Israel was right to hit back at Hezbollah provocation
May 9, 2007 | Colin Rubenstein
A lot of myths surround the release of the Winograd commission report into the Olmert Government’s conduct of last year’s war on Islamists.
Peace remote as Arab League Summit ‘postures’
April 10, 2007 | Colin Rubenstein
Arab League summits have become rather marginal affairs in recent years, but hopes were high for the March 28-29 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for two reasons.
Hold firm over Hamas
March 16, 2007 | Bren Carlill
THE Palestinian factions have finally agreed to implement the Mecca Accord, which they signed in February. A unity government will be formed within days… Time to stop the boycott, right? Wrong.
Australian Jewry’s Israel question
March 9, 2007 | Colin Rubenstein
THE publicity surrounding the issuing of the “Independent Australian Jewish Voices” statement appears out of all proportion to the petition’s significance.
Moderates must not become apologists for radical Islam
February 26, 2007 | Colin Rubenstein
THE Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) cancelled our planned participation in the program of Israeli professor Raphael Israeli after his controversial remarks about Muslim immigration and communities. Characterising Muslim communities as a threat or danger per se is a sentiment we reject and with which we do not wish to be associated.
Terrorism Teheran Style
January 21, 2007 | Ted Lapkin
YOU know it’s not business as usual when prosecutors from one country file a criminal indictment against another country’s head of state. But that’s precisely what happened late last year when Argentine authorities laid terrorism charges against former Iranian president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani.
The barriers to peace in Middle East
December 19, 2006 | Colin Rubenstein
The resurgence of internal Palestinian conflict in recent days sheds some light on the assertion advanced again by the report of the Iraq Study Group in Washington. This claim is that the Israeli/Palestinian question is the “core” of the problems radiating out of the Middle East. Everyone of goodwill wants Israeli-Palestinian peace as quickly as possible. However, the belief that it is the key to the region’s problems is not only incorrect, it is counter productive.
Too high a price for peace
December 12, 2006 | Colin Rubenstein
The bipartisan Iraq Survey Group report to US President George Bush makes some reasonable if unsurprising recommendations about military strategy in Iraq, but also two recommendations about wider Middle Eastern policy that are fundamentally flawed.
Arabs Must Take Some Responsibility
December 10, 2006 | Ted Lapkin
It all comes down to Israel?s occupation of the West Bank. At least that?s what one of the dominant mantras on Middle East politics would have you believe. Former US Secretary of State James Baker made that argument just this last week in Washington. The much anticipated report of Baker?s Iraq Study Group declared: ?the United States cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.?
Multiculturalism is still the way to go
November 23, 2006 | Colin Rubenstein
MULTICULTURALISM has been official bipartisan policy, federal and state, for more than 25 years. It has helped create and sustain what is arguably one of the most successful multi-ethnic, tolerant democratic societies in the world, and is vital for our social cohesion, economic prospects and positive profile in our region and beyond.
