RUDD SIGNS PETITION CALLING ON GILLARD TO CANCEL ISRAEL TRIP

Not that Rudd, the other famous Rudd, "Van Thanh Rudd, the artist son of the Prime Minister's brother, Malcolm." Amongst the 170+ signatories:

Names on the petition include Greens MPs Ian Cohen and Lee Rhiannon, journalists John Pilger and Antony Loewenstein, Jewish actress Miriam Margolyes, Jewish Australian writer Sara Dowse, and academics such as sociologist Raewyn Connell, Associate Professor Jake Lynch, director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict studies at the University of Sydney, and retired CSIRO scientist Bill Snowden.

Lacking quantity, the petition compensates with quality. Before moving on you really should check out Rudd's artwork, provocatively blending footy, soldiers and exploding people.

Update: Always keen to get in on any action even remotely anti-Israel, Loewenstein is one of the 74 signatories to this petition.

Update II: Lowenstein tries to say he was commissioned to write a piece for the latest Sydney PEN magazine:

In their latest newsletter, I was commissioned to write about the freedom of the press in repressive states such as Sri Lanka and Russia.

In the article he writes (my bold):

The atmosphere of impunity against journalists in Sri Lanka is reminiscent of many other nations, including Russia, Colombia, Iraq, Palestine, Mexico and the Philippines.

Later in the same article Loewenstein says too many journalists to count have been killed in Iraq and in the next sentence gives a total:

The former presidential press secretary under George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer, said in the wake of 9/11 that Americans “need to watch what they say, watch what they do.” The murder of countless journalists in Afghanistan and Iraq by American forces suggests that this policy was not merely a rhetorical device. According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 138 journalists and 51 media workers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.

Sydney PEN is apparently confident its writers require no editing. Wrong.

Update III: Loewenstein eloquently sums up a Noam Chomsky lecture:

It was like listening to a history lesson of the past and present.

A 13-word sentence containing a redundancy and an impossibility: classic Loewy.

Update IV: More classic Loewy:

This is a moving story about Israelis who dedicate themselves to paint over racist graffiti, a sadly increasingly phenomenon.

Huh?