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.
Trapped in Gaza: How Hamas punishes reporters for the truth
July 31, 2014 | Gabrielle Debinski, Or Avi-Guy & Tzvi Fleischer
HAMAS is not just targeting Israeli civilians, threatening Gazans and using them as humans shields. It has another terror tactic: intimidating foreign journalists.
Journalists who have taken pictures of Hamas operatives preparing to shoot rockets from civilian structures and/or fighting in civilian clothing have been threatened by Hamas operatives and had their equipment confiscated.
Reporter Peter Stefanovic, of the Nine Network’s news, stationed in Gaza, received a surge of abuse and threats when he tweeted that he had seen rockets fired into Israel from near his hotel, in a civilian area.
Hamas accepting ceasefire is key
July 25, 2014 | Glen Falkenstein
THE difference between Israeli and Hamas tactics in the current Gaza conflict has been acknowledged by no less an authority than the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, Ibrahim Khraishi, who recently stated: “I am not a candidate in any Palestinian elections, so I don’t need to win popularity among the Palestinians. The missiles that are now being launched against Israel, each and every missile constitutes a crime against humanity, whether it hits or misses, because it is directed at civilian targets.”
Hamas makes civilian casualties a tragic certainty
July 25, 2014 | Glen Falkenstein
More than 2,200 rockets have been fired by Hamas and other terrorist groups from the Gaza Strip into Israel since July 8, and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have responded by attacking terrorist targets in Gaza.
Israel initially countered the rocket fire by telling Hamas, “quiet will be met with quiet”, yet Hamas continued to fire rockets. Israel also accepted a ceasefire proposal by Egypt, backed by the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which on July 15 was rejected by Hamas.
Letter in The Age: Under threat
July 25, 2014
Your editorial (”Might overwhelms the right to defend”, 23/7) was inflammatory. Hamas, a terrorist organisation proscribed by many nations, including Australia, initiated this conflict by escalating rocket attacks across Israel. It rejected Israel’s overtures to de-escalate, as well as three Arab ceasefire proposals Israel accepted. Hamas positions its military assets – rockets, launchers, weapons, command centres and tunnel entrances – amid civilian homes and buildings, even mosques, schools and hospitals; a war crime.
Hamas’ rocket attacks provoked Israel’s ground offensive into Gaza Strip
July 21, 2014 | Sharyn Mittelman
Israel is currently under attack as Hamas and other jihadist groups have fired more than 1600 rockets into its territory this month. The rockets have sent millions of Israeli citizens – Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze – sprinting into bomb shelters. They have as little as 15 seconds to run for cover. It is not a situation any county would tolerate.
