Faith: Shavuot
June 11, 2024 | Rabbi Ralph Genende
We are currently in the season of love on the Jewish calendar. These are the days between the festival of the Exodus from ancient Egypt (Passover) and the giving of the Ten Commandments and Torah, the sacred code, covenant and constitution of the Jewish people at Mount Sinai some seven weeks later: the festival of Shavuot, aka Pentecost.
Australia must never be a party to cynical, pro-Hamas lawfare
June 11, 2024 | Colin Rubenstein
Following Israel’s dramatic rescue on Saturday of four innocent people seized at a music festival and then held for eight months, we can see more clearly than ever the absurdity of the growth in “lawfare” in support of the Hamas war against Israel.
Politicised decision-making a threat to hopes for lasting peace
June 6, 2024 | Tzvi Fleischer
The only possible explanation for the ICC launching its first-ever charges against Israel in the current war – despite violating its own core rules – is the politicisation of its decision-making.
The appalling politicisation and misrepresentation of the ICJ
May 28, 2024 | Colin Rubenstein
One has to be profoundly concerned with the ongoing politicisation of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its growing association with abusive lawfare against Israel.
Why ICC’s ingrained bias ensures no fair ‘trials’ for Israel
May 24, 2024 | Greg Rose
The problem is not a failure to hold Israel to account, it is a more fundamental failure to treat Israel equally under law. Just as Jews were once excluded from polite society, and subjected to double standards, today Israel is treated as the Jew of the nations to be excluded from international society.
Australia’s failing campus report card
May 22, 2024 | Tammy Reznik
Jewish students on campus have felt so aggrieved and threatened by the level of aggression and attacks at these camps, that many have simply stayed away from university. Moreover, many institutions are effectively encouraging students and Jewish staff to stay away “for their own safety,” as one teacher was told in an email.
The UN’s slippery slope is now a chasm
May 21, 2024 | Justin Amler
When the United Nations General Assembly passed yet another “Palestine” resolution on May 10 this year, it demonstrated that the immoral slippery slope that the UN had been on for so many years is no longer a slope, but a cliff over which all common sense, logic, decency and morality have fallen
Holding on to hope in the eye of a hurricane
May 17, 2024 | Rabbi Ralph Genende
At the end of her song, Golan sings a few Hebrew sentences that make my heart sing: “You don’t need big words, just prayers. Even if it’s hard to see, you will always be for me a small singular ray of light”. In dark and dangerous times we need to reach out and grasp every bit of light we can find, and spread it wide and far.
Antisemitic campus extremists don’t understand meaning of free speech
May 16, 2024 | Ran Porat
While individuals have the right to express and share their views with the world, this does not grant a license to promote hate, violence, or reject others simply because they hold different opinions. Accountability accompanies our words. Freedom of speech does not equate to permission for harassment, threats, property damage, or undermining the rights of others.
Palestine vote the worst of all worlds for Australia
May 15, 2024 | Colin Rubenstein
It’s completely misguided as a way to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace… and can only undermine our long-standing bipartisan national commitment to a negotiated two-state peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Uni leaders must stand up for Jewish students
May 14, 2024 | Mark Leibler
It breaks my heart to contemplate the disconnect between my experience of university life and that of Jewish students in Australia and the United States today.
A new coalition against Iran
May 6, 2024 | Colin Rubenstein
For years, Iran has been orchestrating a vast plan to encircle Israel militarily and attack it constantly – openly saying this is intended to destroy Israel by 2040. Teheran’s ability to hide behind the proxies it finances, trains, arms and largely controls, with impunity for this blatant aggression, should now end.
