Carr finds a friend
May 10, 2014 by J-Wire Staff
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Former Australian Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser has told ABC’s Jon Faine that he shares former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s take on “the Jewish lobby”.
Malcolm Fraser
Fraser appeared on “The Conversation Hour” to discuss his new book “Dangerous Allies”. The conversation switched to Carr’s recent book “Diary of a Foreign Minister” in which Carr is critical of the Jewish lobby in Australia.
Faine: Bob Carr has managed to upset a lot of people here in Australia and overseas with his memoir, saying that he thought that the pro-Israel and in particular Jewish community lobby in Australia wielded too much power. What does Malcolm Fraser think of that?
Fraser: They certainly do. (Pause). Now, somebody said this a month or two ago and there was a sense of outrage: “No we don’t have immediate access to the Prime Minister. No we don’t have that. We’re just another group”.
Faine: Another lobby group.
Fraser: Well, in relation to the Gillard government, certainly, I am sure what Bob Carr said was totally and absolutely correct.
Faine: And other governments? Are you of that view as well?
Fraser: Um, I once said that Israel had exercised excessive power in relation to Lebanon. I got some pretty furious phone calls as a result, and people asked to come up and see me. And I thought it was going to be two or three [of them] and I found, well, there were so many they wouldn’t fit in my office. So I said “Let’s go into the Cabinet Room”. They all explained Israel’s position, which I understood. And at the end of that discussion I said, “Well, gentlemen, I am glad to have listened to you, but you know the Australian government’s position”. I said that “The power Israel used was excessive. That view has not changed. But I have heard you. Thank you.” But it’s a continuum, it’s a continuum.
Faine: The Jewish community are generous donors to political parties, and wield and exercise as much influence as they can muster. Any community does the same. The Italian community, the Muslim community, religious groups, ethnic groups, industry groups. What’s the difference?
Fraser: Er…
Faine: It’s not usual to single out one community.
Fraser: I don’t think the Italian community, just to take one example, try to get us to follow any particular policies in relation to Italy. And that’s the difference. The Jewish community…well not all the community…because I have had many letters, I’ve got many letters in my office in the files that say “No we don’t agree with the publicly proclaimed leaders of the community in Melbourne. We take a different view.” But they’re not going to say so publicly. The Jewish community seek to get Australia to support policies as defined by Israel. Look, Israel years ago, during one of the wars, killed 30 or 40 Americans on a spy ship in the western (sic) Mediterranean.
Faine: That was a mistaken missile hit, if I remember correctly, or an air strike. I can’t remember.
Fraser: Well, the Americans tried to cover it up. It wasn’t a mistake. It was deliberate.
Faine: You believe so?
Fraser: Yes.
Faine: Based on what?
Fraser: Information I have. I am not going to tell you the source.
Faine: Ok, and the purpose would have been to what? To stop intelligence gathering?
Fraser: They wanted to be able to do what they wanted to do without America hearing.
Faine: That’s a massive claim to make.
Fraser: It is.
Faine: It borders on the beliefs that some people have, which I have always thought were completely insane, about conspiracy theories like 9/11 and the like. And people believe all sorts of nonsense that they choose to then pursue, with no foundation whatsoever. You can’t make that sort of a claim without backing it up, can you, even if you’re Malcolm Fraser and you used to be the Prime Minister.
Kingsbury: To be fair to Mr Fraser, I think it’s worth saying that this is not an isolated example of so-called friendlies being killed in order to stop information being provided internationally. The Balibo 5 in East Timor in 1975 being a case in point.
Faine: Well, they were Australian journalists killed by Indonesian forces.
Kingsbury: They were wanting to get information out. They were killed by a force with the knowledge of the Australian government at the time, and that was covered up at the time by the Australian government. So it’s a close parallel. So it’s not an exceptional case. I think there are plenty of examples of this happening in the past. And it doesn’t necessarily…It may or may not be a conspiracy theory, but there have certainly been other examples of this.
Fraser: You’re idea of conspiracy theories about 9/11 [being nonsense], I think I would agree with absolutely.
Kingsbury: Yeah, me too.
Fraser: But when the interests of a significant power or the interests of a country, are concerned, as they believe, then the interests of individuals, or small groups of individuals, are not worth anything.
Faine; Oh no, individual lives are expendable…
Fraser: Totally.
Faine: for the greater cause and the greater good, in the minds of people who regard themselves as great leaders and military figures and statesmen. Absolutely, I do understand that.
Dr Danny Lamm, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia had this to say about the missile hitting the spy ship.
“The incident was subject to no less than ten American investigations and an additional three Israeli investigations all of which found that it was indeed an accident.
If Mr Fraser has a credible source to back up his outlandish claims, then he is duty bound to reveal it.”
Malcolm Fraser may be old but given the opportunity he still has the sharp and calculating ability to roll out his prejudices as if he were an authority. Why? Because he is given the platform on which to do so. Bigots don’t change they just get better at it. Prejudice has a habit of slipping through the cracks. Fraser has no evidence of any deliberate attack and cover-up, he knows it but it suits his purpose to float this idea because he knows there is a popular audience who are gullible enough to jump on it. More to the point, it’s a red herring, it had nothing to do with the conversation.
He did say he thought Carr’s comments were “absolutely” true. See how easy it is use absolutes to make a point. How the mob enjoys slipping in behind a ruffian to shout out insulting slogans. Absolutely True? Come on Malcolm.
“Excessive power” over Lebanon is another sly poke at Israel. Southern Lebanon was a festering hot bed of Hesboullah extremists hell bent on wiping Israel off the map. Please remember Nasrella’s chest beating threats and constant rocket attacks on Israel’s north. The years of telling them to stop or suffer the consequences. If you think Israel was heavy handed you need to look at Russia and China to get some perspective on heavy handed. Fraser is either living inside a brown paper bag or he has a natural built in propensity to for vitriol against Israel. Take a good hard look at Hesboullah today Malcolm, in Syria, through the southern part of Lebanon up through the border foothills where they are producing vast quantities of heroin and marijuana and has become a major drug cartel that has spread across the planet.
Freser’s statements are nothing more than the typical anti Israel diatribe we here from all of the Islamic countries and all those who, for their own purposes are on the Islam gravy train.
If we need to make personal analogies, Malcolm Fraser played his own political games the best way he could. His ascent to power was all but a regular plot.
His exit, the tears and general depressing state, revealed a man dominated by personal agenda, powerful vanity and relentless need to be in the public eye and relevance. His strong stances on humanitarian issues, compassion etc. contradict the manner in which he disposed of his opposition in politics, but, , it is accepted that one may be accepted as acting one way in office and a distinct one as a…..person !!!!
The analogy with the Italian lobby or any other ethnic/religious is incredibly absurd. Should Italy be under constant threat of any kind or just fractionally similar to Israel, can anyone imagine how the Italians would break down the political doors through ten times larger contingents of lobbyists !!!
Fraser’s mentioning of the size of Jewish representatives reveal a mind not quite rational. What relevance is the number of people !!! What could this detail intend to say !!!Jews act/attack in packs, the assault their target, they are oppressive etc. etc. !!!???? Considering the part Jewish heritage of our Malcolm, the Perth Wolf family etc. he could have shown a bit of a more reasonable approach to the portrayal of our community’s “habits”.
In any case, while we cannot ignore what is said publicly about us, Fraser is far from being of serious relevance in the current and local political context and we should be satisfied that right now Malcolm’s ( former) Liberal lot is showing a fair disposition toward Israel and the local Jewish community and that is ALL that matters.
I remember that meeting with Fraser when we all trudged in, in force just to show him that many of us representing a variety of communal groups, felt the same. He has changed his spots a lot since he became a “has-been” PM.
He needed Arab support for his various activities in the NGO field where he feels still important as a former ‘statesman’,- such as he was,- and therefore probably resents that his Australian successors have always supported the real underdog in that area. This is the same with Carr,- it is their personal status they crave,- not to go in to bat for poor little Israel. So it suits them to blame us ‘the Jews’ in Oz and reinforce the “Jewish conspiracy” theorists!
In other words,-in Carr’s and Fraser’s opinions the Australian Government leaders cannot think for themselves! Luckily they have always seen through their personal motivations!
Precisely Tal. Two has beens trying to retain some relevance.
Just the same, it is interesting that fearless Fraser who went against convention in denying funding to an elected government and conspiring with the drunken GG at the time, now engages in conspiracy theories. He never once states in what way the Jewish lobby is exerting undue influence. Neither he not Carr can claim that Jews have too much influence when government action has gone against Israel. Because action has gone against Israel, them the claim of a powerful Jewish lobby can only mean that Fraser, Carr, Cur and Co consider Jews having a voice as improper. That is pure antisemitism.
With regard to the attack on the US spy ship, one should keep in mind that Israel was fighting a defensive war in 1967 and the US, then not so friendly as the French who supplied the jets, was spying on Israel and transmitting the information to the Egyptians. The ship failed to identify itself and when it did so, the attack was called off. Further Dayan ordered the IAF to shoot down the Black Hawk what was also spying on the IDF.
The 1967 war would not have broken out had the USA kept Eisenhower’s pledge to keep the Straits of Tiran open. The USA State Dept was and still is trying to block the Jewish people from having their own state. Very logical: it upsets oil prices and if the Jewish state is eliminated, then the Arabs owe one to the US and in collecting its debt, the US gives a poke in the eye to Russia/USSR.
I’m trying to recall what historical book I read, with a Jewish author or joint authors, where it said if at the time Israel stood back to their detriment involving an American conflict somewhere which they complied, a pact was made to always come to their aid.
That’s a laugh; the Italian community and Italy, the majority of them are Catholics and bend the knee to their other allegiance, good or evil for Spiritual security in their here after.
Bob Carr and Malcom Fraser are in good company.It really says it all.