Video: Dr Colin Rubenstein argues for the retention of clause 18c
September 12, 2016
AIJAC Executive Director Dr Colin Rubenstein argues for the retention of clause 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act on Sky News Agenda with Jim Middleton
Setting the facts straight on Hebron
September 9, 2016 | Ahron Shapiro
Palestinian Embassy’s latest fact sheet on Hebron is interesting for the sources it quotes directly, the source material it distorts, and what facts it leaves out.
More Iran deal loopholes/ The war on Syria’s hospitals
September 9, 2016
This Update looks at the implications of the revelation last week of a number of previously not publicly known loopholes or exceptions granted Iran in January as part of the implementation of the nuclear deal – as exposed by the the Institute for Science and International Security, a thinktank run by former International Atomic Energy Agency senior official David Albright.
Settlement hype, not ‘activity’, reaches new high
September 7, 2016 | Ahron Shapiro
The significance of the issue of construction within Israeli settlements in the West Bank has long been overemphasised and exaggerated in international diplomacy, but White House and State Department criticism of Israel last week over construction in its West Bank settlements may just have set a new high-water mark for settlement hysteria.
Explosion rocks Israeli satellite industry
September 6, 2016 | Rachel Kaye
Israel’s satellite industry is in crisis after a SpaceX rocket carrying an advanced Israeli communications satellite exploded on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida last Thursday 1 September. The accident and the subsequent loss of the Israeli-built satellite has been described as a “crushing blow” to Israel Aerospace Industries.
Media Week – It’s not all right; Church and Hate
September 2, 2016 | Allon Lee
On August 29, the Age, Canberra Times and Sydney Morning Herald websites ran a Washington Post report about the controversial Palestinian village of Susiya in Area C of the West Bank – that is the area under full Israeli control, with relatively few Palestinian residents.
The Israeli courts have ordered the village demolished, accepting arguments that it its residents are squatters and have illegally built there.
The report further stated that, “the Israeli government right now wants to formally annex Area C in the West Bank.”
There is no Israeli government move or discussion to annex Area C.
Turkey’s Intervention in Syria/ The Weakening of ISIS Sinai
September 2, 2016
This Update features some background and analysis of Turkey’s intervention in the Syrian civil war last week, in an operation termed “Euphrates Shield” launched last Wednesday, and aimed initially at the ISIS-held town of Jarablus – which Kurdish forces looked poised to take.
Media Week – Rinse Saikal; Notes and Stones; Seriously Silly
August 26, 2016 | Allon Lee
According to ANU’s Professor Amin Saikal in the Canberra Times (Aug. 22), “upon assuming the presidency, Obama…had to deal with a hostile Republican-dominated Congress, where Israel’s interests have repeatedly trumped those of the United States. As a result, he…has backed away from securing a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a means to demonstrate that the US is a dispassionate and unbiased player in the region.”
Saikal is betraying his usual inability to comprehend that US support for Israel might conceivably be based on principle and shared interests.
At Fairfax, Hamad gets gold medal for propagandising
August 23, 2016 | Ahron Shapiro
Fairfax columnist Ruby Hamad recent blog is an impassioned plea to ignore what she calls the “symbolic” Olympic Truce principle – of setting aside conflicts for the sake of the games – and instead embrace the demonisation and singling out of Israeli athletes at the Olympics, because, in her view, they deserve it.
Media Week – A baffling declaration; Aid el-Vice; Hamad screed
August 19, 2016 | Allon Lee
In the Spectator Australia (Aug. 13), the ECAJ’s Alex Ryvchin ridiculed Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki’s declaration that Palestinians will sue Britain for the 1917 Balfour Declaration supporting a Jewish national home in Palestine.
