Mike Carlton pens first column for Crikey since quitting Fairfax
Former Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton has written a column for Crikey today on the end of the conflict in Gaza.
It is understood to be the first column Carlton has written since he quit Fairfax earlier this month over claims he had abused Jewish readers in emails and on social media, following some strident complaints about a column he wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald on the conflict between Israel and Gaza.
Carlton this afternoon told Mumbrella the column “was jut something I wrote last night and offered it to Crikey”, adding it was not a paid-for piece, and he had no deal in place with the independent publisher.
In the preamble for the piece Carlton is described as a “former ABC war correspondent and naval historian”, with no mention of his time with Fairfax.
Carlton resigned after being told he would be suspended by Fairfax, after a number of readers complained to the company he had been rude in correspondence with them, telling one to “fuck off”, calling others “pissants” and “Likudniks”.
In today’s piece for Crikey on the end of the seven-week Gaza conflict, which he describes as “Israel’s Vietnam” Carlton also had some words for his critics, writing: “None of this is even vaguely understood by the powerful and sophisticated Likud lobby in Australia. The faintest criticism of Israel is always met with concerted howls of “anti-Semitism!”
“It is a facile libel flung about by the comfortable kaffeeklatsch of Sydney and Melbourne, well-upholstered burghers who have never actually experienced a flicker of anti-Semitism in their gilded lives, let alone the Gestapo knock at midnight or even a rocket landing down the street. In doing so, they demean the memory of those who truly knew what it meant: the dead of Auschwitz.”
Asked if he was expecting a fresh backlash over the item Carlton told Mumbrella “I’m not expecting anything”.
Crikey editor Marni Cordell told Mumbrella she had “some very good feedback from subscribers since we published the piece” adding “we haven’t hired Mike, if we could afford him we would, but we can’t”.
After Carlton’s resignation News Corp’s rival to the SMH The Daily Telegraph landed in hot water after it was revealed it had photoshopped Carlton’s head onto the body of a Boston bombing victim, to make him look like a Palestinian man fleeing the bombing in Gaza.
Alex Hayes
Carlton is my new favorite Australian journalist. He has guts and brains. I support him.
User ID not verified.
Why can’t this windbag just go away??!! Nothing new to say in over 20 years, still fighting an imaginary class war where ironically he sees himself as the champion of the workers.??. Rich patronising socialists are just as, if not more boring than right wing blowhards like Jones.
User ID not verified.
Congrats to both Mike and Crikey, great to see a publisher willing to publish real news…
User ID not verified.
Crikey is definitely the right spot for Carlton, sour old journos with an ax to grind, sort of accurate, sort of not.
User ID not verified.
I’m with you, Tom. He is a ‘who cares’ lefty that’s run out of left wing mates to work for. And now he is working for free at a ‘who cares’ lefty rag. I’d say more, but I don’t care.
User ID not verified.
You have to love the utter fuckwittedness of people who can’t stand anybody with an opinion that differs from their own. You have to hope that narrow minded prejudice is rare in the business or it is doomed.
User ID not verified.
Mike Carlton is right if you say or report anything against Israel you are branded anti Semitic. When the majority that do comment on the war crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians are anti war.
User ID not verified.
Superb article in Crikey. Well done.
This will only be a real victory for peace and human rights if the world comes together to enforce the end of the occupation, ensure supervised border access for imports and exports, and helps the incredible amount of redevelopment needed for Gaza.
As with the redevelopment of West Germany post WW2, much of that ought to come from those who inflicted the destruction, possibly by redirecting of the US$ 3.2 B of direct military aide from the US to Israel.
User ID not verified.
His comments about Jews in Melbourne and Sydney not experiencing anti-semitism in their lives is the most ignorant and damaging thing I’ve read by a journalist in a long time. I don’t know a single Jew who hasn’t experienced such treatment. My house, and others, has been graffitied with swastikas, a lady in my street has had Jew engraved in her car, sports players in Jewish team routinely get called “fucking Jews”, a Melbourne boy was bashed recently for being Jewish, as was a family in Sydney. Students who were Jewish at a university weren’t allowed into a lecture, among numerous more incidences, both physical and verbal, at universities against Jews. What about the poor children traumatised by people on a bus saying “heil Hitler”? Just this week, houses in Sydney received letters stating Jews run the world and that they are harmful. Reports of anti-Semitic harassment, graffiti and violence are all on the rise. But, of course, Mr Carlton would have you believe that none of this is actually anti-Semitism. How dare he use the Holocaust to even remotely say that anti-semitism doesn’t occur to Jews in Australia. They experience it ona daily basis. Baffling.
User ID not verified.
I agree with Bem, that it is wrong of Carlton to claim that Jews in Australia are not the recipients of awful racism. That cannot and should not be tolerated.
I also agree with Carlton that anti-Israel does not mean anti-Jew, nor does it mean pro-Palestine or pro-Muslim. The world is not black and white.
The problem is everyone likes to assume all Jews are like Netanyahu, or all muslims are like ISIS, or all Aussies are like Abbott or all Americans are like Bush. None of this is true.
User ID not verified.
Good on you, Mike.
Might even “subscribe” (fakeemailgenerator.com) to crikey again for a read.
User ID not verified.
Well said Bem
User ID not verified.
@bem
2000 Palestinians killed, 492 of them children, 10,000+ civilians injured (3100 of them children) and causing 475,000 people homeless (Agence France Press, 2014)
I don’t agree with it but it kind of puts flyers and graffiti in perspective…
As for the other comments you made – some reference should be highlighted as you failed to mentioned that it was young intoxicated teenage kids who were bully the kids on the bus, all of whom have been reprimanded by the local police.
User ID not verified.
Crikey gets Carlton’s comment for nothing then locks it behind a pay wall.
User ID not verified.
@perspective- There is no doubt that the deaths, injuries and homelessness that has occurred to the Palestinians is tragic. I am not going to spend time arguing the reasons behind this or the politics as that’s a whole other conversation. However, what happens in Israel or Gaza should not be brought to Australia. Jews and Israelis are two different sets of people, linked, but different. Just because all this has occurred over there does not mean that people’s houses should be vandalised or anti-Semitism should be tolerated. Nor should someone be allowed off because they were drunk. Alcohol tends to bring people’s true nature out. If so, how troubling that the youths were so quick to jump on a bus and abuse children with a Nazi salute. Does those figures you brought up make what’s happening here seem small in comparison? Yes. But, that still shouldn’t cancel out what’s happening. I know of many Jews who are fearful of walking to synagogue on Saturdays or to wear a skull cap in public. The fact of the matter is, anti-semitism is a growing problem in Australia. It’s the worse I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime and denials like Carlton’s simply does not make it better. Nor does saying that because other people have it worse off that it puts it into perspective. Sorry, but if it’s happening it’s wrong and it shouldn’t be tolerated.
User ID not verified.
Vin, it is simply not true that ” if you say or report anything against Israel you are branded anti Semitic.” The issue is that many of the outbursts against Israel are framed in an Anti-Semitic manner. Why is Israel held to a different standard to every other country in the world when it comes to the defence of its citizens? Why are there not mass protests against the massacres at the hands of ISIS, Assad and a host other middle east villains? Why are the actions of Israel so often cruelly compared to those of Nazis except to be hurtful (no one can seriously suggest that the Israeli government is conducting genocide – even if you do fundamentally disagree with their actions!).
Perspective – civilian deaths are tragic and most Jews, believe it or not, have great sympathy for the Palestinian people. Hamas runs its operations from hospitals, schools and mosques and fires rockets from civilian areas into civilian areas knowing that Israel has no choice but to respond (name me one nation that has not responded to thousands of rockets fired at its people?). In doing so, Hamas knowingly puts the Palestinian people in harms way. Israel dropped flyers, called in advance and “knocked” on buildings to warn civilians to get out before bombing. Civilian deaths are tragically a part of war but no other army in the history of warfare has done as much as Israel to try to minimise this.
When Israel withdrew completely from Gaza, there was no blockade of any kind. It left in place viable businesses and infrastructure which were destroyed by Hamas and others. Only when Hamas and Islamic Jihad began firing rockets did Israel put restrictions in place. Even then, throughout this conflict, Israel continued to ensure that aid was transferred into Gaza (name another country that would do that!). How much of the concrete that was provided as aid to rebuild after previous conflicts was diverted to build terror attack tunnels instead of schools, hospitals and housing?
Criticize Israel if you must (debate is good) but keep some perspective and fair balance and do not hold Israel up to a different standard to that which you would expect of any other nation.
User ID not verified.
Nobody has a right to object about someone’s choice of religion. However when these people jump to the defence of a country, somehow confusing the political reality with their religious beliefs it gets hard to defend their right to choice. Does Israel have a history of treating Palestinians badly? Yes it does. Do Palestinians have a history of treating Israelis badly? Yes they do. Does Israel speak for all Jews? No it does not. Do Palestinians speak for all Muslims? No they do not.
User ID not verified.
Having sympathy for Palestine is different to standing up to your government that is simultaneously destroying it. Clearly those same comments apply to Hamas. I wonder if Hamas and Netanyahu were out of the picture whether a semblance of sanity and humanitarianism would be possible.
User ID not verified.
@Bem I think although not right any attacks on the jewish community – lets be frank it is not that bad having to combat such attacks from your $2 million house in East St Kilda or Bellevue Hill….There are serious levels of victimisation against real minorities that do not hold the business, financial or political power the jewish community does. Forgive me for not shedding too many tears.
User ID not verified.
@Ben- are you for real? Do you honestly think all Jews are wealthy and live in multimillion dollar mansions? How ridiculous and what a revolting stereotype. And with just 0.5% of the population being Jewish in Australia do you honestly think that Jews are not a “real minority”?
And if we were to take your line of thinking, however ridiculous, so, a Sydney family is bashed and hospitalised, but that’s fine because they get to go home to a nice house. Their pain and trauma are still there. The effect and fear that such an attack would spread throughout an entire community is still prevalent. But because they live in a big house, it’s fine and it’s not really that bad? Carlton’s comments were ignorant denials about anti-semitism. Yours are just plain anti-Semitic.
User ID not verified.
@Ben, that is the most stereotyped piece of shit I’ve read in a long time.
Particularly coming from a man who, like myself, has been named after a tribe of Israel.
I’m not Jewish (just a stereotypical WASP) but I have many wonderful Jewish friends who are caring people with massive hearts. And while they never carry the ‘poor me’ banner, on a rare occasion they’ve opened up to me about the discrimination they’ve experienced. It’s horrid.
Reinforcing stereotypes about ‘the Jews running the world’ is rehashing propaganda that was used in World War Two by the Nazi party.
If you want to know who really holds the power, financially, politically and business-wise, it’s been White Anglo Saxon Protestants ever since the formation of the United States, the British Empire and the Dutch East India Trading Company.
And if you look at the majority of people who own multi-million dollar mansions in Sydney or Melbourne, again, they’re WASPs too.
User ID not verified.
Thus far on this comment section we’ve had posters state that:
1. Jews are rich
2. Jews are powerful
3. It doesn’t matter that Jews get attacked or victimised
Thank you all for proving Mike Carlton wrong: anti semitism is alive and well in Australia
If these are the comments that Mumbrella are allowing to be published I shudder to think what they deem as unacceptable
User ID not verified.
Dear Mumbrella. I struggle to see why you allowed the comment by Ben on 29 Aug at 9.50 to be published. It is inappropriate and adds to the stereotype that all Jews are rich and live in certain suburbs. That is totally incorrect.
Each person should be allowed their own opinion but this view quite blatantly states it is not too bad if Jews are threatened and I believe you should remove this post.
User ID not verified.
@Ben. Wow, you’re right all Jews are wealthy and live in $2m houses and the Jews have all of the business, financial and political power. You casually say these things and don’t even realise that you are perpetuating stereotypes! Nothing justifies kids being racially abused on the bus on the way home from school, people being beaten in the street or racially motivated graffiti on places of worship. I don’t care if you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Chinese, Indian, or any other religious or racial group! Yes, there is much worse discrimination happening in the world (in Syria and Iraq for a start!) and yet there is little in the way of protest against this – why is that?
User ID not verified.
I am happy that a voice of reason is back, the Likud and right wing lobbies have done their best to silence you. Keep up the good work Mike your voice is refreshing.
User ID not verified.
Mike Carlton is one of Australia’s finest journalists. I listened to him on radio for more than 20 years and read his column in the Fairfax Media. I am sorry he is not in the mainstream media at the moment, but hope he will be again soon. Mike challenges readers and listeners to think, and his views and opinions are delivered with wit and a dexterity with language that many admire and envy. Bring Mike back!
User ID not verified.