West ignores the Sudan war at its peril
February 14, 2024 | Oved Lobel
Giving the anti-Western axis virtual control of the Red Sea would be a strategic catastrophe and could soon make the already difficult mission of securing international trade against IRGC piracy and missile and drone attacks all but impossible. A Russian naval base in Sudan, which will likely be the result of the current war in Sudan without Western intervention, will allow the IRGC to rearm Hamas and PIJ with impunity. The United States and its allies therefore have a strong interest in finding ways to prevent that outcome.
UNRWA and the Miseducation of the Palestinian people
February 12, 2024 | Tammy Reznik
Imagine the potential damage that could ensue from a curriculum based on hatred, division and the literal elimination of “enemies”… where the maps being used are carefully crafted to erase and delegitimise an entire nation of people. Sadly, we don’t need to imagine this – there is ample evidence that this very process is happening in the schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza and the West Bank.
ABC misrepresents Hamas’ hostages-for-ceasefire offer, Israel’s rejection of it
February 8, 2024 | Ahron Shapiro
ABC reporting on breaking news in Israel last night (this morning, February 8, Australia time) regarding Hamas’ terms for a hostage-for-ceasefire deal proposal and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s negative response to it was so wildly inaccurate and misleading that it warrants such corrections, and soon.
Was October 7 an act of genocide?
January 24, 2024 | Oved Lobel
Based on the Srebrenica precedent, a theoretical case for October 7 being a crime of genocide suddenly becomes much stronger. The number of those killed need not be measured against the entire Jewish population of Israel, but only those kibbutzim and towns of Israel that Hamas controlled in the so-called “Gaza envelope”. The substantiality requirement would thus arguably be fulfilled.
“Lies, damned lies and statistics” in Gaza
January 17, 2024 | Oved Lobel
Details will not stop anti-Israel activists and officials from building a facile narrative around unreliable casualty numbers and accusing Israel of “genocide”. But for those genuinely interested in how the war against Hamas compares t … similar operations, the figures available strongly suggest that it is neither especially deadly nor especially destructive.
Australia needs to join the US and UK in sanctioning Hamas and Iran
January 12, 2024 | Oved Lobel
Australia has not sanctioned Iran for its material support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since March 20 despite the drastically increasing levels of this support. Its most recent sanctions against Iran, for any reason, were imposed three months ago.
Propaganda and “Fake Journalists” in Gaza
January 10, 2024 | Justin Amler
When two Al Jazeera journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza this past Sunday, the predictable response from some was that Israel must be deliberately targeting journalists.
Hamas is the cause, not the effect, of Israeli policies
December 22, 2023 | Oved Lobel
Hamas is the cause, not the effect, of the policies they decry, and October 7 has no relation to settlements in the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza or any other Israeli policy. To deny this is to deny history and ignore Hamas’ description of itself and its ideology and motives.
UN embraces Iranian human rights abusers at refugee forum
December 15, 2023 | Alana Schetzer
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was set to attend the United Nations Global Refugee Forum, held in Geneva, Switzerland, on December 13… However, just hours before his plane was meant to land in Geneva, Raisi announced he had cancelled.
Article 51 and Israel’s inherent right to self-defence
December 12, 2023 | Oved Lobel
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.
Facts Sheet: “I went through hell” – What the released hostages say about their captivity
December 8, 2023 | Alana Schetzer, Aviva Winton
Returning hostages were forced to smile, shake hands with their captors and thank them publicly as part of Hamas’ propaganda. However, in one video a Hamas fighter is seen ordering captives to keep waving – and there are also reports that hostages were given tranquilisers prior to their release to make them appear happy.
News reports whitewash the crimes of Palestinian prisoners being released
November 29, 2023 | Ahron Shapiro
Some news reports have drawn an apparent moral equivalence between the completely innocent Israeli hostages and the Palestinian prisoners, including by whitewashing or downplaying the severity of the terror-related crimes many of the prisoners were found guilty of.
