Jewish community condemnation of settler violence is not new

A report in the Australian (Aug. 27) about a resolution passed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry condemning attacks by extremist elements of the settler movement against West Bank Palestinians and their property labelled this decision a “significant step” and quoted members of the Muslim community calling the resolution “unprecedented.” Read more

Ehud Yaari: Israel’s government“paralysed”, but Abraham Accords expansion likely soon

Israel’s leading commentator and regional analyst Ehud Yaari briefed AIJAC supporters in Melbourne last week on some of the top issues currently facing Israel and the Middle East. Read more

Israeli analyst sheds light on new age of Drone warfare

Drones and guided missiles constitute both a threat and an opportunity for Israel’s defences, Jerusalem Post columnist and drone expert Seth J. Frantzman told an AIJAC webinar. Read more

The Be’ersheva Dialogue

The Fourth Annual Be’ersheva Dialogue, held recently in Melbourne brought together defence officials, senior parliamentarians and analysts from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and Begin-Sadat (BESA) Centre for Strategic Studies and elsewhere to discuss areas of common interest and potential collaboration. Read more

A Rambam study program

The recent US decision to stop funding the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) featured highly in the minds of members of parliament that discussed their experiences on Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council’s Rambam study program at a luncheon meeting with AIJAC supporters in Melbourne. Read more

Amb. Dennis Ross: Premature Palestinian state recognition should be discouraged

At an exclusive AIJAC press briefing in Melbourne, Anti-Defamation Commission guest and veteran former US Middle East peace envoy and Ambassador Dennis Ross spoke out against calls for the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, saying such gestures place ‘symbols over substance’ and makes peacemaking harder. Read more

Indonesian journalists on an AIJAC visit to Israel

Indonesia, home to the world’’s largest Muslim population, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, but that did not stop five respected Indonesian journalists from joining two Thai counterparts on a five-day  fact-finding study visit sponsored by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affair Council’s Rambam Program last month. Read more

Should the ABC have given advocacy journalist Sophie McNeill the keys to its Jerusalem bureau?…asks Ahron Shapiro

There are serious questions that must be raised about whether Sophie McNeill, who has recently been appointed the ABC’s exclusive Jerusalem-based Middle East correspondent, can comply with the obligations contained in ABC’s Code of Practice. Read more

An Australian Hezbollah terrorist? No great surprise…writes Ahron Shapiro

Revelations by Bulgarian investigators that one of the suspects in last July’s terrorist bombing of a bus carrying an Israeli tour group near the airport in Burgas, Bulgaria last July was both a Hezbollah operative and an Australian national should unfortunately not come as any great surprise. Those who have closely followed the operations of Iran’s terror proxy in southeast Asia and Australasia in recent years know that its presence in the region is substantial, and that Australia is regularly listed as one of the countries in which Hezbollah operates. Read more

E1 “cutting the West Bank in half”?

The Australian’s Middle East correspondent John Lyons filed back to back stories on December 7 and 8 sounding the alarm over Israel’s decision on E1. In those articles, Lyons made the erroneous and unsubstantiated claim that E1 would bisect the West Bank…writes Ahron Shapiro. Read more