscript); and the Australian media are taking seriously
Carr’s assertions that the lobby’s influence is “unhealthy” and that it has too
much access to policymakers. The story has been propelled by lobby charges of
bigotry against Carr, who trots out the usual; he recommended a Holocaust book as the most important
book of the last 100 years in a book he wrote about reading. And by the
fact that Carr published text messages between himself and former P.M. Julia
Gillard.
First,
Carr states his case plainly in an interview on Australian Broadcasting
Corp. He says it’s the rightwing lobby, and that it’s banjaxed
Australian opposition to the settlement project:
SARAH FERGUSON: Let’s go to
the book. The strongest criticism of all in the book is aimed at the Melbourne Jewish lobby.
Now, there are lobby groups for every cause under the sun. What’s wrong
with the way that group operates?
BOB CARR: Well the important point about a
diary of a Foreign minister is that you shine light on areas of government
that are otherwise in darkness and the influence of lobby groups is one of
those areas. And what I’ve done is to spell out how the extremely conservative
instincts of the pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne was exercised
through the then-Prime Minister’s office. And I speak as someone who was
in agreement with Julia Gillard’s agenda on everything else. But I’ve got
to say, on this one, I found it very frustrating that we couldn’t issue,
for example, a routine expression of concern about the spread of
Israeli settlements on the West Bank. Great blocks of
housing for Israeli citizens going up on land that everyone regards as
part of a future Palestinian state, if there is to be a two-state solution
resolving the standoff between Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle
East.
SARAH FERGUSON: You’re saying that
the Melbourne Jewish lobby had a direct impact
on foreign policy as it was operated from inside Julia Gillard’s cabinet?
BOB CARR: Yeah, I would call it the Israeli
lobby – I think that’s important. But certainly they enjoyed extraordinary
influence. I had to resist it and my book tells the story of that
resistance coming to a climax when there was a dispute on the floor of
caucus about my recommendation that we don’t block the Palestinian bid for
increased non-state status at the United Nations.
SARAH FERGUSON: They’re still a
very small group of people. How do you account for them wielding so much
power?
BOB CARR: I think party donations and a
program of giving trips to MPs and journalists to Israel. But that’s not to
condemn them. I mean, other interest groups do the same thing. But it
needs to be highlighted because I think it reached a very unhealthy level.
I think the great mistake of the pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne is to
express an extreme right-wing Israeli view rather than a more tolerant
liberal Israeli view, and in addition to that, to seek to win on
everything, to block the Foreign Minister of Australia through
their influence with the Prime Minister’s office, from even making the
most routine criticism of Israeli settlement policy using the kind of
language that a Conservative Foreign secretary from the UK would use in a
comparable statement at the same time.
Note that Carr is saying precisely what Walt
and Mearsheimer wrote eight years ago and were also accused of bigotry for
saying: It’s not Jews, it’s the lobby, which represents a conservative segment
of that community; and the lobby has a “stranglehold” on our foreign policy.
“The book would not have been truthful with
this disagreement between a prime minister and her foreign minister edited
out,” Mr Carr told Fairfax Media, explaining his decision to publish Ms
Gillard’s private text messages without consent, despite asking other officials
for permission to publish correspondence.
“The public should know how foreign policy
gets made, especially when it appears the prime minister is being heavily
lobbied by one interest group with a stake in Middle East policy.”…
In diary entries Mr Carr reveals just how
deep his division with Ms Gillard went. He complains that Ms Gillard would not
even let him criticise Israeli West Bank settlements due to her fear it would
anger Australia’s pro-Israel lobby – a reference to the Melbourne-based
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council – which Mr Carr says had a direct
line into the prime minister’s office.
“So, we can’t even ‘express concern’ without
complaint,” Mr Carr writes. “This lobby must fight every inch.”
Reproducing private text messages, Mr Carr
suggests Ms Gillard’s support of Israel was so immovable
that she would not even allow him to change Australia’s vote on what he
considered to be a minor UN motion.
“Julia – motion on Lebanon oil spill raises no
Palestinian or Israel security issues. In
that context I gave my commitment to Lebanon,” Mr Carr writes in
a text message.
“No reason has been given to me to change,”
Ms Gillard reportedly replies.
“Julia – not so simple,” Mr Carr responds.
“I as Foreign Minister gave my word. I was entitled to because it had nothing
to do with Palestinian status or security of Israel.”
Ms Gillard shuts him down in a final terse
message: “Bob … my jurisdiction on UN resolutions isn’t confined to ones on Palestine and Israel.”
Did
you see where Carr said that the Israel lobby has a direct
line into the P.M.’s office? Now read some of this interview on ABC of a leading Israel lobbyist, Mark Leibler, national chairman of the
Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. ABC interviewer Tony Jones is
obviously disturbed that he had such access to the P.M.
MARK LEIBLER: I think Bob doesn’t miss a
trick. I mean, if anything’s calculated to sell books. Just unpick for a
moment what he’s saying. He’s talking about the Jewish lobby, he’s talking
about a difference of opinion between him and the Prime Minister. Why
can’t they have a difference of opinion on a matter related to Israeli
policy? No, if there’s a difference of opinion, the Prime Minister has to
be controlled or influenced by someone. So the Prime Minister has to be
wrong ’cause she’s controlled by the Jewish lobby. …
TONY JONES: Let me ask you a very simple
question: did you have direct access to Julia Gillard when she was Prime
Minister and were you able to express serious concerns to her directly
about policy over Israel?
MARK LEIBLER: We had – I had opportunities
to talk to the Prime Minister on -not only about Israel – I had more contact
with her about indigenous issues than I did in relation to Israel. She
very quickly formed her own view and I didn’t see that there was any need
for me to intervene.
TONY JONES: OK, but I guess what you’re
saying is on a reasonably regular basis you were able to talk to her about
concerns that you had, is that correct?
MARK LEIBLER: If I wanted to raise concerns,
I would have been able to raise them with her, as I was able to raise them
with Kevin Rudd, with John Howard, with Paul Keating, with Bob Hawke and
even with Malcolm Fraser. No different.
TONY JONES: So what you’re saying is you get
a fair bit of access to prime ministers and have had for a long time, but
…
MARK LEIBLER: Yes.
TONY JONES: … you’re arguing there’s nothing
sinister about that?
MARK LEIBLER: Absolutely. By the way, I’m
not unique in that respect. I mean, there are many other people who have
far greater access to prime ministers, present and past, than I do, but
that’s part of a democracy.
TONY JONES: No doubt. But your role as a
lobbyist is well-known, so well-known that the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz,
described you recently as a key fundraiser for the lobby and the man who
maintained close relations with prime ministers, both in Australia and Israel, over many years. Do
you see yourself as a kind of go-between between the Israeli Government
and Australian prime ministers?
MARK LEIBLER: Absolutely not. I mean, there
are excellent relations between the Prime Minister of Australia, both the current
one and the former one, and the Prime Minister of Israel. They don’t need any
intermediaries.
TONY JONES: Yeah. I guess no-one here is
saying there’s anything to be ashamed of, but the problem only arises when
the former Foreign minister claims that the influence of the lobby was
very unhealthy…. Well, when you actually get to read the book, what you’ll find
out is that he recalls… a private meeting in the boardroom of Arnold
Bloch Leibler, which you chaired before that breakfast meeting – in other
words, the day before – in which he says you addressed him with a
“how-dare-you” tone – this is how he puts it – a “how-dare-you” tone over
these issues, particularly the issue of whether there should be enhanced
Palestinian representation in the United Nations.
MARK LEIBLER: Well, that is – unfortunately,
that doesn’t – that just didn’t happen. I mean, the meeting took place,
and I must say, we had our differences of opinion, but the main purpose of
the meeting was for me to get across the message to him that we were no
right-wing extremists, that our views were identical to all mainstream
Jewish organisations, and that as far as the settlements are concerned,
there were legitimate differences within the Jewish community and within
Israel in relation to settlements being an obstacle to peace. But what –
if I can put it in a nutshell, what all of the Jewish
community organisations objected to was a single-minded focus on
settlements, as if, you know, stopping settlement activity would suddenly
lead to peace, overlooking the fact that Hamas was lobbing rockets into
Israel at the time, that – I can go through a whole series of things, but
– it’s complicated.
TONY JONES: Sure. But let me just take you
back to this meeting, ’cause what he focuses here is, as I said before,
what he described as your ”how-dare-you” tone, as in, as he puts it, “How
dare you consider voting to allow the Palestinians to have greater
representation or enhanced representation at the United Nations.” Now, I
suppose what he’s saying is that there are two different Mark Leiblers –
there’s the one behind the scenes and then there’s the public one at that
breakfast meeting with a more conciliatory tone which he obviously
appreciated.
MARK LEIBLER: Well, all I can say is that
his recollection of that meeting does not accord with my recollection of
that meeting. Yes, by the way, it was a heated discussion, but I wasn’t
hectoring him and I wasn’t lecturing him, but I was explaining very
clearly where we differed and where we agreed and that set the basis and
led to the tone of what was, I think, a very successful meeting. He was
delighted with it and very pleased with it….
TONY JONES: Sure. Do you think – let’s put
it this way: do you think you have considerably more influence over
Australian prime ministers than, say, for example, Palestinian
representatives?
MARK LEIBLER: I really don’t know. They
don’t take me to their meetings.
TONY JONES: (Laughs) No, I don’t imagine
they do… Mark Leibler, just finally, to make the final point, it’s a
pretty obvious one, really: I suppose what you’re saying to Bob Carr is
that you will continue to speak when you can to prime ministers and
Foreign ministers and proffer advice from this lobby that he describes.
MARK LEIBLER: Well, I would hope that that’s
how things are supposed to function in a democracy. I mean, there are
other places where when you express your views or try to lobby, you end up
in jail or you end up being shot. This is part of the hallmark of Australia’s wonderful
democracy and it’s something that everyone can participate in.
TONY JONES: And just to finish the point, do
you think you will get the same access or even more to the Tony Abbott Government
that you got with the Julia Gillard Government?
MARK LEIBLER: Well, when we’ve got an issue
which is a serious one which needs to be raised, we haven’t had a problem
in getting access to either ALP or Liberal prime ministers or Foreign
ministers and so it should be. By the way, we’re not the only ones.
Basically, any representative of a community organisation, if they’ve got
something serious to raise, they’ll get the access that they need.
TONY JONES: Mark Leibler, we’ll have to
leave you there. Thank you very much for coming to join us live on the
program tonight.
MARK LEIBLER: My pleasure.
Amazing. In the full interview, you will see
that Liebler says that many Jews oppose settlements, but what all Jewish
organizations “objected to was a single-minded focus on settlements, as if, you
know, stopping settlement activity would suddenly lead to peace.” The same line
that almost all major Jewish orgs took on Obama in 2009-2011.
But I’m stunned that Carr has been able to
blow a bridge that Jimmy Carter, James Baker, Colin Powell, Paul Findley and
Walt and Mearsheimer could not blow: the mainstream bar on talking about this
stuff.
So, when is this story going to make “60
Minutes”? I guess they’ll think about that tomorrow, to quote Scarlett O’Hara.
P.S. Haaretz has covered the story with
these blunt headlines: “Former Australian FM denounces Jewish lobby’s
‘extraordinary influence’. In new book, Bob Carr claims office of former Australian
PM Julia Gillard was effectively held hostage by Jewish lobby.”
Haaretz calls out the Greater Israel crowd:
“Carr claims the ‘extreme right-wing’ pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne wielded
‘extraordinary influence’ on Gillard” — who is of course a liberal politician.
About
Philip Weiss
Philip Weiss is Founder
and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
{ 17 comments... read
them below or add one }
It is obvious that we have exactly the same
chronic problem in the USA only worse. It is
clearly at play from Obama all the way down the food chain. The pressure to
change the fact that Kerry recently blamed Israel for the breakdown in
the peace talks, is the latest example of this money machine in action to
suppress, distort and change the truth. These crude and deceitful activities
are a threat to democracy all over the world. Let’s pray that the effect of Bob
Carr’s exposure of the lobby in Australia will encourage others, including
journalists, that there are positive and rewarding reasons to continue this
exposure of foreign policy distortions caused by money from the Israeli lobby
in many counties especially the USA, UK, France and Australia to name but a
few.
“But I’m stunned that Carr has been able to
blow a bridge that Jimmy Carter, James Baker, Colin Powell, Paul Findley and
Walt and Mearsheimer could not blow: the mainstream bar on talking about this
stuff.”
Since this bridge never existed in the first
place, there was nothing to blow.
(Concurrent
events for two quoted articles below from late June 2010:
May 31, 2010 – really shocking Israeli raid
on humanitarian flotilla to Gaza killing 9 activists and
injuring more than 50.
June 24, 2010 – leadership spill and Julia
Gillard ousts Kevin Rudd as PM.)
Recall that PM Julia Gillard’s partner Tim
Mathieson, formerly a hairdresser, was employed in late 2009 by a leading
Australian Israel lobbyist Albert Dadon:
Ms Gillard had disclosed to the register of
MPs’ interests that Mr Mathieson started work with Ubertas in November 2009. In
June 2009, she and Mr Mathieson had led other Australian politicians, including
Liberals Christopher Pyne and Peter Costello, in Jerusalem at the first
Australia Israel Leadership Forum.
At a second forum in December 2009, also addressed by Kevin Rudd, she
acknowledged Mr Dadon and his wife for their support of the forum.
…
A former Australian ambassador to Israel, Ross Burns, had accused Ms Gillard in
a letter to The Sydney Morning Herald of being silent on the ”excesses” of
Israel and questioned why Mr Mathieson had been given the job by Mr Dadon.
”I’ve made up my own views about Israel and made them
publicly known well before there was any suggestion that my partner would work
in a property group associated with Mr Dadon,” Ms Gillard said.
Mathieson resigned from his position with
Dadon’s company later in 2010 apparently.
Most of the article from one day prior to
above outlining Ross Burn’s concerns about Gillard’s and the governments
position on Israel:
Ms Gillard has been part of the Australian
delegation to the last two meetings of the Australia Israel Leadership Forum,
founded by the Melbourne property developer
Albert Dadon.
Mr Dadon employs Ms Gillard’s partner, Tim Mathieson, as a real estate
salesman, at Ubertas. Mr Burns said yesterday that Ms Gillard was at the
forum’s inaugural meeting in Israel last June, six
months after the Israeli army invaded the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1000
Palestinians.
She was also the acting prime minister when the invasion took place, and issued
a statement at the time criticising the Palestinian group Hamas for firing
rockets into southern Israel. It did not condemn Israel for causing civilian
casualties.
The former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, and the Foreign Affairs Minister,
Stephen Smith, have since expressed unease at the subsequent blockade of Gaza by Israel.
”It looks a bit funny when you go on this tour to promote bilateral relations,
but you don’t seem to have any reservations about the issue that was number one
on the horizon,” Mr Burns said.
Another former Australian ambassador to Tel Aviv, Peter Rodgers, who served in
the Israeli capital from 1994 to 1997, also criticised the government’s
attitude towards Israel.
He said last night that under successive governments, Australia’s approach to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict had become increasingly unbalanced, and that this
was unlikely to change under Ms Gillard’s stewardship.
”There’s been a marked swing away from the old attempt to be even-handed on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to a much more determined pro-Israeli position,
and I think Gillard is part of that,” Mr Rodgers said.
The Herald sought comments from Ms Gillard, Michael Danby, a prominent Jewish
federal MP – and a supporter of Ms Gillard in last week’s leadership coup – and
Mr Dadon for this article, but received no response.
Didn’t the Aussie Israel lobby play a big
role in deposing Kevin Rudd as PM and replacing him with Gillard? (Not to
downplay the also important U.S. influence to the
same effect.)
I heard rumours to that effect lysias but
don’t know of anything substantial.
Earlier in 2010 Rudd’s government was
vocally critical of Israel after it was
discovered that 4 Australian passports had been stolen and used in the murder
of the Hamas guy in Dubai, from memory Rudd
changed an Australian I/P related vote at the UN from a NO to ABSTAIN. Also
Mossad’s station chief in Australai was expelled. Other than that he was
consistently pro-Israel.
After being deposed, he went to a BDS-targetted Max
Brenner here in Melbourne with Danby and various other pro-Israel jewish
politicians (and the media) to have a hot chocolate and tell the community that
BDS was comparable to the nazi boycott of
jewish business in pre-war Germany. That struck me as a
very odd thing to do …you could interpret it as a mea culpa of sorts, but
without inside information it remains speculation.
Yes Lysias,
I heard reports that Rudd’s denunciation of Israel’s actions against
the Mavi Marmara started the ball rolling.
Sounds like Rudd was rather more pissed at Israel (then conciliatory)
in the first half of 2010 than I realised:
The UN vote that Rudd changed from a NO to
ABSTAIN was calling for action against Israel over their bloodbath
in Gaza in 2008/9. I wonder if that can of worms
will be re-opened if Abbas goes to the ICC?
The standard story is that opposition to the
mining tax was the main influence behind the dumping of Nice Mr. Rudd. However,
when we put together Rudd’s actions (expelling a diplomat) over Israel’s misuse
of Australian passports, the fact that Danby was one of the traitors running to
the US embassy to blab about cabinet discussions, the fact that the US can’t
blow its nose without Israeli permission, and the fact that The Very Wonderful
Julia “no carbon tax” Gillard was living with an agent for Israel (how direct a
line do you want?), some of us feel that our suspicions about Israeli lobby
involvement are at least as justifiable as the inordinate length of this
sentence.
Pulling the wool over our eyes, Mr Leibler,
have you no sense of decency (and I will not talk of shame)?
But I’m stunned that Carr has been able to
blow a bridge that Jimmy Carter, James Baker, Colin Powell, Paul Findley and
Walt and Mearsheimer could not blow: the mainstream bar on talking about this
stuff.
While I too am a little surprise Phil, it’s
not that big a shock. The social and political culture in Australia isn’t like the US. There has always
been a healthy contempt and cynicism for those in power. That makes it much
more difficult for the ruling class to frame the debate or act as gatekeepers.
As a consequence, the Israeli lobby has to
be far more subtle and keep a far lower profile here than AIPAC’s vulgar
displays. In fact, I was not even aware of obvious Zionist organizations until
I went to the gym the other day and saw a water bottle someone had left behind
with a Zionist organization label on it.
Israel is not sacrosanct
here, and I believe that it’s approval is in the negative digits. Bear in mind
that Miko Peled was also invited to Canberra to address a
conference with politician from both sides and given a very warm welcome.
Also, don’t forget that the ABC recently
produced that superb document earth, Stone Cold Justice.
Shorter Shingo: Australia is a great country.
I tend to agree.
Shorter Shingo: Australia is a great country.
That’s a matter of opinion, but the social
attitudes here are less tolerant of elitism and less prone to hero worship.
Russel Crowe complained that it was something he disliked about Australia – that it doesn’t
revere it’s leaders enough.
This talk of ‘over-influential’ Jews reminds
us vividly of what happened in Nazi Germany.
Unlike Israel – and nazi Germany – all Australians
have full equal rights, none are denied the vote and discrimination (racial,
religious, other) is prohibited by law.
Unlike Israel – and nazi Germany – we do not invade
foreign countries transferring our citizens into overseas settlements, plunder
the occupied territories and commit multiple instances of war crimes and crimes
against humanity against the occupied population.
Take a look in the mirror Mayhem, try to be
honest.
That you would equate discussion of a
visible lobby group for a foreign country with naziism and the holocaust
reflects your unhinged mental state, but not a lot more.
Your comment is awaiting
moderation.
Like Israel – and Nazi Germany –
not all Australians have equal rights, and the plight of the indigenous
communities is a national and international disgrace.
Australia, together with the USA, UK and other imperial
powers invades foreign countries transferring our citizens into overseas
settlements, plundering occupied territories – think Bouganville and other
places around the Pacific region, and commit endless instances of war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
The Israel lobby in Australia run by Jews, many of whose families were
Holocaust survivors, are Australian citizens working for a foreign country’s
interests – Israel’s – so, are they Australians or Israelis, and if their
sympathies are with apartheid Israel why don’t they go and live there?
Mannie De Saxe
Both Julia Gillard and (take a deep breath)
Ayann Hirsi Ali will be speaking at Maryville University in St. Louis under the St. Louis
Speakers Series.
It does not take too much imagination to
understand the real purpose of this speakers series. (Just look at the line up
of their speakers.)
Both these ladies should speak. Hopefully
there will be opportunity for public dialogue.
This from the aftermath of the firing of
Rudd and installation of Gillard:
Note the quote from that other Jerusalem
Prize winner Greg Sheridan – Foreign Editor of the Australian. And this:
‘She wants to be Australia’s first female prime
minister and she knows that means currying favour with the Jews’.” (Australia renews its love
affair with Israel, Dan Goldberg,
thejc.com, 10/12/09)
Jews amount to 0.3% of the Australian
population. Muslims on the other hand comprise 2.2% of the population and their
number is increasing.
American
Jewish Committee builds Israel lobby in Europe
