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It’s up to Hamas, but US plan means peace looks more possible than ever
The Hamas-Israel war has, once again, come to the point of ceasefire. Once again, Israel has agreed to its terms. It is once again up to Hamas as to whether or not it wants to end the war.
Read MoreAIJAC hails New Zealand’s approach to recognising “Palestine”
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) today hailed New Zealand ’s announced policy of delaying recognition of a Palestinian state until it can better contribute to a two-state resolution as principled, sensible and firmly “rooted in empirical realities.”
Read MoreRoadmap to a viable Palestine requires holding Abbas to account
The problem is that Western recognition of the ‘State of Palestine’ rewards Palestinian promises, not Palestinian actions.
Read MorePalestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will be impotent to deliver on promises
Anthony Albanese said that recognition was predicated on promises that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made to him. But Mr Abbas has made these promises before. They weren’t implemented then, and they won’t be implemented now.
Read MoreAlbanese Government’s “shift away from Israel started long before October 7th”: Joel Burnie on Sky News
Joel Burnie spoke with Sky News’ Sharri Markson about the breakdown of the Australia-Israel bilateral relationship under the current Australian Government, missile and drone attacks by the Houthis in Yemen and the publicity stunt that is the new Gaza flotilla.
Read MorePalestinian recognition without reform is a dangerous illusion
If, against all odds, Senator Wong and her peers somehow did succeed in forcing the PA to honour its commitments, the outcome could be transformative… And in that scenario, recognition could have real meaning. But history – and Palestinian polling – tells us it will not happen.
Read More‘Choose the blessing, choose life’: Can we resist despair this Rosh Hashanah?
I am in despair because polarisation reigns. Black and white are the only colours. Simplistic thinking has pervaded our public spaces — it is also sadly evident in Israel and in many within the Jewish community.
Read MoreAIJAC deeply disappointed at Government’s counter-productive recognition of a Palestinian state
The Palestinians’ chosen path since 2014 – a stubborn refusal to even negotiate, encouraging, rewarding, and celebrating violence, and indoctrinating its children to hate Israel – will be strengthened by the Government’s morally compromised decision. What is certain is that this decision will not help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace, and neither will it accelerate the creation of a Palestinian state.
Read MorePalestinian statehood would reward murder
“Palestine” fails on nearly all counts. It has no defined borders, no single government — only a corrupt Palestinian Authority controlling the Palestinian cities of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and a terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza — and no real capacity for international relations when half its leadership is a proscribed terror group.
Read MorePath to recognition is as flawed as it’s always been
If world leaders who intend to recognise a Palestinian state had a better grasp on history, they would internalise that the same rejectionist positions by the PA that doomed Oslo are still in play.
Read MoreA Rosh Hashanah reflection
We reflect on the lives wounded and lost in the past year. It has been another excruciatingly difficult year for the Jewish people confronted by an avalanche of antisemitism and an explosion of anti-Israelism.
Read MoreRoadmap to viable statehood: Holding the PA to account
This report uses 11 years of survey data sourced by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. It exposes the long-term, consistent positions of Palestinians on the issues at the centre of the commitments that Abbas has made, and upon which Western recognition of Palestine is predicated. It finds that only a very careful Western approach, based on unstinting conditionality, will allow for the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
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