Assessing the prospects of success for the Syrian peace talks
January 24, 2014
This Update looks at the “Geneva II” indirect talks between representatives of Syria’s government and some opposition groups. The talks, to nobody’s surprise, have not started off well, and practically all analysts have doubted they will result in any meaningful outcome.
UN strikes expose Palestinian internal tensions
January 24, 2014 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
To those who follow events in the West Bank, the reports coming out of the “refugee camps” administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) would sound quite familiar. ...
Indeed, the image of the refugees throwing stones at police and receiving tear gas in response has to some extent defined Israeli/Palestinian relations at least since the eruption of the First Intifada in 1987.
This incident however, has one caveat. … The police who were firing tear gas at, and apparently lobbing rocks back at, the protestors were Palestinian Authority police.
Interim Iranian nuclear deal coming into effect
January 17, 2014
Last weekend, Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) reportedly reached agreement on technical arrangements to implement the interim “Joint Plan of Action” agreed on in Geneva in November to limit Iran’s nuclear work for six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief. While the details of the technical arrangements and timetable have not yet been released, and Iran says there is an informal 30-page document that has been agreed to, the actual Joint Plan of Action is now to go into effect from Monday, Jan. 20.
Debunking two myths about Ariel Sharon
January 15, 2014 | Allon Lee
The passing of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rightly attracted numerous assessments of his legacy in the Australian media.
For the most part this has seen sensible, balanced and sober judgements, but as to be expected, some deceitful and distorted claims are being put forward as fact.
The Legacy of Ariel Sharon
January 14, 2014
This Update features three pieces reflecting on the legacy of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who died over the weekend after eight years in a coma.
We lead with Washington Institute for Near East Policy expert David Pollock. His article’s main point is to explore how Sharon, the great warrior and larger than life figure known for his decisiveness, may have been the only Israeli leader who could carry out the Gaza disengagement of 2005.
Elements of a “Framework Agreement”
January 10, 2014
With US Secretary of State John Kerry just having left the Mideast region Monday but expected to return next week, this Update looks at the prospects and some of the key issues for the “framework agreement” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that he is reportedly working on to provide a basis for negotiations for both sides.
Dam lies
December 20, 2013 | Ahron Shapiro
Gaza’s Hamas government makes wild accusations against Israel all the time, but not all are as easily disproven as the latest one – their claim that Israel had “opened dams” along Gaza’s border during the recent winter storm, flooding neighbourhoods and causing thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes.
Aspects of Peacemaking
December 20, 2013
This Update contains insightful new articles dealing with three different important issues that will have to be resolved in any Israeli-Palestinian final peace agreement – or even a “framework agreement” of the sort that US Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to broker by April. Specifically, it deals with the subjects of recognition of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, borders and settlements in the West Bank, and Palestinian refugees.
ABC, terrorists aren’t soldiers
December 17, 2013 | Ahron Shapiro
In a special year-end edition of ABC‘s Correspondents Report, host Elizabeth Jackson took her staff on the air with her for a “behind the scenes” look at the program and gave them a chance to discuss some of their favourite segments of the past year.
During the segment, Jackson recalled the most memorable report she heard in her seven years with the show. To her credit, it was a 2006 report by David Hardaker detailing a 1979 Palestinian terror attack on an Israeli family. Unfortunately, by erroneously describing the terrorist infiltrators as “soldiers”, Jackson left listeners needlessly confused.
Lee Rhiannon’s sin of omission
December 13, 2013 | Ahron Shapiro
Greens spokesperson for Animal Welfare Senator Lee Rhiannon has never missed an opportunity to name countries that import live Australian cattle, especially when cases of abuse arise, and often right in the headline of her media releases and tweets.
It’s more than a little curious then, that when the abuse case occurred in the Gaza Strip, as what happened in the most recent incident reported in the Australian press on Thursday, Senator Rhiannon not only omitted the location where the abuse took place in the headline, but conspicuously failed to mention it once in her entire 277-word media release, on her Facebook page, or in any of her tweets on the subject that we’ve seen – despite the fact that she called the abuse “the worst we’ve seen yet”.
