Sunday, February 02, 2014

Ant's Pants

Eight years ago, serial Israel-hater Antony Loewenstein was quoted in the SMH saying "I don’t want to be defined as the guy who criticises Israel; I didn’t ask for this.”

Eight years later, let's see how that's going. The Sydney Morning Herald's Executive Style section interviewed him, describing him thus:
Antony Loewenstein is an Australian-Jewish opponent of Israel. Having spent time in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and written two books on the subject,
Actually it's one book (if you can call it 'writing') and his time spent in Israel is considerably less than a typical Jewish teenager on study tour.

Topics covered include his species:
He says it’s his “responsibility as a human first, and a Jew second, to speak out when injustice occurs committed by my people’’.
His people? Who are they? Also discussed, Antony's eating:
He says while growing up in Melbourne, he attended Sabbath meals with his family.

‘‘I recall discussions about Israel and Palestine and the casual racism expressed towards Arabs. I didn’t have the knowledge then or language to forcefully respond but it made me distinctly uncomfortable.”
Antony is not very good at recalling Sabbath dinner conversations. His own family think he's a liar.  

And as always:
I continue to receive hate mail and occasional death threats for daring to support the Palestinians.”
He's just like Salman Rushdie, only without the sales figures. As Tim Blair once noted, the only people likely to be sending Antony death threats are English teachers.

How an unemployed author qualifies as 'executive' is anyone's guess but if they're going to talk fashion, how could they miss Antony's indoor hat-wearing past attempts?
It looked like he was wearing some sort of tracksuit cargo pants, purple sneakers, a man-bag and a khaki locomotive driver’s hat (worn for the duration).
Chic!

Labels:

5 Comments:

Blogger Minicapt said...

He did look quite spiffy in a paisley-patterned smoking jacket, once upon a time.

Cheers

1:16 PM  
Anonymous Ant L said...

Thank you Minicapt. It is nice to get some love here for a change.

Dan sometimes makes it hard for me to love him, but I understand his bitter frustration - I was a little people once upon a time, trying to make my way in the world. And look at me know - an internationally famous pubic intelliectual.

And it is more than snappy dressing, Minicapt. You need to hold fast to your opinions, even at the cost of family harmony. Great thinkers like moi always make waves. Selling out your family is a small price to pay for fame and you get to meet new friends at the BDS rallies. Just be sure to bring your copy of Mein Kampf so they know you are down with their program.

1:26 PM  
Anonymous Jill said...

Hi Dan ,

I finally found out what the "two books" referred to.
The Second Bullet - er Book - is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/After-Zionism-State-Israel-Palestine/dp/0863568165

12:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@Jill,

Loewy didn't write a book entitled "After Zionism" and can't take credit for having written two books about Israel/Zionism. The book you refer to was actually an anthology of anti-Israel ravings and Loewenstein's was but a single contribution.

Put another way, he wrote a chapter. Not a book.

8:44 PM  
Anonymous Jill said...

HI Anonymous,

I didn't imply that he wrote the damn thing, the SMH did that.

I simply noted that this is the book the SMH probably referred to - his name is on the book and that's all the SMH cares about. Authorship/editing/contributing one chapter - it's all one to them.

2:11 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home