Media myths being spread during the current Israel-Hamas conflict
May 16, 2021 | Allon Lee and Ahron Shapiro
Whilst nothing should detract from the utterly pointless loss of life and the hundreds of injuries on both sides that have followed senseless acts of terror by Palestinians over the past week, it is concerning how many myths and half-truths are being broadcast and printed by Australian media outlets during the current conflict.
The Palestinian victims of Hamas’ missiles
May 15, 2021 | Tzvi Fleischer and Oved Lobel
According to the IDF, at least 350 of the more than 1750 rockets fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad thus far have landed inside Gaza itself. Moreover, on Monday alone, Hamas rockets killed at least 17 Palestinians, according to the IDF, before the Israelis even started retaliating for the rocket fire.
Afghanistan withdrawal will increase terror threat to Australia
May 14, 2021 | Oved Lobel
It is time for the US and its allies to come clean about the consequences of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and to drop the pretence that they can be managed with no troops or contractors in the country, or even in the region. That means not only admitting that a Taliban takeover of the country following withdrawal is inevitable and will result in horrific massacres, destabilising refugee flows and the end of many human rights, particularly women’s rights, in the country, but also a dramatic increase in the terrorist threat.
Gross distortions of HRW apartheid slur
May 13, 2021 | Ahron Shapiro
A Threshold Crossed is actually not a report at all, but simply a dossier of propagandistic claims against Israel sourced almost entirely from various other NGOs hostile to Israel. Ironically, the only threshold crossed is by HRW itself. In a blatant effort to tip the scales of the conflict in favour of the maximalist Palestinian narrative, HRW has committed itself to the demonisation strategy of trying to isolate and sanction Israel out of existence that generations of radical activists have failed to achieve.
A ‘human rights’ group assaults both rights and hopes for peace
May 13, 2021 | Judy Maynard
Demonisation of Israel is clearly the goal of this report which essentially implies that Israel’s existence as a Jewish homeland is “apartheid” and a “crime against humanity”. Both peace and the quest for universal human rights will be the losers as a result.
UNRWA textbooks draw European censure
May 11, 2021 | Judy Maynard
In a step hailed as “unprecedented”, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been censured by the European Parliament (EP) for the use of school textbooks that contain hate speech and incitement to violence.
Factsheet: What’s behind the violence in Jerusalem and Gaza rockets
May 11, 2021 | Ahron Shapiro, Judy Maynard
Yesterday, Monday May 10, more than 160 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, in a major escalation of the violence that has been centred on Jerusalem over recent weeks.
Australia cuts Palestinian aid by 25%
May 7, 2021 | Naomi Levin
Australia’s foreign aid to the Palestinian Territories has been cut by 25% over the past year, with funding redirected and long-running programs brought to an end.
Settlements squeezed, not surged under Trump
May 5, 2021 | Ahron Shapiro
Contrary to the narrative promoted by a number of Israeli left-wing NGOs that formed the basis for a number of…
US pulls out of Durban anti-racism meet up, is Australia next?
May 4, 2021 | Naomi Levin, Tzvi Fleischer
As countries prepare to officially mark the 20th anniversary of a 2001 United Nations conference notorious for its extreme antisemitism, the United States has made the principled decision not to participate.
Greek-Israel defence deal is latest evidence of the blossoming Eastmed alliance
April 30, 2021 | Oved Lobel
Erdogan seems incapable of maintaining genuine normalisation with anyone: every irritant in every relationship, from the S-400 to Hamas to Khashoggi, is celebrated by Erdogan, who doubles down on these policies to instrumentalise tensions with regional neighbours for domestic political purposes. It is still possible that Erdogan’s disingenuous outreach may pay off, but even if it does, it is unlikely to break the overlapping system of alliances that have been forming to contain him.
Russia is astutely playing the players in Yemen
April 29, 2021 | Oved Lobel
The inevitable outcome of the Biden administration’s policy on Yemen, with its overarching goal of ending the Saudi intervention, will again see Russia assume the role of supreme arbiter, as it has in several conflicts and crises across the region.
