The difficulty of moving forward in the Jordan Valley and Area C One of the major ways our personal lives mirrors the sweep of history is in the realm of decision making. Both individuals and nations face decisions on a daily basis. Most are mundane and inconsequential. There are however, …
Read More »Media Release: Australia urged to condemn biased “blacklist”
Following publication by the United Nations Human Rights Council of a “blacklist” of businesses operating in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) is calling on the Australian Government to maintain its principled stance towards fairness at the UN and condemn the list. The …
Read More »Israel: Charged with War Crimes for helping Jews live in Judaea.
There are 193 countries in the world, about 50 are Muslim. And then there is one tiny speck of land, Israel, the only Jewish state, that takes up all the time of the UN. The UN does not like Jews. They never miss an opportunity to try and shake down …
Read More »Losing the Semantic War on ‘Palestine’.
I have written before about the importance of semantics in the discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how frustrated many people are about losing various battles over nomenclature, such as references to the disputed territories as “occupied,” and “Judaea and Samaria” as the West Bank. An arguably more important semantic …
Read More »MYTH: Israel has no justification for applying Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley.
FACT : Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on September 10, 2019: “Today I’m announcing my intention, with the establishment of the next government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea. This is our essential safety belt in the east” (Ben Sales, “Netanyahu’s push to …
Read More »Myth: Palestine was heavily populated with Arabs before the Zionists arrived.
FACT: For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts, and malarial marshes. This was Mark Twain’s description when he visited in 1867: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful …
Read More »When you understand Israel’s May 1948 borders, you understand there’s no “Occupation”
There are really only two ways to consider the borders of Israel when it declared independence in May 1948: the entirety of the Palestine Mandate OR the proposed border put forward by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947. As discussed below, only one of these is legally valid, while …
Read More »Republicans Do Not Believe There is Any “Occupation”.
The terminology used by the United Nations that Israel is “illegally occupying Palestinian Land” has angered Israelis for a long time. The Israelis do not believe that the land is “Palestinian,” that they are “occupying it” or that living in and controlling such land is “illegal.” The Trump Administration agrees …
Read More »After Abbas – What Next?
Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, in January 2005 was elected as the President of the Palestinian Authority to succeed Yasser Arafat in the West Bank and Gaza, aka Judaea and Samaria. The PLO chairman and was elected for a four-year term after which there was ‘supposed’ to be …
Read More »Jordan Enclave in West Bank could be Trump’s “Two-State” Solution.
Don’t underestimate Trump’s deal-making ability to end what he himself has called “the war that never ends” Creating another Palestinian Arab state – in addition to Jordan – has been seemingly consigned to the garbage bin of history following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s CNN interview on 28 September. President …
Read More »An Irish Teacher’s Harsh Unreality.
Republished with permission of HonestReporting According to her Twitter profile, Daire Louise O’Dowd is a geography and English teacher. Sadly, judging by her inaccurate and ill-informed mess of an article on IrishCentral, a US-based news site catering for the global Irish diaspora community, she should certainly not be educating anyone about the …
Read More »Trump’s PLO shutdown paves way for Jordan-West Bank reunification.
President Trump’s decision to close the PLO mission in Washington, cancel the visas of the Palestinian Ambassador and his family and order their bank accounts be closed – mark the PLO’s final humiliation for condemning Trump’s proposed peace plan before its contents have even been published. Strangely however the United …
Read More »Jordan’s re-entry into West Bank looms large as Trump dumps PLO.
Two major developments this past week could see a large part of Judaea and Samaria (West Bank) being reunified with Jordan – as existed between 1950 and 1967 – or becoming a Jordanian enclave – under President Trumps’ yet-to-be- announced “ultimate deal” intended to resolve the100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict. Those developments …
Read More »My visit to the “occupied West Bank”.
My visit to the so-called ‘occupied West Bank’ in November 2017 has taken me some time to get ‘down on paper’. I just haven’t managed to find the time to do it. I was staying with a with a friend in Jerusalem who, when I mentioned I’d be interested in …
Read More »Into the Fray: The IDF & Gaza: Soldiers or sociologists.
Has the IDF brass forgotten that they are soldiers, charged with providing military solutions to physical threats to the nation’s security; not sociologists, tasked with diagnosing the societal ailments of its enemies? …the IDF General Staff has been insisting there is only one thing Israel can do about Gaza. According …
Read More »Facts on the ‘Wall’
One of the most misrepresented and emotionally loaded issues about Israel – and there is a smorgasbord to choose from – is its security barrier. This is one of the issues that featured prominently in a recent programme on Maori TV (One World – He Ao Kotahi) where the narrator …
Read More »10 pro-tips for becoming an effective anti-Israel protester.
29 July 2017 saw an anti-Israel rally in Auckland’s Aotea Square that had been billed as “Alaqsa solidarity rally” to protest against Israel’s “security measures that require Palestinians to enter through metal detectors to go pray” (sic). These measures were removed by Israel before the day of the rally, after …
Read More »The Six Day War, 50 years later: Still little chance for harmony in a region of perpetual conflict.
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 …
Read More »From the Desk of Dr. Ron Weiser.AM. February opinion piece.
As Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “Wow!” What a fantastic week for Israel, Australia and the Jewish People!!! Kol Hakavod to Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Benjamin Netanyahu – and the entire delegations on both sides – on a historic occasion replete with warmth, great friendship, shared values, understanding, intersections of …
Read More »New Zealand has an issue with terrorism.
When an Islamist drove his truck into a crowd in Nice last July, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key spoke out against the terror attack. When an Islamist drove his truck into a crowd in Berlin last December, New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English spoke out against the terror attack. …
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