Australia condemns settler violence in the West Bank

Australia has called on Israel to take immediate action over a rising number of violent acts against Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank. Read more

Israel to allow aid into Gaza via Kerem Shalom crossing

The World Health Organisation has welcomed the opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza to allow aid into the enclave. Read more

IDF tragically kills three hostages

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari says Israeli soldiers accidentally killed three hostages in Gaza after forces mistakenly identified them as a threat and shot them during an operation against a Hamas battalion in Gaza City. Read more

The persistent ‘two-state’ delusion

The simmering tensions between Israel and the Biden administration over the plan for post-war Gaza have now come to a boil. Read more

The wrong university presidents at the wrong time

The forced resignation of the president of the University of Pennsylvania is a good first step in dealing with a far more pervasive problem in higher education. Read more

Israel recovers another hostage’s body from Gaza

Israeli soldiers have recovered the body of hostage Elia Toledano, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Friday morning. Read more

A very Kiwi event

Described as “a very Kiwi event,” the lighting of all eight Chanukah candles in front of Wellington’s Parliament Buildings during the MPs’ dinner break brought public celebration of the festival to a close. Read more

Education, education, education

A reported spike in incidents targeting Australia’s Jewish population has prompted The Executive Council of Australian Jewry to call for the establishment of a national education campaign on anti-Semitism. Read more

Neturei Karta

At demonstrations against Israel in New York, marching with our enemies (as they do at Israel parades) was a small pathetic clique of Chassidim in their distinctive uniforms called Neturei Karta, literally The Protectors of the City in Aramaic. Read more

Chanukah in Victoria’s parliament

The annual Chanukah celebration was held in the Queen’s Hall at Victorian State Parliament this week, co-hosted by Chabad of Melbourne CBD and St Kilda Hebrew Congregation.  Read more

Hamas use of UNRWA and USAID sacks to build tunnels raises questions

The discovery of UN and USAID sacks being used by Hamas to construct terror tunnels in Gaza raises new questions about the security of humanitarian aid falling into the hands of the terror group. Read more

Over 70 armed Palestinian terrorists captured inside Gaza hospital

Israeli soldiers captured more than 70 armed Palestinian terrorists inside a Gaza hospital, the Israel Defence Forces said on Thursday. Read more

How dare you

Instead of pleading with ignorant, ill-informed and inflamed haters to moderate their language, we should be exposing and challenging them every time they open their mouths. Read more

President Herzog lights the 8th candle with hostage families

President Isaac Herzog lit the eighth candle of Chanukah last night at “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv with the families of hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Read more

Two hostages confirmed dead, bodies still held by Hamas

An Israeli and a Tanzanian taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 have died in captivity in Gaza, their respective kibbutzim announced in a joint statement on Wednesday night. Read more

Holocaust Survivors and 7 October 2023

In the words of the great man, Elie Wiesel, our first spokesman from the camps: “In 1945, on the ruins of Europe, on the ruins of theologies and philosophies, on the ruins of all societies and all ideals that existed before, there was nonetheless a kind of hope that surfaced in us. Read more

‘She worried about us more than she did for herself’

“My 18-year-old daughter Tchelet was killed on a Saturday morning during the holiday of Simchat Torah,” Gladys Fishbein told the Tazpit Press Service. Read more

Emergency fund to help rebuild Israeli border farms

An Israeli agricultural non-governmental organization has launched a $50 million emergency fund to rebuild farming communities near the Gaza border badly damaged in the Oct. 7 massacre. Read more

Jacqui Lambie visits Hobart Synagogue

The Hobart Hebrew Congregation hosted Senator Lambie for a meet and greet to express gratitude for the Senator’s speeches in Parliament that so eloquently call out antisemitism, detail the barbaric attack of 7 October, and argue for Israel’s right to defend itself. Read more

Rampant antisemitism in New Zealand’s schools

In an ongoing survey of Jewish parents being undertaken by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand since 22 November 2023, there is concerning evidence of high levels of antisemitism in New Zealand’s schools. Read more

Shabbat Mikeytz: End of Days

This week’s Torah reading starts when Joseph had been in jail for a crime he had not committed. Read more

Melbourne calls out the Red Cross to do its job

Jewish community members Tamar Paluch and Simone Whine have led a protest held outside the offices of the Red Cross in Melbourne. Read more

Flouting the law should not free ‘Palestine’ defenders of consequences

Even harsh critics of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik were stunned when she trumped “legal scholar” and University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill over university policies that can translate into routine criminal laws. Read more

One Life: double passes to win

ONE LIFE tells the inspiring true story of Sir Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, played by Academy-Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins, whose unsung endeavours on the eve of World War II saved more than 600 children from their doom at the hands of the Nazis. Read more

A partially religious assessment of the Hamas-Israel conflict

In an op-ed in The Australian, foreign editor Greg Sheridan gave a partially religious assessment of the Hamas-Israel conflict in a column headlined “Israel has acted with morality in Hamas war”.

In part, he wrote, “There’s a lot of wishful thinking that Arab nations, Egypt, Jordan etc, might provide security.” He failed to mention the history of those two Arab nations with respect to their Palestinian cousins. On 17 September 1970, the Jordanian Army surrounded Jordanian cities with a significant Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) presence and shelled fedayeen posts that were operating from Palestinian refugee camps.

The conflict only ended in July 1971, when the fedayeen were expelled to Lebanon, which led to the creation of the terrorist Black September movement. When, in 1978, Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat signed their historic peace treaty, Israel returned all formerly Egyptian territory, except the Gaza Strip, which Egypt refused to take back. Could that be the reason that Arab nations have not offered to take in any displaced Gazan Arabs in the current conflict? Our Australian government has issued visas to 860 Palestinians. Arab nations refuse to follow suit. Perhaps they fear history repeating. Despite the ugly Australian anti-Jewish incidents to date, we hope that history will not repeat here.

Alan Slade

Dover Heights, Sydney

Send a letter to the J-Wire by emailing l[email protected]

 

A Muslim talks on Chanukah

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Jan-04 4.55pm SBS World Movies: The Scarlet and the Black

Based on the humanitarian works of Irish-born Vatican priest Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who saved thousands of escaped prisoners of war, Jews and Italian Resistance families in occupied Rome during the World War Two, by hiding them in the church. Read more

Israel confirms nine soldiers killed in Gaza ambush

Ten soldiers were killed fighting in northern Gaza on Tuesday, the Israel Defence Forces confirmed on Wednesday morning. Nine were killed in a coordinated Hamas ambush in Shejaya. Read more

Leigh takes Wagner into the 21st century

Two years after the wall dividing West and East Germany was destroyed, 21-year-old Leigh Haas farewelled her family in her native Glasgow to live in the burgeoning creative city of Berlin. Read more

A Very Naughty Christmas

A Melbourne theatre review by Alex First Read more

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