White paper should tackle terrorist television

March 9, 2010 | Bren Carlill

Concern about domestic radicalisation and home-grown terrorism is a big part of the government’s white paper on counter-terrorism released last week. So why haven’t successive governments banned Hezbollah’s television station, al-Manar, from screening in Australia? After all, al-Manar is all about radicalising its viewers.

The legacy of a true friend

January 10, 2010 | Colin Rubenstein

Almost uniquely among Muslim leaders and the heads of Muslim states, Wahid was not reticent about his friendship for Israel and his close ties and desire for even closer ones with the Jewish people.

Time’s Up for Iran Sanctions

December 22, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein

If anyone still had any doubts about Iran’s nuclear intentions, these should have been dispelled by last week’s revelations in The Times of documents showing Iran experimented with neutron trigger technology. Such technology can only be used in nuclear weaponry.

Iran is playing a dangerous game with Israel

October 16, 2009 | Bren Carlill

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is playing a dangerous game. If he’s not careful, he may find his country embroiled in military conflict.

Pull the plug on Hezbollah TV

August 11, 2009 | Bren Carlill

Australia chooses to proscribe as a terrorist entity only Hezbollah’s external military wing. That means Hezbollah’s internal social, political and military wings are not considered terrorist entities by Australia. This is a little bizarre, since Hezbollah’s leaders have publicly insisted there is no distinction between any wing.

Terrorist television would violate our racial hatred laws

August 7, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein

ACMA did not see any problem with an advertisement on al-Manar soliciting donations for the al-Emdad charity, which is used primarily for supporting the families of Hezbollah fighters. Giving it money is effectively indistinguishable from giving money to Hezbollah, which is illegal in Australia.

Piecemeal road to Middle East peace

June 4, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein

Peace will have to be built piecemeal and the first step must be to disarm the Palestinian leadership of the belief that it can wait passively for Washington to extract the concessions it wants from Israel.

Hope of peace in Gaza remains

May 6, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein

Is the new Netanyahu Government likely to be headed for a major confrontation with the Obama Administration? The argument often made is that while Barack Obama will push hard for Israeli-Palestinian progress, the supposedly “hard-line” Netanyahu Government does not even support a two-state resolution to the conflict.

Another McGeough

April 27, 2009 | Jamie Hyams

Paul McGeough continued airbrushing the terrorist group Hamas. He interviewed its leader Khaled Meshal for the March 21 Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and had to accept that Hamas would stick to its Charter’s call for Israel’s destruction, because Meshal insisted.

Worst Encounter

April 3, 2009 | Jamie Hyams

The Radio National program “Encounter” dedicated its March 22 episode to Jews critical of Israel, scouring Australia and the globe for six of the most extreme.

From the ridiculous to the outrageous

March 25, 2009 | Bren Carlill

At the lecture, of which I have a recording, Halper claimed that Israelis don’t use the word ‘Palestinian,’ but rather just ‘Arab.’ This allegation is both blatantly wrong and an attempt to paint Israelis as racists, intent on denying Palestinians their identity.

Khatami is just as rigid as the rest

March 23, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein

What credibility can Khatami maintain in calling for a dialogue of civilisations when he excludes Israel and Israelis? Or when he argues there is no anti-Semitism in the Muslim world, when under his presidency Iran became a sanctuary for Holocaust revisionists?

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