It’s natural to get a call from a foreign head of state

Or, how elites work

I wrote the original version of this a few days back in response to an article in the Melbourne Age and Sydney morning Harold about how Isaac Hertzog was invited to Australia. I first put it on Facebook where there was a lot of interest. Here it is with a few modifications

This is how it works at the top of the Jewish community. Issac Herzog, understandably distressed at the cold-blooded murder at Bondi first rang Jeremy Lieberman of the Zionist Federation of Australia who is part of a dominant political and business dynasty in the Jewish community in Australia. He wanted to know what he could do. I think we all know the politics of the rest (and the visit is about to happen)

At very top of the permanent elite in the Jewish community it’s natural to get a call from a foreign head of state who happens to be an old family friend and for the local Prime Minister to then end up inviting him. ( I assume Leibler gets to talk to Albo any time).

There’s not the slightest embarrassment at such privilege, it’s what “folks like us” do naturally at the top, and that a favourable political course of action is undertaken That’s entitlement par excellence.

For the rest of us, nahh, not a chance. We are ordinary folks. There are no elections to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and the ZFA serves as a kind of twin. AIJAC involves much the same people. People at the top swap roles and what a surprise, they also get Orders of Australia. Some families have run the show over the decades . The same incestuous relationships lurch across into other organizations and business. It begins at school and university, religious and social networks It’s all very top end of town, a mirror image of how other elites work. If you want to get theoretical, they are engaged in horizontal and vertical (intergenerational) transfer of social, cultural, intellectual & material capital (Bourdieu) . It’s not nothing to do with Zionist conspiracies. It’s just how the elite does its stuff.

The kids & favoured ones get all the phone numbers, contacts & the resources & skills via the networks & families . This is corporate training as they also go into the same workplaces. Such elites are experts in political cultivation & pollies enjoy the rewards (trips, dinners, adoration) .

In the Jewish community, this is the result of a traditional cultural style- deference to the ‘machers’ (the big shots), power, money, intimidation (I’ve copped it), and decades of blind obedience or staying quiet by too many people who should know better than to cower to elites.

Insight into the elite particularly comes through into the fawning biography of Mark Leibler (Jeremy’s father), by Michael Gawenda where Leibler is quite frank about his family. However, it also gives much insight into insider elite influence of the government.

Once again. This is not about Zionist lobby or alleged Jewish power. It’s just the same with other well-resourced groups. Look at the mining lobby and the bad side of the CFMEU.

I note that at two places in the book about Mark Leibler inflammatory assertions were made about me. One was a quote from a letter of Leibler’s that asserted I was an antisemite because I had been critical of Mark Leibler 30 years ago. I tried to take legal action when the book appeared but unfortunately I did not have the resources to follow through on my complaint to the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission which was felt to have merit. What was so interesting is that every defamation lawyer I approached could not take on to the courts because there was a conflict of interest with Arnold Bloch Leibler law firm.

That’s how it goes in a relatively small country in a relatively small community dominated by a few The little guys, the other points of view rarely get a go.

And I always ask, why should the Zionist Federation have a role in Australian politics at all? Shouldn’t it be registered as a foreign lobby?

And of course, there is the whole question of political donations…