Media Week – UNhelpful on refugees; Lest we forget; The sounds of silence on Syria
June 7, 2012 | Allon Lee
In the Australian (2/6), Greg Sheridan questioned Australia’s ongoing support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that is ostensibly “the lead UN agency for helping Palestinians” but is actually a major prop for perpetuating the Palestinian refugee issue.
Israeli musicians transcend political divides to connect with Middle Eastern fans
June 7, 2012 | Andrea Nadel
Boycotting and isolating Israel culturally, economically, and politically has long been one of the goals of many of Israel’s neighbours in the Middle East, and more recently, of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It is revealing, then, that growing numbers of people throughout the Middle East are themselves disobeying the call of the anti-normalisation and BDS movements by listening to music by Israeli artists.
La Trobe lecturer’s worrying idea of “modern values”
June 7, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
La Trobe University lecturer Luca Anceschi had a rather nonsensical piece today on academic opinion website The Conversation, concerning the Islamist parties in the Arab world. From the very beginning, Anceschi makes some basic factual errors…
Israeli defence relationships in Asia… and Australia
June 5, 2012 | Ahron Shapiro
The influential trade publication Defence Review Asia has reported strong growth for Israeli weapons system sales to a number of Asian and Australasian countries, including right here in Australia.
The story, which was published on Sunday, focused on burgeoning trade between Israel and India, but also looked at deals with Singapore and South Korea, among others.
UN appoints ‘Tourism Ambassador’ banned from travelling for his misdeeds
June 1, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
The UN has often suffered from a ‘credibility’ issue because of its choice of appointments, and the latest appointment of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe by the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) as ‘Leader for Tourism’ illustrates once again why.
Media Week – BDS is anti-peace; Worrying findings; Sandstorm on the horizon?
June 1, 2012 | Allon Lee
In the Australian (25/5) academic Philip Mendes analysed the conceptual and practical flaws underpinning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement noting that it “is a by-product of the second Palestinian intifada and the collapse of the Oslo peace process…. It is essentially war by other means…and intended to coerce Israel into surrendering to Palestinian demands”.
The myth of Israeli backing for Assad
June 1, 2012 | Ahron Shapiro
A myth seems to have developed in some circles that Israel is either backing the Assad regime in Syria, or at the least, is somehow impeding international action against it, supposedly out of fear of what may follow.
Egypt’s First Round Election Results
June 1, 2012
This Update focuses on analysis of the outcome of the Egyptian Presidential elections last week, where contrary to most expectations, the candidates to make it into the second round were Muslim Brotherhood representative Mohamed Morsi and former air force head Ahmed Shafiq, who is seen as closely associated with the Egyptian military and the former Mubarak regime.
First up is the reliably well-informed expert on Egyptian politics from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Eric Trager, looking at the success of the Muslim Brotherhood. He notes that analyses and polls which had predicted a poor showing for Morsi failed to account for the fact that not only is the Brotherhood the best organised political force in the country, it is in essence the only organised political force.
Israel returns bodies of 91 Palestinians, in goodwill gesture
June 1, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
In a move intended to encourage the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations, Israel returned the remains of 91 Palestinians on May 31, most of whom were killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said:
“We hope that this humanitarian gesture will serve both as a confidence-building measure and help get the peace process back on track… Israel is ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks without any preconditions whatsoever.”
The campaign tactics of Mohammed Morsi
June 1, 2012 | Or Avi Guy
Equality for women in work and education; an assurance that Islamic dress will not be imposed; Christian senior political advisors and possibly even a Christian Vice-President; freedom of protest and expression – the list of pre-election promises made since last Tuesday by Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate for presidency in Egypt, just keeps on getting longer.
Morsi won about 24% of the votes in the first round of presidential election. A second round will take place on June 16-17 between Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, and it seems that Morsi is trying very hard to broaden his support base, attempting to appeal to women and minorities, the youth of the revolution and even the military.
