Celebration in Hostage Square, Tel Aviv (Image: Dana Reany/ X)

Good news, but the world must make sure Hamas falls in line

October 10, 2025 | Colin Rubenstein

Allowing Hamas to recover from the war is a recipe only for further violence and devastation, especially for Gaza. The international community must now do all it can to ensure every point of the Trump plan is implemented, including directing its opprobrium where it is warranted – at Hamas.

Hamas' October 7 attack produced scenes that Israelis can never forget (Image: Hamas bodycam)

Israel winning the war, but losing the world

October 8, 2025 | Jamie Hyams

Israel has since been forced to fight two parallel wars — an exceptionally successful military campaign, and a propaganda war, where it has done poorly, with the odds stacked against it.

Image: Shutterstock

Wounds will heal, but scars remain as Israel marks two years since Hamas massacre

October 8, 2025 | Justin Amler

The horrors unfolding were far away from us in Australia, yet I, like the rest of the Jewish community, felt their impact so personally, leaving us with a sickening, helpless feeling of dread.

The Nova Festival became a massacre site (Image: Shutterstock)

‘The worst two years’: Israeli lives remain entangled with grief and hope

October 8, 2025 | Ran Porat

Much of the world has since moved on from the events of that terrible day, focusing attention instead on the high death toll and widespread destruction in Gaza following Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. But Israelis remain trapped in a psychological time loop, a kind of “Groundhog Day” of horror, reliving the nightmare…

Palestinians storm across the Gaza border, 7 October 2023 (Image: Shutterstock)

When Israel woke up on October 7

October 7, 2025 | Bren Carlill

In the years before October 7, Israel did what the world had done for eight decades – it lulled itself into believing that its enemies didn’t mean what they said. Israelis thought that if money went into Gaza, if Gazans could work in Israel, if Gaza’s economy improved, then Hamas, as Gaza’s ruler, wouldn’t want to throw that away… But Hamas attacked anyway, and Israel woke up. 

Celebrating with Torah scrolls in Jerusalem (Image: Teo K/ Shutterstock)

The message is simple: Be joyful!

October 3, 2025 | Rabbi Ralph Genende

So much to be sad about and in the shadow of the agony of the Holocaust, the pall of October 7 has enshrouded us. Yet for all this, we have days of almost riotous celebration like Purim and Simchat Torah. The word for joy, Simcha, is a motif of our regular prayers; a repeated reminder in the book of Deuteronomy by Moses in his final words to his people; and it is indeed the leitmotif of the Sukkot festival.

Image: Shutterstock

Gaza peace plan offers hope, but also faces major hurdles

October 3, 2025 | Ran Porat

Hamas is very reluctant to surrender its last remaining bargaining chips: the hostages and its weapons. A vague promise of future statehood and the return of the PA is not enough of an achievement to justify what befell the Palestinians as a result of the 7 October attack.

Image: Shutterstock

Trump’s Gaza deal may be the last best chance for peace

October 3, 2025 | Joel Burnie

Achieving the Plan will be probably be tortuous. Many of the details will need to be negotiated, and any of these could potentially derail it. And it will only truly work if Hamas agrees.

US President Trump with Israeli PM Netanyahu at the Whitehouse (Image: Whitehouse.gov/ Flickr)

It’s up to Hamas, but US plan means peace looks more possible than ever

September 30, 2025 | Colin Rubenstein

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.

Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations (Image: Shutterstock)

Roadmap to a viable Palestine requires holding Abbas to account

September 29, 2025 | Bren Carlill

The problem is that Western recognition of the ‘State of Palestine’ rewards Palestinian promises, not Palestinian actions.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas (Image: X)

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will be impotent to deliver on promises

September 29, 2025 | Bren Carlill

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.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Image: UN Photo)

Palestinian recognition without reform is a dangerous illusion

September 26, 2025 | Colin Rubenstein

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.

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