Jordan – Abbas offers Abdullah the Kiss of Death

Jordan’s King Abdullah is clearly worried about the future direction of his country – if developments over recent weeks are any indication. Read more

Palestine – Testing the World’s Patience

The Palestinian Authority headed by an unelected President – Mahmoud Abbas – and an unelected Prime Minister – Salam Fayyad – continue to live in a fantasy dream world.

Talks to replace the Fayyad Government with yet another unelected Government comprising the two arch rival Palestinian factions – Hamas and Fatah – continue to founder despite the pomp and fanfare that accompanied the signing of  a heads of agreement between them in Cairo on 4 May. Read more

Palestine: Forget Reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah

The much vaunted reconciliation between rival Palestinian Arab groups Hamas and Fatah still remains a mirage almost two months after the widely publicized signing of a reconciliation agreement in Cairo between the two groups on 4 May. Read more

Palestine – Unleashing the Self-Determination Genie

It is hard to believe that the possibility of the Palestinians successfully approaching the UN in September and obtaining  “a license to statehood “ is even being seriously contemplated. Read more

Limmud-Oz

David Singer visited Limmud-Oz in Sydney and reports for J-Wire…. Read more

Palestine – an Arab West Bank is a lost cause

The 44th Anniversary of the Six Day War occurred this week on 5 June 1967.

It is therefore opportune to recall some of the significant events that led to Jordan’s loss of the West Bank in that War ending 19 years of uninterrupted occupation – and to understand why all of the West Bank – or its equivalent area – will never again return to Arab control.  Read more

Palestine: FIFA Relents but Rules are Still Bent

FIFA has been in the media spotlight this week as its practices and procedures have come under increasing scrutiny and its conduct has become of great concern to many of its member countries. Read more

Palestine – Jordan Land Grants: Not Israeli Land Swaps

President Obama has been widely praised since his speech to the State Department on 19 May when he stated: “We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.“ Read more

Palestine – Obama Continues to Fudge on America’s Commitment to Israel

Palestine – Obama Sinks America’s Integrity and Reputation

Remarks made by President Obama at the State Department in Washington on 19 May indicate he is prepared to honour some – but not all – commitments made to Israel by former American President George W Bush in his letter to Israeli Prime Minister Sharon on 14 April 2004 (the Bush Letter). Read more

Hamas and Fatah Sign Unreal Deal

The announcement this week in Cairo of the long awaited reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah has turned out to be to nothing more than an agreement to continue negotiating on a range of so far unresolved – and apparently irreconcilable – issues. Read more

Palestine – Abbas negates further negotiations with Israel

The Palestinian Authority (PA)  announcement abdicating to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) the conduct of any future political negotiations with Israel effectively sinks any further hope of direct negotiations being resumed with Israel over the future sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza. Read more

Israel – A Boycott Without A Buoy

The recent attempt by the Marrickville Council in Sydney to impose a boycott on its purchase of Israeli goods and products spectacularly collapsed after the Council was advised by its Chief Officer that enforcing the boycott would cost its ratepayers four million dollars. Read more

Goldstone Gazumped on Gaza

Richard Goldstone now faces bitter condemnation from Israel following his belated admission that his infamous Report was wrong in finding that Israel had intentionally targeted civilians during its invasion of Gaza in December 2008. Read more

Palestine – Understanding the Present by Remembering the Past

An article recently written by a retired Commodore of the Royal Saudi Navy – Abdulateef Al-Mulhim –  titled “What if Arabs had recognized the State of Israel in 1948?” – has been acknowledged by many as  a brave initiative by a prominent Arab to step outside the almost monolithic Arab viewpoint that has consistently refused to recognize Israel in the 73 years since its establishment in 1948.  Read more

Gaza and Libya – the UN Speaks with Forked Tongue

The double standards employed by the United Nations when it comes to dealing with Israel were thrown into sharp focus with the Security Council’s passing of Resolution 1973 on 19 March. Read more

Obama – Confronting the Killing Culture in Palestine

The brutal murder of five members of the Fogel family including three children aged 11, 4 and 3 months – whilst asleep in their house – could only elicit the following pathetic response from President Obama:

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of five Israelis in a terrorist attack in the northern West Bank, and we offer our condolences to their loved ones and to the Israeli people. There is no possible justification for the killing of parents and children in their home. We call on the Palestinian Authority to unequivocally condemn this terrorist attack and for the perpetrators of this heinous crime to be held accountable.” Read more

Palestine – Pontification, Prediction and Poppycock

The world has been agog this week at the news that Israel’s Prime Minister – Benjamin Netanyahu – is to announce a new peace plan in May – possibly in an address to the United States Congress – in an effort to end the conflict between Jews and Arabs in former Palestine. Read more

Palestine – Intellectual Ignorance Insults Israel

Novelist Ian McEwan displayed crass ignorance of the Arab-Jewish conflict when recently accepting the US$10000 Jerusalem Prize – awarded to a writer whose work best expresses and promotes the idea of the ”freedom of the individual in society.” Read more

Israel, the Arab World – The Blessing and the Curse

“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

These two somewhat surprising statements by Winston Churchill – the savior of democracy in the Second World War – need to be revisited as civilian populations in the Arab world rise up to be allowed to exercise their right to determine their own futures – freed of the dictators and dictatorial rule that have dominated their lives for decades. Read more

Egypt, Israel and Gaza – Flashpoint for Future Confrontation

The Egyptian Revolution has raised questions as to the possible termination of the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty by Egypt. Any such concern – in the short term – seems to have been allayed by the Fourth Egyptian Military Statement issued on 12 February declaring:

“the country’s ministers will stay in power for the time being and international agreements and commitments will be honoured.” Read more

Egypt and Tunisia – The Power of Prediction

The West has been caught with its pants down following the popular revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia during the past month. I wonder why. Read more

Palestine – Jimmy Carter Caught in Court Disaster

Former US president Jimmy Carter faces the prospect of paying damages exceeding five million dollars if he is unsuccessful in defending legal proceedings against himself and his publisher Simon & Schuster Inc resulting from the publication of Carter’s book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid – which had an initial print run of 300,000 copies. Read more

Palestine – Remembering the Past to Protect the Future

A telephone poll of a representative sample of 506 Israeli Jews age 15-18 carried out by Maagar Mohot Survey Institute (headed by Professor Yitzchak Katz) for the Committee of Gush Katif Residents between 16-18 January 2011 revealed an appalling lack of knowledge by these teenagers concerning Israel’s evacuation and disengagement from Gaza in 2005. Read more

Palestine and the Arab League – Fake Freedom Fighters

The Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the Arab League member States continue to deny their populations basic political rights and civil liberties – according to a Report recently published by Freedom House. At the same time the Arab League is mounting an intensive campaign to delegitimize Israel – the only State in the Middle East where such freedoms exist. Read more

Palestine – Time for Hard Questions and Even Harder Answers

The international failure to accept the final breakdown of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was yet again highlighted in the communique issued in Sydney on 18 January 2011 at the conclusion of  the Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations between Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd and Minister for Defence Stephen Smith, and the United Kingdom’s First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague and Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox. Read more

Palestine – No Jews, Soon No Christians

“All these attacks prove that settlers are dangerous and that it’s impossible to live with them. If these settlers are allowed to stay, that would mean more friction and confrontation. Peace can be achieved only if Israel withdraws to the last centimeter of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967” – Ahmed Qurei, Head of Palestinian Authority Negotiating Team, Jerusalem Post December 13, 2008.

Read more

Palestine: Tea for Two and 242

“I’m discontented with homes that I’ve rented

So I have invented my own.”

The above  lines from the refrain of the well known song “Tea for Two” could well have been sung by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Brazil’s outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as Abbas laid the cornerstone in Brasilia for his nation’s first embassy in the Western hemisphere. Read more

Palestine – Lawyers, Hot Air and no Clothes

John V Whitbeck – described as “an international lawyer who has advised the Palestinian negotiating team” – has recently written an article published in Al Jazeera pointing out that 106 members of the United Nations have now recognized the State of Palestine, whose independence  was proclaimed on 15 November 1988. Read more

Palestine – Hark the Herald Devil Sings

“The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia.”

Regrettably the Sydney Morning Herald seems to be going the way of a growing number of media outlets that publish factually inaccurate  or misleading statements and analysis on the Jewish-Arab conflict – which still defies resolution after 130 years of trying. Read more

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