The Big Picture of the Mideast Conflict – and the Palestinian role in it
April 17, 2015
This Update leads with a magisterial attempt to summarise the big picture of what is going in the Middle East from noted Israeli academic analyst Dr. Jonathan Spyer. Spyer describes the Middle East of recent years as undergoing “a political convulsion of historic proportions”, with Iran and its allies poised to take advantage of the collapse of authority in states which seemed stable a mere few years ago, and a Saudi-led Sunni alliance now determinedly seeking to counter this.
It’s not too late for a safer nuclear deal with Iran
April 16, 2015 | Ahron Shapiro
If the recent Iranian nuclear framework deal progresses into an actual signed agreement, it would legitimise Iran as a nuclear weapons threshold state by allowing it to maintain a vast nuclear infrastructure.
This was not the kind of deal that US President Barack Obama said would be safe and acceptable in the past. Why is it somehow safe and acceptable now?
Yom Hashoah – and possibly the last Nazi war crimes trial
April 16, 2015 | Sharyn Mittelman
Today is “Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah”, meaning “Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and Heroism”, a national memorial day in Israel to remember the six million Jewish victims murdered in the Holocaust, as well as those who fought against the Nazis.
Australia has the highest percentage of Holocaust survivors in the world outside of Israel. Today many Australian Jews, will reflect upon the names and photographs of family members killed by the Nazis and their collaborators, as well as the unimaginable strength of the survivors, torn apart from their families, scarred by horrific memories, and often left to pick up the pieces and start again in a foreign land.
The Iranian Regime and the Nuclear “Framework” understanding
April 15, 2015
This Update offers more on the framework “understanding” reached between the P5+1 and Iran two weeks ago outlining the term of a future nuclear deal – especially in the wake of public denunciations of key elements of the claimed agreement by Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassam Rouhani. (Indeed, some analysts – including American columnist Jonah Goldberg and Israeli analyst Yigal Carmon – are openly questioning whether there is anything that can properly be called an agreement in existence at all, given the differences being enunciated by those who supposedly agreed on the framework.)
This deal with Iran would risk a nuclear nightmare
April 13, 2015 | Glen Falkenstein
Iran and the P5+1 negotiators have reached an “understanding” for the framework for a final deal to limit Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Or have they?
Dangers in the Iran Nuclear Deal
April 8, 2015 | Glen Falkenstein
PRINCE Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, warned last month a deal that allows Iran a pathway to create a nuclear bomb could ignite a new arms race in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and South Korea have already signed a memorandum of understanding on nuclear power. Nuclear weapons arrangements with Pakistan could be seriously examined by Saudi Arabia as a result of Friday’s announcement of a framework deal with Iran by the US and other Western powers. To be finalised by June 30, the unsigned deal has raised alarm across the Middle East.
The Iranian nuclear framework deal
April 7, 2015
This Update takes an initial look at the controversial Iranian nuclear framework deal that was verbally agreed to by US and P5+1 and Iranian negotiators late last week in Lausanne, as well as a good overview of the ongoing degeneration of countries across the Middle East into fractured lands dominated by militias.
Iranian nuclear talks, Israel at the UN
April 2, 2015
This Update continues to follow the extended Iranian nuclear talks in Lausanne, as well as provide a timely overview of Israel’s situation in the United Nations.
First up, Washington Institute’s Mehdi Khalaji analyses the way the current nuclear talks have been reported within Iran, in Farsi. He says that the Iranian regime is raising expectations from Iranians for what they should expect from any acceptable deal, particularly concerning the removal of all sanctions - including those not directly related to Iran’s nuclear program.
More commentary on the Iranian nuclear negotiations
March 31, 2015
This Update looks at the latest commentary regarding the Iranian nuclear program, under the backdrop of the negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran in Lausanne.
Colonel Kemp’s views on Israel and Gaza echoed other senior military officers
March 27, 2015 | Allon Lee
The recent visit to Australia by retired British Colonel Richard Kemp, who was commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland and Iraq, generated national headlines when demonstrators tried to stop him from speaking, claiming he “supports genocide” for his assessment of last year’s war in Gaza (though he had not even mentioned either Israel or the Palestinians when the demonstrators attempted to shut down his talk).
Yet many people did not realise that Kemp is hardly alone among respected senior military figures willing to publicly voice their opinion that the Israeli Defence Forces’ tactics and conduct in last year’s war with Hamas were proportionate and reasonable…
