Image: Shutterstock

Media Matters: The ABC’s blind spot

August 17, 2025 | Allon Lee

Towns and villages flattened as far as the eye can see. Exhausted civilians desperately seeking an end to their misery but led by a pitiless leadership that refuses to surrender. Not Gaza in 2025 – but Japan in the final months of World War II.

Fighters and military vehicles belonging to Syrian government forces intervene in the city of Sweida to enforce a ceasefire between Druze factions and Bedouin tribes. Syria, July 20, 2025 (Image: Shutterstock)

Druze crisis tested Israel’s Syria strategy

July 31, 2025 | Ilan Evyatar

A week-long outbreak of violence in southern Syria in mid-July exposed the fault lines and shifting regional and global alignments shaping Syria’s post-Assad future – and the challenges these pose to Israel’s strategic goals.

Image: Shutterstock

Media Matters: Smoke and Ire over IHRA

July 30, 2025

President Bill Clinton walks Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority at Camp David, Maryland, July 2000 (Image: Wikipedia)

The silver anniversary of the silver bullet

July 29, 2025

Drone footage reveals the widespread devastation in Gaza (Image: tayifmukta/Shutterstock)

Can hardliner narratives around Gaza be rewritten?

September 17, 2025 | Ran Porat

The only path forward is to move beyond hardliner narratives and construct a new, hopeful story. Rebuilding Gaza requires international support — Israel, the US, and Arab states must help foster a future based on human rights, prosperity, and peace. Instead of martyrdom, Gaza’s narrative must embrace freedom, life, and dignity. Instead of hornets’ stings, Gazans could envision themselves as bees—building a hive of productivity and creating honey for themselves and their Israeli neighbours. For Gaza and Israel alike, daring to imagine such a future is the first step toward making it real.

Israeli strikes targeting Hamas' leadership in Doha (Image: X)

Qatar does not deserve sympathy over Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders

September 17, 2025 | Jamie Hyams

The condemnation of Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar is yet another example of the appalling double standards to which Israel is routinely subjected. The international community should instead be pressuring Qatar to end its support for Hamas and other pernicious activities. Had Qatar threatened to expel Hamas if it continued to refuse to release the Israeli hostages it holds and agree to surrender power in Gaza, for example, the war might well be over by now.

Scene of the Doha attack (screenshot)

Qatar is no impartial observer in this war, the nation is a backer of Hamas

September 12, 2025 | Allon Lee

Israel’s unexpected and bold surgical strike on a building in the Qatari capital of Doha where Hamas’ senior leadership was meeting has attracted the usual international flak.

“Palestine” may have a flag, but it does not currently meet the criteria for statehood. Prematurely recognising it will not bring the day it does closer (Image: Shutterstock)

Nine reasons premature recognition would be bad for Palestine

May 28, 2025 | Bren Carlill

France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN conference this month about creating a Palestinian state. Before or during the conference, France will likely recognise Palestine as a state, and is urging other countries to join it. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong keeps indicating she is considering similar recognition.

The raw anti-Israel hate on Western streets is a symptom of a deeper social malaise, writes Murray (Image: Shutterstock)

Biblio File: Israel and the pathologies of the West

May 28, 2025 | Peter Berkowitz

In On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization, Douglas Murray excoriates the Western hypocrisy, mendacity and malignancy that fuel enthusiasm for Hamas’ butchery of Jewish civilians and antipathy toward Israel’s exercise of its right to self-defence.

A wounded Palestinian arrives at Al-Najjar Hospital in the Gaza Strip (Image: Anas Mohammed/ Shutterstock)

Scribblings: Interpreting Hamas’ casualty numbers

May 28, 2025 | Tzvi Fleischer

The Hamas statistics show that combat-age men are far more likely to be killed, compared to their proportion of the population, than women, children or the elderly. Hamas data doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians, but the only sensible explanation for these numbers is that Israel is doing its best to target combatants.

The IDF’s new stategic plan calls for taking and holding Gaza regions until they can be completely cleared of Hamas fighters and infrastructure (Image: IDF)

“Gideon’s Chariots”

May 28, 2025

Trump’s surprise meeting with Syrian President and former jihadist Ahmed al-Shara’a (right), mediated by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Israel now on the Road to Damascus? 

May 28, 2025

Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya has always rejected exile, but other Hamas leaders may be reconsidering (Image: Palestinian Information Center)

The Hamas deportation solution

May 28, 2025

“Operation Rough Rider” in the Red Sea (Image: US Navy)

A rough end to “Rough Rider” in Yemen

May 28, 2025

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher falsely claimed that 14,000 babies will die in the next 48 hours (Image: UN)

Deconstruction Zone: Stop quoting the UN

May 28, 2025

Vibrant community: An alumni reunion of Johannesburg’s Yeshiva College (Image: Yeshiva College)

The Last Word: South Africa to Australia and back again

May 28, 2025

The theft of aid has gravely affected humanitarian efforts (Image: X)

Editorial: A new chapter

May 28, 2025

Image: Shutterstock

Noted and Quoted – June 2025

May 28, 2025

US President Trump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh (Image: Flickr)

Trump’s landmark visit to the Gulf

May 28, 2025