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?
Poor Advice
March 20, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
In a March 9 Age piece, the ANU’s Amin Saikal took it upon himself to advise Barak Obama on Middle East policy. He claimed the Bush Administration’s policy had “denied Hamas its right to exercise power as the democratic choice of the Palestinian people.” This is untrue.
Not so Jolly Rodgers
March 13, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
On March 3, Age readers were subjected to a typically jaundiced and poorly argued opinion piece from Peter Rodgers.
Gunness Shoots Off
March 6, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
Media reports during Israel’s Gaza campaign often featured UNRWA head John Ging or spokesperson Christopher Gunness stridently and, dare I say, disproportionately attacking Israel. Woe betide anyone who attacks them though.
Wild and Woollacott
February 27, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
A review by Guardian writer Martin Woollacott of Patrick Tyler’s book A World of Trouble: America in the Middle East appeared in the “Panorama” section of the February 14 Canberra Times. Tyler strongly criticises US actions in the Middle East and Woollacott, a long time critic of Israel, strongly agrees.
Lateline and Dateline
February 20, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
In last week’s JN, AIJAC’s Tzvi Fleischer commented on the unfairness of the ABC TV show “Lateline” using hard left Israeli commentator Akiva Eldar as for its analysis of the Israeli election.
Israel’s centrist ground
February 13, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein
Despite campaign rhetoric from all sides, the close result and large number of late deciders demonstrates that there is a lack of clear ideological or policy distinctions between the main parties. A wide consensus has developed in Israeli politics and public opinion on the desirability of a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
