“Anti-boycott” law fall out
July 14, 2011 | Jamie Hyams
Israel’s new “anti-boycott” law has understandably attracted plenty of criticism, but not all coverage of it has been as balanced as it should be.
Lebanon’s ex-PM’s disarming comments
July 14, 2011 | Allon Lee
The myth that Lebanon’s miseries are the result of Israeli policies has once more been punctured, with former Lebanese PM Saad Hariri blaming Hezbollah’s weaponry for the country’s chronic problems.
“Jewish State” a sticking point for Quartet
July 13, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
The Middle East Quartet (the UN, the US, the EU and Russia) concluded a high-level meeting yesterday, aimed at re-starting Israeli/Palestinian peace talks, without agreeing on a concluding statement. As Barak Ravid reported for Haaretz, the disagreement was over whether or not the Quartet could demand that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish State.
“The goal was to give each side something that was important to them,” a Western diplomat said. “The Palestinians were supposed to get 1967 borders with land swaps and the Israelis wanted to receive in return the recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland, but…
The world’s eyes unable to focus on Iran
July 13, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
This blog has been closely following the inexplicable failure of the Western World to apply proper scrutiny to Iran, as well as the internal strife that is currently gripping the Islamic Republic. A very poignant editorial in today’s Jerusalem Post argues that the UN, too, has failed to apply adequate attention to the Ayatollah regime. The Post points-out the incredible amount of attention that the Palestinian Authority’s upcoming statehood bid in the UN is receiving, juxtaposing this with the relatively negligible consideration given to Iran.
Former US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, noted this disturbing fact in a meeting Tuesday with The Jerusalem Post editorial staff.
Textbook antisemitism for Arab children
July 13, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Hannah Rosenthal, the US State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism, has just completed a visit to Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in a bid to reduce the antisemitic content of their education syllabuses. As she told JTA, the State Department has found the textbooks produced in these countries to be replete with extremely offensive material regarding Jews, as well as Christians and women. The antisemitic subject matter included references to Jews as the “spawn of monkeys and pigs”, as well as material from The Protocols of The Elders of Zion…
US belatedly condemns Syria as Assad flaunts Western concerns
July 12, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
This blog has been following the baffling hesitation that the West has been showing towards making criticisms of the Assad regime in Syria, despite intense crackdowns on civilian protestors, noting how Syria is interpreting this hesitation as a free pass to continue brutalising its civilians.
After months of ongoing strife within the country, the US and French ambassadors both made the decision on Friday to visit the besieged city of Hama, a rebel stronghold on which Syrian troops have been mounting a vicious assault over the last few days. As The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Saturday…
Max Brenner Protests
July 12, 2011 | Sharyn Mittelman
Max Brenner chocolate shops in Melbourne and Sydney have recently been the target of aggressive protests. The protests were part of the Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The protest in Melbourne was a violent demonstration – Victorian Police suffered three injuries and 19 protesters were arrested. Demonstrators called for the destruction of Israel and chanted: “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free.”
Gerard Henderson in his article “Jews know acceptance still has its exceptions” commented on the current double standards towards Jews and Catholics in Australia.
He writes: “Today Australia is an accepting society which formally outlaws discrimination on the basis of race or gender and disapproves of intolerance towards minorities. Except, it seems, Jews and Catholics.”
Could Australia’s closest neighbour be a key to Middle East democracy?
July 11, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
Being the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia’s success in transitioning from a dictatorship to a relatively functional democracy over a short period of time arguably makes it the perfect example for the nations in the Middle East now attempting a similar feat. Giora Eliraz, author of Islam in Indonesia: Modernism, Radicalism and the Middle East Dimension certainly thinks so – observing that despite a traditional Arab disdain for South-East Asian Muslims, Egypt has been clandestinely working with the Indonesian authorities on developing a democratic model.
As he points out, Indonesia is perhaps a better partner in democracy building than the more obvious choice, Turkey, as the latter is…
Flotilla Falsehoods Corrected
July 11, 2011 | Jamie Hyams
Moammar Mashni of Australians for Palestine had a letter in the Australian Financial Review about the Gaza flotilla. Here’s AIJAC’s response in today’s edition.
Falk’s faux-pas
July 8, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
The UN’s so-called “special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories”, Richard Falk, apologised this morning for publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon on his blog. The cartoon (below) depicts the United States as Lady Justice’s guide dog, wearing a Jewish skullcap and urinating on Justice whilst feeding on a human corpse…
