No ceasefire can work unless Hamas disarms

It should be obvious that the only way to achieve any such sustainable outcome is for the military pressure on Hamas to continue until it capitulates. Voting in favour of an UNGA resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” with no conditions on Hamas doesn’t advance Australian interests for such a “sustainable ceasefire”. It works against it.

Read More

Dismantling Hamas is vital to any hopes of Middle East peace

Australia’s foreign policy goals can best be served by searching for ways to make sure the current Gaza war will end with Hamas’ rule dismantled rather than seeking to legitimise or strengthen Hamas in the utterly misguided hope it can somehow be moderated and converted into a genuine peace partner.

Read More

AIJAC endorses efforts to urge International Committee of the Red Cross to demand access to Israeli hostages

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today endorsed the grassroots Australian effort urging Red Cross Australia to lobby its international umbrella organisation to demand access to, and the release of, the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity since being abducted by Hamas on October 7. AIJAC also rejected excuses from the International Committee of…

Read More

Article 51 and Israel’s inherent right to self-defence

In a public address in Canberra on Nov. 14, Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, made the argument that Israel “cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from the territory it occupies – from a territory that is kept under belligerent occupation.” It is in the public interest to examine whether this sweeping assertion actually has a basis in settled international law.

Read More

A one-state Israel-Palestine solution is a bad and dangerous idea

Australian newspapers have published various articles calling for a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which would supposedly fulfil the rights of both Jews and Palestinians. Let us pause there and note this is actually advocating dismantling the sovereign State of Israel, a member state of the United Nations for 75 years… This raises so many alarm bells for Jewish people like me it is hard to know where to start.

Read More