Media Week – Foreign advice; A word to the wise; and SMH’s headlining act
March 13, 2012 | Allon Lee
Former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans was quick out of the blocks to suggest Kevin Rudd’s successor should still make the case for Australia winning a temporary UN Security Council seat in 2013/14.
“It will certainly be almost impossible if we paint ourselves into a tiny minority corner on the Palestinian statehood issue, should that come to a vote in the General Assembly before October,” Evans wrote (Age, 1/3).
However, last October, Australia, the United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, and Vanuatu all voted against admitting the non-existent state of Palestine to UNESCO as a full member state. A further 52 countries abstained from voting.
The Latest Gaza Flare-Up
March 13, 2012
This Update deals with background to and details of the intensive flare-up over the weekend around Gaza, which saw over 200 rockets fired into southern Israel from Gaza (sending up to 1 million Israelis into bomb shelters) and Israel staging numerous counter-attacks at terrorist targets and rocket sites which reportedly killed around 25 Palestinians, all but three of them armed combatants, according to Israel. The violence was triggered on Friday when Israel assassinated Zuhair al-Qaissi, the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and an assistant, who Israel said were planning attacks into Israel from Sinai…
Israel makes inroads in Asia with a diplomatic “Ace in the Hole” – Water and Agricultural Technology
March 9, 2012 | Ahron Shapiro
Israel’s cutting edge advances in water and agriculture are helping the country make commercial and diplomatic inroads into parts of Asia that have previously been difficult to reach.
Australian terror twist following arrest in India for embassy attack
March 9, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
Delhi Police have arrested an Indian journalist, Syed Mohammed Ahmad Kazmi, a Shi’ite with connections to Iran for his alleged role in facilitating the February 13 bombing of an Israeli Embassy car. See previous AIJAC blog post on background on the attack.
Interestingly, reporting on this arrest has featured discussion of a previous alleged plot by Iranian proxies to prepare terror attacks in Australia…
Peace through falsehood
March 9, 2012 | Allon Lee
Context is king and without it the most outrageous slurs can be given legitimacy.
Unfortunately, some pro-Palestinian activists are prone to only offer facts in isolation to give their false allegations the air of authenticity and aid the ongoing campaign to delegitimise Israel.
The most recent example of this appeared on Tuesday in an op-ed hosted on the ABC “Unleashed” website from Professor Stuart Rees called “Palestine matters, not Gillard-Rudd soapies”…
Middle East Apartheid/ Negotiating with Iran
March 9, 2012
Today’s Update contains two pieces focussed around the reality behind claims about “Apartheid” often directed at Israel by radical opponents (they organise something called “Israel Apartheid Week” on some college campuses, including some in Australia, every March. A summary of the various organisations behind it is here.)
Joseph Kony’s Sudanese connection
March 8, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Stop Kony 2012, a video by US-based NGO ‘Invisible Children’, has become a viral sensation overnight and has seemingly coopted thousands if not millions to the cause of hunting-down Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. While the organisation behind the video is questionable, there is no doubt that Kony himself is deserving of the criticism that he is being given; his numerous war crimes, including kidnapping children and forcing them to serve him as child soldiers or sex slaves, have placed him at the top of the International Criminal Court’s wanted list.
While the world is now very aware of Kony’s crimes, what is less well known is…
Fraud suspected in Iranian election
March 8, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
Following yesterday’s blog post on the outcomes of the Iranian Parliamentary election, there is further speculation that the Iranian government’s claim of an election turnout of 65% is not accurate.
Also, check out the “bravest, craziest, most ironic vote in Iran’s election” – a young Iranian man who wore a T-shirt that stated “God Bless America” to a polling station.
British Prime Minister confirms Iranian nuclear threat as Obama warns Romney that it is no game
March 7, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
The Guardian‘s Patrick Wintour and Julian Borger have reported that British Prime Minister David Cameron has explicitly stated that Iran is intending to develop nuclear weapons. This comes just months after the same newspaper revealed that the British military has begun putting in place preparations for a possible war with Iran. That said, Cameron still backs sanctions and is particularly concerned with China and India.
David Cameron has warned that Iran is seeking to build an “inter-continental nuclear weapon” that threatens the west, as he urged Israel to allow time for sanctions to force the Iranians to change their strategic stance…
Iran election 2012: Khamenei vs Ahmadinejad
March 7, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
Amid Iran’s nuclear standoff and reports of its human rights abuses, the Iranian Parliamentary elections on March 2 garnered suprisingly little outside interest.
This was because the whole event was simply a contest amongst various strains of extremists – with reformists largely excluded from taking part, or boycotting. It was essentially a battle between supporters of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The election results are in and it seems Ahmadinejad lost the battle and now may be reduced to being a ‘lame duck’ President.
This blog post looks at the implications of the election.
