The legacy of a true friend
January 10, 2010 | Colin Rubenstein
Almost uniquely among Muslim leaders and the heads of Muslim states, Wahid was not reticent about his friendship for Israel and his close ties and desire for even closer ones with the Jewish people.
Time’s Up for Iran Sanctions
December 22, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein
If anyone still had any doubts about Iran’s nuclear intentions, these should have been dispelled by last week’s revelations in The Times of documents showing Iran experimented with neutron trigger technology. Such technology can only be used in nuclear weaponry.
Iran is playing a dangerous game with Israel
October 16, 2009 | Bren Carlill
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is playing a dangerous game. If he’s not careful, he may find his country embroiled in military conflict.
Pull the plug on Hezbollah TV
August 11, 2009 | Bren Carlill
Australia chooses to proscribe as a terrorist entity only Hezbollah’s external military wing. That means Hezbollah’s internal social, political and military wings are not considered terrorist entities by Australia. This is a little bizarre, since Hezbollah’s leaders have publicly insisted there is no distinction between any wing.
Terrorist television would violate our racial hatred laws
August 7, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein
ACMA did not see any problem with an advertisement on al-Manar soliciting donations for the al-Emdad charity, which is used primarily for supporting the families of Hezbollah fighters. Giving it money is effectively indistinguishable from giving money to Hezbollah, which is illegal in Australia.
Piecemeal road to Middle East peace
June 4, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein
Peace will have to be built piecemeal and the first step must be to disarm the Palestinian leadership of the belief that it can wait passively for Washington to extract the concessions it wants from Israel.
Hope of peace in Gaza remains
May 6, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein
Is the new Netanyahu Government likely to be headed for a major confrontation with the Obama Administration? The argument often made is that while Barack Obama will push hard for Israeli-Palestinian progress, the supposedly “hard-line” Netanyahu Government does not even support a two-state resolution to the conflict.
Another McGeough
April 27, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
Paul McGeough continued airbrushing the terrorist group Hamas. He interviewed its leader Khaled Meshal for the March 21 Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and had to accept that Hamas would stick to its Charter’s call for Israel’s destruction, because Meshal insisted.
Worst Encounter
April 3, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
The Radio National program “Encounter” dedicated its March 22 episode to Jews critical of Israel, scouring Australia and the globe for six of the most extreme.
From the ridiculous to the outrageous
March 25, 2009 | Bren Carlill
At the lecture, of which I have a recording, Halper claimed that Israelis don’t use the word ‘Palestinian,’ but rather just ‘Arab.’ This allegation is both blatantly wrong and an attempt to paint Israelis as racists, intent on denying Palestinians their identity.
Khatami is just as rigid as the rest
March 23, 2009 | Colin Rubenstein
What credibility can Khatami maintain in calling for a dialogue of civilisations when he excludes Israel and Israelis? Or when he argues there is no anti-Semitism in the Muslim world, when under his presidency Iran became a sanctuary for Holocaust revisionists?
Poor Advice
March 20, 2009 | Jamie Hyams
In a March 9 Age piece, the ANU’s Amin Saikal took it upon himself to advise Barak Obama on Middle East policy. He claimed the Bush Administration’s policy had “denied Hamas its right to exercise power as the democratic choice of the Palestinian people.” This is untrue.
