Journalist Margo Kingston, who does the Webdiary section of the Sydney Morning Herald website, has apologised for her latest comments that "the fundamentalist Zionist lobby controls politics and the media in the US and Australia" (July 22). Readers will recall that this claim follows a previous outburst last year, where she said that Jewish backers of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "seem to have the power, money and clout to dominate public debate and wield enormous political and financial power behind the scenes. The Ashrawi debate has exposed this secret power."

However, what was particularly interesting was a claim she repeatedly made in her rambling apology (July 26). She wrote, "I did not mean what many people believed I meant. I am not antisemitic, and I thought what I wrote was a statement of fact." Later, after explaining she only meant the "fundamentalist Zionist" subset, she said, "As to my belief that powerful members of this subset control politics and the media, I thought this was stating a fact. I thought it was well known that in the US no politician wanting re-election would speak out about the excesses of current Israeli policy. I thought the relentless intimidation of the media by Australia’s AIJAC was commonly accepted." Finally, she wrote to a critical correspondent, "I admit I’m at a loss to understand the antisemitic charge…I’d really appreciate your advice on this - it seemed so uncontroversial when I wrote it - I suppose because I mix largely with left wing Jewish Australians."

What’s interesting about this is that Kingston appears absolutely convinced that everyone, or at least everyone she knows, agrees that a "fundamentalist Zionist lobby" controls politics and the media. Unfortunately, this is becoming a matter of faith on the far left internationally. Despite the obvious parallels with the traditional backbone of the antisemitic worldview and justification for the Holocaust that "Jews conspire to secretly control the world with their money power," this is today becoming a central part of the worldview of many of the most vehement critics of Israel. Picked up in part from the blatant antisemitism of many Palestinians, it allows adherents to be righteously fighting a vast powerful conspiracy, as well as be assured that everyone would agree with them if only the "Zionist lobby" did not prevent people from hearing the truth.

Ms Kingston seems now to have some august company, which demonstrates how widespread this antisemitic belief has become. US independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has said something similar recently. He has been sharply criticised for saying "The days when the chief Israeli puppeteer comes to the United States and meets with the puppet in the White House and then proceeds to capital hill where he meets with hundreds of other puppets, should be replaced." When the Anti-Defamation League wrote to Nader and asked him to reconsider, he wrote back refusing and adding, "As for the metaphors -- puppeteer and puppets -- the Romans had a phrase for the obvious -- res ipsa loquitor [the thing speaks for itself]" and "The Israelis have a joke for the obvious — that the United States is the second state of Israel."

Nader’s remarks earned him a critical editorial from the Washington Post (Aug. 14) which pointed out that his remarks were virtually indistinguishable from statements by the white supremacist National Alliance. And indeed, such parallels are actually more common than most people think — the far right and the far left are actually much closer to each other in some ways than to the political centre. Politics is a horseshoe, not a straight line.

Margo Kingston is additional proof, if any is needed. Not only is she a left-winger who wrote an admiring book about Pauline Hanson (Off the Rails: The Pauline Hanson Trip) her latest book has an endorsement from the veteran right-wing racists at the League of Rights. The 13 August edition of their newsletter "On Target" recommends her new book, Not Happy, John, adding "we could agree with her on many issues." And indeed they do, on control of the news by "Media Moghuls" (sic), on "globalisation", on the war in Iraq, etc.

Kingston is not the only left-winger they like. Robert Fisk of Britain’s Independent also gets a guernsey in the same edition for his claim that Blair and Bush are concealing how terrible the situation in Iraq really is. Fisk is frequently reprinted by the League, as was the late Edward Said.

Extremists tend to be extremists, not matter what "side" they are nominally on.

Meanwhile, Iran sent its foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi to New Zealand on August 23 to lobby that country to use its seat on the International Atomic Energy Agency to stop any action being taken against Iran for its nuclear program. The sweetener offered by Iran was a deal on economic cooperation signed during the visit. New Zealand seemed to play along, apparently accepting Kharrazi’s repeated claims that the nuclear program was wholly peaceful. This is despite IAEA findings of repeated Iranian deception, the fact that, according to US Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, Iran threatened British, French and German officials last month in talks by saying they could have enough enriched uranium for a bomb within a year (Washington Post, Aug. 18), and Kharrazi’s use of his visit to again threaten Israel if it moves to attack Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Disarmament Minister Marion Hobbs promised "fairness" to Iran saying, "We can always give them a fair hearing because we are not on one side or the other."

Given the anti-American and anti-Israel stances of the present New Zealand goverment, it is not at all unlikely that Iran sees that country as a natural ally. Given the vital importance of the efforts to make sure Iran does not succeed in its thinly-veiled attempts to build a nuclear weapons capability, I can only sincerely hope the feeling is not mutual.

One quick word about the refusal by Iranian Judoka Arash Miresmaeili and his refusal to fight his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Vaks. Yes, it was a blatant violation of both the Olympic spirit and the Olympic rules, and yes, it’s scandalous that Iran escaped punishment for the boycott, with the willing collusion of Olympic officials, by a transparent ploy. But what is really ironic is that here we have a Jew and a Muslim who are not fighting, and it’s a bad thing.