No to backburner, yes to a two-track strategy
October 21, 2014 | Glen Falkenstein
Iran’s securing nuclear weapons would destabilise a region already suffering from mass upheaval, in addition to having dire security implications for the rest of the world. Multilateral efforts to deter the sadistic actions of ISIS, a crucial priority, seem to have distracted from international efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear program. As identified in the recent post by Andrew Nikolic, a nuclear Iran remains a broader strategic priority and potentially worse threat.
Nuclear-armed Iran would pose a far bigger threat than Islamic State
October 2, 2014 | Colin Rubenstein
The Islamic State is certainly dangerous and must be “degraded and ultimately destroyed”, in Obama’s words. But nothing could damage long-term regional and wider global stability, and Australian and American interests in the region, more than to allow the fight against the Islamic State to become the distraction that allows Tehran to develop nuclear weapons capabilities or extend its regional sphere of influence…
Ceasefire talks offer chance of lasting peace in Gaza
September 22, 2014 | Colin Rubenstein
All attention has turned to Australian military personnel being sent to Iraq to destroy the Islamic State. But crucial talks are set to commence soon on another critical battleground in the quest for Middle East peace.
This week talks are expected to begin in Cairo to produce a long-term ceasefire for Gaza. Israeli representatives and a joint Hamas-Palestinian Authority delegation are supposed to meet under Egyptian mediation to discuss relaxation of border controls by both Israel and Egypt, Israeli demands for demilitarisation of Gaza, Hamas demands for a sea port and airport and payment of Hamas salaries, and reconstruction arrangements.
After the Gaza conflict: The view from Israel
September 20, 2014 | Ahron Shapiro
I arrived at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport at the end of August, less than 48 hours after Gaza’s rulers Hamas accepted an open-ended ceasefire effectively ending a two-month long conflict with Israel.
Along with the signs giving directions to passport control and baggage claim were signs indicating the nearest bomb shelters – a reminder of rocket attacks that briefly led to the suspension of most flights to and from Israel.
For the first time, Israelis realised that Hamas’ rockets not only posed a terror threat, but could physically isolate Israel.
Letter: Apology falls short
September 1, 2014 | Jamie Hyams
In her belated apology for the use of photos of dead children from the Syrian conflict to represent purported Israeli slaughter in Gaza (29 August), Sonja Karkar of Australians for Palestine claims the statistics alone tell the story. There is no question that large numbers of civilians, including children, have been killed in Gaza, and this is a tragedy. However, the oft-quoted statistics are also very dubious. They come from Gaza health authorities, under the control of Hamas, which has a clear interest in exaggerating the civilian numbers, and are passed on to UN agencies.
Letter: Ignoring the facts on Israel-Palestine issue
August 26, 2014 | Allon Lee
David Rothkopf is deluding himself if he thinks that it is only Israeli intransigence that has prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state (“A High Price”, Review, August 22).
An in-depth report by Ben Birnbaum in the New Republic on the recent failure of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace initiative showed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to accept the US formula of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 boundaries with minor, mutually agreed, land swaps.
Seeing the light: Hamas’ terror tunnels
August 25, 2014 | Glen Falkenstein
It takes us a little bit to our childhood fairy tales of demons… [the] environment I live in, the quiet, the green grass, the trees. It’s not a pleasant thought that you sit one day on the patio drinking coffee with your wife and a bunch of terrorists will rise from the ground.
Such is the reality for a resident of southern Israel – only a mile from his house, 13 Hamas terrorists emerged from a tunnel, reaching from the Gaza Strip to his community – with the intention of attacking civilians during the recent conflict.
Hamas’ failed strategy
August 19, 2014 | Glen Falkenstein
This morning, Israel and Hamas agreed to a 24-hour extension of a five-day truce to negotiate a longer-lasting ceasefire, following weeks of conflict. Israel wants the Gaza Strip to be demilitarised, while Hamas wants unrestricted movement in and out of Gaza, no restrictions on goods coming into the Strip and new construction of sea and airports.
Mideast peace possible if Hamas chooses
August 12, 2014 | Mark Leibler
As of this writing, the war that raged between Israel and Hamas over the past month appears to have ebbed.
If it is over, it is only because Hamas finally made the decision that Australia and the world had been imploring them to do for weeks – that is, to stop committing the war crime of firing indiscriminate rockets on Israel.
Failure to condemn fuels anti-Semites
August 9, 2014 | Jeremy Jones
LAST month in France, a mob surrounded a synagogue, yelling “Hitler was right!” and “Death to the Jews!”
In Berlin, a demonstration allegedly concerned with the safety of the population of Gaza included the chant of “Jew, Jew, cowardly swine, come out and fight on your own”.
This week in Sydney, Jewish schoolchildren on a bus were threatened by a group of teenagers whose verbal abuse included “Heil Hitler” and “We’re going to cut your throats”.
A demilitarised Gaza would improve prospects for an Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel
August 8, 2014 | Colin Rubenstein
AS an uncertain ceasefire holds between Israel and Hamas for now, Israeli and Palestinian delegations are in Cairo to meet Egyptian mediators, turning attention to how a long-term settlement can be achieved in Gaza.
Israel believes that the answer lies in the demilitarisation of the Gaza strip, tied to significant investment in reconstruction – a view backed by the US, EU, Canada, a number of Arab states and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
If Gaza is not demilitarised, a rearmed Hamas will likely provoke yet another major conflict with Israel, as it has already done three times.
Support Israel if you care about Gazans’ suffering
August 6, 2014 | Colin Rubenstein
The nightly television images of the suffering in Gaza are heartbreaking. A vital challenge is what can actually be done to stop the suffering there and in Israel and prevent it recurring.
Gazans need far more than simply an end to the current fighting. They need leaders who put their interests first, rather than treating them as cannon fodder for extremist political goals.
