Iran and Saudi Arabia’s new push for gender segregation
August 15, 2012 | Or Avi Guy
Universities across Iran are reportedly closing their gates to women in many fields of study in an effort to suppress student activism via gender segregation. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia plans to create segregated women-only cities to prevent men and women mixing in the workplace.
Media Week – Low Blows; Acres of coverage; and Small steps and megabytes
August 15, 2012 | Allon Lee
Anti-Zionist writer Antony Loewenstein advanced his dream of a one-state solution on the Conversation (30/7).
Loewenstein wrote that for Israel the “occupation is a God-given right to populate land”, and claimed that the recent Levy Commission had “found that its decades-long occupation of Palestinian land wasn’t an occupation at all. The report granted quasi-legal justification for illegally moving Jews into the West Bank.”
The report did not endorse unlimited settlement building. It confirmed that legally the West Bank is disputed territory since no sovereign state was established there when the British left in May 1948, and various decisions by international bodies grant Israel legal rights in the West Bank. And, as the report noted, since 1967 Israel has adopted a “pragmatic approach” in the hope of encouraging peace negotiations about the future of the “the territories”.
Will they? Won’t they? The ongoing Israeli/American Iran question
August 15, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
An Israeli strike on Iran has been “imminent” for about two years now and commentators everywhere seem to be vacilating between alarm and dismissal. The volume of announcements, alleged leaks to the media, and public disagreement between various Israeli and US officials is leaving almost everyone scratching their heads over what is really going on.
The truth, as Elliott Abrams points out, is really anyone’s guess…
Morsi’s “coup” against the military in Egypt
August 15, 2012
This Update deals with the dramatic announcement by Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi made on Sunday, firing the defence minister and all the heads of the armed forces – the major competing centre of power through the transitional military council SCAF – and also heavily strengthening his own constitutional power via a decree altering the interim constitutional arrangements.
Syria’s Civil War after PM’s Defection
August 13, 2012
The defection of Syria’s Prime Minister, Riad Hijab, to Jordan and the rebel side earlier this week – the latest in a string of high profile defections from the regime – has raised speculation that the bloody civil war there has turned a corner. This Update focuses on analysis of where things now stand in Syria, and how the changing situation might affect Western policy calculations.
First up is an argument for changing policies in the wake of the latest developments in Syria in an editorial from the Washington Post. The paper notes the defection of Mr. Hijab and also an International Crisis Group report which makes it clear, correctly, that the regime is long past agreeing to compromise or agreeing to a “managed transition – while the longer the civil war goes on the less likely a democratic and pluralist government will follow.
What we can learn from Ahmadinejad’s “400 years of Zionism”
August 10, 2012 | Or Avi Guy
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA, 2.8.2012), published some statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made last Wednesday night in a meeting in Teheran with ambassadors and diplomats from Muslim countries . These reveal that while the Iranians love to claim they are only critical of Israel and “Zionism”, and have nothing against Jews per se, the Iranians in fact simply and transparently use the word “Zionism” to paper over dangerously antisemitic views directed against Jews generally.
The Sinai Vacuum
August 9, 2012
This Update is dedicated to the implications of the latest large-scale attack from Sinai into Israel on Sunday, which left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead, but caused no casualties in Israel. A good introduction to the news about the attack and its immediate aftermath appeared in Sharyn Mittleman’s “Fresh Air” blog post on Tuesday – this Update will focus on the wider Sinai problem of a power vacuum increasingly being filled by violent extremist groups highlighted by this latest attack.
Terrorist attack on Sinai border tests Israeli-Egyptian relations
August 7, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
The latest terrorist attack on the Israel-Egypt border that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers is shaping up to be the first real test of Israel-Egypt relations under the leadership of newly elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.
Media Week – Mind the gap; Myth and facts; and Lesson of Iranian terror
August 7, 2012 | Allon Lee
The media’s unwillingness or failure to probe glaring contradictions in pro-Palestinian propaganda was apparent in a Deutsche Presse-Agentour story in the Canberra Times and Sydney Morning Herald (28/7).
Film Review: Last Dance
August 6, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Last Dance director David Pulbrook was obviously cognisant that a movie about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would necessitate negotiating a moral and political minefield. Tellingly, he stressed in numerous interviews that “we were careful not to take sides and worked closely with Palestinian and Jewish communities to ensure a balanced point of view”.
He also went to some length to downplay the political significance of the film, telling the Australian Jewish News‘ Danny Gocs that “[t]he film is more about humanity and motherly love than the politically volatile issue between Israelis and Palestinians.”
His efforts to engage with the Jewish and Muslim communities in Australia are laudable, as were his attempts to create a human drama from an inhuman conflict. His characterisation, however, missed the mark…
