is the crean push an american-israeli plot?

2. IS THE CREAN PUSH AN AMERICAN-ISRAELI PLOT?

They may not have a vote in caucus, but one player keen to see Kim Beazley return to the Labor leadership will be Uncle Sam.

Simon Crean has burned his bridges with Washington in a futile attempt to chase the Left voters Labor lost to the Greens. He's snubbed visiting Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, thrown flak at George Bush over the war and seriously upset US ambassador Tom Schieffer.

Check out this Maxine McKew interview with Schieffer:
http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/eddesk.nsf/All/A971FE7ABC1A2AEBCA256CC8000D3377

But Bomber Beazley is a Seppophile who is known and respected in Washington. Interestingly, Beazley returned last week from a junket to Israel, paid for by that country's Foreign Affairs ministry.

In an interview with the Jewish News, Beazley confirmed that he did not meet any Palestinian officials, nor did he travel to the West Bank or Gaza Strip. "Beazley would not be drawn on why the Labor Party's backbench under his leadership was not as vociferous in its criticism of Israel as it has been under Crean," reported AJN editor Dan Goldberg.

From time to time, conspiracy theories bubble up about CIA involvement in the Whitlam dismissal (see: http://csf.colorado.edu/pen-l/2001II/msg04502.html), but we are not suggesting Beazley's second coming is being engineered Mossad, the CIA or ASIO.

But an obvious ramification of a Beazley return would be an improvement in Labor's relations with the US and Israel.

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