In support of Assad, Hezbollah threatens war with Israel
February 6, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
While they come from opposing Muslim factions, Palestinian Sunni group Hamas and Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah have much in common: they are both designated terror organisations in most Western countries, Australia included; they both hold extremist and violent ideologies; they both fought wars with Israel in the second half of the last decade; and they have both received significant backing from Iran and Syria. That said, they seem to be diverging on that last point. With the ongoing violence in Syria, the last Hamas operative from the Damascus-based political bureau seems to have fled for Gaza, however it seems that Hezbollah is unwilling to follow suit and remains resolutely behind the ruling Assad regime…
UN chief attacked in Gaza; Syria ponders massacre; leaders’ chefs cook for peace and more
February 3, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
A round-up of news stories that readers may have missed today…
The plight of Venezuela’s Jewish community
February 3, 2012 | Allon Lee
Venezuelan Supremo Hugo Chavez often accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians.
And so voluminous is the Chavez definition of the term that it is a surprise he has failed to notice that half of his own country’s 200-year-old Jewish community has disappeared since he assumed power in 1998. But then the evaporation of this patriotic, productive, and loyal group is largely a consequence of Chavez’s hostile policies and rhetoric…
Iran’s blundering revolution celebrations and waning Arab support
February 3, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Wednesday was the 33rd anniversary of the return from exile of Iran’s then-revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In celebration, the Iranian regime chose to stage a reenactment of the triumphant moment, with the Iranian airforce marching a larger than life cutout of the Ayatollah off an airplane in an elaborate parade.
Photographs of the event were made available on the semi-official Mehr news agency and have since created an Iranian viral sensation. David Goodman has reported the response…
The Syrian Opposition/Russia and Syria
February 3, 2012
Today’s Update focuses on the situation in Syria and especially on what is known about the varied opposition to the Assad regime.
The first piece up comes from Nic Robertson of CNN, who just returned from a visit to Syria which is something increasingly rare for Western journalists. He notes an increasing sectarian polarisation occurring within Syria and sees the regime as successfully exploiting it, while the opposition is not doing enough to calm the fears of the Alawite and Christian minorities…
Israel and the Iranian nuclear issue
February 2, 2012
Last week, Israel Defence Minister Ehud Barak spoke at the annual Davos Forum, and told listeners that tough sanctions on Iran may be too late because Iran was ” drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical [military operation] could block them.” Israeli concern over Iran’s nuclear program is clearly reaching a crescendo. So an article by veteran Israeli security correspondent Ronen Bergman in last weekend’s New York Times magazine on Israeli thinking on the possibility of a limited military strike to delay the project has gained considerable attention.
Australia’s Jewish community has legitimate security concerns
February 1, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
In yesterday’s Age, Barney Zwartz has reported on a former editor of the Australian Jewish News questioning the amount that the community spends each year on security.
Goldberg is undoubtedly correct in one regard: the community could benefit from extra funding for education. That said, the unfortunate reality is that the money spent every year on security for the Jewish community goes to countering a very real threat.
For starters…
A divided Palestine makes for a hopeless peace process
February 1, 2012 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
An AFP report yesterday indicated that, as predicted, Hamas and Fatah are dragging their feet on actually implementing the latest reconciliation deal.
This suggests that the current deal will go the way of the three previous deals: all have been introduced to much fanfare and then quietly lapsed as, once away from the public eye, no agreement could be reached on how to actually implement the requirements. The reason for this is that while “Palestinian unity” as an idea is appealing to both factions, they…
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
January 27, 2012 | Sharyn Mittelman
January 27 marks the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau – the largest Nazi death camp was liberated. In November 2005, the United Nations passed a resolution to designate January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) to honour the victims of the Holocaust – the genocide that resulted in the annihilation of 6 million Jews, 2 millions Gypsies and millions of others by the Nazi regime.
The UN resolution establishing IHRD urges every member nation of the UN to honour the memory of Holocaust victims and develop educational programs as part of an international resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide. The UN resolution also rejects denial of the Holocaust, and condemns discrimination and violence based on religion or ethnicity.
On this day and on every day, it is important to ask, has the world learnt the lessons from the Holocaust?
When propaganda masquerades as fact
January 27, 2012 | Allon Lee
To its great discredit, the Melbourne Age has republished a Guardian newspaper feature that alleges mistreatment by the Israeli judicial system of West Bank Palestinian youths detained on suspicion of terrorism.
As a previous AIJAC blog post revealed, many allegations of Palestinian children being tortured, kept in solitary confinement, denied legal representation, and forced to confess to crimes they didn’t commit, rely on half-truths, manipulation of facts and figures and unsubstantiated claims by anti-Israel organisations.
That is, organisations with anti-Israel political agendas that extend beyond the remit of the specific goals they profess to be concerned with and into areas of delegitimising the Jewish state.
