Anti-Jew Jew confronts Abbott, or maybe not

Superb writing at Fairfax's National Times on Israel's creeping racism:

It is just the latest sign in an ever-tightening noose around Arabs from the Zionist mainstream in the self-described Jewish nation.

That's from the increasingly confrontational anti-Israel activist Antony Loewenstein:

When I recently confronted Opposition Leader Tony Abbott over his blind backing for Israeli "democracy", he muttered something about the Middle East not being "perfect". But, I countered, what about Jewish-only settler roads in the West Bank? That was "bad", he acknowledged, before looking away nervously.

The post-book signing encounter with Abbott originally described as anything but confronting:

After, while signing books, I approached Abbott again and we talked for a few minutes about the conflict. He said he had visited Israel as a guest of the government and only been taken to where they wanted to show him. When I said that there were Jewish-only roads in the West Bank, he said that was “bad” and looked uncomfortable.

No doubt Loewenstein, with his narrow girly shoulders and little pot gut, would have been intimidated by the super-fit Abbott, who could easily snap the intrepid journalist's bird-like neck. Regardless, the issue of Jewish only roads remains contentious, Loewenstein's claim challenged way back in 2006:

TED LAPKIN: If I can point out that I haven't uttered the word anti-Semitism tonight. The only person who has been uttering it is Antony Loewenstein. You talk about factual errors - he talks about Jewish only roads. That's one of the errors that he makes in the book. What you have in the West Bank are roads that are limited to Israelis and Arab Israelis can use them and the reason why they were built is because Israelis driving through the West Bank were subjected to gunfire and sniping attacks and so to portray this as some kind of apartheid when, in essence, these roads were built after many Israelis, including Israeli rabs who were using, them were shot to death using the regular road system I think is just absurd and it's factually incorrect. These are not Jewish only roads. They are roads that are limited to Israelis for security reasons.

ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN: Exactly. This is the thing - everything is for security. In other words, when there is a town which is cordoned off, it's for security. When there are roads only for Israelis, it is for security. My point is, this kind of rhetoric is always used to justify security measures, which in reality means that the Palestinian people don't actually have...

TED LAPKIN: Do you concede your error that these are not Jewish only roads.

ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN: No, I don't.

TED LAPKIN: I'm sorry but you are mistaken.

ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN: Far from it.

TED LAPKIN: Israeli Arabs use them all the time.

Loewenstein, presented by the ABC, Fairfax and other sites as an Israel expert, should either substantiate his claims or retract them.