Looking back on the Ashwari episode, Leibler regards the AIJAC’s militant approach that resulted in alienating the likes of Carr (hitherto a strong supporter of Jews and Israel) as a strategic mistake.
The storm of criticism that then occurred was a shock … and an insight. Soon after my participation was announced, Jewish leaders launched an international campaign to force me to withdraw from the award. There were threats of funding being withdrawn from the University. … Letters of protest were dispatched about the awards going to a Palestinian, switchboards were set aflame with indignation.[4]
This incident underscored for Carr the power of the Israel Lobby in Australia to distort and control Australian foreign policy. Particularly egregious, in Carr’s view, was the influence exerted by the people who ran AIJAC — Leibler and Rubinstein in particular. Of the Lobby, Carr wrote:
