UN Holds the Key to Israel’s Refugee Dilemma

Refugees define the failing state of a Nation, of a society where wars are waged across borders and between cities, tribes, clans and families, where thousands of innocent people suffer in the crossfire and become casualties like those we’ve just seen in the recent deaths off the coasts in Indonesia..writes Raffe Gold. Read more

Dissent in Israel is a Dirty Word

Israel is celebrated, even by it’s enemies, as the only true liberal democracy in the Middle East…write Raffe Gold. Read more

We Need More Settlers

When David Ben-Gurion slowly raised himself up off his chair at 4:00pm on 14 May 1948 and walked over to the podium of the Tel Aviv Museum to declare the birth of the world’s newest nation, Israel, the world’s only Jewish State, he did so under the gaze of the founder of Zionist ideology, Theodor Herzl…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

My Diaspora Love Affair with Bibi Netanyahu

This week the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, addressed the annual AIPAC Policy Conference. He has made the trek to the US annually to speak before the powerful pro-Israel lobby and Bibi, like his speech before the US Congress, can always find a warm and receptive audience…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

Why no Love for Jobnikim

Yair Lapid, Israel’s newest political star, berated the Shas Party the other day for harming the State of Israel and endangering the middle class who ‘carry this country on their backs’ with their refusal to participate in civil life or serve in the army…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

A Crime against the Machine

For the last several days Israel has been under constant attack. Our civilians have been targeted, our financial institutions have been disrupted and our airlines have been under malicious assault…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

2012: The Year of the Foreign Passport

Will 2012 be the year of the foreign passport? Will left-wing Israelis, after experiencing gender segregation; political sidelining and the threat of religious coercion find themselves researching how much it would cost to move away from Israel for good? What will happen when these Israelis say that enough is enough? When they believe that the Zionist dream remains just that…a dream that could have been so much more…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

The Lament Over Loewenstein

The purpose of journalism has always been to seek truth through an arduous process of investigation. Journalists today follow in the illustrious footsteps of Edward R Murrow, Woodward and Bernstein and Seymour Hersh. These are journalists who were able to change society through their writings for the better…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

The ‘Rega’ Nation

Standard reading for anyone interested in Israel is the fantastic book ‘Start-Up Nation’…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

Why I am going Naked for Israel and the Middle East

Anyone who knows me is aware that if I step into a gym it is usually to ask for directions out of the gym. I am the farthest thing from a gym junkie and the very idea of exercise makes me reach for the ice-cream that seems to constantly be in my freezer…write Raffe Gold. Read more

Netanyahu’s Test of Strength

For a few days last week, Israel looked like any other modern Western nation. Its people were out on the streets demonstrating against their government’s incompetence in prices, rents, and other aspects of social equity. For a few days, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem could have been Paris and Washington…writes Raffe Gold. Read more

An Israeli Spring? No Way!

The last several months have been a tumultuous time for the Middle East. Waves of protests have sprung up, ignited by the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit seller, that have led to the destruction of a number of dictatorial regimes and civil wars in others. Rarely, if ever, was the name ‘Israel’ incorporated into the fury of the Arab street as it demonstrated against the oppression it had suffered…instead the word ‘democracy’ was what rallied the people.  Read more

Vigilante Advocacy: Hurting Not Helping

There is a disease known as Drug Fever. When a patient is admitted doctors can bombard them with so many antibiotics there is a chance that a fever can be sustained, or caused, by a number of different drugs used to combat other symptoms. Essentially, the cure is what makes you sick. Yet such a disease does not have to be restricted to medicine. There are constant examples of well-intentioned people harming the cause that they wish to promote. We are seeing this today with well-meaning yet dangerous responses to both the Freedom Flotilla and, when that failed, the Flytilla. Read more

Mourn the Israeli Peace Camp

Green Left Weekly posted an article this week entitled ‘After 44 Years of Occupation: Where is the Israeli Peace Camp?’ in which the paper outlined that in Netanyahu’s recent address to the US Congress he may have espoused the cause of a two state solution but it was ineffectual and nothing close to reality. The paper then continued to lambast Israelis saying that there was no Israeli peace camp and if there was one it has become ‘weak and marginalised’. Read more

All in a Day’s Work

President Obama’s speech to the Arab world caused ripples throughout the region. Sprinkled amongst some pro-Israel statements, thrown in for their balance and to show him as even-handed, such as “Hamas is not a viable partner for peace, Israel is a Jewish state contained one little addendum: Israel must withdraw to the pre-1967 borders. Read more

Sorrow and Celebration in Israel – Yom Ha’azmaut special feature

This week Israel mourned her dead. Sirens blared throughout the country marking Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers. As soon as one hears those sirens they stop. Streets are silent and cars park in the middle of the street to mark those who fell for freedom and independence. In theory the sirens are meant to start and stop at the same time. Read more

Israel’s Record of Self-Investigation: Obvious to Anyone who Looked.

With the NSW Greens so busy demanding a boycott of Israel for various crimes against humanity it appears that they have failed to keep up to date with the news. Richard Goldstone, lead investigator of the UN inquiry into the 2008 Gaza conflict, recanted some of the reports most incendiary findings and praised Israel for her ability to investigate herself and ensure that those few Israeli soldiers who violated the laws of war are brought to justice. Read more

The System Works But We Should Not be Happy

Earlier this week former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was sentenced to seven years jail for rape. The result did not shock the Israeli people who had been avidly following the trial since Katsav resigned from his office in disgrace. When the sentencing was announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset that it was a sad day for Israel but that ‘no one is above the law’ and that Israel should be proud of her justice system. Read more

Who Would Ever Want to be an Israeli?

As somebody who has lived all his life in Australia, revelling in the physical beauty and stability of one of the world’s most advanced nations, it might seem odd that I would choose to uproot myself from family and friends, to re-settle in a part of the world which has not known a day’s peace in 60 years, which is living under the threat of extinction and which is increasingly considered a bully and monster by the western establishment. Read more

What do the Palestinian Papers Really Say?

Palestinian refugees into Israel which would destroy the Jewish demography and end Israel as we know it. The Palestinian negotiators know all of this and so they approach these peace talks with a realistic sense of what is achievable. Read more

Aliyah 2.0

My birth makes me part of a people who, for millennia, have been wanderers across the face of the earth. Now I am about to wander, not on a two week holiday or even across Europe on a gap year, but permanently. I am about to go on Aliyah and move my life and loyalties permanently to Israel. Read more

Should I Hebracize My Name?

Many new citizens of Australia still retain a great deal of pride in their original culture; there are thriving Asian and European sub-sectors of Australian society. In Israel many new immigrants change their name as soon as they arrive. Read more

Facebook: A Double-Edged Sword for the IDF

Recently the IDF gained an extra thousand recruits. For a civilian army in which a majority of citizens are proud to support their country by completing  military service, this number is quite small considering the amount of people who go through boot camp every year. However this extra thousand is composed of  young men and women who tried to evade the draft by claiming a religious exemption. They pretended to be part of the ultra-religious movement which opposes Zionism and does not participate in modern-day Israel. Read more

Will Israel have an Arab Prime Minister before it has a Haredi Prime Minister?

A hospital and a parking lot. Two innocuous structures that are at the very heart of a modern society yet in Israel they are icons of the deep chasm between two major elements of that society. The Haredim, anti-Zionist Jews, so-called because of their ultra-religious “anxiety” over the coming of the messiah, and the secular in Israel are often at loggerheads over the direction of the country with one claiming to be the spiritual heart of the Jewish State whilst the other declares that it is the national protector. A schism between the two is currently threatening the soul of the country and the two sides are adamantly opposed to each other having a majority. This begs the question; will Israel have an Arab Prime Minister before it has one who is Haredi? Read more

I am not an anti-Semite, but………….

“I’m not antisemitic, I’m anti-Occupation”. Read more

Palestinians should not give up on Peace 2.0

The internet has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Read more

The UN Security Council and Australia

The recent vote by the General Assembly of the United Nations to exclude Canada from holding a temporary seat on the Security Council might, at first sight, seem to be little more than another example of the increasingly bizarre voting patterns of that benighted institution. Read more

The Elephant at the Negotiating Table

As the Israel-Palestine peace talks appear to be heading towards inevitable collapse, and Israel will almost certainly be held accountable because of the issue of settlement building, one participant… a major main obstacle to peace, is not present at the bargaining table. Read more