The Arab-Israeli conflict traverses decades, manifests in regular wars, terrorism and endless political skirmishes in international forums.  It is also a battle to establish narratives – victims and aggressors, Davids and Goliaths, oppressors and oppressed.  Language and the meaning given to basic concepts form a key part of this battle.  …

It is difficult not to savour the irony of two United States congresswomen who advocate boycotts of Israel crying foul at being denied entry into the very country they seek to erase.  Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, two members of the Democratic Party’s “Squad” of neophyte congresswomen from the Party’s …

The economic component of the Trump administration’s intensely awaited plan to achieve an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has been released. Formally titled Peace to Prosperity, the proposal contains a three-pronged program of investment and reforms to transform the Palestinian economy and society through the injection …

The Holocaust ― the term given to the industrial-scale slaughter of the Jews of Europe ― is often examined in isolation. An event without precedent and without successor.  Certainly, the enormity of the killing, the unsparing barbarity and cool sophistication with which it was carried out, and its genesis in …

Amnesty International has unveiled a new campaign to pressure digital tourism companies such as Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and TripAdvisor to delist properties held by Israelis living in the West Bank, and calling on governments to pass legislation that would result in the total boycott of those living in Israeli settlements. It …

Who is really being irresponsible? The negative responses to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recognition of Jerusalem reveals more about the agenda of the respondents than the substance of the policy. The announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that Australia now recognises that Israel’s capital is located in Jerusalem and not …

The partisan advantage-taking began before the bodies had even been identified.   To opponents of the US President, the massacre of 11 Jews during a baby naming ceremony at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, was the logical endpoint of President Trump’s refusal to expressly reject an endorsement from former Grand Wizard …

There is much to find objectionable in Senator Fraser Anning’s first speech to the Australian Senate. The baffling, deplorable invocation of Nazi genocide by referring to immigration as a “problem” requiring a “final solution”, is particularly striking.  But we mustn’t allow this conspicuous statement to prevent us from seeing the real …

There’s light at the top, but it’s always a hard climb. I land at Ben-Gurion Airport just before midnight and begin the long ascent to Jerusalem. The headiness hits me immediately and will remain until I depart 10 days later.  A few hours later I sit bleary-eyed at breakfast ahead …

It is often argued by critics of Israel that the British custodianship of the land that is now Israel between the end of WWI and Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948,  essentially handed the land to the Jews at the expense of the hapless, helpless Palestinians. It is true that Britain hardly …

Cynicism, insecurity and opportunity abound on Holocaust Remembrance Day This year’s commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, was at once illuminated and overshadowed by extraordinary statements on the Holocaust emanating from Europe and the Middle East. The first came from a familiar …

The image of the invariably smiling Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif purring at the side of world leaders, together with the election of the so-called “reformist” president Hasan Rowhani in 2013, have cultivated an image of the Iranian regime as modern, civilised, reasonable and a welcome antidote to the inhuman …

There has long been a conventional wisdom in some foreign policy circles that runs like this: ‘solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and you will harmonise the Middle East, crush the recruitment strategy of jihadists and keep the misery of the modern Arab world far from our screens and our shores.’ Jordan’s …

Vastly outnumbered, outgunned, besieged on every front and overwhelmed by the wealth and diplomatic influence of the Arab States, Israel faced its hour of maximum danger 50 years ago. It did so alone: 100,000 Egyptian troops, armour and artillery had amassed on Israel’s southern border; the UN peace-keeping force along …

There is much to celebrate about Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Australia; the first time a sitting Israeli Prime Minister has graced our shores.  We will hear much about the common bond of nations, of shared values and destinies as liberal democracies and secular states governed by the rule of law. …

There is something about long-haul travel conducted in solitude that infuses the mind with a strange kind of focus.  As I returned to Kiev for the first time, having left that place as a boy of three, and now a man of 33, my mind returned again and again in …

Australia’s Jewish community has always understood that its fortunes will rise and fall with the fortunes of the nation. And so, when Jews gather in their holy places, they pray for the welfare of this country in a tradition that originates in 594 BCE, when the Jews lived in exile …

For the Jewish people the tiny sliver of land between the Jordan River and the eastern Mediterranean coast has always been their nation’s birthplace and homeland, the fountainhead of the Hebrew language and Jewish civilisation, thought and culture. It is from this land that the Jews were dispersed among the …

It was the night of June 1, 2001. Scores of teenagers queued outside the Dolphinarium nightclub on the long stretch of road running along the Mediterranean Sea from the old north of Tel Aviv down to the historic port of Jaffa. After the homely Friday night Sabbath dinners had concluded, …

The Australian Left must learn from British Labour’s antisemitism scandal. British Labour may be in the throes of a crisis that could keep the party out of national government for a generation and threatens its claims to be a progressive political party committed to anti-racism and social justice. The crisis …