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.
The Great Suez Canal Plot
April 1, 2021 | Ran Porat
The Ever Given got itself stuck deliberately, and this whole incident was actually the product of a massive international mega-plot to replace the Suez Canal with a new Israeli-controlled “Ben Gurion Canal” from the Mediterranean to the port of Eilat on the Red Sea! At least, this is the claim published in Australia by an Arabic language news portal.
Surprise: Likud drew more Israeli Arab votes than ever
April 1, 2021 | Ahron Shapiro
One of the remarkable stories of the March 23 Israeli election is the Likud achieving a historically high percentage of Arab votes. According to voting data publicly available online (in Hebrew), in one Arab city, the Likud soared close to 10x higher than in past elections.
Mavi Marmara passenger arrested on terrorist charges
April 1, 2021 | Naomi Levin
A Melbourne man arrested in March for alleged involvement in jihadist terrorism has a history of extreme activity, including involvement in a violent attempt to breach Israel’s legal blockade of Gaza.
Israel’s Powerful Connections: The strategic logic behind plans for the world’s longest undersea cable
March 30, 2021 | Oved Lobel
Even more than the positive outcomes for energy security and climate change goals, the project’s political and strategic ramifications are difficult to overstate. Israel’s burgeoning energy and security partnership with Greece and Cyprus, which has qualitatively blossomed since 2017, will further anchor Israel’s importance for Europe and the Middle East.
Becoming Ansar Allah: How the Islamic Revolution Conquered Yemen
March 30, 2021 | Oved Lobel
The Houthis, far from being a local movement, are a core, organic component of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and always have been.
