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”.
PA subsidising terror on foreign dime
December 11, 2013 | Ahron Shapiro
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release last week calling attention to the Palestinian Authority’s ongoing policy of financial assistance to security prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as grants and guaranteed well-paid government jobs upon their release.
The UN effectively gives up on Syria
December 9, 2013 | Or Avi Guy
Ever get the feeling that, after years of paralysis and stalemate, the international community have given up on resolving the crisis in Syria? The UN General Assembly (UNGA) 68th session has just wrapped up while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has announced that a Peace Conference for Syria will take place in Geneva in January, so this is an opportune time to assess the international community’s role in promoting a return to peace in that troubled country.
Australia’s state broadcasters obscure reality of Israeli Bedouin plan
December 6, 2013 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
The Australian media has been covering protests this week in Israel against a new plan to improve the conditions of the Bedouin Arabs living in the Negev desert in Israel’s south–although from some of the reports, you would never know that this was the aim of the plan. For example, on the ABC’s AM program…
Implementation issues with interim Iran nuclear deal
December 5, 2013
This Update deals with some new revelations about potential delays and other problems with implementing the Geneva interim agreement with Iran reached the Sunday before last – with a US spokesperson acknowledging last week that the agreement is not yet in effect for either party and will not be until further negotiations on technical aspects of it are completed. These technical talks are scheduled to begin next week. Interestingly, Elliot Abrams of the Council on Foreign Relations raised this possibility – that the deal was not yet a finalised, binding agreement – in the aftermath of the Geneva breakthrough.
